Between These Lines (A Young Adult Novel) (19 page)

I
thought of my aunt sitting at home in front of the TV. I was honest and told
her I was going to a party. The look on her face was something between winning
at Bingo and meeting Colin Firth.
 
She was elated I’d found a way to fit in with kids my age, I couldn’t
possibly tell her Shane would be here, especially after what had happened at school.

A
group of six guys and girls huddled around a center island laden with shot
glasses and almost every bottle of alcohol known to man. I felt drunk just
looking at it.

“You
made it.” Jake pushed his weight off the counter and met me in the doorway, holding
out a blue plastic bowl.
 

“Keys,” he said.
                                                                                       

I
stared at it amused, “Did you run out of chips?”

“Very
funny,” Jake smirked. “I’m collecting everyone’s keys.”

“Yeah
well, I’m not staying that long.”

Jake
pushed the bowl closer, “Just a precaution.”

I
sucked it up, dug into my pocket, produced my set of keys, and dropped them
into the bowl on top of the others.

I
hoped no one would eat them.

Then
Jake spied the yellow folder in my hand, “Got something for Shane?” he asked.

I
looked down, wishing I could rip what I held into pieces. Shane didn’t deserve
the grade he was bound to get from Ty’s hard work, and I saw how Ty sweated
that night at the library to get it finished. By the thickness of it, I could
say a ton of sweat went into it, maybe even bucket loads. And for what?
Something that would make him feel good for an hour or two? The grade would go
further than that baggie. It was an uneven exchange of the highest proportions.

“Follow
me,” he turned, expecting me to follow.

“Nice
place,” I yelled toward his back as I kept up.

Jake
turned his head back to answer me, “Under normal circumstances, it is. I’d like
to hear you say that again tomorrow morning after everyone leaves.” He let out
a chuckle, but I knew he didn’t see any humor in it. Besides, I wouldn’t be
here tomorrow. The plan was to get the envelope to Shane, find Evie, and get
out.

The
wall at one end of the huge Great Room was entirely made up of glass and
overlooked Billings Lake. I couldn’t help being entranced by the shimmering
darkness on the other side.

Kids
mobbed every available seat in the place as the room we walked through opened
to another.

Couples
kissed and groped, singles laughed and drank. People sat. People stood. I
barely recognized everyone without their Whitley Prep uniforms, even though my
brain reassured me these were the same kids I went to school with every day.
Absent were the skirts and knee socks, the crested navy blazers and red striped
ties. Instead, everyone seemed to have raided Abercrombie and Hollister, giving
a strange transformation to the faces I knew should ring familiar to me.

“Not
what you expected?” Jake asked me, noticing the way I ogled at everyone.

I
looked at his amused face and tried to play it off, “It’s just different,
that’s all.”

What
I didn’t expect, was the way the house became quiet once we ascended the stairs
to the second floor. It was entirely muted from what was going on below, as if
the entire upper half was a separate house altogether, or its own planet for
that matter.

Jake
stopped in front of a closed door and hesitantly raised his hand to knock. It
reminded me of a scene from The Godfather, and I wondered if Shane thought that
much of himself to hold office in Jake’s house. The vacillation Jake
demonstrated unnerved me. His fisted hand was poised at the door, but he had
yet to knock and let Shane know we were on the other side.

Besides,
this was Jake’s house, so what was he waiting for?

“Wait
here a second,” he told me.

No
duh.

I
nodded, not wanting to appear rude.

At
last his hand met the door and rapped three times.
Was that a freaking code?

Unbelievable.

Shuffles
and murmurs emanated from the other side and after a few seconds Jake slowly
opened the door, giving me the barest glimpse of what was behind it. I heard
Shane, but I knew he was there to begin with, only—the giggling and
shuffling competed with the timbre of his voice and my heart stuttered,
processing another voice that was female. I caught the view of a bare shoulder
and a shirt being yanked on, and, so help me, if those breathy giggles belonged
to Evie, I would die right here in Jake’s hallway. But the door yanked open and
I was face to face with Shane in his white tee and jeans, his usual cocky
grimace plastered to his face, but his eyes held surprise, and I wondered if he
expected our arrangement to fail.

His
eyes immediately dropped to the folder and he held out his hand. Placing it in
his waiting palm was the hardest thing I could ever do. It was wrong and here I
was, helping him get away with it.

He
turned and walked back into the room, flicking apart the metal tabs that held
it shut with his thumb and pulling the thick pages free. Jake and I waited in
the doorway, unsure if he expected us to follow. I wanted to look over at Jake,
to see if his expression would prompt me to either walk into the room or escape
back downstairs, but my eyes took in the rumpled bed, which was still very much
occupied.

Swallowing
hard, I forced myself to focus on Shane. I couldn’t help bristling at how
pleased he looked as he paged through the work he didn’t do.

“Ty’s
downstairs?” Shane asked finally.

But
my gaze was pulled toward the form lying beneath the crumpled sheet.

I
nodded. “He’s in the kitchen.”

The
form moved, stretched then rolled over.
Evie?
My palms were sweating. I
finally understood. This was what Shane wanted all along. He wanted me to find
the girl of my dreams lying in a bed that minutes ago occupied both she and the
boy I hated. It was possibly the best form of revenge he could ever throw at
me.

The
girl beneath the sheets sat up and ran her fingers threw her hair, clearly
unaffected by the fact that she had an audience. And my jaw dropped.

“Tell
everyone we’ll be down in a minute,” Shane said casually, as if having a girl
other than Evie wasn’t a big deal.

Jake
ushered me out of the room and pulled the door closed behind us. “Listen,
Mitman.

