Eight years ago...
The swarm of bodies pressed in on me from all sides, gyrating with the beat of the music that was cranked up so loud the floor beneath me pulsed. I shoved through the crowd, searching for a familiar face. Someone grabbed my waist and rammed their hips against mine, trying to coerce my body into their rhythm. Annoyed, I pushed the stranger away and kept moving.
I had come here tonight with one purpose and it wasn’t to be groped by a horny, drunk teenager.
I needed to find Alex. I had to get her home.
Our parents had called and they were coming back early from their weekend getaway. I could tell from the slight quiver in my mom’s voice that something had gone wrong but I was so desperate to get off the phone and warn my sister, I hadn’t even bothered to ask.
If my parents came back to find Alex at some high school rave, they would shit bricks.
Although why I was even bothering to help Alex after what she’d done to me earlier that day, I had no idea.
She had promised to drive me to Hartford that afternoon for a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to meet Amanda Connor, one of the most famous female comic book artists in the country, and my idol. She was doing a signing less than an hour away. I couldn’t remember ever being more excited. I’d gathered up every single comic I owned that Amanda worked on, sorted them by publication date, and wrapped them each in plastic for the drive. Then I waited for Alex to get home from wherever she’d gone that morning.
But I waited and waited and she never showed. Later that evening, she strode breezily into the house with wet hair and freshly bronzed skin, smelling like the beach. She told me she’d decided it was simply too beautiful of a day to be stuck inside a stupid comic book store.
I screamed until my face turned red and tears welled in my eyes.
But she simply shook it off like I was being ridiculous. “Why are you getting so upset? It’s just some girl who draws pictures of men in capes.”
And then she disappeared into her room to get ready for the party.
I was so angry, I wanted to kick down her door, and destroy everything she loved. Everything she thought was important—her clothes and shoes and expensive designer make-up. I wanted to shout at her until she understood. Until she became a different person.
But I knew it wouldn’t do any good. Alex would never get it. She would never get me.
She would never put anyone’s needs ahead of her own.
And yet there I was. In the middle of that party. Trying to find her. Trying to help her.
Because in spite of everything, she was still my sister. And I didn’t want her to get in trouble.
I carefully stepped over a pile of puke in the middle of the floor, cringing as I attempted to breathe through my nose.
Lovely.
If this is what I had to look forward to when starting high school in the fall, I’d already decided you could count me out. Why anyone would want to hang out with a bunch of fucking drunk morons was beyond me. But apparently, this was Alex’s thing. This was her scene. Her idea of a good time.
Me? Not so much.
Just another item to add to the never-ending scroll of reasons why I swore one of us had to be adopted. Could two sisters really be that different?
I caught a glimpse of a digital clock in the living room. Thirty minutes until parental touchdown.
Shit.
I approached the next intoxicated idiot I found—a scrawny boy wearing a T-shirt for some obscure band that I’m sure he thought made him look cooler. He flashed a sloppy smile and ran his chapped hand down my bare arm. “Hellooooo,” he drawled lazily, attempting a seductive eyebrow raise but failing miserably.
I held his chin in place so he was forced to look at me and snapped my fingers in front of his face. “Hey! Have you seen Alex Smart?”
He teetered slightly but his face lit up at the mention of her name. “Alex is hot!”
I rolled my eyes. Tell me something I don’t know.
The boy clearly interpreted my annoyance as jealousy. “But you’re not so bad yourself,” he slurred, looking me up and down and taking in the baggy shorts and hoodie I threw on the second I hung up with my mom. “I like the au natural look.”
I snapped my fingers again. “Yo! Focus. Do you know where Alex is?”
“I saw her go upstairs with some dude.”
I eyed the stairs, my shoulders sagging.
Great.
Just what I needed right now, to walk in on my sister losing her virginity to some dumb fuck with beer and Cheetos breath.
“Shall we join them?” the boy was saying, using his last ounce of strength to waggle his eyebrows at me.
I released my hostage, who barely managed to remain upright and headed for the stairs. “Hey!” he called after me. “Are we gonna make out or what?”
I ignored him, tromping up each step with a sick feeling in my gut. I knew Alex was going to be really pissed when I barged in on her. She would yell and get all irrational the way she always does when things don’t go her way.
But I reminded myself that I was doing her a huge favor. I was saving her ass.
A commotion at the bottom of the stairs suddenly stopped me in my tracks, and a moment later I heard sirens blaring from the street.
“COPS!” someone screamed.
Everything after that happened in a dreamlike blur. I heard the pounding footsteps of a horde of teenagers barreling down the stairs. I felt the rush of bodies charging past me, desperate to make it out.
There were simply too many. I was a trout swimming upstream. I was a leaf caught in a hurricane. And then I was simply...
Falling.
Down, down, down. My head hit the landing with a thud and blackness swirled around my vision. A night littered with blurry stars. Feet trampled dangerously close to my head. A few landed on my hands, one on my foot, causing it to twist unnaturally inward. I heard a faint pop, and searing pain shot up my leg like I was being injected with fire.
Just before I lost consciousness I saw him for the first time.
Tall and beautiful and rushing toward me. His silky sable hair fell into his eyes as he moved. He swept me into his arms like I weighed nothing more than air. My throbbing temple pressed against his solid chest, somehow alleviating the pain. I could feel the vibrations of his hurried steps as he carried me through the throng of bodies, toward the back door.
I drifted in and out of awareness for the next few minutes. When I opened my eyes the next time, a miserable dull ache pulsed between my ears.
I saw trees overhead. A forest.
Where am I going? I thought.
He glanced down at me and smiled, his mystical dark eyes sparkling. It turned my entire body to liquid in his arms.
“Don’t worry,” he said, shifting me slightly. “I’ve got you.”
I don’t think he had any idea just how right he was.