“Ahem.” Cassidy appeared, balancing three drinks. She looked to Adam, then to me, and then back to Adam. I stood up straight and took a step back from Adam. “Am I interrupting something?” She had to yell over the music, and I wasn’t sure if she’d meant for the question to come out quite so angry.
“Nope.” I stood up straighter and backed farther away from Adam. She handed me a drink, which looked like Coke. “Yours is just soda,” she said when I bent down to sniff it. “I made an educated guess. Hope that’s all right. We can switch if you want.” She swirled a straw in her drink of clear liquid.
I took a sip. Just Coke. “No, this is perfect, actually,” I said. At least I knew the random party attendance hadn’t ruined my nerd cred.
Cassidy’s cheeks pursed when she sipped from her drink. She hadn’t changed since the game. A fringed leather vest hung open over an orange sports bra, which showcased her toned torso, and her silky brown hair cascaded in loose barrel curls over her shoulders.
“Adam, I want to show you the pool,” she said like she was the Hoyles’ Realtor. “It has one of those infinity edges and a waterfall Jacuzzi. You can come, too, Victoria, if you want.” I understood from her tone that I wasn’t supposed to want to come. I didn’t, anyway. I’d seen pools before, and I’d seen Adam and Cassidy make out, so I assumed there was nothing much more for me that I hadn’t already experienced a time too many.
I raised my glass in salute. “No, thanks. I’m going to forage for food, I think.” That was what lame people did at parties, right?
Cassidy gave a tight smile in thanks, and I wandered off in the opposite direction. I pushed my way through the middle of an Oilerette talking to the president of the junior class.
“Uh, how about excuse me?” said the Oilerette with the blond ponytail, jumping back.
“You’re excused,” I mumbled, and knocked back a gulp of soda. The ice clinked together in my glass.
The house was filled with faces that were familiar but that I couldn’t quite place. I wandered through the living room, filled with its dead animal heads, where exposed bra straps seemed to be the fashion. That, and drunken staggering that I gathered through my finely tuned powers of observation was supposed to double as dancing. Booze seeped from people’s pores, and I caught sour whiffs like bad breath whenever I passed too close.
By now I’d gotten used to the bass and the way it punched at my organs. My whole body buzzed with the music amid curls of smoke that reflected in the dim lights. The air was fresher in the kitchen, where I was pleased to find a bowl filled with tortilla chips and an open jar of salsa that had vomited tomato chunks onto the marble countertop. I cracked a chip in two and popped one half into my mouth.
New stainless steel appliances gleamed from every corner of the room. I ran my hand over the stovetop to a block of wood that displayed a dozen shiny butcher’s knives. I wrapped my fingers around one and pulled out the blade, examining the sharp edge. Probably one of those infomercial ones that could cut through a penny.
I fished around in my pocket to see if I had one to try.
“Are you allergic to parties or something?” I whipped around to see Knox open the freezer, realizing too late that I was wielding the point of a knife in his direction. He held up his hands in surrender. “No need for violence, Frankenstein. I’ll go willingly wherever you want to take me.” He winked.
“You’re going to make me gag.” I replaced the knife in its slot.
“I bet you’re into that kinky stuff, aren’t you?” The fluorescent light of the freezer lit his face as he stooped to dig for another bottle of vodka to replace the empty one he’d deposited on the island. From the looks of it, he had an endless supply to choose from.
“Hate to ruin your fantasy, but not all geeky girls are closeted sex freaks waiting to be unleashed.”
He chose a bottle and kicked the door closed. “Well, now you’re just being mean.” He glanced at my watered-down glass of Coke. “Looks like you could use a refill.”
“It’s just Coke,” I said when he took the cup.
He waggled his eyebrows. “How very responsible of you. Okay, just Coke then.”
I waited while he opened the refrigerator and poured me another glass.
“There you are.” Paisley stomped into the kitchen dressed in an identical uniform to Cassidy’s. “What’s taking so long? The natives are getting restless without their refreshments. And nobody knows where Ashley went. Caroline is freaking the hell out. Thinks she wandered off and—” Her eyes fell on me and then narrowed. “Oh. You’ve got company.”
Knox reappeared from behind the refrigerator door and handed me a refilled cup. I sniffed it and couldn’t detect any alcohol. “I’m being a host, Paize. Chill out.”
“Can you please hurry? Ashley’s been gone for, like, twenty minutes, and Caroline is convinced she’s been abducted by the serial killer or whatever.” Paisley looped her arm through Knox’s, but shot me a hard stare as she dragged him off.