by Alex Duval
Jason nodded at her. He vaguely recalled Adam saying something about Belle in his rundown of the DeVere High hierarchy. But he’d been too distracted by Sienna to pay much attention.
“You didn’t tell me he was an ‘Absolut’ cutie,” Belle purred. She smiled at Jason and a dimple appeared in each cheek.
Now here’s a girl who seems friendly, Jason thought. And she herself is a cutie. She had blond hair tousled around her heart-shaped face, and pearly skin that gleamed in the moonlight. Her green eyes were bright with intelligence and playfulness. Jason felt that this was a girl he should want to get to know better. But that electricity—that snap he got from Sienna—it just wasn’t there with Belle.
“‘Absolut’ is a word that you can only use once in a while,” Sienna answered. She flicked her eyes from the top of Jason’s head to his bare toes. “But I guess he’s worth it.”
With Sienna, the electricity was never far away. As she gave him her seal of approval, Jason immediately got a rush. Okay, not everything happens instantaneously, he told himself firmly. Give Belle, like, five minutes.
He turned to Belle and looked her up and down, in what he hoped was a not-obvious way. She didn’t have Sienna’s curves, but her body was thin and athletic, and she moved with the grace of a dancer. He noticed a diamond sparkling from a ring in her belly button, and smiled. It was sexy. “Did that hurt?” he asked, with a nod at Belle’s navel.
“God, yes.” Belle ran one finger over her piercing. “I wish someone had told me that before I got it! Do you like it?”
“Yeah,” he said honestly.
“Good,” Belle murmured. Somehow she’d gotten so close, he could practically kiss her.
“Hey! Back off, loser,” a harsh voice interrupted.
Jason turned in surprise. A lean guy with shoulder-length brown hair was glaring at him, his blue eyes boring into Jason’s.
“Excuse me?” Jason said.
“You heard me. Back off.” The dude stepped closer—close enough for Jason to smell his extreme beer breath. Then, weirdly, he began to giggle. “Check it out! I totally freaked the new guy!” He slapped Jason on the back in what was supposed to be a friendly way, but the blow was just a little too hard. “Relax, man.”
“Who are you?” Jason asked.
“Dominic. Belle’s boyfriend,” the guy said, his words slurring a tiny bit. “Didn’t she tell you about me?” He dropped his arm across Belle’s shoulders and gave her a drunken kiss.
“Her boyfriend?” Jason couldn’t hide the astonishment in his voice. This guy looked way too moody to be with the beautiful, bubbly Belle.
“Yeah.” Dominic looked Jason up and down, his eyes hard even though the smile stayed on his face. “What’s so weird about that?”
“Nothing,” Jason said quickly, trying to cover his surprise. “I just didn’t know.”
“Dom, let’s go sit by the fire,” Belle suggested. “You’re wasted.”
“So what?” he demanded. “It’s a party.”
Belle pulled him by the hand. “Let’s just go sit.” She gave Jason a lingering smile as they slowly walked off.
Jason shook his head. “Let me guess. It’s a prerequisite for every girl in the Heights to have a boyfriend?” he asked Sienna.
“Well, DeVere’s a small school. And we are all seniors,” Sienna pointed out. “We’ve had plenty of time to hook up with one another. But you never know what might happen.”
Jason gazed at her thoughtfully. “I’ll keep that in mind.”
“Stay away from Belle, though. Dominic’s the jealous type. And you’re already on his bad side.”
Jason gaped at her. “I met him, like, thirty seconds ago. How am I on his bad side?”
“Because you were standing within a hundred yards of his woman,” Sienna said, rolling her eyes. “Just ignore him.”
“The new boy has clearly hit his stride early. Look at him hanging with the most flammable girl at the party.” Adam appeared in front of them, filming and narrating as usual. “Unfortunately he’s in for a disappointment. The lovely Sienna is as untouchable as she is irresistible,” Adam continued.
“You’re going to give me a copy of that tape, right?” Brad asked, coming up from behind Adam. He plucked the camcorder from Adam’s grasp in one easy movement and turned it on the film junkie. “Let’s take a look behind the camera,” he said, imitating Adam’s narrator voice. “Who is the mysterious voyeur who sneaks into our parties and films our every move?”
