Surface

Chapter 7 - She Was No Angel

The music was blasting so loud I could hardly think. It vibrated through me making made me dizzy along with the heat radiating off of all the dancing bodies. I took a breath and followed the girls further into the living room while holding a withered bouquet of dead flowers in one hand and my skirt in the other. Someone had spilt what I hoped was fake blood on the floor that had become sticky. I skillfully leapt over it and then maneuvered through the crowd to keep up.

I didn't realize how much I hated parties until now. The lights were off but someone hoisted small strobe lights on a string going across the ceiling so that the lights were flashing different dark colors like in a club. It cast eerie shadows on the wall of masks figures dancing and scaring each other. Plus, the occasional scream of someone getting pranked was enough to put me on edge. Not to mention the horrifying costumes I was seeing. The whole thing gave me anxiety.

Apart from the occasional sexy nurse and pirate outfits, everyone looked generally scary. I spotted a werewolf from across the room who seemed to be foaming at the mouth and a zombie just a few feet away that's cheek was half decomposed. It gave me goosebumps.

Despite all of this, the most terrifying thing about this party was the chance that everyone hated us and was going to hurt us for showing up. Normally, we were the life of the party but ever since our first day of school, I wasn't sure we stood on the same ground as we use to.

We came to a stop once we were near the kitchen. Devon, the one who was hosting this party, was making a beeline straight towards us along with some of his friends. Hannah waited for him, her hand resting on her hip and her gaze filled with determination.

"Look at who turned up!" Devon said as he got closer. "My favorite criminals." He wore a flannel shirt with suspenders and a plastic axe rested in his hand.

Hannah rolled her eyes but kept her posture confident. "Thanks. We were going to come in matching orange jumpsuits but that would have clashed with Ari's hair." She winked at me, reminding me that she wasn't so bad.

Devon chuckled with his pals and then shook his head. His chocolate brown eyes held some genuine feeling for a split second. "I know the schools been giving you a rough time about Tori but honestly I'm over it. Most people are. Besides, even if you were all murderers," he met our gazes with a playful smirk,"that would just make this party more interesting, wouldn't it?"

I scoffed at his insensitivity. A murderer wouldn't make things more interesting, it would make things more tragic. Norah nudged me with her elbow to gently remind me to calm down. She knew I had a tendency to make a bigger deal of things than I needed to because of my past with bullying. She was always understanding about it.

"Devon's just messing with ya," a tall brunette dressed as a witch said, leaning into him. "We don't believe that nonsense about you. You're still one of us and this party would be a flop without you."

"So let's get this party going!" Devon cheered lifting his axe in the air.

I soon became so distracted by the party that I had forgotten about Zac and what I had to speak to him about. I found myself dancing to Thriller with the girls, momentarily forgetting we were missing one of us. I drank punch that looked like blood and helped Hannah scare Norah with a toy spider. Little by little as the night continued, the reason why I became friends with the girls came back to me. It was because I had fun with them. They made me forget the world and made me feel like I mattered.

I was strutting down the dance floor with Helen who had figured out a way to convince everyone to have a mini fashion show to show off their costumes. She proudly announced that she had created the costume herself and gushed over her designs as I danced down the row of people who parted way for me.