“Let’s go,” she said. She strode around me and up the path to the car, where Andre was waiting, while I tried to remember how to use my legs.
He opened the door for her, and I got in on the other side, joining her in the backseat and leaving him to drive.
Summer gave Andre directions, because her brother’s address, which was actually somewhere outside of Hope, wouldn’t show up on GPS. It was off a dodgy gravel logging road in the woods that we probably weren’t even supposed to drive the rental on, which was off another long road, which was off the highway. Felt like we were many miles from civilization.
It was dark as shit, no streetlights, and I didn’t see another driveway of a house anywhere.
When we turned up the drive to Summer’s brother’s place, it wound farther through the woods, no house in sight, for at least five minutes. But eventually, I heard a deep, rumbling bass beat coming from the dark ahead of us.
Music.
“This all belongs to your brother?” I asked Summer. If it did, it had to be hundreds of acres.
“Rich grandparents,” she said vaguely. “They’re getting really old now. My dad never wanted this place, but it’s worth a hell of a lot of money, so it’s staying in the family.” She shrugged a little. “I didn’t really want it either, and they always adored Justice, so.”
“Your parents must be interesting people,” I said.
She looked at me. I could see her glittery eye makeup, even in the near-dark. “Why?”
“I doubt uninteresting people name their kids Summer and Justice.” I’d already heard her brother’s name, and I knew it was his real name.
She didn’t say anything, just looked out the window. She didn’t seem to be in the greatest mood. At least, around me.
She’d definitely smiled at Andre when he’d opened her door for her.
When we parked and he got out to do it again, she smiled at him again.
I got out on the other side. The bass was loud now, and it was coming from beyond the house, which I could only glimpse through the woods ahead of us. There were maybe two-dozen cars parked along the drive leading to the house, and we’d parked in line.
We walked up to the house, and with every step we took, the music grew louder.
The house was all wood, simple, and not overly large. Probably wasn’t ever the rich grandparents’ primary residence, then. It looked newly built and smelled of fresh cedar.
“Will your parents be here?” I asked her, suddenly wondering if I was about to meet her father.
She gave me a weird look. “Uh, no. It’s not really their scene. They live on Vancouver island, in Victoria. They never come out here.”
As we approached the house, I took a good look around, into the dark. I didn’t see any people, yet. Andre was behind us, also scoping things out. “I didn’t know there’d be a party.”
“Well, here’s a tip, Ronan Sterling.” Summer paused at the door to the house. It was a screen door; the interior door stood open, and I could see bodies moving inside. She turned to me, and we locked eyes. “If you roll with me, you can always expect a party. That way, you’ll never be unprepared.” Then she pushed through the door into the house.
I glanced at Andre, to see if he’d heard that sass.
He did. He cocked an eyebrow at me, like, What did you do to piss her off?
I ignored him and walked into the house, staying close to her. The living room was empty, everyone in the kitchen beyond.
“Oh.” Summer stopped short and turned to put her hand on my chest. My nipples immediately hardened. They were as eager as my dick was to get naked with her, apparently. I could imagine her tongue lapping over them as she pressed in, and I almost shuddered. “I’m not telling anyone you’re security,” she informed me. “So. Try to blend in.”
She looked me over and kinda shook her head, like that might be hopeless.
Then she turned and strut into the party, and I followed.
There were a handful of people hanging out in the kitchen. Summer said a quick hello to a few of them, but led us straight through.
And when we stepped out the back door, I quickly realized this was no ordinary house party.
It was like we’d stepped into an enchanted forest, and all the woodland creatures were on acid.
The party spilled out onto the back deck and down into the yard, if you could call it that. It was sheer rock, slightly uneven. We were literally in the mountains here, and there was no lawn. Just clumps of bushes and then the woods surrounding the house. Rugs and artificial turf had been laid out, obviously to make a danceable area. Multi-colored lights were strung overtop and all through the trees. And the whole dance area was surrounded with huge painted panels that leaned against the trees, neon-bright blacklight paintings of organisms that looked half-biological and half-machine.
There was a giant purple elephant sculpture up in a tree, for some reason.
There was also what looked like an Ewok village in the woods.
Beyond the dance floor, several wooden ladders had been built from the ground up into the trees. I could make out a hanging bridge connecting a couple of the largest trees. And right in the middle, there was a massive treehouse structure on stilts, built around a couple of trees, with a walkway on either side. There were people up there, dancing, talking… and in the center, there was a DJ playing on the balcony overlooking the dance floor.
What seemed like a ridiculous amount of overkill on the sound system—stacks and stacks of speakers—were set up in the trees in a half-circle all around the yard. It was fucking pumping, but since we were outdoors, the music had a long way to go. Incredibly, it wasn’t too loud to carry on a conversation.
There
