“It won’t be that hard for me to find out,” I said cocking my head to the side.
“You must be quite interested if you’d go to all that trouble.”
The muscles in my jaw tightened. “It’s not any trouble.”
“You're curious. Interested enough to ask around,” he said bowing slightly. “I like that.”
He walked out of the school into the blinding sun. I blinked several times trying to help my eyes adjust to the brightness. When I was able to see again, he was gone.
I scanned the parking lot and caught him running toward the back of the lot. He got into one of the cars that remained. It wasn’t one of the fancy ones, just a normal nice car.
The silver car backed out and sped out of the parking lot. I shook my head as I watched him drive away. I didn’t even realize there was a smile curled onto my lips until I couldn’t see the car any longer.
Maybe it wasn’t going to be completely terrible at Vestamont High. Lacey and her friends seemed nice enough and the guy with glasses, peculiar but nice.
All I had to do was completely avoid everyone else.
I wasn’t more than a few blocks from the school when Lacey pulled up to the curb in a white convertible. Her hair was pulled back into a loose ponytail.
“Get in,” she called.
I looked down the road toward home. It wasn’t that far. It wasn’t like I needed a ride.
“Come on,” Lacey said looking at her nails. “I don’t beg. And I always get my way.”
“Always?” I asked narrowing my eyes.
“Well, not always but often enough,” she said reaching across the seat to open the door. “Get in.”
I shook my head but climbed into her luxurious car with pristine leather seats. “My house is like right there. I can almost see it.”
“So?” Lacey said shifting the car into drive. “I’m coming over, remember? Might as well just give you a ride. It would be weird for me to pull up and wait for you to walk up, wouldn’t it?”
“I guess so,” I said shaking my head.
Lacey parked in my driveway and walked behind me as we walked up to the house. She slid her sunglasses to the top of her head as we stepped inside the house.
“When will you get ready?” I asked.
“It won’t take me long,” Lacey said. “We’ll do you first.”
My mom stepped into the living room as we were ascending the stairs. She stared at me as she wiped her hands on a dishtowel.
“Um, hello,” she said clearing her throat. “How was your first day?”
“Sorry, mom,” I said gesturing for Lacey to follow me. “This is Lacey… from school.”
I couldn’t for the life of me figure out how to introduce her. I didn’t know what Lacey and I were yet exactly. It seemed too soon to use the ‘F’ word.
“Hello Lacey,” my mom said. “I’d shake your hands but I was just preparing dinner and didn’t get a chance to wash them.”
“That’s okay, Mrs. Hill,” Lacey gave her a little wave. “I’m going to be stealing your daughter tonight. We’ve become fast friends.”
My mom smiled at me. “Well, that’s good. What are you girls going to do?”
“Just gab and get to know each other better,” Lacey said. “Turns out Alyssa and I have a lot in common. Our dads work together. Isn’t that funny?”
“Yes, funny,” my mom said. “What’s your father’s name?”
“Peter McGuire,” Lace said suddenly having interest in a candle holder on the small table at her side.
My mother swallowed. “Oh. Um, yes. I’ve actually met him. Great man.”
“Busy man,” Lacey quickly added. She turned to me and bumped me with her elbow. “Your dad will be a busy man too.”
I gave her a thin-lipped smile. “Should we go up?”
“Yes, yes we should,” Lacey said lightly touching my arm. “It was great to meet you, Mrs. Hill.”
“You too,” my mom said watching us as we ascended the stairs.
In my room, Lacey went straight for my closet and started looking through my things with a pinched-up expression. It was like she was at a bookstore but in the wrong section.
“Your mom seems nice,” Lacey said.
“She is,” I said.
“I guess that’s where you get it from.”
I tilted my head. “Get what?”
“Your softness.” Lacey turned toward me before I could say anything. “Do you have anything like short or maybe low-cut?”
I shook my head.
“We’ll have to improvise because there isn’t time to go shopping,” Lacey said.
