The Playboy's Bet

T H I R D P E R S O N [lunch time, Wednesday] "You definitely can't!" "I can!" "No!" "Y-" "You wanna bet?" interrupted the argument deep voice of one of the hockey players, who were all sitting now at the table and eating lunch. The argument lasted already for 10 minutes and he was getting tired of it. "Sure, why not..." answered with shrug blond boy with green eyes. He was captain of the hockey team who played for their school and was sitting with all of his teammates at lunch. Because of their fame as hockey players and because they all were really handsome, they had all girls in his school laying at their feet. The blond captain, was really popular, because of his status as a captain. He was a favorite among teachers too, he had a lot of money, he drove expensive cars and he had perfect family and friends. All girls wanted him to be their boyfriend, even some boys. He could have anyone he pointed his finger at. And he was enjoying it. And so did everyone on his team. The blond captain named Alexander was a well-known playboy who wasn't afraid to use his appearance to get everything he wanted. And he made sure everyone knew that. "Okay, so the bet is: We will pick someone who you will make fall in love with you. You have a month. If you can do it, we will never doubt your abilities again and you will win 500 bucks. If not, you will have to give me 500 bucks. Deal?" asks a brown-haired man who was fighting with him this whole time. "Deal." agreed Alex. He was sure he will win. Everyone at this school loved him, and when he smiled, no one could resist him. He will win. "So we have a deal." And they shook their hands. The brown-haired boy smiled and looked around the cafeteria. Now he just had to choose someone, who won't be an easy target, even for the most handsome playboy at their school. He was looking around all of the girls and boys, who were eating, laughing, talking with each other, and enjoying their time with their friends. Everyone was there with someone. Except for one person. He looked behind Alex and confidently pointed at the person, who was sitting alone at the most distant table, eating lunch and reading a book. Captain just chuckled, turned around with a confident smile, and looked the way his friend was pointing at. His eyes fell on the small person. And his smile faded. He looked back at his friends with raised eyebrows. "You are kidding, right Charlie?" he asked his brown-haired friend, with who he closed the bet. Charlie looked around all of the boys. Some of them were smiling mockingly and some were nervous for their captain. "Awww, you giving up already?" smiled devilishly at Charlie and looked back at the blond. Charlie has never won any bet with Alexander, we were excited for this one. Blond sighed. "No..." He turned around and looked better at the boy, trying to read him and guessing, what would help him with getting the small boy. He was small, petite, with black round glasses hiding his ocean blue eyes. His black curly hair was falling over his forehead right into his eyes. He was nibbling with his white teeth on his soft red lower lip. His cute button nose was twitching with concentration as he was reading his book. Alex turned back on his friends who were all silently watching him. "What do you know about him?" Alex asked back in his playing mood. He won't let Charlie win without a fight. Brown-haired smiled at that. "He goes to my History class," started Alex's best friend named Ethan, "he is always sitting alone at the back of the class, he never talks to anyone, not even the teacher. He is a straight A+ student, he goes to AP English, AP Chemistry, and basically every AP class this school has. I think he is a genius, but no one ever said that officially. Teachers never ask him anything, if he goes to board count something, he has it always right, so they stopped asking him questions. His name is Oliver, he is the same age as us. He is a strong introvert, he doesn't have any friends, he is always alone, and he has no hobby here at school. What I know, he is always in the library. Oh, I almost forgot." he smiled devilishly, "he hates sports and popular people." Alex sighed. Okay, that's gonna be harder than he thought. "Oh and he works every day at this shop not far from our school." adds Andrew, another player from their team. Alex rubs his temples and Charlie smirks again. He will win. The brown-haired thought, Alex is going to give up already, because he can never do this. This boy is hard to level, even for this confident hockey player. He can never make the guy fall in love with him. They don't even know if he's gay. "What's his name?" Alex asks confidently. "Oliver." answers surprised Ethan. He didn't expect his friend to continue in this. "I better start now, right?" rhetorically asks Alex and stands up with his lunch. He turns around and starts slowly walking around all of the tables towards the petite boy. All eyes are now on him, no one knows, what he is doing, why he goes to the outcast. Everyone is watching him with his mouth wide open. But Alex doesn't care, it isn't anything new, he is used to all of this attention. He slowly makes his way towards the boy and when he sits, all eyes are gone. They are all smart enough not to eavesdrop if they want to stay high in their popular rankings. As he sits down, the