Click

I texted Marcy a couple minutes before Nick and I arrived at the party and then put my phone back in my purse. The entire car ride was spent worrying whether or not my dad was going to find out that I snuck out. I knew that I should have stuffed pillows under my bed covers so he would just think I was sleeping. I even had a crazy blonde wig in my closet that I could have put on top of the pillows. Aiden had dumped the wig with me after pretending to be Marilyn Monroe for Halloween. I didn’t bother to ask him why he would wear that. I didn’t want to see the pictures that his friends took either. There’s a big difference between scaring and scarring.

When we got there, Nick parked around the street and stepped out when I did. Marcy and Kayti stood outside near the road talking to each other. Bunches of other people were outside as well. Trix’s house was fully lit up on the main floor so that all of the light was pouring out of the windows. It was like the house was a giant flashlight because most of the other homes on the street were almost pitch black.

Kayti and Marcy looked gorgeous from where I could see them. Marcy was wearing a short black tutu-styled dress with a white sash around her waist. It was a strapless dress as well. She had black heels on with ties that went up and wrapped around her leg several times up to her shin. Kayti looked a little evil in her dress, which was odd considering she had the most innocent face out of all of us. The dress was all red and black. The upper part was designed like a corset, except Kayti wasn’t hanging out of it so she managed to pull it off quite nicely. Her dress extended outwards like mind but had several different layers made with that thin, smooth material that made it easy to see through. She looked intimidating, but overall very pretty. Marcy was wearing a mask too, but Kayti wasn’t.

Nick headed inside before I reached them but when I did, they grinned at me. “You look so good!” we all said at the same time. Marcy laughed.

“Want to go inside?” she asked. “It’s freezing!”

“Well it’s March,” I said, smiling. “What do you expect?”

“Well if Trix is so rich, she should be able to afford an outdoor heater,” she said, crossing her arms.

Kayti raised her eyebrows. “Marcy, I don’t think—”

“Yeah, well no one asked for your opinion!”

I laughed. “Let’s go.” We headed inside and were greeted by a crowd so big we could hardly even move around. Marcy shoved her way though, grabbing Kayti’s and my wrist and tugging us through with her. Trix stood in the center of the room, looking absolutely gorgeous. She resembled one of those rich women from France in the 1800’s, except much more colourful. The whole place was like a giant Halloween party, and it left me a little perplexed and bewildered. It was very surreal seeing a bunch of teenagers in costumes in the middle of March. I could only imagine what the neighbours were thinking.

Once we got past the crowds right by the doors that were blocking everyone from taking a step around them, there was a lot more room. The music was blasting and all I could see were costume tails waving around, people wearing masks, and guys having plastic sword fights while they pretended to be Musketeers.

“So Blade isn’t here, huh?” Kayti asked, crossing her arms and looking around. I shook my head.

“Nope. He didn’t want to go. Didn’t I tell you already?” I asked, raising my eyebrows. She nodded.

“Yeah, but I thought that it might have been kind of cool if you called him and told him you were sneaking out and then he decided to come with,” she said, turning around when a hand landed on her back. David, Shane and Preston were all together, heading over to join their dates.

“So did you end up getting Elizabeth to say yes to coming to this with you?” I asked Shane. He shook his head. He was dressed like Danny Zuko from Grease, except he didn’t look like as much of a badass. Shane kind of had a baby face.

“No. As it turns out, she was winking at Blade, not me,” he said, sighing.

“I don’t have a date either,” I said, shrugging.

“You can share my date,” Kayti said, hooking her arm through David’s. He grinned and nodded.

“I don’t have a problem with that,” he said.

“Mine too,” Marcy said, nudging Preston. He smiled.

“Yeah, sounds like fun,” he added.

I smiled. Over Kayti’s shoulder, I could see Andrew wearing a black cloak. He looked like the Grim Reaper. “Well that’s a little creepy,” I said, nodding in his direction. They all turned around.

“He’s always so angry,” David said, shaking his head. “You guys want to go cheer him up?”

Preston raised his eyebrows. “That depends. Are we going to get slapped?”

“Don’t be such a girl,” David replied, punching him in the shoulder. “And not when there’s three of us and one of him.”

Shane, Preston and David walked off toward Andrew. I could see them make short conversation with him, trying to convince him to reply in full sentences but I could just see him stare at them, frustrated and mumble a “fuck off” before walking away. Marcy laughed.

