Bellamy Rising

by A. E. Snow

~ ~ ~

  Iris waited at the end of her driveway hopping back and forth from foot to foot and rubbing her hands together to keep warm. I pulled up to the curb and she jumped in practically before I had stopped the car.

  “Let’s do this.” She slammed the car door and put her seatbelt on with great force.

  I cleared my throat. “Everything all right?”

  “Yeah, fine,” she said and then heaved a sigh. “It’s just that my parents are so annoying. We got in a fight about college tonight.”

  “What about college?” I asked.

  “Mom is determined to send me to her alma mater. Maybe I don’t want to go there,” Iris complained.

  Grateful to be distracted, I engaged. “So go where you want. Where do you want to go?”

  “I don’t know. I wouldn’t even mind going to State. It’s just . . . I want it to be my decision. Turn left here.” She pointed at the road sign. “I mean, it’s not like I even drink. I hate drinking. I don’t see why it should matter how many people have died from alcohol poisoning at State.”

  I gaped at a huge brick house on the left as we drove through the nice part of town. The part with impressive architecture and iron gates. “How many bedrooms do you think that monstrosity has?”

  “Seven? It’s this driveway.”

  “Through here?”

  “Yep.”

  I drove through an open gate. The gigantic house loomed with light spilling out of nearly every window. I parked at the end of a long line of cars. We got out of the car and began the hike to Katie Kennedy’s.

  The party overwhelmed me from the moment I walked through the door. It was packed. As a town, we’d been afraid to have fun or be seen having fun for weeks. The disappearance of another girl only proved that bad things happened, no matter the precautions you tried to take. Although it had all the makings of a normal high school party, it felt manic. “Have fun before you die” seemed to be the theme.

  I glanced around the living room noting that the popular girls had taken center stage. Dressed in their shortest ensembles with the lowest necklines, they gathered in the middle of the room and let the minions gather around them.

  Iris elbowed me as we tried to make our way to the kitchen. “Does Katie Kennedy have on a leather mini-dress?”

  I followed her gaze and confirmed that she was, in fact, poured into a leather mini-dress. “She sure does.”

  “I didn’t realize we were at a chic party in New York City,” she remarked.

  “I wonder who she’s so dressed up for,” I said with a snort.

  Katie laughed as she executed a flawless hair-flip. The crowd shifted, revealing the person she was talking to. Mason. Shit. I pushed Iris along in front of me until we were in the kitchen.

  “What’s wrong?” she asked.

  I shook my head. “Nothing, just too many people in there. You look fantastic, by the way.”

  “Don’t change the subject. Something’s wrong. What is it?” she asked again, her eyes narrowed.

  “Nothing.” I threw my hands up.

  “Liar.”

  “Fine, I’m lying. But I’m lying because I don’t want to talk about it.” I had to yell in her ear so she could hear me over the music.

  “Fine, but you are telling me later,” she said. “Okay?”

  “Okay,” I agreed with a scowl.

  The dining room looked like the scene of a crime. Beer dripped from a spill on the shiny table onto the Oriental rug below. I spotted Will with his crew and stepped over two downed chairs to get to him.

  “Hey, Bellamy.”

  “Can I have a beer?” I said, trying to be charming.

  “I didn’t think you’d be here tonight.” He smirked and then let his gaze travel up and down my body.

  “Where else would I be?”

  He handed me a beer. “You don’t usually show up to actual high school parties.”

  “I guess I’m desperate.” Plastering on a flirty smile, I took the beer and cracked it open. I moved next to Will and watched Iris make the rounds. Unlike me, she knew and liked everyone, and they liked her.

  He nudged my foot with his. “Where you been anyway?”

  “I’ve been around.” I hoped I came off sounding mysterious.

  “You never text me anymore,” he pouted.

  “I’ve been busy.”

  “With Mason? What’s up with that?”

  I leveled my gaze straight ahead. “What do you mean?”

