by Amanda Adair
She’s nominated.
She never thought she would have the chance to become prom queen. She hasn’t always been a pretty girl, at least not in the eyes of others. Her past self was a smart nerd who’s into video games and books. She wasn’t allowed to put on make-up or wear short skirts, but now she is. Boys want to be with her, and girls want to be her.
It’s a real-life Cinderella story.
Two other girls want to become prom queen. Aspen Holland and Hailey Mendez. But when Trisha announced this year’s prom queen and king it’s Sage’s name that’s spread through the speakers. The whole crowd applauses. Her friends congratulate her, then Sage gets up and walks onstage.
It is her moment, her dream come true.
She stops in the middle of the stage, standing next to her prom king. Trisha crowns the two and hands her a bouquet of red roses. She waves at her classmates, smiling, overwhelmed with her emotions. This is it. She made it. In that very moment it feels like being on top of the world. Her prom king leans over to kiss her. He doesn’t stop. After a few minutes Remi steps back.
Did she say Remi?
I open my eyes and stare at her. I hope my expression tells her to stop saying things she will regret. I will make her regret this. Maybe Remi and Sage will be prom king and queen. I don’t care. But they’re not going to press their lips onto each other’s.
Never. Not as long as I’m around.
I clear my throat. I want her to know that I’m here and I’m not happy with her attempt to make me angry. Why would she want to ruin my relationship? Is Tansy in love with Remi now?
Remi puts his hand onto her lower back and smiles at the crowd. They all celebrate them. The two. As prom royalty and as a couple.
“Funny,” Cristina says but her facial expression tells me she isn’t amused. She’s looking at Remi.
Now I realize that his eyes are open as well. Our eyes meet. I can’t tell what he’s thinking or feeling.
“Maybe we should stop playing this game,” I say.
“It’s just a fictional story,” Remi says and puts his arm around me. “But Tansy, it’s a little too much.”
“Oh, I’m sorry,” she says. “This horror story was too good I guess.” She smiles and thereby looks so innocent. As if she doesn’t know what she’s doing.
“I had to do it,” Finna say, “now you can’t shirk the experience.”
“Okay,” Sage says, “let’s just do the second one. I don’t mind. I know it’s made up.”
“Alright,” Tansy says and closes her eyes.
This time I’m the only one who leaves her eyes open the entire time.
Sage spends the afternoon at a friend’s house. It’s late and she wants to go home. It only takes fifteen minutes to walk to her house, so that’s what she does. While strolling in the small park she watches the moon and the stars above her. It’s a beautiful starry night.
She looks at her phone, scrolls through Instagram and TikTok, then she stops. Did she just hear a noise? A bird? A bicycle? She can’t tell where the noise is coming from but then she spots a dark figure in front of her, next to a tree on the side of the path.
Hey, he says.
Keep walking, she tells herself. The man has a bottle in his hand, which he then puts onto the ground. But when she comes closer to the guy he grabs her arm and stops her from fleeing.
Pretty girl, he mumbles. All alone tonight? A girl like you shouldn’t spend her nights without a man by her side.
I look at Tansy. She seems concentrated and she never opens her eyes. She’s put her hands onto Sage’s shoulders. Sage doesn’t move. Suddenly another cold breeze hits my neck and face. The window’s closed, isn’t it. I’m cold.
I honestly just want to go home.
I don’t know what game she’s playing with us but it’s not funny at all. She can’t hand out with us anymore. She may be pretty, and she may seem like the nice girl next door, but she’s a total weirdo. When I look at Tansy’s face again her eyes are open. I wince. Her eyes are black. Just black. Not green. I blink. And blink once more. Her eyes are closed again.
I’m losing my mind.
He’s drunk. He touches her neck, then her waist. He pulls her jacket down, so her shoulders and her white top are exposed.
She begs him to stop. She begs him to let go of her. But he doesn’t. He drags her with him and pushes her into his car. He hits her on the back of the head, so that she blacks out.