“I didn’t sneak in,” Adam said. “I came with Jason. Right?”
Jason blinked in surprise. He hadn’t realized that Adam was crashing. But Adam was his first California friend—he had to back him up. “Of course.”
Brad turned off the camera and handed it back to Adam. “I’m just kidding,” he said. “The police chief’s son is always welcome. It’ll keep us from getting busted for underage drinking.”
“I’m flattered,” Adam said dryly.
“What the hell are you thinking?” a guy shouted. “I could kill you, loser!”
They all spun toward the bonfire. A bunch of kids were rushing to get away from the commotion, and for a moment, Jason couldn’t see what was happening. Then the way cleared, leaving Dominic and another guy alone in front of the fire. The guy towered over Dominic. He looked like a football player. This was not going to be pretty.
“I’ll kill you,” Dominic shouted drunkenly. “That’s my girlfriend you’re enjoying.”
Jason shot a look at Belle, who stood off to one side. She didn’t seem particularly bothered by the scene. But Dominic was almost apoplectic. He shoved the bigger guy in the chest.
“Hey, man, she asked me if I wanted to do a body shot,” the guy snapped. “Why don’t you yell at her?”
Dominic didn’t answer. He just charged at the bigger guy, ramming his head into the guy’s stomach. Jason expected him to bounce right off the shelf of muscle, but instead, the other guy went down, crumpling to the sand as if he’d been stabbed in the gut.
Dominic fell on top of him and began punching him with both fists, moving faster than Jason would’ve thought possible. The mountain of flesh groaned and tried to push him off, but Dominic didn’t budge.
Jason shook his head. The guy was twice as big as Dominic, but Dominic was going to beat him unconscious. Or worse. Jason was running across the sand before he’d even made a conscious decision. He hit Dominic from the side, using his own momentum to bear him to the ground. They both fell hard, but Dominic didn’t seem to feel it. He had squirmed out from beneath Jason in a second.
He turned and straddled Jason’s chest, eyes burning with rage. Lightning-fast, his hand shot out and grabbed Jason’s neck, squeezing with unbelievable strength.
Get him off you! a voice screamed in Jason’s head. He remembered the jujitsu classes he’d had as a kid—just because an opponent was stronger didn’t mean you couldn’t beat him. Jason knew he simply had to out-think Dominic. He concentrated on his own movements, forcing himself to ignore the crushing pain in his windpipe. Then he reached up and stabbed his thumbs into pressure points on either side of Dominic’s neck, just above his collarbone.
Dominic’s body went slack. Only for an instant, but it was enough. Jason scrambled away and got to his feet, turning back to face his opponent. Amazingly, Dominic was on his feet already. He glared at Jason, his blue eyes crazed. He’s going to charge me, Jason realized, and dropped into a fighting stance, ready for Dominic’s attack.
But just then, Brad grabbed Dominic in a head-lock. He gave Jason a grim smile. “I’ll take it from here.”
Jason nodded and stumbled away from the fight. But he could feel Dominic’s eyes on him. Filled with hate.
Four
“Are you all right?” Sienna asked as she and Belle rushed over to Jason.
“Yeah,” Jason answered. The word clawed its way out of his damaged throat. He felt as if he’d swallowed a mouthful of sand.
“Well, you shouldn’t
be!” Sienna snapped. “Are you crazy, going after Dominic? You’re lucky you’re not dead.”
“He’s not that strong,” Jason muttered. But, in truth, Dominic was a lot stronger than he looked. Jason could usually size up his opponent pretty accurately, but Dominic’s strength had caught him completely off guard.
Jason’s eyes moved back to the fight. Brad had Dominic pinned, and Dominic had stopped struggling. Their faces were only about an inch apart as Brad talked Dominic down. The situation had clearly shifted from red alert to yellow.
“Give the boy a break,” Belle told Sienna. She turned to Jason. “I think you were seriously brave.”
Jason didn’t answer. He wasn’t really in the mood to be praised by the girl whose boyfriend had just tried to strangle him.
