The Whisper Seekers

Piper's Party

Derek helps me out of his jeep while eyeing my party outfit. I hear his very vivid thoughts about my ass and I give him a sly smile back. We make our way to Piper's front door and see Liam, Lily and Harper file out of Liam's BMW. Harper is in a whole new mood, even while sporting a big brown Band-Aid on her knee.

Piper's house is the most amazing house most people have ever seen. Our houses look like trailers compared to her modern stone mansion. She is an only child who is showered with money rather than affection from her absent parents. She looks like she's much older than a junior in high school with her face caked in designer makeup and her wardrobe coming straight from New York, London, and Milan. She has endless acquaintances but can name her real friends on less than one hand. Piper is always nominated for her class's homecoming court, and if she were our age, Harper would hate her.

We hear the music thumping from the backyard before we even step outside. It's clear the entire senior class has shown up—including the dirts. As we walk through the tall French doors that lead from Piper's lavish living room to her sprawling patio, someone presses a red solo cup into my hand. The smell hits me before the taste. I find cheap beer, sour and foaming. I continue to sip anyway.

The stone patio is packed. Beer pong tables are crowded and flip cup games are already in full swing. The music's booming from somewhere near the bar, heavy bass pulsing in time with the crowd's energy. This is what Piper's house is known for—over-the-top chaos wrapped in privilege. Her parties are the ones people talk about all year.

To the side of the patio, a built-in bar gleams under string lights, bottles and mixers scattered across the polished stone surface. The pool is massive and glowing, Greek statues spitting arcs of water into the turquoise depths where students swim fully clothed, laughing and pushing each other in. Some boys are splashing groups of shrieking girls, and a few have cannonballed in fully dressed, soaking their phones and not even caring.

The hot tub is also packed. Bodies sit shoulder-to-shoulder, flushed and sweaty from the heat, drinks held carefully above the bubbling surface. 

I find a plush lounge seat near the edge of the pool and sink into it, crossing my legs, my drink still in hand. The beer is as disgusting as I expected. All the money in the world, and Piper still buys the cheapest beer available. 

Her backyard is lined with canvas cabanas—white fabric billowing in the warm night breeze, each one outfitted with round beds covered in pillows. A few couples are already tangled up in them, whispering and laughing in the dim glow of fairy lights, hands roaming where they shouldn't. I frown. The last thing I need tonight is Derek getting any ideas about PDA.

I am glad when I spot Derek socializing with the rest of the football team because the more social he is, the less he'll be trying to get me upstairs. I refuse to have my first time be in a guest room at the van der Woods, where anyone can just barge in.

I watch Harper and Liam sign up to play Ashley and Brittany in beer pong, and as I continue to scan the yard, I spot some of the other cheerleaders dancing in the small stone gazebo and decide that is where I want to be. A fire pit sits in the middle of the gazebo and the people who aren't dancing make s'mores over the flames. A girl I recognize from my French class is passing out shots and I immediately reach out for one. I throw it back and feel the liquid burn down my throat. I cough and leave the shot glass on the stone railing.

I strut over to where the girls are dancing. The music thrums through the ground and up into my bones as I sway my hips, losing myself in the crowd's warmth and motion. Out of the corner of my eye, I see Derek pushing his way past some guy in a flannel, shooting him a glare like the kid had personally insulted him. Seriously?