Wink

Chapter Thirteen

"Is everything okay, love?" He asks me. He pulls me towards his chest. "Don't worry. Everything will be alright."

I turn my full face into his chest and cry it out.

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10 hours earlier

It was almost midnight and the doors to Clay and Cain's house have yet to open. Mallorie, Penelope, and I have been standing on the front porch for twenty minutes. There is a long line behind us are shouting and stumbling, a few already drunk. Penelope is wearing the fairy costume that Mallorie decided wasn't as good as her police woman costume. It was light green and lavender. It came with a wand and is covered in sparkles.

"I wonder what the decorating theme is this year. I have no clue how they'll top last year's." Penelope says.

"What was last year's theme?" I ask.

"It was a psychedelic, hippie ghost theme. There were only black lights on and there were trippy designs on the walls and ceiling."

I was about to ask how they managed to frighten people, when the doors opened. As we walk into the house my jaw drops. It is top to bottom black and white. There is a huge chandelier and vases with black and white feathers and pearls. Wine glasses and champagne flutes are assorted at almost every table. At the end of the stairs Cain and Clay are standing, dressed as gangsters from the 20's. Their outfit are, same as the house, black and white. The only thing standing out is the little pocket hanky. It was red.

"Welcome, to the roaring twenties!" Clay announces as people shout and rush in to join the festivities.

"Please pick up a bracelet as you enter. Anyone seen with out one by 12:30 am will be asked to leave." Cain tells the crowd. "You all know the drill."

People then begin to fill the house and music come out large speakers. It feels like any other party I've been to at Clay and Cain's. Everyone is talking, dancing, or playing in the large game room. Nothing really seems out of the ordinary.

"Trust me Win, things will get interesting. Nothing happens until the end though. They let you think that everything is normal but everything changes by the end of the night." Mallorie says to me before she heads off with Clay to the game room.

I look around me and notice all of my friends are gone. I just saw Mallorie and Clay, but where are Penelope and Cain? I search from where I am until I notice I am in everyone's way of the bracelets. There are three colors, as usual, but they are different colors. They are a deep purple color, almost black, gray, and white. I take a purple one, signifying that I am in a relationship, and a white one. I'll wait for Cain and whatever one he is wearing I will put on.

"I suggest that you put that white bracelet back on the table." I hear someone whisper in my ear.

My stomach flutters as I lay the white bracelet back down to the table. I spin around to see Cain holding two champagne flutes.

"I don't want anyone to think that you aren't spoken for." He says handing me a glass.

"You guys sure did a good job on the decorating."

"Took us hours. The paper up on the wall too the longest. Thank God our ceiling is already white."

"Good thing." I take a sip out of the glass and realize that it is in fact the bubbly. I go to sit it down and look for a Diet Coke or something else. Cain grabs my arm.

"Drink. You don't have to drive home tonight. Have a good time." Cain says, winking at the end of his sentence.

I pick up the flute and he releases his grip on my arm. He says something about checking the upstairs to make sure no one is in the guest rooms. I look down at my arm and a red mark ,the size of a hand, is prominent on my pale skin.