Dance With the Devil

I didn’t feel like staying in the house. If I was confined to my room for the rest of the night all I’d do is think about everything that I’ve tried so hard not to. I glanced at my clock; it was around six o’clock. I figured that Aubrey would be back from her dad’s by now, so I decided to call her and see if she was up to do anything tonight.

I grabbed my phone from my nightstand and punched in her number. It rang a few times before I heard her little petite voice.

“Hello?”

“Hey, you doing anything tonight?”

“Uhm,” She paused, which made it obvious she did already have plans. “Sort of. Didn’t you remember that Holly’s party is tonight?” I smacked myself mentally for forgetting that the big party of the year was tonight. Holly was probably the most popular girl in our grade. And by saying she was popular, I mean her vagina was. It was no secret either; she had been with at least half of the boys in our school, let alone our grade. Although she was sort of a whore, she was really nice, and she had really great parties that anyone was invited to. “I thought you were going?”

“I totally forgot about it, honestly. When are you leaving?”

“In like 15 minutes. Why?”

“I’ll pick you up. We can go together. It’ll be like a date.” She laughed over the phone.

“Okay, but I won’t let you in my pants that easy.”

“Damn it.” We both laughed. “Well then I guess there’s always the second date. I’m going to go get ready and I’ll be there in a few.”

“Okay, the door will be unlocked when you get here so you can just walk in.”

“That’s what I planned on doing anyway” I said with a smile. Aubrey’s house was just like a second home to me. I wasn’t shy at all about making myself comfortable there.

“First date and you already think you can just come waltzing through my house. Sheesh Kar.”

“I move fast, what can I say.” We both laughed again as we said our goodbyes and hung up. I threw my phone down on my bed as I trotted over to my dresser, which was nearly buried in clothes. I pulled out my bottom drawer and grabbed a pair of skinny jeans with a few rips in them. I stood up straight and pushed the drawer closed with my legs. I threw the jeans on my bed as I walked over to my monster of a closet. I searched through what seemed like hundreds of shirts. I passed by all my band t-shirts and dress shirts until I found my white V-neck I was looking for. I got myself dressed and rushed to my mirror. My long dark brown hair was tied up in a messy pony tail on the side of my head. I pulled it out and brushed it down, trying to tame it. My bangs kept falling in my eyes, leaving me to constantly push them aside. I put a simple amount of make up on, and then slipped on my black Toms. I grabbed my gray beanie off the side of my chair where it stayed, and grabbed my black leather jacket, phone, and my keys, and headed downstairs.

My mother was sitting in the kitchen when I came running down the stairs. She was sitting at the dining room table doing a crossword puzzle and drinking her third cup of coffee of the day. I quickly walked into the kitchen.

“Where’s the fire?” She said without a changed expression, or from looking up from her puzzle.

“I’m going out with Aubrey tonight.” She look up at me, as she took a sip of coffee.

“To where?”

“You remember that girl Holly?” She furrowed her brow at me.

“The slut?”

“Yeah. She’s having a party tonight and Aubrey and I are going.” She put her coffee down and looked away to her puzzle un-amused.

“Don’t get pregnant. Have fun.” I smiled at her and headed to the door. If there was one thing I loved most about my mother, it was defiantly her laid back nature.

When I pulled up to Aubrey’s house, I didn’t bother turning the car off. I got out and ran up to her door and knocked, even though I knew it was unlocked. I only knocked twice however before I opened the door. “Honey I’m home!” I called to nowhere in particular. I didn’t know if she was upstairs or down.

“I’m coming!” She called from upstairs.

“That’s what she said!” I said as I laughed at the end of it. I heard her laugh from her room. She emerged from the roundabout at the top of her stairs and came trotting down to the door. “Ready?” I asked. She nodded.

“Bye mom!” She yelled over her shoulder.

“Be back by midnight!” Her mother yelled as she walked past me. I poked my head inside once more.

“Don’t worry Ms. Tanner, I’ll have her back, safe and sound.” I heard her mother chuckle from the other side of the living room. I closed the door and turned back to my car, where Aubrey was already opening the door and sitting down. I walked around and got in beside her.

“So exactly how many people do you think will be at this thing?” She asked me as I shifted into drive and pulled away. I shrugged my shoulders.

“Didn’t the last one have like some 400 people or something?”

“I think somewhere around there. Eli said that Holly invited nearly our entire grade.” I glanced over at her then back at the road.

“Eli’s going? I would have thought that would be awkward for him.”