The next day her parents receive a phone call from an unknown caller. He’s probably found out that her parents are dentists. He has her purse and her wallet with her ID. He wants fifty thousand Dollars. Only then he will release their pretty daughter. If they talk to the police or involve anyone else he’s going to kill her.
“Well, that was thrilling,” Cristina says.
“True,” Sage agrees. “Even though the stories are sometimes a little bit too awkward I really agree that you’re a skilled storyteller. Aspen, come on, it’s your turn.”
I look at my cousin. I want to shake my head and leave. “No, it’s okay, I don’t want to.”
“Don’t be lame,” Finna says, “Come on, Aspen. It’s fun. If I have to play, you have to.”
I try hard to insist the urge to roll my eyes. Without another word I get up and lay down in the middle. I have to force myself to close my eyes and keep them closed. The image of Tansy’s black pupils is still haunting my mind.
Aspen Varela is trapped in a golden cage.
Under the protection of her upper-class parents nothing could ever happen to her. They finance the new items in her closet. They bought her a car, so she could drive home safely whenever she’s at one of her friends’ lavish parties. They made her do a driver safety training. They finance her private education and they will pay for her college tuition.
Her dad wants to keep his little princess satisfied. And her mom would do anything for her. She keeps her safe under any circumstances. But even they can’t always shield her from all evil.
Sometimes Aspen is on her own.
One day when she gets home she can’t find her key. It’s not in her purse, so she decides to replacement key in the guest house. The replacement key for the guest house is in the flower pot on the left side of the entrance door.
Her parents aren’t at home but in New York. They’ll come back tomorrow. Whenever they visit Mr. and Mrs. Gray they tell her about their daughter Kristen who’s a Harvard student. In their eyes Kristen is the future Aspen. She doesn’t mind. As long as she’ll end up at Brown, joins a sorority with her friends and studies abroad in Europe it’s all good.
Tonight it is raining and she’s trying to keep her hair dry by holding her black coat above her head. It’s been raining all night. She’s seen some lightnings while driving home. As she unlocks the door of the guest house she sees another one. She steps inside and turns on the light.
The guest house has rarely seen guests.
Only two or three times a year people stay here for a few days up to a week. It’s a waste to have a guest house. Aspen would rather have a pool or a stable. The guest house isn’t big. There’s a living room with an open kitchen, a bathroom and a bedroom.
The replacement key is hidden in a safe in the bedroom. Why? Because her dad thought this was a good place to hide a replacement key. There aren’t many valuable objects at the guest house, so hiding the key in a flower pot outside the house isn’t too risky. Everyone has lost a key at some point in their life. The smartest option was to equip the guest house with a safe. Aspen remembers the code 0405. It’s her birthday.
Aspen opens the bedroom door. Before she can turn on the light she gets hit by a blunt object.
She doesn’t know how much time has passed when she wakes up. She’s tied to the leg of the heavy wooden chair. The first thing she sees is the shiny silver blade of a knife.
What’s going on?, she asks.
Her head feels like it’s wrapped in foil. Sure, someone must have seen her, maybe followed he
r, and as soon as they realized she was alone they decided to rob her. Why are they still here? Because the guest house isn’t enough loot.
They want more.
She can’t move her arms or get up. When she looks up someone walks towards her. It’s not a robber. It’s someone she knows. Another person shows up who seems familiar. She knows who that is. After they tell her what they’ve found out she knows why they’re here. Aspen is not going to survive this night. She’s sure about that. The next day her parents are the ones who find their precious daughter in the driveway. She’s been stabbed several times. Her body is covered in blood. Her eyes are open and stare at the sunny sky.
chapter 7
I listen to the sound of her voice that calmly tells us the second story about me. I can’t close my eyes again. I’m not sure if I’m dreaming or if she really says those words and phrases out loud. Word for word my headache becomes more intense. What is she doing? She can’t. She can’t do this. This girl is absolutely crazy. What she told us about herself is bullshit. She’s lying. She can’t be new to Horace Blake and know all these things. She’s either a spy or a psychopath.
