Chapter 10
Although Naomi's house was big it wasn't a palatial mansion with multiple wings and a maze of corridors. Liam made it down the darkened hallway in seconds, the noise of the party dwindling and giving way to something else. Light spilled through the crack of the only open door and he approached it with some trepidation. Instead of the screaming and name-calling he'd expected, a series of cat-calls and low whistles emanated from within. Did the girls have an audience? Everybody loved a good catfight and Naomi was famous for public displays of drama, but that wasn't Annie's style. Then again, maybe she'd hadn't had a choice. Wishing once again that he'd never agreed to attend the party, Liam swallowed the dread tempting him to hesitate further and pushed open the door.
"What the hell," he muttered. Five seconds was long enough to sweep the room, note the occupants and realize he'd been had. Annie was not in trouble there and probably never had been. The brunette he now remembered as the same one stuck to Naomi like glue on the first day of school had clearly sent him down here for one very specific purpose: to witness his ex-girlfriend's little floor show.
In most homes, the guest room would have been considered the master, big enough to fit a four poster, king size bed comfortably, not to mention the dresser and twin nightstands that went with it. The same plush, off-white carpet that covered the rest of the ground floor continued there, stained now with spilled beer and other alcohol from the glasses of a rowdy group of guys. Liam had never paid much attention to West Bev's football team, but if he had to guess, he figured most of the offensive line was assembled there, completely engrossed in the figure using the bed as her own personal stage.
Naomi's bright pink dress was draped around one lucky guy's neck like a beach towel. Clad only in her pink and black lacy bra and panties, she gyrated on the bed with a seductive skill that most strippers would have envied. The assembled jocks were so engrossed in the impromptu strip-tease they didn't even notice his presence. Liam rolled his eyes and sighed.
Months had passed since he'd broken up with her, but his first instinct was still to beat the shit out of every guy in the room and send them packing. Relief that Annie wasn't there, combined with equal parts irritation and curiosity overruled instinct and helped him keep his temper in check. The entire set up screamed Naomi, complete with an adoring flunky to reel him in so she didn't have to do it herself. Fine, he thought, if she wanted him there, he'd stay. Raising a brow, Liam crossed his arms and leaned against the doorframe, waiting for his ex to notice.
He didn't have to wait long. The second Naomi saw him, her seductive smile sharpened and she gazed at him through bedroom eyes glazed by alcohol. Running her hands down a body he knew very well, she turned her routine up a notch. Using one of the tall posters like a stripper pole, she wrapped a long, shapely leg around it and pressed her body flush against it. The show was completely for him, her focus unwavering despite his utter lack of response and the continued roars from the other guys. Their enthusiasm ratcheted up several notches as Naomi turned around and slid down to the mattress.
A lifetime ago, when he'd first arrived in Beverly Hills, a stunt like this would have wrecked him. He'd have already kicked the leering jocks out of the room and climbed up on that bed. The skimpy bra and panties would have joined his clothes on the floor in a matter of seconds. Stumbling upon her drunk and flaunting everything she had to someone other than him would have set off his temper and possessive streak in a heartbeat. Discovering it had all been a set up to get his attention would have pissed him off and that would have made the sex that much better. Naomi knew him then, understood that the games were necessary to keep him interested and picked up on what made him tick.
Liam wasn't always sure that his summer in the boonies had changed him for the better, but he had changed. Naomi was still gorgeous – he hadn't gone blind out in the woods – but while he'd outgrown the games and the scheming, she clearly hadn't noticed. She still couldn't be honest and admit she had a problem with him and Annie being together.
The minutes ticked away and Naomi's show continued with no signs of revealing her true purpose other than shooting him sultry glances between slit lids. A few of the football players had noticed him standing in the doorway, but didn't care as their cheers grew louder and more boisterous every second. With his patience wearing thin, Liam sighed and shook his head. Torn between wanting to flip on the lights, kick the guys out and demand Naomi tell him what the hell was going on and just walking away, he chose the latter when one of the guys leapt up on the bed and his ex girlfriend didn't even flinch.
