Disclaimer: I don't own the Lost Boys, I just desperately with that I did.

I hated that David was always right. His smug satisfaction had a way of getting under my skin even when his correctness benefitted me in some way. And, once again, he was right. The ride certainly did take my mind off of everything wrong in my life, particularly my two overly protective roommates, but that's probably because I was too focused on my own survival to throw myself a pity party. David rode hard.

"I thought Paul said you were getting good at this," he teased me over the wind. "But you seem very uncomfortable." I had nearly kissed the pavement on the last turn and my nails were beginning to dig into his leather jacket. Good. I hoped I ruined it.

"I'm good," I assured him, determined not to give him any voluntary notion that I wanted to tap out. It was like he was intentionally trying to push my buttons and see what made me tick. In any case, if I didn't see this through to the end, I was positive I would never hear the end of it from David or the rest of the boys.

We quickly took a turn down a side street I hadn't anticipated and I wondered what was up. We pulled into the driveway or a two story, dilapidated house. Its siding was white with dark brown wood accents surrounding its windows and boarded up front door. A red, well-worn Young Haven flag hung from the front porch beside an odd stone angel statue. It wasn't a place I was familiar with, but a party was in full swing. I could hear it clear as day.

The Chemical Brothers - Don't Think

"I thought we would be headed to the cave? Or Crandall?"

"Why, Brenna, I didn't know you were interested in spending time alone with me!" I held off from smacking David. The others I wouldn't have a problem with, but David…His presence alone commanded respect.

"Ass," I settled with grumbling.

"Crandall has nothing going on tonight and the cave is for private parties only. Not many people have been invited to see it."

"Well thank you for the high honor," I curtseyed at him. "But, seriously, don't we need some sort of invite to get in here?"

"It's a friend's house. There won't be any issues." I was beginning to develop the feeling that David was being secretive on purpose. "Now, come on, let's not keep everyone waiting."

He walked with one hand on the small of my back, always alert. I couldn't decide if I felt more like I was being guarded or trapped at his side. Ultimately, as my eyes darted around in the shadowed alleys we passed, I realized that I felt safer and more at ease with David than I would have alone. No goons on the street would try to harass me with him as a bodyguard. Plus, rather than attempting to wedge my way through the sweaty mass of party goers on the inside and worrying about getting groped or knocked around, the room essentially parted itself as we strolled in. I had to be careful – I could get used to this kind of treatment.

It was hard to take in much of the house's décor due to the sheer amount of people packed in, all dressed like something out of a bad eighties movie (I had to assume it was some sort of theme night,) but the structure definitely had the vibe of a party house: large open spaces, not a lot of furniture, sticky floors, and bare walls. If I didn't know any better, I would think the place was abandoned when it wasn't being used to throw parties. It was certainly old, and I couldn't help but feel bad. Given some TLC, it would be gorgeous. The crown molding, dark wood floors, and original crystal doorknobs…Now, it might as well be demolished when these people moved out.

A buzzing in my pocket distracted me and, extracting my phone from my pocket, I found a text from Lacy Kenstrut. She was a friend of a friend who I rarely heard from, so this was particularly puzzling.

"Check Facebook." That was all it said. Confused, I opened the app. I didn't have to hunt for what Lacy meant. It was the first post in my news feed:

"Missing from Young Haven, OH. Please help us get her home." A large picture of Miriam was inserted below the text. I hadn't realized I stopped moving until David doubled back, nonplused. The phone nearly slipped out of my fingers. "She was last seen Friday evening leaving Young Haven State University in her beige Nissan Centra. If you have any information as to the whereabouts of Miriam…" The post went on to list contact information for local law enforcement. As I stared at her senior portrait, my mind wouldn't stop superimposing over it the image I thought I had seen at the cave: Miriam, bloodied and without eyeballs, screaming.

"I, uh…" My mouth was suddenly very dry. I could tell I wasn't really processing the information and just held my phone screen out in front of me, dumbstruck.

