Pieces of You

Chapter Six

Jamie | After

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We hear the party before we see it.

Music and shouts fill the air. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but Anna's party is bigger than I thought it would be. Maybe a piece of me was holding out hope that people would avoid it like a plague considering Blaire's disappearance, but that only seems to have made it a magnet for attention.

A row of colonial houses lines the paved streets, with long driveways slithering through the mowed grass until they meet the foundations of each building. Anna's neighbourhood is in the wealthy part of Berewood, cocooned by the woods and gated off from everyone else, with trees towering over each tiled roof, acting as an umbrella from the relentless rain.

Most of the houses look empty, as if nobody other than the Robinsons live here. And yet, as I walk through the street, I notice that each garden has been freshly mowed and there isn't a trace of dust on any of the balconies. The only source of light comes from the streetlights and Anna's house, which from the outside looks like an introvert's nightmare.

As soon as we step through the door, the beat of music melts through my skin and sweeps through us. Her house swells with a tide of strangers; clusters of cliques stand together in small, tight circles, leaving little room for Sky and me to navigate.

This is too much. Maybe drinking away my sorrows isn't the best solution to my problems. I take a deep breath, wringing my hair from the rain. The black dress I borrowed from Sky is glued to my skin from the moisture outside, leaving my skin all hot and sweaty. If I weren't already soaked by the torrential weather, I'd already be tempted to leave. But going outside means getting drenched again, which I've already had enough of this week.

Sky squeezes my hand, offering me a small smile. I'm just about to return the gesture, if only to reassure her that I'm not about to bail, when I notice it. Blood freezes in my veins and, if it weren't for Sky pushing me through the crowd, I'm sure I would have frozen still on the spot. 

Paranoid eyes dart from one corner of the room to another, and there's a strange undertone in the air, one I can't quite nail down. Despite the red cups in every guest's hand, nobody seems drunk. Each pair of eyes are a little too alert, sober enough to focus on everyone else rather than the cup in their hands.

In front, Sky turns and reaches for my other hand. Her manicured fingers drag me through the fighting crowd, and I bite my lip as I follow her in tow. A stray elbow digs into my ribs and I mutter a curse. Sky's oblivious to everyone around us – as far as she's concerned, this is just another party to get drunk at.

But me? I can't stop looking at each face, at the underlying tension mapping the room.

I didn't know we had so many students in our school, let alone in this town. As I meet the face of someone with flushed skin and eyes that are a stranger to mine, I come to the conclusion that people must have travelled for this party. And they travelled far.

I grit my teeth and try to keep my breaths even. It feels wrong here. Like there's poison in the air, making it hard to breathe and think straight. When we arrive at the make-shift bar, our apparent destination, I turn to Sky, who's already busy pouring us two drinks of vodka and coke. There's not much room to move and my heart pounds over the music in my ears. People are everywhere; I feel them all over my skin, their hot flesh rubbing against my bear arms.

'I barely know anyone here,' I shout over the music. 'Don't y'think that's weird?'

Sky's pink lips, glossed to perfection, stretch into a smile. Her words are already slurred from the drinks we had at hers, and a small part of me half hopes her mom finds the vodka bottle Sky stole and filled back up with water, if only to force us to leave this place.