Chapter 31 Chapter Thirty One
As the cab stopped me in front of the school, I sensed something was very, very wrong somewhere. Because for one, there was loud club music coming out of the front gates.
“What the fudge is going on here?” I whispered to myself. “No, this has to be a mistake right? Maybe I misheard?”
But I knew I hadn’t, he’d asked me to come to the school gym. And this was it.
The gates were closed but not locked, sitting slightly open with the groundskeeper nowhere to be found. There was no security to be seen anywhere either.
And from somewhere inside, muffled but present, came the low murmur of… laughter?
I stood outside the gates for a moment, then I pushed them open and went inside, headed for the gym.
The gym room was the source of the sound, no question. I could feel the bass in my feet on the path leading up to them, and there were voices underneath the music, a lot of voices, more than made sense for whatever I'd been imagining on the cab ride over.
I pushed the door open.
The noise hit me first, it was so loud that I already had to cover my ears.
Then the bright strobe lights moving across the ceiling, flashing blue and red and green, and then the faces, dozens of them, all turning at once toward the door, toward me, the way a crowd turned when something they'd been waiting for finally arrived.
The music kept going for a second, then someone turned it down.
The silence that followed was the loudest thing I'd ever heard.
I stood in the doorway and looked at the circle on the floor, at the red solo cups in students’ hands, the kegs against the wall, a boy I recognised as Tyler with a red mark on his cheek.
There was Devon with no shirt on and big, evil Marcus sitting somewhere at the back with an expression I couldn't read, at least four couples standing on the outside, making out like animals or something.
What in God’s name had I gotten myself into?
I backed away slowly from the door, my five senses going off, my breath tightening. Danger danger danger. Retreat. Retreat!
"There she is!" Someone from the bleachers, I couldn't see who. "The star of the evening! Come on in and join the party, nerd! What are you waiting for?"
I hear several people laughing at once.
"You ever actually been to a party before?"
"Someone get her a drink, stat! She looks like she needs it."
I was already nearly outside the door, the cold outside suddenly feeling like the best available option, when a hand came around my shoulders from behind and the door clicked shut.
I heard the lock slide across and surrendered all hope when I saw who was standing next to me.
It was too late. I was done for.
Alison's voice came in my ear, warm and sweet and absolutely icy underneath. "Well… If it isn't my best friend in the whole world."
Her arm tightened slightly around my shoulders, steering me forward before I could steady my legs well enough to resist. "Come inside, Lena. Come say hi to everyone."
The circle parted and walked me into the middle of it, pushing me to the ground to sit in their middle.
I kept my eyes forward because looking at the faces around me felt like the wrong thing to do, as if acknowledging them would make this even more real than it already was.
Until I saw him.
Jace.
Sitting in the circle like everyone else, looking up at me, and the expression on his face was one I'd never seen there before in any of our interactions. Guilt.
Unlike the last time he was in a group trying to bully me, this time he looked like he'd done something he couldn't take back and had only just understood the gravity of the situation.
Our eyes met.
I looked away first because I couldn't afford not to.
I understood what this was then. It was a prank. He had only been nice to me that morning so I would let my guard down.
He knew I would be stupid enough to believe his lies, and naïve enough to fall for his cruel joke, and now he had handed me over to my worst nightmare, Allison.
“Just you… Only you.”
I wanted to cry my eyes out, I felt like such a fool.
Alison came around to face me, releasing my shoulders, and stood in front of me with her signature glittering, evil smile.
"Quiet down guys" she said, pleasantly, to me and to the room at the same time, and the laughing and jeering stopped.
“You know...” she started, “I'm willing to bet a girl like you has never had any friends to play this game with before."
She gestured at the circle around us, at the bottle on the floor, at all of it, jutting out her lower lip with mock pity. "So I'll explain it simply. It's called truth or dare." She tilted her head. "You either answer a question I ask you, truthfully, mind you… Or you do whatever I tell you, no exceptions.”
She paused, drawing out the moment for the ultimate dramatic effect, leaving everyone on edge, me worse of all.
She continued. “And now, it's your turn."
The circle waited, looking between prey and predator with interest.
I sat in the middle of it with the cold still on my coat, shaking like a leaf in the wind as they all towered high above me, surrounding me completely so I couldn’t escape.
Alison smiled, and I could’ve sworn I saw razor-sharp shark teeth, glinting in the strobe lights. She had smelled blood in the water and she was going straight for the kill.
"So, bestie. What’ll it be?” Her voice was warm and bright and absolutely merciless. "Truth or dare?"