The Beautiful Ones

39- You Broke Her Like A Twig

Zoey’s POV

“Zoey, you have to calm down.” Danny told me about half an hour after I got off of the phone with Alice.

I sighed heavily and leaned into him. “I can’t calm down, something really terrible happened and I have no idea what.”

“But Alice said that she’s fine, didn’t she?”

I nodded. “Yeah, but she was lying.”

“But she’s not in any serious danger, right? And she told you that Lance is fine.” He reasoned.

I shook my head. “Oh, but he won’t be when he gets here.”

The party was just beginning, so people were showing up and beginning to mingle in Alice’s backyard and a lot of people came up to me and asked me where Alice and Lance were, which really sucked because I had no idea what to tell any of them.

“They should be here soon.” Is what I’d supply them with most of the time.

“Have you talked to Alice again?” Jason approached me anxiously. He was obviously very worried about Alice after I’d told him about the call right after she called. I was actually kind of surprised that she didn’t call him too, but I really felt bad for him, because he was so worried. Probably almost as worried as I was.

“No,” I told him apologetically. “you know you’ll be the first person I tell if I do, though.” I assured him before he walked away to go talk to some people by the pool.

I walked with Danny to the front of the house, past the guards who were checking everybody’s invitations, so that if Lance did have to walk like Alice said, then we’d see him coming. I could see flashes of lights far away at the wrought iron gates at the front of the house, because we also had guards at the gate to block all of the paparazzi from coming onto the property, and then the guards at the back to check that the people that weren’t press still had an invitation. Basically, standing on the front porch was pretty private, with the partiers out back and the cameras stuck at the gate.

“You can’t do anything right now.” Danny told me as we sat on the porch with me on his lap. “When she needs you, she’ll let you know.”

“She’s never shut me out before.” I muttered. “Like, this is just so bad.”

He pulled me close to him and rested his head on my shoulder to comfort me. He was so adorable, but then was not the time to swoon. “It’ll work out, because she has you. And you’re pretty amazing.”

“Excuse me!” A blonde girl called to us from where everybody was making their way to the backyard. I looked over to see her walking towards us with a broad smile on her face.

I stood up off of Danny’s lap and he stood up beside me as she walked up to us. “Can I help you?” I asked her politely.

“You’re Zoey Chase, aren’t you?”

I nodded. “Uh, yeah. The party’s out back.”

She smiled and I noticed that she was really pretty and she seemed very nice. “Right, I know. I don’t have an invitation, but Lance said that he’d meet me here.”

“Oh, he didn’t tell me about inviting anybody. Are you part of the other troops’ parties?” I guessed. I’m pretty sure I mailed them all invitations with Alice, but I might have forgotten one or something.

“No, um, I’m Amber.” She announced as if that’d make me understand why she should be invited.

I frowned in confusion. “He never mentioned an Amber.”