"I find it a tad disgusting when people get so wrapped up in looks."
He took my hand and smirked. “Well you’re lucky then, because I don’t even think you’re that good looking. I’m attracted to your personality, and maybe the small hope you’ll do my trig homework.”
I hit him in the arm, hurting my hand. We walked up to the house, but before we got to the door he stopped me. He looked at me intensely. “Aimes, I’m not trying to pressure you, but I just want to know what you’re thinking about us and everything.”
I nodded. It was a fair request. “I am confused right now, Shane. I went from living my quiet life with no friends or boys interested in me, to dating you, sort of, and my best friend being a girl in a hospital bed dying. You dated my sister and now my bff is dating my sister. I’m leaving for college in a few months and my mom died nine months ago. Some freak is stalking me. This has all happened really quickly for me, and I don’t feel caught up. So, right now, I can offer you what we are now, dating, sort of.”
He kissed me again. “I didn’t really think about how much you were coping with, which is selfish, but I will take anything I can get, right now.”
I smiled at him and walked through the door he opened for me.
The party was loud and annoying, and I couldn’t help but think about how much I was going to hate it. There were drunken teenagers everywhere mixed with loud music. There were people making out in one corner and others doing shots in another.
I looked back at Shane as he glided me through the door. His smile reassured me.
I looked around for my sister and hoped I wouldn’t see Aleks with her.
I didn’t see her anywhere, which made me concerned.
I let Shane put his hand on my back through the entryway and then step in front of me and take my hand. He pulled me along, through the mass of drunken teens.
The smell of smoke and pot filled my nostrils as we walked one way. I looked over at the kids who were sitting in a circle on the back deck with the screen door wide open. They were passing joints and cigarettes after taking a hit. I felt my lips twist into a look of severe disapproval.
Shane laughed at my face. “Okay, let's walk this way.”
He pulled me away from the kitchen and the smell as I started to rant. “Do they have any idea how many toxins and narcotics they’re breathing in at that moment? There are four thousand chemicals in a cigarette, forty-three of them are known cancer-causing toxins like weed killer and bug spray. They could just suck on the can of DDT. And don’t even get me started on the marijuana! It can raise your heart rate anywhere from twenty to one hundred percent and cause heart attacks. And it has more cancer-causing chemicals than a cigarette.”
Shane raised an eyebrow at me. “You’re really fun at parties.”
I stuck my tongue out at him. “Cancer is a serious problem, not only for health reasons, but also on the costs it presents to the economy. Did you know there is even an increase in dogs with cancer since smoking has become a national pastime?”
“I can dress you up like one, but you will never be one.” He smirked and looked around the party. “Want to get out of here?”
His eyes had a gleam to them, which told me he had plans other than dropping me off. Like the releasing of the hounds, butterflies raced around my stomach. I shook my head. “Can we stay for a couple minutes longer?” I felt guilty that I wanted my hot, new ‘sort of boyfriend’ to stay at a party in hopes I would get to see the one guy I couldn’t get out of my mind.
He nodded, showing a minuscule amount of disappointment in that request.
I didn’t know what I would find when I did finally locate my sister. I sort of assumed she would be sitting on the stairs somewhere dressed like a whore. Blake would be kissing her neck from the back and Aleks would be kneeling and kissing her hand. Her beauty would mesmerize them. She would sip from her drink and smile that wicked-stepmom grin she had mastered when we were little. She always focused on the wrong part of the classics.
I looked back at Shane, feeling reassured. He had, at least, crawled his way from the pit of despair and unrequited love with my sister. He was not under her spell.
I stood beside Shane as he held my hand protectively and chatted with Tommy.
“Holy shit—Aimee James, is that you? Damn, I thought we had a new girl at the party and I was wondering how Shane found her first. You want to dance?” His wide smile and pointed eyebrows reminded me of the bad guys on my Saturday morning cartoons.
I looked at Shane, whose breath had started to increase. “She doesn’t want to dance, T.J.”
Tommy shrugged his filthy smile. His eyes never seemed to reach my eyes. “When you get tired of this, you know where to find me.” He turned and walked away, making a howl like a wolf. Everyone at the party howled with him. I felt like an outsider with no initiation yet on Crazy Island. The ritual was going to be something I wasn’t willing to bargain on.
Shane leaned into me. “Sorry, ignore him. I think most people do. I’m going to get a drink of water. Want one?”
“From the tap and clean glass from the cupboard?”
He laughed. “Yeah.”
I nodded.
