by Saba Kapur
“Miranda!” Someone called to my right, stopping me by the elbow.
I looked up to find a guy dressed as Elvis Presley staring back at me with wide smile.
“I’m sorry, do I know you?” I asked politely, raising my voice over the chanting.
Elvis pulled off his black sunglasses and raised his plastic cup to his side as if it would help me recognize him if his hands were away from his body.
“It’s Ryan!” he finally said, looking at my blank expression. “We met the other day? You asked for AJ?”
“Oh, Ryan!” I exclaimed in realization. “Sorry, I didn’t recognize you in that outfit.”
“It’s good right?” Ryan replied with a proud grin. He had clearly made use of his plastic cup and five-dollar entry. He kept swaying every time he leaned in to say something. “So, are you having fun?”
“Sure,” I replied with a shrug. I was only just getting the hang of lying through my teeth, so I figured I may as well put the skill to use.
“Is your brother here? You know you don’t look anything like him.”
“Uh, yeah. We get that a lot.”
Ryan leaned in close. He reeked of high hopes and cheap alcohol. “We snuck in here,” he said. “We aren’t cool enough to get invited. But don’t tell anyone!”
He clumsily pressed a finger to his lips. I smiled awkwardly and said, “Don’t worry, I won’t.”
“Oh, have you met AJ yet?”
I snapped into attention, scanning the room. That meant Ao Jie Kai had come to the party. Holy crap. What was I meant to say if I did see him? Uh hi, can you maybe not make my life a living hell? Thanks so much, love ya, okay bye. On the other hand, this whole thing could have been a total misunderstanding. After all, all I had seen was a nametag! For all I knew, poor Ao Jie Kai had nothing to do with Dr. D or this whole thing. Or maybe he was standing behind me with a giant potato sack, waiting to kidnap me and throw me into the Pacific Ocean.
“Is he here?” I asked, my heart racing. I raised my voice over group of people yelling drunkenly at each other on the stairs. I had no clue what was happening, but I didn’t have time to check. I needed to concentrate on why we came to the party in the first place.
Ryan swayed some more and took a sip from his plastic cup. “You know, he wasn’t going to come,” he told me in a hushed voice, as if he were letting me in on some well-protected secret. “He didn’t even remember you!”
“Imagine that!” I said sarcastically, patience growing thin. “Any idea where he is?”
Ryan peered around the room and gave it a quick scan, but I doubted he even knew what he was looking for. It was clear he was drunk off his face, and therefore no help whatsoever. He was mumbling something to himself and I rolled my eyes, holding onto his arm tightly so that he wouldn’t fall over. The chanting and yells grew into large cheers and I looked at the group, which seemed to have expanded since I last checked. Whatever was going on was obviously happening in the center of the messy circle, conveniently blocked so I couldn’t see.
“What’s going on over there, anyway?” I asked Ryan.
“They’re beating some poor kid up, I guess.” Ryan replied with a shrug. “They do it all the time.”
Great. Just what we needed to top off a perfect night. Drunk college boys kicking the crap out of each other. I had seen fights happen all the time at the parties I had gone to. Rich boys trying to prove they were hotter, wealthier and generally better than the other. Brendan had gotten into a few himself, but he tried to avoid getting hit in the face as much as he could, given his dreams of becoming an actor. Good thing he did, or else Cowboy Stan would’ve looked a whole lot different.
When Ryan proved to be completely useless, I dragged him over to the crowd, standing on my toes to see what was happening in the middle of the noise. There were two guys standing on the stairs. I recognized one of them as one of the brunette firemen who had been getting extra frisky with me before, but the other guy was dressed in some kind of martial arts uniform, with a black belt tied around his waist. Unfortunately that black belt didn’t actually mean he was actually qualified in any sense, because from where I was standing, he was getting the bejeezus beat out of him.
“Who is that!” I yelled to Ryan, who was standing beside me, swaying on his tiptoes.
