Husk

When no one answered, she proceeded toward the rear of the house, repeating her announcement and adding the news that her dad wouldn’t return until later than planned. She was about to say that she’d take over watching BJ, when she suddenly realized the first floor was vacant.

???

Lori didn’t attempt to cry out when the front door banged open, nor did she scramble from where she’d tucked herself between the house’s foundation and the water heater when the sounds of footsteps thumped through the floorboards.

She didn’t dare.

Three sides of her provided safety, but ahead lay an unknown realm of near-perfect darkness where she knew the attacker waited with a heart of ice and glacial patience.

To her, the cramped space of the utility closet had lost all sense of its original architectural dimension. Whatever existed beyond her curled legs might be nothing more than a few feet of empty concrete-lined room, or an entirely alien world with unattainably distant horizons. She didn’t know anymore. Her only certainty was that the attacker was still out there, somewhere, huddled in anticipation, waiting for her to make the move that would give her away.

And she didn’t plan on making that mistake.

Just go into the living room, she thought. Please, please go into the living room.

???

Mallory passed by the dark living room and hurried down the front hall to the kitchen, eager to find Lori and send her home. A note had been left on the counter, written in black Magic marker across a torn paper towel. She picked it up and frowned at the massive block lettering of the words and the chaotic manner in which it had been scrawled.

“Went to Lori’s,” Mallory read aloud. Why would Lori take BJ over to her house?

“Where’s the midget?” Becky asked.

Mallory dropped the note. “I guess he’s at the babysitter’s.”

“All right,” Elsa cheered. “We’ve got the whole house to ourselves.”

“I don’t think so,” Mallory responded. “They’ll probably be back any second.”

Becky opened the door to the deck, and everyone filed out to the pool area while Mallory flipped on the switches that activated the lights in and around the water.

“Wow,” Lisa said, watching the backyard light up. “Now this is livin’.”

Mallory stepped outside, about to accompany Derrick to the seating area at the pool’s shallow end, when she stopped and looked back. Tim still stood in the kitchen, looking miserable and out of place.

“I’ll be out in a sec,” she called to the others.

“Let’s get some Tylenol for your head,” she said to Tim. “Follow me.”

In the hallway bathroom, she gave him the medicine and a glass of water to wash it down with. “I’m really sorry you’re not having fun,” she said.

“I am,” he replied, and smiled for the first time since the beginning of the night.

“No, you’re not. You’ve hardly spoken a word since my friends showed up. You were so lively earlier. What happened?”

The bogus smile faded. “They haven’t exactly said much to me.”

“I know. I’m not blaming you for anything. After all, it was only supposed to be you and me tonight, not a whole group of my friends.”

Mallory stood in silence while he took the second pill and gulped it down with a mouthful of water. She was acutely aware of the voices of her friends outside and couldn’t help wondering what she was missing. More than anything, she wanted Tim to get along with them, wanted him to fit in and enjoy himself. At the same time, however, she wanted to get back to Derrick.

“Come on,” Mallory said, “we can go back out there and talk about something we’re all interested in.”

He shook his head. “I think I’d rather go home.”

“Are you sure?”

He nodded.

“Well, let Derrick drive you so you don’t have to walk.”

He shook his head again, this time with a look of distaste. “No offense, but I don’t like that guy.”

She blinked. “Why not?”

His lips parted and closed without speaking.

“You can tell me,” she encouraged, biting her lower lip and playing dumb in the face of his evident jealousy. She knew that was the reason behind his dispirited attitude, and she wished she could convey her guilt at being the cause of it.

“It doesn’t matter,” Tim said.

She thought of the kiss she’d given him at the fair, and the reaction on his face. Of course whatever he had to tell her mattered.

He moved for the door and she stepped in front of him.

“Still friends, right?”

Tim held her gaze, but she didn’t see the gleam in his eyes he’d had at the fair.

“Yeah, still friends,” he said.

Then tell me what’s wrong, she started to say when her friends beat her to it. Everyone erupted in a loud cheer of wonder, sounding like a crowd of people viewing a Fourth of July fireworks display.

She listened to the voices coming through the wall change into laughter, followed by a second array of shouts, hoots, and whistles.

“I’ve got to tell them to keep it down,” she told Tim. “My dad said I could have a pool party, but he never said when. The last thing I need is one of the neighbors calling the cops. Just stay here and I’ll be back in a minute.”

Outside, Mallory found the group had fanned out among the lawn chairs positioned around the pool. All eyes were now focused on Elsa while she tread water in the deep end. A crumpled pile of her clothes lay near the diving board and even through the screen of waves covering her body Mallory saw that she’d jumped in wearing only her underwear.

“Woo-ee,” she breathed. “This feels great.”

“I’ll bet you do,” Adam answered.

The comment earned him a slap on the shoulder from Becky.

Mallory giggled, automatically looking to see Derrick’s reaction. She found him sitting at the patio table, and out of all her friends he seemed to be the only person not eyeballing Elsa’s slim form while she glided through the water. Instead, he stripped off his tank top and reclined in one of the patio chairs.

Mallory gazed at the way his tan skin lay taut over the muscles of his abdomen and chest. She hadn’t noticed it earlier, but now that he’d shed the tank top she saw silver barbells pierced through both his nipples.

He smiled at her, and a hot blush rushed into her face. She began to turn away, then stopped short when she spotted the small bags of cellophane his friends had laid out on the table behind him.

“What’s that?” she asked Troy.

“Glitter.”

“What?”

“Glitter,” Troy repeated.

“You mean drugs?”

The kid smirked. “I prefer the term, mood-enhancers.”

Mallory glared at him. “No way,” she said. “Not cool. Definitely not cool! If I get caught—”

“Don’t wet yourself,” the boy laughed. “This stuff is like high-end caffeine tablets. It’s nothing hardcore.”

She turned to Derrick for assistance, arguing that if her dad came home and found them all hyped up on “mood-enhancers” it would be the end of any pool parties for the remainder of her life.