Chapter 5, Continued, Again

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The police said that one of the students was still alive and being rushed to the hospital as we speak. They told us that we should go on with the after party and try not to think about what happened tonight. Which was a stupid thing to say, nobody could stop thinking about it. Everybody left to go to the after party though and Oliver said that I still had to go, so I reluctantly got in a car full of strangers and rode to the party. We stopped in front of a large house by the beach and a bunch of kids were already down at a bonfire in the sand. I walked in the house and saw a lot of alcohol out in the kitchen, then a hand grabbed me and pulled me through the crowd of people holding red cups of not water. I tried to pull free from the hand but they held firm until we were in the backyard. The hand let go and I was looking at Caleb, there was a pool to my left and another fire to my right. Caleb told me that we were gonna play truth or dare around the fire and I tried to refuse but then he threatened to tell Nada what happened in the bathroom so I had to cave. How did he know what happened in the bathroom?

He said Gideon told him.

He was lying.

I played along as we walked over and I tried to sit as far away from the fire as possible. Every time the fire tried to lick at my legs, I backed up farther. When the game started, one of the girls asked if everyone knew how to play and I asked what the rules for this version of the game were. She told us that everyone has to pick truth twice and dare twice before the end of the game or they get pushed in the pool. The girl, whose name was Ally, asked first. "Daniel, truth or dare." He chose dare and was dared to jump over the fire. He did and asked Gideon truth or dare, Gideon chose truth and was asked who his current crush was (how childish). He lied as he said he didn't have one (he's a pretty terrible liar) and then it was his turn to ask.
"Madelyn," Of freaking course, "Truth or dare?" Gideon asked me.
Not wanting to answer any questions, I chose dare. "I dare you to jump in the pool."
"Truth."
"Why won't you do it?"
"I'm not gonna jump in a pool, fully clothed, in October. I'll freeze to death."
"You're lying."
"Then it wouldn’t be truth, now would it?. My turn. Gideon, truth or dare?" Pettiness must be my middle name.
"Truth."
"How many a day?"
"What?"
"How many bottles a day?"
"What are you talking about?"
"You know what I'm talking about. How many bottles a day does he drink?"
Gideon looked around before answering, "around Twenty."
"What are you two talking about?" Ally asked.
"Should I tell them?" I asked.
"How did you know?" Gideon demanded.
"Well I'm not stupid. Everybody sees the bruises. You're not very good at hiding them. The marks on your arm aren't big enough to be a woman's, so it has to be your dad." I said, "You want to leave, to stop it, don't you? But you can't, because there's someone else. There is, isn't there? Your sister. That's why you go straight home after school, you don't want your sister to get hurt. What's her name? Amanda right? You need to get her out of there, and you need to leave." I was saying this half out of spite and half out of concern for him and his sister.
"Where would I go? I don't have anyone." He asked, "My mom's dead and I can't call the cops. They'll separate us, I'm the only family she has."
"It's better than you dying and her having no family Gideon! That's where you're heading, I can see it. I've seen it a thousand times before, either he kills you or you kill yourself. Do you know what it'll do to her if she has to bury you?" I was on the brink of tears as I continued, "Every morning that you're gone, she will wake up and die. She'll go to sleep at night and wake up with nightmares, she will be suffocating in grief and physically won't be able to breathe. Come to my aunt's house, and bring your sister. I can take care of your dad."
"What the Hell happened to you?"
"Look it up. It's your turn." The game went on as Gideon and I glared at each other and I attempted to compose myself. Again I was asked truth or dare and was dared to get Zach (better known as one of Dickwad's lackeys) to kiss me. Easy, all I have to do is ask. I walked over to him beside the pool and tapped his shoulder, hoping nobody got the great idea to push me in the pool .
"Hey, Zach right?" I smiled at him.
"Yeah, why?"
"Well, it's so funny," I fake laughed a bit for emphasis, "We're playing truth or dare over there, right. And I picked dare, so they said that I had to get you to kiss me. So, do you think you could just, like, give me a kiss on the cheek or something?"
"Or something." He said, kissing my lips. "Did they see us?" He asked.
"Yea, thanks. You just saved my life."
"Whatever, have a fun party."
"Yeah, don't go home that drunk, B'y." I could still smell the alcohol on him as I walked back to the seat and sat sideways in my chair so that my legs and head were hanging off the arms. The rest of the party went by slowly, not ending until almost 0300 hours. Luckily, I didn't sleep anyways so I was fine and everyone else was drunk so they were fine too. I confiscated everyone's keys and put them in a box in the kitchen before calling Nada to take Noah, Olivia and I (the only ones not drunk besides Gideon) back to the house. There would be a lot of headaches and hangovers in the morning which meant that I could go to the graveyard without people like Caleb—who was wasted, isn’t he just a great spy?—bothering me.

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