Authors: Wren Emerson
There was a lot of exposed skin, but it was skin that was naturally tan and kept firm form daily work outs. I decided against wearing any kind of necklace because I wanted people to follow the neckline. How many years of bralessness could a girl expect anyway? I fastened a large silver bangle (also borrowed from Krista) on my wrist and twisted my hair into a simple up do and decided to call my look complete.
I was applying my make up when there was a knock the door. I opened it and saw Jack standing in the hall. "Can I talk to you?"
"Sure." I motioned him inside and he sat on the edge of my bed. I was glad to see him because I wanted to ask if he'd mind giving me a ride to the party. After my last near fatal walk, I was nervous about walking there alone.
I sat at the vanity and gestured at the scattered tubes of make-up. "I was just getting ready for a party, do you mind if I keep getting ready while we talk?"
"Not at all. It's actually fascinating how you women manage to figure out how to use all those things."
I laughed politely. I liked Jack. Since I'd been here he'd been very sweet and concerned, asking me about my day or how I was adjusting to life in Desire. But having him up here in my room was strange and I felt a little awkward. "What did you want to talk about?"
His eyes went distant and he said, "You know, when I was a kid I was one of the most eligible bachelors in town. I could have had any girl I wanted. I think I must have gone steady with every First Daughter at least once."
I avoided looking at him in the mirror and concentrated on applying mascara instead. "Oh?"
"Yeah, when you're a son from a Coven Family you write your own ticket. But that was a long time ago. Now here you are getting ready for a big party. You look amazing, by the way. That dress... wow. I almost don't want to let you out of the house wearing that little thing."
"Thanks, Jack." I started to rush through the rest of my routine because this conversation was really taking a turn for the creepy.
He caught my eye in the mirror and held it. "I'm really proud of the way you've turned out, you know. I see a lot of your mother in you. Not the way she is now, but the way she used to be back when we were all kids."
"Thanks, but I've got to go now, Jack." I grabbed the wide black wool scarf I planned to use as a drape. I would have preferred to wear something a little more sophisticated, but I didn't have anything like that.
He stood up then and gave me a hug. I stood there, stiff. After a lifetime he finally let me go. "Do you want me to drive you to the party?"
Not in a million years.
"No, thanks. It's only a few blocks and it's not even dark yet."
His brow furrowed. "Are you sure? It's no trouble for me and those shoes look like they are more for show than for walking."
I smiled my most dimple bearing fake smile, hoping that he couldn't see how completely uncomfortable I was with this entire conversation and, more, the idea of continuing it the close confines of his car. "It's ok. Really, Uncle Jack. You're right about the shoes though. If Shep made me do my practices in these things I think that I would have had a lot more motivation to get it right and get it over with than even the threat of being punched in the jaw."
He walked behind me down the stairs and I thought he looked ready to grab me if I should totter over in my heels. I appreciated the gesture since it was a very real possibility. I waved a hasty goodbye at the front door and wobbled off down the street.
I was a block from home when I started to really think about the possible consequences of my gut reaction. I wasn't afraid that Jack might pose any kind of danger to me and was actually quite ashamed that my first instinct upon meeting him was to write him off as a lech. But holy awkward, Batman. Of course, now in the growing dusk it was a lot easier to berate myself for being so easily disturbed by a conversation that wasn't at all overtly threatening. It wasn't even subtly threatening. My rational mind knew that it was my lack of experience with any kind of emotional intimacy that made me so skittish now when presented with any.
I wrapped the scarf tight around myself and clutched my purse in nervous hands. What if Lydia attacked me again? I was in heels I could barely walk in. I couldn't even save myself without help from Ben in a pair of sneakers, forget about it in these beautiful, but useless shoes.
The footsteps, when they started, were stealthy and I didn't immediately hear them over the clicking of my heels against the pavement. Instantly my mouth became too dry to swallow and adrenaline flooded my body. I increased my pace as much as I dared without risking a broken ankle if I tripped and chanced a quick peek over my shoulder. As I expected, nothing.