“And Kayti, you like that guy?” she asked.

“Yeah, so?” Kayti said, glaring and crossing her arms. Marcy smiled and shook her head.
“Never mind. So David and Shane are going to be really disappointed because I was talking to Trix earlier and she said that it was only this floor of her house that we were allowed in. She’s turned off all the lights,” she said.

“Right, like that’s going to stop people from going up there and getting jiggy with it,” Kayti said. “It’s pretty much our entire school here. People are guaranteed to hook up. It’s human nature.”

“Hey wait a second. David wants to hook up. And you came here with him,” I said, smirking. Kayti frowned.

“He’s my date but we’re not dating,” she said, putting her arms out. “Duuh.”
Marcy and I laughed. “Do you guys want to dance?” she asked. Kayti nodded and grabbed our hands, pulling us over to where most of the dancing was. I was curious about whether or not Trix’s parents are home. I figured it was like most of the parties you hear about when the parents go out for the weekend and when they come back, their house is trashed and there are drunk, naked people in their bedroom. I was beginning to think that, despite how it was considered cool to invite everyone in the school to a big party, it was a really bad idea. Everyone was way too close and every few minutes, the person who was standing behind me’s butt would rub against me and it was like “whoa, you have got to back up right now”.

Even though David and Preston had promised to dance with us yesterday, they were too busy chatting with their normal group of friends from school. I knew most of them even in their odd costumes but there was one boy I couldn’t put my finger on. He was wearing a nice tux and a mask to cover his eyes so I couldn’t recognize him.

“Do you guys know who that is?” I asked, nodding over to him. Kayti and Marcy turned around and stared at the boy for a few seconds.

“I have no idea,” Kayti said, shaking her head.

“Could it be Damien?” Marcy asked.

“Damien White? No way. That’s him in the white face pain and weird dress thing. Plus, this guy has brown hair. Damien has blond hair.”

“Maybe they made a new friend.”

“Maybe.”

The boy laughed, showing a beautiful set of white teeth. I frowned. I was frustrated that I couldn’t recognize this boy. I had seen pretty much everyone in the school at least once and I had passed lots of people in the halls all of the time so I didn’t understand how I couldn’t see under a simple mask. He looked away from the guys and his eyes swept over the people dancing. Of course, Kayti, Marcy and I were still staring at him when he looked in our direction. He stared right back and since he was wearing a mask, it was a little freaky to keep eye contact. He stuffed his hands in his pockets, shrugged his shoulders a little bit and looked back at his friends. Kayti made a humming noise and turned to me again.

“That was weird,” she said. Marcy nodded.

“I’m bored with this for now. You guys want to go get a drink or something?” she asked, walking away before we even had a chance to answer. We followed closely behind as she went into the kitchen where people were taking shots. Trix threw back a drink and a few boys cheered. She laughed uncontrollably and clapped her hands together. David walked up behind me and put his elbows down on the counter.

“I promised myself I wouldn’t get drunk tonight,” he said, shaking his head. “Keep me away from alcohol, will you?”

I nodded. “No problem.”

“Hey David, who was that guy in the mask that you guys were talking to?” Kayti asked, peering over at him. He smiled and shrugged.

“No idea,” he said, grabbing a coke from the fridge. “The others know him. I don’t have a clue, but I didn’t bother to ask.”

“Hey guys! Are you having a good time? I’m having a great time!” Trix said, punching me in the shoulder unnecessarily hard. I scowled and rubbed where she hit while she wobbled out of the room.

“So much for a mature party,” I mumbled.

“It’s kind of insane, isn’t it?” Kayti asked, looking around.

“Promise me you guys will stay with me,” I said.

David laughed. “If you’ve got my back, I’ve got yours.”

I smiled. “Great, and Marcy—oh.” I stopped myself and went wide eyed when I realized that she had taken over what Trix was doing. A boy handed her a small shot glass and she grinned, downing it automatically. Preston walked in and crossed his arms.

“My date is going to be unconscious by the end of the night, isn’t she?” he asked. Kayti nodded and laughed.

“I’d say so.”

Nick walked into the kitchen with the boy that was wearing a mask. Preston, David and Kayti waved at Nick, who returned it and said a light “hello” to us before advancing forward. The masked boy paused though and stared at me for a second. I tilted my head to the side.