Her story about me is true.
Not the first one, but the second. Not the ending, but the rest. It’s true. The story’s true. I can’t move and I can’t comment on this. I just stare at her. She just revealed a secret she can’t know of. Not even Sage, Sofia or Remi know this.
None of them. I didn’t write it down. There’s no record. No proof. Still, she’s just used it for her story. For the game. I look at Finna and Sage and Cristina. Are their stories true or based on Tansy’s imagination? She’s playing a game with us.
When she stops talking I get up.
“Maybe we should just go home now,” I say and look at Sofia who immediately nods. I can’t let anyone of those around know that her story about me is partly true. No one knows and I want to keep it that way. “Thanks, Tansy, but we have to get up early tomorrow.”
“I understand,” she says.
“Yeah, sure, just go,” Finna says. “We had to listen to all those creepy stories about us and now that it’s your turn you suddenly want to leave.”
“Finna,” I say completely upset. “My stories are complete, so …” I stop myself from telling her to shut up. She’s my friend. I’m upset but I can’t hurt her.
“Okay,” Remi says. “It’s my turn but then it’s time to go home, guys.”
I just want this to be over. I can’t stand listening to her voice. I don’t want to see her eyes, whether green or black. He gives me a kiss before laying down in the middle. Poor Remi. I don’t want her to tell another story of him and one of my best friends making out.
Remi Cavanaugh looks at the beach and at the waves that seem to whip the beige sand. It’s a sunny day with almost no clouds in the sky. He’s tired from training. He went jogging, did burpees and crunches and all those typical exercises, then he got rid of the sand on his clothes and walked to the meeting point the two had agreed on.
His friends are jealous of his muscles even though they would never admit it. For a seventeen-year-old he does have a muscular figure. He isn’t too tall or small, too big or skinny. He looks up and sees her.
Finally, his girl is here.
Seriously? Now she’s trying to calm me down by telling a love story about me and Remi. Or maybe she just starts telling a happy story and then turn it into a horror story after all. I roll my eyes twice because I know she can’t see me. I’m the only one whose eyes are open.
He’s been waiting for her all week and all day. He’s been waiting every second of his life. He isn’t a romantic guy. He doesn’t like clichés and all those couple goals that girls are so obsessed with. But he understands that some people long for a special someone. A better half.
And before he met her and got to know her, he thought it wasn’t real. The girls he dated were nice girls, pretty and smart, but he never felt anything special. Nothing he would call love. With her it is different.
She pretends like she knows Remi. Tansy doesn’t know anything about him. He met him today. I absolutely hate people who make assumptions about people. She thinks Remi is like his brother. That he’s a player. It isn’t true. He didn’t need me to become this awesome guy that he is. He has flaws. I do. Everybody does.
He couldn’t pick her up from the airport and they can’t live together at his apartment, but he wants to be with her. He wants to see her again. Today, tomorrow and for the rest of their lives.
She jumps into his arms and they kiss. Her smile and her laugh make him happy. He puts his hand into his pocket and reaches for a golden necklace. It’s a necklace he …
Suddenly Remi opens his eyes and sits up, causing Tansy to stop talking.
“I’m tired,” he says. “Look, Tansy, Robert’s already asleep. He’s not coming back.”
Finally he comes to his senses. Sofia gets up as I get up.
“We shouldn’t stop now,” Tansy argues. Her voice is so soft and calm. “Let me just finish your stories.”
“As I said,” he counters, “no.”
“Sage, can you drive us home?,” I ask.
In her car we all remain silent. Is it because of Tansy? I honestly don’t want to talk about it. At the same time I do want to talk about it. If I talk to any of them I will have to admit that the story isn’t fully fictional. I can’t.
