Chapter 7

Chapter 7

I walked down the hall after changing, heading back to the kitchen where I was going to retrieve the last of the snacks to take downstairs, when I heard loud voices in my parents' room. I stopped and listened for a moment.

"This weekend is not a good one," Mom said.

"We're all going to be here," Evelyn replied.

A tugging started in my chest, and I figured it was because I felt bad about eavesdropping. I knocked on the door and the voices stopped.

"Come in," Mom said.

The door opened with a loud whine. "Hi," I said.

My mom was in jeans and a t-shirt, her hair up in a messy bun.

I glanced from my sister to my mom. "Everything okay?"

"It's fine," Mom said. "You all ready?"

"Almost," I returned. "You're not, though."

She seemed confused. "Do you need help?"

"No, aren't you going to get ready to go out? For Valentine's Day," I added when she still wasn't following. She and my dad always went out for Valentine's Day.

"Oh," she said. "No, Evelyn is in town."

Evelyn huffed like she didn't like that my mom wasn't going out because of her.

"Plus, you're having a party. It seems like there might be more kids this year. I felt like we should be here. Be responsible parents and all that."

This time I huffed. I didn't like that my mom was using me as an excuse either.

"We can go out next weekend," she assured me. "It's not a big deal."

Evelyn crossed her arms. Maybe that's what they'd been arguing about. Evelyn had this under control. I needed to finish up. People would start arriving any minute.

It was like my thoughts conjured the first arrival because there was a knock at the door as I came into the living room. Sage was standing on the porch when I answered. "Oh, hey, want to help me carry some food downstairs?" I asked.

"For sure." She came inside and shed her thick jacket, hanging it on one of the hooks just inside the door. "It looks like it's going to snow again."

I stuck my head out the door, peering at the sky. The air bit at my cheeks and made my eyes cold. It smelled like snow, that smoky sharp smell. I shut the door while she stepped out of her boots, shoving them under the long bench against the wall.

"Am I the first one here?" she asked, following me to the kitchen.

"Yes. Well, I mean, no, Jack is here. He came earlier to help set up. You couldn't come earlier?"

"Was I supposed to?" she asked.

Crap. I'd forgotten I was supposed to invite her, not Jack. "No, no, you weren't. My sister was here to help." I handed her a few bags of chips and a large bowl, and I grabbed the rest of the cookies.

"No sign this year?" she asked, referring to the plate of cookies I held.

"It's already downstairs."

"Nice."

The doorbell rang as we hit the top of the stairs. Sage reached for my plate of cookies. "I got this. You get that."

"Thanks."

On the porch were a group of three girls who came last year and two girls who hadn't. "Hi, come in. Jackets here, shoes there and then head downstairs."

As I was about to shut the door, Troy and another guy I didn't recognize came bounding up the shoveled walkway.

"Troy, you're here," I said. "I thought maybe you found yourself a girlfriend in the last year."

"You really thought that?"

"No," I said.

He shoulder-checked me with a loud laugh and stepped inside. "We'll both be eternally single."

Apparently, hosting a singles party on Valentine's Day made people assume you weren't open to a relationship. At least, that's the excuse I was going to use to explain why I hadn't been asked out. And the reason I hadn't asked anyone out? I needed to find someone I liked more than being single. I hadn't found that person yet.

"I'm David," Troy's friend said, stepping inside as well.

"Hi, nice to meet you. Do you go to Lone Peak?" It definitely wasn't the only high school around but it was where all my friends went.

"No, I go to Skyridge."

"Oh, nice." There were people from other schools here! That was the sign of a successful party, wasn't it? I knew Micah's party drew in all sorts of people though.

Troy and David disappeared downstairs and I decided to make a note for the front door, directing others to let themselves in. Then I joined the group.

Jack had already turned on my playlist and "Stronger" by Brittney Spears filled the room. Jack and Sage were sitting on the long sofa, talking, and a few others stood around the counter. Troy had opened the doors leading to the backyard, like he owned the place, and he and his friend stood on the patio. A cold stream of air flowed through the room.

Over the next hour people arrived by the handful, filling the basement and spilling onto the large patio.

I tried to get everyone's attention, but it was nearly impossible. Jack appeared at my side, turning off the music. Probably a good call. Then he whistled with his fingers. Everyone quieted down.

"I didn't know you could whistle like that?" I said under my breath.

"There are some things you don't know about me. I'm very deep."

I smiled and he went back to the couch where he'd been sitting with Sage.

I raised my hand. "Okay, everyone, we're going to play a game of—"

"Spin the bottle?" Troy yelled.

I rolled my eyes in his direction. "Still no."

A couple people actually groaned as if disappointed. Was that a more popular game than I realized?

"No, we're going to play a game of truth," I held up the stack of cards that Jack had handpicked earlier.

"Truth or dare?" someone asked.

"Just truth." I drew a card from the stack. "For example, Jack will start. What did the last text message you sent say?"

"Uh... I don't remember," he said.

"That's why you get your phone out and read it," I said.

He was giving his don't make me do this look but I wasn't sure why. How embarrassing could a text sent by Jack be? He was a very mild texter. Sometimes he'd text more than three words; most of the time he didn't. Jack was the kind of person who opened up when face-to-face, but whose digital interactions were very dry.

