He rubbed his arm and glanced at my stilettos, but his mouth was quirked in a smile. “I’m glad you didn’t.”
The smile slipped off Adrian’s face as he looked me over head to toe through the mirror, and if I didn’t know he was trying to figure out what my costume was, I might have been offended—or flattered. My emotions were sort of all over the place.
“I’m a vampire,” I explained, since it wasn’t obvious. I hadn’t had time to order crazy colored contacts or fake pointy teeth online, and the nearest costume store was eighty miles away. The only thing that said “vampire” about me was some bright red lipstick, a lot of eyeliner, the “cape” I’d fashioned out of my mother’s old quilt, and the skintight black dress I’d made myself a year ago (also, coincidentally, for prom, and also now way too small in the chest region, since those had popped out of nowhere a few months back). With my sewing machine broken and no time to plan, it was the best I could pull together in less than a week. Well, that was a lie—I probably could have made something crazy out of tissue paper and Popsicle sticks, but I honestly didn’t feel like putting that much effort into a party I didn’t even really want to be at in the first place. I was a party pooper.
“So that’s your theme?” Adrian asked, interrupting my thoughts. “Vampires?”
“We were supposed to come as mythical creatures,” I replied with a shrug. “I picked vampire.”
Okay, so vampire had been the best match for my extremely limited clothing options, but whatever. The motion sensor for the light must have gone back into sleep mode because the strobe cut off suddenly, plunging us into darkness.
From somewhere to my left, Adrian’s disembodied voice asked, “Why did you pick vampire?”
I frowned, although he couldn’t see me. “Why do you care?”
But there was no answer—he wasn’t there. I called his name again, turning in circles, but if he could hear me, he didn’t respond. I was instantly irritated. Way to abandon me in a scary-ass haunted maze.
Grabbing blindly for the wall, I picked a direction and started wandering again until I made it to the exit where Trish was waiting for me, though not before being almost trampled by a herd of freshmen who’d somehow snuck in and were now being chased out by football players from a neighboring district.
“Where were you?” Trish asked as I finally appeared. “It wasn’t that hard.”
“Apparently one of my hidden talents is getting lost in mazes. Go figure.”
Trish nodded like that made sense, then pointed at a table stacked with the entire contents of the local liquor store. “Want a drink?”
I stared at the pile of alcohol.
I’d never been drunk before. I’d once had a half a glass of wine with my mom over dinner, but I’d never been to a party like this. I’d never been to anything close to this. The normal, I-have-life-goals-and-a-solid-future part of me was saying no. The I’m-all-alone-and-I-hate-the-world part of me said, out loud, “Why not?” I grabbed Trish’s arm as she started to walk toward the table. “Just don’t let me do anything stupid.”
She grinned. “Hey, if you want to have a good time, I’m not gonna stop you.”
There was a bowl of what someone said was Jungle Juice sitting in the middle of the table. It looked like fruit punch, which seemed safe, as I had no idea what any of the other bottles of alcohol were, and doubted I could drink anything straight. As soon as Trish and I had our red Solo cups, the music suddenly died and it went dark. A spotlight appeared on a pirate as he clung to the ledge of the second-floor railing. Seems the guys had also come up with a theme, as the majority of them were dressed in varying degrees of pirate garb. I’d seen quite a few Captain Morgans walking around with bottles of rum, looking very pleased with themselves.
The pirate dude waited for the noise to die down and finally raised his arms, yelling into a mic, “Juniors!” like he was the announcer in a stadium arena. I guess he was, in a way, because the place erupted into an absolute frenzy. Whatever was about to happen, everyone was very excited about it.
“Tonight,” the pirate continued, “you shall all be initiated!” There was another round of screams and my stomach felt slimy. “Tonight,” he continued, “you will prove yourself worthy to be called the Children of Warren County!’”
More screams. What was this, some sort of Satanic ritual? I was thinking about how far it would be to get to the door. And then how far it would be to walk back to my aunt and uncle’s. And how I would explain my outfit. And my makeup. And why I wasn’t at Trish’s. Let’s face it, I’d probably get lost and eaten by a bear. But that might be better than suffering through whatever public humiliation was about to come my way.