“He wouldn’t have had to be brave at all if you didn’t love seeing Dominic pull his jealousy act,” Sienna said, and sighed. “You knew what would happen when you asked Matt to do a body shot.”
“Oh, please,” Belle said, waving off the criticism.
Matt was the huge football player, Jason surmised. His thoughts came slowly, as if his brain had been scrambled with a fork. He’d been in fights before, but Dominic had really done some damage. He sucked in a deep breath of the chilly night air. It still surprised him how fast the temperature in Malibu dropped at night. Part of being so close to the ocean. He glanced over at the water. It was utterly dark now. Some clouds had drifted across the moon, blotting out the sparkles of silver light on the waves.
Suddenly, the ocean didn’t seem beautiful anymore. The inky water looked…ominous. Like it was hiding secrets. Jason had the urge to go check on Dani, make sure she was okay. “I’m going to head up to the house. See if I can find any fights to get into up there,” he told Sienna and Belle. Belle laughed, but Sienna didn’t look amused.
“You’ve had your share of fighting for one night,” she answered, her dark eyes stormy.
She was scared for me, Jason realized. He didn’t know how to respond to that, especially because her boyfriend had just saved his ass. So he didn’t say anything at all, just turned and headed over to the stairs in the cliffside.
The trip back up to the house felt like it took forever. He was really feeling the effects of the fight. He wanted a beer—or three—to take the edge off the pain radiating through several key body parts, and there was a cooler full of them right inside the door. But being the designated driver for the night, he decided he’d have to stick to something nonalcoholic.
Jason managed to find a can of Mountain Dew stuck in among the Hansen’s kiwi and strawberry diet soda in the fridge.
The sound of girls shrieking, guys bellowing, and then all laughing led him to the living room. Harberts and a couple of other guys were playing Madden NFL on the Xbox. Dani’s friend Kristy was cheering them on, along with a couple of other girls who looked like freshmen. No Danielle in the mix. Jason wasn’t crazy about the fact that she’d split from her friend. He figured it would have been harder for her to get into trouble if she’d stayed with the group.
On the sofa—a shiny-slick, half-moon-shaped burgundy sofa—two couples were half undressed and making out. Neither of the girls was Dani, which was good. Jason wasn’t up for a second fight tonight.
Behind the sofa, a bikini-wrapped girl was stretched out on the floor, ingesting some vile-looking blue liquid through a funnel held by a guy who had the words “papi chulo” written on his naked chest in Magic Marker. Jason didn’t think bonging a drink that looked like it should be served with a little umbrella and some plastic seahorses was particularly advisable. Gladly, no Dani present.
He popped the top of the Mountain Dew and took a swig as he headed into the kitchen. The carbonation bubbles felt like bombs against the inside of his throat. It was as if Dominic’s fingernails had actually broken the skin and gouged out a layer of flesh.
Just like it would be back in Michigan, the kitchen was another party hot spot. A guy who looked as if he played actual—as opposed to virtual—football was doing push-ups with two girls sitting on his back. Another girl was counting the push-ups. A couple of guys had co-opted the granite top of the kitchen island and were mixing up a batch of brownies, with much controversy over exactly what went into them. And in the far corner of the kitchen, Jason’s friend Adam was talking to a girl from their history class, Carrie Smith.
Nice, Jason thought. Carrie was a surfer girl. He’d spotted her with her board driving home one day. She kept her dark brown hair short, and she had pointy Jack Nicholson eyebrows—the girl version—which made her look kind of devilish, in a cute way. Jason thought Danielle would give the two of them her potential couple stamp of approval—if she was anywhere in sight. But she wasn’t.
From the way Adam was leaning in and the way Carrie was smiling, Jason figured he might be interrupting something, so he didn’t head over. Besides, he wanted to find his sister. He told himself he was worrying about nothing. Danielle had been to lots of parties without Jason playing chaperone. In fact, she was more of a party animal than he was. But that feeling of darkness that he’d gotten down on the beach hadn’t let up. It was probably just a side effect of getting half asphyxiated by crazy Dominic, but still….
Where was she? Jason exited the kitchen and passed by a spiral staircase. He didn’t even want to think about Dani being up in the bedroom territory. Instead, he veered through the first open door he came to—and there she was, playing pool with Van Dyke. Well, at that precise moment, she was actually perched on the edge of the table, flirting for all she was worth, but it came to the same thing.