  He snorted. “I see you together all the time.”

  “We’ve been working on a project.” I wasn’t sure why I felt the need to lie about that.

  “Oh yeah? That must suck.”

  “I take it you don’t like him?”

  “Not really. He’s kind of a goody-two-shoes.”

  “He’s not so bad.” I drank some more warm beer and tried to stifle the cough and grimace that followed cheap warm beer. I drank too fast and it went straight to my head. Will silently handed me another one. He joked with his buddies and I watched everyone have good, clean high school fun. By that I mean, taking body shots off each other and dry humping on the ‘dance floor,’ which was really a corner of the living room that I could see from my post in front of the dining room window. It was the prime location to not only observe the girls ‘dancing’ all over each other and the few boys that didn’t mind dancing in public or were actually good at it, but to see the front door. I was three beers in when Andrew and his girlfriend Kayla entered, saw me, and looked away. Andrew didn’t like to admit that the orange-haired girl with a lip ring was his sister any more than I liked to admit that the football-playing asshole jock was my brother.

  I bent down and took a warm beer out of the box. When I stood up, Will grabbed my ass.

  “What are you doing?”

  He just laughed. He didn’t move his hand. But I couldn’t stop myself from seeking Mason. Katie and her leather dress gyrated all over him. I stood frozen, unwilling to believe what I was seeing.

  “Whoa,” Will said after he followed my gaze. “Isn’t that Mason?”

  I didn’t respond. Instead, I tilted the warm beer back until it poured down my throat.

  “I didn’t know he partied,” Will said, impressed.

  I shrugged, not wanting to encourage this conversation. Honestly, he was kind of right about Mason. He wasn’t usually the partying and gyrating type. I felt bad just thinking that. His dead sister had made him popular even if was for all the wrong reasons. I tried to figure out how I could get the heck out of there without being seen. I’d never been to Katie’s house before but I remembered that Iris, who doesn’t drink, had already taken my keys.

  “Will,” boomed Trey Foreman. He carried a half-empty bottle of Jack Daniels and swished it around in my face waggling his eyebrows. “Bellamy. You want?”

  I took the bottle from his hand and swigged. “I’m gonna feel like shit in the morning,” I said while handing it back.

  Trey gulped after me and handed it to Will. Somehow in the process he bumped into my arm and spilled my beer.

  “Oh!” I gasped as the lukewarm liquid soaked my chest, turning my shirt see-through.

  “I’m sorry,” Will slurred, his gaze directed on my boobs.

  My voice dripped with sarcasm as I looked around for something that might help my predicament. “You enjoying the wet T-shirt contest?”

  Trey pulled a fast-food napkin out of his back pocket and held it up. “Want this?” His eyes were also glued to my shirt.

  “No thanks.”

  “Want to go somewhere and try to fix that?” Will asked, eyes full of mischief.

  “Yes, I’m sure you are only interested in helping.” I glanced into the living room and Katie had her arms wrapped around
Mason. His gaze met mine. Anger and hurt coursed through me. I hoped he could see it in my face.

  “I do want to help. I want to help you off with your shirt. Let’s go.”

  Will grabbed what was left of his case of beer in its increasingly battered box and we headed through the kitchen to whatever lay beyond.

  “Where should we go?” I asked once we were out of the kitchen and into the hallway beyond.

  “Let’s go upstairs.”

  Every guy we passed stared at my wet shirt. A hot, angry blush colored my cheeks when I thought of Mason. “Fine Mason, you want to play games?” I said to myself. “Let’s play.”

  Upstairs, Will opened the first door on the left. “I found another bathroom. There are about a dozen in this place.”

  We kept going. He flung the next door open.

  “Aaaaahhh!” A shriek came from the bedroom. I barely made out a cheerleader and a basketball player naked on the bed.

  I slammed the door shut quickly and, giggling, grabbed Will’s arm. “That’s not her boyfriend. He’s downstairs.”

