Chapter 3
November 8, 2003
Nerissa clucked her tongue disapprovingly. She moved the binoculars away from her eyes and set them down on top of the overturned garbage can directly to her left. She lounged reclusively in the mini-fortress that she had set up. For the last half-hour, she had been watching her older sister Eve intensely, waiting for her to make a wrong move.
Nerissa was so deep into her semi-stalking that she didn’t hear the footsteps coming up behind her. In fact, it was only until a large, looming shadow darkened her view towards the Caged Bird that she realized that something was wrong. As she turned around, the sight of the figure behind her was enough to send her into hysterics.
“Do you see him? Oh my gosh, Eve, isn’t he just, like, sex on a stick?” Shannon squealed girlishly, slapping her best friends hand in excitement. “I’m so going to talk to him tonight.”
“Yeah, if you can pry every other girl here off his arm. Seriously, what’s the big deal with him? Why have Derrick when you can have—never mind,” Eve cut off, quickly turning her glance downward.
Shannon, although temporarily blinded by stars with the campus hearthrob in the center, was smart enough to see that something had caused Eve to say what she had. Her eyes quickly diverted to the side door of the Caged Bird, and there, lo and behold, was Colby, ex-King of Theater and ex-boyfriend of Eve. She quickly turned back to her friend.
“Do you want to leave?” Shannon asked quietly.
Eve looked up defiantly. “Leave! Why? Just because he can’t get a life and hang out with his college friends?”
Shannon’s concerned expression melted into a smile. “That’s my girl. Now, let’s get out and have the night of our life! What do you say?”
“I say, let’s rock it, girlfriend!”
Shannon and Eve were so caught up in their pseudo-yaya sisterhood that they didn’t notice Colby walking up to them, so Eve was in for an unpleasant surprise when she felt a tap on her shoulder. She turned towards the tap, still laughing and smiling, but when she was the person who had tapped her, the jovial expression quickly faded away.
“What do you want?”
Colby whispered into her ear, “Meet me in the back room. I really need to talk to you.”
Eve rolled her eyes and began to turn back towards Shannon.
Colby lightly touched her elbow. “Please, Eve. This is seriously a matter of life-or-death for me, and I need your help.”
Summer and Christian made their entrance into the Caged Bird as unobtrusive as possible. Summer was ready to break it down on the dance floor, but Christian, being his usual reserved self, was content with finding a quiet, cozy corner for them to sit down and talk in.
“Sit down and talk?” Summer asked incredulously. “You’ve got to be kidding me. Come on, Chris, let’s dance!”
Christian pulled away from Summer, who was trying to make her way to the stairs and subsequently to the dance floor. “Um, you’re forgetting one thing, Summer.”
“What’s that?”
“I can’t dance.”
Summer rolled her eyes and took both of Christian’s hands into hers. “Christian, I don’t want to hear that stupid excuse anymore. You’re never going to know if you can dance unless you try it. Now, please, let’s go!”
“I said no!” Christian snapped unexpectedly. “Besides, I see Rusty, Sharon, and Gemini over there, so I’m going to say hello. Do you want to come?”
“I want to dance, that’s what I want to do!” Summer whined, dropping Christian’s hands.
“Fine, you go dance, and I’ll catch up with you later,” Christian said shortly.
Summer watched with unbelieving eyes as Christian left her to go talk to his friends. “I can’t believe he just ditched me for his friends.”
“Boy, that Christian. Wanting to talk to his friends, that’s crazy, eh?”
The low voice that was suddenly in her ear caused Summer to jump, and she turned around sharply. “Excuse me, who do you think you,” she stopped abruptly when she recognized the grinning face. “Mel! Oh my gosh, you nearly caused me to have a heart attack!”
“Guess I’ll have to try harder next time, eh?” he winked, then threw his arm around her shoulders. “Let’s talk, Summer. Now, I hear that you’re ready to B.I.D. it, and by B.I.D. it, of course I mean break it down, so what do you say you and I go join the cool crowd upstairs until Christian comes to his senses and joins us.”
“I say that’s the best idea I’ve heard all day. You know, if Christian doesn’t want to spend time with his girlfriend, then…well, he can just cozy on up to his harem down here!”
Mel high-fived her and started ushering her upstairs. “That’s the spirit! Now let’s go dance the night away!”
