by Saba Kapur
And there was no going back after that.
Chapter Four
When Saturday night finally arrived, I had a game plan set out in my mind and was fully ready to execute it. When I had told Dad I was going to Brendan’s party he had looked at me like I was crazy and then flat out refused, even though I hadn’t really asked for permission. It might have had something to do with the fact that Jack had opened his big mouth and told my dad about the phone calls and the text. Needless to say, he freaked out and started talking about how he was going to have to lock me away in some tower just to keep me safe. Unfortunately for Dad, he could try and Rapunzel me all the way to San Francisco if he wanted, but I was going to that party come hell or high water. If there was one thing Meghan was brilliant at, it was getting her way. She wasn’t an idiot; she knew for sure that Brendan and I had been fighting all week. His party was the perfect setting to flip her hair and throw some playful winks in his direction. And knowing Brendan, he’d fall right into her trap. So I told Dad to take a chill pill and relax, promising I wouldn’t be out too late, even though we both knew that was a big fat lie. He did lots of sighing and kept giving me his I’m a pained parent look, but couldn’t really stop me in the end.
Jack and I rode to Brendan’s house that night in almost complete silence, which was good because I still didn’t trust myself to not say something stupid around him. I was already on edge because of the party; I didn’t need Jack’s perfect blonde hair messing with my thoughts. Besides, our little arrangement in the gym meant that I’d have to tone my attitude down around him, which was going to be hard because it was becoming more of a habit now than anything else. Luckily for me, Jack had given up on trying to make small talk about a minute into the ride, and instead turned the radio up as loud as our ears could manage. Apparently pretending the other one didn’t exist was working out to be the preferred coping method for the both of us.
When we finally arrived, Jack parked on Brendan’s street a little away from the open gates leading to his enormous mansion. He turned the car off, eyes straight ahead.
“Jesus,” Jack said. “Did the whole of L.A. turn out for this party?”
There was a sea of luxury cars ahead, as already tipsy teenage girls were making their way past the manicured bushes and into the house, while their boyfriends yelled at each other not to scratch their new Lamborghinis while parking. The music was so loud that we could hear it from Jack’s jeep, even with the windows rolled up. I didn’t recognize about eighty percent of the people I saw, but that was pretty normal. Big parties always tended to draw attention from the outside.
“I wonder if Meghan’s here yet?” I said, scanning the crowd.
“Seriously?” Jack turned to face me. “You’re still on that?”
“If you’re referring to how Meghan Adams is trying to get her slimy fingers on Brendan, then yes. I’m still on that.”
“You’ve got a lot of issues.”
Yeah, well, who doesn’t buddy? Jack shook his head, opened the car door and climbed out. After a few seconds of mental pep-talking I did the same, trying not to fall flat on my face as my five-inch Balenciaga shoes hit the pavement.
“Wait,” Jack said, eyeing the area around the car. He stood on his tiptoes, peering over the back of the car.
“What the hell are you doing?”
“All clear,” Jack said, slipping the keys into his jeans pocket. “Just checking.”
Now it was my turn to shake my head. After our deal, Jack had gone full spy mode. He kept looking out the windows like a hired assassin was going to jump out from behind a bush with a pair of nunchucks. Which was fantastic, because Dad was already hyped enough about it. No really Jack, thanks a bunch. Luckily Kenny, although slightly concerned, kept reminding him that there was nothing we could do until we got another sign from whoever this Dr. D was.
I had even taken it upon myself to do some top secret spy research and Googled the different ways someone could anonymously send a message. I’m pretty sure some of the sites that came up had some illegal content on them, but apparently it was possible to send texts from certain websites. That, and there were single, busty Russian girls in my area who were dying to meet me.
“Can we tone down the whole secret service thing you’ve got going?” I said. “It’s freaking me out.”
“My ‘secret service’ thing is what’s going to keep you safe.”
“Can’t you just, like, give me a can of pepper spray like a normal person and go home to New York?”
