I took a deep breath in as I wheeled my suitcase over a bear-pelt rug in the rustic lobby of the Doubleside Resort. Before the divorce, my parents had taken me here every winter break, free of charge thanks to their dear friend Marv. I'd never been here in the summer- and I'd never been here since my parents split, two years ago.
The year-round pinewood scent of the Doubleside reminded me of a simpler time. This was a time when I didn't live in a giant house with a billionaire stepdad, freaky stepsister and mom that seemed to care less and less about my life. And though that was my life now, being in the rustic lobby of the hotel at the Doubleside Mountain Ski Resort And Lodge made me feel more at peace.
Even though the wicked witch of the west coast herself was only a few yards from me.
I sat down in an oversized chair, breathing in the cozy cabin air, while Madison and Ethan worked to get us checked in.
"C'mon, girl, let's find our room and go to sleep," Madison announced, yawning and gently tapping me on the shoulder a few minutes later. I checked the time: only 6:53. And yeah, it was true that being in the car made us tired, but not go-to-sleep-at-6:53 tired.
"But wait!" exclaimed Marv, who had kindly helped Madison check in. Madison wasn't really wrong in thinking he was kind of creepy. If I didn't know him, I would've thought so too. "You haven't checked out the teen party yet!"
If it was called the Teen Party, it was probably lame, or really suspicious, or both. However, the one thing I knew about my wild stepsister was that she would never shy away from a party. "Well, I guess we do have a little time to kill," she said, disguising a yawn. "And if we're not going to have a little fun on this trip, why even go on it in the first place?"
Because our parents and stepbrother went to Italy without us. Remember that little detail?
"That's great to hear!" Marc clasped his hands together loudly, startling the lobby's more elderly inhabitants. "You can find it in the Grizzly Room- that's what we call our biggest ballroom, you know, named after the biggest bear, which is actually native to this region- Third floor, second door on your left. I'll have your bags taken up to your room."
"Perfectthanks!" she tittered, taking Ethan's arm and trotting to the elevators. I followed a few steps behind, never quite able to catch up.
As we walked toward the elevator, Madison uttered, "That Marv is a creepy freak of nature."
"He's just trying to get business. It's tough when you own a ski lodge and it's summer," I reasoned.
"But when you own a tech company, life is good," she giggled as we climbed into the giant elevator. When it dinged at the top, we followed the pulsating beat of a blasting Drake song to find the game room where the party was held.
To be honest, when I walked in, I was stunned. I expected a few kids, maybe a six pack of soda, and a ping pong table. But Marv really went all-out. Anyplace with music louder than I could yell was a legit party in my book- not to mention the disco balls and swirling lights hooked up around us.
I was overwhelmed, but Madison was absolutely in her element and disappeared from my vision as soon as we walked in.
I was never comfortable in situations like this, always tending to stay close to the walls instead of being in the center of the room. But that was okay, because wherever I was - school dances, birthday parties, weddings - I could find wallflower like myself to hang out with.
Suddenly, a girl grabbed my arm, yanking me into the swirling abyss of gyrating teenagers. "Hey," she drawled, her brown hair swirling as her head rolled. "I'm Clare. Wanna dance?"
The song had switched to a techno hip-hop song and tons of kids were moving to the beat. I didn't wast to say no to this girl who was oozing confidence, so I followed her lead to the middle of the makeshift dance floor.
"I hear someone snuck in some drinks!" she announced, giddily thrusting her arms back and forth.
"Seriously?" I asked. "I'm parched. I've been in the car all day. Do you know where I could find something to drink?"
"No, silly," she looked into my eyes, as though communicating an important details. "Someone snuck in drinks."
"Oh," I echoed softly, feeling clueless. To be honest, this wasn't really my scene. How was I supposed to know that 'drinks' didn't mean Coke and CapriSuns? "Uh, cool."
"Come on, let's sit," she said, pulling me over to two folding chairs. "So. What's your name?"
I was a bit nervous that she felt like she trusted me enough to tell me there was alcohol at this party, but she still didn't know my name. "Uh, Jessica," I said, without even knowing what I was doing.