“I would have thought that too. But he said that he and Holly are friends now.” Eli and Holly went out for seven months last year. Eli was completely and totally in love with her, and he thought she felt the same way. But about a month before they broke up, they had a fight and Holly went and cheated on him. I had never seen Eli that upset before; he was the last guy she really dated before she got her reputation as a whore. It completely broke his heart and it was the hardest thing I had ever seen him go through.

“I really hope he’s going to be okay.”

“Yeah, uhm speaking of being okay…” I pulled up to a red light as I turned to look at her. Her face was twisted like she knew something bad.

“What?”

“Eli said that Nick was going.” Just the sound of Nick’s name was enough to make my stomach flip inside out. I didn’t say anything to her, I just stared at her, most likely with a confused face though I couldn’t even tell. My mind was automatically somewhere else. If Nick saw me tonight, he’d want to talk to me. If he talked to me, I’d lose all my sense and end up doing something stupid like taking him back, which I didn’t want to do. “Kar?” I looked back to the present and at Aubrey. I glanced forward when I saw the light shining on Aubrey’s face change from a red tint to a green one. “Are you alright?” I began driving before I got beeped at.

“Yeah. I just, I don’t want to see him. I don’t want to talk to him. I just want to go to a party tonight, and have fun with my friends.”

“Well just cause you guys are at the same place doesn’t mean you need to talk. Just try to stay out of each other’s way. Like we’ll get someone to monitor where he is or something.” I made a sharp turn as I glanced at her.

“What, like spy on him?” She rolled her eyes with a smile.

“Not exactly 007. We just need someone to know where he is, and like keep in contact with us when he moves.”

“Like who?” I saw her shrug out of the corner of my eye.

“I dunno. We’ll find someone.” We drove down Holly’s street until we came to a house that had a million cars in front of it and music and lights blaring from every which way.

“So you think that’s her house?” I said as I pulled over to park.

“I have a hunch.” Her house was absolutely huge. It was in the bigger fancier part of Denver and her house sat on at least an acre of land. Holly’s house was one of the kinds of houses that you would see in movies, where billionaires lived. In my own opinion, it looked like a smaller version of Wayne Manor. If only I lived in Gotham City.
I parked a few houses down just in case the police made a visit tonight, which they probably would, considering that the party had just started and it already looked like Project X, the sequel.

Aubrey and I walked up to the door, which was already swung wide open, and walked inside. As soon as we walked in, a strong wave of the smell of alcohol hit me, shortly followed by the smell of weed. The place was hardly light whatsoever, and only casted a silhouette on every single thing that moved. House music was blaring from the speakers, though not many people were dancing. Red plastic cups littered the floor, and the spilled food made a decorative pattern on the rug. Though the creepiest thing, and most obvious were the people. There were couples, hookups, and randoms kissing, humping, and crawling all over each other in every crevice of the room. It was like a crappy teenage party at the playboy mansion.

“I feel like I just walked into a cheap porno.”

“Oh I know. Can you feel the STD’s in the air?” Aubrey said as she looked around at the animal like state of most of the kids.

“No, but I can smell them.” She laughed softly at my joke, when her laugh suddenly turned into a small yipping sound that a Chihuahua would make if you accidentally stepped on its paw. I looked over at her, and saw that Eli was standing right next to her, laughing. He had probably poked her on her sides, which always made her yip. She slapped him lightly on the shoulder.

“You douche.” She said with a smile.

“Sue me.” He said in a playful tone. I had always had a slight suspicion that Eli liked Aubrey, but I knew I’d never get it out of him. He was really quiet and closed off when it came to those kinds of things.

“When did you get here?” I asked over the music and disgusting groans and moans of the rabbits on the couch. Eli bent over into my ear so I could hear better.

“About 20 minutes ago. I didn’t even know you were coming Kar.” He moved back away and stood up straight. I shrugged my shoulders.

“I didn’t know I was coming either. I just wanted to get out tonight.” I said loudly. He smiled a sweet Eli smile at me.

“Well I’m glad to see that you’re okay.” I grinned at him, though not for long.

“Speaking of, I heard that you heard that a certain person would be here tonight?” His smile, like mine, disappeared too. He nodded slightly, and jerked his head over to his right. I looked past him slightly and saw Nick standing in a crowded doorway talking to some guy. He looked relatively normal, in his regular jeans, t-shirt and jacket look, however one thing about him caught my eye. In his hands he was holding a beer bottle, which made my stomach unsettled. Nick rarely drank, and the only times he did were when he couldn’t deal with something big that was happening, like when his father died. That was a bad time. His father had leukemia, and it was extremely stressful for Nick for months; having to go back and forth between home and hospital. Only two months after his father being diagnosed, he died. Nick drank a lot in the months after, and was almost jailed a few times for underage drinking. Nick doesn’t handle pain well.

