Page 34 of Web of Lies
Piper scowls, grinding her teeth. “We’ll catch up later, then!” she calls, waving a hand.
I stare back and swallow a lump forming in my throat. The day Piper yelled at me in the dining hall comes back to mind, as a smile the Grinch would love appears on her face. Sinister and full of dark promises—and speaking of dark promises, Carter stands right beside her. He scowls at me, too, shaking his head. Almost like he’s disappointed in me, for whatever reason. He puffs on a cigarette, stomping away from Piper with a look of disgust as she shrieks at him too.
“There’s so much darkness wrapped into a perfect little cheerleader. I swear to fuck, if I could push anyone off a boat, it’d be her.” Seger rants and rants about how annoying and clingy she is and how thankful he is he never stuck his dick in her. Claiming her vagina probably had teeth and hex bags lodged inside of it. Snort, probably.
A rag doll probably has more rights than me right now, but I just go with it. Seger leads me through the party towards the back of the house. The maze is still around us, but it’s quieter here in their backyard. There’s fewer people and the music isn’t as noisy. Seger pulls me toward the grass where Chase and Zepp are sitting too.
“Ah, New Girl!” Chase bounces like a puppy, pulling me down beside him. His arm goes around my shoulder, pulling me tight against his body.
I snort. “I have a name, ya know?” I say through a smile, getting used to the name by now.
Seger bumps my shoulder on the other side, handing me a cup. “More jungle juice?” I ask, wrinkling my nose at the powerful odor coming from the innocent-looking cup. It’s like gasoline in a glass, burning my nose hairs off.
Zepp snorts, taking the cup from my hands. “Not a fan?” His deep voice penetrates through the dark air. When Zepp speaks, it’s usually profound and vital. From what I’ve learned, he’s not a man of many words. He watches, collecting information from the surrounding people, calculating his following words and actions.
“Ermm, no. I’ll stick to soda.” My eyes stay glued to Zepp’s Adam’s apple as he swallows more of the disgusting poison.
I don’t know how he can drink it. It’s like guzzling kerosene, letting it burn your insides. I suppose if you lit a match like Seger was doing for his cigarettes, he’d combust on the spot. Although, the theory that cigarettes could light a fire by dropping it on gasoline is total bullshit. It doesn’t work much like firing a bullet into it and—
“New Girl?” I shake my head, looking over at Chase. His eyebrows have shot up like he’s asked me a question.
“Sorry, what?” I ask, earning a sly smile from Zepp.
His eyes look up into the sky where bright stars shine down on us. “You do that a lot, don’t you?” Zepp’s eyes drift toward mine, a knowing smirk resting on his plump lips.
I shrug. “Sometimes it’s hard to focus,” I say, my eyes drifting toward the shining stars too.
“When you’re around us, you should always focus,” Chase says, squeezing his hand against my waist.
“Yeah, what the fuck could be more entertaining than us? We’re a fucking riot!” Seger adds, taking another drag and blowing the smoke upwards. The smell hits my face, but I pucker my lips and blow the smoke further up into the sky. It swirls with the light wind, blowing further up into the stars, before disappearing completely.
“Yeah—you’ve lost her again,” Zepp says, snapping his fingers in front of my face.
My body stiffens as I come back to earth. This is no time to wander inside my head and get lost. This is a time to investigate and get down to business. I have my three suspects, well—I don’t know if they are anymore. The way Seger talked about Magnolia was remarkable. He seemed to have enjoyed her presence and didn’t know why she killed herself.
“So—how’d you enjoy your first East Point football game?” Chase asks, leaning back on his elbows. We all stare up at the stars, the music a distant sound, along with the other kid’s moans of joy.
“Not my first,” I say absentmindedly.
“You’ve been here before?” Zepp asks, never letting his eyes wander to me.
“My brother and sister went here a few years ago. Bodhi played football, and I was here every Friday,” I say, twisting my fingers in the moist grass.
“Holy fuck!” Seger yells, leaning up. “The Bodhi? Like… Bodhi the Body Slammer? Bodhi, the fucking legend of East Point? Fucking aces, man.”
Chase’s eyes light up at the nickname Bodhi had in high school. “Holy shit,” he squeaks. “Your brother is that guy? Shit! I was there the day he sent some poor sucker to the ER. Body slammed him into the dirt, and I don’t think he ever got up. B was amazing. Has he been recruited yet?” Chase leans up with a light in his eye.
I shrug. “He plays at Milligan. It’s his senior year. I think he said something about recruits coming?”
For the rest of the night, these idiots make me laugh. They make me talk about my stupid brother and his incredible talent. They make me talk about, well—whatever comes to mind. People aren’t my specialty, so I tend to think socializing like this is overrated. Or maybe it’s my anxiety that I’ll say something impulsive like I did with Carter. Zepp’s sharp eye has caught on to my aloofness more than once, and he always seems to reel me back in, which no one has done for a long time. My mind wanders to places, and then he brings me back with a snap of his fingers.
The more I’m around these guys, the more I see them for who they are. They aren’t just jocks. They aren’t just these crazy celebrity kids forced to go to red carpet events. No. Just like me not wanting to have people compare me to my dad, we’re kids. Humans. I’m comfortable with them, maybe too comfortable. But I want to be, but then again, I don’t. I’m confused. I came here for Magnolia’s justice. I came to investigate them. But is it time for me to cross them off the list?
Maybe not yet. But I have a feeling I will. I have more people to investigate now, anyway. I investigated Piper briefly. But with the way she acts, I need to break into her medical records and dig deeper into her family history. Who am I up against mentally, and what is she capable of? Hadley Lacey is on my radar now, too. Not only for how she reacted to me in the skybox, but for what Seger said about her.
She caused Magnolia’s problems, and I’ve never researched her. Magnolia didn’t mention her as a tormentor. So—with the rest of my weekend, I spend making it up to Tristan. We play round after round of Angel Warrior, going on the most challenging missions we can handle to power up and level up. I’m near God status in the game, and I want to get there soon.
I also spend my time researching: anyone and everyone. My list got bigger—wider, after the party. And by Monday morning, I feel accomplished in at least the Hadley front.
