The Year of the Great Seventh (3 page)

Megan looked stunning with her knee-length, open-back red silk dress and stiletto shoes. Sometimes I envied her beauty and the elegant way she carried herself. Megan could be Mom’s perfect daughter; Mom was absolutely dazzled by Megan’s charm and acting skills.

Tyson and Chase were grabbing their blazers from the trunk of the car when I caught them looking at each other out the corner of their eyes. Suddenly Chase grinned. “Sophie, you look very nice. Are you expecting to see someone special tonight?”

I knew he was going to bring up Emma’s comments about Nate, and before he could continue teasing me, I said cuttingly, “I know Nate will be here tonight, but I’m not interested in him.”

“Chase, drop it!” Emma interrupted.

Emma was also wearing high heels, and as it was difficult to walk on the cobblestone road leading to the house, she brought her arm around mine to help her stagger upright. The road wound to the right, and as it came into view from behind the tress, we saw Ethan Dulwich’s mansion shining like a wicked castle.

The mansion was built from white marble and was two stories high. It had four Roman columns centered in the middle of the façade that reached the white, triangular marble roof, which rested on top of the building. It resembled a grandiose Venetian palazzo. There were ten wooden French windows at each side of the main entrance, and a ten-foot Michelangelo's David stood pensively in the front yard. Through the French doors, we could see people crammed inside. We could hear the music and the roar of the masses.

“Let’s do this!” Chase yelled, walking through the main doors.

“We‘ll probably get lost in the crowd, but let’s text each other to touch base,” Tyson added.

The arched high ceiling in the main living room was covered by a copy of Michelangelo’s “Last Judgment” fresco, and four baroque crystal chandeliers hung along the room. The cornices featured gold rococo ornaments, and a gray marble column separated each French window from the next. The windows had white embroidered valances and curtains, and two Roman marble sculptures guarded the doors.

Ethan had done his best to convert this tacky, over-decorated palace into an ‘80s party scene. He’d adorned the room with big disco balls and tinfoil strips that hung from the ceiling, reaching all the way to the floor. The room was completely dark, lit only by the moonlight and a strobe light.

“Is that the actress who played Cat Woman in
Batman
?” Chase asked Tyson.

Their eyes were about to pop out of their heads. Tyson said, “Girls, we’ll find you later,” and before we could react, they’d disappeared into the crowd.

I knew sooner or later my friends were going to vanish one by one. Emma and Megan knew many people here because they were in the film industry, and Tyson and Chase had made a list of girls they were planning to hit on. They were here on a specific mission. I wasn’t worried about ending up wandering around on my own. I almost preferred it that way. It forced me to meet new people. Anyway, we always ended up reuniting at some point in the night.

The DJ was playing music on the side of the spiral marble staircase, and the scene of people dancing, laughing, and shifting around in the darkness at the tempo of the strobe light reminded me more of a horror movie than a high school party.

“Guys, I’m going to see if I can find Jason, the cute guy from our English class. Do you mind?” Emma shouted, pointing toward the garden. Megan and I nodded, and seconds later, she also disappeared.

The staff, dressed in all white suits, passed around trays with champagne and cocktails, and even though it was early in the night, everyone seemed already inebriated.

“Megan, is that Alex Giordani from
The Night Splendor
? You know him, right?” I murmured into Megan’s ear.

She hesitated for a second and finally said, “It’s okay. I’ll talk to him later.”

I wasn’t going to ruin Megan’s night. I could surely look after myself. “Go talk to him. I’ll text you if I need anything.” I pushed her playfully toward him.

Megan smiled at me thankfully and advanced in Alex’s direction.

People were dancing, screaming, and laughing in chaos, and I couldn’t recognize anyone. Travis Roy, the reason why I’d decided to come to the party, was nowhere to be seen. He was probably still out of town, as two days ago I saw pictures of him on the Internet at the opening of a New York art gallery.

I decided to go for a stroll and visit a different wing of Ethan’s mansion. Once I left the packed main living room, I got to a deserted corridor. It had antique portraits hanging on each wall, and each one was lit up by a lamp. It made you feel as if the people in the portraits were watching you.

