by Mercy Amare
“My mom is ecstatic that we’re together,” Jace tells me. “She’s been telling me to ask you out forever now.”
“I’m glad you finally listened.”
“I still wish I wouldn’t have waited so long. Think of all those wasted years…”
“I wouldn’t say they were wasted. We spent thirteen years building a friendship,” I say. “What we did was perfect timing.”
“You’re right.”
“So, is Trey mad that I’m taking away from his time with you?” I ask.
“He’ll get over it,” Jace says.
“You can hang out with him later. My friends are coming over in a couple hours to get ready for the party tonight,” I tell him. “We used to always get ready at Daisy’s house. Cassidy is having a hard time dealing with her disappearance. Especially since the cops ruled it a kidnapping.”
“Have they told you what happened?” he asks.
“Some. I know that the cops found her phone in the woods behind her house and apparently she had been getting threatening text messages from a blocked number. They think it’s definitely connected.”
He sits up. “Wait… are you getting texts?”
I take a deep breath and prepare to lie to him. I’m a good actress, I can do this.
“Don’t do that,” he says. “I can tell that you’re going to lie and I don’t want to hear it. I want to hear the truth.”
“If I tell you, you have to promise not to tell. I told Cass that I would give her until Saturday, then I’m telling the police.”
“Wait, Cass sent the texts?”
“No, no, no.” I sigh. “Okay, the night Dee disappeared she went to Cassidy and showed her the texts. She had been getting them for a little while, I think. So then Daisy disappeared and Cassidy was going to tell the cops, but then she got these texts threatening her. They said if she told the cops that they would kill Daisy and do the same thing to Cass. This… person… is going to send us clues tonight on how to find Daisy. So, we are going to find her.”
“Madi, you can’t do that. What if this is a trap?”
“I don’t know. I mean, it’s worth it to get Daisy back. I know she’s a complete bitch, but she doesn’t deserve this. Nobody does.”
“You need to tell the police,” Jace says, a bit more urgent. “God, Mads. I just got you. I can’t lose you now.”
“You aren’t going to lose me. I’m going to be fine. And tomorrow, Cass and I are going to tell the cops what happened. I promise.”
Jace runs his fingers through his hair. “I can’t believe you’re keeping this from the cops, but I trust your judgment. Tomorrow, you will go to the police or I will.”
“Okay.”
“Also, you’re not going anywhere without me tonight,” he says. “If you’re getting kidnapped, I’m going to be with you.”
“I’m not getting kidnapped,” I tell him. “You’ll be there to protect me from all the bad guys.”
“I’ll always protect you.”
I lean over to give him a kiss as my bedroom door bursts open.
“Where are your books?” Trey asks. “I thought you were studying.”
Ugh.
I fall backward onto my bed. “I hate you, Trey!”
“No you don’t. You love me.”
“I just want to kiss my boyfriend one time without you interrupting.”
“You can kiss,” he says. “But you have to leave the door open. I want to make sure there is nothing else going on in here.”
“If there was anything else going on, it wouldn’t be any of your business,” I tell Trey. “Seriously, you lost your virginity when you were fifteen. I’m seventeen. I’d say I’m a few years overdue. Besides, Jace is my boyfriend now. It’s not like I’m doing it with some random guy at a party.”
“Come on, Mads. It’s a big deal, and I don’t want you to have sex with Jace right now.”
“I don’t plan on it. If you knew me, you’d know that. I’m not a whore.”
“I didn’t say you were,” he says. “I just want you to make sure you’re really ready.”
“Oh my God, Trey. I am so not having this conversation with you right now. Get out of my room! And shut the door!”
“Fine,” he says, but then looks at Jace. “If you try to pressure her into anything she’s not ready for, I will hurt you.”
“Dude, you’ve known me since I was four. When have I ever been that guy?” Jace asks him.
“You haven’t.”
“Exactly. I respect Mads. And I will tell you exactly what I told her. She is worth waiting for, no matter how long that wait is.”
“Okay,” Trey says, nodding his head like he finally gets it. “Good.”