Jason smiled. Dani had always been a hustler when it came to pool. She looked like a giggly girl who didn’t know how to hold a cue. But she played like a pro—she’d been learning from their dad since she was five.
Dani hadn’t noticed Jason’s arrival. Van Dyke, however, had. “Freeman!” he bellowed in greeting. “Your little sister is kicking my ass!”
“Well, you shouldn’t have told me girls can’t play,” Dani retorted. “You deserve what you get.”
“Harsh,” Van Dyke said, shaking his head and grinning.
Dani bumped him out of the way with her hip, then leaned over to line up her next shot. As she did, she glanced up at Jason.
He raised his eyebrows questioningly.
Dani laughed and answered his unspoken question. “I’m fine. I’m not drunk, and I can handle your friend here.”
“Yeah, no kidding,” Van Dyke mumbled.
Jason grinned. “Okay, then. Later.” He kind of wished Dani were hanging out with a guy her own age. But Van Dyke had been friends with Brad for years, and that made Jason think he was probably a decent guy. Besides, Danielle was clearly having fun, getting evidence that her life in DeVere Heights didn’t have to suck, and that was all good.
Back downstairs, Jason grabbed another Mountain Dew and headed out to the pool. Couples were making out at the edge, but he could still find space in the middle. He’d worn board shorts just in case. It was a beach party, after all, and they didn’t do euphemisms. Sienna’s teasing voice came back into his mind, and Jason smiled at the thought of her. He peeled off his T-shirt and got ready to dive into the pool.
“Oh, come on, that part’s no fun,” a girl called.
“Yeah, come over here,” another added.
Jason glanced over his shoulder and saw two girls in bikinis, one blond, the other Asian with glossy black hair, leaning on the little wall that separated the hot tub from the pool. Water from the hot tub flowed over the wall into the pool like a waterfall, making the girls’ long hair swirl about them mermaid-style. Hot.
“What?” Jason asked.
“The pool. It’s boring. The Jacuzzi is much more interesting,” the blond girl called.
Jason walked over to her. “Why is that?” he asked.
“Because there are bubbles,” the Asian mermaid replied. “And steam. And all sorts of things a regular pool doesn’t have.”
“
Like me,” the blonde added.
“Hey, no trying to hog the new guy!” her friend protested.
Jason grinned. They were both cute, they were both flirting with him, and it was about time the party offered him something to think about besides Sienna. “Okay, you’ve convinced me,” he said, and eased himself into the hot tub to sit between the two girls. “I’m Jason.”
“We know,” the blond one told him. “I’m Cindy, and this is Jin.”
The other girl smiled.
“How is it possible that every single person in school knows my name?” Jason asked.
“You’re a celebrity,” Jin replied. “We don’t get new boys around here very often.”
“Plus, you’re a cute new boy,” Cindy added. “We really don’t get those! You were seen moving in and the texts and calls started immediately.”
Jason laughed. “On behalf of Luke Archer, former new kid, I’m offended.”
Jin wrinkled her nose. “Oh, Luke. He’s such the loner. He’s no fun. At least you hold a conversation. I’m not even sure Luke knows how to talk.”
“Well, talking is just one of my many talents,” Jason answered with a laugh. “So, are you two seniors? Wait, you can’t be. All the senior girls are off the market,” he said, thinking of Sienna, even though hanging with Cindy and Jin was supposed to be blocking the Sienna thoughts.
“We’re lowly juniors,” Cindy told him.
After hanging out a while with Cindy and Jin, including some dancing, caught on film by a grinning Adam, Jason was pretty much done. He also knew their mom probably would stay up worrying until he and Dani appeared at home. He pushed himself to his feet and headed for the pool room to see if Dani was still there.
“Are you the one who’s been hogging all the Dew?” a familiar voice called as he passed the coolers near the front door.
“Does four qualify me?” he asked Sienna.
“That makes you an ‘Absolut’ piggy,” she answered with a smile, but her voice lacked its usual animation, and Jason noticed that her face was pale.
