Filed to story: Once Upon a One Night Mistake Book PDF Free by Simone Shirazi
He couldn’t believe it, but he was beginning to feel vaguely ashamed of what he’d done. He never thought he’d see the day.
13
Mea Culpa
Taliana considered the school’s rumor mill to be high on her list of enemies. She had already encountered more than her fair share of gossip in the three days she’d been back at Georgetown Trinity, but from the looks of it, the circulating whispers weren’t going to stop any time soon.
Maybe it wouldn’t have been so bad if she was used to living a life that revolved around gossip, but for the most part, she’d gone unnoticed in California. From middle school up until the end of her sophomore year, no one outside her core group of friends even knew who she was. It wasn’t until she started dating resident bad boy Zak Huntington that people began to notice her. After that, it only took hours for the scandals to begin.
She should have known there was no way to avoid it-she was dating one of the most sought-after boys at her school after all-but she hadn’t known just how vicious the world of rumors could be. Suddenly, people she didn’t even know were talking behind her back, accusing her of sleeping with the entire baseball team or claiming she was plotting to dethrone the school’s queen bee. Zak had taught her to simply ignore them, and while some of the accusations stung, she had taken his words to heart and tried her best to pay them no mind.
Unfortunately for her, one of the harsher rumors turned out to be true. For a while she’d brushed it off as one big malicious joke, but when she walked in on her boyfriend and her supposed best friend in a very compromising position, she realized that sometimes gossip wasn’t just gossip.
Today, however, the gossip fiends at Georgetown Trinity had picked a new victim, and Taliana didn’t mind listening.
“Oh my god, have you seen Sebastian this morning?”
“It looks like he got hit by a truck! What happened to him?”
“I’m not sure, but Jason heard from Cara who found out from Samantha that Louis was told by Max that Marcus said Sebastian was pushed down a flight of stairs by the half-brother of the girl he hooked up with last night.”
“Well, I heard Seb got into a fight with some politician after he found his mother was having an affair the guy.”
“Psh, you guys are both wrong! The real story is that he and Michael got into a huge argument over Blair, and it came to blows. Apparently, Michael’s been in love with her since first grade!”
“Are you kidding? Everyone knows he was out playing soccer yesterday and some guy on the other team tried to kill him because Seb’s sleeping with his girlfriend. The other guy ended up in the ICU when Sebastian was finished with him.”
“No way! I thought he had-
Crap here he comes!”
Like everyone else in the vicinity, Taliana couldn’t help but glance up when Sebastian breezed by. A few girls sucked in breaths when he passed, either because of the slash across his cheek or because he still managed to look damn good-as much as Taliana hated to admit it.
Sebastian avoided her gaze as he stepped into the ISS room but judging from the scowl that had suddenly appeared on his face, he knew she was standing right across the hall. Deciding not to put off the inevitable, Taliana pushed her way through the lingering crowd and entered the tiny room.
She kept staring as she closed the door and took her seat, noticing a few more details now that she was closer. It looked like he had a few stitches along his cheekbone, damage done from her spectacular ring. She didn’t remember her hand getting near his face, but she wasn’t exactly the most graceful person while falling.
After a quick glance at the gleaming rock on her finger, she looked back to Sebastian. While he deserved every ounce of the punishment she’d accidentally inflicted upon him, she couldn’t help but feel slightly guilty about the result.
“Did I do that?” Taliana asked timidly.
“Of course not,” he said dryly. “Didn’t you hear I fell down a flight of stairs?”
She raised an eyebrow at his sarcasm. “Is that what you’re telling people?”
“It’s a hell of a lot better than telling everyone I got beat up by a girl.”
Any guilt she felt disappeared. The chauvinistic pig didn’t deserve her pity. “It was an accident!”
“Whatever,” he grunted, reaching up to loosen his tie. “I think six stitches makes up for what I said. You’re lucky I didn’t have a concussion.”
Sebastian shot her one last disgusted look before turning to stare out the tiny window in the door-the only distraction the room had to offer. The majority of the people who passed by didn’t bother sparing a glance into the room, but every so often they got a curious gawker. Honestly, Taliana couldn’t see what was so great about watching the two of them just sit there. The lion exhibit at the National Zoo was a lot more interesting than them, and probably a lot less violent too.
Today, however, was a little different. Instead of glaring like he usually did when the first person of the day shoved their face against the glass to get a look inside, Sebastian let out a strangled, “Oh shit,” and the blood drained from his face.
The next thing Taliana knew, Blair Bakhtiar was in the room, making the already tiny space feel even smaller. The rest of her posse remained outside the door with their backs to us, as if guarding against any interruptions. Taliana didn’t have a clue why Blair was there, but she had a feeling it wasn’t anything good.
“Hi, baby,” Blair greeted. “I’m glad I finally caught you.”
It wasn’t like she’d had to do much hunting; they were like damn sitting ducks in this room.
“I told you to stay away from me.” Sebastian’s shoulders were tense, but his gaze betrayed nothing other than displeasure. “How about you fuck off, Blair?”
“Isn’t that cute,” Blair chuckled, leaning against the door. “No, I think I’ll stay for a bit. We need to have a chat.” Suddenly, her gaze swung to Taliana. “And it involves you too, Stick Girl.”
Oh god, Taliana wanted nothing to do with this. If Blair hadn’t been blocking the door, Taliana probably would have bolted for freedom the second Blair uttered her nickname.
“There have been some nasty rumors about you two going around,” she murmured, the corners of lips tugging downward. “Can you? believe people are actually saying you two are sleeping together?”
Taliana looked to Sebastian for help, definitely not interested in having this conversation with his ex-girlfriend, but he was too preoccupied with glaring at the floor. So Taliana blurted the first thing that came to mind.
“It only happened once.”
Taliana knew she’d said the wrong thing when Blair’s expression hardened.
“So it’s true then,” Blair said, pushing away from the door and straightening. “You two are actually on good terms now. And here I was thinking? you were the one who did that to his face.”
“I fell down the stairs,” Sebastian grumbled, but Blair and Taliana were barely listening.
“Guess I was wrong,” she continued. “But let me ask you this, Taliana. Do you know what you’re risking by getting involved with him?”
Taliana wasn’t exactly sure what the girl was going on about, but she had a feeling she’d given Blair the wrong idea about her relationship-or rather, lack thereof-with Cry Baby.
“We’re not together,” Taliana answered quickly, trying not to laugh. “Believe me, it was one and done for us. And that was a huge mistake.”
Blair’s expression softened, but it wasn’t much of an improvement. “Good. Keep it that way.”