Beauty and the Beast

Isabelle's POV (And a bit of Maurice)

Maurice wandered around the school, his thoughts a mental barrage, sending a constant onslaught on his psyche. He was beating himself up. Mentally, physically, well maybe not physically because he didn’t like pain, but definitely mentally. It was his fault, his fault that Isabelle will be stuck with that monster for a whole year. It was his fault that his best friend was now suffering at the hands of that… fiend. And what’s worse! Winter break was coming up, in about a month. Which means she’ll be stuck with him for days on end!
He had to be the worst friend in world history. And he felt like a complete jerk, ambling around the empty campus, safe and sound. He wanted to cry. He wanted to scream. He wanted to die for putting her in harms way.
God knows what Tier will do to her.
“Yo, Marty!”
Wow, someone else was here this late? Probably some jock just getting off practice or something.
“Marty!” A hand clutched his shoulder, and whirled him around. Hating the girly screech that burst out of his mouth, he blushed as Garreth White stared at him as if he was merely a bug to be squashed. Lord, this day was just getting better and better.
“It’s Maurice.” He said, his voice shaking. Jesse Corti stood next to Garreth, his smile was malicious, clearly showing his delight at someone else getting picked on.
“Whatever. Where is Isabelle?” Garreth didn’t ask, he demanded. He’s almost as bad as Tier. Tier was worse, mind you, but Garreth was really pushing it.
“She’s tutoring.”
“So, she was telling the truth.” Garreth said to Jesse, who merely shrugged.
“She wouldn’t lie!” Maurice was indignant on Isabelle’s behalf, but was ignored. Such things were a norm for nerds like Maurice. People like Garreth just didn’t give a damn about his opinion. Which was a crying shame, Maurice would love the chance to tell Garreth that he rivaled a cockroach.
“She’s just playing hard to get.” Jesse reassured Garreth.
“I know. I mean, why wouldn’t she want to date me?” No, Maurice thought to himself, that is an insult to the bug kingdom. Garreth seemed to be genuinely puzzled about Isabelle not wanting to date him, which made it that much worse.
“She’s tutoring Ryan Tier.” Maurice said, inspiration hitting him. “She didn’t want to, but he made her. She needs help. She needs to get out of there.”
“Ryan Tier?” Garreth all but spat out, “Why the hell would she be helping him? Wait, you’re lying. You’re lying aren’t you? That’s it! She’s playing a game, isn’t she? The sneaky chick, she’s toying with me. She wanted you to tell me all this bull to upset me, or something, am I right? God, sometimes I amaze even myself. She didn’t think I’d figure it out, did she?”
“You’re good, Garreth.” Jesse told him.
“No! No, I’m serious!” Maurice cried, but it fell on deaf ears. “She really needs our help! She’s stuck with him! He could be doing God knows what to her right now!”
“Come on, Jesse. Let’s go see if she made it home yet.” And Maurice was left standing there, arms hanging by his side. Defeat.
Garreth won’t help him. Won’t believe him.
“If you won’t help me, then I’ll have to do it myself.” Maurice whispered to the empty building.
The trees swayed in the chilly breeze, branches waving as if in answer.

“Oh, God. Oh, dear Jesus! Please wake up! Please! Please, dear merciful Lord, wake UP!”
I was sleeping, a deep, satisfying sleep. That is, if the incessant shaking would stop. I didn’t want to open my eyes, couldn’t open them. It was as if they had been glued shut.
“Come on, darling! WAKE UP!” The scream echoed through my hollow head, sending electric currents of pain through my body.
I blinked groggily, narrowing my eyes at the bright light. An older man, clearly frantic was waving his hand in front of my face.
“What do you want?” I croaked out. Confusion assaulted me as my brain kicked into high gear. I realized I was laying half on the road, half off. The soft grass cushioned my head, even as the concrete bit into my legs. “Why am I on the ground?”
“How many fingers am I holding up?” Three fingers were shoved into my face, much to my irritation.
“Three.” I said, pushing them away. “I’m fine. But what happened?”