  Will snorted with laughter and I leaned up against the wall laughing until tears welled in my eyes, my head light with alcohol.

  I knocked lightly on the next door and waited. When no one responded I cracked the door open slowly. When no one shrieked, I opened it further and let myself inside.

  “How many bedrooms does this place have?” I asked.

  Putting his battered case of beer on the floor, Will said, “I don’t know. It’s like a hotel.”

  I sat on the rumpled bed and let my gaze wander around the room. Nothing personal on the walls or nightstands signaled that it was likely a guest room.

  He plopped down on the bed next to me. “I’m sorry about that. Should you take your shirt off maybe, so it can dry?”

  “It is pretty well soaked.” I slid the shirt off and tossed it to the floor. “Is that why we are up here? Because you are seriously concerned about my shirt?”

  He grinned. “Yes, of course. I’m a gentleman.”

  “I’m drunk,” I announced.

  “Me too. Been a while since we hung out.”

  I cracked up. “Remember Maple Street?”

  “We should have gone to the basement,” Will laughed.

  Dizziness hit me and the walls started moving. I lay down and closed my eyes so I couldn’t see the ceiling spin above me. I felt his head hit the pillow next to me. “Yes. We should have.” I opened my mouth to tell him about the house on Larkin Lane. I knew that Will would have gone with me to the basement. Maybe I should have taken him in the first place. But then I remembered. I struggled to push thoughts of two girls, one dead and one missing, out of my mind.

  The thumping of the bass from downstairs rattled the bed. Will scooted closer and traced his fingertips over my bare stomach.

  I pretended there was no Mason and that I wasn’t super disappointed and confused about what happened today. Or freaked out about being stalked and terrified by some crazy psychopath. God.

  “I’ve missed you,” Will whispered in my ear, and I shivered.

  “I’ve missed you too.”

  He finally kissed me. He smelled vaguely of pot, his personal cologne, and everything felt familiar. His fingers slid up my leg to the hem of my skirt. Maybe I had missed this hooking up randomly and not paying much attention to each other the rest of the time.

  “What the . . .?” Will raised up when the bass suddenly disappeared and was replaced by shouting.

  My eyes snapped open and were greeted with blue lights flashing across the ceiling. “The cops!” I wiggled out from under Will and grabbed my thin shirt, still soaked and smelling of beer.

  “Oh shit.” Will jumped up and fumbled with his shirt buttons.

  We rushed to the door and I threw it open. “I gotta find Iris.”

  Will grabbed me and kissed me hard. “Hey, don’t be a stranger,” he said and bolted for the door.

  I went downstairs where people poured out of the back door and headed for the woods to hide from the cops. No one wanted an underage drinking ticket, or worse.

  “Excuse me.” I squeezed through the crowd, which was headed in the opposite direction. I stood on my tiptoes and searched frantically for Iris but didn’t see her anywhere. I peeped into the living room. The cops had just come inside.

  “Break it up, break it up,” they shouted. “Party’s over.”

  I was pretty sure that I was about to get arrested. I was shocked when suddenly instead of arresting people for underage drinking, a cop headed right for Ethan. “Ethan, you are under arrest for the murder of Jenna Woodson.”

  A collective gasp went up and everyone froze. In the corner, two or three girls burst into tears. No one said a word as the cops slapped handcuffs onto Ethan and hauled him out the front door while he protested that he didn’t do it. He cried as the police, including my old friends Jackson and Lewis, hauled him outside.

  I leaned my head back against the wall and took deep breaths to calm the shaking. Maybe the whole thing would be over now.

  “Hey.” I opened my eyes and Iris stood in front of me, her eyes wide. The familiar jasmine scent that always surrounded her comforted me. “Let’s get out of here.”

  The shaking turned to shivering as soon as I stepped outside. We walked to the car without speaking. Once inside the freezing car, I cranked the heat up and wrapped myself up in my coat.

