The Lost Ones

Chapter III

          "We're going to a party." I glanced at Gavin hoping he would jump in and tell Jace no. He was grinning though and I knew he wouldn't be saying no. "Jay invited us and I got you guys invited. I was thinking it would be a great way to get to know people." It wasn't that I was antisocial or anything but I wasn't exactly a fan of going to a party full of people I didn't know.
          "I think we should go, Jamie. This would be a great opportunity to meet people." I tried not to glare at Gavin.
          "Very well. So what time are we going the party, then?" I was so tempted to slap Gavin. He knew I wouldn't argue. Jace let me know we were leaving in an hour so I went upstairs to change. I decided on something cute but simple. I may not want to go but that wasn't an excuse to look like a hot mess.
        I changed out of my uniform and changed into a navy a-line minidress with long cream colored lace sleeves and collar. On my waste I had a very thin cream belt with a tiny bow. I put on my black heels and decided on what to do with my hair. It looked fine the way it was and my necklace matched. But I took off my earrings and changed them for my blue diamond droplet ones. I still had a lot of time left over. I grabbed my navy cross strap purse.
         I went to Celeste's room to find her glaring at her half empty closet. She was still in her uniform but she had her others half of her closet on the floor. A tornado might as well have passed through. "Umm, you need some help in here?"  I sat on her bed as she tossed yet another dress on the floor.
          "I don't know what to where. I feel like wearing a dress would be too much." I raised a brow at her and let her take in the fact that I was seeing a dress. "No! That's not what I meant. It works for you and the dress isn't over the top but mine are. But I don't want to be underdressed. Ugh, why do clothes have to be so complicated?" I rolled my eyes and moved her out of the way as I searched her closet. I pulled out a pair of black shorts white golden studs in knew thigh, a white blouse, and a black cardigan then tossed it at her.
          "Put those on." I tossed her a pair of black flats. She changed, not bothering to ask me to leave the room. I did turn around however. Ironically I was the shy one when she preferred to dress more conservatively than I did. "You done changing yet?"
          "Yeah." I turned around and nodded in approval. "What do you think? Is it too much? Too little?" I shook my head.
          "Nope. It's just right. You look nice. Just let me fix...that." I motioned to her hair which somehow became a mess already. My hair still looked the same as it had in the morning for the most part. "How about I curl your hair? Maybe pin back these two strands?" I started touching her as she tried to get me to stop.
          She finally managed to swat my hands away. "I don't want too much, Clem." I told her to stay out as I went to my room to grab my hair supply kit. I returned to her room and she looked at me scared. "Clemira...what are you planning?" I gave her a smile and sat her down on her desk chair.
          "Don't argue with me. Now stay still while I work." I grabbed my brush and untangled her hair Celeste's hair was just a bit shorter than mine and I decided to straighten her hair perfectly and put it in a nice high ponytail. I left a loose strand and grabbed my wand to curl it slightly. "There. Was that so hard? That didn't even take more than half an hour. You just need to put a bit of effort."
         She glared at me. "You left it too tight." I shrugged, not caring at all. After all pain is beauty. Gavin called us down, thankfully before Celeste could change anything I did. If only I couldn't have gotten at least some lip gloss on her. Oh well.
         
          It was barely 7:36 pm and the place was already at full blow. Seth helped me get off the truck as Nero helped Celeste. The brothers went in ahead of us but Nero, Celeste and I stayed behind.
          "You guys need to stay focus, okay? We don't know when we'll get another chance t an invitation here so make sure you get a good lay out of this place. Don't be obvious about it." I tried to focus on what he was saying but I was too busy trying to figure out why it took him an hour to get ready when all he did was change into one of his many t-shirts and jeans. Seriously, I got ready faster than he did.
          "Don't you think we're being a bit obvious by just standing here and whispering? Let's go in already!" I agreed with her but as we turned to go in, the blonde girl from my first class at school, came our way. Or more like to Gavin. Celeste and I abandoned him and went inside the house. A girl with Gavin could only end in so many ways.