"Whatever," he muttered with disgust and turned to leave Naomi to her games. If she had something to say to him, she could do it fully clothed and without an audience of frat boys in the making. Halfway out the door, however, he heard a soft, feminine cry that on reflex had him looking back into the dimly lit room.
The guy who'd joined her on the bed hadn't been content with simply sharing the spotlight. His plans were much more specific and they began with wrapping a clumsy, beefy arm around Naomi's bare waist. The move threw her off balance and her feet got tangled in the messy silk sheets, forcing her to crash into his broad chest. She looked frantically at Liam, all pretense of seduction replaced with terror so intense her mouth opened on a silent cry for help. Naomi was a good actress, but this fear was real and evidently not part of the plan.
Wasting no time, Liam pushed the dimmer switch all the way up, blinding himself and the other occupants in the room with the sudden brightness. A six pack closer to sober than the football players, he recovered a lot faster and before they knew what was happening started dragging them out of the room by the collars of their preppy polo shirts. Naomi had recovered enough to push her unwelcome co-star away. Momentum had him tumbling off the foot of the bed and sprawling in a heap on the ruined carpet.
"What the fuck?" he mumbled, words slurred by alcohol. The he noticed Liam and his face contorted into an ugly mask.
"Dude, don't make me hit you," Liam said wearily when the fallen football player clambered to his feet. Sober enough to have his pride wounded, the bigger guy glared at him menacingly and took a lurching step forward. "Come on, man. I just saved your parents the shit load of money they would have spent on defense attorneys for your date rape charge."
His words had little effect on the football player and Liam's hands automatically curled into fists at his side. The last time he'd been in a fight had been under the pier with Jasper, before that when he decked Jeffery after he caught him with the blond. Based on the outcome of those two clashes, he was batting about .500, although Jasper had stacked the deck against him with that gun. Still, he had no intention of losing a fight to an overgrown, trust fund jock.
Luckily for the football player, his friends intervened. Through the beer haze, recognition dawned and their eyes went wide. Two of them grabbed Naomi's unwanted dance partner by the arms, right as he reared back and prepped for the first punch.
"Kyle, don't be stupid," one of them hissed.
"Yeah, don't you know who that is?" the other added. They both shot wary glances at Liam, suddenly in the neighborhood of sober. "That's Liam Court."
Together they half walked, half dragged Kyle out of the room and continued their hushed conversation about how Liam "like, killed a dude in a gang war" and had the scars to prove it. Liam rolled his eyes, amused and embarrassed at the reputation he'd unwittingly gained over the summer. It seemed to take forever for the room to clear and by the time he was alone with Naomi he'd nearly forgotten she was there.
He turned to find her huddled at the foot of the bed, leaning against the poster with her knees pulled up to her chest. A curtain of blond hair shielded her face, but from the way her shoulders trembled Liam guessed she was crying. Torn between concern and a keen desire to wash his hands of the whole night, he lingered in the middle of the room. Finally, he sighed, picked up the discarded dress and held it out to her. "Naomi? Are you alright?"
She started at the sound of his voice and raised her head wearing a bewildered expression. When her gaze fell on him, she frowned for a second, confused. Recognition dawned slowly and she took in the room as a whole before squeezing her eyes shut and shaking her head.
"Jesus, how drunk are you?" he murmured, stepping closer and crouching slightly to get a better look at her face.
"Oh, my god, thank you," Naomi cried in a rush, launching herself bodily at him and throwing her arms around his neck. Somehow, Liam managed to keep his balance even as he careened backward several steps and dropped the dress to the floor. Automatically, his arms wrapped around her bare waist as she clung to him.
"Hey, it's…it's okay," he said awkwardly, very conscious of his hands on her nearly naked flesh.