"Come on." He pressed through the crowd with renewed energy, one arm around me tightly now. He guided me up the stairs of the house, pushing aside some sort of rope meant to discourage random party guests from traveling this way. I ran into Paul on the way to wherever we were headed. He was carrying two beer bottles per hand over his head to prevent them from getting knocked away from him.

"Ayyy!" He shouted as he walked past, awkwardly hugging me while trying to maintain control over his drinks. I was promptly grabbed again and hurried past him by David. Paul seemed to notice something was amiss but, with one glance at the other blonde, decided not to ask questions and instead head into the crowd below. David proceeded to pull me toward what I discovered was a lime green bedroom. Much like the rest of the house, it too was sparse and seemed like it wasn't really lived in. I vaguely wondered whose room we were taking over, but couldn't seem to form the words at the moment. It was like all the energy had drained out of me through my feet. My limbs felt dead and difficult to move, and my thoughts were sluggish. My mouth hung slightly open, flickers of different emotions passing through my mind too fast for me to process them. What should I be feeling right now? I wasn't feeling anything. Should I be feeling something? Sad? Angry?

"Hey," Marko greeted me excitedly. I hadn't even noticed him in the room. I tried to give him a smile, but the end result was something closer to a grimace. I had never focused so hard on forcing my mouth into a smile before, and now I felt like I was doing a bad impression of myself. "Glad to see you survived the trip here!" He glanced between David and me. David rolled his eyes. I just quietly sat down on the bed, staring at my feet. "Woah...What's up?"

"Miriam's missing…" It felt even weirder to say out loud.

"Oh." There wasn't a whole lot more to say than that. He hardly knew her at all. "I'm sorry…"

"I just saw her the other day…" Someone was draping something over my shoulders. I hadn't noticed, but I was beginning to shiver a little violently. I realized the gesture was being performed by Jay. His face was covered with some sort of kiss-like makeup and I hardly recognized him at first.

"You guys go join the party." He told Marko and David. "I'll stay with her until she's ready to come down." David vanished almost immediately and Marko gave my shoulder a squeeze of reassurance on his way out the door.

We sat in silence for quite a while. I had been switching off between staring at a notch in the wooden floor, trying to memorize its every detail to block the tidal wave of thoughts trying to force through to the forefront of my mind, and opening Facebook to look at the comments on Miriam's wall. I thought I would have been used to dealing with loss by now, especially when it came to someone who wasn't very close to me at all. Or maybe that was exactly the issue - that I had lost so much already that the experiences were starting to bleed into each other.

"Talk to me Brenna," Jay eventually coaxed.

"I'm just…" I searched for the words. "I never expected her. I hardly even knew her, but she was - is- a really good person. She doesn't deserve this. And I was so annoyed by her when we went to the haunted house, I dragged her through and terrified her and…Those are going to be my last memories of her." My hand found its way into my hair.

"Did they find a body?" I saw where Jay's thoughts were headed.

"No, they didn't, but from everything I've heard 'missing' is synonymous with 'murdered' around here. I don't think I'll be seeing her again." I didn't have to look over to know he was frowning.

"Maybe just think of the positive side of the other day: you got to hang out with her in person at least once?" I nodded. It didn't take away any of the guilt, but it was something to hold onto. I refreshed the comment section of the missing person post again. Why was I doing this to myself? "Let's just put that away for the night," Jay reached across me to steal my phone and set it on the bedside table. "And let's take it easy for a bit." He pulled my legs up onto the bed so I was no longer sitting, but lounging instead. "Take some deep breaths and I'm going to go find you a drink. You like Coke, right?" I nodded. "I'll be right back." Before he left, he took a moment to place a hand on my shoulder, looking deeply into my eyes. "You're going to be ok, you know that? You're tough. Just give it time and you're going to feel like your old self again before the day is over." With that, he disappeared, presumably to go find me a drink as he had promised. Through the floorboards, I could hear the base thumping. It was strange how oblivious they could all be. None of them probably even knew who Miriam was, let alone what had happened to her