  She put the car into gear and backed out of the driveway. “Some party.”

  “I can’t even believe that just happened.” I rested my head on the window. The cold on my forehead helped with the dizziness.

  “Are you okay?” Iris asked.

  “I’m drunk,” I said.

  She handed me her phone. “Dial my mom.” I found ‘home’ in her contacts and pressed ‘send’ before handing her the phone.

  “Hi, Mom. Everything is fine.” She nodded with force, as if she could make that statement true just by nodding hard enough. “I need to stay with Bellamy tonight.” There was a long pause. “Okay. See you in the morning.”

  I lifted my head, surprised. “She’s letting you stay? It was that simple?”

  She shrugged. “She said it was fine.”

  My feelings tumbled all over each other as my head spun. I leaned my forehead back on the window.

  “You’ll never believe what I heard tonight,” Iris said.

  “Mason and Katie are up for prom king and queen?” I slurred.

  “Ethan was cheating on Jenna with Riley.”

  “What?” I couldn’t even hold my head up, much less comprehend what she was saying.

  “That’s what Katie Kennedy said while they were arresting him.”

  I bristled at the mention of Katie Kennedy, even though that was hardly relevant after the evening unfolded the way it did.

  “Yeah,” she said, nodding emphatically, hair bouncing everywhere.

  “I didn’t know that,” I whispered.

  “For months, he cheated on Jenna. I heard he kept sleeping with Riley even after Jenna was dead. Whether that’s true or not . . . who knows?”

  I sat up. “But do you really believe he did it?”

  She was silent for a long time. “No. I don’t see how he could have. I don’t know if I believe that he cheated with Riley. Maybe I’m just in shock. Do you think he did it?”

  “No. But why do you think he got arrested?”

  She shook her head. “I don’t know. Do you think they found Riley?”

  I rolled the window down. “Oh God, I think I’m gonna puke.” The frigid wind blew in my face. By the time we got home, I felt more awake and less nauseous.

  When we walked inside, Andrew, Kayla, and Meredith were gathered around the TV where there was bre
aking middle-of-the-night news.

  “We do not yet have police confirmation but the word is that the body of Riley Morgan was found tonight just a few miles from the location where Jenna Woodson’s body was found less than a month ago.”

  Iris and I sat down on the battered love seat. She grabbed my hand. “Holy shit,” she whispered while we watched the scene. It was déjà vu. Police were swarming behind the reporter as she reported live from the scene.

  “I’m going to throw up for real this time.” I raced to the bathroom.

  Later, as I lay in bed with Iris sleeping next to me, I pictured Riley sitting at her usual table in the library and felt like I’d been punched in the stomach. “Why didn’t I have visions of her?” I asked the darkness. “I couldn’t help her. I can’t let this happen again.”

  Chapter 25

  “How do you think they knew he’d be at the party?” Iris asked me the next morning.

  “I have no idea.” I yawned. “But I could imagine that the entire police department knew about the party since half of their children are cheerleaders.”

  “Yeah, I guess so.” Iris fiddled with a string hanging off the quilt. “I guess this whole thing is over now, huh? I can’t really believe that Ethan would do something so awful but I guess anything is possible.”

  I sighed. I felt like a big pile of emotional crap.

  At 9 a.m., Iris’s phone rang. “Hi, Mom,” she said. “Yeah, okay . . . I’ll be waiting.” She hung up the phone.

  “Mom is coming to pick me up, like right this minute,” Iris said and rolled off the futon.

  “Already?”

  “Yup.” She sighed and put her shoes on. “I think I’m back on restriction.”

  “But they arrested someone.” I sat up on the edge of the bed and put my head in my hands. “Ouch.”

  “I know. Parental logic makes zero sense most of the time,” Iris said. “How’s your head?”

  “Not great.”

  I followed her downstairs. She tried to gather her hair up into a ponytail as she went. It took some time to wrestle that huge mass of curls and shove it into an elastic hair band.