02

I call him, looking at him, after it's been a while since I got in this car.

"Yes?"

"Where are we going?"

Yeah, I got in a car that I don't even know where it's gonna take me.

"To the party" he answers, obviously in his tone. I frown.

"But we were already in one" I reply, bewildered by all this.

"But that was disgusting, Marylise" Lindsay speaks now, staring at me in the rear-view mirror. "Now we're going to the real party"

What?

"Why didn't you tell me we were going somewhere else?" I claim Delilah, looking at her angrily.

She separates her head from her boyfriend's chest to look at me and answer—: "Because I knew you wouldn't come"

"Why? Where are we going?" I ask utterly bewildered.

"Now, relax, it's just a party" Try to calm me down, Lili. "You're sure to find lots of cute guys available for you" Raise both eyebrows, as a hint and with some degree of fun. I notice how Brent hits her slightly on the head with his hand, causing her to lean to the side by force. "Idiot!" She shoots, groping his arm several times as he covers himself with his available hand, releasing a laugh.

Okay, that was fun.

Doesn't Brent want me to meet cute guys who are available to me?

Hell. . . this reminds me of someone I'd rather forget for today. Why do I have to remember it with anything? I'm supposed to come here to have fun, not to think about him all the time. I have to stop this.

"Well, where's the party?" I ask, trying to stop the little fight between cousins.

Lilianne gives off a sneeze and punches Brent one last time on the shoulder, then says—: "It's a house near a lake, just outside the city" I open my eyes more than usual. That's a long way off. "A friend I met where my stepfather works invited me" she explains, "today is his birthday"

"But why doesn't your dad teach at a university?" I'm more confused than ever.

"He's not my dad" She clarifies quickly, frowning his lips in a gesture of displeasure. "And yes, he teaches biology"

"Is it a college party?" I ask suspiciously, to what she nods her head. But, we shouldn't be there.

"You look like my grandmother, Mary" Lindsay says, in a mocking tone of voice. "Don't worry, it's a party like any other"

It's not a party like any other. They're college parties because they're just for people who go to college, young adults, not us. They can become dangerous, there is alcohol, drugs, uncontrolled and unprotected sex. My mom got Oliver pregnant in one of those; I overheard her talking about that day with my dad a while ago, when he was here with us before he went to serve in the Navy. I always believed that Oli was conceived within marriage, but after that day I realized that my parents got married so young just to give my brother a home and a family, to take care of that little, naughty, loose child. From that day on I understood a lot of things.

"Love. . . " Lindsay calls her boyfriend. "Has that car been behind us since we left that boring party, or is it just my imagination?" She inquires, looking out the rearview mirror.

Quickly, we all turned back to see the car that was supposedly chasing us.

"Now we'll see if he's following us or not," says Alex, taking a last look back, before parking on the side of the road.

I watch the car in the back slow down and after a few seconds, it surrounds us, passing us by. I release the air held in my lungs and a small smile assails me. I've never felt so relieved before. I really got scared, for a moment I thought we were really being followed; that someone was following me. Good thing it's not.

Alex says it was only a mistake or a simple coincidence, but Lindsay insists that it is not so, that this car has been following us for a long time. I couldn't recognize the car when I saw it, let alone the person who was driving it because the lights were glowing to me, and apart from that there was no street lighting, everything was very dark. I think I'll be afraid to run into someone at the party all night, and that's the least I need right now.

After several more minutes on the way, we finally reached the blissful lake house. There are lots of people, dozens of cars are parked everywhere, the house is huge, like three stories (it's more like two stories, but it looks like it's three stories from the front) and Victorian style, and there's a giant lake in front of it. I've never been in a place like this before, I don't know how I feel.

We get out of the car and the shrill noise of the music gets much louder. It's like I'm carrying a pair of horns over my shoulders with the volume to the top. Does it have to be that high?

An intruding hand touches mine and brings me back to the here and now. I look down and then I look at the boy next to me, who intertwines his hand with mine.

