The Cost

Madison pouted, not being in the position with Shawn Lewis that she predicted that she’d be in. After everything they had told her about Shawn, how he’d preyed on Victoria and mistakenly kidnapped Kurt thinking that he was Gavin, and the bullshit story they made about Dustin planning everything, Madison expected him to a sex-crazed idiot. But he had seen right through her plan. He was smarter than he seemed, and she’d completely underestimated him. Now he wanted a ‘fee’, reparations for lying to him, but Madison could guess what kind of cost a man like Shawn would want to extract from her.

The smart thing to do would be to just get away. This was a dark alley and no one else would come this way, so she couldn’t rely on anyone else to save her. The damsel in distress wasn’t her style anyway. But she was also too stubborn and prideful to just cut her losses and run. Even the failure could be used to work in her favour. He really was in control now so maybe he really would let his guard down. If she could find out the truth about what happened at the apartment at least it would be worth it. Besides, if Shawn tried anything on her, he’d find her to be a different animal than Victoria Walker. For one, Brandon had taught her self-defence a long time ago.

She folded her arms across her chest and asked, “what kind of fee?”

“Despite your deceit, I’m willing to be generous,” Shawn said, playing magnanimous. “I’m still willing to help you make your brother jealous.”

“Oh, I bet you are,” Madison chuckled, Shawn offering exactly what she thought that he would. “You fuck me, and I tell my brother all about it. Trust me, that only ends with a football quarterback gunning for your head.”

“Why tell him when you can show him?” Shawn said, his smirk curling higher up his face. “I know all you cheerleaders are attached to your phones like a second brain. Though in some cases it’s your only brain.”

“Of course, I have a phone,” Madison said with a sigh, sliding it out and showing it to him. “But I’m not going to fuck you, so there will be nothing to show him.”

“You don’t have to actually fuck me,” Shawn licked his lips and shrugged. “We’ll just simulate it. Since this whole thing is for the benefit of your brother, I bet you don’t really want to fuck anyone else but him anyway.”

The brunette cheerleader narrowed her eyes and pursed her lips, watching Shawn carefully. His plan made sense, better than her current one of finding someone to actually screw her just to make Brandon jealous. She didn’t want to have sex with someone else, just Brandon, so pretending really would be the best of both worlds. She’d get Brandon to recognise his true feelings on the matter without ever actually having to be unfaithful. The only problem with the plan was undoubtedly Shawn himself, and whether he could be trusted.

“What’s in it for you?” Madison questioned him suspiciously. “This plan works well for me, but you basically get nothing out of it. If you don’t actually fuck me, you don’t get your dick wet.”

“Marketing and promotion,” Shawn spread out his arms as if displaying a whole table of reasons. “Even if I can’t fuck you, everyone will think that we have, and you won’t be able to say otherwise with invalidating your story too. I get to say I’ve fucked a cheerleader and stick it to a quarterback. Those guys were always jerks to me in high school.”

“I wonder why?” Madison rolled her eyes. Of course, Shawn held a grudge against the people in high school for not recognising his self-proclaimed superiority. “On one condition though.”

“I don’t think you’re in a position to be imposing conditions on this situation,” Shawn said sweetly, reaching out to stroke her hair as his mouth curled into a smirk again. “After the way you treated me, I don’t have to be as kind and helpful as I am.”

Batting his hand away from her, she scoffed and told him, “Using the situation so you can pretend to have sex with me, oh yeah, that’s real altruistic. Just consider this the cherry on top then. I still want to know what happened at the apartment.”

“Why do you care?” Shawn asked, tilting his head thoughtfully. “You’re not friends with Victoria. Not like the others.”

“She’s Brandon’s friend, and that’s good enough for me,” Madison replied, exhaling irritably. “And I really don’t buy any of the bullshit she says happened. That you came to reveal the truth about your brother and then just let her leave? Are you telling me that you didn’t extract a fee from her as well?”

“Haven’t I proven how generous I can be?” Shawn said, taking a step closer to Madison and placing his hands on her hips, feeling her hot skin beneath Ashley’s tight black dress. “Maybe Victoria lied, maybe she didn’t. Women and their dishonesty, I would say it’s a disease, but I know it’s just in your nature.”

Madison’s skin crawled under his touch, but she made no effort to push him away, needing him to feel in control to divulge his secrets. “Well, if you’re so sincere, why don’t you tell me your version of what happened. It’s not like I’ll be able to tell anyone without admitting I levied it from you while bartering over us pretending to have sex.”

“That’s true,” Shawn admitted, looking down at her face, her big brown eyes popping through the eyeliner and eyeshadow. “But after.” Madison’s heart sank as his grip tightened on her waist. “Your friends will be wondering where you are soon, so how about we get started?”

Madison bit her lips. She knew that Shawn couldn’t be trusted, but the offer to make her brother jealous without ever actually fucking anyone else was tempting. As was finding out what really happened at the apartment. But she would have to let people think she’d actually fucked Shawn Lewis. And there was no guarantee he would even tell her the truth anyway.