“What if I don’t want to wear anything short or low-cut?”
Lacey cocked a brow. “You want to fit in here, right?”
“I guess.”
“Then you’re going to have to dress a bit differently.”
I looked down at my t-shirt, black jeans, and converse. It was what I wore at my old school. It wasn’t like this was the first party I’d ever gone to and all the others had been the kind of jeans and t-shirts.
“I like to be comfortable. Especially in this super uncomfortable town,” I said my eyebrows squeezing together.
“Do you even own heels?” Lacey asked.
“Just the black ones on the floor,” I said pointing to the pair of shoes next to my navy converse. I’d worn the heels only a few times, one of which was to my grandfather’s funeral.
Lacey bent down and picked them up. “What size shoe do you wear?”
“Six, six and a half,” I said with a shrug.
“Callie will have something for you,” Lacey closed my closet without picking anything out. “And maybe one of the other girls will have something you can wear.”
“Good I guess,” I said with a shrug. “Because if I walked out of here with my heels on, my mom would be awfully concerned.”
Lacey grinned. “Well, we wouldn’t want that, would we? Let’s go back to my house. We’ll get you party ready there.”
Chapter Five
The ladies had brought over tons of things for me to try on. By the time they found a maroon colored dress that hung off my shoulders and heels I didn’t topple over in, I was exhausted.
Nadia was putting on my makeup but all I wanted to do was go home.
“Do you guys do this a lot?” I asked.
“Several nights a week and every weekend,” Nadia said. “Parties can be fun. It’s the only time I like living in this town.”
The others agreed.
“That’s a lot of parties,” I said.
Lacey raised her brow. “There’s no such thing.”
“I like them too but things changed some after he died though,” Morgan said as wetness glossed over her eyes.
“What changed exactly?” I asked.
Phoebe pulled her hair up into a loose pile on the top of her head. Strands of hair spiraled down around the sides of her face.
“Since no one really knows what happened, people are a bit on edge. They’re worried it could happen again,” Phoebe said.
“Half of the student have to lie about where they’re going and the other half have to sneak out because our parents don’t want us roaming around town at night,” Morgan said softly. “I hate having to lie to my parents with a passion.”
I swallowed hard wishing I was home even more than I had before. “What happened to him?”
“He was found in the river,” Morgan said.
“He drowned?” I asked.
Phoebe nodded. “But Piers was captain of the swim team. The school’s best swimmer by far. Even though the river can get rough at times, it was a calm night. He wouldn’t have drowned in the river. Someone did it. Someone knows what happened.”
An eerie silence filled the room. The feeling that something was behind me was worse than how I felt when I watched a horror movie alone.
“Do the police think someone did it?” I asked.
“They’ve officially ruled it a suicide about
two and a half weeks ago,” Morgan said.
“They didn’t have much to go on,” Lacey said with a shrug. “Seemed obvious, I guess.”
My family had been so busy with the move that I hadn’t heard a thing about it. If my parents had, they hadn’t mentioned it to me.
“So, the case is closed?” I asked.
Phoebe nodded. “Except it shouldn’t be. He was liked by everyone in the school. All of the students, teachers, parents, everyone… he was the guy every girl wanted.”
“And every guy wanted to be him,” Callie added.
“He wouldn’t have committed suicide,” Phoebe said confidently.
“I can’t believe everyone is still uncertain and suspicious but it’s just over, just like that,” I said.
Lacey huffed. “Oh, it’s not over. Didn’t I tell you her parents hired a private investigator? Pretty sure I did. Well, they won’t stop until they find out the truth.”
“I hope they do because it’s hard to feel safe in this town,” Morgan said. She lowered her voice. “I mean, if there could be a killer on the loose, any of us could be next, right?”
“You’re going to scare the poor dear,” Lacey said looking at me as if I were a frightened baby kitten she’d found hiding in a bush on her way home from school. “Anyway, enough of this depressing talk, are we ready to leave?”
