Broken Gates

head added. I was really starting to hate that voice. I clenched and unclenched my fists before unbuckling my seatbelt and sliding from the truck cab. Laila was waiting for me on the sidewalk, reapplying a peachy gloss to her lips with the aid of a tiny compact. With a soft snick she closed it, dropped it into her small messenger bag and looked up at me. “You think about how you’re going to explain not drinking without sounding lame?”

“Medication?” I looked at her with doubt.

Her face scrunched up as she considered that option as a viable lie. “I guess it’s the best you’ve got. And with what happened the other day, it could just work.” She then fidgeted with the hem of her skirt one last time before turning to lead the way to Cliff’s.

My legs seemed to protest my intentions with every step I took, my feet suddenly feeling a thousand times heavier than normal. I felt like I should be reciting some verse from the Bible or something. Yea though I walk through the valley of death, I will fear no evil . . . Wait . . . how did the rest go again? I brought my hand up to encircle the dragon pendant, for a moment its warmth was comforting to me, that is, until I actually stood at the threshold of Cliff’s house. If felt strange going to a party without Jenna, and without Bryn at least waiting for me inside somewhere. The last party I’d actually attended had been the night I’d nearly been raped by a guy who I didn’t even know, and I had finally figured out my true feelings for Bryn. It had been a turning point in my life, and this party had all the signs of being another kind of turning point for me. I just hoped that it would turn me in a positive direction when all was said and done.

I could tell Laila was almost as nervous as I was because she hadn’t said a word to me all the way up the front walk. I wondered how she would feel if she knew what she was really walking into. We both hesitated at the front door, and it was me who finally found the courage to reach for the doorknob first. My breath caught in my throat as I turned the knob and pushed the door open. But just like any other normal high school party, we were greeted by loud music and even louder talking. I’m not really sure what I expected, but it all seemed entirely too normal. Laila clutched at my arm as we entered, and damn if she wasn’t latched on tight enough to draw blood.

“Hey, ladies,” Cliff drawled, as if appearing from out of nowhere. Creepy much? As if having a Rider inside of him wasn’t bad enough, he had to pull that weird stalker-ish thing guys do that’s only cute when you actually like them. Bryn and Khol were both very skilled at it. “Was wondering when you two would show up,” he said while he looked at me, making clear who he really was addressing. “You want something to drink?”

“Yes,” Laila said.

“No,” I said at the same exact time. When Cliff raised his eyebrows at me, I felt the need to explain. “Medication, remember? I really don’t wanna get sick again.”

Cliff smiled at me good-naturedly. “Right. Don’t want you ruining any more of my shoes.”

I lifted my head up to glare at Cliff and the stupid Rider inside of him that were both seemingly amused with their little comment. “Come on Laila; let’s go get you something to drink.” I tugged her along, not really sure where I was going.

“Awe, come on Paige. I didn’t mean nothin’ by that,” Cliff said as he followed behind us. “Besides, the kitchen is the other way.”

Without acknowledging him, I pivoted on my heel, taking Laila with me and headed in the opposite direction. “This is going to be a long night,” I mumbled under my breath. I sent up a silent prayer that I would find what I was looking for and that this would all be worth it.

I stopped short when I got to our destination, all the hairs on my body standing to attention—every single person in the kitchen had a Rider inside of them. Every. Single. One. “Oh, God,” I said as I swiped my sweaty palm over my mouth in horror. There was no way I was going to be able to handle this.

“Are you not feeling good again?” Laila whispered to me under her breath.

“More than you know,” I whispered back through gritted teeth.

“You gonna be sick again?”

“I’m way beyond that point.” I forced myself to stand up straighter and to don an air of false confidence. “Now let’s get you that drink.” How’s that saying go? Fake it until you make it? I wasn’t sure if I was that good of an actress, but I was damned sure going to try to be.

“Okaaay,” Laila said, drawing the word out to let me know she didn’t exactly know what was up with me. That would make two of us.