Naomi released her grip only to swipe at the tears and mascara tracking down her cheeks. "I don't know what I would have done without you. How did you know to where to find me?"
"You know exactly how I knew," he replied through narrowed eyes. Naomi was practically standing on his shoes, she was so close. The heat from her bare skin bled through his shirt. The longer he held her, the more uncomfortable he became. Then she smiled, that slow, seductive curving of her lips that he'd learned not to trust. Whatever real emotion he'd seen when Kyle had touched her was gone and once again he knew he was being played. Her hands snaked back around his neck and long fingers sank into his hair.
"You're right. I do," she whispered. And then she kissed him.
Annie's head was buzzing when she came away from her conversation with Ivy and not just from the two additional shots she'd had while they talked. The rumor mill of West Beverly High refused to veer off its course. Three full days into the school year and she, Liam and Naomi were still the only thing on people's minds and tongues. Dozens of different stories had spread through the student population, some true, some half true and some so completely ridiculous Annie had burst out laughing.
Naomi had obviously done her best to fan the flames in her favor, not only claiming she'd been the one to end her relationship with Liam but also adding the idea that she'd somehow given the new couple her blessing as an extra benevolent touch. Predictably, some circles had painted Annie as a homewrecker who deliberately set out to steal yet another boyfriend from the best friend who'd so generously forgiven her after Ethan.
Others weren't so kind. Annie was fairly certain Naomi wouldn't have started the rumor that Liam breaking up with her had sent her on a drug fueled bender culminating in an overdose and a summer long stint at the same rehab facility as Lindsay Lohan. Or the one, much closer to the truth, that Naomi had been cheating on him and Liam caught in her a lie about it. The cheating may have been fiction, but Naomi's inability to be straight with Liam was the number one reason he'd ended the relationship.
Stories about what really happened with Jasper were equally numerous and Annie was relieved that although they hit on the right details, none of them identified the right motivations. West Bev had no idea that she'd set the entire chain of events in motion by murdering Jasper's uncle in a drunken hit and run. As far as the students knew, Jasper had lost his mind when Annie broke up with him and blamed Liam. He'd spent the summer tormenting the couple and in the end he was either arrested for attempted murder and sent to Chino or he'd been killed in a bloody shootout on the Santa Monica Pier.
As Annie wove her way back to the patio through clusters of her peers she felt a surge of triumph over her ex. While stories swirled around her and Naomi, Liam remained basically unscathed. Even when Annie pressed, Ivy couldn't deliver much. But it what wasn't there bolstered Annie's confidence exponentially.
"But what about Liam?" Annie had asked, shaking her head at the mental image of Naomi and LaLohan doing arts and crafts with Dr. Drew presiding over them. They'd been sitting on deep brown leather couches flanking a glass topped coffee table. Dixon and Navid had resumed their traveling game of quarters, oblivious to the gossiping girls.
"What do you mean?" Ivy had shrugged and looked at her blankly.
"What's being said about him?" she had pressed.
"Nothing… really."
"Come on," she had persisted. "All these stories about Naomi and I and no one says anything about Liam?"
"Um…well, he's…a guy," Ivy had said a snort.
Annie had laughed. "And that means?"
"It means he's being congratulated for scoring two of the hottest chicks at West Bev," Ivy had rolled her eyes and pointed a finger toward her open mouth in a gagging gesture. "Oh, and the fact that you're the principal's daughter and he's the resident bad boy hasn't escaped them, either."
"Former principal," Annie had pointed out, but she could feel her face turning red in a flattered blush.
"Doesn't matter," Ivy had insisted. "The only thing that would make it better is if you were a virginal minister's daughter or something. Oh! And…there's all this talk about him surviving a gang war like he's some kind of urban legend badass. It's ridiculous."
Annie had laughed again and sipped her drink, almost content to let matters rest. Being dubbed one of the 'hottest chicks' at her high school should have been enough to pull her out from beneath the crippling weight of Jasper's accusations, but the deepest part of her that had been affected the most had to know. "Is…is that it?"
