Page 44 of Lines

“And what?” Her green eyes lift and meet mine, her head tilting to the side in general direction of the rest of our group. “Leave you alone with them?”

“There is Jeanette,” I offer weakly. The way she saidthemisn’t even remotely friendly.

“Ohh, please!” Brook rolls her eyes at me. “Like she can do something. With that stick stuck up her ass, I’m surprised she can move.”

Max frowns at her, but she full on ignores him. Derek opens the door to the library, looking around before rushing us inside of the dark room. Once we are all inside, he slowly closes the door, leaving us in complete darkness. The only light is the shine of soft moonlight and street lamps, but they don’t do much with all those tall bookshelves impeding light from fully reaching the room.

Max, who’s walking at the head of the group, moves carefully through the shelves looking for Andrew and Jeanette, leaving us to follow behind.

Nobody utters a sound.

The only thing that can be heard is the sound of our breathing and the soft steps we take. If you think about it, it’s kind of creepy. It reminds me of some scene in a horror movie where a group of friends—or whatever you want to call us—is looking for their lost friends in some abandoned building. The quiet and darkness, our careful, measured steps all indicating that we are trying to hide from somebody who’s hunting us down to slice our throats.

I feel myself shiver at the picture my mind evokes.

Why didn’t we stay and watch movies with everybody else?

But no, I had to give in to Max’s puppy dog eyes and Derek’s threatening stare, although I would much rather stay in the smelly gym and watch theHarry Pottermarathon. Who in their right mind wouldn’t?

Lost in thought, I almost don’t see the shifting in the shadows behind one of the shelves. My heart speeds up, and I feel my palms get sweaty as I watch somebody jump in front of me. I raise my hands to cover my face.

“Boo!”

I scream, stomping backward, but not getting much back because I crash into Derek who is walking behind us. His hands come around me, pulling me close to him.

I know I shouldn’t, but the only thing I can think about is turning around and burying my face in his chest until I get control over my body, but I don’t do it. Even so, I feel my body relax into his arms. The shivers keep running all over my body, and my heart doesn’t seem to slow down. And now I’m not sure if the reason my body reacts this way is because I’m still frightened or because of Derek’s nearness.

Deciding it’s best to blame it all on Andrew, who is standing there bending forward and laughing out loud so strongly that his whole body’s shaking.

“You are crazy, dude!” Derek hisses at him. “Somebody could have heard her.”

“They probably did.” Andrew looks at us from his bent position. His hands are pressed against his stomach to try to control the twitching of his body. “God, she’s a screamer.”

Jeanette comes behind him, an unapproving scowl on her face. “Are we done here yet?”

Her icy voice seems to return him to reality because he straightens and waves us after him as he starts moving between the bookshelves and deeper into the darkness. “Let’s go and get this party started.”

“You are not planning to kill us?” Brook asks skeptically.

I agree with her question. This whole thing doesn’t make much sense. I wouldn’t be surprised if it turns out that Andrew’s friends are waiting somewhere in darkness for us, getting ready to play a trick on us.

Andrew stops walking and turns around in a circle with arms wide open. “Ta-da!”

“This is it?” Max looks around scowling at nothing special. “Am I missing something?”

Andrew gins at us before squatting down and reaching his hand behind one of the shelves. The guy obviously loves drama. After some time and some cussing, he manages to reach for whatever he’s been looking for.

“Hell, yeah!” Max grins approvingly, and a few seconds later I get to see what Andrew was looking for.

“You stashed a bottle of Jackie in the school library?” I’m not sure if that’s admiration or disapproval in Jeanette’s voice.

“And to make it fun, let’s play a little game.”

“Seriously?” Derek groans. “Can’t we just drink the damn thing and enjoy it?”

“Where’s the fun in that?” Andrew grins at us and sits down on the floor. “Sit down.”

The whole group exchanges looks, and I have to admit I’m surprised Jeanette is the first one to sit down next to Andrew.

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