But it was obvious he didn't want to do it so I said, "I'll go first," and looked at my phone. "The last text I sent was to Jack and it says: Get your butt over here, you're late." I could see his response to me right below that. It said: On my way. Why couldn't he read that out loud? He'd obviously sent another text, to someone else. I wondered who.

"Boring!" Troy said. "We want to know what Jack's last text said. The people must know!"

A couple whoops of agreement followed his demand.

"Give me a truth!" Sage said from where she sat next to Jack. Was she saving him? Had his last text been to her? A text he didn't want everyone to hear?

My throat tightened at that thought and I didn't know why. I cleared it, then flipped over another card. "What's something you would do if you knew there were no consequences?"

"Kill Troy?" Sage said and everyone laughed.

"The purge!" Troy said, not offended at all. Then Troy pointed his finger in the air. "I dare David to hide anywhere in or around this house and if we can find him in less than five minutes, he loses."

I sighed. "We're playing truth, Troy." Dares were dangerous. Prone to make-out sessions and admissions of love. Not something that belonged at this party.

"But we should be playing truth or dare," he said.

"Let him do it," Sage said.

"It's not a bad dare," Jack said, taking Sage and Troy's side. A sting of hurt zapped through me. We always took each other's sides in public even if we didn't always agree. Sometimes we fought it out later in private. Most of the time we agreed, though.

My skin prickled with irritation. I'd been overruled. "Okay, go hide. Don't leave the house or yard."

David stood, gave us all a salute and took off.

"You have two minutes to hide!" Troy yelled.

"Don't go in any of the bedrooms!" I called after him, thinking how my sister and parents wouldn't appreciate a strange guy in their closets, or wherever he chose to hide. And I definitely didn't want him in my bedroom.

Troy started a timer that he held in the air for everyone to see. When there were ten seconds left, everyone started a countdown. At zero, they ran upstairs or outside, through laughter and shouts.

A few minutes later, I found myself alone in the kitchen, looking in the pantry and cupboards for David when my dad walked in. "Sorry," I said. "There are people all over the house."

He smiled. "That's kind of how parties work."

"Is it?"

He filled a glass with ice then water.

"It's not too late to take Mom out," I said.

The smile slipped off his face and he glanced toward the living room where I could see the white glow of the television in an otherwise dark room. "She's with Evelyn."

"Is something going on with Evelyn? Is she okay?" I asked, suddenly worried.

"Did she say something?" he returned.

That didn't answer my question at all. In fact, it worried me more. "No."

He placed his hand on my head then pulled me into a quick hug. He wasn't exactly a hugger so that wasn't a comforting gesture. "It's fine. Everything is fine," he said.

Someone shouted from the other side of the house. "Found him!"

Dad looked over. "Go be a hostess and try not to worry so much."

I narrowed my eyes at him. "Too late, but yeah..." A group of people passed us, David corralled in the middle, laughing as they herded him back downstairs.

When we were all crowded into the basement again, David said, "I get to dare someone now, right? Since I got the last dare."

Jack gave me a look like he was asking for permission. When I didn't say anything, he said, "Yes. You do."

"I dare Troy to go sit in the neighbor's hot tub. I saw they had one when I was looking for a hiding place."

"Oh, I don't—" I started to say when the group yelled, "Yes! Do it!"

Troy was already stripping off his shirt and jeans.

He burst through the back door and went running toward the neighbor's patio. We lived on an acre, and so did our neighbors. Our backyards weren't fenced in, so each property flowed to the next seamlessly. Snow blanketed the ground, and Troy's footprints made a zigzagging dark trail through the white, the off-kilter path representing him well.

Our neighbors, the Stillers, a sweet older couple, often let us borrow their hot tub. They would either think this was funny or call the police. It could honestly go either way.

"He's such a goof," Sage said from where a bunch of us stood on the dry cement, watching him. Some people had followed him over. I wasn't even sure the hot tub was heated. We always gave them a head's up when we were coming.

I could hear the splash and yelp from where we stood, echoing in the otherwise quiet night. "I'll go get him a towel," I said.

I climbed the stairs on my way to the linen closet.

"I told her nothing," Evelyn said, her voice tight.

"Good, because we talked about this," Dad said.

"You talked about this. I listened."

I tried to stay put this time, not caring that I was eavesdropping. I needed to know what was going on.

"Evelyn," Dad said.

"I know, I know. Tomorrow. I told you I'd wait. I will."

And then they were quiet. By the time I climbed the remaining stairs and reached the closet they were gone, like I'd just imagined the whole thing. I knew I hadn't and yet my body shook like I'd just had an otherworldly experience. A haunting.

I grabbed a towel—then a stack of them, certain more people had joined Troy in the venture—then I took them downstairs.

"That was refreshing," Troy said when he came back, taking a towel off the stack I held. A drop of water hit my cheek with his action. "My turn! I dare the hosts of the party to sit in the closet for seven minutes!" He pointed to me, then Jack, who was inside the house.

The group cheered again.

"We did that last time," I said on a sigh.

"And it was very entertaining," he said.

Once again, I found I had very little control as I was pushed toward the closet. And once again, the door was shut behind us, my vision gone.