One Black Rose - August Part 16

"Who is Chelsea?" I asked. Carley knew a lot of people in Castleton that I still hadn't met.

"She's a girl with this ma.s.sive house over on the other side of town," she explained.

"On the other side of town where?" I asked. I had a bad feeling about this.

Carley fluttered her hands dramatically. "You know, over by the Ches.h.i.+res' house."

Nick said, "Well, I'm game for the party tonight." He looked down at the stain on his pants. "I think I need to go home and change first, though."

Carley, who was busy texting, didn't respond. "How does that sound, Carley?" I asked when she didn't reply.

"Who are you texting?" Nick asked.

"Samuel," said Carley, giving me a huge s.h.i.+t-eating grin.

"What?" I cried, jumping off the couch. I was going to see Holt later, in my room; I didn't want to spend the evening with Samuel. Somehow I knew I would feel guilty, although about what I had no idea.

"I told him to meet us at Chelsea's later," she said happily.

"Why would you do that?" I said, trying not to yell.

"Autumn, you don't have a monopoly on friends.h.i.+ps with Samuel," she said, pulling her cardigan more tightly around her shoulders and sitting up straighter.

"Yeah, okay," I muttered. I hadn't seen Samuel since he'd come in and yelled at me yesterday, and I wasn't exactly looking forward to it.

"Anyway," said Nick. "I'm going to get going. I'll be back in like an hour to pick you up."

After he left I grabbed my stuff and went upstairs. Carley called after me, "I hope you're not mad!" I ignored her. I was mad, so there. I knew that in reality she had a right to text Samuel and that she probably wouldn't have done it if she had known the truth about our relations.h.i.+p, but couldn't she at least have asked me?

Once I was in my room I looked in my closet. This would be the first big party I'd gone to since Katie died. Not that it mattered, but I wanted to look cute. At least, as cute as I could. Chelsea apparently wasn't the kind of girl who had parties where adults were there to supervise.

Finally, after glaring at my closet for a long time and vetoing several options, I chose a jean skirt mini and a red tank top that I knew complemented my brown hair.

"Autumn, Nick's going to be back soon," Carley yelled to me from somewhere else in the house.

It occurred to me that I should tell Holt where I was going; I didn't want him to show up to a dark house. He should at least know I'd be out tonight and home late.

"HEY," I said. I still hadn't figured out when to talk to him about becoming a Fairy. I didn't really know what I would need to do, like, if I would have to accept a Rose or if I could become a Fairy without one, but I was scared to bring it up to him.

Holt didn't answer, so I just texted him that I was headed to Chelsea's and would be back later. Then I grabbed my purse and a hoodie and headed downstairs to wait with Carley on the porch.

"It's nice that we have this little ritual," said Carley.

"Of sitting on the porch?" I asked, taking my usual place in the hammock.

"Yeah," said Carley, pus.h.i.+ng herself gently in the blue rocker. "I'm going to miss it," she added.

"When?" I asked. It was a cool night, even though the sky was perfectly clear and the day had been warm, so I pulled on the hoodie. So much for looking hot.

"When the summer's over," said Carley, as if it was obvious.

"Oh," I said.

I stopped in the middle of pulling on the hoodie. This was something I hadn't thought about at all, that the summer was going to end soon. We were already into August and my school started early in September. Holt had only just come back and I was no closer to figuring out anything about the Rose. And I was going to have to leave.

I could feel a lump rising in my throat. "That's going to suck," was all I managed to say.

"Yup," said Carley. "I was thinking that you could come back next summer, though."

I grinned at her. "Try and stop me!"

"Ha-ha. I was hoping you'd say that," she said.

Once Nick got there and we were on our way to Chelsea's, I had a minute to think about what Carley had said. The thought of summer ending hadn't really occurred to me. That sounds ridiculous, I know, but somehow I'd been picturing having everything figured out by the time I went back to school. So much for plans and expectations.

I thought about the Roths and the Ches.h.i.+res. I had come here this summer for a little fun in "Vacationland," as Maine was known, and had ended up in the middle of a potential Fairy war with me as the cause. Yeah, expectations could definitely be thrown out the window.

I had never been to Chelsea's house before, but I realized once we got there that I'd pa.s.sed it. It was right next to Samuel's, so I'd seen it when I'd been at his place.

