Royal Engagement

by Chance Carter

  His eyes were red. I wished he’d kept it on.

  “Dad...”

  I didn’t know what else there was to say. I was already trying my best not to blame him for this, not to hate him for what I was about to endure. The uncertainty was the worst part of it all. Any number of horrors could await me through that front door. The people milling around out front didn’t look like they came here to play pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey or musical chairs. The women were all dressed in skimpy skirts and dresses, and the men wore giant gold chains and low rise jeans. I just wanted to go home.

  “Dallas, I need you to promise me something,” he said.

  “What is it?”

  “No matter what happens—“ His voice cracked, and he looked down to avoid me seeing the tears collecting in his eyes.

  My heart broke, and I placed a hand on his shoulder. “Everything’s going to be okay, Dad. The party’s a little rough around the edges, but I’m sure it’s going to be just fine once I get inside. I’ll find Sasha, and we’ll stick together all night.”

  He sniffed and nodded, finally bringing his head back up to look at me. I’d never seen him look so old, so beaten. This was the man who used to be my hero, who used to bandage me up when I hurt myself on the playground, and who promised me he would always protect me. I guess neither of us ever thought there would come a time when he’d have to break that promise.

  “Whatever happens, pumpkin, please fight,” he said. “Gromley said you have to attend the party, but he didn’t say...anything else.”

  I understood his meaning and tried on a reassuring smile. “I’ll fight,” I said. “I’m going to be fine. I’ll see you in a few hours.”

  “Okay.” He pulled me into a tight hug. If he didn’t need to, he wouldn’t have let me go. “I love you.”

  “I love you too, Dad.”

  With one last look at me, he put his helmet back on and roared off into the night.

  I took a deep breath and hoped to God I wouldn’t have to look too hard to find Sasha. I hadn’t expected so many people, and I was feeling a lot less confident than I made out to my dad.

  My heels clicked across the pavement, earning the attention of some of the people outside as I approached the front door.

  “Who’s this fine young thing?” one guy asked in a deep baritone that made my skin crawl.

  “She looks a little young for you, Frank,” said another.

  I ignored the fact that they were talking about me like I was a piece of meat. If any of them tried to touch me, there would be hell to pay.

  They made a couple of lewd comments as I passed by, but luckily that was where it ended. My relief was short-lived, however, as I entered the house and some stranger immediately slapped my ass. I turned and glared at the man, who couldn’t have been a day younger than forty.

  “Don’t touch me,” I spat.

  “Kitty cat has claws,” he slurred. “Meow.”

  “Ew, you old pervert,” said Sasha, coming up beside me. I’d never been happier to see her in my life. “As if.”

  She grabbed my arm and pulled me away with her, chattering the whole while. “This party is the tits. I haven’t seen Preston yet, but I’m sure he’s around here somewhere. Do I look okay?”

  We stopped in the kitchen, where she grabbed a cup off the kitchen island and handed it to me. I did a once-over of her outfit, a skin-tight red mini dress that looked like she’d painted it on. It barely covered her ass, and her cleavage was pumped up to her chin.

  “You look hot,” I told her, barely suppressing the urge to say she looked like she fitted in. She would have found that offensive, but only because her principal goal in life was to stand out, not because the party was a cesspool of sin.

  “Good.” She smiled approvingly and grabbed a cup for herself. “What the hell are you wearing? You can’t even see that you have boobs.”

  You could see that I had boobs, my cleavage just wasn’t visible. I’d opted for a navy fitted dress that came to mid-thigh but was high in the neck. It was classy and fit me like a dream.

  “You know I’m a little bit more—“

  “Boring?”

  I frowned. “I was going to say modest.”

  Sasha laughed. “Whatever, Sister Dallas. Drink up.”

  She tilted her cup back and drank. I sniffed mine first, not that I’d be able to tell if it was drugged. Sasha finished her drink and glared at me.

  “What? You’re too good for beer? Should I find you a wine cooler or something?” she said snidely.