“Hey,” he said.

“Hi,” I blurted unintelligently. He smiled slightly and then walked off with Nick. I recognized the voice, but I didn’t recognize the face when it was under that mask. It was making me miserable. I didn’t see a reason for anyone to just say hello to me if they didn’t know me, and that made me feel even worse because I didn’t have a clue who he was.

“You know him?” Kayti asked, raising her eyebrows. I shrugged.

“I don’t know.”

“Look, I just want to get a drink and then can we go dance again?” she asked me.

“Sure,” I said. David opened the fridge and passed me two bottles of pop. I handed one to Kayti and she took a drink from it. I put mine in the small purse I brought and David raised his eyebrows at me.

“Are you going to hold that thing the whole night?” he asked and I shrugged.

“Probably, why?”

“Why don’t you just put it with our coats? I hung mine up so you can put it in the pocket of it if you don’t want to be carrying it around with you.”

“What if it gets stolen?”

“Right, I’m sure that someone is going to go into my jacket looking for your purse,” he said, raising his eyebrows. Kayti smirked at me. “Come one. You aren’t going to have much fun if you’re dragging it around all night. It’s distracting.”

He took the purse from me and walked through the kitchen to a small side room where a couple girls stood, giggling over who they thought the hottest guy at the party was. David slipped my purse into the inside pocket of his coat and put his arms out. “There. Problem solved. Now let’s go have some fun,” he said, giving me a light shove toward the doorway.

Kayti laughed at something Preston said about Marcy, who looked to be having way too much fun. I knew that if we pulled her away now, she was going to get defensive and maybe a little violent. Marcy was a lot of fun, and she had always wanted to try out more alcohol than just the one test glass on her mother’s birthday. The problem with Marcy was that when she consumed too much alcohol, she could hardly stand. I had seen pictures of her that Jared showed me from her cousin’s wedding when someone put something in the punch and she passed out on the bride. I figured it wouldn’t be horrible if she had a little bit tonight, as long as we kept an eye on her and checked to make sure she was okay every few minutes. She just needed to make sure she remembered her sanity and that she needed a limit.

Kayti grabbed David’s hand and said “let’s dance”, before pulling him out of the kitchen and back into what I could only guess was the living room. Preston grinned as he watched them walk out and then looked at me with his head tilted. He put his hand out to me and I smiled, taking it and following Kayti and David.



Preston surprised me with how good of a dancer he was. After a while though, we were all tuckered out. Preston checked his watch and told me it was half past ten, and my anticipation began to increase. My dad said he was going to check on me around midnight and I could just imagine what his face would be like if he saw me climbing in through the window right when he walked into my bedroom. I heard a shriek and a series of gasps from the kitchen as a boy rushed out, looking around before catching my eye.
“You’re Christabelle, right?” he asked me. I nodded.

“Yeah, what is it?”

“You might want to come see this,” he said, going back into the kitchen. Preston and I exchanged a confused look before following him. Marcy was sitting on the floor with her back against the counters, gripping her head and moaning. I could see a little bit of blood dripping from between her fingers.

“Marcy! What happened?” I asked, shaking her lightly. She groaned and closed her eyes.

“I shouldn’t drink anymore,” she mumbled.

“She was on the counter dancing and she bashed her head against the chandelier,” the boy said, tilting his head to look at her. A crowd formed around us and around another girl, who was weeping and screaming “my dress! My dress!” Apparently, shortly after Marcy’s fall, she had decided to empty the contents of her stomach upon the girl’s costume. Kayti rushed in with David behind her.

“What happened? Is Marcy all right?” she asked, bending down beside her. Marcy waved a hand in the air and mumbled something neither of us could understand. Of course, the crowd dialed down and people got bored of us trying to communicate with our formerly sober friend, and went back to partying.

“We should take her to the bathroom,” I said, grabbing one of Marcy’s arms while Kayti grabbed the other. We hoisted her up and put her arms around her shoulders. Her head fell forward and she gagged, shaking her head.

“Do you guys need some help?” Preston asked.

“We’ll be all right from here,” I said. “We’ll be back in a few minutes, okay?”