This
is how things are around here. It’s probably best that you just forget what you
saw in there.”

I
watched as he opened his mouth to say more but the sound of glass shattering
from downstairs stopped him, and he rolled his eyes with frustration. “I’ll be
back. Just make yourself at home.”

Stirrings
came from behind the door at my back, and my heart stammered. It could have
been Evie in there. I could have walked in on them, and if I had . . . I
couldn’t begin to think of what I would have done. All I knew, after what I had
just seen, I was determined more than ever to find her. I made my way toward
the steps, battling overwhelming shock and dual relief that Tara Reynolds could
look so good in nothing more than a sheet.

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Evie

It took
approximately twenty-two minutes for Tara to get drunk. The giggling, snorting,
leaning on the person closest to you, kind of intoxication she so often found
herself a victim of at these parties. Tara didn’t realize how embarrassing she
was, so after swirling the contents of whatever was lying at the bottom of my
cup and pretending to like it, I decided to leave her in the kitchen where
there was more than one person available to babysit her, and a solid counter
for her to lean against.

I
didn’t care to know where Shane had disappeared to and I didn’t care if he knew
I had resigned to park myself on a chair on the back deck, far from the
suffocating crowd in the living room. It gave me the perfect view of the front
door, which I watched like a hawk.

The
lake air refreshed and cleared my senses, so it was only natural that I
breathed in hungry gulps of it as I tried to calm myself down and saw tonight
for what it really was—this party was a turning point.

Shane
and I were over, that was a given, while Chase and I were at a beginning of
something I hadn’t dared try to figure out yet. While I let it sink in, there
was one thing I was certain of, and that was we were vulnerable. Not only to
the new emotions stirring between us, but absolutely defenseless against any
game Shane would play to get back at me.

I
knew what Shane was capable of and it chilled my heart, especially now that I
too had been on the receiving end of his emotions. I had wanted Chase to steer
clear of him, only that was impossible. The ridiculous, miraculous assignment
in Mr. Floyd’s class forced me to take this chance. Now, the rest was up to
Chase and me. Could we weather the storm and come out safely?

I
took a long look at the vicious mix resting at the bottom of my cup, made a
face, and poured it over the side of the deck. There was still no sign of Chase
and little pangs of worry had already begun to eat at me. The call of a loon
settling in for the night sounded from across the lake and then, I breathed a
sigh of relief at the sight of Ty’s familiar head bobbing around the room. Ty
wouldn’t be here without Chase. That was the plan; which meant Chase had to be
around here somewhere.

Craning
for a hopeful glimpse, I instead spied Tara, wobbling her way up the stairs.
Either she was sick already or someone had enough sense to tell her to go lie
down. I rose from my chair about to check on her. She was my ride home later,
and the sooner she started sobering up the better—only I stopped short,
unable to move past the handle of the sliding door. Through the pane of glass I
watched Shane sneak up behind her, her giggles clearly audible from where I
stood on the deck. He guided her by the small of her back as he followed
behind. At first, the thought of him being a helpful friend entered my mind,
but instinct told me not to trust that.

My
trust in Shane had already been shattered.

His
eyes slowly surveyed the room below, as if making sure everyone was either too
busy or too smashed to pay attention. When his eyes seemed to penetrate the
glass I stood behind, I stepped backward, making myself as invisible as I could
be, and held my breath. There was too much light bouncing off the glass from
the inside of the house for him to notice that I watched them.

Tara
turned, grabbed his hands and pulled him up the stairs behind her. My stomach
twisted. I’d seen too much to question when it came to glass and reflections
lately, and I knew without a doubt there was more than friendship in that look
passed between my boyfriend and my best friend—both in the chem lab
window and tonight. Now, the question was how long had it been going on, and I
knew for certain Shane had played me yet again.

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Chase

There was
an awkwardness that hung heavily around me, and since I couldn’t find Jake
anywhere, and I didn’t want to look like his shadow, I slid the door to the
back deck along the track, and stepped out into the clear night.

“You
found me.” Her whisper startled me.

I
turned to see Evie curled up, her legs beneath her, on an Adirondack chair and
felt flooded with relief that I’d found her.

“Some
party.” I eyed the empty cup she held in her hand and wondered what had been in
it.

She
smiled sweetly, but even in the dark I could note a touch of jumpiness in her
eyes. I pulled a neighboring chair over and slid it next to hers. Leaning
forward with elbows on knees, I ran my hands through the hair hanging over my
eyes.

“Well?”
she asked. “How did it go?”

It
was nearly impossible to look into her hazel eyes and tell her the truth, to
tell her I had been scared shitless, but I bit my tongue. I was the hero here
tonight, right? I gave my head a little shake and tried to smile reassuringly
for her. “Surprisingly easy,” I admitted. “I mean, I looked out the rear mirror
a million times, waiting for flashing lights to pull me over, but otherwise, it
went okay.”

“But
the police were notified, so an arrest would have only been for show, right?”

I
nodded. Despite the unease, I felt a rush. It made me feel strong and worthy,
and confident that Headmaster Whitley would hold true to his word. Nothing
would compare to this moment.

And
Evie knew about the plan. That made it better. Although it didn’t erase the
fact that all this never should have happened in the first place.

“It
never should’ve escalated to this,” I whispered as my eyes stole a glimpse of
the calm water stretching across the horizon. The gentle knocking of a boat
tethered to the dock at the edge of the property was dull and rhythmic. It
reminded me of a ticking time bomb, ready to explode in my face. “Shane’s uncle
knew he had a problem all along, he should’ve done something about it long ago.
He never should have needed anyone to clean up for him.”