I ACTUALLY GOT A REVIEW FOR THIS STORY AND I'M SO EXCITED!

THANKS FOR LIKING MY STORY MEANGIRL8!

Noah Foster is very convincing when he tries to be. I was dead set on not going to that stupid party, but all he had to do was give me the "puppy dog eyes" and I was a total goner. I'm sure Audrey knew about my thing for him by now, but she never questioned it. I think that was why our friendship worked so well, she didn't pry.

I caught a ride with Audrey home and realized my house was empty. There wasn't even a note on the fridge, everyone was just gone. You'd think that with some psychopathic killer on the loose, they'd be a bit more careful, but I guess not.

"Do they leave and not tell you where they're going a lot?" Audrey asked, following me into the kitchen.

I grabbed two juices out of the fridge and tossed her one. "I guess I started it. I never tell them when I leave for school or to hang out with you guys. They probably think I'm not interested in being part of their family…like they even want me to be."

"What's that supposed to mean?" she asked, hoping up onto the counter and grabbing an apple from the bowl by her hip.

"I didn't even know who the man was until I was twelve, didn't meet him until I moved here right before school started," I started, sitting on one of the stools by her swinging legs. "I'm like a smudge on their silver spoon, man."

She laughed at that. "They're not going to try if they don't think you're trying, too."

That made sense, but it wasn't something I really wanted to do. I just wanted us to keep existing in our own spheres and only communicating when it was mandatory. I tried to not think about how sad that sounded… but even I knew it was pretty pathetic.

"I guess I should head home and start getting ready for this party," she said about twenty minutes later. "Thanks for the juice and the apple. I'll see you at nine, Noah's picking up both of us."

I saluted her playfully before heading upstairs to my bedroom to pick out my outfit. I didn't want to go to this party, but that didn't mean I wasn't going to be hot at it. I put music on and turned it up as I looked through my closet for the perfect outfit.

I was singing to Halsey as I curled my hair when I heard a knock on my door. I placed the wand on my vanity before walking to it with my eyebrows raised. No one ever came up to my room to talk to me, they just shouted at me for dinner.

My little sister Sophia was standing there with a bored expression on her face. "Dad wants to talk to you and you weren't answering when he called."

I glanced back to make sure my wand wouldn't catch anything on fire before going downstairs. Dad and Elizabeth, my stepmom, were sitting at the kitchen table. I pulled my shirt down until it touched the top of my pants and pulled my kimono tighter around my middle before walking over to them.

"Sophia said you wanted to see me?" I asked, crossing my arms and trying to not seem freaked.

"Yes, we wanted to talk to you about that girl who was murdered," Elizabeth said, gesturing for me to sit across from them. "Nina, I believe it was."

"Yeah, Nina Patterson, I'm actually going to her wake tonight," I said, crossing my legs and anxiously tapping my foot.

"Do you want to talk to someone about it? It's a rather traumatic ordeal," she continued, placing her hand over dad's and looking at me with concern. "It was pretty brutal and they suspect that other boy, Tyler something, of doing it. Do you know both of them?"

Tyler O'Neill was Nina's on again off again boyfriend. It wasn't really surprising they thought he did it, the two of them fought like crazy. I'd watched enough crime shows and horror movies to know the significant other was always the first one they questioned. It was even sketchier that Tyler was missing now…

"Yeah, they're both in my class," I said dismissively. "I haven't been there long enough to really know them that much. I was a little shocked, I guess, but I'm not devastated or anything. They were kind of strangers…"

I saw discontentment flash across both their faces and realized how crass that sounded. I was about to backtrack when Jackson, my stepbrother, walked into the kitchen.

"Nina and Tyler were popular and Gwen hangs with the lesbian and the weird horror movie loser. Neither of them knew she existed," he explained, biting into an apple.

"Jackson Oliver!" Elizabeth hissed, narrowing her eyes at him.

"He's right, I'm not popular like him and Sophia," I sighed, shrugging my shoulders. "Can I go back upstairs? I have to finish getting ready to meet up with Noah and Audrey."

They nodded and I jogged back upstairs thankfully. It was weird enough talking to the grief counselors at school, I really didn't want to talk to them about everything. I didn't know Nina or Tyler personally and I wasn't deeply troubled that she was dead. I was sad on a distant level that you always were when you heard someone died, but not on a close level.

