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CHAPTER SEVEN
THE MORNING OF THE BONFIRE PARTY dawned cold and rainy. Everyone was furiously texting as the weather report updated; if we got rained out tonight, it was going to be a lost cause. Sure, we could reschedule for Sunday night, but we'd all have school the next morning, and if half the student body didn't come in on Monday morning there was going to be trouble. Since Halloween was in fact Monday, the party had been planned for Saturday the 29th.
But by around noon the rain seemed to have stopped, and the temperature had climbed to a promising 50 degrees. The worried texts came to a halt; we were still on. But I still had my dad to contend with. As this was my first official high school party in Forks, I hadn't been sure if I was going to have to sneak out, lie, or what. But Dad seemed cautiously in favor of me attending and 'being normal'. That alone made me paranoid, as if there was any way for him to know just how not normal the past six months had been for me.
But he was also laying down the law.
"What time is this thing starting?" he demanded as I helped him clean up after lunch.
"Seven," I said honestly.
"I want you home by eleven. I'm sending out two patrol cars to clear that place out at midnight. La Push doesn't want a bunch of teenage morons running around screaming their heads off at one in the morning."
"I'll be home by then," I promised him.
"Are you driving yourself or getting a ride?" he narrowed his eyes at me. "I know there's going to be booze-,"
"I'm not going to drink, Dad-."
"Bella, I can smell your bullshit from a mile away, and even if you're being completely honest, I still don't want you in the backseat of some car that's going to end up in a ditch."
"I'm driving myself," I sighed. "If I do drink I'll get a ride with Angela and Ben, and just pick up my truck in the morning."
"By eleven," he reminded me, and left it at that.
I was a little shocked he was okay with it, but I guess he thought it was better I go then not go. Maybe it was a show of trust in me, but I still didn't feel very trusted. Still, despite the possibility of manhunt on the horizon, I was determined to get through this. In a way Dad was sort of right. I did need to be normal, to do normal teenage things.
Upstairs in my room, I read through Edward's latest letter to me one more time. I still hadn't replied to it, I reminded myself guiltily. But what was there to say? 'Going to a party, thinking of you?' His own letters were vague enough, in typical Ed-fashion. References to the constant cold, to hunting, to the Denalis. It conjured up stark images in my mind.
I thought about him most when I was bordering on the edge of sleep, wondering if he was lying awake in the dark listening to the wind howl, thinking of me. Why didn't he come back, just to check up on me? I'd seen Emmett twice now, and a glimpse of Alice once, in the rearview mirror of the truck. Couldn't he slip back here, if only for a night?
My consternation made me put the letter back in the drawer, firmly closing it. He could wait. He was making me wait long enough.
One of the advantages to a party being held at night, outside, in October, in Washington, was that I didn't have to worry about what to wear or makeup. I was more concerned with not getting hypothermia. It was supposed to drop down to 40 tonight. Jess texted asking if I wanted to come over to Mike's house for pizza before we all left for the party, so at around six I left, pulling on a fleece jacket over my heavy sweater, and a hat over my head. I consoled myself with the fact that while there was certainly a breeze, scattering fallen leaves across the driveway, at least it wasn't so windy that it made it even colder.
I found myself comfortable enough to listen to the stereo, although I rolled my eyes at the 'Halloween Weekend' event that seemed to be going on, even if it was hard to resist 'Thriller' while driving through a darkened neighborhood. It only took around five minutes to reach the Newton home, and I spotted several familiar cars in the driveway. As I walked up to the front door, I realized it was slightly ajar, as if someone had just come through it and forgotten to close it behind them, and I slowly pushed it open.
"BOO!"
I shrieked and almost fell off the front stoop, as Jess giggled hysterically before me.
"Your face," she gasped out. "Oh my god, Bella, I wish I'd gotten that on video."
"Good thing you didn't," I seethed, once I was sure I wasn't about to break my neck. "I don't think America's Funniest Videos takes submissions with murder in them."
Still giggling, she held the door open all the way for me as I stepped into the house. Mike was busy arranging two pizza boxes on a coffee table far too small for them, as everyone else crowded around impatiently.
"Get your hand the hell out of there, Tyler," he said in exasperation, swatting at him.
I suppressed a sigh. If Tyler was here that meant.
"Hi Bella," Lauren said in a bored-sounding voice from her position lounging on the couch.
"Hi," I muttered, as I took off my jacket, laying it over the back of a free arm chair, and sitting down.