For a split second, the karate kid looked familiar, but I didn’t have enough time to fully analyze his face. The brunette fireman pushed the karate kid against the stairs railing and I cringed as he made contact with it.
“I think that’s . . .” Ryan began, jumping up to see past the large group of people blocking our view.
“Ryan, who is that?” I repeated, holding onto the person in front of me as a giant banana roughly pushed past. I clasped my eyes shut for a few seconds as someone else pulled his arm back, ready to punch the Asian guy.
At this point, even the fake LAPD cop would do. But absolutely no one was helping, and Milo was nowhere in sight. No doubt, some idiot was filming the fight so that the whole world would be able to witness it within minutes online. Jeez, what was the point of taking a hot cop along with me to an out-of-control party when he wasn’t even going to be around when intense stuff went down?
“I think that’s AJ!” Ryan yelled to me, suddenly alert.
I don’t know who’s luck was worse, mine or Ao Jie Kai’s. The first time we would come in contact with each other in person would involve him being beaten up by a jerk, fighting more than just fire, and I couldn’t do anything to help him.
“Welcome to K-A-P!” The fireman yelled with a final shove, and Ao Jie Kai grabbed onto the stair railing to steady himself. “Enjoy the party, bitch!”
The fireman gave a triumphant smile to his cheering fans before making his way down the stairs, no doubt to gloat to those who had missed out on the fight.
“See you ‘round Miranda!” Ryan called out behind him as he pushed his way through the sea of people who were starting to disperse now that the evening’s entertainment had ended.
Tinkerbill came up behind me, grabbing me by the waist. He began thrusting his pelvis against me, shouting out lyrics to “Baby” by Justin Bieber. I spun around and pushed him off roughly, narrowing my eyes at him.
“Beat it, buddy,” I told him, giving him my best don’t mess with me look. “Unless you want your Tinkerballs to suffer.”
He thought about it for a beat before nodding. “Sorry, sir,” he said, skipping off.
I turned back to the stairs, just in time to see Ryan and Ao Jie Kai disappear into the bottom level of the house.
“Wait!” I called after them, but they didn’t hear me.
I ran down the stairs, wincing as my heels cut into my feet and stopped right where Ao Jie Kai had been beaten minutes before. An iPhone was lying on the step next to my foot, and I bent over to pick it up. It was almost as fancy as mine, which was surprising for a waiter who worked at a rundown sketchy restaurant. I pushed the home button and saw a picture Ao Jie Kai and an attractive girl, kissing him on the cheek.
“Gia!”
Milo, minus the mask, was standing on the bottom step with a concerned look on his face.
“Oh my gosh!” I sighed. “There you are.”
He ran up to the middle of the staircase, resting his hands on my shoulders. “Are you okay?” he asked, his eyes blazing into mine with concern.
“I’m fine! But there was—”
Milo nodded sharply and said, “Come on. We have to go.” He paused, glancing at my hair. I looked at him self-consciously.
“Tinkerbill kind of got excited with his glitter,” I explained, jerking a thumb toward the male fairy.
Milo looked where I was pointing, where Tinkerbill was hitting on a wall, by the looks of it.
“Tinkerbill?” Milo repeated, still watching him flirt with no one at all.
I nodded. “We better
get out of here before he starts making out with the furniture.”
Milo pulled his gaze away from Tinkerbill and repositioned it back on me. “Good idea. Hold on a sec.”
Milo leaned over the railing of the stairs, scanning the dance floor. I took that opportunity to store Ao Jie Kai’s phone out of sight before anyone came looking for it. Unfortunately, my options were pretty limited. I could leave the phone on the floor, where someone would probably steal or break it, keep the phone in my hands and risk running into Ao Jie Kai, which would be slightly awkward, or I could put the phone in my clutch, but it would take at least a minute and put me at risk of being dragged back onto the dance floor by the frisky firemen. Seeing as all of my choices sucked, I decided to do the mature thing and shove the phone into my bra.
