Page 23 of Beasts

Chapter fifteen

Men & Ghouls

Luckily, the party is only about five blocks away, which is very convenient. It means I should be able to make my way there and back tonight without any extra assistance. I'm still annoyed at Oliver for even suggesting that I needed help. I get why he might think I do, given that I’m living in a house full of demons, but I’m pretty sure I should be more scared of them than of going to a frat party.

As I get closer to the house, I can already hear the loud music thumping through the air. Cars are piling up on the street, and there are as many people outside as there are inside, I’m sure. The porch is crowded with laughing, chattering party-goers, and the lawn is littered with red Solo cups and groups of friends catching up.

I get a few whistles and hoots as I enter the doorway. Maybe I shouldn’t have put my hair up in a ponytail. The house is packed, and the warm, humid air smells of sweat, beer, and a hint of perfume. I try to navigate my way through the bustling crowd, but it’s getting really hard to move. I can’t see anybody I recognize. Well, I do recognize some people, but I don’t know any of them personally, not even by name.

“Amelia!” someone calls my name. I turn to see Nikki. I can’t believe she would even consider speaking to me after what she did to my guitar. “I heard you settled yourself into a frat house. Are you hiding some balls between those legs?” she sneers.

I’m not surprised to see at least two of the other sorority girls standing behind her, looking equally smug. No matter how hard I try, I can’t remember their names. The room feels even smaller with their presence, and my annoyance bubbles up again. This night is going to be more challenging than I anticipated.

“Just a temporary situation till I find a permanent place to stay,” I reply.

“Well, you are technically still a member of our sorority, so you always have a bed with us instead of hanging around a bunch of smelly boys,” she retorts.

“I wouldn’t want my plane smell to get on you,” I say sarcastically. I can already tell that shouting all night is going to give me a headache, but with the music blaring, I don’t have a choice. As another sorority sister joins her, I finally recognize somebody. She’s the girl from the drama club who was annoyed that I got the Snow White role. Amanda, I think her name is.

“Don’t be such a skank. You can’t just spread your legs and hope that all the guys in that house will be happy to have you around all the time,” Nikki sneers.

“I do nothing of the sort,” I snap back.

“Oh please, I’d hate to imagine how many trains have traveled through your tunnel,” she taunts.

“None, if you must know!” I’m so mad, I feel like I could punch her right now, but I also don’t want to get kicked out of the party.

“Amelia!” Another voice calls behind me, and it’s Tyson.

“Oh, another one?” Nikki comments, “So tired of the frat guys that you've decided to go ahead and bang the entire football team too?”

“Come on Nikki, be nice.” Tyson says to her. She shoots us both an evil grin and turns around with her posse right behind her.

“Thank you, I'm sorry you had to hear that.” I say to Tyson.

“That's perfectly alright. She and the other sorority girls can be a bit of a handful sometimes. It's better just to take it with a grain of salt.” I'm pretty sure the term is a pinch of salt, but I'll let it slide.

“Well, thank you for the rescue anyway.”

“Absolutely a pleasure. Would you like anything to drink?”

“Pass me anything that's non-alcoholic.”

“One soda, coming up.” I end up finding a quiet spot near a corner wall while he disappears into the crowd. I can't believe someone's allowed to have so many people in a house. If someone were to shut the doors and close the windows, I'm sure we'd all fall into anarchy just from the smell. Another moment later, Tyson brings me back a drink.

“Thank you.” I say to him taking a sip.

“There's two other lounges upstairs on the second floor. I think they're a little bit quieter than down here, shall we?” I can see from up the stairwell that there is actually a lot of people upstairs, so I assume he's telling the truth. Nodding, he grabs my hand to guide me up the stairs. There seems to still be just as many people around here as they were downstairs. He keeps me close by his side as we find our way to what we assume was going to be spare seats, but ended up being taken quite quickly. “Follow me.” He then says guiding me down a hallway. We laugh a couple of times as we attempt to dodge people coming in and out of doors and bathrooms, but my laughter stop says he pulls me into a door and shuts it behind me quickly. “Busy out there.” He comments. In the room there are two other guys, did we walk in on something we weren't supposed to? They were both sitting on the bed pretty close to each other.

“Sorry, didn't mean to bother you.” I say instinctually.

“No bother, we were waiting for you.” One of them says to me. My brows furrow, why would they be waiting for me? Despite the loud noise that's coming from outside of the door, I can hear it click when Tyson locks it.

“What are you doing?”

“Just making sure we're not disturbed,” he smirks. His voice sounds distant, even though he’s standing right next to me. As I try to concentrate, I feel him pushing my shoulders backward, making me fall onto the bed.

“Just take another sip, you'll be fine,” he says. I look down at the drink in front of me and realize what he’s done. Dropping the drink, I try to get up quickly and push my way towards the door, but it’s impossible with both him and two other guys pulling me back down onto the bed. I have no other choice, so I scream for help, but one of their hands finds my face and muffles me quickly.

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