“Jesus, I was driving, bumping along just fine. Then you ran out in the middle of the road. And just freaking froze, damn it. I had already stomped on my brakes when I saw you run out of the woods. Scared the sh—crap out of me, you did. Anyways, I tried to swerve and brake, but I almost hit you. I would have if that kid hadn’t tackled you out of the way.”
“Kid?” I had scrunched my nose up, trying to remember a kid. Oh, no…I jerked around to see an unconscious Tier laying next to me. “Oh, my God.”
He’s dead! I killed him! I killed Ryan Tier.
And he had risked his life to save me. He had pushed me out of the way of an oncoming car. He had helped me.
He had saved my life.
And now he’s dead.
“He’s dead!” I cried suddenly, the weight of his death pressing on him, and grabbing his shirtfront, I ignored the throbbing in my arm. “I killed him!”
“He’s dead!?” The guy all but wailed. “Jesus help me, God! I killed him!”
“I helped!” I wailed back. I practically climbed on top of Tier, and I grew steadily dizzier, with relief, as I felt a pulse, slow and faint, but a pulse nonetheless. I bent my head down, putting my ear close to his mouth. His breath tickled my ear, wafting my hair around.
I looked up at the frantic man, and gave him a huge smile. “He’s alive!”
“I need a drink.” The man said, collapsing into heap on the ground. As he sat there, reeling in shock and God knows what else, I took stock of our injuries.
I had a few bumps and bruises along my back. My arm had a huge bruise, from elbow to wrist. It was one of those deep blue and purple bruises you know the ones that hurt so bad your teeth even hurt?
Yeah, one of those SOBs.
But, I was lucky, considering the other scenario. I then checked Tier out, running my hands along his arms and legs. The back of his head had a gash, but it wasn’t that bad. He didn’t even need stitches. I could fix that one right up. I felt along his shoulders, and around his neck. Over his chest, which is freaking rock hard. And warm. And nice.. I pressed on his ribs, making sure they weren’t broken, and noticed for the first time how his shirt had ridden up.
Sweet baby Jesus. I felt my heart drop as I practically drooled at his stomach. Or should I say, his frickin’ 6-pack.
Wow. Wow. Wow. Even if he was injured, unconscious, and a complete jerk, the boy was ripped.
And it was less scary now. I can’t even begin to think why this would scare me anyways.
It was definitely sending up a different reaction now.
Try appreciation. Hands down admiration.
Whoa, down girl. Down.
“Uh, Ma’am.” I flushed as I realized the man had to figure out what I was staring at. For about 3 minutes straight. “Can I take ya’ll to the hospital. Or drop you off somewhere?” He sounded like he’d rather just drop us off somewhere, and go drink this away. So, I asked him to take us back up to Tier’s house. Castle. Whatever.
The man introduced himself as Serge, and I reassured him that no, we weren’t going to sue him, and yes, we were OK. Even though Tier was still unconscious.
Luckily, Serge knew his way around here pretty good. He helped me lug Tier up into the cab, and I held Tier up all the way back to his house. Castle. Jesus, whatever.
Tier’s body was pretty much dead weight, which made the ride quite uncomfortable, me being squished between him and the door.
And I kept thinking about how he had risked his life for me. He was confusing. He snarls at the worlds. He puts his soul into his paintings. And he saved my life.
And then there were his drool worthy abs.
Hey, I’m a girl, what can I say?
“Here we are.” Serge said, finally. I sighed with relief as David and Lennie ran out of the house. Mrs. Angela hot on their heels.
“Dear heavens!” David gasped as they wrenched to door open. I had barely managed to keep Tier from falling out, and I gave them an inappropriate grin at their dumbfounded expressions. “What happened?”
“Well, there was these wolves…and then this truck.” I muttered, carefully handing them the still unconscious Tier.
“Wolves!?” They cried. I gave them a yeah-well-what-can-you-do shrug, and hopped out of the truck. “Thanks Serge!”
“Yeah. Forgive me for saying I wish I had never met you.” He said, his eyes still wide as he took in the house. Castle. “And that I will forget you by 2:00 A.M. tomorrow.”