As he walked away I felt the warm wind hit me. I looked around as my sister walked through the front door with Blake. She was wearing her usual uppity self-indulgent smirk. It was full of the knowledge that she could have any guy in the room, and you were lucky she let you keep yours.
Blake looked uncomfortable but true to form. He wore a grey t-shirt with a symbol of an atom on it. His dark hair was styled, and without his glasses, his blue eyes were brighter than ever. He had on baggy cargo pants I didn’t recognize and a watch that was most definitely not his NASA space camp one. My sister had started to put her tastes on him; like a puppet, he wore what she wanted. He saw the look of distaste on my face and slid his hand behind his back. He was ashamed of his new watch, which oddly was enough for me. I was glad to see that a small amount of the person I had always adored was still inside of him.
Alise wore a bright purple party dress. She outshone me, of that there was no doubt. I tried not to think about the fact, and I put a smug look on my face. She rounded the room to where I was standing.
“Nice dress, little sister.” Her perfectly manicured right eyebrow lifted. Her lips glistened with a berry-colored lipstick under an inch of gloss. She was so gorgeous.
“You’re going to age prematurely if you don’t stop wearing so much make-up.”
She looked unfazed and glanced down at the dress. “I WAS taking it back, but since you like it so much, you can keep it.”
I gulped, trying not to let her get to me, but her face lit up. “Ahhh and here comes another one of my leftovers you seem to like. Hello, Shane.” It stung.
I felt the warmth of him come up behind me. “Hello, Satan. You know, without the horns, it's deceiving. Maybe you should wear them year round, instead of just on Halloween.”
I smiled at her response to being called Satan. She bounced back, taking a deep breath. “You can keep him, Aimee, and the dress. Thank me later.” She batted her long false lashes at us and grabbed Blake by the belt buckle. She dragged him through the crowd of people. He tried to make eye contact with me but I ignored him.
“Can we go now?” Shane asked watching her walk away and be swallowed up by the crowd.
I nodded, taking my water and drinking it quickly.
I looked over at Jaime, my sister’s friend. She was holding a glass in her hand and leaning against the wall in the dining room. She was staring off into space and seemed to be swaying like she was on a boat. It wasn’t even ten o’clock yet. The glass looked the same as the one Giselle and I drank from. The one the police had shown me.
I felt my chest tighten. I recognized the look in her eyes. It was what I’d seen in the mirror, after I’d been revived. Aleks was holding me in the mirror at Shane's. My face looked exactly the same.
She was either crazy drunk or she had been drugged. I looked at Shane, who was talking with a guy named Murray. I tapped him lightly to interrupt and whispered, “I think the date rapist has struck again. Does Jaime look like I did?”
Shane looked around the room scanning for her. “Where is she?”
I pointed to where she had been. “The dining room.” I didn’t see her anymore, but I knew she couldn’t have gone very far.
I walked through the foyer into the dining room and looked around. There were people everywhere. Someone must have seen her leave.
I asked a girl leaning against the wall, “Have you seen where Jaime went?”
Her face grew confused, as she looked around. “Was she in here?”
“Yeah.” I sighed and walked back to Shane.
He looked concerned. "Is she okay?”
I shrugged. “I couldn’t see her. I want to look around and see if she went out to the deck to throw up or something.” I walked away before he could talk me out of it. I held my breath as I entered the kitchen, scowling at the idiots smoking on the deck. I peeked through the open doors. Jaime was nowhere to be found.
I walked back to the dining room and went down the hallway. I looked in each bedroom and bathroom, but there wasn’t anyone around. I slipped down the stairs in the hallway to the basement, literally, as the stupid shoes caught on the carpet.
The hall was dark and the loud music made it impossible to hear anyone, so I didn’t bother yelling for her.
I peeked into the bathroom but it was empty. “Probably peeing outside, the dirty savages,” I muttered.
I opened the guest bedroom door to see struggling on the bed. I panicked, flicking on the lights. “Get off her!” I shouted.
Michelle Mitchell, the hostess and her boyfriend scowled at me. “Turn out the lights, pervert.”
I nodded, flicking them off and locking the door from the inside before closing it.
I took a deep breath as I stared at the closed wooden door. I would always be the girl who walked in on them. I nodded to myself and continued down the dark hallway. I felt like Nancy Drew, but maybe a little sleazier-looking in my red dress. I opened the door to the garage and reached my hand into the darkness. I felt nervous sticking my hand in, feeling alongside the wall until I found the light switch.