by Rebel Hart
And my stomach twisted with nerves.
“Uh… Where are we going?” I asked.
She snickered. “Where else would we be going? We’re headed to The Undersound.”
My jaw went a little slack. I really didn’t think that Suli would have planned my graduation dinner there. She knew that The Undersound was part of the whole reason Aria flipped out, and Codie had already confiscated my ID and told me not to come back. There was no way he was just going to let it slide, and besides, I promised Aria I wouldn’t go there.
“Um…” I let out an awkward laugh. “Why there? Are we just swinging by, or…?”
Her nose bunched up in confusion. “Huh? No. That’s where your party is. It’s like our home base and you haven’t been in a few months, I figured what better place to celebrate than in one of our famous VIP booths. I even actually paid for it this time so that we can’t be kicked out or anything. You’re gonna love it. The gang’s all there already.”
“Even Codie?” I said nervously.
“Yeah!” She squeezed my hand reassuringly. “Now I know that he said he wouldn’t stand for you coming back here at all, but I talked to him and convinced him to be calm about it just this once. I swear, no booze or drugs or anything crazy, just dinner and enjoying one another. Some dancing maybe, but that’s it. He understands and is chill about it, I promise.”
I scratched the back of my head, knowing that if Hannah saw that I was heading to The Undersound, even with the totally hands-off way she’d been as of late, there was a small chance she’d tell Aria, or at least Tristan. “I promised Aria I wouldn’t come here.”
“I know,” Suli said as she pulled into the parking lot, “but I’m hoping she’ll forgive just this one time. The Undersound means a lot to you, and I guess I understand her reasoning for not wanting you to be around stuff that’s bad for you in her opinion.” She rolled her eyes. “But we all know that you’re trying not to do that stuff, so it’ll be fine. We’re not gonna let you drink, do any illegal substances, or get caught by security. We’re slipping in the side door and are going to stay in our booth most of the night. Honestly, the closest to doing anything bad tonight that you’ll get is the fact that I think the chicken riesling was made with a hint of riesling.”
The whole thing gave me a bad feeling in my gut. Aria was counting on me to keep my promise, and she was right, The Undersound was full of bad influences. Then again, Suli already went to all the trouble to put together something nice for me, and it wasn’t like there was anything inside that Suli couldn’t have gotten at her own apartment if she really wanted to. Apart from The Undersound being a 21+ club, there wasn’t really any additional risk, and if Suli was swearing that her and the rest of our friends weren’t going to let me get into anything bad, then I could trust it, right? Codie would be there, and he promised Aria he would help her keep me on the straight and narrow.
By all accounting, it should be okay.
“Okay,” I said. “But god help me if Aria shows up.”
“Oh believe me, we have already discussed an exit strategy. Darton will bring you home and the rest of us never saw you.” She leaned over and gave me a peck on the lips. “Come on. We’ve done all this for you and you certainly deserve it. Just put everything else out of your mind and have fun. For old time’s sake.”
She climbed out of the car and I was left with a terrible feeling of foreboding. “Yeah. For old time’s sake.”
17
Hannah
It was difficult to force myself to be friendly and social during graduation dinner with my family. Everyone kept asking me what was next, where I was planning on going to school, what I wanted to major in, and the truth was, I just didn’t know. I always just assumed I’d know by the time I got to graduation, but I was still so unsure of what I wanted. On top of that, I hadn’t really felt like my old self the past few weeks because Tristan and I had been on relatively icy terms. He was trying his best not to hold it against me that I had a problem with Aria. But as big a part of his life as she was, it made it a problem for him to know that she and I couldn’t be in the same room.
Then there was Arden.
She’d held up her end of the bargain to not be malicious anymore. In fact, she’d even taken things half a step further and had tried to be at least amicable. We wouldn’t necessarily greet each other, but sometimes when conversations ended up with us both in them, she wouldn’t totally retreat. It was the closest to peace that had existed between us since before we broke up, but I understood what she was saying now when she said she couldn’t be friendly with me.
Being around Arden and not being able to be with her was hard.
For that reason along with the others, I ended up pulling back from involving myself with Aria, Tristan, and Arden and ended up spending the rest of the school year with Ceradi and the popular kids as if I’d never left. There was a near constant conversation about getting revenge on Aria, but I mostly ignored it. Tristan would never forgive me if I hurt her anyway, so there wasn’t much I could do but suck it up.
It just sucked knowing that I’d lost my best friend and the love of my life to her.
“Hannah?” my mom said. “Are you okay?”
I came back from my flurry of thoughts and nodded. “Yeah. Just tired.”
“Sure,” she said, rubbing the back of my head. “It’s been a long day. Dinner’s almost done then we’ll head home so you can get some rest.”
“Actually, I think I’m going to go to my friend’s house after we’re done here. She’s having a little after party thing to celebrate graduation. I won’t be too late,” I said.
“Ceradi?” my mom asked.
I nodded. “Yeah.”