David and Preston nodded and stepped aside. We walked through the living room while Marcy made little slurred comments about the music or the crowds. We got to a hallway that led into another few rooms filled with people. We headed up the stairs that were blocked by a couple streamers but Kayti just ripped them off the walls and we walked down the darkened hallway. It was obvious that the rooms were still in use because some of the streamers had already been torn and we could hear banging or disturbing noises from the bedrooms along the sides. I opened a room that I assumed was empty because there really was no noise coming from it but right before Marcy could even reach the toilet or the bathtub, her head dropped and again, she blew chunks all over my shoes. Kayti's and my jaw dropped and our eyes went wide.

“Ew!” Kayti shrieked.

“Sorry,” Marcy moaned. “I need to sit down.”

“Please don’t throw up on us again,” I mumbled, placing her down on the side of the tub. She groaned, closed her eyes and held her forehead. “Stay put,” I said, turning around and opening the bathroom cupboards. There were a lot of toiletries but I couldn’t find any facial cloths. Kayti left the room for a second and came back with a towel and some cloths. She handed me one and began cleaning up the vomit at the doorway.

“My mom’s going to kill me,” Kayti mumbled, adjusting herself on the floor. “These were her shoes.” Hers weren’t absolutely covered, but they did have small flecks on them.

“Your mom’s going to kill you?” I asked, raising my eyebrows and wetting the cloth under warm water. “Think about what Marcy’s mom is going to say when she sees her daughter staggering through the doorway piss drunk and waking up with a huge hangover the next morning.”

Kayti smiled.

“I smell like crap, don’t I?” Marcy asked, sniffing. I sat down in front of her and lifted her chin with my fingers so she would look at me. Marcy looked really fragile at this point; as if someone would touch her and she would just break. I lightly dabbed her forehead with the cloth where the blood had been.

“You smell more of alcohol than vomit,” I said. “If it comes to it, just say you had drunk people breathing all over you.”

Marcy tried to manage a smile. “I hope I don’t throw up on you again.”

“I hope you don’t throw up on me again as well.”

“You’re a good fiend, Chris.”

I raised my eyebrows at her. “A good fiend?”

“F-friend,” she managed, groaning. “I don’t feel good.” I quickly patted down her forehead once more, gave her mouth a wipe and washed off her hands.

“Toilet,” I said, lifting her up and leading her to it. She leaned over, dropped to her knees and held onto both sides, before throwing up again. I rubbed her back and Kayti stood up.

“How much did I drink?” Marcy mumbled.

“There are about ten bottles of beer or other alcoholic beverages downstairs that belong to you,” Kayti replied, leaning against the door and crossing her arms. “Promise us you won’t drink this much anymore.”

Marcy nodded but then gripped her forehead. “I must look like crap.” She stood up and went to the mirror. She moaned loudly when she saw her appearance. “Oh my God, I’m so pale. I look like I threw up three times.”

“You did throw up three times,” I said, flushing the toilet.

“I’ve got it covered,” Kayti said, lifting her dress up one side and pulling out a small makeup bag. I raised my eyebrows.

“You brought a garter just to carry makeup?” I asked her.

“You never know when it comes in handy,” she said, turning Marcy around by the shoulders. Marcy puckered her lips and Kayti covered her mouth. “First of all, we need to do something about your breath.” She opened the cupboard and grabbed a new toothbrush. She ripped it out of the bag and put some toothpaste on it. Then she handed it to Marcy. “Brush,” she ordered.

Marcy did as she was told and then rinsed by putting her mouth right under the sink. She accidentally spit the water out violently all over the sink. I chuckled lightly but covered it up when Marcy grumbled something about how we were lucky to be sober. I didn’t want her to feel worse than she already did. Kayti put some cover-up over Marcy’s forehead cut and reapplied her lip gloss. She put some blush on her cheeks so that she didn’t appear so washed out and sick. Marcy looked back at the mirror and nodded, satisfied.

“Thanks guys,” she said, heading for the door but she stumbled and fell sideways. Kayti and I caught her before she hit the ground and we both laughed.

“Relax. No one recovers that quickly. Take it easy, okay?” I said. She nodded and hooked an arm over Kayti’s shoulder. They walked out into the hall but Kayti stopped and looked over her shoulder at me.

“Are you coming Chris?” she asked.