Jack smiled. “That wasn’t our deal.”
I groaned and said, “Ugh, this stupid deal is going to kill me.”
And if it didn’t, Jack’s appearance definitely would. He had his hands tucked into the pockets of his blue jeans, and was wearing a maroon, button-down shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows. He had taken a little extra care with his hair, and his eyes looked bluer than I’d ever seen them before. There was a large part of me that thought I should just give up on the Meghan thing and let her have my boyfriend and focus all my energy on Jack. But there was another part of me, most likely my ego, that wouldn’t allow it. At least not yet. I had barely known the guy a week and I had bigger things to worry about at the moment.
Although now that the party was right behind me, I was beginning to have some doubts about my game plan. So many things could go wrong; it was ridiculous. Jack and Brendan in the same place with unlimited alcohol and Meghan Adams could only result in something bad happening. The alcohol was inevitable and I doubted I could handle a Brendan-Jack showdown, but Meghan I could deal with. I took a deep breath, giving the air a sharp, determined nod. It was just a party. I had been to a million of these and I’d survived. Of course I had never had to deal with Jack Anderson before, living proof that there is a God and he does love us.
“We should cover a few things before we go in,” I told him, leaning against his car.
But Jack didn’t look like he was listening. Instead, he was eyeing me up and down, now that my outfit was in full view. I guess he hadn’t bothered to notice it when I was in the car.
“You look nice,” he said, giving a light shrug.
Wow. Really wasn’t expecting that one.
“Are you allowed to say that to me?”
“What? I’m just harmlessly complimenting you.”
I scoffed and said, “Yeah, alright buddy. Keep it in your pants. It’s just a dress.”
OH. MY. LORD. Jack Anderson had actually complimented me, which clearly meant he thought I looked hot! And good, because I was wearing a two thousand dollar Herve Leger dress. So if a few boys didn’t have a heart attack at the party, then I’d be severely disappointed. Sure, it was a tad much for an impromptu high school gathering, but given my circumstances, I needed to pull out all stops.
“Fine,” Jack said. “You look like crap. Is that better?”
I narrowed my eyes at him, something I was doing a lot lately. “Are you allowed to say that to me?”
Jack rolled his eyes and said, “I can’t win with you!”
I clutched my bag to my chest, trying not to shiver as a gust of wind blew past. “I think we need to add a clause to our contract,” I told him, hoping my voice was coming across as extremely professional.
Jack looked like he wanted to walk away and never return, but I could see the curiosity was kind of eating at him. I was right.
“Alright, fine. Let’s hear it,” he said.
“I don’t think it’s fair that I have to be nice to you but you don’t have to be nice to me,” I replied.
“I just complimented your dress!”
“So?”
“So that was nice.”
“No, that was inappropriate.”
“I can’t separate the two.”
I gave him a knowing look. “Clearly.”
Jack gave an impatient sigh and sa
id, “I’m helping you investigate your stalker. Isn’t that enough?”
“You haven’t even done anything yet!” I cried, half-laughing at how ridiculous the conversation was beginning to sound.
“Gia, I have nothing to go off,” Jack said. “We have no phone number, no real name, no way of contacting this person. I’m doing the best I can!”
“Yeah well, do better,” I said, walking toward the loud music.
“Only the best for Harry Winters’s little princess.”
I stopped walking, turning to face him with a wrinkled nose. It was only okay when I referred to myself as Princess Gia in my flashback story. Coming out of Jack’s mouth, it sounded like a huge insult. I considered whacking him with my bag, but then eyed his deceptively toned muscles. They didn’t look like Hulk Hogan, but I hit like a sissy. There was no way the bag was going to do enough damage. My stiletto might have, but I wasn’t about to let my foot touch the pavement without a layer of protection.
Behind us, the drunken shouts of people singing along to a song I barely recognized grew louder.