  “No, I’m just not sure if I want to drink tonight. This party is intense.”

  Sasha rolled her eyes. “You’re such a boring virgin. I should have guessed you’d go all Sandra Dee on me.” Her eyes scanned above my head, and she waved.

  A guy appeared at my side. He was tall with a shaved head, tattoos snaking out from either arm of his t-shirt and up his neck.

  “You look like the kind of guy who knows how to have a good time,” Sasha said, fluttering her lashes.

  “You’re damn right I am. What can I do for you, gorgeous?”

  “This is a great party and all,” she said, “but so far I haven’t been able to find any party favors. Do you know where I could get some?”

  He grinned licentiously and grabbed her hand. “You’re a naughty girl. Why don’t you come with me and we can see about getting you some pixie dust. Does your friend wanna join?”

  Sasha laughed. “She’s a total prude. You don’t want her anyway.”

  Sasha and her new friend flounced off, leaving me in the kitchen with a bunch of strangers who showed a new interest in me now that I was alone. I walked over to the floor to ceiling windows that looked out over the backyard. There was an enormous pool, part of it practically lapping up against the side of the window. It was lit up in a cold shade of blue, and around it, people danced and drank while tiki torches flickered and spat sparks into the sky.

  Someone moved behind me, and I refocused my gaze on the reflection in the window. It was Wes.

  “What are you doing here all alone?” he asked, sliding an arm around my waist.

  I tried to pull away but he held me tight, mouth pressed against the back of my head. “You’re much too innocent to be by yourself. One of these guys is going to eat you up.” He made a biting motion in my hair and caught eyes with me in the window.

  “You’ll protect me?”

  I think he was too drunk to catch the sarcasm in my tone. The stale smell of beer and cigarettes wafted to my nose, as well as something sickly sweet in his breath. If it was between Wes and one of the strange, scary looking guys I’d seen around, would he really be the lesser of two evils?

  “Of course I’ll protect you,” he said, his hand inching up from my stomach toward my breasts. “You’re mine.”

  I anxiously pulled on his hand, and he stopped, laughing.

  “Oh, sweet darling Dallas. You’re going to have to forfeit your innocence eventually. Why not start now? I’d make it real good for you.”

  I glared at him. “I’m not yours, and I don’t have to forfeit anything.”

  “We’ll see about that.”

  He spun me and pressed my back against the window, peering down at me with drink-addled eyes.

  “The only reason you want me so bad is because I’m innocent,” I told him. “You wouldn’t give a rat’s ass about me otherwise.”

  “I admit that I enjoy this game of hard-to-get you’re playing, but you shouldn’t sell yourself so short, baby girl.” He brushed a strand of hair from my face, lips curved into a vicious sneer. “You’re pretty, gorgeous really. Much prettier than Sasha and she knows it. She would rip your face off if given a chance, but you know that, don’t you? That’s what I like about you, Dallas. You’re smart. You bend where you need to bend to keep standing. That’s why I know you’re going to bend for me.” He leaned in until the sour smell of his breath made me dizzy. “You would never go for me if you had the choice, but you don’t. And I’ll m
ake you want me. It might take some time, but we’ve got all the time in the world, baby girl.”

  “Stop calling me that,” I snarled through gritted teeth.

  My heart was racing, and I could barely feel my hands and feet. Panic threatened to overwhelm me, but I knew I had to be strong, had to push through the fear if I wanted to survive this night.

  Wes merely grinned. “Let’s go to my room.”

  He grabbed my wrist and started to drag me away from the window. I dug my heels in and resisted. I wasn’t going anywhere alone with him. He would have to haul me up there kicking and screaming.

  Wes looked back at me and rolled his eyes. “Don’t be like that. We both know you’re going to enjoy it in the end.”

  “I’m not going anywhere with you.”

  Wes tugged on my wrist again. “Yes, you are. Come on.”

