His Shortcake

Chapter 9

Tamara Ramirez

We successfully got out of the house before Artemis had a heart attack. As she continuously pointed out during our short drive to the party, Alec would waste no time tracking me down and killing them. Therefore, for both our safety—and my ears' safety—I removed the charm bracelet he gave me. As soon as we get to the party, I'm shutting down my damn phone.

I can't have Alec stalking me now, can I?

The front lawn of the house was already trashed when we arrived. Empty plastic cups and bottles littered the ground, tripping up most of the drunk people stumbling around. Music blasted from inside the house, so loud that it could be heard from the comfort of Artemis's car.

It had been a while since I'd been to a party like this. Wild. Loud. Crazy. Just what I need at a time like this.

"You ready?" Art asked me as she put on the shoes I gave her. She never drives in heels, says it's annoying. Who am I to judge? I don't drive frequently enough to know these things.

"As I'll ever be," I said, and we both got out of the car.

Artemis laughed loudly, thankfully not getting any confused looks from the people around us—besides the fact that they were all drunk. I followed her up to the front door of the house. She opened it with a bigger smile, her excitement evident in her eyes. She is a party girl.

As soon as we stepped inside, the view of people grinding against each other in the living room greeted me. If the outside was trashed, the inside of the house wasn't looking any better. Despite the blasting air conditioning, the hot and sweaty atmosphere was still noticeable.

Grabbing my wrist, she expertly maneuvered us through the mass of sweaty, drunk students who were all grinding and jumping against one another.

"Dancing," as they called it.

It seemed more like dry sex if you ask me.

I cringed as we got deeper into the house, which housed even more drunk people. The music got louder as we headed out to the backyard, where two other speakers were placed just by the door connecting it to the inside.

They're lucky that the snow isn't falling, or they would all freeze.

At the farthest side of the yard, a lounge area sat. Art easily spotted Apollo's blonde blob of hair and pulled me along with her. Apollo, on the other hand, was surrounded by laughing, drunken college girls. When Apollo's blue eyes found us, he jumped up from his seat and approached us.

"I thought I'd never see you tonight," he said with a big grin on his face. Unlike us, Apollo was casually dressed in jeans and a plain black shirt. He didn't have to put much effort into his choice of clothing, and as his eyes traveled from our heads to our feet, I knew he wasn't going to say anything good. "Those are too short."

Artemis rolled her eyes at him. "It's a party, Apollo. Should we have dressed in ankle-length skirts?"

"Don't lean down, and you should be good," he told Artemis in his I'm-the-older-twin voice. "That goes for you too, Mara."

"And here I thought I was free to do whatever I want," I replied, sarcasm coating my words.

Before Apollo could reply, a young man approached him with a plastic cup full of beer in his hand. He looked collected and not drunk, despite smelling like he bathed in beer.

"Hey, man. Game's about to start."

"Pete?!" Artemis screeched and bombarded the poor guy with a bone-crushing hug. She was all over him in less than a minute, and soon, they were making out.