“I’ll meet you guys downstairs in a couple of minutes. I want to fix up my shoes,” I said. They walked off and I sat down on the edge of the bathtub. I took off my shoes, grabbed one of the towels and put some water on it before giving my heels a good wipe. I figured it was about time now that I gave Aiden’s cell phone a call and asked him to somehow stall my dad when I decided to come home. I still had a lot of time but if I somehow lost track of it and I needed someone to distract my dad before he got to my bedroom, Aiden was the perfect person for the job.

I found myself thinking about Blade while I sat on the bathroom ledge cleaning my friends digestive rejects off of my shoes. I wondered what he was doing; I hadn’t seen Amanda all night so I thought it was possible that he was with her instead. It was kind of sad to think that he might be spending his night with a girl he isn’t up to breaking up with just because he didn’t like her. It was getting on my nerves more because I really liked him, but then again I also liked Nathaniel. Judging by how things were going though, I had a better chance with Nathaniel. He never mentioned having a girlfriend and even though he could live cities or even countries away, he put it into my head that it was a possibility him and I could end up together—as silly as it was. Blade was dating Amanda though, and it didn’t really matter how we saw each other pretty much every day, or how we had become really close friends, or how he would call me up on the phone just to talk about nothing really important for hours on end. He was unattainable.

I gave my shoes a final wipe-off and stood up, slipping them back on. I threw the towel over the ledge of the bathtub and stepped out into the dark hallway again. I turned off the bathroom light and went to walk down the hall but a hand wrapped itself around my wrist and pulled me backwards. I was about to scream in shock but something covered my mouth; someone else’s mouth. My arms hung lifelessly at my sides as I stared wide eyed at whoever was kissing me. He backed away and smiled, and it was him—the boy in the mask.

I opened my mouth to say something to him. I wanted to reach up and take off his mask, and stare into that unhidden face for the first time but when I began to lift my hands, he held them back with his and kissed me again. My brain was still stuck on a couple seconds ago and I really didn’t know how to react to him because I didn’t know who he was, and he clearly had more experience than me. After all, the last time I kissed someone was when I was too young to even think about going to parties like this. Then again, my dad thought I was still too young to go to parties like this, and he probably preferred it if I didn’t think about it either.

I could practically hear my heartbeat in my ears and the blood flowing through my veins. I could feel my face heating up. I wanted to move, or to say something but I couldn’t because my body wasn’t cooperating and my voice was caught somewhere at the back of my throat. The kiss was new, it was exciting, and it was electrifying. It left my skin hot and my heart reeling, and yet I had no idea who the one kissing me really was. It left goose bumps on my skin. My head was becoming too light and it fell back but the boy put his hand on my neck and deepened the kiss. I gave in completely when his hand slid down my back and pulled me against his chest. When he changed the angle of the kiss, I sighed in delight.

Then he stepped back, my eyes slowly opening. He smiled at me once more, and he was gone—like a phantom or a ghost. I was left in a state of delirium because when I turned around to see where he was, there was nobody in sight. I was brought back to real life when I heard a very violent thump against one of the bedroom doors and a loud excited groan. I rolled my eyes and walked back down the hall with weak legs and my head spinning. I gripped the banister as I walked down the stairs and looked around the room of crazy dancers, trying to find the boy. A hand landed on my shoulder and I turned around. Shane raised his eyebrows at me.

“Are you okay? Your face is really red,” he said. I nodded.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” I said but in all honestly, I wasn’t just okay. I was confused, excited, curious, ecstatic, and a bunch of other things. I just didn’t figure that Shane had the time to listen to all of that and it probably was just a question that didn’t require a long answer. I didn’t say anything else.

“Okay, well you’re never going to guess what I just saw,” he said, nodding to the room right beside the staircase.

“What?”

“Amanda. She was kissing Damien,” he said, throwing his arms out. My eyes went wide.
“She’s cheating on Blade?” I asked.

He nodded. “Looks that way.”

“Well at least now he has a reason to break up with her,” I said. I looked at the staircase again and saw Amanda holding Damien’s hand, batting her eyelashes and flaunting things of hers that did not need to be flaunted in public. I scoffed and shook my head.

“If only there was a way to catch them in the act,” Shane grumbled, rubbing his forehead. “Blade would never believe me if I just told him she was cheating on him. He’s my friend and everything, but he’s known that I’ve wanted him to dump her on her ass for a while now. It would just sound like an excuse.”