          The house was bigger -way bigger- inside than it it looked outside. The music was so loud I could barely hear myself think. I turned to Celeste but she was already gone. I looked around like an idiot until I saw her being dragged away by the girls from our lunch table. Great. I was stuck alone, all dressed up, at a party I didn't want to be at. Don't get me wrong, I loved parties but I wasn't a party girl, at least not when I was left alone.
          With no where else to go or nothing else to do I went to the kitchen to get a drink. There wasn't that many people at this party who even looked like they lived in this town. Where did they come from? I came with seven other people and I couldn't see any of them anywhere.
          The music was half a notch quieter in the kitchen and it was remotely empty. I grabbed a Mountain Dew from the ice bucket.
          "Pass me a Pepsi?" A girl asked behind me." I looked through the drinks and eventually found one. I turned to hand it to her and found it was Robyn. "Hey Jamie! You look totally cute. I didn't know you were coming!" Of course. I should have expected she would be here, at least I could finally smile at a familiar face.
         "Hey, thanks. So did you just get here or have you already been here for a while?" I asked as we walked back out of the kitchen and back into the loudness of the party.
         "I've been here for a while. I actually helped set up the place, so I've been here long enough to not trust the punch." I laughed at that. "So, you didn't come alone did you? I mean there's nothing wrong with that if you did."
          "Actually I came with seven others but I've completely every single one of them not even a mi ute after I stepped through the door." She linked her arm to mine.
         She grinned at me. "Come one, you need to mingle. Let's dance!" I wanted to protest but she was already pulling me along and it was surprisingly hard to pull away. A girl with pink highlights and blond hair came up to us. "Robyn! Oh good you found another person! Let's go play spin the bottle!" I had to pull away at that.
        "Oh! I just remembered! So umm....Jace! Yeah umm he told me to meet him....over there." Before she could ask questions about my obviously fake excuse I all but ran away. I get this was high school but was that game seriously still played? That was seriously juvenile. I pushed through the the crowds and actually did try and find Jace. Or the twins. Or anybody really.
         After what felt like hours of searching, I couldn't stand the music any longer. I had to get somewhere quieter. Gosh, I never thought Ariana Grande's voice could be so obnoxious. I made my way to the stairs and decided to search for any clues to the necklace or sword. On the second floor there were a few people lingering around doing stuff that should make them put money in he shame-shame jar. Seriously gross. So I moved to the third floor where it was thankfully empty and quiet.
          Mostly empty. I started checking the doors to the rooms but one after another I was met with the disappointment of locked rooms. Things just have to keep getting worse and worse for me today.
          I took a deep breath and opened the last door. I was seriously hoping I wasn't dressed up cutely at a party I didn't want to go to for nothing. The door clicked and...actually opened. I grinned to myself now that I wasn't a complete fail. However inside looked like just a normal room. I looked around expecting some pictures, trophies, something, anything but found nothing. Way to disappoint, Jay.
           "Looking for something?" I almost jumped and when I turned I found Derek. "You shouldn't be up here." I looked to where he came from and saw it was a private bathroom. He glared at me as I tried to smile at him.
          "I'm sorry. It's just k it was so loud down there and a lot of people. I needed to get away for a little." That was true for the most part. He crossed his arms and despite myself I couldn't help but notice how hot he looks in a black leather jacket. If I was a normal girl not worried about sneaking around and finding some stuff I would be drooling and maybe fan girl for a bit. He was the very definition of tall, dark and handsome. Not that I cared. "So umm....what are you doing up here then?"
         "My room." I tried not to look like a surprised idiot but I was pretty sure I was failing.
         We stood there for a minute in really awkward silence and I were to excuse myself but I wasn't sure how. "Balcony?" I looked at him confused until he nodded towards the balcony doors. Unsure of the best way to say no, I followed him out. It had gotten a bit colder but it felt nice.
          He leaned over the railing but I stayed put by the doors. The third floor was higher than I had thought. "Umm...so cool party though. Lots of people showed up." I mentally kicked myself for being so lame.
         He looked back at me."It's too crowded and a party is a waste of time." I smiled slightly. So I wasn't the only thinking that.