He backs out of my room, but he doesn’t shut the door. I roll my eyes, get up, and slam the door shut. This time I lock it so he can’t barge back in.
“Sorry,” I tell him. “I don’t know what’s up with Trey. He was all for me telling you how I felt a few days ago.”
“It’s different now because we’re actually together,” Jace says. “We just need to give him time to adjust.”
“Right.”
“So when your friends come over in a few minutes, I’ll go hang out with Trey. Maybe we can play some one on one basketball or something,” he tells me. “And tonight, he’ll be too busy trying to hook up with that one chick.”
“Which chick?” I ask.
“Your friend. The blonde cheerleader. Emma, I think.”
“No!” I gasp. “Seriously? He’s trying to hook up with Emma? But her and Mason just broke up. She’s still heartbroken.”
Jace shrugs.
“He’s such a hypocrite. He can hook up with my friends, but I can’t hook up with his?” I pace back and forth on the floor. “And you were my friend before you were his friend. You two didn’t even get along until middle school.”
“Whatever, Mads. He’ll get over it.” Jace stands up and walks over toward me. “I am not going to let him get to me. I’m so happy to finally be with you. Just knowing that you feel the same way as I do… it’s incredible.”
I smile at his words and put my arms around his waist. “Me too.”
Jace kisses my forehead. And for one second, I think he’s going to kiss me until I hear somebody knock on my door.
“Ugh,” I groan, and walk over to the door. “Trey, I told you to go—”
I cut off when I open the door. Cassidy, Frannie, Emma, and Hayden are all standing on the other side.
I am never going to get to kiss Jace.
6pm
We are getting Daisy back tonight.
Jace leaves my room, and I get questioned by the girls. But I have nothing to tell them, because nothing happened. I tell them how Trey kept interrupting up before we could kiss, and it sucks.
“Ugh, I am so glad I don’t have a brother,” Frannie says. “At this rate, you’ll be a virgin when you leave for college.”
“No way,” I say. “I refuse to graduate high school with my hymen.”
Frannie bursts out laughing. “Oh, Mads, you have such a way with words.”
“Come on. All of you have already done it. I’m probably the only person in our school who hasn’t.” Besides Jace, but I’m not telling them that. They don’t need to know.
I love that Jace is going to be my first and I’m going to be his.
But what if we don’t know what to do? I mean, I obviously know how it works, but what if it sucks?
“Does it hurt?” I ask them.
“It does the first time,” Cassidy answers. “But after that it doesn’t.”
“Speak for yourself,” Hayden says. “It hurt me the first five times. I kept wonder how women enjoyed sex. Then I dumped the amateur and had sex with a guy who actually knew what he was doing.”
“I was lucky,” Frannie says. “The first guy I had sex with was older than me, so he knew exactly what he was doing. It hurt for like a second, but after that it was all pleasure. After that, I hooked up with Robbie. He was a
virgin and it sucked so bad. Since then I have a rule — no virgins.”
“I think we’re scaring Madi,” Emma says.
“Don’t worry. Jace is hot. I’m sure he’s got experience. And if he doesn’t please you then you just got to show him how to please you,” Frannie says.
“I don’t know what pleases me.”
All four of them turn to look at me.
“What do you mean you don’t know what pleases you?” Hayden asks.
I shrug. “Well, I’m a virgin in every way. I’ve never even had a guy touch me… you know?”
“You don’t need a guy to have an orgasm,” Frannie says.
“I don’t… do that… either,” I say, feeling slightly awkward. Masturbation is not something I want to talk about with my friends. Or anybody, for that matter. “Can we talk about something else? Please.”
Frannie laughs. “Fine. Sorry, Madi. You know I love you.”
“Cass and I actually have something serious that we need to talk about,” I tell them, looking at Cassidy. “Do you want to start this, or should I?”
“I will,” she says. I can tell she’s scared, but they have to know. We can’t do this on our own, and Daisy is their friend too. They deserve to know the truth.
Cassidy starts out telling them the whole story from the beginning — seeing Dee the night she disappeared, the threatening texts, and even the text that I got at school on Thursday. She tells them how we are going to find Daisy this weekend. Or at least we hope we are.
