Tainted

Chapter 4: How Was the Party?

"So have you ever been to a high school party?" Katie asks while opening up her milk carton, "I mean New York parties had to have been pretty lit." I let out a short laugh and nod, "I've been to a few, I mean I always have to come up with some lame lie to tell to my mom, she's a bit overprotective," I roll my eyes at the thought of my mother letting me go to a high school party. She barely even lets me sleep over at other people's houses if she doesn't know them.

"You could just tell her you're sleeping over at my house, I mean what could happen?" she shrugs before jugging her milk. Yeah, what could ever go wrong at a party with more liquor than a bar and hormonal teenagers dancing unsupervised? Rico and James hop in the seats next to us with large grins.
"We heard you guys talking about parties," James smirks, "Well guess who just scored the four of us a spot at Jake's party this Friday!" Katie's jaw drops as she cheers and Rico pats James on the back before James suddenly stands and takes a bow as they applaud him and I stare in confusion.

"Jake's parties are the best in all of South Dakota," Katie explains as she pushes her light hair out of her face.
"You down," Rico nudges me and smirks.
"Why the hell not?" I laugh feeling regret fall into the pit of my stomach the second the words fall from my mouth.

+++

The rest of the day breezes by with little homework and a surprisingly quiet dinner. It takes everything in me not to tell Chris what Jesse said to me and how he knows we're lying. Now that I think about it that's probably the only reason he's friends with him, he caught someone in a lie and now wants to find out what it is we're trying so hard to hide. He has no idea what he's in for.

Thursday goes by the same as Wednesday and before I know it it's Friday and I'm standing in triumph as I just convinced my mom to let me go and sleepover at Katie's. I guess chronic lying comes in handy sometimes.

The bag over my shoulder seems to weigh me down as I stand at the end of the driveway waiting for Katie to come and pick me up. I didn't want to take the chance of my mother changing her mind so I told her I left 15 minutes ago when in reality I just took a 20-foot walk to the end of our driveway.

Katie's white Jeep comes into view and soon she zooms in front of me and goes to a screeching halt.
"You ready city girl?" she shouts over three more girls who I've seen sit at our table. I just smile and throw my bag in the car that'll probably stay in the car all night. I crawl over one girl and then wedge myself in the middle seat as Katie recklessly drives away from my house and to what will probably be my ultimate destruction.

"Oh, Kira this is Ruth, Vicky, and Macey!" Katie chirps from the driver's seat motioning to the other girls around me all equally gorgeous. Ruth has short blonde hair that frames her face perfectly and a small nose making her appear to be almost a cartoon, Vicky has flaming red hair and freckles sprawled across her flawless light skin, then Macey has deep brown hair and tan skin probably Hispanic.
"Oh yeah I'm Rico's sister by the way," Macey states with the same accent as her brother.

I give them all my best smile feeling a little nervous about this party, it never occurred to me how little friends I currently have. I mean this is the end of my first week and Katie's a great friend but she's so social I'm afraid she'll leave me and I'll look like a loser.

Teens are scattered across Jake's lawn playing games and chasing each other in a game of cat and mouse. Boys toss balls back and forth and tackle each other, some already half drunk and girls cheer them on and gawk at them. One guy, however, catches my attention, Chris.

I stare for a moment at the supposed goody-two-shoes and feel a sarcastic smile grow on my face as we park and leap out of the car.
"I'll be right back," I call to the girls and they all nod and give me a small smile as they see where I'm headed.