Eric was there as well, I realized. I hadn't really seen much of him at all this school year, but at least he seemed to have gotten over his crush. Last I'd heard, he was on and off dating a junior.
Jess chucked a paper plate my way, Frisbee style, and it landed in my lap.
"I can't believe you're actually going," she said excitedly. "I thought for sure you'd sit this one out."
"I need to get out more," I shrugged, standing up to snatch the last slice of pizza before Tyler could grab a third.
"Right," Lauren scoffed, in between small bites.
Mike was quick to change the subject, presumably before a fight could break out. "You guys know what teams you're on yet? For manhunt?"
Eric rolled his eyes. "No one fucking knows. I don't even know who's supposed to be organizing that shit this year."
"I thought it was Lee who was supposed to be in charge," Angela spoke up quietly.
"Lee's in charge?" Tyler snorted. "Christ."
"What's wrong with Lee?" I asked belatedly.
"Nothing, he's just high out of his mind half the time," Eric snickered.
Great. A game of manhunt organized by a stoner. What could possibly go wrong? I tried to eat slowly, not in any rush to get to the party exactly at seven, but soon enough everyone was leaving, and I was back in my truck.
Mike and Jess were driving down together, as were Angela and Ben, and Tyler and Lauren. Eric seemed to be driving himself, and I was just grateful I didn't have to carpool with anyone. It was alarmingly dark outside already as we drove towards La Push. It reminded me of the last time I'd been in a car, speeding through the night, but the other headlights reassured me.
The drive seemed to go too fast, too smoothly. I could hear the muted rumble of the party as I parked; over the crackle of the bonfire someone was blasting music. The senior class wasn't that big to begin with; what would have been 500 kids at my old school was now less than fifty, with some of the lower grades mixed. There were actually two bonfires, one a little further down the shoreline, and a handful of smaller fires scattered around. I passed someone vomiting in a scraggly bush. and reminded myself that this was why I didn't drink.
It was honestly kind of pretty, seeing the flames dance in the night air, especially when some of them were such a vivid blue. From the driftwood, I remembered. Mike and Jess seemed to have vanished, and I suspected they were making up for lost time in his car at the moment. Luckily, Angela and Ben were more easily located, but I didn't want to third wheel them all night. Someone forced a cup into my hand, and I sat down on an unoccupied log, swishing the beer around in it, and watching the waves creep up, then recede, like arms reaching out for us from the ocean.
If Edward had been here, we could have walked down the beach, talking. Then again, he probably wouldn't have come anyways. Reservation rules. Speaking of that, I spotted a few vaguely familiar faces from the reservation, and just as I was trying to determine if one of the girls was Leah, someone plopped down beside me on the log, nudging my shoulder with their own.
I glanced over and found myself staring at Jacob, who was grinning wildly.
"What are you doing here?" I asked in surprise, although it should have been obvious- he was only a year younger, after all, and seeing as he lived here…
"Experiencing my first high school party," he said smugly. "What about you?"
I rolled my eyes. "Same, actually." Dumping the beer out onto the sand, I glanced around with a small sigh. "At least there's no dancing."
"I could always start a conga line," Jake suggested jokingly, and I pretended to throw the empty cup at him.
"Where are the rest of your junior friends?" I asked, putting the emphasis on 'junior' with a small smirk.
His grin faded a bit. "Embry and Quil didn't want to come. I don't know why," he scuffed at the ground with one sneaker. "They've been hanging out with Sam Uley a lot. It's freaking me out a little."
I raised an eyebrow. "Sam Uley is freaking you out? I thought he was the Golden Boy- no offense." Sam was in his early twenties, and I'd never heard anything but good things about him- he always seemed to have a bunch of younger boys surrounding him, like he was leading a boy scout troop or something.
"Yeah," Jake scoffed. "Golden Boy running his Golden Cult. Neither of them will even tell me what's going on."
"That's… weird," I said hesitantly. He could have just been exaggerating; maybe he'd had a falling out with them, and was blaming it on Sam because it was convenient, but Jacob didn't seem the type to lie.
"But they're gonna regret missing this party," he said more lightly, and took a chug from the cup I'd just realized he was holding.
"I'm going to have to drive you home, aren't I?" I groaned.
"It's a party," Jake pointed out. "Things are supposed to get a little crazy."
Right. Because the last party I'd been to had been the very definition of crazy.
Watching me is like watching the fire; take your eyes from you, hope it isn't repetition..
- Purity Ring, 'Repetition'
