Chapter 6 Hey, Baby, You Eighteen? #2
Stopping abruptly in front of the small house with an overgrown jungle for a yard on the corner of Jefferson and Main, I turned, running right into Connor’s hard chest. “Um,” I mumbled, taking a step back. “Was that a threat?”
He huffed out a laugh, gently guiding me to the side of the sidewalk so a group of guys could pass.
“No. It’s just not safe for you to be walking around at night.
” His piercing blue eyes studied my face, and he shook his head.
“Sorry, I’m still a little messed up from the other morning.
” When he started walking, I joined him.
“What happened?” I tried to adjust my bra, but only managed to stretch the black plastic.
He glanced at me, then back at the cracked sidewalk. “There was a dead body at one of the construction sites I work at.”
I grabbed his arm, bringing him closer. “What?”
“It was a girl I went to high school with.”
Looking down the empty street as if someone would jump out at us, I pressed myself into Connor’s side. “That’s terrifying.”
He cleared his throat, his arm tightening around mine. “Yeah. So that’s why I want to make sure you make it to your friends in one piece.”
Of course, he’s just being a good guy.
The heavy thump of bass got louder as we approached the run-down two-story house. A few people stood on the front porch, laughing and carrying on. I wondered where the girls were. As soon as I got inside, I needed to make sure we stuck together.
Connor brought us to a stop a few houses down, but didn’t drop my arm. “Are you going to be okay?”
I looked up at him, a smile playing on my lips. “I think so.”
He frowned and took out his phone. “Give me your number.”
“And why would I do that?” I dropped his arm, crossing mine in front of my chest.
“So, you can text me if you need a ride home.”
“We have DDs,” I said, pulling my phone from my tiny purse.
He took it and called his, letting it ring three times. Hanging up, he handed it back to me and tapped away on his. “This way, you don’t have to wait for them.”
My phone buzzed, and I opened the message.
UNKNOWN
Connor McCormick—text me if you need me
“Thanks.” I glanced at the party, and suddenly it was the last place in the world I wanted to be. “I guess you need to get to work.”
Connor nodded but didn’t move.
The front door of the Gamma house opened, and I could finally make out the words to the song. “I like this song.”
Connor took a step closer, still not leaving for work. “It’s a good one.”
Standing in the middle of the sidewalk, totally uninterested in what sounded like an awesome party, I decided I needed to clear the air. “Connor, I—”
“Oh, hey!” Meg’s voice cut through the tension, popping the little bubble surrounding us.
Connor shut his eyes, dropping his chin to his chest. “Hey,” he said with little enthusiasm.
Meg rushed to Connor’s side, reaching for his arm as soon as she was close enough. “We’d better hurry if we’re going to clock in on time.”
Connor gave her a tight-lipped smile before turning to me. “Text me later if you need a ride.”
“Sure. Have a good shift.” I smiled at the two of them and then watched as they walked away, Meg chatting up a storm while Connor only nodded. When they reached the end of the block, he looked over his shoulder and shouted, “Go inside.”
Maybe I was wrong about that night. What if he is interested?
Biting back a smile, I waved and ran up the steps past the Gammas shotgunning beers.
“Sarah!” Mona hollered, gesturing for me to join her inside. As I crossed the threshold, I texted Jamie.
Made it.
Jamie-tutoring
K
Have a good night
You too
Kat stomped over to us, her face as pink as her hair. “You guys want to help me with something?”
A couple of hours later, the house was packed, and Kat was ushering us out the back door and down the alley to where her Grand Caravan was parked.
“You got the masks?” Kat asked Rae, looking into the back of the van.
Rae climbed back from the driver’s seat and shoved a plastic bin toward her. “Halloween, Mardi Gras, and sports. Gotta love senior wills.”
Mona jerked her chin at Rae. “You playing getaway driver?”
Rae twirled the keys on her finger and leaned against the bumper.
“You know it.” She was the only sober one among us because she had an early flight the next morning to make it to her older brothers’ playoff games.
St. Louis’s professional hockey team, The Storm, had somehow made it to the finals, and Rae was expected to make the rest of the series.
Kat grinned as she snatched a gruesome rubber mask. “Oh, yeah.”
“I’m sorry. What’s happening?” I took the hockey mask handed to me.
“We’re robbing Duncan,” Kat said, her smile turning sinister.
Mona sifted through the container. “It’s time for karma to come for his ass.”
“Oh, let’s go.” My heart raced thinking about getting into trouble again, but I was done playing it safe.