He dismounted the red Honda when he found the perfect location. It hadn't taken him very long, which was a pleasant surprise considering he was on a time crunch. The selected house was two stories tall, surrounded by abandoned properties, and he couldn't ask for more. There would certainly be no chances of a noise complaint this way, not that the police strayed this far from the center of the city. There was an unspoken rule in this town when it came to crime: as long as you didn't do your dirty deeds near the campus, the PD wouldn't bother to come knocking. They knew better by now.

That's why it was so easy for him to casually stroll up to the side door and bust the deadbolt with one solid kick.

'Oh god, what the hell was that? Did he hear it too?'

There would probably be an investigation when this was over with, but it would never turn anything up. There were too many arsons and missing person reports in the area to give proper attention to any individual case. The police had more important things to worry about than a couple of murdered drop outs. By judge of the lack of family portraits within the house, the tenants would hardly be missed. He could hear the two of them scuttling around on the second floor now, well aware of the danger below. Did they have a plan, he wondered? Had they ever considered that one day this could happen to them? It wasn't likely. No one ever did. He waited to see if anyone would greet him, but it sounded like they would rather hide than fight. That was fine by him. It wasn't as much fun, but it simplified things, at least.

'Why us? Is it someone we know? Is there more than one? Oh god, I'm not ready to die...'

He checked his watch with a sigh. The sun had set maybe an hour ago leaving him with precious little time to evict the current occupants and purge the house of any artifacts hinting to the actual owners before she, or the other guests, arrived. Pictures, trophies, personalized mugs…They all had to go. As he toured the first floor, he began tossing it all into a rug in the center of the room for an easier cleanup. He could drag it out back later to burn. It wouldn't be a clean "in and out" requested, but hopefully, that would be satisfactory for David. The prick.

'We just have to stay quiet. If they want our stuff, maybe they won't bother us if we're quiet...'

He couldn't pretend he wasn't bitter about the task. This wasn't supposed to be his job. He was supposed to be worrying about starting up his own group in Young Haven...But then she moved in across the damn hall from him. Now he was back to taking orders, something he had quickly grown tired of, based on a pet interest of David's. And when had he proven himself so worthy of their unquestioning obedience? It was just another difference between himself and his brothers. They were such a tight-knit pack - never argued, never stepped on each others' toes, had their own little niche - but not him. He knew it wasn't really their fault. He wasn't exactly sought out by the guys for this lifestyle. He was inducted as a byproduct of Max's plans for his mother and his brothers accepted him in without question. They could have abandoned him to figure things out for himself. That's not to say they were best friends, by any means. He and David butted heads all the time. When the tension eventually grew to a dangerous level, it was Max himself who suggested a change of scenery. Of course, they all knew the real reason was going to be more selfishly motivated than he was letting on. And, of course, it was. It just landed them all in another mess. At least this one worked out for Max.

'Please...Please...Not up the stairs...'

He took his annoyance out on the stairs as he stomped up them, closing his eyes and inhaling deeply through his nose. This helped relax him while simultaneously enabling him to gather information about the tenants of the house. He could only smell two people, so his suspicions were confirmed about the number of occupants. Conveniently, they were both concealing themselves in the same room. At least he could deal with them both at the same time. He carefully shut the door behind him as he entered the master bedroom and took in the setting. Lime green walls? A strange choice, but who was he to judge? He began to pull the blinds down one by one in a methodic fashion- no need to put on a show for any early arrivals. He then turned to face the closet where the two young adults had hidden.

'Oh god...I can see his feet...If I just don't breathe...'

