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C H A P T E R F I V E
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“We need to finalize your alibi,” said Chris, my lawyer. I was sitting in his office towering above the concrete city, trying to get this meeting out of the way so I could just enjoy another weekend that had already crept up on me.
“What we need to do is get one of the guests from your father’s award dinner to confirm that you were there at around nine fifteen, which is Amber’s estimated time of death. Once we have that, the police will back off and you won’t have to go to trial,” Chris told me. He always liked to lay things out as simply as he could for me. Sometimes I couldn’t help but feel offended by his constant “dumb-ing down”.
I’m going to Harvard, so you can use big lawyer words around me you know, I thought.
I stared at Amber’s photograph sitting in the case file on his desk. The problem of finding an alibi was that I didn’t really have one. Yes, I was at my dad’s award dinner for most of the night, but I wasn’t allowed to use my parents as alibis. The strongest alibi would be practically any other guest that was there. Most of the guests could vouch that I was there for my dad’s speech, but it was after his speech that Amber died.
Chris probably thought this would be the easiest thing for me to do, find someone who I was talking to at the event at the time of Amber’s death. I had to pull an alibi out of thin air and get them to lie for me, to say that I was at my dad’s event around nine fifteen at night.
I racked my brain as Chris was waiting for me to answer. Then the perfect person came to me, “Mr. Alan Crest. I talked to him at the event around that time,” I said.
Chris looked through his file and pulled out the official guest list from my dad’s event. “Okay, here is his contact information. I want you to talk to him and get back to me by Monday. Take this legal form with you, have him fill it out,” Chris said. He smiled at me like I finally was doing something right.
This would all work out perfectly if I could confuse old Mr. Crest that I was talking to him earlier in that evening than I really did. Which should be pretty easy, but my conscience wouldn’t feel good about it. Hell, my conscience isn’t clean anyways; I’m trying to clear my name for a crime I really did commit.
“Sounds simple enough,” I said. “Now are you sure you want me to get the alibi? Doesn’t that make the alibi invalid if I talk to them?”
“No, no. Once you get Mr. Crest to confirm that he is your alibi, the police will take it from there by interviewing him under oath. I have to go meet with another client now, so follow me to the elevator after I lock this place up,” Chris told me.
“Yeah no problem. Um, I was wondering if you talked to my parents about my friend’s party tonight. Do you think I could go?” I asked cautiously.
Chris ignored me for a moment to lock his door before we headed to the elevator. “I talked to them and Ryan’s parents and we agreed that you can go. But there will be chaperones there and you have to come back home before midnight. We’ll have a tinted town car take you there and back. Also, NO pictures of you can be taken there, the last thing the press needs is pictures of you partying, regardless of how innocent it is.”
I was so happy they at least agreed to let me go, even if it was under such strict circumstances. I haven’t seen my classmates since the funeral and I wanted the chance to say goodbye before we all went to our separate colleges. The most important thing about that party was that “UNKNOWN” said they would be there, and hopefully I could make them stop harassing me.
At home, I opened another one of my prepackaged outfits from my stylist for the party tonight. Inside the garment bag was a gray Lanvin suit with a bright yellow v-neck tee. Nice choice, I thought to myself.
“Hey bro, did you get the okay to partaayyy?” read a text message from Henry. Although he was hesitant to go at first like we talked about last weekend, he agreed it would be a good chance for us all to make amends.
“I did! I’ll see you there soon,” I typed back while laughing to myself.
“Kyle, are you ready to go to Ryan’s? The towncar is here,” my mother asked as she passed by my room.
“Yes, I’ll go to the down to the lobby now,” I said while entering the penthouse elevator.
As soon as I got to the downstairs lobby my eyes were almost blinded. The paparazzi clicked their cameras through the windows looking into the lobby. The front desk clerk called out to me to come over to him.
“We tried to get your car in the back entrance but the paparazzi are waiting there too. We can have a couple of security guards escort you through the front doors. Sorry for the inconvenience Kyle,” said the clerk.
I thanked him and braced myself for the paparazzi and reporters waiting to get there perfect shot. Should I really go out there? I thought. I grabbed my phone and dialed my mom’s number, but she came out of the elevator all dressed up. Was she wearing that before? I don’t think so.