“Did anyone dislike Piers?” I asked.
The girls all shook their head but Lacey tapped her foot on the ground.
“Everyone liked him,” Callie said shooting a quick glance at Lacey. “Everyone.”
“Can we go?” Lacey said. “This whole convo is bumming me out.”
The ladies looked gorgeous but I felt like I was dressed for a costume party. I was uncomfortable and I still wasn’t sure why I was going along. It wouldn’t matter, I suppose, they’d probably kick me out the minute they saw me and then I could go home.
Lacey drove her car with the top up. No one wanted a single strand of their sculpted hairstyles to fall out of place.
There were cars parked all over the street and even some parked in the grass of the front yard. The music coming from inside the house was so loud I could feel it pounding through my stomach.
The ladies walked toward the front door but my feet stopped working about halfway. Lacey was the first to notice I’d stopped following.
“No time for cold feet,” Lacey said linking her arm through mine. She dragged me along as my eyes darted in every direction as we drew closer and closer to the house.
There was a couple steaming up the windows of one of the parked cars. I narrowed my eyes… maybe there were three heads inside. It was hard to tell with all the moving shadows.
On the side of the house, there was so much smoke coming out from around the corner that I thought they must have had a grill going. It felt like all eyes were on me, even those of the people inside the house.
“Come on,” Lacey said with an encouraging smile.
The door opened and the thin girl with the ponytail that had been walking with Silas in school gestured for us to enter. She held up her palm as Lacey and I stepped through the doorway.
“Brave new girl,” she said with a nod. “What’s your name?”
“She’s Alyssa,” Lacey said. “I’m sure you already knew that.”
“I did but I was asking her,” the girl said looking down her nose at me. Her heels were impossibly tall and her dress was so tight it didn’t leave much to the imagination. She crossed her arms. “We didn’t officially meet. I’m Aria. This is my house.”
I nodded. I couldn’t think of a single thing to say until after an uncomfortably long pause. “Beautiful home.”
She scrunched up her nose but only for a second.
“Drinks are in the kitchen,” she said closing the door behind us. She set her mouth close to my ear when Lacey turned to lead us toward the kitchen. “Walking right into the lion’s den, huh? That’s either really brave or really stupid.”
“Lion’s den?” I said glancing at her thick makeup covered face over my shoulder. “You make it sound like this is a zoo.”
“It is,” she called after me with a smirk. “It’s my zoo. Try not to get bitten.”
Lacey pulled me harder and Aria vanished into the crowd of sweaty dancing bodies. That wasn’t so bad even if it sounded like some weird, cryptic warning.
“How did Aria know, Piers?” I asked as Lacey handed me a cup.
“Sorry?” she said leaning toward me.
I repeated my sentence at a louder volume. Several people around us looked in my direction, clearly having heard a name they recognized.
“We shouldn’t talk about that here,” Lacey said.
“Oh, okay. I’m sorry,” I said. “But why not?”
Lacey turned to me with a thick frown. “It makes people nervous. Uncomfortable. They’re here to have a good time, which is exactly what you should try to do.”
My idea of a good time was much different from everyone else in the entire building. The music was too loud. The drink was too strong. And the home was much too crowded.
“Wait here. The ladies will keep you company,” Lacey shouted. “I need to talk to someone right quick.”
“Um, okay,” I replied but I was pretty sure she hadn’t heard me since she’d already started to walk away from me.
I inched closer to Morgan and Callie but Phoebe and Nadia had both already disappeared. My eyes scanned the crowd stopping for a moment when they landed on Nadia in a corner. A guy with a light blue dress shirt and tie had his hands all over her slim body.
“Is that Spencer?” I asked Morgan as I jerked my chin in Nadia’s direction.
Morgan shook her head. “That’s his best friend.”
“Oh,” I mumbled which of course no one had heard. Apparently, she was going with Lacey’s plan.