  I tugged back, and when he wouldn’t let go, I let my weight drop. Wes staggered forward, releasing my wrist, and I jumped to my feet. He was heading toward the window, legs too weighed down by booze to stop his momentum. I got behind him and threw myself against him with all of my weight.

  Wes smashed through the window, sending shards of glass cascading down like raindrops. I only barely managed to stop myself from falling through with him, and I watched in a mixture of horror and delight as the pool swallowed him up. The chatter around the pool halted as the curious onlookers waited to see what was going to happen next. I waited too, wondering if I should jump in to see if he was okay.

  Wes’s head and shoulders shot up out of the water. He flung his sopping wet hair back from his face and ran a hand over his eyes. Then, throwing his fists in the air, he let out a booming laugh.

  Everyone around the pool began to cheer, and some of them started jumping into the pool as well. Nobody seemed to notice or care that there was broken glass all in and around the pool. Nobody even paid any attention to the shell-shocked girl standing in the frame of the broken window, clutching her hand to her mouth.

  I was in way over my head. These people, this place, were too much for me. But, since I could never let any of them see me cry, I did the next best thing. I grabbed a beer off the table and chugged.

  Chapter 14

  Shane

  I killed the engine in the empty parking lot, setting my helmet on the handlebars and waving at the dark storefront. I couldn’t see him, but Jake would be watching out for me.

  Sure enough, the storefront lit up and a second later my best friend walked up to the door and unlocked it to let me in.

  “Did you bring the goods?” he asked in a conspiratorial whisper, even though we were the only ones in the store.

  “I brought them,” I replied. “Have you called for pizza yet?”

  He laughed. “Have I ever. I’ve ordered enough to feed the whole football team.”

  I cocked a brow at him as we headed toward the stairs up to the office. “Why? Expecting company?”

  “Nope. You only get to skip prom once though so I figured we should go big.”

  “Nerd.”

  Jake looked back at me as he began to mount the stairs. “I’ll pretend I didn’t hear that.”

  The TV and GameCube were set up in one corner of the office. I tossed my bag onto the couch directly opposite, and not even a second later Jake was rummaging through it.

  “Jesus, you’re like an addict.”

  Jake emerged from my bag with a bag of Red Vines and a two-liter bottle of Coke. He grinned at me. It was a wonder he still had teeth to smile with, considering the amount of candy he consumed.

  “As I said, you only get to skip prom once...”

  I wondered if Jake was genuinely this excited about our night or if he was just trying to make the best of it. I knew that he would’ve gone to prom happily if there’d been a girl he could go with. He’d been too chicken shit to ask anyone, despite me telling him on more than one occasion how many girls at our school would be delighted to go with him. He was a massive geek, sure, but he was tall and wasn’t ugly, and could make a girl laugh if he ever managed to say anything that wasn’t about the weather.

  When Jake poured me a glass of soda and shoved a licorice toward my mouth, I realized that Jake wasn’t just trying to make the best of it for himself.

  “I’m fine,” I said, swatting his hand away. “You don’t need to fret over me or try to make me forget that the girl I like massively rejected me by way of an overabundance of pizza. I’m over it.”

  I wasn’t over it. I still didn’t understand why Dallas was so upset that day, but I hadn’t had a chance to talk to her since then. She was constantly surrounded by Wes or his goons, and she hadn’t come by her dad’s shop once since the day I asked her to prom. At least, not while I was around.

  “Okay, okay.” Jake put up his hands in surrender. “You’ve just been a little glum lately. Can you blame a guy for trying?”

  I smacked him on the back and pushed him toward the couch. “I’ll be in a better mood after I kick your ass at Super Smash Bros. How about that?”

  He gnawed on a Red Vine and tossed a controller at me. I slumped down next to him as the credits flashed on the screen.

  “This might make you feel a little better,” he said. “I hear that Dallas pushed Wes through a glass window at the Gromley party tonight.”

  I froze. “Dallas is at the Gromley party?”

  Jake nodded. He didn’t notice my distress, too busy selecting options for our melee on the screen. “Yeah. My friend Duncan from Science is over there. Said it’s cuckoo bananas. Not our kind of scene but I would’ve killed to see that asshole get knocked down a peg or two.”