Though, as far as I knew, nothing traumatic had happened in his life recently, other than our break up. I felt nothing then I felt a whole lot of everything at the same time.

“He knew that Aubrey would be here, so I think he figured you would too.” I quickly looked back at Eli.

“Why does it matter if I’m here?” Eli slipped his hands into his pockets.

“He wants to try and talk to you.” He smiled a devilish smile as he spoke.

“How do you even know all of this, and why are you smiling?” He giggled and looked down, then back at me.

“He’s drunk as hell Karlee. That’s why I’m laughing, and that’s why I knew all this in the first place. He was talking to me.” Even though he was drunk, I was shocked to hear that Nick talked to Eli. Even when we were dating, Eli and Nick rarely talked, and almost never got along.

“He just walked right up to you?” Aubrey asked, piping in.

“Right up. He even offered me a drink. He asked if you were going to be here,” he said looking at me “and said something about Axel.”

“Axel’s here?” Aubrey asked right away. I worried about her crush on him; I knew Axel wasn’t a good guy for her. Aubrey was a sweet girl who hasn’t had good luck in the past with love. Her past string of boyfriends were all short relationships that ended badly. I felt bad for her; she deserved so much better.

“Yeah, I saw him just a few minutes ago.” She turned and looked at me with her big blue eyes glowing.

“Kar, Axel could be the one that keeps an eye on Nick for us!” Aubrey sounded way too excited, though I should have expected it. I furrowed my brows at her.

“Why would Axel do that for us? For me? He hates me.” She rolled her eyes and grabbed my arm and began pulling me over to her.

“Hate is such a strong word. Come on, I’m sure with a little persuasion he would.” I looked at her for a moment, her blue eyes bigger than I had ever seen and she had a big corny smile plastered over her mouth. I sighed and looked behind me to Eli.

“Where did you see him?”

“Pool room.” He pointed to a door on the other side of the room. I graduated my sight back over to Aubrey, who was already pulling on my arm. I let her drag me as I looked over my shoulder and called to Eli.

“I guess I’ll talk to you later.” I saw a smile curve on his lips before I looked away. I wiggled my arm out of Aubrey’s death grip. “Let go of me you whore.” I said jokingly.

“Speaking of whores.” I heard Aubrey mumble as she abruptly stopped walking. I too stopped and looked where she was looking, and saw what she was talking about. Holly was walking over to us. Even though Holly was really easy, she really was very beautiful. She had long hair that was the perfect mixture between brown and blonde, with piercing emerald green eyes and one of the prettiest and more genuine smiles I had ever seen. Holly deserved more than what she let herself get; she really was a nice girl. She smiled her million dollar smile at us when she got close enough; drink in hand.

“Hey guys, I’m glad you could make it.”

“Who wouldn’t pass up one of your parties?” Aubrey said, a chuckle caught in her throat.

“Yeah, this is amazing Hol.” I piped in. She smiled brighter, though I didn’t think it was possible to outshine the sun.

“Thanks, you guys want a drink?” We both shook our heads. Neither me nor Aubrey really had a taste for alcohol.

“No thanks. But could you tell us where the pool room is?” Aubrey asked. Holly pointed behind where we were standing.

“Through that door. There’s like a million people in there right now though, so good luck getting in to play a game. Some kid has been killing it all night.” I heard Aubrey giggle beside me. She knew it was Axel.

“Thanks Holly.” I smiled at her.

“Not a problem. You guys have a good time, and tell me if you need anything.” She smiled back at us and then turned to go greet someone else. Before I had time to even think about doing anything else, I felt Aubrey pulling on my arm again towards the door behind us.

“Come on, we need to go talk to Axel.” I gave her a sly smile.

“Think he’ll have time to pencil us in on his busy schedule?” She rolled her eyes at me and began to pull on me again.

“Just come on. Axel would be the perfect person to watch Nick for us. And I’m sure he doesn’t want Nick to do anything stupid just as much as you don’t.” She had a point there. I sighed.

“Alright, alright.”

“It’ll work out, you’ll see.” I began walking behind her.

“Yeah, I’m about to make a deal with the devil. Should turn out great.”