Chapter 1
“Drink! Drink! Drink” I heard everyone shouting from downstairs. This was the fourth party my sister had thrown this month. Our parents were never home so she could get away with it and it’s not like they would notice a party going on even if they were home. My parents were always so caught up in their work, they wouldn’t have noticed a tornado blow down the house. Dad also had a thing about flaunting his money. He bought the biggest house in our town, and owned the fanciest, most expensive sports cars.
“Jay! C’mon, girl,” my friend called. I looked her over and laughed, she was obviously trying to pretend to be drunk.
“Alice, that cup has sprite in it. You aren’t drunk,” I laughed and took a sip of her sprite.
“Jay… You’re making me look bad. Okay, so maybe I’m not drunk, but I could get drunk,” Alice said defiantly.
“Yeah. Totally. I’m sure you could,” I said, grinning. Alice was a good girl and she would never get drunk and I would never let her get drunk. She was going to get into a good college and live a good life and I wasn’t going to let one of my sister’s crazy parties ruin any of that for my friend.
“Fine, you’re right. Can we at least go party?”
“I guess so. As long as you don’t talk to any boys,” I laughed. The last time she did that she threw up on a nice boy in her calculus class.
“What?! No boys! Are you kidding me?” Alice exclaimed, sarcastically. The volume in the room was much louder downstairs. People were dancing on the counters, red plastic cups in most people’s hands, and the air smelled like cigarette smoke and alcohol.
I looked around for my sister and found her dancing on the counter with her girlfriend, holding hands. “Melissa! Get off the counter,” I shouted, but she didn’t hear me, or she chose to ignore me. I saw some boys looking at her, but it didn’t matter to her especially since she was never attracted to men.
“Hey, girl,” I turned to see a guy a little older than me, holding a cigarette.
“Is there something you need?” I asked, not caring if I was being rude since he was obviously drunk.
“Dang. Feisty, you’re standing in front of the bathroom,” he said.
“Oh,” I moved out of the way. Alice had walked away to fill up her cup with some more sprite. I saw a couple go up the stairs, clearly drunk, but it didn’t matter to me as long as they didn’t go into my room. From a distance I could hear people splashing in the pool. The pool was probably more beer than water by now.
“You waited for me?” I spun around and saw the same guy who had called me feisty.
“Um no. This is my house. I just happened to be standing in the exact same spot,” okay so maybe it sounded like I had been waiting for him.
“Ohh, so a hostess. I’m Cody by the way,” he said holding out his hand.
“Actually my sister is the hostess. I’m Jay,” I said, and shook his hand, but right when our hands touched I jumped back. I thought I had seen wings. I took a sip of my sprite and my vision went blurry.
“Jay? Are you okay?” Cody asked.
I lost my balance and felt myself lifted into strong arms. My vision was blurry, it sounded like someone was calling me, but I couldn’t understand what anyone was saying. I saw my sister in the corner of my eye and for a second it seemed like she had big white feathered wings coming out of her shoulder blades. Without thinking, I screamed.
“Jay! Put my sister down now!” I heard Melissa, my sister shout over the crowd. The second Cody let go of me, everything was fine, I could see and hear without feeling drunk.
“Mel, I’m fine. I don’t know what happened. I thought I had seen you with wings and Cody had…” I trailed off, trying to remember what I had seen.
“Who? He had what?” my sister questioned, but I couldn’t remember.
“How much did you drink?” Cody asked.
“I don’t drink. What happened? Did someone slip something into my cup or something?” I asked, confused.
“Okay, Jay. I think you’re fine. Next time only scream if you think you’re going to die. Hey um, Cody or whatever your name is, keep my sister out of trouble. Will you? Thanks,” she walked away before he answered.
“What did you say that you saw?” he asked.
“You had wings and so did my sister, except hers were white and yours were blue… I think they were dark blue. I don’t really know,” I muttered into my hands.
“You mean black? I had black wings?” Cody asked.
“Yeah. I think. I can’t really remember. I’m sorry,” I looked up at his face and saw sympathy.
“I--” he started to say, but then I saw Alice tripping over herself. I jumped up and ran over to her.
“Oh, hay Jay! That rhymes. Who knew I was so funny?” Alice started laughing. I snatched her cup and smelled the alcohol right away.
“Alice! What were you thinking? You’re not supposed to drink,” I said, panicking. There was no way her parents could see her like this.
“What’s the big deal? She’ll be fine, don’t worry,” Cody said from behind me.
“You don’t understand! Alice is a good girl. She has her life planned out for college and stuff. Getting drunk isn’t going to look good on her record,” I threw the cup away and wrapped my arm around my friend.
“Getting drunk doesn’t go on your record. She just needs some water,” Cody said, grabbing a water bottle as he helped me get her up the stairs.
“Alice, honey drink the water,” I said as I sat her down on the bed in one of the unoccupied guest rooms.
“Is it bedtime already?” she whined, but she drank the water in one gulp.
“Yes it's bedtime. Good night, Alice,” I said and turned off the lights before closing the door. I racked my brain of what I was going to tell her parents.
“None of my friends would’ve done that for me. That was pretty nice,” Cody said, sitting on the sofa in the upstairs living room.
“Thanks,” I sat across from him and investigated his features for the first time. He had dark brown hair that appeared almost black and bright blue eyes that looked almost unreal.
“Are you okay? I was getting kind of worried about you down there,” he said.
“Yeah I think I’m good. I was just seeing things,” I tried to sound calm.
“Oh if only you knew, Jay. I wish I could tell you the truth about what you saw,” Cody said as he stood up.
“What do you mean? Are you leaving?” I asked, standing up.
“I have to go. Hey watch out, Jay. Some crazy people come to these parties and do crazy things. Make sure you and your sister stay safe. Oh I hope your friend feels better,” Cody said before he bolted down the stairs. By the time, I made it downstairs, he was gone. No sign of him any where. I walked to my room frustrated. The one time a guy flirted with me, I made a fool of myself. I'd find Cody and figure out what he'd been talking about, because for some reason I knew I was going to see him again.