I heard Milo let out a frustrated groan as he clearly spotted something in the crowd below. He turned to face me, grabbing my hand, now free of the iPhone. His fingers gripped mine tightly, setting my skin on fire. There was a slight chance my nerves were in overdrive after witnessing AJ get kicked around, and Milo touching me wasn’t helping.
“Milo, the fight . . .” I said, but it wasn’t loud enough to hear over the music.
Milo and I somehow made our way past the raging partygoers, practically running out of the door and past the bored frat boy dealing with entry fees.
“Why are we rushing?” I asked, trying not to sound breathless.
I needed to start working out a little. Not just parading around in tight pants to impress Jack. Milo stopped a little down the road and I caught my breath, adjusting my dress from the hem.
“Sorry,” he said. “The firemen wanted to start doing body shots and I was scared they would find us.”
“Oh. Well that’s . . .” I trailed off. Milo doing body shots off me or anyone else wasn’t something my brain could handle.
Milo nodded and gave a light laugh, taking in a deep breath as if he had come into contact with fresh air after living underground for the past ten years. We began walking slowly toward the car, and I turned to look at him.
“Milo, that fight—”
“Yeah,” Milo replied grimly. “I only caught the last part of it. It’s actually one of the better ones I’ve seen at college parties.”
“That guy was Ao Jie Kai!”
“Who? The fireman?”
“No, the one getting beaten up!”
Milo stopped in the middle of the road, and I checked to see if any cars were about to run us over.
“Wait,” he said, looking completely stunned. “That was Ao Jie Kai? Did you talk to him?”
I shook my head and said, “I didn’t get a chance. He was kind of . . . busy.”
Milo ran a hand through his hair in frustration. “I didn’t even know he was going to be here!”
“Um, yeah. Me neither . . .”
I was too busy staring at Milo’s messed up yet still perfect hair that I forgot to mention I had taken Ao Jie Kai’s phone. How was it possible that someone could look so good and be talking to me of all people in the world? I was an embarrassment to womankind with the way I acted. Clearly Milo was a direct descendant of God.
“Should we go back?” Milo asked me.
“They’d be long gone by now,” I told him.
“But I mean . . .” Milo said, his mind clearly churning out ideas at a million miles an hour. “He obviously followed you here. I mean, we could go to his frat hou—”
I caught onto Milo’s arm without even thinking twice, and he looked at me, stopping midsentence.
“He’d never talk to us,” I said. “There’s no point.”
Milo nodded and my gaze dropped to my hand, lightly curled around his arm just above his wrist. I don’t know why I had thought it was okay to just reach out and grab him. Obviously my body was finding any excuse to touch the guy. I awkwardly removed my fingers and lowered my hand. Better keep it by my side where it wouldn’t cause any more trouble.
“I guess you guys could always officially question him later, right?”
“Detective Reynolds doesn’t want to do that yet. But after tonight I think we have good reason to.”
I nodded, letting him believe that AJ had followed me to the party, and not the other way around. What he didn’t know wouldn’t hurt him, right? What really sucked was we really had just missed out on cornering AJ and finding some answers. We crossed the other half of the road in silence, making our way over to Milo’s car. “Sexyback” was blasting from the party all down the street, and I mouthed the lyrics when Milo was looking in the other direction. There’s just something about Justin Timberlake that sets off a groove reflex in all women. Milo still wasn’t saying anything by the time we reached the car, but he hadn’t gone around to his side yet either. He looked frustrated and confused, obviously disappointed that we had come so close to a huge lead, only to let it slip away. So I just stood there staring at the door handle, avoiding eye contact with the guy who smelled like a manly daisy field, standing a yard away. I put my clutch on top of the car, running my arm up and down the other to warm myself.
“Are you cold?” he finally asked, and I looked up from my awkward staring match with the passenger’s seat door.
“Oh no, I’m dandy!”
