Page 4 of Withered

I nod. He’s got a point there. Of course, he knows Kristy; everyone does. He must have been asking around about school.

“See you around. Make yourself comfortable.” He said this before leaving me in the kitchen.

I exit the kitchen and somehow find myself in the back garden, amazed at its beauty. The lawn is perfect, and there’s a swimming pool. I look around the place, and my eyes spot Kristy near the patio table.

I head over to her. Tyler, his friend, jocks, and cheerleaders are already seated.

“Who’s up forpassing the card game?” A boy asks, looking at the group. Several heads nodded, agreeing with him.

“Jake, are you up, man?” Tyler asks his friend.So, his name is Jake.

He just shrugs in response. Olivia is nestled on his lap, kissing his neck—a scene that makes me roll my eyes.

I didn’t realize Kristy agreed to the game until I was seated with her to my right and Tyler to my left. While everyone is busy deciding which person they would like to sit with, I feel like someone is watching my every move and staring at me.

As I look around the room, my gaze is drawn to Jake’s. He’s the one staring at me, his gaze so scary and piercing that I had to immediately look away. Something about him screams trouble.

The game begins, and the card gets passed from player to player. As my turn nears quickly, my palms sweat. I take the card from Kristy and feel a little awkward passing it to Tyler, but I make it. I cannot even begin to imagine what would have happened if the card had slipped from my mouth. When it’s Jake’s turn, he passes it with grace to Olivia, but she can’t hold it and drops it.

A series of oohs and oops goes by, and the next thing we see is Jake and Olivia making out heavily.

“Can you expect anything less?” Kristy mutters beside me. I glance at her to find her eyes gone teary. I completely understand her hatred toward Olivia. She gets up abruptly and leaves. Even though she won’t say it, I know when she needs me the most. So I go after her. I didn’t want to play this stupid game anyway.

I search the house and find Kristy in the kitchen with a bottle of beer. Whenever she’s upset, she drinks till she forgets everything, to the point where she remembers nothing. Even with the legal drinking age of 21, high school boys find a way to sneak in drinks. That is why we follow the rules. The drinks at the parties are always mostly spiked.

“You okay?” I know she’s not. She is anything but okay with Olivia around.

“Yep, never been better.” She replies coldly as sarcasm drips from her tone.What a liar.

I was about to speak when Tyler cut me off by strolling into the kitchen.

“Are you girls okay? You just left abruptly.” I slightly nodded.

His eyes move from mine to Kristy’s. “Are you looking for something?”

An emotion flashes through his eyes that I can’t quite put my finger on. If I had known him better, I would have said that he likes Kristy. But we just met him.

“A bottle opener,” she says as she shakes the beer bottle in her hands.

“Here.” He grabs the bottle from her hands and puts the top of it in his mouth. In a second, we hear a pop sound as he throws the lid into the nearby trashcan.

“Impressive,” I comment.

He hands the beer back to Kristy, and she takes a long, slow swig.

Just then, a girl enters the kitchen and yelps as she trips over nothing, spilling her drink all over my dress.Perfect.I suppress a groan as I feel the liquid soak the front of my dress.

Why me? Could this day get any worse?

She recovers and starts apologizing in a slurry tone, but I cut her off: “It’s okay, nothing to worry about.” I look at her tipsy self and ask, “Are you okay, though?”

“Yep, I’m okay. Sorry about your dress.” She says guilt is evident in her eyes. I nod, and she wanders off.

Tyler pipes in, “There’s a bedroom upstairs. Second door down the hall; the bathroom is connected; you can clean your dress.”

I look at Kristy and warn her, “I’ll be back quickly; don’t do anything stupid.”

I’m not sure if she heard me or not; she is too deep in her misery. I manage a quick nod at Tyler and leave the kitchen.

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