Tonight's script was supposed to go very differently both for the house's tenants and for himself. He had decided that tonight was his night to put her through a few tests, none of which involved murdering the occupants of a home in order to throw a themed party. Maybe if he had gotten that opportunity, he would have convinced her to come to them of her own volition instead of tricking her. But, no, her roommates had to ruin that by pissing her off. Now, not only had they made more work for him, but they also unwittingly canceled his plans, therefore ending the lives of two young adults. Jordan and Colette had fucked that up for them all, it seemed.

'What is he doing? Why is he just standing there like that?'

It didn't matter how many years he had been alive at this point, girls never made any sense. Didn't they see what they were doing to her? They were so concerned about her safety that they couldn't see how they were pushing her right into their welcoming arms. Honestly, the more he thought about it...Maybe this wasn't a terrible direction for the guys to take. There was still the issue of the lie at the end, but it was less work than forcing a car accident. Maybe that's how he'd do things from here on out…But those dreams could wait. For now, he had work to do.

"Hey, guys." He yanked the closet door open to find the man and woman squished against the back corner of the closet as though the clothes would have concealed them from him. He rolled his eyes, ripping the clothes off of the rack. "I'm gonna need to borrow your house for the night. I hope that isn't going to be an issue?" The woman began to scream, dragging the man in front of herself as a sort of human shield. This was going to be a long night...But least he had some snacks.

It took me a couple hours, but Jay was right – I did eventually pass through shock and mostly accepted what happened. There were some random bursts of tears now and again, but I wasn't really what I could consider sad anymore. I just felt...Weird. In the end, Miriam and I weren't that close. It didn't feel right mourning her loss when I hardly even knew her. I was sad, but that was to be expected. I mostly just felt...Like I said, weird, although I couldn't quite place my finger on the reason why.

My recovery period was drastically accelerated, I'm sure, with the constant rotation of my boys. They seemed on a mission to keep me laughing and smiling. I was appreciative of the gesture but also felt guilty, worried I had inconvenienced them out of a good time downstairs because I couldn't keep my shit together. They insistent I hadn't, and I was about to argue, but that's when Marko and Paul came charging up the stairs with a bottle of liquor and as many shot glasses as they could carry.

"What are you doing," I questioned, realizing that the boys were all in the room at once for the first time that night.

"Bringing the party to you!" Paul began pouring shots of Jose Cuervo Gold as quickly as he could, distributing them to everyone in the room. I shifted in my seat. Like I expected, they offered me one. I declined, as I had been preparing to do from the moment I realized what they were carting with them.

"Sorry, I can't." My tone was a bit short despite trying to sound pleasant.

"Aaand, why is that?" Marko had a sneaky smile that made me narrow my eyes in suspicion.

"I told you guys, I'm waiting until I'm twenty-one." I swore we had just discussed this yesterday.

"Oh, good." He shoved the small glass back toward me. "If that's all, then happy birthday!" Per Jay's instructions, my phone had remained untouched. But, as I grabbed it off the table, sure enough, it was midnight and the date had officially changed over. I had once again forgotten the date of my own birthday.

"Welp," I took the drink, shrugging at my lack of argument. "I guess it is." I clinked my shot glass with Marko first, followed by the rest of the boys, tossing back the liquid and licking my lips.

"Ahhhhh…I love tequila" I sighed. Everyone laughed.

"Look at you, takin' it like a champ!" Paul punched me in the shoulder. "No shot face or nothin'!"

"I told you all that I drink!" I punched him right back. "Just not in public places. I didn't think I needed to prove it!"

"Well, now that I can say I got you your first legal drink," Paul began to stand. "Why don't we give the rest of the party a try?"

"You know what," I stood as well. "Let's do it."

Krewella - Party Monster

The second drink of the night was long gone minutes into the party and a third drink found its way into my hand, something called a Red Hot Lover. I had to hand it to Paul – he sure knew how to make a drink, even if the names were cheesy. A little liquid courage and great song selection ended up coaxing me onto the dance floor for the second time in my life.

