Chapter 241: Ugly Hunk
A few girls could be seen sitting inside a booming club, at a private section. The girls all talked and laughed amongst each other.
"...and to officially commence your entry into adulthood, your first taste of alcohol!" One of the girls stood up, filling a glass with strong beer.
The other girls cheered and whooped loudly.
Natalia smiled as all the girls cheered her on. Lilian, who had just poured the beer, handed it to her.
"Here, a shot of your first glass." The girls laughed as Natalia scrunched her nose as she accepted the glass, taking a whiff of it. Celine, who was sitting beside her, nudged her playfully.
"Don’t tease me, it’ll be your turn soon in a few months, you’ll also turn eighteen soon, then I’ll be the one teasing you."
The group of girls were friends from the same club in school, however only three of them were very close friends, Celine, Natalia and Lilian.
All the other girls had already turned eighteen and had also been brought to the bar where they would have a playful little celebration, and the one who had just turned eighteen would have to drink shots after shots of alcohol.
"But of course it’s not my turn yet, so for now you’d have to be the one receiving all the teasing, drink it!!" Celine retorted.
Natalia scrunched up her nose but took the glass to her lips under the cheerful encouragement of all her friends. She took a sip and brought the glass away from her mouth as she felt a burning sensation down her throat. The girls insisted she finish it so she downed the whole glass, painfully scrunching her face as she wasn’t used to the taste of alcohol.
"It tastes so weird!" She said after finishing the whole glass.
"Yeah, you’ll get used to it, but congrats though, you’ve passed your adulthood ritual, cheers to that." The other girls raised their glasses.
"Celine and I can only have juice for now, sorry." Lilian said since Celine’s eighteenth birthday was still months away and hers was a year away. But they still made fake IDs to sneak into the club.
Celine pouted hearing all the girls laugh and tease her, but she wasn’t offended, nor did she mind having just juice while others had alcohol. She was also dreading her turn.
The girls all clinked their glasses, and Natalia took a few sips of the drink, now slowly getting used to it.
"So, you’re finally a woman now Natalia, you’re no longer a little girl." A girl among the group bumped Natalia playfully.
"What are you talking about? She just had a taste of alcohol, not a taste of ’that’, she’s still a virgin after all." Lilian said.
"Oooh!" All the girls oohed playfully.
"Hey, wouldn’t this be the best night to be deflowered? You just turned eighteen, it’s the perfect night to get laid!"
"Oh come on, I’m not the only eighteen-year-old virgin anyway, who wants to get laid?" Natalia rolled her eyes at the girls.
"Ugh, don’t be a spoil sport, look there are so many super hot guys at this club, you could have a one night stand, get wild, it’s exciting!" Lilian said in an encouraging tone while all the other girls agreed with her except Celine and Natalia herself.
"Oh look, it’s Josh, that hunk from English class!" One of the girls exclaimed as they all looked towards the group of boys who were laughing in another private booth.
"Hey, you should totally go over and strike up a conversation, I heard he broke up with Stella, so he’s totally single right now!" Lilian said excitedly.
"He is?" Another girl asked, "OMG! I’d go talk to him myself had I known he was single all this while, but tonight is your night Natalia, you should totally go talk to him, you’re so pretty why would he not grow interested in you."
"She’s right Natalia, you should go!"
All the girls agreed with each other, encouraging Natalia to go strike up a conversation with the said guy.
Natalia looked over at their private booth. It was true that he was a very good-looking guy and a lot of girls’ dream boy, but she really wasn’t interested in him. Apart from his good looks, she knew him to be quite conceited, so Natalia refused,
"Nah, I’ll pass, Jenny can go talk to him if she wants." Natalia said to the girl who just expressed her interest in him.
"C’mon Natalia, don’t be a chicken, he won’t eat you, you’re just gonna go flirt a little that’s all." Lilian tried to convince her again.
"Lilly, if she doesn’t want to, no need to keep forcing her." Celine defended seeing how insistent Lilian was being.
"Alright, fine, don’t go if you don’t want to."
Celine’s phone suddenly rang and she picked it up from the table, "Hello Dad?"
Lilian took a sip of her juice while conversing with the girl sitting on her left, while Natalia continued to look around idly when her eyes fell on someone familiar coming in from the bar’s entrance.
The guy had on a dark hoodie, with a tall figure and a very laid-back attitude. He was someone she knew to rarely speak at all, he was always mysterious and preferred to stay on his own, but with his height, a lot of girls usually deduced he would have been a super handsome hunk had he not always worn a facial mask.
"Hey isn’t it that guy from Math class? What’s his name again?" Jenny asked seeing the person coming into the bar as well.