Having seen Samuel's house already, I didn't find Chelsea's as intimidating as it might have been a nothing would ever be as intimidating as the Winter Queen's house a but I was still shocked by the size of the place. The white-columned house looked like it sprawled for miles and I could already hear music blaring from somewhere inside.

The place was lit up like a Christmas tree. I wondered what Chelsea had going on in there.

"See, if I had a party like this my parents would kill me and dispose of the remains," said Nick thoughtfully. "Might use me as mulch for the flowers."

"Charming," said Carley.

"Then they'd probably get drunk," Nick teased her.

"More charming," she said.

There were already a lot of cars there, so we ended up having to walk the length of the driveway. With every step I could feel myself getting more nervous; I really didn't want to see Samuel tonight. He hadn't texted Carley back about whether or not he was coming, but I was sure that if he was home he'd come. He lived next door, for crying out loud.

Walking into Chelsea's modern kitchen, I would have been prepared to see Samuel a sort of a but I definitely wasn't prepared to see Lydia and Leslie. Both girls stood there holding colorful drinks and talking to Chelsea. They looked their usual selves: a mixture of bondage and gothic.

I gulped. If I'd made a list of all the people I didn't want to run into tonight there would have been only one person higher on it than Lydia and Leslie. And that was Samuel's mother.

"Well, well, if it isn't Carley's friend," said Leslie.

Seriously? Just today I'd accused them of almost killing me, and now they couldn't even be bothered to remember my name? Evil, the both of them!

"Her name...what's her name?" asked Chelsea. She had trouble not slurring her words.

"Autumn," I said. "My name is Autumn." I emphasized every letter.

"Right..." said Chelsea. She was sort of looking me up and down in that condescending yet pleasant way that only drunk people can manage.

"You were right," I muttered to Carley. "This is going to be an awesome party."

I'm not sure if she heard me, though, because she was too busy talking to Chelsea.

Nick tried to talk to Lydia and Leslie, because poor Nick had no idea just how evil they really were, but they ignored him.

"I don't think they like me," Nick muttered to me after he'd given up.

"You aren't losing much," I said back.

Nick grinned. "Think I could make Carley jealous?"

"That'd be mean," I replied, tucking my hands into my hoodie.

"I know," said Nick. "I'm just asking."

At that moment I saw that Carley was talking to a gorgeous guy who was standing next to Chelsea, and it occurred to me, not for the first time, that she might deserve Nick trying to make her jealous.

"She can't just treat me like dirt and then expect me to be waiting around for her when she decides to come back," said Nick. "That's normally a guy thing to do."

"You noticed?" I asked, trying not to grin.

"Yeah it is, and she'd hate it if someone she cared about did it to her," said Nick. "But she does it to me."

I felt bad for Nick. I knew he was right, but they were both friends of mine and Carley had been my friend first. "I guess," I said. "But in a relations.h.i.+p the person who cares less is always the one with the power."

"Are you saying I care more about her than she cares about me?" Nick asked. He wouldn't look at me. It was always hard to hear a truth that you didn't want to know, no matter how well intentioned.

I tried to backtrack. "I was just thinking out loud," I murmured. "Let's get drinks."

"I'm driving," said Nick. "And you've hardly ever had a drink in your life."

It was true. My mother was very strict about where I went and with whom. I'd always planned on questioning her authority, and I had gone to the Solstice Party after she'd expressly told me not to. I got away with it in a way, though of course there was a ma.s.sive battle and the Winter Queen tried to kill me, so maybe I should have listened to her and not gone. But still, she didn't find out.

I wasn't sure, though, that tonight was the night to break her ironclad rule about drinking; Chelsea's place didn't really seem worth it. Maybe sometime with Holt.... I banished that thought from my mind. He still hadn't texted me back, and my certainty that I'd see him later was starting to waver.

After Nick and I got sodas and I snagged a bag of chips, we headed outside. I didn't know most of the people there, and Nick needed to be distracted from the fact that Carley was inside flirting with some guy she didn't even know.

Nick and I sat on the sand. The ocean view stretched before us, black as the night except for the streak of the moon's reflection on the water's surface.

After a while the two of us grew quiet and just people-watched. From time to time friends would come up and talk to us, then wander off to dance or play pool or drink. Nick really seemed like he just wanted to be alone with me, or at least, he probably wanted to be alone with Carley, but she was busy. I was too tired from my ocean ordeal to do much.