All I needed to hear were the opening words to one of my favorite songs and I was racing down the steps, practically throwing my drink at Jay to hold. It was one song I couldn't hold myself still for. I didn't care who saw, or who I was dancing with. My hands flew into the air, clapping and cheering, and my hair whipped around me. I was becoming very upset with myself for not trying out the party scene sooner. This was a blast! The lights, the fog, and just the feeling of letting go.

I wore myself out fast, unfortunately, and needed some air after just one song. I had a pretty good buzz going and had a feeling that the boys had been giving me weak drinks on purpose, testing my limits. Well, at least I wasn't puking.

"Having fun?" Jay knew it was me before I had even sat down, taking swigs of Red Stag directly from the bottle.

"Holy shit, yes!" I lay back, allowing my shoulders to rest against the porch. "I could do this every night!" He snorted, then appeared to be thinking something over.

"Why don't we play a game?" He stood up, pulling me to my feet with him. My head swam for a moment and I realized I might have been worse off than I thought. He led me first to the kitchen, pulling some red solo cups from a cabinet, and then brought me to a folding table set up in the entranceway. He started rearranging the cups in a pyramid formation, sliding the rest over to me, wordlessly. I understood that I was to do the same.

"Ok, one on one," Jay smirked. "I'll even go easy on you. What do you want to wager?"

"You really think that I can't beat you?" I crossed my arms, one brow quirked.

"No. But that's ok Brenna, you don't even have to beat me. You just have to keep up." My jaw dropped partly. Cocky bastard. "Ok, now, pay close attention, because the rules are very hard. Ready? You just need to get the ball in the cup."

"Ok, fine." I walked over and dropped the ping pong ball in one of his cups. "I did it. So now, I believe, you drink." I pushed the Red Stag toward him. He just stared at me. "You gonna go on with the rest of the rules now, smartass?"

"Alright, you need to THROW your ball into one of my cups from over there. If the ball goes in, they take the cup off the table and drink. You can try to bounce the ball, but once it touches the table or the rim of a cup, it can be caught or swatted away. Island cups count for two if you call it ahead of time, none of you don't. You get one rerack and one celeb shot. If you knock over a cup, you lose it and drink. You get a redemption at the end of the game before you lose."

"And then there are our house rules…" His smile grew. "For now, just worry about the Freshman Cup." He pointed to the cup in the dead center of his rack. "If you hit this cup first, you can take your choice: play with your pants off or from your knees until you hit another one. Other than that, we use NBA Jam. I'll let you know about that if it ever comes up. Any questions?"

"I'll be honest – I only heard about half of your little speech, so I'm just going to start throwing shit, kay?" The room was starting to move around noticeably on me. Maybe I did drink those drinks a bit too fast. "Who shoots first?"

"We both shoot to see who goes first," he readied the ball. "But we have to look each other directly in the eyes as we throw." I raised my gaze to meet his. He was trying to look serious and intimidating, I could tell, so I had to do the opposite by bobbing my head around to the music and making something like a duck face.

"One," he counted out. "Two. Three." Something flickered beneath his stare. He hit and I missed, my hand not seeming to work right for a second. "Me first." He grinned.

"Ok, fair and square." I smiled, leaning on the table and tucking my hands beneath my chin. "But, hey, Jay…What's this cup again?" I nodded toward his ball which landed in the dead center of the rack.

"God damn it…" He grumbled, rolling his eyes and dropping to his knees.

Regardless of my advantage, I did not appear to be off to a good start. The first couple of shots at least hit the table, but the third whizzed completely past it.

"This might be the easiest game I've ever played!" He taunted, sinking yet another shot. I groaned, grabbing for the Red Stag and knocking over a cup of mine meaning it was now counted out. Whiskey and I had never gotten along well.

"Shit." I took two large gulps, wiping my mouth off on the back of my sleeve. I was using the table to support myself somewhat now. I only had five of my ten cups left on the table.

