Chapter 10

As if to prove Molly wrong, Hailey seemed excited about the party when she called Phil in the early evening. She looked amazing as she exited the elevator to meet him in the lobby. She wore a tight black miniskirt and a matching bolero jacket over a low-cut white blouse.

“Wow!” Phil said, feeling significantly underdressed in a pair of tan slacks and green pullover. “You look, well, sexy.”

“That was the goal,” Hailey said, smiling broadly at him. He noticed that she wasn’t wearing much makeup, just some lipstick and some blush.

“Can we stop and grab a couple of tacos on the way?” she wondered as they drove toward the party.

Phil looked at her with narrowed eyes. He had never seen her eat anything like that. She even ate the hamburger at his apartment without cheese or bread.

“If I go in a little full I don’t drink as much,” she told him. “I don’t want to get so drunk I do something ridiculous. A taco or two usually accomplishes the goal of keeping me sober.”

Phil watched in amusement as it took Hailey 10 bites to eat what he could have consumed in two. She took dainty nibbles, paying careful attention not to allow the grease to drip onto her clothing. They parked down the street from the party while she finished. She made a face and stuck her tongue out as she wrapped up the paper.

“Yuck,” she said. “The drawback to that is that I’ll need something to get rid of the taste as soon as I go in.”

Phil just chuckled and got out to open her door for her. She greeted him with a smile – and a glimpse up her skirt – as she exited. The party was in one of the nicer sections of town and it seemed as though a good many students had found their way over earlier.

“It sort of started about two,” Hailey said as Phil surveyed the people in varying states of inebriation around him. Two of Hailey’s friends spotted her as soon as she arrived and staggered over.

“Chelsea and Tiffany, I want you to meet Phil Warner,” she said. “I’m sure you’ve already met him at orientation so I guess it’s better to say that I want you to meet him again.”

Both young women turned their bleary eyes toward Phil with a look of unease. Neither was so drunk that they had forgotten what had happened at orientation but far enough along that they couldn’t understand what Hailey’s plan might be.

“Good to see you again,” Phil told them both. He vaguely recalled that Chelsea’s father was mayor of a city about 200 miles away and that Tiffany came from what could be considered “old money.”

“You, too,” Tiffany replied.

“Would one of you two mind keeping Phil company while I search out the ladies room and grab a drink?” Hailey asked.

It was rare for Hailey to actually inquire if they would mind to do something. It was more along the lines of she ordered them.

“No, that would be fine,” Tiffany offered. Chelsea disappeared along with Hailey into the throng of people.

Phil stood and watched the crowd as Tiffany surveyed him.

“Look, I remember you, OK,” she said. “You’re a decent guy so watch out. I don’t know what Hailey’s got in mind. I haven’t had a chance to talk to her this week at all. I know what she did to you had to suck and I don’t want it to happen again. Please don’t tell her I said anything. She’ll kill me if I’m the cause of whatever she’s got going on to fail. Promise?”

“I promise,” Phil said with a smile that caused Tiffany’s eyes to widen.

“Oh, my God!” she said in hushed tones. “It’s not her – it’s you. You’re going to take her down tonight, aren’t you? Everyone is here and you are just going to humiliate her! I want to warn you though; she won’t take it lying down. She’s got a vengeful streak a mile wide. I won’t say anything to her about it.”

“She’s coming back now,” Phil said, wondering if Hailey did indeed have something planned. When word of who his mother was made its way around campus there would be girls looking to date him regardless of what Hailey Warren thought. Well, he had a vengeful streak too – maybe – and he wouldn’t stand there like an idiot this time around.

Hailey brought him a soft drink and it looked like she had some sort of punch. It was red and it had fruit in it, at least.

Phil looked down at the drink and saw it was unopened. At least he didn’t have to worry about someone drugging him and taking pictures of him in compromising situations.

“Thanks, Tiffany,” Hailey said. “I knew if I left him alone the vultures would descend before I could get back.”

“No problem,” Tiffany said. “I’m going to go find that guy I was talking to. I’ll see you later. Good to see you again, Phil.”

“You, too, Tiffany,” Phil replied as he opened his drink.

“Sorry, I wasn’t sure what you’d like,” Hailey said, taking his arm and directing him to a group of people. “I looked for iced tea but didn’t see any.”

“It’s fine,” Phil said. “Thanks for getting it.”

“Hi, everyone,” Hailey said brightly as they neared the new group. “This is Phil Warner. He’s the guy you probably wanted in Beta Club but got stuck with me instead. I plan to submit a nomination for him at our next meeting if he’s interested. He’s a great guy and a natural leader. I think he could really be an asset next year. Phil, this is John Harmon; he’s president of the society. That’s Jill Minard, the vice president. She’s going to be the president next year, I’m sure. John is a senior.”

She introduced the rest of the executives from the campus’s leading academic honorary society, giving their name, their current job and what she expected them to win in the upcoming elections for next year.

“We suspected that you would run for vice president next year,” the outgoing secretary intoned. He had been the one Hailey had said would probably move up to the second chair. It was obvious that he wasn’t pleased at the prospect of having to run against Hailey Warren. “That would put you in line to run for the presidency as a junior. That’s never happened before.”

Hailey shook her head.

“I decided this week that I’m not going to run for any office,” she told them. “You’ve all done a great job and I’ll support your candidacies if I can. I was thinking about asking to be appointed to our fundraising committee if you guys keep the leadership. I don’t think I want to do it if Robin and her group get in, though. You guys have the right idea about the future, I think. I’m pretty sure she just sees it as something to pad her resume.”