        "I actually didn't want to come. But peer pressure." I shrugged. He looked away. "Umm, so not that I'm not enjoying this little chat but why are we out here?" I was feeling this sudden urge to hide under a blanket like a baby. He turned around completely now to look at me. I was stunned by the darkness of his eyes and I fought the need to step back.
         "Why are you really here? I don't mean the party." I frowned at him but he looked unfazed. I guess it's hard to look intimidating when the person you're trying to intimidate can probably easily pick you up and throw you off the balcony.
         So I decided to use our cover story. "My parents and my cousin's are currently on Central America taking care of my sick grandmother who only has a few months to live and so they decided to be with her. Mr.Parson agreed to take us in so we could stay in the states with supervision. I wasn't aware I was being interrogated though."
         "I was simply asking." I was beginning to think he was incapable of smiling. "So how do you like Greenville so far?" Well that was...random.
          Deciding we weren't up that high, I went to stand next to him, not too closely though. "It's okay...a lot of open space. It's a nice school I guess."
        "Try not to sound so excited about it." Woah...was he teasing me? "So if you don't mind me asking, what were you writing about in that notebook of yours?" I so knew he was watching me earlier.
         I wasn't about to tell him I wrote poems though. "Hit list. I've told a lot of people to go to hell." I joked instead. I thought I saw the corner of his lips lift but I wasn't complete sure. "So, what about you? How long have you lived here? And why...do you live with Jay?"
        "A year now and I'm only staying with Jay for a week. Until parents come back from their business trip." I nodded and then slowly backed away from the railing. "Why are you backing up like that?" I gave him a nervous smile as I sat down carefully by the door.
        "Oh, it's just um we're pretty high. I'm just a bit dizzy. I'm not all that...comfortable with heights. Something flashed in his eyes but I wasn't sure what.
        "You're afraid of heights? You know, actually acrophobic or you just actually afraid of falling." He sat down across from so I wouldn't have to look up. I guess that was nice of him.
         "Real acrophobia. I mean, I'm not a big fan of falling either but if it would get me closer to the ground I'm okay with it. I'll probably still scream my head off. I mean I scared on my way up to a roller coaster because I always look down when I wait in lines." I shrugged. I wasn't really the type to talk about my fears to people so this was...weird. No, this was crazy. Especially since I no longer felt uneasy.
          "You know, there's nothing to fear about heights. If anything it's exciting." I shook my head at him but he gave me a tiny smile. Well isn't this night full of surprises. Derek can actually...smile? What?! Guess he's not a robot. "You know what you should really fear? Small places."
         I couldn't help but laugh at that. "You're claustrophobic? Now that's ridiculous." He shrugged.
         "Trust me it's not funny when you feel the walls closing in and then you can't breath." I instantly felt guilty. I hated when Gavin and Celeste teased me about my fear of heights."
          "I'm sorry, I didn't mean-" and my phone just had to ring. I searched for my phone in my purse and then answered it.
          "Clemira, we have to go. Celeste drank too much of the punch and now she's wasted. Hurry up and meet us in the truck." Why am I not even surprised? I hung up and turned to Derek. He was standing again and his expression was blank again. Like we weren't just talking. Like we weren't actually getting along.
          "I have to go now." He gave me a simple nod and I left. I pushed my way past the crowd and out the front door. When I reached the truck I only saw Jace and the twins. "Hey Jamie. How did you like your first outing here?" Jace grinned as he leaned against the truck. "Sorry we lost you. I was hoping to introduce you to some people."
         I went to his side. "It's okay. My night was interesting enough. Where's everyone else?"
        "Well, Gabriel went to go take Celeste somewhere more private where she could throw up. Seth went through go find Joseph. It's not even ten yet and we already have to leave." I wasn't sure if it was Michael or Jordan talking. I couldn't tell them apart just yet.
          "Sad too. I just found myself a hot chick to dance with and I didn't even get her number." I rolled my eyes at the twin, which ever one he was.
          I looked over at the house to the balcony I was just in. "Guess it was a disappointing night for all of us."