In the corridor, I passed an open door that led to a dim room with red sofas. There were a few couples making out, but nothing that I hadn’t seen before at other parties. I crossed paths with a blonde coming from the last door and, curious, I continued down to see what was happening in there.

When I got to the door I stood quietly next to it. I could hear people giggling inside the room, and a guy’s voice yelled, “Just pour all of it on the table. Let’s finish it.”

A girl’s voice complained. “Ethan, do you know what overdose means?”

The guy that spoke first said, “Shut up, Jen!” And I heard people laughing aloud.

The door suddenly opened, and I saw three boys, including Ethan Dulwich, sitting on the floor around a glass coffee table. One of them was kneeling and had his face on top of the table as though he was closely observing his own reflection. A thick cloud of smoke filled the room, and I saw the other boy inhaling from the pipe of a large glass container.

“Idiots,” mumbled the girl leaving the room, slamming the door behind her.

I didn’t know what to do as I didn’t want to be involved in Ethan’s drug problems in any way, not even as a witness. The steps of the girl walking down the hallway faded away. I wondered whether anyone had seen me standing outside.

“Let’s go back to the party,” another boy said. Immediately, I turned around and began tiptoeing toward the other side of the corridor. All I could hear was my heart drumming faster and faster. I wasn’t far from the far end of the corridor when I heard the door cracking open behind me.

“Who is that?” I heard someone behind me asking when I was finally taking the corner at the end.

Then another voice said, “Don’t give anything else to this idiot. He’s already hallucinating!”

When I got back to the main living room, I looked around to see if I could spot any of my friends, but I couldn’t see anyone. I saw Ethan and the two other guys entering the main living room. They were searching around as though they were looking for someone, but soon after, they all dispersed into the crowd. I felt relieved when I finally spotted Emma talking to Jason from our English class.

“Hi, guys!” I said, making them aware of my presence.

“Hi,” Jason and Emma replied at the same time, turning to look at me.

“Here’s the other one who’s always late to English class,” Jason said. “Do you guys do it on purpose?”

Emma and I burst into a laugh. No matter how hard we tried to make it on time to each of our classes, we always managed to get in late for one reason or another. Megan, Emma, and I would always make our triumphant entrance after the professor had begun the lecture.

Emma followed, “The sad thing is that we actually try to make it on time.”

Chemistry sparks were flying between Emma and Jason. He was standing unusually close to her, and even though he was talking to the two of us, he was facing her. I didn’t want to interrupt their moment, and since I was almost certain that Ethan and his gang had already forgotten about the intruder incident, I decided to go out to the garden to get some fresh air. I couldn’t stand the hideous strobe light flashing any longer anyway.

The back garden had a pool surrounded by chairs and a wide open lawn area fenced by pine trees. The fresh night breeze and the dimness of the garden were relaxing. I sat by the pool for a while, lost in my own thoughts, until my peace was spoiled by the sound of a guy spewing next to me. Then two drunken girls jumped into the pool with their clothes on.

I walked to the edge of the lawn by the pine trees. I knew no one could see me there, and I could hang out by myself for a bit. I leaned on a tree, facing the house, and closed my eyes, letting the music and the voices move to the back of my mind. I stood there motionless for quite a long time, and when I was about to go back into the house, suddenly I heard, “Hi. What are you doing back here? You don’t look like the sort of girl who enjoys these wild parties, do you?”

I opened my eyes and almost fainted when I saw who was standing in front of me—Nate Werner. What was he doing back here, hiding among the pine trees? He was even more attractive from up close. My face was blushing so intensely that my head felt like it was going to explode. I was really bad at hiding my feelings, and by now, he probably knew I’d been secretly in love with him for the last two years.

Finally, I forced myself to say, “Why would you think I don’t like wild parties?”

I was thinking to myself,
Shut up… Shut up… You’re making a fool of yourself. If you walk away right now he won’t realize you’re stupid.

He looked at me, amused, and grinned. “Why are you back here on your own? Did you come by yourself?”

I wanted to groan. Why would he think I’d come to the party by myself? Did I look that desperate? This was the worst outcome I could have hoped for the night: Nate Werner deciding I’m a loser.

