The Bet

Chapter 1

Many times, I'd begged the weather gods, or whoever was deciding the temperature upstairs, to end the heatwave, but if rain storms were the only alternative they could come up with, I preferred the boiling warmth of the air.

The bar was stuffed with people seeking shelter against the rain. I was okay with that, because I knew the warmth of so many people together would help my umbrella dry. My clothes hadn't been very well protected against the storm and my shoes were drenched, but I'd found a twenty dollar bill on the street and the weekend was about to start, so I wasn't even too upset.

My friends didn't have to work very late on Fridays, but I'd had to close the shop, so I'd only just now been released from my job. I was certain they were already in the bar and had I not just ensured myself of a good paycheck and strengthened the bond with my boss, I would've been jealous of them.

I walked over to our usual booth, the twenty dollar bill already in hand. "Guess what I found on the.." I abruptly turned around and hastily moved away, desperate to find some other booth.

As the stress filled my body, I noticed four people of about my age gathered together in another booth and I quickly joined them. "Hey," I said, as though I wasn't a random stranger, sitting down at their table.

"Who are you?" The girl asking this was definitely the leader of the group. She was a blonde and had nice facial features.

"Can I stay here for just a moment? My friends are over there, but I can't sit with them, because.. well, it's a long story."

"Again," the girl cleared her throat, "who are you?"

"My name's Regina Mills, hi. Nice to meet all of you," I said and if the rain had made me wet outside, it was nothing compared to the drops of sweat evaporating from my back now. The way they all stared at me would increase anyone's anxiety.

"You do know you have to tell us what's going on, now," the boy, that sat next to the leader, said. He'd clearly drunk a few beers himself already and I hoped I wouldn't have to tell these random ass people why I couldn't sit with my friends, because they would not like me.

"Do you see that blonde girl sitting next to the man with the eyeliner?" Everyone nodded. "That's Emma and I think she's dating my best friend Killian, not sure though. Either way I can't see her for now."

"What'd you do to her?"

"I don't even know any of your names, I'm not going to make you dislike me before I do."

"I'm Mal," the leader said. "This is Graham, Mulan and Elsa. Now, let me guess. You slept with her and never called her back?"

I sighed softly and shook my head. If only it'd been that easy. I was the one avoiding Emma, but I was sure she was the one who didn't want to talk to me. "It all started a while back, when my friends and I were sitting in that exact booth, yelling at each other, just like usual."

~~~~

64 days ago...

"Give me one reason why you should have it and not me," I said and looked defiantly at Killian. I was going to fight him on this as much as I needed to and I was going to win.

"It's just a clock, Regina, you have plenty of those! It actually holds value to me. You'd just dump it with all your other trash."

I cocked my head and gritted my teeth. I could feel Ruby shift beside me, she clearly wasn't interested in another discussion, because it'd been like this for the past three days.