black-haired guy looks up from his book and his blue eyes meet the green ones. "Hi." Alex greets and looks deeply at Oliver, still studying him and trying to figure him out. When he is closer now, he can see the nice little freckles, which black-haired boy has on his nose, on his pale skin. "You're Oliver right?" Alex asks. When he smiles at the blue-eyed guy, just enough for his dimples to show, then he leans on his hands bent at the elbow on the table, so his muscles are on the display. Oliver just nods and looks down at his hands in his lap, with his cheeks beautifully pink colored. He straightened his glasses on his nose and started packing his things. The social connection was enough for him. He didn't like people, he didn't want friends, he was alright alone and he didn't understand why was this handsome guy talking with him. "You're not talking much, are you?" Alex doesn't get an answer for that. Oliver puts his things in his bag and grabs his plate. He stands and walks to the place next to the kitchen where the plates are brought. He leaves Alex alone at the table. Alex curses for himself and stands up too. As he turns around, he sees Charlie smirking at him and pointing in the direction Oliver went. And at that moment Alex knew. Alex is going to get this boy, if not for the bet, then just for his satisfaction. For his feeling of winning. Alex turns around again and walks after the boy. Oliver in the meantime walked towards the place and left his plate there. He then turns around again and walks to the exit of the cafeteria. When he walks there, he walks around boys and girls, who are ignoring him. That's normal now. He got used to it and he is perfectly fine with it. He tries walking around them quietly, so he can go unnoticed like always. He left the cafeteria and stopped in the quiet hallways. No one was here. Oliver could finally breathe again. He was alone. He took a deep breath and sighed. He pulled his books to himself tighter with his slightly shaking hands when his heart started slowly calming down and stopped beating so fast. "Why did you run away from me?" Oliver suddenly startled by the voice turned around. But as he did, his head spun from the speed and he felt himself falling to the ground. He instinctively closed his eyes shut and yelled as he felt the air blow around him fast. His heart started beating loudly in his ears again. But then. Nothing happened. Something strong and warm caught him easily around his waist and lifted him up back to his feet. Out of reflex, he grabbed the something that saved him and slowly opened his eyes. When his eyes slowly adjusted to the light and his heart stopped beating so loudly so he could concentrate, he looked at his savior. And he gasped. In front of him was standing the one and only Alexander Fletcher. The captain. Again. Scared, Oliver quickly let go of his hand and took a step away from him. He started trembling slightly again and his bottom lip shook at the contact. He didn't like touching people. Not at all. Alex just chuckled. He stood straight again and he straightened his team jacket. "Already falling to my feet?" he smirked at Oliver. Alex was confident, of course, but he needed to find out if he can act like that in front of Oliver. Oliver just frowned over Alex's behavior and looked at the ground, where his books and notes were laying all over the place. Some papers of his drawings (really good drawings, he was really talented) were laying outside his sketchbook on the floor, his books were a little crumpled and his notes from his classes were everywhere. He sighed, knelt on the floor, and started picking his notes. Alex now knows he can't. He can't be so confident around him. He has to treat him differently. Nicer. So he will. "I'm sorry, I didn't want to startle you." Blond said as he knelt next to Oliver and helped him with collecting his things. He grabbed some drawings on torn paper, which were laying on the floor next to him. "Oh God, I love them! They are amazing! Did you draw it?" Alex asked as his truly surprised eyes were examining the drawings. He looked slowly at drawings and tried to absorb every detail of them. The first one was a woman drawn in pencil, just her face from the front with slightly opened mouth and eyes that were looking from upstairs at him, her nose from below. They were just outlines but they looked amazing. The second drawing were two hands. Again just in pencil, but more elaborate, it was shaded too. There were hands of someone old with wrinkles holding hands of someone younger with a ring. It was beautiful too. Alex didn't know what to say, he was really amazed by them. He didn't know or expected, the shy outcast to be so talented. He was in some sort of trance, he tried to absorb all the information, all the things he was thinking about. Just when something tried to take the drawings from him, he snapped out of it and looked at the person. He didn't let go of the drawings and still held them tightly, he really liked them. But when he saw the person... Oliver. He smiled at him and finally gave him the drawings. He meant it. "Really, they are amazing." he said and smiled at him again. "T-thank y-you..." was the unexpected quiet response from Oliver. Oliver blushed at the grin, which showed up on Alex's face. "So you can talk!" Alex beamed. And Oliver blushed again.