Prologue....
"What d’you mean you're sleepy? You’ve
downed, like, three Cokes. You should be bouncing off the walls!"
Josephine raised her voice over multiple stereo speakers, before taking another
swig from her beer bottle.
"I know. But I can't keep…keep my eyes
open. You fink…think Brandy would let me crush…crash, I mean?" Jade
slurred, though she didn't wait for an answer, and walked with an unbalanced
gait down a hallway cluttered with partiers.
“The devil inside, the devil inside
Every single one of us
the devil inside
The devil inside, the
devil inside
Every single one of us
the devil inside…”
Pre-Spring break revelers grooved, made out,
and played Poker or Strip Twister to INXS. Tipping back all matter of libation,
they bragged to one other which beaches they would soon be sunning themselves
on.
Josephine spotted her crush and sidled up to
him. "Hey Kell! Your girlfriend sure knows how to throw a house-party. How
about a dance?"
"Maybe later. Have you seen my sister?
She oughta know that scumbag Cameron's here.” He scanned the room for
familiar red hair.
"Jade already knows,” she said with a
sway of her hips. “She's been avoiding him."
"This is ridiculous!" Kellan scoffed,
hooking his hands on his hips. "She tells him to go to hell and breaks up
with him, and she still can't get away from him!"
“Well, this is a party. Everybody and nobody here was
invited.” She laughed, raising the longneck again.
“You know, I think you’ve had enough,” he
observed, taking the bottle from her hand and sitting it on a nearby end-table
of empties. “You’re not even old enough to drink.”
Josephine’s good time flipped to flinching shame.
As resentful as she wanted to feel towards Kellan Dunham for it, his good
opinion was one of the few she valued.
“So, where’d you see Jade?” he prompted.
“She's in one of the bedrooms,” she waved in
the direction. “I think winter finals wore her out.”
He peered down the hall, unable to shake an
ominous feeling. "I'm gonna go find her."
"I'll come with you."
The row of doors down the hall were all
open, but one at the end. Trying the knob, he found it locked. An unfamiliar
chill trickled down his back, and he chose to throw caution to the wind. His party host and girlfriend, Brandy, would just have to forgive him
for busting the door down.
The scene on the other side of the door put
Kellan in an instant rage.
"You son-of-a-bitch!"
* *
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