“Look, here’s the game plan!” I snapped impatiently. “We go in there, I find Meghan, confront her and make sure she keeps her paws off my man.”
“Please never repeat that last line.”
“I just know she’s going to be prancing around Brendan all night in her hooker shoes.”
Jack looked like he was slowly losing the will to live. “Wait,” he said. “Your grand plan is to find Meghan and start a fight? How’s that going to solve anything?”
“It’s a working idea, okay?” I said, hands on my hips. “Just go with the flow. Oh, and if someone hands you a bag with white powder in it, it’s probably not icing sugar.”
“Gia,” Jack said, giving me a knowing look. “I know how parties work, and I know what drugs are. I’m not actually from Guam. Which, by the way, happens to be part of America.”
“Seriously?” My eyes widened. “No kidding!”
Somehow Dad had forgotten to put that into his geographical fun facts.
“So can we go in now, or do you have any other freaky rules to go over?”
“No, I think that covers it.”
As Jack and I walked up Brendan’s driveway, I did some major mental pep talking. I totally had the situation under control. I mean, my hair was perfect and my dress was beyond fabulous. Granted I couldn’t really breathe all that well in it, but whatever. If you aren’t in some kind of pain, your outfit isn’t right.
We entered the house and were instantly greeted by a wave of minimally dressed, drunk people. The music was so deafeningly loud; my ears began ringing within seconds. It had been less than a minute and I had already inhaled enough secondhand fumes to last a lifetime. Jack leaned in and said something close to my ear, but I couldn’t hear it over the sound of a group of giggling girls holding their heels in their hands.
“WHAT?”
“STAY CLOSE.”
He didn’t have to ask me twice. I wasn’t too keen on getting lost among a raging ocean of strangers, especially ones that couldn’t even speak English, based on the two girls standing next to me. They kept yelling in what I could only assume was Swedish, and they didn’t seem happy with each other. Jack and I weaved our way through the crowd, which seemed unusually packed given the time. It was just past nine o’clock and I was certain the police would show up within the next hour. I had been to a lot of parties in my time, but the turn out for this one was impressive. You’d have thought Dr. Dre and I really were collaborating on an album.
Unfortunately for me, from the minute we walked in, girls around the room had already spotted Jack as a possible target and were giving him hopeful smiles and waves. There was no way in hell I was letting Jack near the pool and the bikini-clad Barbie dolls surrounding it. Some perky brunette who I always saw around school, but never knew the name of, walked past us with a gentle “hi” to Jack, absolutely ignoring me in the process. She wasn’t fooling anyone with the amount of makeup she was wearing; I still knew she didn’t belong.
“Freshman?” I said, smiling at her innocently.
She looked at me nervously and said, “Um, yeah. Bu—”
“Get out!” I said, my smile unwavering.
Her eyes darted between mine and Jack’s before nodding sharply, as she slipped back into the crowd without putting up a fight.
“Ouch,” Jack said beside me, and I glared at him.
“What?” I snapped.
“Nothing,” he replied, suppressing a smile.
Smart move on his part. It’s not that Jack wasn’t allowed to hit on other girls, or anything. I just didn’t need anyone distracting my bodyguard just in case something were to happen to me. It was a matter of personal security and nothing else, okay? Pure and simple logic. Besides, freshmen weren’t welcome at senior parties. I don’t care what lame excuse she was going to conjure up to try to stay.
We made our way past the staircase and into the first living room on the right. There were plastic cups scattered across the floor and empty pizza boxes shoved into the corners of the room. I had no idea where the furniture had gone, but Brendan had clearly moved it so that he could accommodate the large amount of drunken teens gyrating against one another. A Nicki Minaj song was now blaring through the house, and the people surrounding us all had their hands up in the air, waving them around and fist pumping. The room was dark aside from disco lights that had been put up on all four corners of the room, and the glow-stick necklaces wrapped around a group of boys whose Ralph Lauren polo shirts were well on their way off their bodies. I scanned the room for Brendan and Meghan, coming up short. I had no clue where my friends were either, and calling them up would be useless over this music. Parties suck.