Everybody had the same concerns as I did originally. They wanted to go to the police immediately, but Cassidy and I talk them out of it. We tell them we are going tomorrow, but we just can’t chance it. What if this person really is going to kill Daisy if we tell? What if they kill Cassidy? I just can’t tell… not yet.
Eventually, they agree.
We are getting Daisy back tonight. We have to.
Luke’s party.
Two Truths and a Lie.
I walk into Luke’s house holding Jace’s hand. By now, everybody knows about our relationship, but people still turn to look at us. I like that they look at us. We are good together. Finally, it is my turn to be happy.
“Do you want something to drink?” Jace asks.
“I don’t know if I should drink anything. I should probably have a clear head for when… everything goes down.”
“You’re right.”
“Plus, I want to kiss you tonight, and I definitely do not want to be drunk when we have our first kiss,” I tell him.
He grins. “Mads, you’re seriously the most amazing girl I’ve ever met.”
“I know,” I joke, flipping my hair back.
“Do you want a Dr. Pepper?” he asks.
I nod. Jace knows the way to my heart is through Dr. Pepper. He walks off toward the kitchen, where all the drinks are, and I stand there waiting for him. I’m not alone for long. Carter approaches me.
“Hey, Cinderella,” he says. “What’s up?”
“Hey, Carter. Not much, just waiting for Jace to bring me a drink,” I answer.
“So you and Jace are a couple now?”
“Yeah.”
“I bet a lot of guys are disappointed that you’re off the market,” he says.
Oh my God, really? He’s going to talk to me like I’m some produce on the shelf at a supermarket?
“I saw Lexie earlier,” he says when I don’t respond. “I think she was looking for you.”
“I’m sure I’ll see her around at some point.”
I see Jace walking back toward me with a drink in hand. Thank God.
“I’ll see you later,” I tell Carter and then meet Jace half way. I take the drink from him. “Thank you.”
“Was Carter hitting on you?” he asks.
I roll my eyes. “He is so annoying.”
“You’re just too nice to everybody.”
“I like being nice. It means that I’m not like Daisy. When we first became friends, I was so worried that she would rub off on me somehow,” I admit. “I’m glad she didn’t.”
“Why are you friends with her?” he asks. “It doesn’t even make sense. Especially after… well, everything. You seriously have no idea how many times Trey had to talk me out of beating the shit out of her.”
“She isn’t worth the effort,” I say and then feel guilty. She’s missing. Some psycho has her tied up somewhere, and here I am talking bad about her. “I shouldn’t have said that. She is worth the effort tonight.”
“Even if something bad happened to her doesn’t mean you have to be her friend anymore,” he says. “It’s okay to move your separate ways.”
“Can I tell you something?” I ask.
He nods.
I pull him toward the corner of the room and lean close. “Before Daisy went missing, everybody was going to kick her out of our group. Fran and Cass basically begged me to, and I was actually considering it.”
“It’s about time,” he says, cupping my face with his hand. “You don’t deserve the way she treated you.”
“I know.”
“Why did you put up with it?” he asks.
“I don’t know. I guess I just didn’t care. Everybody knew the rumors she spread weren’t true, and I knew that she was lying most of the time when she said bad stuff about me,” I answer. “I wanted to be friends with Fran, Cass, Hayden, and Emma. It was worth putting up with her for them. Plus, I just didn’t want the drama that would come with not being her friend. Can you imagine how bad she would make it for me?”
“You’re probably right about that one.”
“Is it bad that I don’t miss her?” I ask him. “I mean, I’m worried about her. I don’t want her to die. But I don’t miss her at all. Life is… better with her gone.”
“That does not make you a bad person. And if it does, it makes everybody at school a bad person, because I’m pretty sure ninety percent of our school is glad she’s gone,” he says.
I feel my phone vibrate in my pocket, and I panic as I pull it out.
Blocked ID: Want to find Daisy? Let’s play a game — 2 truths and a lie. Meet your friends in the basement… Oh, and if you really want to get her back you will need a stronger drink than Dr. Pepper. I’m thinking tequila. This should be fun.