"Where's Carley?" I asked, craning my neck around to look at the house again.

"I would wonder the same thing, except that she clearly doesn't give a s.h.i.+t about where I am," said Nick bitterly.

At just that moment Carley came outside. She had a drink in her hand and was stumbling. A guy in bright blue swim trunks had his arm wrapped around her shoulders, not the same one as before. This one looked more like a football linebacker with a shaved head.

"Here we go," I muttered. This had trouble written all over it.

Carley was completely oblivious to everything going on around her except for the guy with his arm around her shoulder. All I could see was that she was laughing hysterically at something.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw Nick's jaw muscles tighten.

Bright Blue Swim Trunks swept one of his arms around Carley's waist and hoisted her over his shoulder. She gave a loud squeal and started hitting his shoulder, but I got the idea she didn't actually mind him picking her up.

I didn't think much of him picking her up, except that Nick might explode next to me a until he started carrying her towards the water.

Oh, no! I thought. As he got closer and closer to the water's edge, I jumped to my feet. I had to stop him.

Too late. He had already gotten up to his waist; then he threw her in.

Chapter Fifteen.

I didn't know what to do, so I screamed and ran towards the water. I didn't care that it was crazy for me to actually go in. The Water Sprite might want me most, but my friend was in danger. I had no delusions about fighting off a Water Sprite; my big idea was to get to Carley before I had to.

She had yet to surface out of the water, but before I reached the edge Nick ran past me. He wasn't exactly an athlete and his running was more like a fast loping. I had hoped he was going for Carley, but he wasn't. Instead, he slammed into Bright Blue Shorts Guy and the two of them went splas.h.i.+ng into the water.

I started to yell more and run faster without realizing that we had developed an audience. Apparently a bunch of people screaming and fighting attracted spectators. Who knew?

I was up to my knees in the water, still searching for any sign of Carley, when something streaked past me going much faster than Nick had been. If Nick was a baseball thrown by a high school pitcher, this ball had been thrown by a major leaguer. It moved so fast I couldn't even follow it, but I did catch sight of short dark hair before it splashed into the water. I thought I heard, "Get out of the d.a.m.n water, Autumn," but I couldn't be sure I guess Samuel did decide to come to the party.

Following close behind him were Lydia and Leslie. I'll say this for them: they might be evil, but they sure could run. If they ran a foot race against Nick, they'd beat him by miles.

I gulped and got out of the water. Someone handed me a towel. I was relieved that Carley would be in good hands. Well, at least I knew that Samuel would save her, and Lydia and Leslie probably wouldn't do anything shady or evil mastermind-like with him around.

I took a deep breath and tried to calm down, but my heart was still racing.

I could see that Nick was now being legitimately pummeled. Blue Shorts Guy was holding him underwater.

I thought of trying to help Nick, but my legs gave out from under me and I sat down. In my defense, I wasn't supposed to go in the water anyway, and it's not like I could throw something at Blue Shorts Guy. My aim was s.h.i.+t and he was probably too drunk to feel it. As my dad said: "The broad side of a barn would be safe against you, Autumn."

Lucky for Nick, some other guys from the party were coming to the rescue. They were calling Bright Blue Shorts Guy "Big Jake," and it didn't require a huge leap of the imagination to figure out why they'd come up with that.

I continued to stare dumbly at the scene in front of me. I felt too numb to do anything useful, which in hindsight was ridiculous, because it's not like I was drunk or impaired. It was all just so shocking I couldn't think straight enough to pick something and do it.

One of the guys literally had to wrap his arm around Big Jake's neck while a couple of others pulled on his torso to get him to let go of Nick. Once Nick was freed he staggered over and collapsed next to me. One of his eyes was already starting to swell shut.

Under normal circ.u.mstances I'd be the first one to go get an ice pack for him, but I could see no sign of Carley, so there was no way I was moving. I had also lost sight of the Ches.h.i.+res. Instead of going myself, I peered back towards the house and yelled, "Hey, can someone bring some ice?" One of the girls went to get what I asked for while Nick sprawled out next to me.

"That's going to be quite the black eye," I commented absently.

"Ouch," Nick moaned, his hand over his face.