Kat tied up her bright pink hair. “Yeah?”
I nodded. “Yeah. Let’s do it.” It was time to be more than the bail money. It was time for me to be an accomplice.
The back door to the Soy Bomb, the Beta Alpha Beta house, opened, and their president, Andrea, walked out and over to us.
“Shit,” Kat muttered, and everyone hid their masks.
Closing the back of the van and stepping directly in her path, I smiled brightly. “Hey there.”
“Sarah.” She peered around me and lifted her chin. “Kat. What are you guys doing here?”
I shuffled back. “Uh—”
“Revenge,” Kat said bluntly.
Andrea considered her former big and slowly nodded. “Understood.” She patted the side of the van and sauntered away, joint in hand.
“It’s a shame she deactivated.” Mona sighed, tying on a red sequined eye mask.
“All right. If we’re not back in ten minutes, leave without us.” Kat’s face was deadly serious.
“You got it.” Rae gave her a thumbs up, then set a timer on her phone.
Kat rolled her eyes, bumping my shoulder. “Mask up.”
Even though wearing a mask was pointless because it was obvious who we were, I put the damn thing on.
Kat yanked down her rubber mask and took a decisive step forward. “Let’s do this.”
We followed her back down the alley. At the corner of the backyard, we stopped and scoped out the scene, then rushed to Duncan’s window on the main floor of the party house.
One by one, we climbed inside as quietly as possible.
This was made exponentially more difficult by the garbage clothes we were wearing.
Somehow, I made it over the windowsill, dress intact.
“It smells awful in here,” I said, wishing my mask wasn’t full of holes. Suffocation would have been preferable to the smell of what I assumed was rotting food and dirty laundry.
“Guess Mal hasn’t been over this week,” Kat said as she started to dig through his closet. “You guys check under the bed and in his desk.
I eyed the unmade bed surrounded by piles of takeout bags and empty energy drink cans. “I’ll take the desk.”
Mona gave me a flat look but kicked the smallest pile of clothes out of her way and dropped to the floor. “Holy shit. Duncan is a fucking monster.”
Kat snorted, throwing a sports bag out of her way.
I plucked Duncan’s football jersey off his gamer chair with two fingers and flung it onto the ever-growing pile of belongings in the middle of the floor. Sitting at his desk, I sorted through drawers and accidentally bumped the keyboard. Both screens lit up, and I jerked back. “What the . . .”
“Found the fireworks and weed,” Kat said, her voice muffled inside the closet.
“Found the booze,” Mona said, her head under the bed, but her hand in the air holding an unopened bottle of vodka.
I leaned in, horrified to find a collage comprised of pictures of blond women I knew—myself and Morgan included. As I scanned the second screen, my mouth went dry. Dead center was Emma, topless and smiling at me. “Guys,” I said, unable to pull my eyes from the picture.
“What?” Kat huffed, dragging a trash bag from the closet.
“You have to see this.”
I knew Mona and Kat had caught sight of the screens when they both said, “What the fuck?”
“Right?” I pointed at Emma’s picture and said, “And when did Duncan and Emma hook up?”
Kat leaned forward, pulling her smelly rubber mask up and onto the top of her head.
“I can’t believe they did that.” Her fingers curled around the edge of the desk, and she let out a shaky breath.
“Fucking douche canoe.” Pulling out her phone, she snapped a few pictures and then yanked her mask back down. “Let’s go.”
With much less enthusiasm, we climbed out of the window and rushed to the van with our loot.
One by one, we loaded the van as Kat calmly walked up the street. She took off her bloody mask and threw it in.
“Thanks for joining us,” Mona said as she shut the back door.
“You’re on drugs if you think my fat ass is going to run for some cheap fireworks. No, thank you.” Kat laughed, but it was forced. The smirk on her face did nothing to hide the pain in her voice.
“Fair enough.” Mona walked around to the driver’s side and asked Rae, “You sure you can’t stay for one drink?”
“Nah. I have a 7 a.m. flight home, followed by another flight to New York. I need my beauty sleep.”
Mona patted Rae’s shoulder, and Rae put the van into gear. “See you later, suckers,” she said, then unnecessarily peeled out of the alley.
The three of us laughed and went back to the party. Kat was busy on her phone while Mona and I watched her.
“How long do we have to stay?” I asked. The mood had shifted since seeing Duncan’s fucked-up screen saver, and I was no longer in the mood for Jello shots and keg stands.
“One game of beer pong,” Kat said, slipping her phone back in her pocket.
Only it was never just one more game of beer pong, was it?