AllFreeNovel
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I’m being ridiculous, I know, but this grubby backpack is the only thing anchoring me to reality right now. The makeup, the dress, the car… Kat? This must be how Alice felt when she fell down the rabbit hole.
Honestly? That girl kept her shit a lot better than I would have.
Which is ironic, because a few months ago,Iwas the life of the party. But now I’m the half-empty bottle of flat beer with a cigarette floating in it.
“I need it.”
Kat rolls her eyes. “They’re gonna think you’ve got a bomb in there.”
“All my stuff’s in here.”
I expect her to argue, but there’s a touch of something in her eyes that’s not quite sympathy.
“Yeah, fine.” She shrugs her shoulders and stares off toward the mansion with narrowed eyes. “But if they find a gun on you, I don’t know you.”
I huff out a laugh, and Kat takes a last swig from the bottle before tossing it onto the passenger seat. She grabs a glittery clutch purse and slips her key fob inside. “Let’s get this party started.”
We get through the front door without problems, although the guards stationed on either side subject me and my backpack to averythorough search with a hand-held metal detector before I’m allowed through.
Just inside the doorway is a long table covered with masks. I’d noticed some people wearing them on the way in, but I didn’t realize they were compulsory.
There’s a girl perched on a stool behind the table, guarding a large coat room.
She waggles her finger at me and lets out a snooty, “Uh-uh.”
“Relax, bitch, she’s with me.” Kat turns up her nose. “The backpack isn’t.”
The coat check girl holds out a slim arm. “I’ll check it in for you.”
“No.” I tighten my grip on the straps until my hands start tingling.
“I wasn’t asking,” the girl says.
“JesusChrist,” Kat whines. “I’m too fucking sober for this.” She clicks her fingers at the coat check girl. “We’ll take some masks, and then we’ll find a place to dump the backpack. Scout’s honor.”
The girl hesitates, but the line forming behind us crumbles her resolve. She hands us two masks—a cat skull for my roommate, and a slightly bulkier deer skull for me. Then she leans to the side to make eye contact with the people behind us, dismissing me and my ugly backpack.
Kat grabs my elbow, herding me to the side and staring at me insistently until I put my mask on. It’s pretty enough with its glitter and stuff, but I know I’m going to be bumping all sorts of things with these antlers.
Kat visibly relaxes once my mask is on. “Thank God. You were starting to put my street cred at risk, noob.”
“I have a name.”
“And it’snoobuntil you’ve proved yourself worthy,” she mutters in return, sliding her mask in place as she starts looking around. “Now, move it. We need to find a shallow grave for that monstrosity you’re lugging around.”
Waiters in black appear when we exit the entrance hall, and Kat grabs absently at a glass as a tray of champagne comes past. I try the same and somehow manage to knock over two glassesandspill half of the one I wrestle off the tray.
The waitress sends me a foul look. I bend to help her pick up the broken glass, but Kat clucks her tongue at me and drags me down the hall by the hem of my skirt.
“Why am I being punished?” she says. “Follow me.”
As if I have a choice. I snatch my dress out of her grip and smooth it down my legs. Most of the people flowing around us are heading toward the pounding music, but a few make their way down the hallway with us.
We take so many twists and turns and staircases that I’m completely lost.
“This’ll do,” Kat says, pushing open a door and stepping aside. “Just shove it under the bed or something. No one will come in here.”
The room smells like men’s cologne. I hurry over to the king-sized bed and bend to slide my backpack under it.