I was in sight of James' house when I heard a twig snap right behind me and became aware of a burst of hot air on skin of my bare neck. Horror was quickly replaced by blinding panic when I realized that someone was standing close enough behind me to be breathing on the back of my neck. I started to run without a second thought to my inexperience with high heeled shoes. I'm lucky that I didn't fall.
Somehow I managed to make it onto his well-lit porch. The door opened from the inside as a couple of kids I vaguely recognized from school staggered out, already quite drunk even though it wasn't even seven o'clock yet. I risked a quick look from the relative safety of my perch surrounded by people and saw nothing. I shuddered helplessly and let myself into the house.
I was a mess. My limbs ached from the excess adrenaline and I was pretty sure I felt a crop of blisters forming on my feet from wearing the unfamiliar shoes. I caught a glimpse of myself in a mirror mounted on the entry way wall and saw that my face was pale and sick looking. Ironically, my hair actually looked better than before. It had this whole "messy equals cute" thing going on that I could never manage to achieve on purpose.
"Hey! Thistle!" James caught me up in an unexpected bear hug while still managing not to spill the contents of the blue plastic cup he clutched in one hand. "You look a-ma-zing!"
"Thanks." I tried on a smile that almost felt natural even though my insides were still roiling.
He pushed the cup into my hand. "Drink up. There's pizza... somewhere. Grab a slice and come find me. I gots to mingle. Whooo!" He screamed into my face before booming a greeting at someone behind me who'd just come in the door.
The chaos around me was nothing like what I expected. I was worried that I was later than anticipated to get here, but it was still fairly early and the house was a cacophony of sights, smells, and most of all, sounds. This "get together" reminded me of the epic parties I had seen in movies.
I had expected a few people sitting around with a couple of pizzas and maybe video games or a movie. Instead there were dozens of kids packed into the downstairs of the house. Everywhere I looked there were clusters of three or four guys daring each other to out drink each other or their counterparts, the girls who stood around eyeing everyone around them and making catty remarks. And who could forget the couples draped over every available surface?
The Middleton house had a state of the art sound system which was now blaring music with such a heavy bass line that I couldn't quite identify the song. People weren't talking so much as they were yelling into each other's ears. Most of the lights were either off or dimmed, but even so I could see that almost everyone was wearing jeans. I felt terribly overdressed, although most of the other girls were wearing shirts that showed a similar amount of flesh. A voice in my head told me that all the girls were gossiping about me even then.
I sniffed the cup James gave me. It looked like a soda, but it smelled pretty vile.
Date rape? No thanks.
I went into the kitchen and dumped the contents down the sink.
"Party foul!" A voice said in my ear. I jumped. My heart which had only just started to slow down from my earlier scare was racing again. I whipped around and saw Zane Littlebury smiling at me.
He was truly easy on the eyes. And I was glad to see a face with a name attached to it.
"Hey, Zane. Some guy tried to impress his friends by catching popcorn in his mouth. I wasn't especially impressed when he missed though. It ruined my drink." I lied.
He laughed. His blue eyes twinkled in a delightful way. "Not surprising in this crowd. It gets pretty wild when a Coven kid throws a party."
"Wild?" I snorted at the understatement. "I've been entertaining myself since I got here playing spot the party clichés."
He pulled me to the open French doors that opened onto a patio and pointed out a couple sitting side by side on a lounge chair while gazing dreamily into each other's eyes. "You can add 'parties have magical match making powers' to your list."
"Love is a funny thing."
Zane raised his eyebrows. "It is indeed. It's going to get a lot funnier when his girlfriend and her boyfriend come looking for them."
I laughed. "Oops."
"Do you want me to get you a drink? There are a few kegs outside if you like beer, otherwise I think I've seen at least one bottle of most kinds of hard liquor floating around the house." He shuffled through pizza boxes, bowls of food, and dozens of empty cups on the granite topped kitchen island until, victorious in his mission, he pulled forth a small bottle of vodka.
I shook my head. "No, thanks. Soda is fine for me."