I stared out into the moving crowd. The wild dancing was hypnotic. The heavy drinking was off-putting yet fascinating. I turned to tell the ladies I was going to head out but they had both slipped away without me knowing.
I turned back around, sucking in a panicked breath. Lacey was whispering to the guy with glasses in the corner. Both of them wore a much more serious expression than everyone else in the room. In fact, Lacey looked angry.
The ladies were scattered about, joining in the party. Smiles… giggles… laughs… they were all just one big happy group of friends.
It was insane. If everyone could get along at a party, why couldn’t they just be friends at school as well?
I needed air.
The whole thing was just too crazy for me.
There was so much going on and it was overwhelming on so many levels. I couldn’t make sense of any of it but I knew that I didn’t belong. I could feel it in every fiber of my body.
I turned back toward where I’d see Lacey to tell her I was leaving but she was gone. It didn’t matter. She’d forgotten all about me.
I made my way to the closest exit… the back door. Now that I was alone, it felt like everyone was prowling around me, waiting for their moment to attack. It felt like I was the main attraction at the zoo. I was the one in the cage.
I could hear their whispers.
They were wondering why I was there.
The back yard was cooler but it didn’t feel like there was any more oxygen in the air than there had been inside the house. A wooden fence circled the property, making me feel like I was stuck. I pressed my hand to my chest, feeling claustrophobic.
The girl who let us in, Aria, was sitting on Silas’s lap on a lounge chair near the pool. They weren’t alone, although they were both acting like they were.
Silas’s hand rested high on her thigh and her eyes were half-closed. She barely looked up at me as I walked toward the gate.
Silas and Aria were the only faces I recognized but it sort of felt as though everything around me was moving too fast for me to keep up with it.
“Leaving already?” Silas asked. “Is there something wrong w
ith Aria’s party or are you too good for us?”
Aria perked up. First, she smiled but, in an instant, her eyes filled with anger and her lips curled into an animalistic sneer.
“Everyone likes my parties,” she said. “So, it must be the other thing… she thinks she too good for us.”
Another girl stood next to Aria. Her piercing blue eyes stabbed at me through the darkness of the backyard.
“You need to come back down to earth, new girl,” she said. “You’re not anything special.”
“It’s a great party,” I said trying not to stutter. “I’m just not feeling well.”
“Aww,” Aria said puffing out her lower lip. “Poor wittle baby!”
Her friend laughed. Silas and his buddies sat there grinning as they watched. It seemed like they were enjoying watching their girlfriends torment me.
To me, they were annoying little mosquitoes. All of them. Perhaps their bite would be annoying and it would sting for a bit but if I wanted to, I could squash them.
“Does your tummy hurt?” Aria asked as she poked me in the stomach with her long fingernail. The fake concern in her eyes made my blood surge. “You want some tummy medicine?”
“No, thank you,” I said and they all chuckled as though they thought that I believed the offer was a serious one. I crossed my arms and rolled my eyes. “My tummy is fine.”
Aria covered her mouth and her eyes widened. She looked like she was going to whisper something but her voice was anything but quiet. “Oh, did you get your period?”
“No,” I said flatly as I turned slightly. “I need to go.”
Aria shifted her weight from one foot to the other. “Who invited you here anyway?”
“Lacey did and I told her it was a terrible idea,” I said.
“It was a terrible idea. A mistake,” Aria said. “You come into my house without an invitation. I mean, who does that?”
Her friend was nodding along. “And then try to sneak out without even thanking Aria for her hospitality.”
“Thank you,” I said trying to keep my tone calm. “It was a lovely party.”
“It is a lovely party,” Aria corrected. “It’s just getting started but you’re leaving. We’re just not good enough for you.”
Aria bent down and picked something up off of the ground. “You got all dressed up and spent, what, fifteen minutes here? So… fucking… insulting.”
Thin Skin: A High School Bully Romance (Vestamont High Series Book 1) Page 3