“Okay honey, new plan. I’m going to go out there with you. If the press sees me with you they won’t assume you’re off to a party,” mom told me as she quickly put her earrings on.
We exited the lobby to a roar of reporters and photographers shouting my name and asking me an endless amount of questions that sounded like one loud chaotic sound.
“Kyle over here, where are you off to tonight?” one stocky photographer asked.
“Drowning your sorrows tonight at the club Kyle?” yelled another tabloid reporter. I had to fight every urge to not flip these people off. I wasn’t used to all this negative attention. I’ve dealt with paparazzi before when I went with Amber to her celebrity parties and award shows, but I was always just in the background. All the attention used to be on Amber alone.
“Mrs. Parker, how do you feel about your son possibly going to the slammer?” yelled another photographer. We both stayed silent as the burly security guards weeded us through to the town car.
We finally got into the car and breathed a sigh of relief. My mom frantically scrolled through her Blackberry contacts and pressed the call button.
“Hi Anna, just wanted to give you the heads up that you’ll be getting some calls soon from the tabloids,” she said. I gave her a confused look and she held up her finger to signal she would explain in a minute. “If they ask what our destination is tonight tell them the 71st Grill, then contact our stylist Gabby to get two doubles and send them there. We need to get the photographers off our backs. Thanks, bye.”
“‘Doubles’?” I asked her, I was starting to get worried. “I thought we were going to Ryan’s party?”
“We are going to the party,” she answered. “I just sent two look-alikes to the 71st Grill so they won’t know your true location. Right now we are going to drive through some parking garages and loose these guys that are following us.”
I looked through the rear window and sure enough there were cars with paparazzi hanging out the windows, some with bikes, and some were just plain running after our car in the crawling New York traffic.
“Amber’s mother taught me the trick,” Mom continued. “Amber had this problem all the time and going through parking garages always worked because those idiots never want to shell out the money to go through them. Then our car just sneaks out an opposite exit.”
The plan worked, and even though we were already thirty minutes late to the party, I was glad to feel safe from being displayed on tomorrow’s newsstand, in a bad light at least.
Ryan’s house was just outside of New York City proper, in one of those gated neighborhoods with mansion upon mansion lining the private roads. I wouldn’t have minded having this much privacy nowadays, but my parents were against mansions and the suburban life. They always preferred equally luxurious penthouses in the center of the city.
“Hey Kyle and … oh hi Mrs. Parker! The adults are all socializing in the East Wing; I didn’t know you’d be coming!” Ryan greeted us as we climbed up the front steps of his home.
“Thank you Ryan, there was a slight change of plans thanks to the paparazzi!” Mom replied.
“Oh trust me; I definitely know how that goes!” Ryan said with a weird inflection that made my skin crawl.
My mom disappeared into the East Wing, and I followed Ryan into the West Wing. We passed multiple studies, sitting rooms, recreational rooms, even bedrooms until we arrived at a modern great (more like grand) room. I was familiar with the West Wing, but hardly ever saw much of the East. Ryan once told me once that the house is basically split into the “kids” side (West Wing) and the “adults” side (East Wing). What was funny about the West Wing is that it still wasn’t very kid oriented. Hardwood floors, earthy colors, modern lighting, and sharp furniture filled up these rooms.
“Hey look who decided to finally make it!” Henry called out before giving Ryan and I a tight group hug.
“‘The Three Musketeers’ are reunited again,” Ryan chimed in. I could feel a tinge of discomfort emanating from Ryan. The only way he could get over this is awkwardness is if he decided to fess up about hooking up with Amber.
“We’re all about start playing truth or dare over in the living area. I hope nobody dares me to streak in the East Wing because I will totally do it!” Henry joked.
Seeing my classmates made me all warm inside. Losing Amber was hard as it is, but saying goodbye to so many people I practically grew up with was adding to the stress of it all. This party may be the last time I see my friends for a long while. I wanted to drink...badly.
Jenna opened up a space in the large circle that everyone formed for the game. “Long time no see buddy!” she said, with less pep than normal. Looking into her eyes I saw the pain, a part of her must blame herself for Amber’s death just because she threw the party that would inevitably be her last.
