What the...?
My eyes scan across the beach, my heart hammering noisily in my chest, my brain dancing painfully in my head. This isn't right, none of this is supposed to be happening, yet somehow it is. I can see it clearly with my own damn eyes.
The beach is full of people, teenagers fill the sand as far as the eye can see. It's a party, not a date, and Zac is smack bang in the middle of it. He knew this was what he was bringing me to, and he did nothing to forewarn me. He said it was going to be a date...didn't he? My mind flicks back over our phone conversation, but it's all become really jumbled in my memories now, considering everything that's happened since.
I want to leave, to simply run away, to avoid Zac for the rest of my life. He's definitely a player, I can feel it right down to my core, and I'm the latest pawn in his plan. If that wasn't the case, he would've just told me the truth.
I know that, yet I still can't seem to move. My feet feel cemented to the spot. Mostly because this is the least crappy option out of all the ones I have available to me. Go home—urgh, no thank you, go somewhere else and risk running into the terrifying man with a bite once more, or stay here, and potentially meet some of my new classmates.
I hate it, the idea of sticking here fills me with sickness and dread, but I haven't gone anywhere yet so it seems my decision has been made for me.
"Oh look, it's Rae!"
I would've loved this to be Emma, my actual friend calling out to me, but since she's nowhere to be found, I know it won't be. It's the person who I'm desperate to see, and who I also want to punch in the face too.
"Hey, Zac." I lift up my hand in a half-hearted gesture. "Hi everyone."
Eyes come from every angle, everyone is looking at me like I'm an alien creature who needs to be dissected and turned inside out. I fold my arms self-consciously across my body, my face heating up as I realize that I'm not enough, that I don't look good enough, that I don't have anything interesting to say...if these people are expecting the new girl to be fun, then I'm going to be a massive letdown.
"Oh right." Zac suddenly leaps into action. "This is Tom, Mary, Jaz, Ellis, James..."
The names go round and round in my brain, but none of them settle. I should try and remember them to give me a head start when school begins, but my mind has more important things to focus on. For starters, this strange situation and Zac's games, but also the bite. That's firmly stuck in my mind's eye, that one isn't going anywhere.
There are many times when I want to leave the party, but I make myself stay. Well, fear makes me stay, but after what feels like hours of listening to supposedly funny 'you-really-had-to-be-there' stories and inside jokes, I can't stand it anymore. A lot of these people are loud and obnoxious, not the sort of friends I'd choose to surround myself with. They're giving me a headache, I can't stick it out any longer.
"I have to go." I touched Zac's arm gently as I spoke. "I don't feel so good."
"Oh no, I..." he flickers his eyes left and right, looking for an escape. It seems that I'm not getting an offer of an escort home tonight! "Are you alright? Did you have fun? I thought it might be good for you to meet everyone."
I nod slowly, accepting my fate. This guy is a lot more of what Emma told me he would be, so I need to put the fantasy to bed. "Sure, it's been nice. You're friends are...nice." The lie's so obvious, I can't even think up a decent second word for it. "Thank you, but I'm going to take off."
I spin on my heels, refusing to suffer the indignity of him making up a reason to stay. If this is where he needs to be, then so be it. At least I know better now. My heart my hurt, my stomach my be twisting up in knots, but I'm aware. There's time for damage control now.
I keep my eyes fixed on my feet all the way home, just circling thoughts around my brain, so it isn't until I crash through the front door to my house that I'm snapped back into the present moment.
"Rachael, you idiot!" My mom screams at top note. "Where the hell have you been?"
"I..." I wait for the argument to brew, some snarky comment that she hasn't been paying attention to me, and that it's my life anyway and I'm almost an adult—the usual rubbish—but this time nothing comes. Maybe her fears about this virus aren't so farfetched after all, it might be time for me to respect the rules for once on my life. "I'm sorry," I end up saying meekly instead.
"I just can't stop worrying that something's going to happen to you. You know I'm a worrier, and what with all this news stuff..." She stops herself in her tracks and pulls me in for a hug. "Anyway I'm just glad that you're okay."
I lean into her, inhaling her familiar floral scent, feeling like a little girl in need of some parental comfort for the first time in years. But I'm not small anymore, I can see right over her shoulder, and something unusual has caught my eye, something that had my heart beating a whole lot faster all over again.
"Dad?"