She seemed to like hearing Ceradi’s name again around the house. Ceradi’s parents were both politicians and well known throughout the city. For my parents, knowing that I was associating with someone with Ceradi’s clout mattered more to them than the kind of person that Ceradi actually was. “Okay, well so long as it isn’t too late. You need to get some rest. I think we’ll take a trip out to my alma mater this weekend so that you can see your new digs.”
I forced a grin. “That sounds great, mom.”
The reality was, I didn’t want to go to my mom’s old school. I didn’t really want to go anywhere that kept me in the same state where I was born and raised. My life had been so sheltered and boring that I’d always dreamed of going somewhere exciting and expanding my horizon. When Arden and I were younger we used to dream of moving to California, or Florida, or New York. Some really touristy place where we’d get to see all sorts of different kinds of people and not be so hampered by the close-mindedness of our families.
At least she’d get to do that.
Because it was what was expected of me, I accepted an invitation to my mother’s alma mater and had agreed to live at home rather than live on campus, at least until I pledged at her old sorority. I was walking right in her footsteps. Hell, at this rate, I’d have a boring old frat husband and be a proper stay-at-home wife in no time.
Fantastic.
After the grueling task of entertaining all of my relatives for far too many hours, I was finally able to slip away and make my way to Ceradi’s. She was hosting a graduation after-party for all of the popular kids, and her parents had left her in total control of her family’s seven-figure estate. There was certain to be all manner of drugs, alcohol, sex, and of course, Ceradi was already trying to foist me off on Shane as soon as I got through the door.
“Come on, just take him up to my room,” Ceradi said. “From what I hear, he’s blessed.”
“Maybe,” I said. “I’m really exhausted from dealing with my family for the last several hours. I just wanna relax with some water or something.”
“By water, do you mean vodka?” she looped her arm through mine and started to drag me towards the kitchen.
“No,” I said. “I mean water.”
“Don’t be so lame, Hannah. We graduated!
Let loose a little.”
I was just about to open up to argue when my phone dinging, and the familiar notification made my blood boil. I pulled it out of my pocket, hoping I was wrong, but unfortunately it was exactly what I thought it was.
Adren had just arrived at The Undersound.
“Aria,” I growled out loud. At least if she was going to be so much better at controlling Arden than I was, she could actually make sure that she was where she was supposed to be. Every time Tristan told me that Aria had convinced Arden not to go back, I looked up and within no time at all that proved not to be true. Aria should have anticipated, with Arden not having her family at graduation or having any celebrations of her own that she would run to The Undersound to drown her sorrows in booze. “You know what?” I said to Ceradi. “A drink sounds great actually.”
“There we go!” Ceradi and I made it to the kitchen and she just started pouring liquor and a very small amount of juice into a cup until it was full almost to the top and then she handed it to me. “Drink up, girl! We’re partying!”
Knocking the cup back and trying not to gag on the taste, I tried to force Arden from my mind. Let her ruin her life if she wanted to.
See if I care.
Due to the fact that I wasn’t much of a drinker at all, it didn’t take much time for the liquor to seep into my system and have me fluttering slightly off kilter. I ended up dancing with Shane, and not entirely stopping him when he started to kiss my neck, but when he tried to get me upstairs, I refused. He got a little miffed, storming away from me, but I didn’t care.
Ceradi was a different story. “What the hell, Hannah?”
“What?” I said, emptying my cup into my mouth by full-fledged tipping the cup upside down over my face and banging the bottom of it.
“Shane just told me you totally blew him off. Come on, I’ve got my whole reputation on the line you know. Live a little and give him some,” she goaded.
“I don’t want to give him some,” I said honestly.
She let out a little growl. “You’re being such a freak right now. Don’t tell me that monstrosity and her little friend actually got to you.”
I stabbed a finger into Ceradi’s face. “Do not bring her up. I swear to god.”
That gave Ceradi a vicious smile. “Ohhhh, I see. You’re still pissed off about Aria and Tristan. I did promise you we’d get her back somehow. I owe you revenge. Let’s make a deal. If I help you shove it to that heifer, then you have to let Shane get a taste. It’s for your own good. You have to move on. This will help you get closure.”
For obvious reasons, at least to me, the latter half of that deal didn’t sound good to me, but it didn’t matter because the beginning half was so enticing. “You’ll help me get her back?”
“Yeah, but I want to hurt her beyond just embarrassing her. We have to prove to her why she should never have messed with us.” She pressed an acrylic-tipped finger to her cheek. “Hmmm. What would be a good way?”
“Like get her in trouble you mean?” I said. “I think I know a way.”
Ceradi clapped her hands. “Oh do tell!”
“I know how to get her to go to a twenty-one plus club,” I said. “Then we just call the cops.”
Ceradi’s jaw dropped. “Ooh, that’s so sinister! I have an even better idea, but the beginning is the same. How will you get her there?”
“I’ll be right back,” I slurred.
Shoving my empty cup at Ceradi, I tripped off to an abandoned corner of the house and called Aria. Her number had been forced on me by Tristan right after we all became “friends” and for a similar reason to why I never got rid of Arden’s location, I just couldn’t bring myself to delete it. If she ever became my only lifeline to Tristan or Arden, I wanted to have the option.
Now I was glad I never got rid of it.
“Hannah?” Aria said.
