"Mr. and Mrs. ... what was it?" Richie asked, taking a left at the intersection.
"Mitchell," I said, reciting Matt's surname. I turned to peer at Richie from the passenger seat. "Why?"
"Because." My stepdad made a face. "I should probably know their names if I'm going to meet them."
"Meet them?" I repeated. No, no, no ... "Richie, you don't need to meet them."
"Of course I do!" he insisted as we sped along the road. "You're going to their son's party. It's only polite to introduce myself."
As who? Ana's stepdad?
I couldn't risk Richie blowing my cover.
"Richie," I pleaded, attempting to lock eyes with him as he turned onto Matt's street. "I'm already the new girl. I really don't need to be the new girl with an overprotective father, too."
I watched as Richie's eyes softened. "Father?"
I smiled. "You know what I mean. Besides, these are good kids." I refrained from rolling my eyes at myself. "Matt plays for the Panthers. He's a school athlete—"
"A school athlete." Richie's voice sharpened. "I know the type."
I knew exactly who Richie's disdain was directed towards. My father.
"Please, Richie," I begged. "Trust me."
"I do trust you."
"Then trust that I can make my own decisions about who else to trust."
Silence hung between us as we pulled into Matt's driveway. It seemed to stretch on for miles, asphalt turning to cobblestone that vibrated against our tires.
Richie observed me for a moment, then sighed.
"Okay," he said.
My lips curved into a smile, and I pulled him into an awkward hug.
"Thank you!" I shouted over my shoulder as I grabbed my bag and bolted out the car door.
"I'll be back at twelve," he told me as I rushed to the house. "I'll meet you right here."
I waved as Richie backed out of the drive, shooting him an excited smile. But, as soon as he was out of sight, I felt my smile falter. The nervous butterflies in my stomach awakened.
Because this was it.
The invitation from Matt was a good sign. While I didn't remember him from my initial stint at Irvine, I had come to learn that Matt was a valued member of Sienna's clique, and one of the school's most sought after bachelors. Being on his arm outside of school in addition to inside of school added a little more prestige to my budding social resume, and it also gave me an excuse to cozy up to the Elites. It was a natural way to step into their fortress, from where I could start uncovering their secrets and truly start my journey to revenge.
I turned to find my reflection in the house's front window, fluffing up my hair and pressing down my pastel pink skirt. Elle stared back at me, her cool-as-marble confidence intimidating even me at first. Attending a party with the Elites was something that Ana had always wanted, but something that she never could have done without turning into an anxious, shaking mess.
Luckily, I wasn't Ana that night. I was Elle.
I inhaled a definitive breath of air, then turned swiftly to ring the doorbell before Ana could change my mind.
I heard the bell echoing through the obnoxiously-large house in front of me. I waited, but there was a noticeable absence of footsteps. After another minute, I rang the bell again. Still, no one came to welcome me.
I perked my ears and steadied my breathing, listening for music or excitable chatter or anything that would indicate that there was a party on the other side of the huge fiberglass door. But only silence greeted me. And, upon scanning the windows of the house once more, I realized that it was completely dark inside.
I backed away from the door, looking down to confer the text that Matt had sent me the day before. I definitely had the right address, the right date, and the right time. So why was I alone?
I felt my heart sink to the pit of my stomach as a very simple fact crossed my mind. I'd been tricked.
It was a joke. All of it. I should have known that a Panther would never invite me to a party. That someone like Matt would never like someone like me. Or, worse—what if they were onto me? What if they knew who I was?
It was a thought almost too horrific to consider.
"Elle?" a voice called out over the darkness.
I stopped in my tracks, turning around and squinting into the night.
"There you are!" Kat laughed, motioning for me to join her around the side of the house.
I approached her slowly, scanning the area around us for evidence of Sienna or the rest of her posse.
"Matt was going to come to meet you himself, but he got caught in a very serious game of beer pong."
I frowned. There was no way that anyone was inside of that house, let alone playing beer pong.
"Come on!" Kat said, spinning on her shiny black heels. "Before the neighbors see us."
I trailed cautiously behind Kat as she led me to the back of Matt's property, where I spotted a small trail leading out into the woods.
Kat switched on her phone's flashlight while I hesitated behind her, peering behind me into the dark, empty house. When I turned back around, she was gone.
"Kat?" I whispered into the trees, a strange shiver cascading up and down my spine. Left with little alternative, I pulled my cropped jacket tighter around me and headed into the woods.
"It's not far." Kat grabbed my hand, causing me to jump with fright. My eyes had adjusted just enough so that I saw an amused smile dancing on my friend's lips. "Matt's parents are away a lot," she explained as we continued through the dense woodlands. "But they keep close tabs on him via their neighbors. So, we came up with a solution..."
The darkness enveloping us was suddenly illuminated by faint, twinkling lighting, while a chorus of voices and house music filled the silence of the forest. A sweet log cabin lay before us, decorated with fairy lights and balloons, the clearing around it dotted with my classmates.