Ivy had shrugged. "Ah, yeah, pretty much. Why…are you looking for something specific?"
"N-not really," Annie had stammered, flushing a deeper shade of red. "I just…well, I thought some people might be surprised Liam would go from…someone like Naomi to someone like…me."
"I don't follow," Ivy had said with a blank expression.
Annie had sighed and forced the words past her lips, trying to keep her voice from carrying to Dixon, Navid or any of the other party goers within earshot. "Naomi's got a certain reputation that I definitely don't have."
"Oh…Oh!" Ivy's eyes had widened as she finally caught on. "I get. I get. But no. I haven't heard anything like that. But even if it was out there, who cares? Liam's totally in love with you. Anybody who sees the two of you together…it's just…so obvious."
Obvious, Annie thought now with an ever widening grin, slipping through a tiny space between bodies and emerging outside by the pool. Liam obviously loved her. People knew it and weren't questioning it. She was beginning to believe that Jasper's poisonous words were just that. Empty, meaningless words.
Instead of the five minutes she should have taken to get fresh drinks, she'd been gone at least twenty, possibly more. The clean lines of the modern deck chair were empty. Disappointed, but not surprised, she set the drinks on the glass table and scanned the crowd. Liam must have gotten tired of waiting for her and abandoned their spot, no matter what Silver might say. The party had reached its peak and very few people remained seated on the sidelines. The chlorinated water of the pool churned as couples played chicken. A group of girls sat on the artfully tiled edge, dangling their feet in the water, but unwilling to get their expensive bathing suits wet. Predictably a group of guys were doing their best to splash half the volume of the pool on them. Those not swimming milled about from cluster to cluster, wanting to see and be seen. To varying degrees, everybody was drinking, some handling their liquor better than others.
The roughhousing boys made their way to Annie's side of the pool, splashing a deluge of water over the lip of the tiled edge. Most made it no further than the tips of her toes, but some sailed through the air and splashed on her dress and bare legs. Flinching in surprise as the cool liquid hit her skin, she gasped and automatically brushed it away. Dark spots appeared on her dress where the water soaked in and Annie stared at it as if she'd never really seen it before.
"What am I doing?" she murmured quietly, fingering the tiny ruffle at the hem of the ridiculous short skirt. A giggle erupted from her throat. "I don't even like this dress."
Her stubborn brain wasted no time in reminding her exactly why she'd worn the dress and the shoes, not just at this party, but the earthquake one as well. Why she'd had more to drink in the past week than she'd had in over a year. Why she'd been constantly on edge and couldn't relax, even when Liam was right there next to her. Rolling her eyes heavenward, she expelled a sharp breath. This had to end. Tonight while she was still bolstered by her conversation with Ivy. It had only been four days since the courthouse, but for Annie it might as well have been a lifetime. The pressure of constantly trying to prove the world wrong was going to make her crack and if Liam hadn't already noticed he'd catch on quick as her grip on her tumultuous emotions weakened.
"I just need to tell him," she decided with a decisive nod. Despite the ego boost and the alcohol the notion terrified her, but deep down she knew she should have come clean right away. Liam had nearly lost his life protecting her from Jasper. As much as she wanted to return the favor, he wouldn't appreciate it. The truth was far too corrosive to carry alone. Amazing how in her alcohol fueled soul searching she was able to see things more clearly than in the harsh, sober light of day.
The matching silver heels she'd bought for the occasion were still underneath the chair where she'd left them. Unlike the dress, she really loved the shoes, but now was not the time to strap on a pair of five inch stilettos and attempt to weave her way through the rambunctious crowd. Naomi's home wasn't big enough to get lost in, but finding Liam amidst the throng wouldn't be easy.