"You sure you're going to be able to hang in there for the rest of the game?"

"I'll fine," I slurred, waving him off and stumbling plainly for everyone to see.

"What was that?" He snickered.

"I'm grrrreat!"

"Oh, I don't doubt that…" He smiled, confident he had this game all wrapped up. "You know, we have another house rule: if you don't hit a single cup in a game, you have to run around the house naked." My eyes widened. I redoubled my efforts.

I hit the front center cup my next turn which at least kept me safe from stripping at any point during this game. He hit another: six cups left on my side. I hit another and I had no idea how I managed it.

"So, now you say you're heating up." Jay informed me. "If you hit another cup, you say you're on fire and you can keep shooting until you miss." We both made it.

I managed to hit one more, he hit two. The score was now three to six in Jay' favor. We traded off a few more shots, each of us hitting one now and again, but very quickly, we were sitting at one to four. Jay made the last cup.

"Damn, kid," Paul slapped my back. "You got spanked!"

"She still has the redemption" Jay reminded him as well as me. "And a rerack. Do you know how you want to set them up?" I shook my head. I was barely holding my eyes open. "Let's just go with a landing strip, nice and simple." He lined them up in a straight line for me. "Now, you just shoot until you miss."

"Ooookay, so I just have to hit THOSE four cupsss," I gestured, one eye closed, giving a good impression of Jack Sparrow. "Then what?"

"IF you hit all four, we go into overtime."

"An what're we betting again?"

"Nothing, yet. How about if I win, I get to pick your drinks for the rest of the night."

"Pfffffffft…" I spilled some of the water Marko tried forcing me to drink, then slammed the cup down on the table. "Youu got it, bub."

"But if you win…"

"If you win, I'll pull something from my special reserve" David stepped in. I realized that all of the boys had gathered around the table at this point, along with some party guests as well. I hadn't thought about it until then, but the boys really had a bad habit of vanishing and reappearing throughout our nights together. I had to wonder where they went.

"I'ssounds like either way Imma get shiffaced. I'ss lose-lose" I pointed out.

"It's your twenty-first birthday!" Marko felt the need to remind me. "If you remember any part of tonight, we've failed you as your friends."

"You make a fair point, Marlo!" He held in his laughter at the name I had chosen for him. "Awright. I'ssa deal. Eccept for two things. One, no more whiskey!" I pointed at Jay and he held his hands up, agreeing. "An two," I let go of the table, beginning to stand straight, crossing my arms. "I'm not. That. Drunk." I over-annunciated each word. I heard Paul and Marko laughing to each other. I was glad they got the reference.

Shot one: sunk. Shot two: sunk. Shot three: sunk.

"I thought you said you never played before!" Jay was incredulous.

"No, actually, I didn't say that at all." I smiled sweetly. "You assumed that I hadn't played before and I let you."

"You little sneak!" He began to realize what was going on. "You hustled me!"

"I mean, if you want to get technical, I hustled David. He's the one with something to lose right now. The only thing I'll be taking from you in just a few minutes is your pride." Looking over at David, I discovered that he was fixated on me and didn't look upset in the least. On the contrary, he looked quite like the cat that swallowed the canary.

"So, what was I supposed to do again, Jay? Put the ball in the cup?" I sunk the fourth shot and the group that had gathered roared. "What's that sound?" I put my hand up to my ear. "I think that sounds like OVERTIME BABY!" I high fived Dwayne watching Jay guzzle Red Stag.

We racked up three cups each for overtime, but the game was over before it even started. I was sobering up by degrees while Jay was steadily heading downhill. I hit all three cups first and, although he had a shot at redemption, he missed entirely.

"Cheer up, Jay!" I put an arm around him. "The good news is that you hit one cup, so I won't make you run around the house naked!" I clinked my beer against the remainder of the bottle of whiskey my competitor would need to finish.