I put my arm around her shoulder to comfort her. “Good to see you! Are those highlights in your hair? You look good as a dirty blonde!” I complimented. She smiled instantly and directed her attention to the rest of the group.
“Okay, everybody knows the rules to this right? It’s just like we used to do at our freshman year parties, spin the bottle around so it lands on someone and you ask that someone ‘truth or dare’!” said another classmate named Rayna.
“Yeah, yeah get on with it. You all know that once that bottle hits me you are going to dare me to go ‘au naturale’!” Henry shouted as he lifted up his shirt promiscuously. Almost everybody laughed and some rolled their eyes. Typical Henry, I thought to myself with a smile.
The bottle got spun quite a few times with a lot more people answering truths than dares. I was kind of shocked to see that a lot of people were revealing their crushes to each other, even if they were just short-lived crushes.
The bottle inevitably landed on Henry, after a guy named Chris spun it, and he already started unbuttoning his shirt. The girls started hooting and hollering.
“Wait, wait, wait, let’s follow the rules first Henry,” Chris said with a mischievous smile. “Truth or—”
“DARE! Dare, dare, dare!” Henry said, frustrated that he had to wait for his cue to make a fool of himself in front of the adults. Henry didn’t care about being made a fool of; I think he had the hots for one of the moms in the East Wing anyways.
“I dare you to…” Chris paused, “…kiss…KYLE ON THE LIPS!”
Everyone in the room laughed except for me. “Oh my god, seriously?!” I shouted.
“Yes let’s see this bromance taken to the next level!” Jenna joked while shaking my arm.
Henry sauntered over to me as overdramatically as he could and knelt down to my level. I closed my eyes and tried to turn away. Everyone’s laughter subsided when Henry finally cupped my face and planted the messiest kiss he could on my lips.
Oh my god gross, I thought. Please don’t try to get your tongue in there! PLEASE!
“Did you like that?” Henry joked as he finally finished the kiss. “See I am the KING of dares! I just showed all of you! NO FEAR, BABY!”
As he was about to get up again I grabbed his shirt and wiped my mouth all over it getting his damn saliva off. Everyone laughed at the self-proclaimed “King of Dares” and decided it was time to end the game before it morphed into "7 Minutes in Heaven."
“You took it like a champ, Kyle,” Jenna said while patting my back. “Let’s go get some food.”
After rinsing my mouth out with water a couple of times just to make sure my food didn’t taste like Henry’s lips the whole time, Jenna and I snacked on a buffet of gourmet foods.
This wasn’t a “pizza and soda” type of party; Ryan had a healthy array of dishes ranging from Florentine chicken to French onion soup waiting for us to eat. Jenna and I managed to exhaust every topic except Amber and ‘the case’ while we dined.
“Mind if I join in?” asked Ryan as he eyed an open seat next to Jenna at the extra long dining table.
Jenna smiled and pulled the chair out for him. “We were just talking about possibly joining fraternities or sororities when we get to college,” she said filling Ryan in.
“Oh well I’m definitely planning on joining a frat at UCLA. I mean the parties they have must be wild—” Ryan said before he suddenly got quiet. Its funny how everyone tried to avoid saying the word “party” after Amber’s death, it would just take time for everyone to disassociate that word with what happened to her. “… And, and the sense of brotherhood is really important to me. I’ve had it all my life with my brothers and of course with my brothers from different mothers, aka you and Henry,” he continued.
I smiled, he was certainly trying hard to act like everything was normal, and I did have to commend him for that. All I wanted was for things to be normal between us all…
“What about you guys? Any sororities at Princeton, Jenna?” Ryan asked.
“Yeah, I just got to find one that isn’t super ‘plastic-y’ and fake. The world of sororities is SO much different than the world of frats,” Jenna replied.
“I wish Harvard had some official fraternities. We have a few non-affiliated ones, but those probably aren’t very legit you know? Like they don’t have any funding for any events I bet,” I joined in.
We continued talking until the food on our plates dwindled down to a few scraps. Then I decided to go say hi to more of my classmates that I hadn’t got a chance to talk to yet. I wanted to get a chance to talk to everyone, maybe get a read on them to see if I could identify who…
My phone vibrated and I stopped in the middle of the great room to look at it. The message was from exactly who I was looking for: “UNKNOWN”.