He grabbed another of the ever present blue cups and poured some clear soda into it. Then he added what seemed to my inexperienced eye to be a quite generous portion of the vodka. He rummaged in the fridge for a minute and backed out with a carton of orange juice and one of pineapple juice which he also added. "Here, you've got to at least try this. You can't even taste the alcohol."
Is getting a buzz really the worst thing that can happen to me when Lydia is stalking me?
I shrugged and accepted the drink. "Who even
has
pineapple juice?"
Zane winked. "This isn’t the first time that James has thrown one of these parties. If you don't like this drink I know where he keeps enough stuff to make you twenty others to try."
I tentatively sipped the drink. To my surprise, he was right. I didn't taste anything besides a fizzy orange juice. I took a longer drink and started to relax a little for the first time since I got there. "This is good."
"I know." He pursed his lips in what, I think, was supposed to be a wise look, but instead it made him look a little like a duck. I giggled. When he shook his head like I was crazy, I giggled even harder.
He waited patiently while I quieted down and then he asked, "I don't want to pry or anything, but James was saying that you were coming here as his date. Is that true?"
Awkward.
I drained the rest of the drink in a few huge swallows. "I'm sorry, what?"
Zane fixed me another drink and asked me again, "You and James... are you guys together or what."
Ok, so he wasn't going to drop it until I answered. I shrugged. "He asked me here as his date, yes, but I've been here for almost an hour now and outside of the first couple of minutes I walked in the door, I haven't seen him since."
"I didn't believe him when he told us. He doesn't seem like the kind of guy that you'd go out with."
My head was starting to buzz.
So
that's
why they call it a buzz.
I chuckled at my own joke for a minute, but then I focused on what Zane had just told me. "Who's us?"
He was bobbing his head in time with whatever the song was that pounding out of the speakers. "What? Oh. 'Us' is just me and a couple of other guys who ditched school to get supplies for tonight. He was pretty proud of scoring the date with you."
I copied Zane's wise-duck face and nodded. "Classy."
"You can't blame him. You have a lot going for you in our circle. You're a powerful First Daughter, which would be enough to hook you pretty much any guy you want. But you're also new in town which makes you far more interesting than any of the other girls. Plus the fact that you are totally hot doesn't hurt. That dress--
terrific
choice, by the way-- pretty much seals the deal. Any girl who can pull that off in real life officially becomes the object of all male lust."
My face was flushed, although it was caused as much from the alcohol as the praise. "That's very... honest. I'm flattered. Are you flirting with me or what? I can't handle subtlety right now." To illustrate that I drained the rest of my drink.
"Whoa, there. I think that's enough for a while. I know you're new so I'll let you in on a secret. More than one marriage in this town has happened because a guy got a First Daughter he had his eye on pregnant and then offered to do the honorable thing about it. Very selfless until you weigh it against the fact that he deliberately got her drunk and didn't use any kind of birth control so that she'd be forced into a marriage."
I slammed my fist into the counter. "What's
with
this town? Isn't there anyone who has even a shred of decency?"
He shook his head sadly. "Not a one. You can't trust anyone in this town. Remember that and you'll do fine."
"I should date you. You seem like a really good guy. You've been really nice to me tonight and I needed that. I've had a horrible couple of days."
Zane looked over his shoulder and once he was sure we wouldn't be overheard he leaned in close to my ear. "I think you're a great girl and really pretty and all, but I don't want to date you."
"Oh." Now my face felt significantly warmer. I was fairly sure that this wasn't due to the alcohol.
"It's not you. It's just-- I'm gay." Now he was blushing.
"Oh, wow. Jeez. How does that even work here?"
"It doesn't." He sighed. "Like every other man in this town, I'm a pawn to my Mother. I'll either marry who she tells me to marry and try to have a daughter or I'll have to leave town. If I don't get married I'm not useful to my Family and I won't be welcome once it seems unlikely that I'll ever attract a suitable wife. I'm from a Coven Family. I can't even choose a Second Daughter if I find one I'm fond of. It's First Daughter or leave."