Grim Business

Chapter Nine

When her father left around 6:00 PM, Phoebe couldn’t believe her luck. She had been afraid that she would have to try and sneak out with him there, but this she could do; this wasn’t impossible. For the first time, Phoebe was going to rebel.

It helped that this entire punishment was unfair. She had done nothing to deserve such harsh ramifications; no, she didn’t tell him she was going out, but when did she ever? He was hardly even there to tell. Not to mention, it hadn’t been that late; it was well before her curfew. Just because something bad happened, she had to bear the brunt of the blame. It wasn’t right—she was not about to put her social life completely on hold because of some possible danger. Especially when she was only just now getting a social life to begin with.

Casting a glance in the driveway to make sure that her dad really was gone, she checked herself in her floor length closet mirror one last time to make sure she looked good. Her hair was done in soft waves, and she was wearing a short midnight blue dress with small silver flowers embroidered into the material. She put on her black leather jacket over the dress, since it was her favorite, and a pair of black stockings with simple black pumps. She completed the look with a thick black liner and eye shadow, as well as lip gloss and sparkles around her temples. All in all, she felt she was looking pretty good. Hopefully, Ethan would think the same thing.

Phoebe blushed at that thought; she’d never actively pursued a guy, but for once, she felt like she had a shot. The way he’d held her just a few days ago in the hallway had been shocking, but at some point, she realized that she liked the way it had felt. She wanted more of that. For so long, Phoebe had been afraid to stand out. It didn’t have to be that way, though. Standing out was not necessarily a bad thing. Maybe, if she just owned it, people would find less pleasure in teasing her. Going to this party, she hoped it would set the stage for an entirely different Phoebe, a Phoebe that wasn’t afraid to be who she was.

Later, Phoebe would be shocked by how right she was about that.

Either way, now was the time. She took a deep breath, smiled at her reflection, then turned towards her window. Sneaking out of the window wasn’t necessary, really. She knew that. But when you thought of sneaking out, the experience just wasn’t complete without a hair-raising climb down the drainpipe. There was a line of bushes beneath her window, which really made this whole thing ideal. Except for the brambles in the hair part, of course, for which she had a brush in her bag.

Slinging her purse on her shoulder, Phoebe stepped up onto the frame of the window. It seemed a much further drop now that she was there. Her stomach swam, and she glanced sideways at the gutter drain. Could she really make the jump? Well, there was only one way to find out. Closing her eyes and trying to find her bravery, the same way she had that night in the woods, Phoebe took a deep breath…and leapt.

For one sickening moment, Phoebe felt she was going to miss. Gravity took its course and she started the journey to the ground, and then her fingers just barely latched onto the drainpipe in time to halt her fall. She scrambled to get both hands and feet on it, the whole thing shaking violently with the surprising weight. It clearly was not meant to hold up a teenaged girl. “Oh, god, oh man, this thing is going to fall,” she gasped. It was strangely soothing to hear her own voice on the swinging gutter. It reminded her that she had control, that she was present and not in some nightmare.

Taking one last steadying breath, she began edging her way down the side of the house. When she was just a few feet up, she let go, toppling down into the bushes.

The landing was definitely not as soft as she would have liked. She’d had this idea in her mind, that the leaves would cushion her fall much the same way that pads on the ground in the gym cushioned one’s fall; that wasn’t the case. The branches of the bush scratched and tangled in her clothes and hair, creating little bleeding marks on any exposed skin and poking small holes in her clothing, and her butt hit the ground hard, sending vibrations of pain up through the tailbone into her back. “Ugh,” she groaned, slowly pulling herself to her feet and disentangling herself from the bush. “Stupid bush.”