As we strode toward an ice chest obviously filled with various kinds of alcoholic libations by the way everyone seemed to be orbiting around it, Cliff scrambled to get ahead of us. “Hey, what can I get you then, Paige? A coke, or sweet tea, or water, or something?”

My lips turned up in a wry smile. Oh, how sweet, the alien wanted to play host to me. Too bad my whole planet had already been doing that, and I was so over it. “Nothing, thanks.”

“Natty Lite? Don’t you have anything left besides Natty Lite in here?” Laila said with annoyance as the sound of ice sloshing around reached my ears. I almost wanted to laugh, the more things change, the more they stay the same. Were teenagers, no matter where in the country, whether they were fully human or playing hosts to aliens, forced to drink the beer cast offs of society?

Cliff frowned down a Laila. “You know all the good stuff always goes first; maybe if you would have gotten here earlier you could’ve had something else.”

Laila finished flicking the ice off a can of Natty Lite and cracked it open, and lifted it to her mouth. She proceeded to chug it all down in almost one go. Huh. And maybe her solution was the same as mine always had been, to use quantity to make up for quality in beer. But then again look what almost happened to me the last time I’d attempted to actually apply that flawed logic as a solution. “I need to go to the bathroom,” I said to both Cliff and Laila, hoping that Laila would be a good girlfriend and offer to come with me, and Cliff would be a good host and direct me to the nearest one. Too bad neither one of them wanted to fulfill those particular roles.

“I’ll wait for you here,” Laila said as she made goo goo eyes at a cute boy and his little friend inside of him.

“I’ll show you where to go,” Cliff said with a smile on his face. Ugh.

“Fine,” I grated. I suppose that Laila wouldn’t be much help anyways. I was seriously outnumbered and she was a non-gifted human who had absolutely no idea what was really going on right under her nose.

“Come on.” Cliff tried to link his arm with mine and I sidestepped him, not wanting to come into contact with his bare skin again. The bold move made him frown at me.

“Do I need to remind you again that I have a boyfriend back home?” I punctuated my sentence with the best death glare in my arsenal.

It didn’t even faze him. “Can’t blame a guy for trying,” he said with a laugh.

“Actually, yes I can,” I retorted with ice dripping from my voice. I trailed along behind him, wishing I could use my dragon magic to fry him to a crisp, but I knew it was just the Rider I wanted dead, and not poor Cliff, at least not the real Cliff. When we got to the top of a huge set of winding stairs, Cliff sauntered down to the end of the hallway and turned the light on in the bathroom for me.

As I moved to walk past him, he stuck his arm up to rest his hand on the edge of the doorjamb to completely block my way. “Aren’t you gonna thank me for taking you to this bathroom where you don’t even have to stand in line?”

“Ummm . . . Thank you,” I said crisply, and tried to duck under his arm, but he wasn’t having any of it. Or maybe it was the Rider that wasn’t having any of it.

Cliff’s features suddenly seemed to completely take on the appearance of the alien within. It was a shock that made me stumble back and gasp. “Cliff has been difficult to hold on to from day one,” the Rider snarled at me as he grabbed a huge clump of my white hair at the back of my head. “But I have a feeling if we get one of us into you, and the two of you make nice with us”—he smiled a big toothy grin at me—“then Cliffy here will be a lot more easy to manage.”

Riders couldn’t possess dragons. I still wasn’t really sure why, but if they tried to put a Rider in me they would know something was different and my cover would be completely blown. I couldn’t allow that to happen. I twisted abruptly and managed to wrench myself out from under Cliff’s tight grasp, losing a clump of hair in the process, and slammed him into the wall. His head hit at a wrong angle, or just right for me, and he passed out cold. He probably hadn’t been expecting that. That made two of us . . . or should I say three?

I stood there for a second, my chest heaving from the sudden adrenaline rush, before my brain finally caught up with what had just happened. Now what the hell was I supposed to do? “Think, P.J., think,” I whispered