Anti Cupids

One

01.

It was a stormy Saturday night. I was all alone, my thoughts being my only company.

The room was dimly lit by the flashlight in my hand. Everything around seemed eerily quiet, the only sound being the pitter-pattering of the raindrops. It was pouring buckets outside and the power was out. I had my eyes fixated on the windowpanes as I watched the raindrops slide down the glass.

It was well after midnight and I was tired to the bones, but wide awake.

The ticking of the clock, the rustle of leaves... even the faintest of clinks seemed to be amplified by a million times.

I was paying undue attention to my surroundings, I know.

Staying home alone was pretty normal for me in usual circumstances, but the turbulent weather and incessant crackling of thunder made this situation a whole lot scarier.

Leave it to my lovely family to abandon me in the house at this time of night.

Mom and Dad had to rush to the hospital this evening. It was an emergency. My grandmother is an asthma patient and she'd had a terrible attack. I perfectly understood the delicate set of conditions that called for them to stay the night with her. However, I did have some major issues with my brother's unexpected absence!

I was worried out of my mind because of that hopelessly annoying moron. He wasn't supposed to go out tonight. We both were to stay home together and that sleazy scumbag had bailed out on me!

I had no idea when he even left the house. It was almost half past two in the morning and I had no clue of his whereabouts. A little warning would've been nice.

To cap it all, the irresponsible prick wasn't picking up his phone!

Needless to add, I was having a mega freak-out session. With nobody to talk to other than the dumb shadowy walls.

I couldn't be sure, but I strongly suspected that he was at some stupid party right now. More specifically, Valerie Cooper's birthday party.

Jace was never deficit of party invitations or people's attention. He had to be there...

Yeah, he's kind of popular.

The 'school jock', in every sense of the word - running-back of the Varsity football team, in possession of agreeable looks (as per the general view of the female population, which excludes me, of course), arrogant as hell... I could go on and on. However, being his sister wasn't as much fun as some people might believe. The whole freaking team treated me like their 'baby sis' (Jace perpetrated that idea even though I'm only 11 minutes younger than him) and I'm not exactly fond of that.

Seriously though, I'm digressing. The bottom-line is, wherever the heck Jace was, why couldn't he just answer his stupid phone!? What would I tell Mom if he didn't come back all night?

My mind was building up some very absurd theories behind his disappearance at the moment.

Was he drunk? Did he pass out in some dump? Was he banging somebody? (well, that's yucky) Did he get involved in a fight? Is he still even alive?

I had already dialed all the guys Jace and I hung out with. It's safe to say that all of them were wasted to the core, that much was clear. I couldn't understand a single word of what they said because of the blaring music in the backdrop and their constant slurring, which was awfully aggravating.

I could have accompanied Jace to the said party if it hadn't been for the fact that the most obnoxious girl on the planet, Valerie Cooper, was hosting it. Why she is annoying is a story for another time. I don't want to spoil my already spoiled mood by thinking of her.