What Happened To Her

8

1:45am...
    This pool house is almost the size of the entire downstairs of my house. The furniture cost way more than anything we own, not to mention the huge television hanging on the wall and the full bar in the back corner.
    Mateo flips a switch in the kitchen area and bright lights come on above us. He slides his finger down next to the switch and the lights dim.
    I make my way over to the huge, overstuffed couch and sit down. Mateo walks back to the bar and pours brown liquid into small glasses. He comes over to the couch and hands it to me. He sits down next to me, pulls out his phone, taps for a few seconds and suddenly music starts playing lightly through speakers I can't see.
    I smell the liquid in the glass and it immediately hurts my head. I must make a face because Mateo laughs at me.
    "You don't have to drink it," he says.
    I shake my head and take a small sip. My throat warms instantly and the taste in my mouth is unpleasant. I do my best to keep my face composed, not wanting to embarrass myself again.
    "Tell me something I don't know about you, Chloe," Mateo says, seemingly unaware of my negative reaction.
    I swallow again, trying to remove the taste. "Like what?"
    He shrugs, smiles and moves closer to me. "I don't know, what's the worst thing you've ever done?"
    I think for a second and all I can think of is today. "Sneaking out to come to this party, and everything that happened since," I say.
    "Really?" He asks. "Nothing worse than this? Like cheating on a test or plagiarism?"
    Great. Maybe he does only see me as the nerdy girl. I roll my eyes. "How is cheating worse than all this?" I ask, gesturing around the room.
    Mateo laughs again and it's quickly becoming my favorite sound. "You're right, you're right," he says, patting my leg in a way to comfort me. "So then, what's the worst thing you would do?"
    "Wait," I say, my voice too loud. "What's the worst thing you've ever done?"
    Mateo smiles with half of his mouth. "You don't want to know that."
    "Yes I do," I say, my voice too high. "I want to know everything about you."
    Mateo moves his hand to grab mine, wrapping his fingers lightly around. "I've killed someone," he says calmly.
    My heart drops to my stomach and a wave of nausea sweeps over me. I'm searching for something to say when a smile breaks out across Mateo's face.
    "I'm joking," he says, "I'm not a murderer."
    I pull my hand out from under his and playfully smack his chest, like I saw Tara do to Grant. "That's not funny!"
    Mateo flinches but laughs and grabs my hand again. He brings it to his lips and kisses my knuckles. "I'm sorry. You should've seen your face," he says, smiling.
    "Tell me honestly," I say, tilting my head. "The worst thing you've ever done."
    He takes a deep breath and looks away from me. "I beat the shit out of my stepdad."
    As unsettling at it is, I don't feel as scared as I did when I thought he was a killer. I don't say anything, just squeeze his hand encouraging him to go on.
    "To be fair, he was beating up on my mom. He was drunk and angry which was a regular thing but that night I'd just had enough."
    I put the glass I'd been holding, but not drinking, on the table in front of us. I move closer to him, tucking my legs to the side, leaning my body towards him. He turns and looks in my eyes.
    "I knocked him out with one hit. He was close to unconscious on his own but when he hit the ground I didn't stop. I wanted him to feel everything my mother had to feel, night after night. I wanted to make sure he'd never do it again," he says.
    He pauses, blinks a few times and says, "I wanted him dead. I wanted to kill him."
    "But you didn't," I say. "You did the right thing, sticking up for your mom."
    I picture Mateo full of rage, fists flying, making contact with skin and bone. It should be unsettling but the butterflies in my stomach say it's anything but.
    A smile returns to his face and his shoulders relax. "Do your thoughts ever scare you?" He asks.
    Flashes of thoughts I've had tonight alone play in my mind. Heather losing a tooth or falling into the pool. Mateo punching a man to death. For as long as I can remember, my brain has done that, shown me disturbing things that aren't really happening. Does it scare me, though?
    "No," I say, answering his question.
    Mateo raises his eyebrows. "You're lucky. I scare myself all the time."
    I reach out my free hand and touch his cheek. He leans into my touch and I feel higher than before. I let my drunken confidence move me to him and kiss him, hard.
    Mateo slides his hands around my back, pulling me on top of him as he lays down on his back. I'm thankful that my usual awkwardness isn't messing this up. At least I hope it's not.
    We kiss for a long time and I keep waiting for something else to happen. Maybe he's waiting for me to make a move but I don't think I know how. The substances in my brain tell me to go for it the only way I can think of. I reach down to his waistband and try to slide my hand under.
    Mateo moves his hand from my back to grab mine between us. "I think I really like you," he says, his voice laced with satin. "So I don't want to move too fast."
    I know we're both intoxicated but I hope he means what he says. I know I really like him and I'd love to take things at any pace with him. I smile down at him and he returns it.
    My head starts to hurt and my eyes become hard to keep open. I lay my head down on Mateo's chest, sliding my body to fit between his body and the back of the couch. He kisses the top of my head.
    "I'm happy to get to know the real you," he says, his mouth still in my hair. "And that you're not afraid of the real me."
    "Me too," I mumble, feeling myself slip away, the warmth of his body and the sound of his voice putting me to sleep.
    If this really is a dream world, when I fall asleep I'll wake up in real life. None of this would have happened. Olivia won't be slowly turning into Heather, Heather won't be drugged lying in a bed somewhere, and Mateo and I will still have only spoken about science. As crazy as tonight has been, I'd rather be here.
    I stretch my arm around Mateo and breathe deep, his scent filling my lungs. Despite everything that has happened here, it turned out to be a pretty great night.

    Screaming. I don't know how long I've been asleep but I'm woken up by screaming. I feel Mateo get up and walk to the door. I open my eyes and the dim light in the kitchen is too bright. I squint my eyes and slide off the couch.
    I make it to the now open door and try to look around Mateo to see what's going on. The first thing I see is Keri standing by the pool, topless with her arms crossed over her chest, crying. Amber stands behind her, holding her around the waist, her face pressed to the side of  Keri's face.
    "What happened?" I ask.
    Mateo puts his arm out to block me from walking past him. Just then I see Jake run out from the house and stop. He puts his hands in his hair, his face frantic, before closing his eyes and turning away. I hear, more than see, him throw up onto the pavement.
    I push hard on Mateo's arm, using all of my sleepy strength until I finally get through. Then I see it. There's a body floating face down in the pool. I see the hair, the clothes, the shape of my best friend but my brain can't process it. She's fine, she has to be. Why is everyone freaking out, she's just swimming?
    I don't realize I'm walking toward the pool until I feel Mateo pull me back. "We have to call an ambulance," he says, loud enough for everyone to hear.
    I guess someone does because I hear a voice saying the address, I think someone's dead, please hurry. I just stare at Olivia slowly rotating in the waters current.
    "Come on," Mateo says, guiding me away from the pool and toward the house. I keep my eyes on Olivia as long as I can, waiting for her to pop up and laugh about how she tricked us all.
    Inside the house, Mateo takes me into the kitchen, fills a glass with water and hands it to me.
    "Drink, please," he says. "Are you ok?"
    I take a sip from the glass and nod my head. My mind is swirling but I don't feel anything. Maybe I'm in shock or too fucked up to know how I'm supposed to react.
    "Let's go wait outside, you don't need to be in here," he says.
    Mateo leads me out the front door and sits me in a chair on the porch. He disappears and comes back a minute later with a blanket that he wraps around my shoulders.
    I sit completely still, letting memories and thoughts play in my mind. A rollercoaster of events and emotions take over me. I focus on the lawn in front of me and let the sounds of distant sirens hypnotize me.