FIVE
Belle
“Kate. I’ve been looking for you for ages.” I push past a couple of shit-faced girls to fit in the narrow gap between the garage and fence, tucking the bottle in my hand to my chest to protect it.
I managed to avoid a landmine with Dad and Zeus, delaying my “confession” until tomorrow since Dad is at work. Brock picked Kate and me up as planned, much to what seemed like Zeus’s dislike, and brought us out to Scott’s for a night of letting loose.
I haven’t seen Kate since we got here.
“Hey, Belle.” Kate flashes me a smile before she twists in the narrow space to face Brock and kiss him.
Scott’s parents aren’t here, and the party has spilled across the lifestyle block with drunken teenagers dotted across the property like ants at a picnic. Beer flows freely from kegs lined up along the back deck, and the array of liquor on offer across the kitchen counter would put most bars to shame.
It’s fair to say I’ve had more than my “one drink per hour” quota set down by Dad.
“Jesus. Don’t go out of your way to spare me any time,” I snap, fuelled by the liquid courage that burns in my empty stomach.
“What the hell?” Kate rolls her eyes at me, missing the vicious look Brock and I exchange.
He’s quiet, sullen, and seems not to like me, which in turn makes me like him even less. The guy grunted at me when I got in his car—grunted, for fuck’s sake. I’m not convinced he’s good for her, but then again when has my taste in guys ever been that great?
He gropes her arse as she pushes off him and heads towards me, shepherding me back out the way I came. “Belle, please don’t fuck this up for me,” she mumbles under her breath, presumably low enough he can’t hear her. “Seriously. I’m so in love.”
And I’m so being ditched. “I thought we were supposed to be hanging out together tonight?”
Her eyes dart toward where Brock lights a smoke before she graces me with a weak smile. “We can hang out anytime, babe.”
“But not tonight, right?” I fold my arms across my chest, and then promptly put them back at my sides when my ability to stay upright decides to take a break.
Guess the drinks have got to me more than I give them credit for.
“Don’t be angry,” she says with a pout. “Be happy for me.” She grabs my arm with painful urgency. “Legit, he’s so sweet, Belle. You should hear the things he’s been telling me.”
Things that he knows will get her to loosen up and offer what he’s looking for, no doubt. Yet I don’t voice the thought. I don’t say a thing as Kate loosens her grip on my bicep and strokes my arm instead as though to sweeten the next blow.
“Brock said he wants to take me home to his place.” She gives the guy lovey eyes even though he’s now sharing a joint with his friends, paying her no mind.
“Yeah? And what about me?” I slump against the fence to save my unsteady legs.
“Your dad mentioned he’d pick you up, right?” She frowns. “You’ll be okay on your own until then.”
What the fuck happened to Thelma and Louise? Seems Thelma found Brad Pitt, is what.
I seriously can’t believe my best friend is doing this. Not only did she disappear over two hours ago, but now I find her picking a guy over me. Maybe I’m being petty, selfish even, but this was supposed to be our night out. I agreed to let him tag along, knowing it would make her happy, but shit, the guy’s hijacked the whole fucking evening.
I lift my drink and drain the remainder of the bourbon premix. “Dad’s going to ask where you are,” I point out as I ditch the bottle in the long grass. “He’ll want to know in case your parents ask him.”
“Tell him I’m staying the night here, that Scott’s parents offered me one of the spare beds when I got a migraine.”
“I can’t believe you’re using an actual problem of yours as an excuse to hang out with some guy.”
Her eyes go wide. “Belle, he’s not just some guy.” Her freezing cold hands slap against the sides of my face as she twists my head toward him. “Look at him. He’s gorgeous.”
I squint a fraction in my effort to focus. “So?” Doesn’t mean he’s going to take care of her. “Have you even met his friends before?” I gesture to the guy with the cloud of smoke trailing out his nose.
“No. So?” All humour slides from her face, as her hands do from mine.
“So, I don’t feel right leaving you with people we don’t know that well. It’s not safe.”
“Just because you can’t trust people, Belle, doesn’t mean I’m not allowed to.”
Ouch. “I didn’t only mean that,” I say. “What about the fact they’re all smoking up, getting high. Who’s driving?”
Her eyes narrow as she takes a step back. “You need to loosen up. You sound like your old man.”
I harden my gaze and give her nothing but silence.
She sighs. “Look. He’s cute, I have a condom burning a fucking hole in my bag, and I’m determined I’m not going to university a virgin. This might be my only chance.”
“I can’t believe you’re so shallow,” I snap. “You really think the fact you fucked a guy will make people like you more, or something? Initiate you into some elite club for the cool kids?”
She chooses not to reply, instead huffing as she turns away and storms back to the admittedly hot Brock.
I remember being upset back when I was twelve because a friend of mine at the time took my skirt and then lied to her mum when I asked for it back, saying it was a gift and I was the thief. Dad eventually got the skirt back after speaking with her parents, but as he said afterward, “Friends don’t often last forever, princess. Not everybody has a permanent place in your life.” I’d done everything I could to deny the glaring truth that the girl wasn’t my true friend. I finally ceded when I watched Dad interact with Zeus, hoping one day I too would find that person who stood by me through thick and thin.
I thought Kate was it. And the fact she’s just proven that she’s not… well, that burns.
I’m literally alone, on my own after slowly losing every friend I thought I could count on over the years. And all I have to ask myself is why? Why did they all go? What did I do wrong?
What is it about me that everyone seems so keen to run from?
“Everything okay here?” Scott steps up beside me, sliding a fresh bottle of drink into my hand.
Yet another person who disappeared with no reason close to an hour ago. “You’re still alive,” I say slightly too bitchy.
“I had a few things to organise.” His arm slides around my waist as he guides me away from Kate and her heated stare.
I flip her the bird as we leave, snuggling into Scott’s side a bit more. He smells good.
“Having fun tonight?” His thumb strokes my waist as we walk.
Correction: he walks, I stumble.
“Not really.”
“Why?” His brow furrows as he helps me up the back steps of the house.
I frown as he casually elbows a couple out of the way to give me clear passage into the house. “Seems my friends aren’t exactly who I thought they are.”
“Shame.” My back slams into the wall as he pins me in the hallway. “Anything I can do to remedy that?”
I turn my head to fit the bottle to my lips without clocking him in the face, yet keep my gaze on his as I take a long pull. “Maybe.” Liquor coats my lips, drawing his eye.
My breath hitches as he leans in and licks the residue from my bottom lip. Do I like this? I can’t decide. It feels… good, but also wrong for some reason. Not that I hold much hope of figuring out why when the wall is the only thing stopping me from wobbling on my feet.
“I’ve been watching you all night,” Scott whispers against my mouth.
“You have?”
He nods as he steps away and holds his hand out for mine. “Ever since you marched that sexy arse through the front door.”
I set my palm in his, a strange swirling taking root in my gut as he leads me toward the opposite end of the house. The party noise dies off as we head to the far rooms, the people thinning until all that remains is a girl passed out, her back against the hallway wall. I step over her, following Scott’s lead, and stare down at her sleeping form. Something registers as familiar between her and me, yet I can’t work out how that’s connected to the anxiety taking root in my head, or why that should even matter.
“Lie down. It’ll make you feel better.” Scott nods toward a bed in the centre of the room as he shuts the door behind us, blocking my view of comatose girl.
Somehow I don’t think a lie down is the only thing he has in mind to make me feel better.
Shit.