It was long after the bars closed by the time we strolled out of the house. Jay, although clearly drunk, was holding it together surprisingly well until he hit fresh air.

"So, who's taking him home?" Dwayne made a gagging face and thumbed everyone's attention over to the bushes where Jay had his head buried.

"The pipsqueak's ready to learn!" Paul tousled my hair at which point I realized something was on it. Apparently, I had stolen someone's snapback while at the party. I didn't remember doing that. How drunk was I? I checked out the front logo out and, unimpressed, tossed it over my shoulder to land in the house's front yard. I would have felt bad if it wasn't trashed already. It was like half of the house's belongings had been dumped into the front yard as fuel for their bonfire.

"Guys, I'm sober enough for pong, but I'm not learning how to drive a bike tonight."

"Oh, come on, you'll be fine," Marko chimed in. "You know the saying: study drunk, test drunk, score…"

"You're thinking of getting high, Marlo," I teased, clearly using the name on purpose this time.

"Hey, you're right! That's a great idea!"

"Jesus Christ guys, focus! Who's taking pukey home?" At that moment Jay decided to rejoin the group. He appeared considerably less green, but still not at all coherent.

"Ok, I'll take him," Dwayne volunteered as Marko helped hoist him onto the bike.

"And you'll be with me." David. I gulped, remembering our last ride, but it would be determined that my fears were unfounded. Maybe it was because I wasn't exactly sober, or maybe it was because he was with the rest of the group or that I had finally proved myself in some way. Regardless, when we got on the bikes and were on our way, the trip was so tame that I had to believe it was intentional.

It was nearly 5:00 in the morning when we got to the cave. We all settled into our respective seats and Marko brought out a round of drinks for everyone but Jay who resolutely refused as he sat with his head between his legs, forehead resting on the coffee table. As with the rest of the night, I couldn't help but notice how it seemed like Jay and I were constantly moving in opposite directions, only meeting in the middle for the briefest of windows. As he sobered up, I started drinking again.

We had fallen into a lull in conversation so, following a previous suggestion I made at the party, Marko looked over at me, winking, and turned to Paul.

"Hey, man, do you happen to know what this pillow is for?" Paul grimaced, knowing what was coming next.

"It's decorative." He barely got the whole word out before Marko smashed him in the face with it. Jay glared over at the two of them who were now tousling. He was clearly on the side of sober that made you never want to drink again, rubbing his eyes and hissing in pain as some of the grease paint ran into them. I dug into my purse, happy I had brought with me some makeup removing wipes in case I decided to spend the night this time. I pulled my hair back, untucking the side strands as I usually did, and removed a tissue for myself before gently handing off the rest of the pack to Jay. I received another wordless grunt of appreciation out of him and I vaguely wondered if he was actually capable of saying the words "thank you." Leaning back into my seat again, a pillow came soaring across the room at me, knocking my glasses askew.

"Hey, watch it!" I attempted to sound threatening, but I couldn't keep a straight face. If it was a pillow fight they wanted, it was a pillow fight they would get! However, before jumping into the war zone, I decided it would probably be best to tuck my glasses away before I lost or broke them. I was terribly nearsighted and would rather blind myself by choice for the moment than risk having my glasses permanently smashed. There was no way I could afford another pair without insurance. Besides, I could mostly survive without them.

Just as I was about to return decorative pillow fire, however, David beckoned Marko over to himself. He whispered something to his friend that sent Marko trailing off into the caves and I watched him disappear with curiosity.

"How's your birthday going so far," Dwayne asked. Clearly, he remembered our conversation from the other night.

"Perfect."

"Wait, Brenna, you said your birthday is today," Jay asked, and I figured he was kidding around. No glasses meant no reading facial expressions clearly.

"Yeah. As in November third." I looked around at the others, shrugging. "You know, the whole reason we even partied together tonight?"

"November third." He seemed to be talking to himself now. "There's something…Huh. That date..."