"So that is just for you don't get lost" he says, as an explanation for his action.

I'm not going to get lost. I mean, pretending to be defensive. Sometimes he treats me like a kid, too, I don't like people doing that, but, I have to admit, he's cute.

"In case of doubt" He repeats, widening his smile from the side even further. I deny with my head and return the gesture.

Most of the people are outside, in the big courtyard in front of the house, there are also people inside, but most of them are outside at the campfire, standing hands on the kegs of beer, competing to see who can and can't, or just watching and shouting names like a baton.

I don't think this is the most appropriate place for underage boys, between 16 and 17. We shouldn't be here.

I don't know where the kids went. After we got into the party, the group split up. Delilah went with Chad to who knows where, Lilianne said she'd pick up her friend to congratulate him, and Lindsay and Alex I didn't see again all night. Now I'm with Brent outside, near the campfire, watching drunk college kids drink beer upside down. A few minutes ago, one of them tried to do it, but those helping him couldn't hold him well and he fell to the ground. He broke his face, literally, he was bleeding from his nose, but he didn't care. He rose from the floor and raised his arms shouting, "Woo!" followed by everyone around him. Maybe it doesn't hurt now because he's drunk, but tomorrow, the pain in his face and the hangover will end him.

Brent hasn't stopped holding my hand for a second, which I appreciate. I don't feel good being here, there are a lot of people, a lot of drunk people who have put on their weight in alcohol. I don't want to be alone with all these people unknown to me.

"Do you want something to drink?" Brent asks, close to my ear so I can hear it.

"I don't drink alcohol yet" I answer, raising my voice a little so that he can hear me through the sound of music.

"I know, and even if you asked me I wouldn't give it to you" he says, looking at me as if I were a mother warning her child or something. I try not to smile while I refuse with my head. "I was saying something like a soda, water. . . something else" He shrubs at not knowing what other non-alcoholic drinks to mention.

"I don't think there's anything that doesn't have liquor around here" I remark, observing the hundreds of red glasses everywhere.

"You can't make a good vodka with soda, without soda, Marylise" he says, obviously in his words. I agree with him. "Now I come" He warns, letting go of my hand for the first time since we arrived. "Or do you want to come with me?"

I'm in between, whether I go with him to get the drinks knowing that inside –on the first floor – there are a bunch of people blocking the entrance, and a little more crowding the kitchen and the table, where I guess the drinks are; or stay here, with the same number of drunk people, but having much more space to get away.

"No, I'll stay here" I tell him, smiling.

He nods and tells me not to wait long and stay here, I imitate his action and then he leaves, going into the crowd of bodies until my eyes lost sight of him.

I stay for a while in the same position, looking right where I am. The guy who broke his nose trying to imitate his friends, now he's got a couple of rolled-up papers stuck in his nostrils. He keeps drinking like there's no tomorrow, though.

I'm already starting to feel the cold seeping through my body. Before, I wasn't so sorry because Brent was next to me and the heat radiating from his body was able to shelter me, but now that he's gone, I don't have anything or anyone to keep me warm. I should have brought a sweater or at least something that covered more, I wouldn't have listened to Delilah putting on this garment that doesn't cover enough.

I walk a couple of steps to get closer to the campfire to see if this way I can stop the cold from erasing my skin to the point of looking like a chicken without feathers. I get a little closer and then I start to feel the warmth, the comforting and pleasant warmth, coming into my body. The feeling is so pleasant that I get a little closer, being about two meters away from the fire.

I sit there for a considerable time, letting the fire warm my body and watching the wood burn and turn into glowing embers, until a hand, large and strong, entangles itself in my arm, pulling me back with a pull and away from the fire. I quickly turn my gaze to the person who pulled me away from the campfire so abruptly and become paralyzed for a moment when I realize that he is not the person I thought he was. I thought it was Brent who had already come back with the drinks, but what I'm standing in front of is someone completely different.