The Perfect Witness

The Party From Hell

Later the next night, Mia, Bella, and I drove over to my house to get ready for the party from hell.

My mom had been stuck in Switzerland since last Monday when I decided to go back to school.

When she's on business trips, she left her personal phone locked in her lockbox and only gave me and my brother her work number.

Honestly, I don't really know what my mom does for work, but she was gone so often so I guess it gave me more room for freedom.

And to lie.

For tonight, the girls and I decided that we shouldn't go to this party looking out of place.

If we came looking like bums, the killer might take that as us "trying" to stand out.

So instead of wearing the same sweatpants I'd worn for like a week straight and a t-shirt that didn't smell the prettiest, I decided to get dressy.

If I was going to die tonight, I at least wanted to die looking hot.

After scanning my closet thoroughly, I picked a skin tight black dress with my black Converse.

To cover the slowly fading scar that sat on my face, I threw on a casual makeup look and slightly straightened my untamed hair.

"Hey, we're either gonna die looking hot or take down this killer looking hot," Bella giggled, swiveling around from her mirror to face Mia and me.

That was the first time I'd heard her laugh or even seen her smile in so damn long.

"True that!" I chuckled back with a pang of pure happiness.

We all finished getting ready for the party and had Vincent and Masen come pick us up.

* * *

Masen parked his car a couple of houses down from May's house, and we all cautiously strolled over, not knowing what to expect.

Her front yard was already littered with red solo cups and drunken teenagers.

I thought back to earlier this year when we all went to that party at Sarah's house. I felt so happy and free at that party.

Oh, how the times have changed.

I watched as a petite red haired girl aggressively pointed her pointer finger at a confused tall brunette boy.

She was screaming at him about kissing some random girl while he tried desperately to calm her down.

Still slyly eavesdropping on the fight, I entered through May's front door, and we all immediately headed to find the alcohol.

Before we all left the car, we agreed on drinking straight shots and nothing else.

The quicker we got drunk, the quicker this would be over.

May's home was filled with sweaty and drunk people stumbling their way around.

I eyed everyone carefully in hopes I could spot our killer, but no one stood out in particular.

Masen hastily poured all of us some shots and quickly handed them out.

"To finding our murderer," Masen cheered, holding his shot high up in the air waiting for us to repeat his chant and raise our cups.

We all downed the first shot and discreetly looked around at each other.

"I know the guy wants us to get really drunk, but we need to watch each other's backs. We need to stay together and not go off on our own. Okay?"

"I couldn't agree more, Masen." I raised my empty cup triumphantly in approval.