Actually, I was not dandy. I was freaking freezing. My feet felt like they were about to fall off and I still had glitter all over my hair and body as if a fairy had just thrown up on me.
“Here,” Milo said, taking off his leather jacket and draping it across my shoulders.
I was about to open my mouth to say it was no big deal and that he could have it back, but then I realized he had just given me his leather jacket to wear. I’d have to be a raging lunatic to pass up an opportunity like that! So I gracefully thanked him and tried not to cry tears of joy. I even had to lean against the car door to stop me from melting right then and there.
“Are you okay?” Milo said. “You’re not hurt are you?”
Well not physically, but my heart wasn’t in a fantastic position. I forced myself to look up at him, because really, the ground can only be interesting to look at for so long.
“No, of course not!”
Milo looked at me seriously and said, “Nobody . . . hurt you or anything?”
I thought about it for a few seconds. Tinkerbill had been harmless enough.
“I’m great! Fab! Couldn’t be better.”
Good God. By that point, I was running out of things to say. Ever had that feeling when you like someone so much, you’re so distracted by their mere presence that you completely lose the ability to act like a normal person? It was like that times a billion. I just kept beaming at him like he had told me I had just won a date with Ashton Kutcher.
“Listen, I know it’s getting late,” Milo began and I looked at him expectantly. “But clearly the party was a bust tonight. And we ran out of there pretty early, so do you want to go grab some frozen yogurt or something?”
“Oh,” was all I managed to say. I hadn’t been expecting that.
“We don’t have to!” Milo added quickly. “I just figured in case you were—”
“Yeah,” I said. “Um, sure.”
Milo and I smiled at each other as he opened the car door for me. Okay, so maybe I should have been focusing on Ao Jie Kai and the fact that we hadn’t gotten painfully close to potentially solving this case, and come up completely short. But I always knew the party was going to be a risk. I mean, what if we hadn’t shown up at all? We would’ve wasted our night either way. Besides, he hadn’t been kicked around that much. I mean, nothing life threatening. And if he was actually stalking me, then he probably deserved a couple of those punches. Frozen yogurt after a night like that was well deserved, if you ask me.
Milo began walking to his side of the car, got half way across the front when the sound of an upbeat, slightly muffled song stopped us b
oth in our tracks. He spun around to look at me, as I stood rooted to the spot, one foot already inside the car.
“Is that coming from the party?” he asked, looking back at the fraternity house.
“Maybe,” I told him with a shrug. I pulled my foot out from the car, but left the door open.
Actually, it wasn’t coming from the party, because Sexyback was still playing. The aggressive buzzing against my chest told me it was coming from Ao Jie Kai’s phone.
I’m sexy, free and single, and ready to mingle.
Yeah, yeah,
Sexy, free and single and ready to mingle!
Milo’s lips curved into an uncertain smile as he noticed a random buzzing coming from inside my dress.
“I—Is that coming from you?” he asked, pointing toward the phone-shaped object, which was still blasting what sounded like a very catchy K-Pop song.
Crap. Once again the options were limited. I could pretend it wasn’t coming from me, get in the car and throw the damn phone behind my shoulder. Option number two was to tell Milo what a brilliant super spy I was and how I got the phone and why I chose to put it in my bra. Option two was the mature thing to do, but I was far from mature.
“Are you sure it’s not coming from you?” I asked defensively, draping my hair over the buzzing.
“Pretty sure.”
The catchy ringtone stopped and I sighed with relief. Great, it was all over. I could breathe and pretend that never happened. Unfortunately the ringing started up again after a few seconds and I jumped as the buzzing began once more.
“Oh, come on man!”
I yanked the phone out of my bra and looked at the screen, which read David. I refused the call and slapped a hand over my eyes, hoping that when I opened them in a few seconds, that whole incident would have never occurred. When Prince Charming found Cinderella’s shoe on the stairs at the ball, he never had to worry about shoving it down his top!
“Is that yours?” Milo asked, clearly struggling to muffle his laughter.