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6
As soon as I get into the hallway, I realize something’s wrong. The air’s thick with a tension that has no place at a party, and the feel-good energy that permeated the house before has been replaced with a sense of foreboding. The music has been cut off and there’s shouting coming from downstairs. I follow the loud voices into the main room.
Ryan, Kaitlyn, Dave, Makayla, and some other people who weren’t invited have crashed the party. Not just crashed it, but ruined it. They’re standing off with Aiden, Noah, and Julian, who are refusing to let them venture any farther into the house. Annalisa must’ve been talked into not leaving the party earlier, because she and Charlotte are there as well, albeit a bit off to the side, but all my friends appear relatively sober. The rest of the partygoers are standing around with undisguised excitement, watching the scene unfold.
“Come on, Ryan. We’re just trying to have a good time here, no need to start problems,” Noah insists, trying to guide them to the door to leave.
“And like I asked before, I’m not invited to my own stepbrother’s birthday party?” Ryan shoots back, his eyes dark and calculating.
“No,” Aiden asserts, with authority in his voice. “And you’re not my stepbrother.”
I’m about to push through the crowd to stand with my friends when Aiden’s sharp eyes meet mine. He gives his head a discreet shake, accompanied by a stern look I know all too well by now: Stay out of it.
A lot of people have their phones out and are filming on that stupid app S-Live Time in anticipation of a fight breaking out.
I’m torn between wanting to back up my friends and needing to stay off social media. In the end, needing to stay off social media wins, because keeping Tony away from me means keeping that monster away from my friends.
“Why don’t we ask my dad to settle this disagreement like he used to when we were kids?” Ryan pauses. “Oh wait, we can’t. Her white-trash brother killed him.” He gestures to Annalisa, and people in the room reflexively take a step away from her.
There’s something different about Ryan. He looks like he’s taken the death of his father really hard. He had just gotten Greg back from prison, and then he was killed. Ryan barely got to reunite with him, and it’s obvious that’s affecting him. Even though I hate Ryan, I can sympathize with him. I also lost my dad at a time when our relationship was strained, and even with everything that went on after, his loss still hits me. I don’t know what Ryan’s relationship with his father was like, but it’s obvious he cared about Greg, and I get it.
Ryan’s face is unshaven, and looks tired and drawn, but at the same time hardened. His hair, which is usually styled in a short ponytail at the top, looks rushed and messy, and the sides that are usually shaved have grown out. His normally hostile brown eyes are ice cold. Maybe the last shreds of kindness within Ryan were buried with his father, and all that’s left are the parts that hate everyone with a burning passion.
Julian steps closer to Ryan.
“You watch what you say to her,” he threatens in a low voice.
Ryan all but ignores him. “Where’s the other little bitch who’s always here?” He directs this at Aiden.
Who’s he calling little? I’m five foot six in three-inch heels!
Ryan looks into the crowd and I shrink back, not wanting phone cameras turned on me. “You know, the one with the big mouth that I’d like to stick my d—”
Aiden surprises everyone, and maybe even himself, when he reaches out and grabs Ryan by the throat. Ryan doesn’t squirm, so Aiden must not be pressing that hard, just enough to get the message across.
“Finish that sentence and we’ll see just how far we can get my boot down your big mouth,” Aiden growls with barely restrained rage into Ryan’s ear. He releases his grip and steps back, leaving Ryan to rub his neck.
“Get out of here.” Aiden crosses his arms across his chest, accentuating the muscles we already knew were there.
Around me, people are whispering about Aiden’s reputation, about how they wouldn’t want to be the one messing with him.
Ryan gestures at Annalisa. “I’ll leave when the murderer’s sister steps outside to have a little chat with me.”
Annalisa shoves past Julian and Aiden, getting up close and personal with Ryan.
“You think I’m scared of you?” She practically yells in his face and points at Kaitlyn. “Ask your girlfriend here—apparently, she’s telling everyone I’ve got the killing gene in my blood.”
Murmurs of “Wacko Anna White” make their way around the crowd, and I clench my fists to remind myself to stay out of it. Kaitlyn stands with Makayla, a frown on her face, like she doesn’t care what happens either way.
