Mean to Me

Parties Suck

“Even though Cully is probably the strangest person in the entire world, if she wants to go to a party, to which she was invited, she’s perfectly entitled too,” Mrs Anderson muttered as she put Lacey’s clean laundry away in her closet.

“Even if I am going, and I’ll have to bribe her so she doesn’t tell mum and dad anything...” Lacey whispered to herself.

“Tell mum and dad what?”

“But mum, I don’t want Cully to go to the party,” Lacey whined, avoiding the question.

“Well she was invited by her new friends, so I don’t think you should worry about not wanting her there when other people clearly do,” Mrs Anderson said laying a less slutty dress on the bed and leaving her daughter to get ready.

Cully was already at the party when Lacey arrived, she was actually wearing something decent. It was a shiny top with a low cut back and tight leathery pants. Despite the outfit Lacey still wanted to avoid being in the same room as her. She spotted her Date and dragged him up to dance. After a while he went to get some drinks, and she had the opportunity to spy on Cully who was sitting in a relatively large group which consisted of both the grade above and her own grade.

It made her laugh that she looked to out of place. Maybe she won’t need to bribe her, maybe Cully will never come to another social gathering purely by choice.

“Lacey?” her date handed her a plastic cup full of punch. She accepted the drink, but discarded it quickly knowing that it probably also had alcohol or something in it.

Then she noticed some senior whispering in Cully’s ear. After some avid discussion five people in the group got up and left. Lacey waited a few seconds before creeping after them, this could be the stupidest thing she’d ever done. Why did she care where her sister was going? No one worth knowing at the party would miss them. When they got outside, she stuck to the wall and shadow of the house. The group slipped into an old, beat up car and tore away down the street and out of sight.

“Lacey! Where’ve ya been baby?” Laura stumbled out of the garden with half her skirt tucked carelessly in her underwear.

“Just, you know, inside I guess,” Lacey answered fixing her friend’s outfit, so it wouldn’t look like she’d been drinking all night.

“Cully looked pretty tonight,” Renée said, also stepping out of the garden except perhaps, in a more composed manner. She fixed her makeup in her compact and turned to do the same to Laura.

“Yeah, very pretty,” Lacey watched Renée’s care in fixing Laura’s face. She was so devoted, their relationship was built on so much love and they couldn’t even display it to the world. “I’ll get us drinks,”

“yesssss,” Laura slurred as Lacey walked back inside.

Lacey returned with a packet of cigarettes, three bottles of beer and a bottle of tequila. She was currently determined to drown the pain Cully had caused her image tonight. She alternated between taking long drags from the cigarettes and sips of the alcohol. Eventually all she could draw from her surroundings was the awful burn of tequila, the soothing burn of beer and the hot tears than ran uncontrollable down her face.

“Maybe you should stop,” Renée slid the bottles from Lacey’s hands and replaced them with a scorching cup of coffee. The two girls sat on the curb outside a rich person’s house sipping strong coffee and watching Laura absentmindedly arrange handfuls of flowers which she tore lovingly from shrubs and trees.

“She’s not always like this,” Renée sighed “she doesn’t always smoke or drink, it’s just an act mostly,”

“Why?”

“Because it’s the only way people seem to be able to make sense of...us. That I’m trying to rebel against my snobbish family, and she’s a drug addict.” Renée looked at Lacey dryly. They finished their coffee in silence, Renée took the cups to the bin and Lacey lay on the grass to look at the dark sky.

“Lacey!” she felt something jerking her around and drew herself out of the light sleep she’d fallen into. Renée was leaning over her “When I took the cups to the bin, I got caught by some drunk idiot and had to take him inside before he hurt himself, when I got back you were sleeping. But before you fell asleep did you see where Laura went?” Lacey sat up and scanned the bushes where Laura had been skipping around and playing with flowers only a few minutes ago. But the lights from the house made that part of the street too dark to see.

“No,” she answered “Come on,” They wondered carefully over to the bush land across the road.

“Laura!” Renée shouted in a whisper. A strangled moan escaped from the darkness. Renée moved faster towards to sound. Suddenly there was a bright flash from one of the lights in the house and something caught Lacey’s eye, she picked it up and tried to examine it in the little light left from the flash. It was one of Laura’s shoes, she felt around where she’d found it, with her limited vision she felt the wetness of muddy soil. This couldn’t be right; this was upper class suburbia, all these nature strips had perfect turf.  Another flash from the house, this time she saw what was wrong. The grass was all torn up in jagged lines leading in to the darkness. Her hands were muddy from feeling around the ground and when she looked closer at them all she could see was red and she could smell the sickening metallic, rusty scent of blood. She stood up sharply and looked around for Renée; this could be getting very dangerous. But Renée was gone; Lacey remembered the moan and that Renée had run, without hesitation, into the black undergrowth. Fresh heat flushed through Lacey’s face, her heart raced as she turned and began to run back towards the house. However, before she could even reach the curb side something cold and hard clamped over her mouth and her consciousness faded into obscurity.