She fought her way around the pool, first, scanning every face and searching behind every deck chair. Silver and Teddy were nowhere to be found either, but she wasn't worried about them. Pushing through the congestion at the open door into the house was a challenge, but she managed to get inside without any bloodshed. For a second, she let her eyes adjust to the dimmer lighting as she debated where to go next. Before she could decide, someone blocked her path.
"Annie! I've been looking everywhere for you!"
Annie started at the very familiar greeting from the only vaguely familiar brunette standing before her. Stephanie something her brain supplied. They had calculus together, 4th period. "Y-you have?"
"Yeah, Liam was looking for you. I told him I'd help," Stephanie supplied with an liquor colored smile that shone just a shade too bright.
"Oh…okay," Annie replied dumbly, her brain struggling to assess facts thrown at her in too rapid succession. "Where is he?"
"A few minutes ago, he was headed down that hallway," she said, indicating with a thumb over her shoulder. The entrance to a darkened hallway yawned just behind and beneath the stairs. Although the space was unblocked, nobody seemed interested in taking their slice of the party into its depths. Annie raised a brow.
"Seriously?"
"Totally," Stephanie returned with a slight hint of indignation.
"Okay," Annie said again, painting on a diplomatic smile. Nodding to Stephanie as she skirted past and made her way toward the hallway. The darkness was thick and empty, illuminated only at the end where a sliver of light spilled onto plush cream carpeting. Although the girl had no reason to lie, Annie doubted Stephanie's story. Nonetheless, she made her way silently, her shoes dangling loosely from her fingertips.
A scant few feet from the door she finally heard voices, but she had to creep closer to make out the words. Instantly, she recognized Liam's and was about to push open the door without so much as a knock when the indistinct sounds finally took shape.
"Hey, it's…it's okay," Liam said in the same quiet tone he used when she was upset and he had no idea why. Her brain fired off a warning and she paused, her hand on the doorknob.
"I don't know what I would have done without you. How did you know to where to find me?" Annie's stomach flipped and sank when she recognized Naomi's voice. Suddenly frozen in place, she forgot about the party and about telling Liam the truth. Helplessly, she peered through the crack in the door, feeling like a character in a movie. She had the distinct sensation of watching helplessly from afar as a girl who looked a lot like her ventured toward certain doom. No amount of wishing could keep her from going forward.
"You know exactly how I knew," Liam replied. If Annie could have heard over the rushing blood in her ears, she might have picked up the steely edge in his words, but rational thought couldn't compete with the sickening clarity of the scene she saw before her. Jasper's prophecy echoed in her head, squelching the confidence she'd so recently acquired.
Liam stood with his back to her, fully clothed, his arms wrapped around a practically naked Naomi. Only the black lace accents kept the pale pink of her undergarments from blending in completely with her skin. Despite all the times Annie had driven herself crazy with nightmarish fantasies of Liam and Naomi the actual sight of them together in an embrace was so painful it took her breath away. She wanted to do something, look away, bust into the room and demand an explanation or run like hell and hide, but all she could do was stare and wait for whatever came next. She didn't have to wait long.
"You're right. I do," Naomi said, the whisper just barely carrying across the room. Annie's heart almost beat out of her chest while she watched as the nearly naked blond sank her fingers into Liam's hair, brought her lips to his and shattered her world.
Silver sucked water through a delicate red stir straw as greedily as she'd gulped down the five neon blue cocktails named after her former best friend. Already, her alcohol buzz was fading and the self-recriminations had begun. Turning toward Teddy, she demanded. "Why did you let me do that?"
"What?" Teddy asked with a frown, taking a moderate sip of his second beer. "Drink?"
"Yes," she scowled at her empty water glass and gestured to the bartender for another. "You know how I get."
"Silver, you don't get any way," her boyfriend did his best not to laugh. "You on alcohol isn't that much different from you sober."
"I shouldn't be doing it at all," she muttered, attacking her third glass of water.
"You're not your mom," Teddy whispered, gently tugging the straw from between her lips.