  What would possess sweet, shy Dallas to push a guy through a window? I could only imagine the kind of horrors she was experiencing over there right now. Wes was probably furious that she’d humiliated him at his own party. What was she doing there anyway?

  “I don’t understand why Dallas would go to that party,” I said. “She’s not that kind of girl.”

  “I don’t know why either,” Jake said with a shrug. He grabbed another Red Vine and lowered it into his mouth from above. “Makes sense why she said she wasn’t going to prom though.”

  “She can’t be having a nice time.”

  “You sure about that? I think I’d be having a great time if I got to push Wes through a window. That would be the most fun I’d had all year.”

  I looked over at him, and the gravity in my expression wiped the smile right off his face.

  “You don’t know her, Jake. She’s not the kind of girl who’d get drunk and go cuckoo bananas. She shouldn’t even be there in the first place. Her dad would have a shit fit if he knew. Wes and Sasha probably dragged her there.”

  Jake read the intent in my eyes a second before I even started to put down the controller.

  “Nuh-uh,” he said, throwing an arm over my chest to keep me down. “You are not going to that party. Gromley and his friends will rip you apart if they see you there.”

  “Then I’ll make sure they don’t see me.” I tossed his arm away and rose to my feet before he could stop me.

  “Shane, please. You’re gonna get yourself killed. Fucking around with Wes is one thing, but his dad is a whole other ball game.”

  “What choice do I have? Dallas is over there, and she could be in danger.”

  “She made that choice.”

  I shook my head, grabbing my wallet from my backpack and shoving it in my back pocket. “We don’t know that. Even if she did choose to go there, she’s in over her head, and she probably knows that by now. And even if, by some miracle, she’s having a good time and I leave there without her, at least I’ll know she’s okay.” I started for the door. “I’m sorry man, but I won’t be able to relax until I know she’s safe.”

  “Don’t be a hero!”

  I didn’t answer him. The conversation was over, as far as I was concerned. He could be pissed at me all he wanted, and maybe I’d just ruined one of our last nights together, but I would ne
ver forgive myself if I turned a blind eye and something happened to Dallas. There wasn’t another option for me, simple as that.

  I hopped on my bike and jetted into the darkness, winding through Sitka Valley’s damp streets all the way to the outskirts of town, where the Gromleys lived in a gauche mansion that I’d never seen clean. There was always some grungy party or another taking place inside, and the couple times I’d been over here for football events had disgusted me. Sure, I lived in a trailer, but there weren’t cigarette butts and empty beer cans littered around my place like decorations, and nobody ever opened my bathroom door to find a drunk girl passed out inside from the night before.

  I killed my bike at the bottom of the drive and hid it in a bush in case someone recognized it. I would have to play this smart. Pulling my hoodie up over my head, I shoved my hands in my pockets and looked down at the ground in front of me as I sauntered up the drive. I had to look like I belonged here. The only people who would recognize me were people from school, and they were probably already too drunk right now to notice as long as I kept my head down.

  The music vibrated through the pavement, heavy bass beats tickling my sneakers. People were screaming and laughing, one even howled to the moon. They spilled out from the front of the house like sand and coated the front steps, the smoke of dozens of cigarettes twisting off into the air. I pushed my way through the stale-smelling crowd. Nobody moved aside for me, but it was because they didn’t seem to notice me at all. I was a ghost drifting through the darkness.

  The smell of beer and weed hit me the second I walked through the front door. People loitered in the hallway. Some of them were talking, but others were passed out against the wall. The music was coming from the far end of the hall in the living room, and I glimpsed a crowd of people there pulsing and grinding to the electronic rhythm.

  A sickly looking girl with bleached hair and dark roots disengaged herself from the wall and staggered toward me. She couldn’t have been much older than me.

  “Hey sexy,” she drawled, lurching forward.

  I reached out to hold her up. “You okay?”