The Missing Piece [Discontinued]

Chapter Seven

            “You seriously got the word out that fast?” Joy asked Juliana, raising her eyebrows. It was Friday night—the night of the party.

            Juliana’s house was filled with people, most of whom Joy didn’t know.

            “Duh. It’s called Facebook!” Juliana giggled. Juliana’s long lush brown hair draped over her shoulder, covering one twinkling eye, giving her a look of shyness. Her tight shirt, a deep purple shade to show off her eyes, was paired off with black skinny jeans with occasional rips. 

            “Of course,” Joy commented, then paused. “You look really nice tonight.”

            “Thanks. It comes naturally to some of us,” Juliana replied, and suddenly her eyes had a strange light in them: it wasn’t the twinkling Joy saw earlier, more of a sharp glint—a mean one.

            Before Joy could ask Juliana what she meant by that, Juliana sauntered off to chat with an older-looking boy. Joy stared after her, self-consciously crossing her arms in front of her chest. She put time into her outfit, too. She decided to wear a green blouse that showed off her form perfectly with light-blue jeans that hugged her waist and—until now—made her feel confident.

            Skittles had no idea what she was doing. Joy had called her earlier, claiming that she wanted to work on their script, and that she should come over to her house to work. When she arrived, Joy was dragging her to—of all people—Juliana’s house, saying that she needed to ‘get out more’, and ‘be more social’. Skittles now wished more than ever to be home, not at some party. Especially since it was Juliana’s party.

            “Speak of the devil…” Skittles muttered sarcastically, spotting Juliana from across the living room. Juliana had a pretty big house: big enough that all the guests, drinks, and food could fit in one area. Being way more interested in food than Juliana, Skittles headed towards the dining room table,  where food was laid out like a buffet. She grabbed some cheese balls in one hand (ignoring the plastic plates), and ate them as she picked up a piece of pizza. Moving onto the drinks section, she grabbed a cup of root beer, holding it with three fingers as she tried to balance the cheese balls in the same hand.

            “Hey! Who invited you, Skittles?” Skittles heard someone call, and instantly recognized Juliana’s voice.

            “Since when do I need someone to tell me what to do?” she replied, and took a bite of pizza. “Ew. What kind of pizza is this? I thought this green stuff was pepper…” Skittles muttered, and tried to pick off the mysterious green vegetable on the pizza. Having a cup and cheeseballs balanced on that hand, she was unsuccessful.

Very unsuccessful.

Her cup tipped, spilling soda all over Juliana’s shoes and jeans. Cheese balls rained down, scattering all over the floor.

            “Thank goodness the pizza survived,” Skittles said, hoping Juliana would see some kind of humor in this. Judging by Juliana’s reddening face, she was not amused.

            “Do you think,” Juliana started, speaking through clenched teeth, “that you can just show up to my party uninvited, eat my food, and then dump it all over me? Do you think that you can just ruin my party like that? Do you think I’m going to let this go? Do you think you’re going to get away with this? If you ever thought any of these things, you are wrong. Dead wrong.”

            With that, Juliana twirled around, and stomped off—probably to clean off her sopping jeans and shoes. Skittles made a face at Juliana when she knew she couldn’t see her anymore.

            “Whatever, I’m not scared of her,” Skittles muttered to herself. She looked down at the cheese balls scattered on the floor. “But man, I really wish I could still eat those cheese balls.”

            “Juliana!” Joy called, chasing after her. Juliana was headed out of the living room, and Joy wanted to make sure she was okay.

            “What? What do you want?” Juliana snapped, not pausing to stop for Joy.

            “I just want to make sure you’re okay!”  Joy replied, and finally caught up to Juliana right as they reached Juliana’s bathroom.

            “Look what that idiot Skittles did!” Juliana exclaimed, frustrated, while she grabbed a towel and attempted to wipe the soda off her clothes.

            “Aw, that sucks,” Joy said sympathetically, “but I’m sure it’ll come off.”

            “I can’t wear wet pants! Go in my room and grab some black pants out of the top drawer of my dresser. I’m going to try to dry these a bit more,” Juliana ordered. Joy nodded and walked into the first room she saw. Pushing the door open quietly, she was relieved to see she had found Juliana’s room.

Joy stared in awe at the huge room, taking everything in. Across from the door was a huge window, looking out onto the whole city. Right by the window was a white desk, with a plushy violet chair to go with it. Then, there was her bed. It was a double bed, and had a simple pattern that went perfectly with the lavender walls. Her white carpet was thick, and looked very soft.

After checking everything out for a minute, Joy’s eyes fell onto the whole reason she was in Juliana’s room: her dresser. Joy walked over to it, feeling as if she was walking on clouds because of the carpet. But when she reached it, she realized Juliana left out one major fact. She said to look for the pants in the top drawer. There were about five top drawers.

Joy sighed, and opened the first one. Nope, socks. She tried the next one. Still not it: only skirts. She opened the third top drawer: tank tops. Joy was about to close this drawer, when something caught her eye. It was a white corner of something, peeking out from the back of the drawer. She knew she shouldn’t snoop, but Joy couldn’t help it-- she pulled on the white corner, and realized she had a book in her hands.

No, not a book. A journal.

Joy immediately scolded herself for snooping, but her curious hands opened up to a random page.

“People at school view me as perfect—popular, pretty, and desirable. That’s why I can’t tell them what I think about that old house. They’d think I was crazy!

But I know something’s wrong with that house. It’s right across from the school. Not my type of house, personally. It’s huge, white, and old-fashioned. Nice, and classy. So why doesn’t someone want it?

Exactly. Why doesn’t someone want it? I think it’s because there’s something going on in that house. Something beyond the ordinary.

            “Joy! Hurry up!” Juliana’s voice snapped Joy back into reality. Joy stared at the book in her hands and was dying to know more. But she knew she had gone too far already: she had no right looking in Juliana’s journal. She put the book back in its drawer, and moved onto the next one, finally finding the pants. Grabbing the first black pair she saw, she hurried out of the room and handed them to Juliana.

            “Took you long enough,” Juliana muttered, then shut the door so she could change.

Joy’s heart felt like it was about to leap out of her body. Juliana would know. Somehow, she would know. The journal was put back differently than Joy had found it. Scared, Joy walked back into the living room so she wouldn’t have to face Juliana right away. Joy thought back to what she had read:

Something beyond the ordinary.

What did she mean by that?