“LOOKING FOR ME? THAT SMOOCH YOU SHARED WITH HENRY WAS PRICELESS! TOO BAD I DIDN’T SNAP A PICTURE OF THAT MOMENT RIGHT? OH WELL, I’VE GOT PLENTY OF OTHER PICTURES OF YOU!” the message read. A cold shiver crawled down my neck and through my spine.
It didn’t make any sense, if this person was at the party that meant they had to be one of my classmates. I knew everyone by name; there were only a hundred students in our class. I swiveled around looking for anyone texting on their phone. Oddly enough, everyone seemed to be preoccupied with dancing, talking or eating.
“TURN AROUND,” UNKNOWN texted again.
I yanked my body around as fast I could. Nobody was there. I looked in the distance; still nobody was on their phone.
“JUST KIDDING! COME AND FIND ME IN THE MANSION,” UNKNOWN typed back.
My heart was beating at an inhuman speed. What was UNKNOWN going to do? Was there someone in the house who was uninvited? That thought frightened me even more…
I walked down the brightly lit hallway of the West Wing. I started opening doors to the various rooms, searching frantically for anyone. Maybe I shouldn’t have done this alone, what if this crazy person attacked me? But if I brought someone with me I would have to explain to them why I was getting these messages. Something about UNKNOWN made me believe they know a lot more than they’re letting on.
I opened a bedroom to one of Ryan’s little brothers, he was only five and he was playing video games. He gave me a confused stare.
“Have you heard or seen anyone go down this hallway recently?” I asked the little guy as calmly as I could. He only shook his head and went back to his video game.
“YOU'RE GETTING WARMER,” UNKNOWN typed again.
How did they know where I was? I scanned the walls of the hallway and remembered something. The video cameras… There were security cameras placed all along the house, inside and out running twenty-four seven. They were controlled in a room in the East Wing, I remembered because Ryan, Henry, and I used to spy on people when his family was having parties here.
At this point I started running to the security room. The East Wing was just as cavernous as the other wing, but less loud than because the adults weren’t as boisterous.
I quieted my steps as I sneaked past one of the living rooms were the adults were all conversing. The farther I got into the East Wing the darker it got because nobody bothered to turn the lights on. The only light was coming from the tiny red blinking camera lights. I fumbled for the switch but I couldn’t find anything against the wall. Shit, shit, shit! I thought as my phone vibrated again.
“YOU’RE HOT. DON’T GIVE UP NOW!” read the message from UNKNOWN.
I used my phone as a flashlight and looked at each of the doors. After a good five minutes I found the one I was looking for. I turned the knob as quietly as I could but it wouldn’t budge. I reached for the top of the doorframe to find a spare key, but there was nothing but dust.
Think Kyle! Try to remember! I reflected to myself while closing my eyes, which looked no different than looking in the pitch black of the hallway. I remembered Ryan used to unhook a painting opposite the security room door and a key was attached to backside. I prayed that it would still be there.
Still using my phone as a light source, I carefully unhooked the painting and found not one but two keys attached to the back. I grabbed both and set the painting down.
Frantically I shoved one of the keys into the lock but it didn’t work. All my hope rested in the other key. My hands trembled as I tried to fit it into the lock. I was able to twist it and I swung the door open.
The room was lit by the many computer monitors showing views of the entire mansion. I switched on the lights and looked around. Nobody was there.
I didn’t want to give up yet; this person had to leave a clue somewhere.
“DID YOU REALLY THINK I WOULD LEAD YOU RIGHT TO ME? SEE HOW EASY IT IS FOR YOU TO DO EXACTLY AS I SAY? TTYL,” read the message.
But it wasn’t from UNKNOWN.
I dropped the phone after reading that the message’s sender was… Ryan.
I couldn’t stop shaking, whether it was from anger or fear, I didn’t know. I had to double check; I had to make sure it wasn’t a mistake.
I scanned the monitors for Ryan. He wasn’t in the great room with everyone else, but there were so many people moving around it would be impossible to find him. The other monitors seemed normal, I even checked on the adults to see anything out of the ordinary. Then one monitor stood out.