“GIA!”
I spun around and came face-to-face with Lincoln Foster, smiling back at me in the dim lighting. Lincoln was one of the nicest guys in the school and truthfully also one of the best looking. And if that wasn’t good enough, Lincoln was an actor, trying to break into the business. He had been in a few movies, usually playing the role of someone’s son or another’s best friend. He wasn’t an extra, but hardly a leading man. I had had a bit of a crush on him back in the day, but after we became good friends I ruled him out as an option. It was actually a surprise that he was at the party. Brendan didn’t like him very much, on account of him being way more successful with his acting gigs. Clearly jealousy was a reoccurring pattern with my boyfriend.
“HEY LINCOLN!”
I didn’t even bother introducing Jack; I assumed he knew. Jack had been the only thing LAC Elite had talked about all week.
“YOU LOOKING FOR BRENDAN?”
“NO THANKS. I’M NOT THIRSTY.”
Lincoln raised his eyebrows in confusion.
“I’LL GO TELL THE DJ TO TURN THE MUSIC DOWN.”
I didn’t know why he was going to sell CJ a tunic gown, but I smiled and nodded, pretending that I had heard what he was saying. Luckily it seemed to be an acceptable answer, because he nodded in reply, turned on his heel and disappeared in the crowd. I shrugged and turned to Jack, not knowing what to do next. I was far from being in a partying mood, and there still seemed to be no sign of my friends or Brendan among the growing number of partyers. Unfortunately, there was also no sign of Meghan, which was always an issue. That girl is a slippery little thing.
A group of guys I only half recognized pushed past us roughly, knocking me backward into Jack. He moved a little closer to me to let the crowd through, slipping his hand into mine as he pulled to the left a little. My heart rate increased almost immediately to the danger zone, and I was pretty certain there was no way it was ever coming down. Of course Jack wasn’t bothered by it all; he had only done it to move me out of the way. I clearly didn’t have the same effect on him that he did on me, two thousand dollar dress on or not.
I allowed mysel
f three more seconds of pure bliss before pulling my hand out of his grasp and taking the biggest step back that I could in the tiny space around us.
“What are you doing?” I yelled over the music. Thankfully the volume seemed to have reduced, so my ears weren’t in so much pain.
Jack gave me a confused look and said, “What?” I held up the hand he had been holding a few seconds before and waved it at him. He realized what I meant and leaned in so I could hear him. “Gia I’m a bodyguard, remember? I can’t keep you safe if I lose you in the crowd.”
It was a very logical response. Hard to argue with logic, but tell that to my raging hormones.
“You can keep me safe without touching me!”
Jack rolled his eyes as if he couldn’t believe how unlucky he was, and I couldn’t even blame him. It’s not like I wanted to be mean to Jack. It just sort of came out. It was my brain’s way of making sure I didn’t accidently fall in love with him. But obviously Jack didn’t know that. From his eyes, I was just throwing a whole lot of crazy at him and for no reason. No wonder the guy was so desperate to go back to New York.
“Hey, babe!” Some random guy I had never seen suddenly swung his arm around my shoulders, pulling me close to him. “I swear I wasn’t making out with her! She was making out with me. I was the victim!”
I widened my eyes in alarm and looked at Jack, who was trying not to laugh. I mouthed help at him but he shook his head, an infuriating smile on his face. Really? He was just going to stand there and not do anything? So much for his secret service bullshit.
“Um, do I know you?” I asked, pulling away from the guy in disgust. He smelled like what I could only imagine was cat litter.
He looked at me, his eyes drooping a little. His hair looked completely dishevelled and he had a joint in between his lips, only it didn’t look lit. He eyed me up and down, raising an eyebrow. He had a red plastic cup in one hand, with more than one ring resting on each of his fingers.