“So then, Mr. Evansley asked me, ‘What did you do, eat Idiot Flakes this morning?’ and it was the funniest thing ever.”
Luc had been taking a swig of his soda bottle, but the funny story caused him to spew the contents all over the storyteller, Sharon. He laughed obnoxiously for a few seconds before he noticed how everyone was eyeing him strangely.
“What?” he demanded. “It was funny!”
He tried high-fiving Sharon, but she quickly moved away.
“Don’t touch me, Soda Freak,” she warned, shooting an angry glance towards Gemini. “And if you’ll excuse us, Gemini and I need to go have a little chat, girl-to-girl.”
“No, we don’t,” Gemini retorted.
“Yes,” Sharon said, taking hold of Gemini’s arm, “we do.”
“Excuse us,” Gemini said as she was being dragged off to another corner of the room. When she and Sharon finally arrived at a table, she asked, “What was that for?”
“What was that for? That was for inviting stupid Luc here in the first place,” Sharon snapped, folding her arms across her chest angrily.
“Excuse me, I didn’t invite him; he invited himself, so back off, okay?”
Sharon’s angry demeanor softened into whinyness. “But he’s ruining our fun!”
“I know, but you know Luc; he never gets the hint!”
“Unless—”
Gemini waited for Sharon to finish her statement. When she didn’t, Gemini leaned in closer. “Unless what?”
“Unless we make things so miserable for him that he doesn’t want anything to do with us!”
“Oh, that’s so mean, Sharon,” Gemini said, and then, “I love it!”
“All right then, Operation Bye-Bye French Guy is underway!”
“Well, I’m waiting,” Eve said, tapping her foot none-too-lightly on the wood-paneled floor.
Colby tried to find his voice for a moment, as well as his courage, then decided against trying to draw out his confession and in favor of telling Eve the whole truth.
“Eve, I just wanted to tell you—”
“Hey, has anyone seen my pants?”
Eve and Colby’s conversation was interrupted by a boxer-clad Richie wandering through the secluded little room they had ended up in. When he saw Eve and Colby, he stopped short in embarassment.
“Oh, hey, guys. Oh, man, I’m sorry. Geez. Well, I was looking for my pants, although I don’t think they’d be in here, but—”
Richie’s explanation was cut short by a burst of laughter from Eve. Colby shot an impatient glance her way, which only caused her to laugh harder.
“How on earth did you lose your pants, Richie?” she asked between wheezes.
“Well, a couple of friends and I decided to have a three-legged-potato-sack-in-your-underwear race outside, and, well,” his eyes turned towards the ground ashamedly, “I think they took my pants.”
Eve tried to stifle her laughter, but only ended up snorting. “No, Richie, I’m sorry. I haven’t—I haven’t seen your—”
Eve couldn’t continue because another fit of laughter burst from her throat.
“Oh, for crying out loud!” Colby cried out angrily. “No, we haven’t seen your pants. However, we were in the middle of a very important conversation, so if you don’t mind…”
“Oh, so sorry. So sorry. I’m out of your hair as we speak,” Richie said as he made his way back towards the door. As he was leaving, he stopped by Eve’s ear and whispered, “You might want to help pull that stick out of his ass, Eve.”
“I don’t even know if God would be strong enough to do that,” Eve whispered back, then hugged Richie. “See you later!”
Colby waited for Richie to leave before continuing with his confession. “Okay, now where were we?” He waited for Eve to say something, but when she didn’t, he realized it would have to be all him. “Oh yeah, we were talking about my problem. You see, Eve, I—”
“Do I really want to hear this?”
“Yes, Eve, please! I’m in serious trouble. If you don’t help me, I could go to jail, or worse yet, I could go to prison!”
Summer gasped for air as she and Mel left the dance floor. “Wow, that has to be the funnest thing I’ve ever done in my whole entire life!”
“Yeah, that was pretty crazy, wasn’t it? Too bad Christian wasn’t here to share the good times.”
“Yeah, well, Christian’s just going to have to learn that I’m not some tagalong that follows him wherever he goes. I have a life, too, you know!”
“However sad and strange it may be,” Mel teased.
“Yeah, well, your face is sad and strange!”
“You know what, I have better things to do. I’ll see you around!”
Summer laughed as Mel stormed off toward the other side of the room. Catching a glance of a friend off in the direction where Mel was walking, she shouted, “Scarlett! Scarlett!”