I sighed. “Whoever cheats on someone deserves to be shot and pissed on,” I mumbled, crossing my arms. Then I had an idea that would be good enough proof for Blade. “Wait a second; you’ve got your phone on you, right?” He nodded. “Does it have a camera on it?”

“Yeah,” he said, raising his eyebrows. I raised mine as well.

“Do you really not see where I’m going with this?” I asked, swooping an arm towards the staircase.

“No, what—Oooooh,” he said slowly, nodding his head and pointing a finger to me. I smiled and we quickly raced up the stairs together just in time to see one of the bedroom doors close with Damien’s dress-cloak thing stuck in it. There was laughter from the other side and it opened once more for him to slip the costume inside with him and then close the door again. Shane took out his phone, pressed a few buttons and then held up the camera in front of the door. He gave me the okay nod and I opened the door slowly and quietly. Damien was lying on top of Amanda on the bed, both of them caught in a feverous kiss. She began to pull his costume over his head, and this was when she caught sight of us.

“Smile for the camera, pretty sunshine!” Shane cried, laughing.

“What the hell are you doing?! Get out!” Amanda shrieked, bolting off the bed and leaving Damien flat on his stomach, groaning and moaning because he was obviously too drunk to go after her. “Oh my God! Not you!” she screamed, venom dripping from her words as she stared at me. “Are you filming this?!”

“Of course we are!” Shane said, snickering. “We have some very unfortunate news to show our friend now,” he said, grabbing my arm and yanking me out of the room. We could hear Amanda screaming from inside the bedroom as we ran down the hallway. Shane was running backwards so he could get Amanda on camera more when she started to chase us. Unfortunately, he ran right into a wall. “Ow,” he groaned, rubbing his forehead. I grabbed his wrist and pulled him down the stairs but he was stumbling so much, he almost fell right onto me but we reached the crowd before he had time to tumble to the floor. Shane followed me as we shoved our way through the groups of people, right into the kitchen. Shane saved the video and grabbed his coat from the other room.

“Do you want to get going?” he asked me. I nodded and started to go into David’s jacket to get my purse until I saw Marcy sitting on a chair with her back forming a tabletop position. I moved towards her and sat down, lifting her head.

“Marcy?” I asked. She moaned and opened her eyes. “Do you want to head home now?”

She nodded and started to close her eyes again. “I’m really sleepy,” she slurred, slightly gasping so it sounded like “I’m wheelie heapy.” Kayti and David walked into the same room we were in.

“Are you guys leaving?” Kayti asked. “It’s barely eleven.”

“It’s just past eleven actually,” Shane said, checking his watch. “We kind of have to leave now anyway. There’s someone after us.”

“What?” David asked, confused.

“We saw Damien and Amanda canoodling and got it on video to show Blade, but Amanda knows we saw so she’s trying to get the camera,” I explained, grabbing my purse from David’s jacket.

“Oh, okay. Well we can leave now too,” Kayti said. David grabbed his coat and helped Kayti lift Marcy up. She looked like she was about to pass out right then and there.

“Wait a second. We need a designated driver,” Shane said, rubbing his hands together. I turned around and saw Nick in the kitchen, laughing with a couple of his friends. I called him over and he smiled when he reached us.

“Hey, what’s up? You heading out already? Lame,” he said. I shrugged.

“We kind of have to. Do you mind driving us?” I asked, pleading him with my eyes. He paused for a second, looking at his friends over his shoulder and scratching his head.

“Uhm,” he began, turning back to me.

“Please, Nick. It would mean a lot. We just need to have a couple people dropped off and that’s all. Then you can come right back,” I said. He sighed and nodded.

“Okay, I can do that. All five of you?” he asked, looking at Kayti, David, Shane and Marcy. He stopped on Marcy and raised his eyebrows. “What happened to her?”

“She got a little too drunk,” Kayti said. “Let’s go. We have to leave now.”

We all went back through the kitchen and headed for the doorway. I stopped right before we were outside and took a look over the crowd. It had kind of dispersed and dialed down a little bit so I could see over pretty much everyone’s heads. I saw Amanda then, and she saw me. Her glare was harsh and determined, so I turned and bolted to meet up with everyone else.

“Where’s your car, Nick?” David asked, looking around.