“Your junkie brother wanted to get high and killed my dad when he told him he wasn’t selling anymore!” Ryan insists, spittle flying out of his mouth.
“Bullshit!” Annalisa yells. “You think your dad was clean? What did the coroner’s report say, Ryan? There was heroin in his system when he died! Your dad’s a piece of shit in life and death!”
If the vein pulsing in Ryan’s neck is any indication, Annalisa’s really pushing his buttons now. The crazed look in Ryan’s eyes has been getting more intense the more she talks.
“Shut the fuck up right now!” he yells, whipping out a large pocketknife and pointing it at her. “Shut the fuck up right now!”
Aiden and Julian both hadn’t foreseen this new turn of events, and Noah pushes Charlotte behind him. I’m glued to the spot. Aiden and Julian both try to push Annalisa away, but she’s unfazed. She stays right where she is, knife pointed at her and all.
“My brother didn’t kill your asshole father!” she yells right back at Ryan, with so much conviction that her belief in her brother is undeniable to everyone.
I look around. Everyone has moved back but no one is doing anything about the knife that Ryan’s pointing at one of their classmates.
Ryan and Annalisa continue to yell at one other. Aiden and Julian keep trying to get between the knife and Annalisa but she’s persistent, and keeps shoving them away, her icy, blue eyes laser focused on the boy insulting her and her family.
I can’t get in the videos, but I have to do something to break this up before Annalisa says something that makes Ryan really snap.
Thinking quickly, I run up to some random kids, trying to look frantic and confident. “The cops are here! They’re arresting anyone who’s underage drinking! We’ve gotta get out of here!”
Racing through the party, I do the same thing to everyone I see, and soon enough other kids are doing it, too, until people are running around yelling “Cops,” and everyone’s scattering, tripping over each other trying to get out of the house as fast as they can. As the crowd disperses, I’m satisfied that all the cameras are off, so I run up to Annalisa and pull her back, allowing Aiden and Julian to step between her and Ryan.
As Ryan’s friends take notice of everyone frantically trying to get out of the house before the cops come, they pull him back. All the while he’s shouting at Anna, promising that he’s not done with her.
“Bring it!” Annalisa screams back.
Finally, Ryan and his friends leave Noah’s house, along with the rest of the crowd. Soon enough, it’s just Noah, Charlotte, Aiden, Anna, Julian, and me left in the house, plus Mason sleeping upstairs. Who knows where Chase is.
“Shit, we gotta get rid of the keg.” Noah starts toward the kitchen before I stop him.
“Relax, there’s no cops. I made it up because that situation was escalating to a place we wouldn’t be able to come back from,” I say.
Annalisa huffs and crosses her arms. “Should’ve let him stab me. That way everyone would’ve had it on video that I killed him in self-defense.”
“No one’s stabbing anyone,” Aiden declares.
Annalisa storms from the room and this time I follow her, leaving the guys and Charlotte to go through the house to make sure all the partygoers have left. I find her in the kitchen, angrily dumping out half-full Solo cups.
“He had a knife pointed at you, and you were still purposely aggravating him,” I comment, helping her with the cleanup.
“I told you. I wanted him to stab me,” she deadpans, and I can’t decide if she means it or not.
I stop picking up cups and study her. “Do you really think Luke’s innocent?”
Annalisa stops as well, resting her hands on the counter. “I don’t know. I just feel it in my gut, you know. Luke’s done some pretty bad things, but I know he wouldn’t do that. He doesn’t even remember that night! How do you kill a guy then not remember?”
I don’t point out that not long ago, Annalisa was telling everyone that Luke killed her mother. She’s come a long way from hating his guts to being his biggest defender.
“We have to do something. I can’t just let him rot in jail.” She looks down, blinking back tears.
As long as Ryan’s convinced Luke killed his father, he’s never going to leave us alone. He’s going to threaten me and my friends, and make sure he makes our life as hard as possible. I can’t have him ruining my chances of staying here with my friends and living out a normal senior year for as long as I can. I can’t have him devoting all his time to hating us; devoting so much time that he might stumble upon my secret.