"Cool. Hey, wanna go talk to those guys over there?" She instantly got up and chased a few boys who looked about two years older than me, probably Madison's age. I followed her like a lost puppy.
However, the feeling of disorder only intensified when the crowd of people diverted me to a different direction, into the corner of the room where a few old arcade games sat. A skinny red-haired boy and a short, pudgy girl feverishly worked the joysticks, trying to outdo one another.
I slid up to the boy, but he barely noticed me. "Hey," I said. "Can I have a turn?"
"Nah," he replied.
Well, that was a bust. I walked up to the girl, who actually had a smile on her face; maybe she would be easier to crack. "Hey. Can I maybe have a go after you?"
"Sure," she said, wiping a bead of sweat from her forehead. Ah, video game sweat. The secondmost embarrassing kind of sweat, second only to first date pitstains.
"Don't do it, Mares!" the boy exclaimed. "Not unless you want to admit defeat!"
"Relax, Dominic," she told him, then dropped a swift f-bomb or two as her game character fell into a pit of lava. She stuck out her hand to me. "I'm Marilyn, and that's Dominic--"
"--Dom!"
"Whatever. I personally think that Dom sounds even worse than Dominic. Anyway, he's my brother, and he's a bit... obsessed. You are?"
"Oh, hi. I'm Siena, and you'd probably love me because my stepdad is the CEO of Ray, and if you love games-" God, for someone who hated my rich-ass stepdad, I sure didn't mind dropping his name. I mentally kicked myself for that. Luckily, Dom interrupted me right there.
"-Ray? As in - "he abandoned his video game to pull out his cell phone and shove it a bit too close to my face - "like, THE Ray?"
I nodded and watched their mouths simultaneously drop open like on a hinge. "Anyway, I'd love to take either of you down at this game," I offered. "Unless-"
Dominic then responded, "Wait, since your dad is the CEO, do you get special video game perks and stuff? That's super cool. I bet you get to test all these cool-"
-"Stepdad. And I actually don't get any special perks, besides all the cash he rakes in-did that come out wrong?- but I just want to play this game with you guys."
With every word, I could feel myself turning more and more into an obnoxious rich girl. A horrible person. A Madison. And I hated it more than I had ever hated anything in the world.
(Which might have been an exaggeration, considering I was sharing a car with whatever the opposite of San Francisco's Hottest Couple was.)
I was only this bad at expressing myself when I was around people I was trying to impress, which really said a lot about my personality. Only someone with serious crowd issues would act this embarrassing in front of the two lamest kids at the party.
"All right," Marilyn responded nervously, stepping aside the second I stepped towards her. "Go ahead. Have you ever played Lava Explorers?"
"Well, I'm about to," I laughed, digging a quarter out of my pocket to put in the machine. I was already having loads more fun than anyone dancing. Just because you didn't hang with the in crowd didn't mean you weren't having a good time.
The game was simple; your character was trying to avoid falling into the lava. You just used the joystick to control, and the red button to jump. Simple, or so it seemed.
I died after half a second.
"Awh. Better luck-"
"Siena!" A deep voice, gritty and slightly familiar, called from somewhere within the crowd.
Suddenly, I felt a hand on my back, which startled me out of the game and made my character fall into the lava pit. "Ooh! So close!" Marilyn chuckled nervously. I could tell my whole rich-girl act was weirding them the hell out, and needed to break the ice somehow. I was about to turn around and jokingly trash talk, but I obviously had bigger problems to deal with.
The fat, sweaty hand on my back belonged to Ethan.
"Hey, Siena," he grumbled. The hard alcohol in his breath wafted over to me, an unwelcome detail in what was otherwise a picture-perfect night. "You look nice tonight."
I pushed him away, but he grabbed my wrist on impulse. "I'm in my gym shorts and a t-shirt. I've been wearing this for a day, and you didn't say anything to me before."
"Is... is he your boyfriend?" Dominic asked, straining his face to hide his obvious disappointment.
"No! He's my stepsister's, and I absolutely despise him." I rolled my eyes dramatically as I tried to wrench free my wrist, just to make sure my true hatred for Ethan translated. And he's smashed, I mean, look at him."
And before I could explain further, Ethan's disgusting, drunk mouth was trying its best to cover mine.