I finished curling my hair and sprayed it before doing my eyeliner. I pulled on my flats and kimono just as Noah texted me he was outside. I grabbed my bag and shoved my phone in it, rushing downstairs to meet up with him. He got me first so I got to ride in the passenger seat when we went to pick up Audrey.

"Are you seriously wearing a cardigan to this thing?" I mused, grinning at his choice of attire. "Who are you? Mr. Rogers?"

It was dark in the car, but I saw his cheeks dust pink. "I like to not follow the social norms of teens. Have you not noticed that yet?"

I laughed despite myself and said, "Trust me, everyone in Lakewood has noticed that you don't follow norms. You're obsessed with serial killers and the history of Lakewood…that's not normal."

He pulled into Audrey's drive and turned to face me. "Listen, I disclosed all this at the beginning of our friendship. I gave you a get out of jail card and you gave it back. There's no getting out alive now."

I rolled my eyes and stuck my tongue out at him playfully. "I don't know if I was made aware of just how far you stray from the norm…"

"Hey, hi, I'm Audrey and I need you to stop flirting. It's gross and I don't want to vomit," she announced as she got into the backseat.

It was my turn to blush as I turned back around quickly and put my seatbelt back on. I heard Noah muttering under his breath and figured he was flustered, too. I was flirting with him, but it never once struck me that he was flirting back. I just took that as his personality to be honest.

"So are we seriously going to this party, wake thing?" Audrey asked a few awkward minutes later. "Like, seriously going into a party after I've become a pop culture phenomenon?"

"Yes. We're going to show them you're not afraid of a little video," Noah argued, meeting her eyes in the rearview mirror. "Plus Gwen's stomach's out, you're not going to be the center of attention. Stop being selfish!"

My face got even hotter than before as I struggled to pull my shirt down again. "Shut up!"

There were cars parked in every available crevice possible around the house. Luckily, Noah's car was pretty small and fit easily in tiny places. I wasn't feeling walking too far to get to the lake house in the shoes I had on. They were cute, not practical.

We walked to the house together and I linked arms with Audrey. She smiled at me thankfully as Noah opened the door and all eyes flashed to us. The only sound was the thumping music, everyone else fell silent as they saw Audrey.

Emma came out of the woodwork and rushed over to Audrey, trying to diffuse the tension of the room. "Hi, Audrey. How are you?"

Audrey actually laughed, but she didn't move away from Noah and me. "Good, thanks, Um, you know Noah and this is Gwen."

I nodded at her with tight lips, but Noah couldn't keep his mouth shut. "I have a little place just like this in the Hamptons."

Emma laughed awkwardly before leading us deeper into the party. "Food and drinks are over there. Suits are in the cabana if you want to swim."

We'd made our way out near the pool and Jake Fitzgerald came out of the shadows. He eyed me disgustingly before looking at Audrey and saying, "But suits are completely optional, especially for the blonde."

"You do know I'm the one who kissed a girl, right?" Audrey asked, taking the attention away from me as I flushed in embarrassment. "Uh, you know, star of the viral video?"

"Refresh my memory, kiss your friend," Jake sneered, still looking at me hungrily.

I huffed and wrapped my kimono tighter around me. "Can you go be a total skeeze somewhere else? I don't want to lose any brain cells breathing the same air as you."

"Fiesty! I like that," he remarked before Emma shoved him away and he went to find another innocent girl to prey on.

"I'm going inside to find something to drink," Audrey announced, leaving me and Noah outside with an awkward Emma.

"I think I saw Will come in behind you. I'm going to find him, but just come find me if you need anything," she smiled before excusing herself and leaving us alone.

"You seriously owe me for this," I replied, wrapping my arms over my stomach. "I feel like I need a shower after the way Jake looked at me…and penicillin."

"I can take you home, if you want. I don't want you to be uncomfortable all night," he said, moving closer to me and rubbing his hands up and down my arms. "Audrey's got tequila and something to prove, she won't even notice we're gone for a second or two."

Warmth blossomed in my stomach and filled my body. "You're sweet, but we're already here. Let's just go in and make a couple rounds."

He wrapped an arm around my shoulder and walked into the house. He found the alcohol table and I took his keys from his pocket as he grabbed a beer. I wasn't a drinker so I was going to be DD tonight. I followed Noah to the couch and sat beside him, watching everyone interacting drunkenly with everyone else.

Noah's eyes landed on the alcohol table again and he was on his feet in a couple seconds. I followed his gaze and saw Riley Marra standing there. I sighed and pushed up, going back outside where there were less people. Audrey and Emma seemed to be having a moment by the pool so I made my way over to the chaise lounge chair.