“Happy hour?” I asked him, liking him despite the circumstances. Lennie, David, and Mrs. Angela had taken Tier into the house, and I was left to thank Serge.
Should I offer him money? Or what?
“$1 a shot.” He informed me. I heard some screams from inside, and winced.
“Have one for me.” I told him. He nodded, and I shut the door. Waving as Serge tore down the driveway, I squared my shoulders and walked in to the uproar.
“What in God’s name happened?” David demanded.
“He’s bleeding!” Lennie exclaimed.
“Poor thing!” Mrs. Angela said, pulling me into a hug. “Lennie and David mentioned something about wolves.”
“I’ll tell you later.’ I said wearily, looking at the clock. 8:45 P.M. This was surreal. If you had told me yesterday that I would be at Ryan Tier’s house, barely surviving a wolf attack, almost dying in a car accident, drooling over his body, discovering a different person, buried deep inside of said body, I would have laughed in your face. But first things first, I thought, glancing at an unconscious Tier stretched out on a couch, I needed to make sure he was OK. Lennie and David were leaning over him, and I walked up to them.
“Merde, he’s got one big bump, doesn’t he?” Lennie said. And boy, was that an understatement. Tier had a goose egg on this back of his head, and it was going to hurt like a you-know-what in the morning. Guilt formed a knot in my stomach. He was in pain, unconscious, because of me.
“Oh, man, this is all my fault.” I pronounced, feeling the need to stake my guilt. Lennie shook his head at me, even as Mrs. Angela pulled me into another bone crushing hug.
“No one is saying that, dear.”
“But it is!” I whispered.
“No. Gosh, doesn’t he look so gentle whilst sleeping? Too bad looks can be deceiving.” Mrs. Angela said, clearly taking advantage of his non-awake status to talk about him. It was underhanded and sneaky, and I loved it. We stood there, seconds ticking by slowly on the clock, just staring at him.
My thoughts whirled around in my head, a confusing vortex of assorted things.
Tier. Paintings. Wolves. Tutoring.
And every single thought was Tier-related.
“Christ on a crutch.” Tier said, arching off the couch. Mrs. Angela took that as her cue to get the hell out of here, and I hope she remembers to bring some supplies back with her. Since he’s awake now, I should clean his cut. My dad was a klutz, so I have enough experience with dealing with mild to not-so-mild injuries that I was almost positive that Ryan didn’t have a concussion. But I still needed to clean him up a bit.
Which is going to be so much harder now that he was indeed awake.
But I couldn’t bring myself to care, because he was awake and snarling at me. All was right.
“You’re awake!” I yelled, aware of a relief so palpable I could feel it pouring off me.
“No thanks to you!” He yelled back, scrunching up his face in pain. Guilt and just a bit of anger warred within. On one hand, the guy saved my ass. On the other, he is so infuriating.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” I asked, stalling until Mrs. Angela came back, hopefully with the supplies.
“God, you are so irritating.” He sat up, and pressed a hand to his head. When it came back red, he gave me such an incredulous look that I had to smile, despite my stomach rolling over at the sight. “I’m bleeding.”
“Yes. But don’t worry, Mrs. Angela just went to get some stuff for me to fix you up.” I soothed.
“I don’t want your help.”
“Can you bandage the back of your head?” I rolled my eyes at him. Stubborn jackass.
“Can you go to hell?” He asked me, acid dripping out of his tone.
“Can you act like a mature adult?” I snapped, tired of his attitude.
“Nope.” He gave me a smile, one that was more teeth than anything. “Not at all.”
“We were going to take you to the hospital, but it isn’t that serious.” I ignored him, as it seemed like the safest thing to do at the moment. Plus it pissed him off when I did that, always a plus.
“Wow, and your opinion means so much to me.” He hissed, jerking back as I reached out to smooth his hair out the way.