“Well, I guess that’s none of your business,” I said under my breath as I looked nervously past him into the house. If he was here to humiliate me, he could keep on walking.

Nate laughed again. He seemed puzzled by my defensive reaction. I didn’t want him to laugh at me, but to be honest, he was so handsome that I was beginning not to mind. In fact, I’d never seen Nate smiling openly before.

Nate rested his hand on the pine tree. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to sound rude. My name is Nate Werner, and I think I’ve seen you around at school.”

Why was he talking to me? I’d been invisible to him for the last two years. I mumbled, “I’m Sophie. Yes, I’ve seen you around, too.”

We both lapsed into silence, but Nate was looking at me curiously as though he expected me to say something. This was all too strange and I knew he was going to vanish at any moment. I had the urge to discover whether the real Nate Werner stood up to the illusion that people had created.

After much hesitation, I decided to ask, “Are you an aspiring actor, like most people at school?”

Nate pursed his lips firmly and, turning his face away, freed a loud laugh. “You make me laugh, and believe me, I don’t laugh that easily,” he clarified.

I had to stop making him laugh if I didn’t want him to think of me as a buffoon, and I needed to think of something bright to say. I heard voices and turned to see Tyson and Chase walking our way. When I looked back to tell Nate they were my friends, he was gone.

“Did you see anyone walking to the house?” I asked Chase and Tyson as they approached me.

Tyson and Chase looked at each other, and Chase spoke, “I think I saw someone walking that way. Sophie, what are you doing back here anyway?” He looked confused. “We’ve been looking for you everywhere. Don’t you check your phone? I sent you three texts. Megan’s not feeling well and wants to leave.”

“Emma and Megan are already in the car waiting for us. Let’s thank Ethan. We want to make sure we’re invited again next year. And then let’s hit the road,” Tyson said hurriedly.

We stepped into the dimness of the living room where the strobe light continued to flash. A boy who’d fallen asleep hugging one of the Roman sculptures caught my eye. The room wasn’t as crowded as before, and the people left were staggering around to the beat of the music. One of the people stumbling on the dance floor was Ethan Dulwich.

The moonlight that came in through the French windows was brighter, emphasizing the poor combination of the room’s rococo decoration and the disco balls. I looked around and soon spotted Nate by the DJ, immersed in a conversation with a friend. When Nate realized I was looking at him, he turned his back, transforming me again into an invisible girl. A rush of anger traveled through my body. It was obvious Nate had decided that our chat in the garden had been a mistake.

I grabbed Tyson’s hand and dragged him to Ethan’s side. Tyson tapped Ethan on his shoulder, but he was so intoxicated he didn’t notice. Chase went around us to face Ethan directly, and murmured something into Ethan’s ear. Ethan then hugged Chase, leaning on him and almost making both of them collapse. Then Ethan hugged Tyson, resting his head on Tyson’s shoulder for so long we thought he’d fallen asleep. Tyson managed to softly push Ethan away, even though Ethan was totally unaware of what was happening around him.

I thanked Ethan, keeping the distance between the two of us. All of a sudden he stepped forward and slid his arms around my shoulders, pressing his body against mine. After a few seconds, I tried to push him away from me, but he grabbed my top from the sides and was pulling me toward him.

“Where do you think you’re going? You’re staying here with me,” he whispered hideously in my ear.

People were dancing around us, unaware of what was happening. I looked out the corner of my eye to see Tyson and Chase stunned, not knowing what to do. Finally, Tyson pulled Ethan away from me and said, “Hey, Ethan, let go!”

Ethan was still holding me tightly. My vision was flooding and the room was closing on me, and all I could see was Ethan’s face appearing and disappearing at the rhythm of the strobe light.

His fingers were running through my hair, and when Ethan’s lips began traveling along my neck, tears propelled down my cheeks.

Someone shoved us apart, and I looked at his face. It was Nate. He looked at me, enraged, and said something to me that sounded like, “Am-teus.”

“What is it?”

Then he turned on his heel and next thing I saw was Nate’s fist superimposed over Ethan’s face. They were both gradually falling backward among the rhythm dictated by the thundering of the strobe light. Nate was on his knees, grabbing Ethan’s shirt with one fist and punching his face with the other.