Bitter

twenty-three - cal

12:34. That was the time when I checked my phone, standing on the sidewalk in front of Jason's house. It was dark out and a little cold, so I put my hood up and walked right up the pathway to his front porch. I could hear the muffled music thumping inside and I saw silhouettes pass across the windows, indicating that this party would be packed.

   "Heyyy," someone said from one of the benches on the porch, shadows masking their face. "It's Cal," they said, their words slurred. I just ignored them and opened the front door since it was already unlocked. The music flooded out all at once and purple, blue, and red light escaped outside into the front yard briefly, just before I closed the door behind me. I just stood there in the entryway, people covering every inch of every room. Wow. Jason had really gone all out.

   The bass of the current song was rumbling the entire house as I pushed my way through groups of people, all clustered together with cups in their hands and either yelling to each other over the music or dancing and laughing in the colorful lights. A few people latched onto my arm like leeches, trying to get me to slow down and enjoy the party, but I shook them off and continued searching the rooms for Haley.

   None of them—not Marco, not Zach, not Jason—were to be found. I was able to make out Meg and a few of her friends in the dining room, all giggling about something in the purple light. Maybe it wasn't the best idea to go over to them since I wasn't going with Meg to homecoming anymore, but my feet led me over there anyway. They were all looking at me and Aly, a girl Zach was in love with, narrowed her eyes at me.

"Have any of you seen West?" I yelled over the music.

Aly tossed her dark hair over her shoulder, then crossed her arms. "No, we haven't," she declared. She exchanged a glance with Meg who was avoiding all eye contact with me. Yeah, I wasn't getting anywhere talking to them. If you made Meg hate you, the rest of her friends would hate you too.

I rolled my eyes and headed for the kitchen, bumping into a bunch of people who were probably in a lot of my classes (but it was too dark to recognize any of them). It was getting hot inside, especially with my sweatshirt on, so I pushed past someone blowing smoke in the air and made my way over to the sliding glass door, opening it to step onto the patio.

That was when the weirdest thing happened. Right after I put my hood down to let some air cool my face, Lydia hurried up the patio steps and walked right up to me. "The new student is West Haley," she told me urgently, like we spoke on a regular basis. She didn't care that she was talking to me of all people.

"I know," I said. "Do you know where he is?" I looked down at her and noticed how she was shifting around a lot, her gaze scanning the entire backyard, pool and all.

She shook her head and that was when her eyes flicked up to see the bruises on my face. At least that's what I assumed she was staring at, though she didn't say anything about it. "I think he's going to hurt Marco," she blurted out.

Since when did she care about Marco? "Have you seen him tonight?" I asked.

"No," she admitted, her voice breaking a little. She looked at me seriously and let out a shaky breath. "He's got the switchblade." We both went completely quiet.

And with that, she looked away and ended the conversation. She hurried around me and disappeared inside the house, leaving me alone with the turquoise pool and the scent of chlorine in the night air.