Scarlett turned around and then ran to Summer. “Hey, babe! I was just looking for you. I figured you and Mel would be up here biddin’ it, as you say.”
“Boy, did we!” Summer laughed, doubling over.
“So, where’s Christian?”
Summer shrugged and found a seat. “I don’t know. Somewhere downstairs, I guess.”
“Ri-i-i-ight. So anyways,” Scarlett said, wisely choosing to avoid the subject. “Are you going to come down to the civic to see Joseph?”
“I should. I don’t know. If Christian and I aren’t doing anything, I guess.”
“No, say you will! I really want you guys to come and see it. I’m going to try and weasel Mel into promising to come, and if you and Christian and Shannon come, it’ll be complete!”
“You know what, I will!” Summer declared. “Whether Christian decides to come along or not, I’ll be there, okay?”
“Sounds good to me. Now, let’s find something to eat,” Scarlett said, rising from her seat and looking around eagerly. “I heard they brought in Buschel’s Chicken.”
“BUSCHEL’S?!?!?!” Summer screamed. “Oh my gosh, I love Buschel’s! Okay, let’s find out where it is, grab some food, then sit down and have a nice little girl talk session.”
“Great,” Scarlett replied, “because I have lots to tell you.”
Sharon and Gemini quickly exhanged glances before walking back to their table. Rusty, Luc, and a couple of their other friends were chatting jovially, so they barely noticed their return. Gemini, carrying a huge pitcher of water, made her way toward Luc.
“Hey, Luc, I brought you a glass of—” and with that, she “tripped” and sent the contents of the pitcher, lemons and all, flying onto Luc. She played the part to a tee, overdone gasp and all, and apologized incessantly. “Oh, Luc, I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to do that to you at all!”
Luc, although stunned at first by the chilliness of the water, just smiled. “Just what I needed on a hot evening like this: lemonade! Gemini, you’re the best!”
“Oh…my God. Did he just say what I think he said?” Gemini whispered fiercely to Sharon.
“Drastic times call for drastic measures, right? Come on, we’re not defeated that easily.”
Sadly, Gemini and Sharon’s scheming was cut short by the unexpected arrival of a highly unexpected visitor. Gemini and Sharon stared in shock at the new arrival, unsure of whether their senses were deceiving them. “It can’t be you!”
“Oh, but it is,” Randall said, putting his arm around Mason, who had accompanied him. “And baby, I’m back!”
Nerissa sat in the dark room with no company but fear itself, as she was bound and gagged with no light with which to see where she was. She tried screaming, but her gag only tightened, making life even more miserable for her than it already was.
Suddenly, she felt a hand jerk the knotted towel behind her head, causing the gag to fall to the ground. Too stunned to scream, she only waited for the owner of the hand to reveal himself or herself.
“Who’s there?” she cried faintly.
“Why, your best friend, of course!” a strange voice said.
“Rusty, is that you? I swear to goodness—”
“Oh, but if it only were,” the odd voice continued. “Perhaps a good friend is just what you need right now, Nerissa.”
“How do you know my name?”
“I know a lot about you, sweet Nerissa,” the voice continued.
Nerissa felt a cold, rough, balmy finger running itself down her neck. “Please don’t hurt me,” she whispered.
“Why don’t you scream? Someone will surely come to your aid,” the voice said.
Nerissa wanted to slap herself for being so stupid. She should have screamed the moment she was able to. She opened her mouth and tried to let out a shriek, but found her vocal chords out of order. She tried again, but could only manage a pitiful little squeak.
“What have you done to me?” she cried.
“Done to you? Why, nothing, my dear! I simply want you to stay and talk with me for a spell,” the voice said.
Nerissa felt the cold hands wrapping a blanket around her. As terrifying as her situation was, she suddenly felt at peace with her surroundings. She looked in the darkness for any sign of her captor, but was greeted only with silence.
“What is this thing?”
“Simply a comforter to keep you warm, my dear. Now, run along. Your friends are waiting for you.”
As if by magic, Nerissa suddenly got up and found her way to the small door that served as the only exit from the dwelling. Upon finding herself outside, Nerissa looked up into the velvet night sky with all of its illustrious stars and knew that she had to go back to the party. She now had a mission, even greater than the one she had before, and it was her life’s purpose to fulfill that mission.