I’m not ready for this.
“That was … interesting,” Sofia finally says.
Let’s not talk about it.
“Interesting,” Finna repeats. “Yeah. Scary. And not cool.” She’s sitting on the passenger seat, looking outside the window.
“Aspen and I were wondering how she knows so much about your childhood in Florida and your parents,” Cris says. She sounds like a detective.
“She doesn’t know much,” Finna says. “Some things are true, yeah, that they are divorced and that I’m from Florida. The rest is her imagination going wild. It was funny though.” She sighs. “I’m so tired. And I don’t want to be hungover. I need some water.”
“I have water,” I say and hand her the bottle that’s always in my bag. “Let’s just pretend like this night never happened. We don’t need her in our group. I mean she’s a nice girl but she’s awkward. And no Halloween party committee, okay?”
“Yes,” they say.
“That doesn’t mean we won’t go out for Halloween, right?,” Sage asks. “I already saved lots of costume DIYs on Pinterest.”
“There’s just no committee,” I say, “but a party’s a must.”
Sofia and I wave at the other girls in the car before entering the house. I remove my make-up and brush my teeth, still thinking about this evening. I made a mistake. I shouldn’t have let a strange new girl spend time with us and spread lies about us. She tried to provoke us. But why? Doesn’t she want to make friends at her new school? Maybe she’s lost her social abilities while being homeschooled.
“So, you don’t wanna hang out with Tansy anymore?,” Sofia asks. Most days she lies in bed with me before going to her room.
“I’d rather not,” I say.
“Hey,” she says and turns her head to the side, so she’s looking into my eyes. “Didn’t you overreact because of the story thing? It was meant to be scary and awkward.”
“I know,” I say.
It’s not that. She can’t know these things about me. There is no way she could’ve found out. I’m not stupid. Something is wrong with this girl. I don’t even want to know what exactly. I want her to stay away from me. I can’t talk to Sofia about this. She’s new, just like Tansy. Maybe she doesn’t get it why Tansy can’t know all these things because she doesn’t get it. She’s blind.
chapter 8
Whenever I experience something strange or extremely uncomfortable in the evening, I feel even more terrified in the morning. All of the emotions that were disabled when I was asleep hit me and intensify. My body is supposed to deal with these things at night, in my dream
s, and allow me a fresh start in the morning. This is not the case.
My body is a wreck and it does nothing to keep my mental health stable. I feel ashamed for making a scene yesterday. I didn’t make a scene actually, but it feels like it. After she revealed my darkest secret I felt like all eyes were on me and all those around me were judging me. I’m disappointed of myself because I didn’t just tell Tansy the game’s not for me and left. When I’m drunk or tired or both, the possibility of regretting all of it later increases to a hundred percent.
In chemistry I can see Tansy sitting next to the window. Her blonde waves hang down the chair back. She’s leaned forward and her arms are wrapped around her body. She said hi to us before class, but we didn’t interact any further.
For me it’s awkward talking to her because I can’t stop thinking about what she’s revealed about me. She reminded me that I have some unfinished business. I keep thinking I have time to figure out what to do. At the moment I’m busy studying for exams.
The other girls think it’s fiction. Remi thinks it’s fiction. At least they pretend to be unbothered. I can’t believe that Tansy only revealed something about me, not about the others. There must be some amount of truth in their stories as well. Finna can’t even remember most of the evening. She is feeling sick and leaves right before lunch break. Poor Finna. She has a low alcohol tolerance.
“I can’t have lunch with you today,” Cristina says as we reach the cafeteria. “I have to finish a project.”
Without another word Cris walks away.
“What project?,” I ask. “We have all classes together. There is no project.”
“Maybe it’s not for school,” Sage assumes.
I don’t know what she means, so I just lean against the swinging door and enter the cafeteria. I need fuel a.k.a. food. Today we arrive at the buffet early. Normally all the good stuff is already gone but not today.