“Yeah. Hi.”
“Uh, hi.” Then I heard some rustling behind her. “I don’t know, hang on—Hannah?”
“Yeah, I’m here.”
“What’s going on?” she said. “Is everything okay?”
“No,” I responded. “Arden is at The Undersound.”
“What?!” she screeched. “No. She’s having dinner with some friends.”
“Don’t you have her location?” I barked back. “Check it.”
The phone crackled as she pulled it away from her ear, and then I could hear the taps against her phone as she no doubt went to check her own location app. I stood in irritation, hating that she even had the ability to check herself, but it didn’t matter, because it made it easier to convince her.
“Oh my god,” Aria growled in the distance. “After she swore she wasn’t going there.” There was more rustling before Aria’s voice came back clearer. “Hannah? Thanks for telling me. I’ll go get her right now.”
“Great,” I said flatly. “Bye.”
“Wait, Hannah!”
“Yeah?”
“I know… I know I’m not your favorite person in the world, but I want you to know that it means a lot to me that you’re looking out for Arden still and keeping me in the loop. You’re a good friend.” It made a guilty rumble gurgle through my stomach, but I ignored it. “I’ll let you know when I have Arden.”
“Great. Thanks.”
The line went dead and I sat there staring at the phone. Part of me wanted to back out of the plan, but then I felt an arm around my shoulder. Ceradi had snuck up on me and had a wicked grin on her face. “Using the cow’s bestie to get her to a club? I’m not sure how you knew she’d believe you, but that’s goooooood. Hannah, I’m so proud of you. Looks like I taught you right after all.”
I winced—didn’t love the idea of being compared to Ceradi. “Thanks.”
“The Undersound, you said the place is called?”
“Uh…”
She clicked through her phone and had the address up in no time. “Ooh, it’s not too far away. Come on, we’ll make Milton drive.”
She pulled me towards the door with a wild expression on her face. I’d never seen Ceradi look so malicious before and even in my buzz I was already beginning to think that it had been a mistake to let her follow through on revenge. It seemed like it was less about me and more about her.
“Let’s go wreak some havoc.”
18
Hannah
In all of the time that Arden had been going to The Undersound, I had never been there myself. Not just because I wasn’t the appropriate age to attend and didn’t have a fake ID, but because I never wanted to see the place that Arden was going to in order to hurt herself. It looked every bit as grungy and dank as I’d pictured in my mind, but that didn’t make me feel any better about the situation.
This was one of the few times I didn’t want to be right.
Milton circled the block a few times, giving us a good view of the place and then parked his car about two blocks away. There were closer places to park, but when I inquired about why we didn’t want to take one of those, Ceradi hit us with a very pensive, “We’ll be able to get away easier if we’re a little further away.”
I wasn’t entirely sure what we were going to have to try and run from, but I didn’t want to think about it. I was already too far into this plan to back out, though as my buzz wore off, so too did my confidence. I started thinking about all of the things that could happen to Aria if she got arrested and began feeling like maybe it was a little too much. She’d pissed me off by taking my best friend and ex-girlfriend from me sure, but maybe she didn’t deserve whatever it was that Ceradi had up her sleeve.
“Okay,” Ceradi said. “I’ll really take care of everything, so Hannah you can just sit back and enjoy the sweet revenge. Mil, I need you to have that phone going. I want footage.”
“You got it gorgeous,” he responded.
“You know, Ceradi, we don’t have to go like full-force,” I said. “I want my revenge, don’t get me wrong, but I don’t want her to get in any serious trouble or anyt
hing, you know?”
“Trouble isn’t really what I have in mind,” Ceradi said. “So don’t worry your pretty little head about it.”
Somehow, that wasn’t as comforting as I think Ceradi meant it to be. From the way she said it, it sounded like what she had in her mind was going to be worse, but what would be worse than getting Aria arrested for being at an underage bar?
“What are you planning?” I dared to ask.
“It’s like I said,” she replied. “I’ve got everything under control. We’re just going to have a little bit of fun, and don’t worry, you won’t be attached to this at all. As far as we know, we were all at my house together all night. We won’t get in any trouble, don’t worry.”
It seemed I wasn’t going to get any information out of Ceradi before game time. “Okay…”
We climbed out of the car into the early-summer evening, and I already found myself looking around in paranoia. How Arden could handle coming out to a place like this all the time was beyond me; my nerves were shot just being two blocks away. Ceradi and Milton walked with confidence though, striding up the sidewalk in the direction of The Undersound like they were just a couple of downtown bar hoppers out for the night. I looked back at Ceradi’s car, thinking that I could easily turn around and just wait at the car, but in a way, it felt like not being there to see what went down would be worse.
This was the bed I made, I probably should lie in it.
As we got close to The Undersound, we bumped into the long line. It was a Saturday night after all, and the crowd was thick and the energy was sickening. I wasn’t cut out for that sort of lifestyle. Drinking at my friends’ house was one thing, but people were bumping into one another, swearing at each other, and sweating up a storm. Half the guys we walked past tried to reach out and touch me, only not doing it to Ceradi because she was hanging off of Milton.