“It’s down the street. I couldn’t find a very good parking spot. There were too many cars,” he said, jingling the keys in his hand. I looked over my shoulder quickly and saw Amanda getting much closer.

“What year is your—”

“We don’t have time for this, guys. She’s right there,” I said, pointing to the doors. They all turned around and Nick grabbed Marcy, hoisting her up and carrying her over his shoulder.

“Whoa,” Shane said, eyes wide in amazement as he stared up at Nick.

“This is taking too long,” Nick said, walking quickly toward his car. We all followed him and David burst out laughing when we got to it.

“Dude, what the hell? You’ve got a mom car!” he wailed. Nick didn’t have any type of sports car or a really expensive Lamborghini, or any kind of car that would be considered very cool. He had a soccer mom van which, I guess, could be considered a little different when it came to a macho guy like Nick but at times like this, it was exactly what we needed.

Nick frowned and put Marcy down. Her legs gave out automatically and she fell to the ground. It didn’t matter how fast Kayti and I dove for her. She was already asleep at this point and Marcy could be a pretty heavy sleeper at times so nothing really bothered her.

“Fine. Get yourselves home then,” he said, raising his eyebrows.

“Nick!” Kayti yelled, eyes wide.

“I don’t take crap from a guy who is smaller than me and doesn’t even own a car,” he said, crossing his arms.

David put up his hands. “Hey now, I didn’t mean anything by it—”

“Just shut up and get in the damn car!” Shane screamed. We all went silent and stared at him. Nick shook his head.

“Well if you’re going to get emotional about it . . .” he mumbled, giving up and walking to the other side of his van. Shane threw opened the side door and we all piled in. Marcy’s feet hung out of the door like she was some sort of ragdoll. David pulled them in and slammed the door, while Shane jumped into the front passenger seat and Nick started up the car. Amanda came out of the doors and looked around just as Nick was beginning to drive off. Amanda saw us go and screamed angrily, stomping her foot on the ground. I breathed a huge sigh of relief.

“Now that’s what you call getting emotional about something,” David said.



Getting Marcy into her house, unnoticed and unheard was our Everest. We knocked over a blender but Shane caught it in time. Marcy’s mom and dad were lying in bed already and Jared was asleep on the couch with the remote in his hand and a football game playing on the television. We got her up to her bedroom and made the guys wait in the car so that we could change her out of her dress, get rid of the makeup and put her pajamas on her. Then we tucked her into bed and headed back outside. Kayti and David were dropped off next, and then we headed over to Blade’s house. I had about fifteen minutes before I had to be at my house, which was just enough time to talk to Blade, show him the video and get out of there. Nick waited outside against his car while Shane and I went to Blade’s doorstep and knocked. Shane knocked loud and I hushed him.

“What?” he asked.

“He could be sleeping, you know,” I pointed out. “Plus, it’s past eleven. He also has neighbours and I don’t think they would appreciate your heinous knocking.” He rolled his eyes.

“Jeez, Nick was right. Women are moody when they’ve got PMS,” he mumbled. I sent Nick a glare, to which he replied with raised eyebrows and a tilted head.

Blade’s front door opened and he stood there looking tired and bored. He was wearing a tux with the top few buttons of the white shirt opened and the tie hanging loosely around his neck. Shane and I were both confused.

“Hey,” he said. “I thought you weren’t going to the party.”

“I didn’t,” Blade said. “I decided that maybe I would so I got dressed for it but then I changed my mind. I was just too lazy to change back out of it.” He shoved his hands in his pockets and shrugged. “Anyway, what’s up? Why are you here at quarter to twelve? Did you forget some people are asleep at this time?”

“Then why are you awake?” Shane asked, raising an eyebrow.

“I was just about to fall asleep on the couch, until I heard some very loud knocking,” he said, frowning. “Now seriously, what are you doing here?”

“Can we come in?” I asked. He turned to look at me and nodded.

“Sure,” he said, shoving the door opened for us. We walked passed him and into the kitchen. My phone beeped and I pulled it out.

This is Amanda. If you show Blade that video, I swear I will ruin you.

I frowned.

How did you get this number? And by the way, I don’t care if you “ruin me”. You’ve dug yourself into a hole by cheating on him.