Chontelle broke through the mass of bodies sprawled around the forest, whisking Kat and I through the crowd.
The increasingly tipsy crowd.
Chontelle groaned. "Finally."
"Did you get me a drink?" Kat asked.
"I did." Chontelle's full, nude lips pulled into a smirk. She motioned to her empty cup helplessly. "But you were gone for so long."
"Typical." Kat laughed as we approached the drinks table. "I'll get my own. Do you want one?"
I turned to look at her, my eyes wide with alarm. Without waiting for a response, Kat shoved a cup of something into my hesitant hands.
I reminded myself to be cool. To pretend I did this all the time—the parties in the woods, the dancing and the drinking. But I didn't.
"I'm such a lightweight," I word-vomited, trying to explain the reason why I hadn't taken an eager first sip as Kat and Chontelle had done.
"It's because you're so little," Chontelle complimented as she pinched my sides, then motioned solemnly to her own gorgeous curves. "Not a bad problem to have."
I wasn't sure, but I thought I heard a twinge of bitterness in her tone.
She turned to face me, and I noticed for the first time that her pupils had dilated far more than normal. "Do you want to come take a hit?"
I gulped back my panic, running my fingers around the rim of my plastic cup. Alcohol I expected. But drugs? That was definitely not something I was accustomed to.
"I should say hi to Matt," I reasoned, watching as my friends exchanged a cheeky grin.
"He's so into you," Kat revealed.
Chontelle jammed her gently in the ribs with her elbow. "Babe!" she scolded.
"What?" Kat exclaimed. "It's not really a secret..."
I tried to laugh along with them, or at least fake some level of school-girl-excitement, but my heart wasn't in it. There was only one boy in Irvine Falls that I was interested in, and it wasn't Matty Mitchell.
"We'll catch up with you later," Chontelle said, throwing me a flirtatious wink as she grabbed Kat by the elbow and dragged her off to the side of the house.
I quickly spotted Matt by the beer pong table, but it was clear that he too had been drinking. I lingered in place, content with watching him from afar, and not overly enthused about the idea of an awkward encounter with him and his equally as intoxicated teammates. I scanned each of their faces eagerly, but I didn't see the one face that I was looking for.
"I know you're not into him," a low voice teased as warm breath brushed against my ear, laced with the smell of wine.
I jumped, spilling my untouched cup of alcohol all over my hands. My companion's arm reached out to steady me, his laugh soft, but assured. I turned with a scowl to meet his gaze. I had every intention of breaking away from his grasp.
But I couldn't. My feet were bolted in place, fear and dread anchoring me to the forest floor.
Astor Black grinned, releasing another low chuckle.
He smirked. "Don't deny it."
I took a moment to gather myself, then reclaimed my arm from his firm grip. My words faltered in my mouth as I spoke. Like they were slippery, like I couldn't quite catch them before they fell. "What makes you so sure?"
"Because I know when someone's crushing." Astor shrugged simply, but he managed to make the gesture look oh-so refined. "And I know that you're not. Not on Matt, at least." His dark eyes narrowed as they seared into mine, piercing me with the intensity of a thousand sharp knives.
He glared at me coolly as I watched his pupils dilate in the swelling darkness. My heart was beating hard and fast, and I was darn sure that the smirking boy could hear it in the otherwise deafening silence.
It was just us, after all. It was just us, and we were alone.
I stared back at Irvine Falls' star athlete silently, rendered silent by fear and frozen with panic. Was my crush on Nate that transparent? Or, even worse, had Astor seen through my game of deception completely? Did he know that I wasn't there that night to garner the attraction of any of the boys but, rather, to further my pursuit of revenge?
His frown gave way to a coy smile, and I watched as a sudden thought flashed behind his twinkling eyes.
"You're dating my friend to get close to me," he declared. "That's super hot."
My panic melted away like snow in the sun. Astor was sly. He was sneaky. But he was far too narcissistic to ever truly figure me out.
"Aren't you dating Poppy?" I asked, searching around for the flame-haired beauty who I imagined would be pissed if she saw what her boyfriend was doing. And who he was doing it with.
Astor only laughed. "So? Monogamy's overrated, don't you think?"
I wondered if he would have held the same opinion if it was his girlfriend who was flirting it up with someone else.
My fear momentarily gave way to cynicism. I grabbed hold of it. I leaned into my fleeting feeling of superiority, faking a confidence I didn't yet have.
"Goodbye, Astor." I rolled my eyes, lifting a foot to slink away.
But retreat wouldn't be easy—deep down, I knew that. And, almost as though my fear had manifested it, Astor reached out, snaking his fingers around my arm.
Because no one walked away from Astor Black. I'd been foolish to even try.
In a blink of an eye, we were back on the grass. We were drowning in rain, slipping in mud. Astor had the power, and I was just his pawn.