The only thing on this sole monitor was television “snow,” the black and white fuzzy stuff that everyone sees on old televisions when there is no signal. The label under this monitor read “RYAN’S ROOM”.
I left no second to spare as I raced out of the East Wing to Ryan’s room. There had to be a reason why his security camera was off or broken. Maybe he didn’t want videotaped proof that he was harassing me with text messages.
In the seconds that it took to arrive in his room a flood of thoughts entered my head. Why did Ryan want me to know that Amber was cheating on me? Why did Ryan want to torture me with bad press? What did Ryan want from me? What does he know?
I burst through the door in his room which was unusually cold for the rest of the house. The window was wide open, and everything in the room seemed calm and serene. I called Ryan’s phone, he had to be near.
I heard the ring; it was coming from … his bed. There was nobody here, just his phone sitting there on the bed. I picked it up and ended the call. The text message I was sure he sent was nowhere to be found.
My own phone vibrated again, instantly I opened the message. “ :) ” was the only thing typed from UNKNOWN.
“There you are Kyle. Oh good you found my phone! I thought I lost it this morning. Look I’ve been meaning to talk to you about something,” Ryan said as he entered the room.
It was all I could do to stop myself from screaming at the top of my lungs. I couldn’t believe UNKNOWN had tricked me so easily.
“What is it?” I asked him as I sat on the bed, trying to regain my composure.
Ryan walked over to shut the window with a perplexed look. Then he joined me on his bed and said, “There’s no easy way to say this, but there’s something I’ve been keeping from you. A secret that Amber and I shared.”
No, he’s not really going to tell me this right now, I thought. Oh my god there’s no way he could have sent those messages
“Amber and I…we hooked up a couple of times,” he confessed trying not to break eye contact with me. “It started in the spring when we got our acceptance letters back from colleges. I never would have started it if she hadn’t told me her plan. She was going to leave you because she wanted you to be able to have a good future without her. See, she didn’t actually get into Harvard at all.”
Hearing his confession didn’t shock me until he told me that Amber didn’t even get in Harvard. I didn’t have to pretend that I was surprised, because I genuinely was.
Ryan made an effort to try and grab my hand, or put his arm on my shoulder, but he pulled back seeing how tense I was. “She was trying to make the best decision for you. Amber knew if you found out that she was going after her acting career you would give up your dream to be a psychologist and go to a California school that wasn’t as good. She knew that the two of you would eventually part ways if you move to California and she didn’t want to feel responsible for ruining your life.”
I felt the hot tears streaming down my face. I ruined her life while she was trying to not ruin mine, I thought. “But that doesn’t explain why you had to hook up. I don’t understand,” I pleaded.
“She knew the only way you would stay enrolled at Harvard was if she betrayed you. She fooled me into falling in love with her, and I really tried to stop it but I had already gone in too deep. She really is a great actress. I feel in love with her so easily. I think she felt guilty for everything she done, leading the both of us on, breaking your heart and ruining a friendship, that she…she committed suicide,” Ryan continued, tears flowing from his eyes too.
I wanted to say something, try to convey some emotion but I couldn’t. I asked Ryan the only question that mattered now, “Does ANYBODY else know about this?”
“No, I never told anyone and I kept the secret from my parents too. I even messed with the security camera signal in my room so nothing between us could be recorded. She kept it completely secret too. The last thing we wanted was to humiliate you. I guess I hoped that she would have chosen me in the end. But in a way, I’m glad she never had the chance. Your friendship is more important to me, I’m so sorry for what I’ve done,” he finished.
In any other circumstance I would’ve been angrier than ever. But with Amber gone because of what I had done, I couldn’t destroy the friendship that she almost destroyed. Ryan deserved an apology, because it was all I could give him. I couldn’t give him the truth; there was no way I could tell him that I killed Amber. If the truth came out then all of Amber’s futile efforts to protect my future would have been wasted.
“I forgive you. But you have to promise me one thing. We can never speak of this to anyone. I will not let Amber be remembered for such a disaster,” I said before I embraced Ryan and cried almost endlessly…