Mia Evian has to piece together the mystery of Zack Maddox, the bad boy whose life she saved, while simultaneously keeping her own crumbling life together before Zack ends up in trouble again - or worse yet, dead.
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Sometimes I'll be standing somewhere and realise that everyone around me will be dead one day. I'll be looking in on a crowd from the outside, and they begin twisting and morphing into blurs of colours until they barely resemble human beings anymore. The idea of them having any emotions or personalities seems absurd because they aren't people. They're just unrecognisable masses, filling up space until they die.
Holy shit, I need to lighten up.
'Hello? Mia?'
Aiden's voice snaps me out of my thoughts, and I suddenly remember where I am: standing outside a stranger's house at ten o'clock on a Friday night.
'This is a lovely door and everything--heck, I wouldn't mind having a door like this myself one day,' Aiden continues. 'And that window. Are those mahogany frames? But I do fancy--and this may stun you now, so be prepared--I do fancy entering the place at some point.'
I glare at his sarcasm, but he's too busy bouncing with excitement to notice.
I don't blame him. School is officially out for summer, and this is the biggest party there's been since, without a doubt, the dawn of time--well, okay, that may admittedly be a slight exaggeration, but point is, it's a big deal. The only downside is the host, Robbie Morrissey: a boy whose life revolves around basking peasants such as myself in his superficial beauty to remind us of how irrelevant we are, and how magnificent he is. Aiden would walk the earth to be given a chance to be in the same room as the guy. I, on the other hand, think he's an egotistical arsewipe, so am only here to offer my services as Aiden's moral support.
I step onto the porch with Aiden standing so close that I can practically feel his breath on my neck, and as we walk through the open doorway and enter the house, the sound of an intense dubstep song almost deafens me. Aiden pulls me inside while he pushes his way through the crowd of people I was gazing at moments ago. The house is huge, and even when cluttered with the sweaty bodies of hormone imbalanced teenagers, it's impressive.
The walls are all neutral colours, which I'd usually chalk up as dull and boring, but paired with the simplistically modern furniture, all of which looks like it was handpicked directly out of the latest Ikea catalogue, it somehow becomes quite mesmerising. With a bright pillow here and an abstract painting there, it all comes together to create something oddly genius. We duck our heads into several doorways, but none of these rooms appear to be what Aiden's looking for. I can't help wondering how big of a death wish Robbie must have to open up this place for parties.
Aiden stops when we find the kitchen, and yells in glee as he leads me into the room. As we enter, a few recognisable faces catch my eye, but none of them are friendly. All of my friends besides Aiden think parties like this are just an excuse for the Neanderthals of society to wreak havoc. While I generally agree with that statement, I've never been all too close to any of them, and so here I am.