“Fundraising?” Jill wondered. “That’s a thankless job, Hailey. If you fail at it you’re no longer considered for any of the executive positions; if you succeed everyone wants to keep you there forever. It’s not a platform for advancement.”

“I understand that,” Hailey agreed. “If Robin somehow beats you guys out – which I don’t think could happen in a million years – I might see if I can gather a coalition for a run next year. I think I’d be better served in a role that helps you get the funds you need to advance your platform than I would in helping to devise the platform.”

She nudged Phil with her elbow.

“Here is the guy you’ll want for your vice president next year,” she said with a firm nod. “Once you get to know him you’ll understand. The vice president’s job is to keep the voting bloc in line. We’re sort of set up like a legislative body right now. We have factions and a couple of single-interest groups that can combine to block anything we – uh, they – want to accomplish.”

“Right now, Hailey has set herself apart,” the president said. “She has her own bloc of votes. It’s sort of like a politician having to appease the rust-belt states. You can’t come down on the unions because that’s your bread and butter but you need the money from the business owners. We’ve had to walk a fine line and to offer some ideas we really didn’t want in order to secure enough votes for the things we really need.”

“Not any more!” Hailey said. “I pandered to everyone for too long. I’m sorry about that but I really didn’t have my head screwed on straight for a while. I’ve voted against things I knew were right for us simply because you didn’t offer me enough to make it worth my while. I want you to know – and I’ll declare it publicly at our next meeting if you want – I’m behind your group completely. You have the right idea. We need to be a service society and not simply an unnamed coed fraternity. I wish I’d have come to my senses earlier and we could have stopped some of the foolishness that’s pervaded this semester. If you want to rescind any legislation we’ve passed in the last few months, you’ll have my vote. I want to warn you, I’m releasing my bloc to vote as they see fit so I can’t guarantee anything but I will vote with you.”

“That’s a change,” Jill said bluntly.

“I hope it’s not the only change you see in me before you graduate next year,” Hailey said. “I truly plan on changing a lot of things about the way I’ve conducted myself. If you excuse me, I want to introduce Phil to some other groups. Thanks to me, he’s lived a pretty sheltered existence his first year on campus.”

“Oh, he’s the one, is he?” Jill wondered.

“The one?” Hailey asked.

“We all heard about how you emasculated some poor bastard the first day you were here,” she said. “No one really knew who it was, though.”

Hailey let out a long sigh.

“Emasculate is probably too strong a word,” she said. “As you can plainly see, he is as masculine as any guy on campus. I said some really stupid and cruel things to him. I admit that. I don’t want that to be Phil’s reputation for the rest of his college life. He’s too good a guy for that.”

“Do you have naked pictures of her with a donkey or something?” one of the females in the group asked. Her speech was slurred and everyone around tried to hush her but she just spoke over top of them.

“He has nothing like that and if he did he’d never use them to harm me,” Hailey said angrily. “We really should mingle, Phil, I can feel my former self rearing its ugly head.”

Phil had barely spoken as they stood there but followed Hailey into the house. As soon as she was out of sight of the Beta Club she slumped against the wall.

“I’m sorry,” she said, tears in her eyes.

“For what?” Phil wondered.

“For ... for that!” Hailey seethed. “For everything. I thought if I brought you here and introduced you that people would see how nice and sweet you are. Instead they just keep bringing up the reason you hate me.”

“I don’t hate you,” Phil said, putting his arm around her. “I never did. Yes, I was hurt by what you said to me. I was also angry. If I hated you I could have sabotaged you in some way. Hell, I could have hired someone to bump you off if I wanted to go to extremes. At the very least, I could have asked Mom to set up an internship there, then made sure you got it and completely ruined your credibility on campus and in the business community.

“I blamed you for a lot of things that were just as much my fault as yours. I could have come out swinging against you. I could have said the first thing that came to my mind that night and we probably would have been even. Instead I hid myself away. That wasn’t your fault, Hailey; it was mine. Don’t worry about it and don’t worry about what anyone thinks about me. I told you, I really don’t care. I realized this week that I’m not going to be like some of these schmucks. I’m not going to have to take my college degree and go to work at the mall.

“I have a readymade career waiting for me even if I never finish college at all. There are probably a lot of kids who can say that but there are a lot more who can’t. Why do I care what some liberal arts major who likely will wind up working for a year to earn as much I’ll make in a week says about me? I have a great family, a network of friends already established in the city where I’ll probably live and a job waiting for me. Screw the people who look down on me for what you said or you for saying it. Let’s not worry about them again. Deal?”

Hailey impulsively threw her arms around Phil’s neck and hugged herself to him tightly. He was thankful that she’d set her drink down first, otherwise it would have been all over his back and most of the room. He kissed her lightly on top of the head and she looked up. Just as with that afternoon they were in the perfect spot to kiss. Phil blinked first and released the hold he had on her waist.

“I want you to,” Hailey said.

“I want to,” Phil admitted. “But not here, you know.”

Hailey looked around and a few of her friends eyeing the scene closely. They weren’t really sure who Phil was but they knew it wasn’t the captain of the baseball team or next year’s student body president. Both were around somewhere but instead Hailey Warren, the ultimate social climber, was locked up with someone they didn’t know.