I have people that know your number. And I don’t know if you were aware of this but my mom works with your dad. I could tell her to let your dad know that you were out tonight at a party—that you lied to him, that you snuck out, that you snuck back in and pretended to be all innocent. Oh yeah, I know about his no-parties rule. Do you really want to tarnish that good girl status of yours? So much for being daddy’s little girl, and so much for your friendship with Blade. Your dad would never let you out of the house again. He wouldn’t let you see Blade again either. Blade and you would go from friends to enemies before you could even snap your fingers. Even if you show Blade that video, he wouldn’t believe you. Shane’s good with phones and video editing. He could have easily put someone else’s face in there and Blade knows that it’s possible. You’d just hurt him, Christabelle. Is that really what you want?

I never knew that Amanda had so much over me. When I thought about all that I would be gaining by telling Blade that Amanda was cheating on him, it wasn’t that much. Sure, he wouldn’t be dating someone who he didn’t even want to date in the first place. Plus, I would be doing the right thing. But was that really worth sacrificing my friendship with him? And my dad would kill me if he found out that I went to the party when he had said no so many times, and he would kill Aiden too if he knew about him helping me get away with it.

“Can I see your phone?” I asked Shane. He nodded and handed it to me. I opened the video and put it on mute. Blade stepped into the kitchen, rubbing his forehead.

“So what did you guys want to talk about?” he asked. I looked at Shane, who nodded. Then I looked down at the video. My fingers hovered over the Play button, but I changed my mind now and pressed the Delete button. I shook my head.

“Nothing.”


“Okay, what the hell was that?” Shane asked, throwing his hands up in the air. “Why didn’t you show him the video? Are you out of your mind?” I shook my head and ground my teeth together.

“What’s wrong?” Nick asked, pushing himself off of his car and shoving his hands in his pant pockets. “Something bad happen? Did he not believe you?”

“No, and we didn’t even tell him Amanda’s cheating on him because Christabelle didn’t show him the video. She deleted it,” Shane said, frowning. “Seriously, what the hell got into you? You were so set on showing him and then you just changed your mind? What’s that about?!”

I tore off my mask and whirled around on him, pointing a finger in his face. “Look Kendrick, you know me. I don’t act irrationally very often. If I do something like that, I do it for a good reason and I have a good reason. Don’t believe me? Read this,” I snapped, thrusting my phone into his stomach. He looked confused and took it from my hand. I opened the van door and slipped inside, putting on my seatbelt. Nick got into the driver’s seat and stared at me for a second but I looked away from him and sighed. Shane got into the back seat and closed the door.

“Shit. Okay, I’m sorry,” he said. “We still should have at least told him, though. I mean, he really believes you, Chris.”

“It’s the same as showing him the video,” I said. “I’d get in shit with my dad, and it would effectively end my friendship with Blade. I’m just going to keep my mouth shut for now so let’s leave it at that.”

Shane and Nick exchanged a look but said nothing. Nick started the car up again and began driving. Shane slipped me my phone, and none of us said anything on the ride to my house. I only said goodnight and thank you to both of them when I got out and headed up my driveway. I sent Aiden a text message, asking him to stall and when he looked out the window, I waved at him.

Well, what the hell am I supposed to do to stall him? He’s heading upstairs as we speak!

Well, I don’t know! Just distract him so I can get into my room before he does!

I’ll do my best.

Thank you!

I headed around the side of the house and grabbed the ladder from the backyard. My dad had been reinstalling some shingles since last year but he kept forgetting to actually put them all up so about three quarters of them sat in a pile beside the ladder. He was also too lazy to put the ladder away, but that was perfect for me now. I placed it right beside my window quietly and made my way up the steps. I opened my window quickly and leapt inside, closing it behind me and chucking my heels into my closet. Outside, I could hear my dad and Aiden talking and the voices were getting closer. I threw the tape recorder and my purse under the bed and messed up my hair so it looked like I had been sleeping for a while. Then I turned off my bathroom light, jumped into bed and buried my face into the pillow.

“Wait, you can’t go in there!” Aiden yelled, right before my dad opened my bedroom door. “Oh, she’s asleep,” Aiden said, sighing. I could see through the reflection of the window that my dad was looking at him oddly.

“Of course she is. Why wouldn’t she be?” he asked, closing the door again. I took a huge breath of relief and grabbed my cell phone from the floor.

I owe you one, Aiden.