“Gosh, I think I like you better unconscious.” I snapped as Mrs. Angela thankfully came back, with a tray in her hand. She set it down next to me, and scampered away. I didn’t fully understand why they were all standing far away, but I didn’t question it. Grabbing a towel, and dampening it, I regarded the surly bastard in front of me. “Now, keep still.” When all he did was move his head out of the way, and led me into a game of chase. Which was immensely irritating. To the point of me giving up finesse, and just smacked it onto his cut.
“GOD ALMIGHTLY WOMAN!” He roared, and I swear I felt my hair fly around, as if a fierce wind had blown through. “THAT HURT!” Angry now, I stood up and put my hands on my hips. However grateful I am that he saved my life, he didn’t need to act like a bad-tempered 4-year old.
“IF YOU WEREN’T MOVING AROUND SO MUCH, AND LET ME HELP, IT WOULDN’T HURT SO MUCH NOW WOULD IT?” I hollered back, looking down at him.
Which soon turned to me looking up at him when he launched himself up off the couch to tower over me.
“IF YOU HADN’T OF RUN AWAY, I WOULDN’T HAVE HAD TO CHASE AFTER YOUR STUPID ASS. WHICH WOULD HAVE PREVENTED THIS WHOLE DAMNED SITUATION!” He bellowed, getting into my face.
“IF YOU HADN’T OF FRIGHTNED ME, I WOULDN’T OF RAN AWAY!” If he thinks for one second he can get away with talking to me like, he can guess again. I got right back into his face. We were practically nose-to-nose, and still yelling at each other.
“Well, you shouldn’t have gone in my room.” He glowered at me. I fought back the wave of shame that washed over me at his words. Yeah, I know I shouldn’t have gone in his room. I know it was wrong, and I should apologize… I’m not going to, but yeah…. This is still half my fault.
But there was the fact that he was pushing all the blame on me, which was really, really starting to grate on my nerves.
It didn’t even occur to me that during our argument, I was doing the same thing.
“Well, you should learn to control your temper.” I said, icily. "Now, hold still, you stubborn jack ass."
His surprise gave me the chance to push him back down to sit. I walked between his legs, and pushed his head to lean against my ribs. I winced at the dirt and bits of gravel that had dug into his cut. I cleaned it as good as I could, trying not to press hard.
"Jesus, woman, be gentle!" He heckled when I pressed down.
"Baby." I grumbled, but softened my touch. He had lovely hair, if it wasn’t so…I don’t know, greasy. But the thing was, it looked greasy, but it didn’t really feel greasy. I don’t know how he did it.
I cleaned and picked, finally satisfied that I had gotten the last piece of dirt and gravel out, I sucked it up, and said what was on my mind.
"By the way," I said, dreading his reaction. "Thank you. For saving my life."
"Did you--just thank me?" He asked me, completely surprised.
Definitely not the reaction I was expecting, but it nevertheless got me blushing.
"Yes, now shut up." I said, hiding my face behind my hair. I felt his gaze on me, and slowly lifted my head to meet his eyes.
"Your welcome." He said.
Wow. Whodathunkit. Me and Ryan Tier, being civilized. Ryan Tier saving my life.
Don’t forget his abs, I reminded myself. Oh, God. I shouldn’t be thinking these things. Ryan Tier is a guy to be feared, to be hated.
But the look in his eyes, God Almighty, there was kindness. Buried deep under thick layers of sarcasm and attitude, but it was there, shining brightly out of his eyes.
"Uh, well thanks." I cleared my throat, hating how nervous I sounded. "Now, I'm sure they're not broken, but I need to check." OK. OK. I admit it. I just wanted to run my hands down his stomach again. I’m pathetic, what can I say. Dare I say, possibly even desperate?
"Check what?" He squeaked in surprise when I felt along his ribcage.
"Dear God woman." He jerked again when I pressed harder. I hid a smile. Ryan Tier, ticklish. Who knew?
"Problem?" I smiled at him this time, not bothering to hid it.
"I'm a bit ticklish." He admitted sheepishly. I thought it was completely…adorable how embarrassed he was about being ticklish. And I will go to the grave before I admitted that to anyone.
"Well, suck it up and imagine your happy place, this wont take long." I wish it would though.