"Christopher, his name is Christopher." Celine, who had just dropped a call from her father, told them. She’d come to hear of his name since he was usually a talk of the school.
"I always wonder what he looks like behind that mask, just look at his body, he would have been a handsome hunk had his face not been ugly."
"Stop jumping into conclusions girls, just because of a rumor." Celine chastised before adding,
"Dad just called so I gotta go, Lily, come on." Celine began to stand up but Lilian shook her head.
"Dad called just you, don’t drag me along, I’m still having fun."
"But..."
"Just tell him I’m still finishing up a school project or something." Lilian said.
"No way, I’m not leaving you here to come home later alone, Lily." Celine insisted.
"I’m not a little girl anymore, Celine. You always do this, hanging around my neck as if I’ll get stolen or something. Just cover for me at home okay? I won’t stay for too long." Lilian said.
"Don’t worry Celine, my driver is coming to pick me up in half an hour, I’ll tell him to drop her off along the way."
Celine sighed, "Alright, but don’t come home late. Nat, we’ll see each other in class tomorrow." Celine said getting out of her seat. Natalia wanted to see her off outside, but Celine insisted she didn’t and left on her own.
Natalia’s eyes looked over at the hooded guy again after Celine left. He was standing at a certain side talking to someone. At some point he suddenly looked up, their gazes met and Natalia stiffened. He had such beautiful dark eyes, she thought internally before quickly breaking off her gaze from him.
This wasn’t the first time her eyes met his. On so many occasions, while she was having lunch at the cafeteria or even accidentally bumping into him along the hallways, there was always this strange look in his eyes she could never place a finger on.
"Hey look, the freak’s probably into Natalia, he keeps staring at her!" Lilian pointed out making the girls giggle as they turned to look in his direction confirming that he was indeed actually staring at her.
"The other day, I saw him staring at her in class as well, I’m sure he definitely likes her." Another girl who was a classmate of theirs said.
"You guys stop making assumptions, you’re probably mistaken." Natalia refuted them.
"Come on, don’t act like you don’t know the signs when a guy is into you, it’s so obvious. If only he was a hunk, but he’s just an ugly freak, he should be ashamed to even like someone as pretty as you."
"Lily, stop that, you’re sounding mean." Natalia chastised, unable to continue hearing her putting other people down.
Lilian shrugged, then kept quiet.
The whole school had concluded Christopher was ugly due to a rumor when a girl had claimed to have seen his face after taking off his mask. Though no one had ever truly seen it for themselves, the girl had claimed to have seen his full face, saying the lower part had such hideous scars it was unsightly, which was why he always wore a mask. And because Christopher had never proven those claims wrong before, everyone began to believe them, till it became some sort of fact.
Christopher was a sort of recluse, keeping to himself a lot of the time. He didn’t have many friends, nor anyone really close enough to him to refute those claims.
Natalia often felt sorry for him and how isolated he always behaved, but then she found herself staring at him often, which she thought was rude, but she was just curious about him.
Natalia looked sideways again towards his direction and their eyes once again met. He hadn’t taken his eyes off her. She quickly looked away again.
"Excuse me, I have to go to the bathroom." Natalia said, excusing herself from the girls.
"Go on, don’t take too long." Lilian said, a smirk on her face as she watched Natalia leave for the bathroom with a cunning look in her eyes.
Immediately Natalia left, she pulled out something from her bag, putting her hands to her lips she did a silencing motion to the girls before sprinkling something from a little bottle into the drink on Natalia’s table.
"Lily, what are you doing?" Jenny asked, while the other girls giggled knowing what Lilian was up to but not attempting to stop her, they found it fun.
"Shh, don’t be a spoil sport Jenny, let’s just have some fun, in fact we’re doing her a favor, she’s gonna get laid tonight."
"But..." Jenny still wanted to disagree, but Lilian said,
"Do you think I’d do something harmful to my friend? This is for her own good, she’ll eventually thank me for it, besides, I’ve known her longer than you have, we’re like sisters, you shouldn’t interfere."
Jenny kept quiet and no longer spoke. She knew the fact that Celine, Natalia and Lilian were the best of friends and she was in no place to interfere with their friendship, so she kept quiet and decided not to interfere.
The girls continued chatting casually until Natalia returned some time later. She took her seat again.
"Hey Nat, what is this? You haven’t even finished your drink yet, we’re all going to dance, hurry and finish it up." Lilian said as all the girls got up about to head to the dance floor.
Natalia picked up her glass, taking a little sip from the drink, but Lilian persuaded her to finish it, even pushing the bottom of the glass to Natalia’s mouth until she finished everything.
Then with a smirk, she pulled Natalia over to the dance floor.