Unexpected Rendezvous

Chapter 32

Jade's POV

It's not even dark yet, but the party's already in full swing when I park Mrs Smith's pristine 1980s Buick in front of the neat farm house. All those years of shovelling out my elderly neighbour's driveway finally paid off with an emergency loan car. And thank God for that, because this would've been a hell of a walk and there wasn't time for that.

Music spills from open windows, and the front yard is full of familiar faces. Charlton High students past and present are standing in clusters, some looking subdued and serious, others laughing like it's just another night at Marcus Collins'. The house is small for Charlton, and from what I've heard, Marcus has multiple roommates, but still. It's a pretty great setup for a university first year.

As I head for the front door, two girls with black ribbons in their hair wrap their arms around one another while a third girl snaps their picture with her phone.

"Make sure you hashtag it RIP Nelson," one of the girls says.

I open the door and step inside, the loud beat of rap music washing over me as I scan the crowd for familiar faces. Aaron Carlo lifts a bottle in greeting, and I wait while he makes his way towards me. He's still wearing the beaded necklace I almost strangled him with, but he's changed his shirt for something less blood-splattered.

"You made it," he says, gazing over my shoulder. "Where's Perrie and Leigh?"

"Not here," I say. "How's your house?"

"Empty. My parents are totally freaked. They went to a hotel and they're gonna like, have a whole new security system installed. They're talking bars on the windows even." Aaron rubs his eyes, which look a few shades clearer than they did in Perrie's living room.

"You sober yet?" I ask.

"Yeah. Pretty much." Aaron scratches his chin. "I don't usually drink that much. But I was so spooked about Nelson, and then I saw what happened to my house, and I...I needed something to take the edge off, you know?" He raises his bottle again, twisting it to reveal the Highland Spring label. "Nothing but water tonight."

"Good idea." I contemplate telling him about Zoe heading for the police station, but before I can, Aaron adds, "I can't stop thinking about it though. Like, this morning Nelson must've figured it was gonna be a normal day, and now she's gone." He takes a long sip of water. "Could've been me who got the call about that deal. Could've been you, right? If somebody mixed you up with Zoe."

I wouldn't have gone, I almost say. But maybe I would have; if I'd gotten a random message about some big deal in London, I might've shown up to see how bad of a mess my cousin had gotten herself into. Besides, I know that's not Aaron's point. His point is that Nelson got the rawest of all possible deals today, and on that we fully agree.

"Nelson didn't deserve this," I say.

Aaron lowers his voice so that I can barely hear him over the music. "I know Leigh wanted to tell someone about the drugs and everything. Maybe that was the right call. I don't know." He scrapes a hand over his jaw. "I told Marcus what's been going on, and he says no way. He says I just need to lie low and keep my head down for a while. And everything will work itself out."

That sounds exactly like something Marcus Collins would say. "Is Marcus around?"

"Outside," Aaron says, jerking his head over his shoulder. "There's a deck off the kitchen." I go to leave, but he steps in front of me. "Hey, listen. Is there something going on with you and Perrie?"

God. We don't have time for that conversation, and even if we did, I wouldn't know what to tell him. "Later Aaron, okay?" I say, pushing past him.

I make my way into the kitchen, where bottles crowd every square inch of the counter and a line for the keg snakes into the dining room. "I didn't really know her all that well," the lad manning the keg is saying to the girl beside him. "But we have to celebrate life, right?"

"Right," the girl says somberly, tipping her cup against his. The sleeve of her shirt lifts just enough to display the black ribbon on her wrist. "Nelson taught us that."

A sliding glass door leads to the deck. In the distance, I see both actual pine trees and their reflections mirrored in the glassy shine of a pond. I knew this area looked familiar; Marcus' backyard runs up against the new golf course. Ma laughed when she saw listings for these houses online. "They're calling them waterfront," she said. "I guess a pond is as close as you'll get in Charlton."

Marcus Collins is sitting on the edge of the porch railing, holding court with half of Charlton High's dance squad. He ignores me as I approach, because of course he does. Marcus might have left last summer, but he still considers himself the king of the school. They boy who knows everyone and everything, who'll throw a party every night of the week. Even the night that his former classmate died.

Marcus throws his head back the same way his younger brother does when he laughs at something one of the girls says. I wind my way through his audience, until I'm so close that he can't ignore me any longer. "Hey, girl," he says, tilting his head to guzzle the last of his beer. "What's up?"

"Have you seen-" I start, and then I break off as I catch sight of someone hovering at the edge of the yard, near the bushes that separate it from the golf course. Someone who's taking a piss from the looks of it. "Never mind."

"Good talk," Marcus calls as I turn abruptly and head for the stairs that lead from the deck into the backyard.

I don't try to be stealthy about it. I want him to see me coming, because I need to see his face. He's weaving a little though, and doesn't notice me until I'm almost halfway across the lawn. Then he stops in his tracks and snorts out an irritated half laugh. "Well look who it is. What the hell are you doing here?"

"Hey, Claud," I say, closing the last few feet of space between me and my cousin's idiot boyfriend. "Or should I say, 'Hey Weasel'?"

Startled alarm flickers in Claud's eyes. "Yo bro," I add, echoing the voicemail greeting I heard over Nelson's phone while staring at Zoe's bulletin board.

And then I take a swing at him.