I checked all my social media sites and locked my phone, sliding it back into my purse. Then I remembered how Noah looked at Riley and wanted to drink. Audrey didn't seem like she wanted to get too drunk anymore so I went over to her and Emma.

"Can I trade you the car keys for your tequila?" I asked, handing the keys out to her. "Noah's already drinking and I don't want to be sober anymore, but I get it if you don't either."

"Riley's cute, I think you deserve this tequila more than me," she said, switching the liquor for the keys. "Don't do anything stupid, don't drown, and don't fuck Jake Fitzgerald."

I gagged and made the both of them laugh. "Trust me, I'd rather take a nap at the bottom of the swimming pool than touch him."

I twisted the top off the bottle and took a drink to punctuate my point. It was bitter and burned all the way down, but the first drink made my vision blurry. This was EXACTLY what I wanted to do tonight.

I ventured inside sometime later and flopped carelessly onto the couch. Noah was in the middle of talking and looked like he was a lot drunker than I was. I saw the others eyeing him with smiles and I knew they were planning something, I was just too drunk to figure out what.

"I'm just saying, it's crazy that we were talking about slasher movies in language arts and then Nina got slashed," he slurred drunkenly, making me flinch and everyone else laugh nervously.

"Technically she was already dead when we started that conversation, so there's no direct correlation," Riley said, looking at Noah with a little fear in her eyes.

"Dude, she's scared. Don't negate that," some random guy said, sitting on the arm of the couch beside me.

"I'm not scared," Riley argued, crossing her arms over her chest in defiance.

"Maybe we should all be afraid, bunch of drunk teenagers at a party by the lake where your homegrown killer died," Noah said, not missing a single beat even drunk. "It's a natural slasher setting…"

Thankfully everyone's attention slowly left all of us, tired of Noah's drunken ramblings. "I'm going to go get you some water. You're going to be majorly hungover in the morning."

It took a couple tries, but I finally got up and went to the kitchen. I went to the fridge and grabbed a couple bottles of water. I was stupid to get drunk, Noah was in no way obligated to have feelings for me because I had them for him. It was so petty, I was a bigger person than that.

I didn't realize I was gone that long, but when I got back to the living room Noah was nowhere in sight. He looked like he was about to pass out so I was a little freaked. I ran outside to see if he was with Audrey, but she was sitting by the pool on her phone.

"Audrey, Noah's missing and drunk off his ass. We've got to find him," I breathed out, pretty much sober now. "PS, tell Rachel I said hi."

She rolled her eyes and hung up, leaving out my greeting. "He probably got up and stumbled until he fell and passed out somewhere."

"Hello?!" someone shouted from out at the lake and sounded a lot like Noah.

I grabbed Audrey's hand and we carefully made our way out there, trying to not fall over all the rocks and roots. There was a couple people gathered around the dock laughing and I saw someone standing out in the middle of the water. I wasn't as smart as Noah, but I knew that was him out there on that fishing dock.

"What the hell? Why is he out there?" I asked, leaning down to pull off my shoes and get into the lake to go help him and saw Audrey doing the same thing.

"Wait, I've got it," Kieran said, bursting through the gathering crowd with Emma on his heels. "Hold my jacket."

He dove smoothly into the water and swam over to the dock, but Noah was already in the water. The poor kid was in his underwear and probably freezing. Maybe it taught him not to drink too much at a party full of pretty much strangers…I know that's what it taught me.

The two of them were almost back to us when Noah started struggling to stay on top of the water. I grabbed Audrey's hand in mine and she squeezed it tightly. These two were actually my best friends and I've only been here a couple months.

Kieran made it to the ladder on the end of the dock and the two of us rushed over to help Noah up. Emma gave Audrey a blanket and she wrapped it around his shoulders and Emma put the other one around Kieran. I tried to rub warmth back into Noah as he shivered violently between the two of us.

"Yo, kiss him, blondie! Breath of life," Jake shouted, making a couple people laugh.

"He could've died, you Neanderthal!" I shouted back, making him hold up his hands in surrender and taking a mocking step back.

"Hey, he was the first one to pass out! You're new around here, but there's a tradition here at Wren Lake," he explained like it made a difference.

Kieran crouched down by us and Noah forced words out of his chattering teeth. "What was that that grabbed me?"