I turn my phone to Jace, and he pales.
“Are they trying to get me drunk?” I ask.
“You can’t do this, Mads. Let’s just call the cops right now,” he says.
“No, I can’t. I promised. I will do this. I have to.” I grab his hand and we walk down to the basement. There are quite a few people down there, so I have no way of knowing who sent the message. A few minutes later, Cassidy, Frannie, Emma, and Hayden all walk down. They all have the same pale, scared expression as me.
“Who wants to play Two Truths and a Lie?” Frannie asks.
Quite a few people want to, so we all sit down in a big circle. Cassidy grabs a bottle of tequila and fills our cups.
“How do we play?” Lexie asks, sitting down in the circle.
“You say three things about yourself. Two truths and one lie. If people can guess the lie, you have to take a drink. If the person guessing guesses wrong, they have to take a drink,” I answer. “Really, there are no winners in this game. The object is basically to get wasted.”
Lexie giggles. “Oh, okay. It sounds fun.”
“I’ll go first,” Emma says. “My first kiss was with Cassidy when I was twelve. When I was fifteen, I got caught by the police with weed but he let me go after I gave him a blow job. And last summer, I had an abortion.”
I don’t know the answer to this, which makes me feel like an awful friend.
Well, I do know that her first kiss was with Cassidy. But I don’t know about the other two.
“The abortion is a lie,” Hayden says.
“Dang it!” Emma says, then tips up her cup.
“Me next!” Cassidy says. “My real mom tried to kill me when I was six months old. During the summer I got
raped at a party. And when I was twelve, I spent a year in juvie for attempted murder.”
“Juvie is a lie,” Frannie says.
Cassidy glares at her. “Dude, you’re my sister. It’s not even fair for you to guess.”
“Doesn’t matter. Now everybody knows. Drink up.”
She takes a drink of tequila and nearly spews it out of her mouth. “That. Is. Disgusting.”
Cassidy got raped at a party? How did I not know this? And about her mom… wow. That is crazy.
My phone vibrates and I read the text as the next person goes.
Blocked ID: You go next. Here’s what you should say… Your dad didn’t really die in a car accident, he committed suicide. Your little sister, Hailee, is only your half sister and is the result of your mom cheating on your dad. And you went cliff-diving on your seventeenth birthday. I’m sure you know which one is the lie.
Oh my God.
How does this person know this stuff?
I don’t know if the text is true. Daisy told me a long time ago about Hailee and my dad. I didn’t want to believe her at the time, but I’ve always wondered if it was true. So either Daisy is playing us all, or this person knows a lot of personal stuff about me.
“Me next,” I say, taking a deep breath. “My father didn’t really die in a car accident. He committed suicide. My little sister is the result of my mom cheating on my dad. And on my seventeenth birthday, I went cliff diving.”
“Cliff diving is a lie,” Frannie says. “We went to the beach for your birthday. But that other stuff… is it really true?”
I get up from the circle. “You know what, this game is stupid.” I toss my full drink into the trash and run up the stairs.
As I get to the top of the stairs, I feel a pair of strong arms go around me. I know without looking that it’s Jace.
“Are you okay?” he whispers in my ear.
I shake my head, because I’m so not okay. I turn around and look at him. “Jace, that was true. What I said about my dad and Hailee… it’s the truth.”
“How do you know?” he asks.
“I put two and two together. My dad and mom both had blue eyes, Hailee has green eyes. And she looks nothing like Trey, me, or my dad. Also, when we go to visit my grandma in California, Hailee never goes. It’s because she’s not really her grandchild,” I tell him. “I’ve known for a while now, I just didn’t want to admit it. And with my dad… I overheard my mom talking to Ben about it a couple years ago. She knew the chief of police, and he made a false report so that my mom could still collect his insurance money. I never told Trey, Hailee, or anybody. I didn’t want them to know. It would hurt them both. I can’t do that to them. But now they’re going to know. Nobody is going to keep that a secret. I have to tell Trey before anybody else does.”