"I suppose I should make good on my end of that bet from earlier," David cut in. "I hate to watch a good party die."

"Yeah, you said something about your 'special reserve'?"

"It's a very special kind of wine. Only one bottle in existence." David leaned forward, his eyes bright once more, even in the dim firelight. "They say that the Greek god Dionysus himself gifted this particular plant to man in ancient times. It grew in solitude, shielded from outsiders by the god's own followers, allowing only the worthy to partake of its branches. From that vine's grapes came a wine that was said to turn men into gods themselves. But!" I hadn't noticed how drawn into the story I was until David suddenly sat back. I blamed my level of intoxication, but it seemed like the whole room had fallen silent, absorbed by the story. Maybe it was just me. "Alas, its location was lost to time. When an explorer finally relocated the fabled fruit, they dug up the vine, killing it and claiming the last of the spoils for themselves…"

As if on cue, Marko showed up with a bottle in hand. It looked incredibly old and ornate, decorated with hammered gold and gems of different colors, mostly red and gold. As it was brought closer, I realized that it also appeared to have been broken and repaired at one point. Fine lines ran across one area near the base in particular. David removed the cork gingerly and passed the bottle under his nose, inhaling the scent before bringing it to his lips, tilting his head back, and tasting it. His eyelids fluttered shut and he inhaled sharply through his nose, tilting his head forward again. I abruptly found myself held with his icy gaze as he handed the bottle to me.

"Drink some of this, Brenna." I swallowed hard. I didn't believe for a second that the bottle contained the actual nectar of the gods, but based on how everyone in the room was reacting, it might as well have been. "Be one of us."

"Brenna?" A lot of emotions flashed through Jay's face, but I couldn't make out what they meant without my typical eyewear.

"Brenna!...Brenna!..." The rest of the boys all began to quietly chant. I examined the bottle for myself, now, turning it over in my hands. All eyes were on me, Jay's in particular. It set me on edge, but I was so curious about the wine. I licked my lips subconsciously.

"Brenna?" David brought me back to the task at hand, but it seemed like Jay was at my side in an instant.

"Brenna!" He placed his hand on mine, preventing me from raising the bottle to my mouth. "Don't! I mean…You don't have to do this." I eyed him curiously. What was he getting on about? I really didn't mind having another drink. Did he still think I was lying about being ready to get drunk now that I was over the age limit? Or was he afraid I was going to puke? "It's…It's poison." He didn't sound very convincing.

I looked the container over one more time, trying not to laugh. Nectar of the gods, poison…What were they playing at? David drank it himself, so clearly it couldn't be anything dangerous…Right?

"Yeah, ok." I took my hand and the bottle back. I laughed again before swinging the bottle up and taking a tentative swig. My taste buds were still too confused from all the previous drinks to actually register this one properly, but it didn't seem to taste like anything poisonous, so I tilted the bottle back a second time to allow the liquid to more easily slide down my throat. Chugging wine was never a pleasant experience, but actually…This didn't particularly taste like anything. Maybe I should have cut myself off earlier.

"Bravo!" David hollered over the rest of the shouting, clapping his gloved hands together, and the others began to hoot and holler.

"You're one of us, bud!" Paul gripped my shoulder as another round of chanting started up, and I couldn't keep myself from smiling, even if I didn't totally understand why we were celebrating. I probably should have been more disturbed than I was when one voice, in particular, seemed to linger on after all the others had stopped.

"Brenna…" It whispered. "Brenna……"

Author's Note: And that's another chapter in the books. At this point, we have officially passed the halfway mark and are definitely into the downward spiral. From here on out, there aren't many questions - just a lot of answers. So, what do you think is going on? Anything clearing up for you? Let me know by leaving a review below!

Thanks to ShiplessOceans and JakkiiSukaru for your awesome reviews. As always, it's lovely hearing from you two!

Thank you, also, to my first Guest reviewer! Thank you for the kind words and I'm glad you're enjoying the story!