"Nobody grabbed you, spaz," Audrey said nervously, ruffling his hair.

"You were stuck on fishing line." Emma said dismissively, rubbing Kieran's' arms like I was rubbing Noah's.

"It didn't feel like fishing line," he muttered as we helped him stand back up. "It felt like someone was pulling me down..."

We were walking way when Audrey basically spat at Emma. "Your friends are great, Emma. Thanks for the invite, we had an awesome time."

Audrey took Noah to his car and I grabbed his clothes from beside the dock. He redressed shakily and sat in the backseat broodily as Audrey drove. I volunteered to walk home after I made sure Noah was safe, but he quickly disagreed and fought until I agreed to let him drive home –as long as he texted me that he was safe when he got there.

It was easier to get up to my room than I thought it would be. You'd think my family would be more vigilante about me being home considering a girl died this morning… I guess I really was just a smudge on their silver spoon.

I waited until Noah texted me that he was home and sent me a picture of him with his bed to get in the shower. As soon as my head hit my pillow, I was out like a light. Drinking always did that to me –so did stress.

"Hey, Noah Foster, right?" the sheriff asked, making me pause in my recollection of Noah's drunk shenanigans from last night to Audrey.

"Uh, yeah, guilty," he said, the winced when he realized his poor wording choice. "Well, I mean, not guilty, but… Yes?"

"I hear you have a particular interest in Brandon James," he continued, ignoring Noah's word vomit.

"I have a lot of interests…"

"You mind stopping by the station tomorrow morning before school, answer a couple questions?" it was phrased as a question, but we all knew it wasn't optional.

"Will do, Chief."

"What was all that about?" Audrey asked after the sheriff left us all alone again.

"I guess that means they're not as sure Tyler's the killer as everyone's letting on," I replied, tugging on the straps of my backpack nervously. "Maybe he's gonna question everybody…"

"Yeah, and the genius IQ outcast with the serial killer fetish seemed to be the best first option," Noah finished, smiling sheepishly at the two of us.

"He couldn't possible think you're capable of killing Nina!" I exclaimed, the thought of Noah hurting anyone beyond crazy to me.

"Why not? I hate the way she treated Audrey," he reasoned, shrugging his shoulder nonchalantly.

Audrey's smile was full of chagrin when she hit her knuckles against Noah's. I turned to open my locker and heard Audrey's boots clicking away from us. I figured Noah went with her so imagine my surprise when I felt him touch my shoulder timidly.

"Hey, I'm sorry if I made you mad sometimes last night. I feel like you could cut the tension between us with a knife, no pun intended," he smirked, leaning against the locker beside mine.

He did upset me, but he'd hurt my feelings not pissed me off. "No, things are fine. I'm just nervous lately because of everything happening, I guess."

He opened his arms to me awkwardly and I stepped into them, wrapping my arms around his slender waist. His hands rested on the small of my back and made me smile. Guys like Jake would've pushed that hug and tried to grab my ass, but Noah's hands were still in respectable places.

I'd just stepped out of Noah's embrace when Riley appeared out of nowhere. "Hey, I had a question, but if you're busy…"

"No, it's cool. Ask away, I have class," I said, trying my best to hide my disappointment.

"Does Tyler really kill Nina, or is Brandon James really back?" she asked, her eyes big and her voice anxious.

"Uh, you know, you got to remember that the whodunit may not be as important in our story," Noah smiled, ever the storyteller.

"So, it's more of a "why"dunit?" Riley asked –oh my god, she was actually flirting back with Noah!

"No, I'm saying you need to forget it's a horror story that someone might die at every turn," he continued, oblivious to her flirting. "You see, you have to care if the smokin' hot lit teacher seems a little too interested in his female students. You have to care if the team wins the big game…"

His eyes searched the hallway for another horror movie trope and landed on Emma. "You have to care if the smart, pretty girl forgives the dumb jock."

"This sounds like a TV show!" I said, looking at him skeptically.

"That's what I was thinking! Just like Friday Night Lights!" Riley exclaimed happily.

"Exactly! You root for them, you love them," Noah replied, feeding off her excitement. "So when they're brutally murdered…it hurts."

I rolled my eyes at his dramatics and closed my locker. I nodded my goodbyes to them and left them to it, seeing him flirt with her wasn't on my list of things to do on a Wednesday morning. I hefted my bag higher onto my shoulder and walked to class.

I've made a collection of outfits for Gwen on polyvore, the link's on my profile...