Silver's shoulders sagged and she gave him a guilty, sideways glance. He knew her too well. Despite having the best excuse in the world to be anti-booze, Silver didn't want to be the sober girl in the corner standing aloof while her friends partied it up. She liked drinking on occasion, she even liked the taste of alcohol and she definitely needed to relax now and then. But every time she drank past a nice buzz she relived all the horrible memories of her mother's out of control binges. Nothing terrified her more than unwittingly becoming that person, the one who embarrassed everybody around her without having the slightest clue.
"I know," she said quietly, fighting the urge to bring the straw back to her lips. "I know I'm not. I just need you to remind me sometimes."
"You know I will," he assured her, draping his arm across the bar behind her, his warm skin brushing against her bare shoulder blades. She leaned into him and gazed thoughtfully around the patio.
"I don't think I should have come," Silver murmured. Her qualms about the party may have been proven false, but she just didn't feel comfortable there anymore. Dissecting Naomi's every move for hidden motives was as exhausting as it was pointless.
"It's been a nice night," Teddy disagreed, rubbing her arm absently as he mirrored her pose and took in the festive decorations and ever more boisterous crowd. "Nothing bad has happened."
"I know, but I don't trust Naomi anymore," she replied helplessly. Turning to him, she studied his profile and tried to make him understand. "I never will. Even though she didn't do anything tonight I'm always going to suspect her. What kind of friendship is that?"
"Is this really because of Naomi or do you think you owe it to Annie?" Teddy asked.
Silver blinked. "What do you mean?"
"Well, Naomi apologized for ditching you over the summer, right?" At her nod, he shrugged and continued. "Do you not believe her or is this some sort of guilt trip you've put yourself on because of the way you think you abandoned Annie last year?"
Silver stared at him, caught between the urge to hit him or curl up at his side, bury her face against his bright blue button down and cry. Squeezing her eyes shut, she abandoned the straw and took three huge gulps from her glass, draining what was left. "I am still too drunk to think that deeply. Bartender? Let's try that one more time."
With a smirk, the gorgeous college student behind the bar refreshed her glass and gave her another straw. Next to her, Teddy was shaking his head and chuckling softly. Hit him, she decided. Definitely.
But she never got the chance. All of a sudden Annie appeared, barefoot, her shoes clutched so tightly in her hand the knuckles were white. All the color from her summer tan seemed to have been sapped from her pretty face. Silver's heart lurched. "Annie. What's wrong?"
"Can you take me home?" her friend asked in a small, tight voice. "Please."
Silver glanced quickly at Teddy, who straightened and pulled his attention away from people watching. "Yeah. Yeah, of course we can. Where's Liam?"
"He's…he's busy," she replied evenly, but her eyes filled with tears and she blinked furiously in the dim light. "He won't even notice I'm gone."
"Annie, I think he'll probably notice if his girlfriend disappears without telling him," Teddy assured her with a frown.
"Please," she cut in, grabbing Silver's wrist with the same ferocity as she clutched the shoe straps, hard enough to bruise. Her deep brown eyes were full of pain and humiliation as she pleaded. "Please, let's just go."
"But-."
"He's with Naomi!"
Silver nearly dropped her glass as she stared dumbly, blue eyes wide. She didn't need to ask for clarification as to just how Liam was with Naomi. Not from the way Annie's lip trembled and she dashed angrily at the few tears that leaked from the corner of her eye. Of all the potential catastrophes she had imagined for this night, Liam shaking up with his ex hadn't even registered. Even with Annie saying it out loud, Silver just couldn't wrap her mind around it. A dozen questions flitted through her brain. She opened her mouth to ask her friend if she was certain, but thought better of it.
"Okay, we'll go," she shot Teddy a look and he nodded. Wistfully, Silver put her full glass of water on the bar, slipped a steadying arm around Annie's waist and prayed she was sober enough to handle whatever came next.