Strangely Normal - By Tess Oliver Page 0,35

us.

“Here come the viper twins.” The words cracked out of my suddenly dry throat. “You’re on your own.” I picked up my glass.

“Jude,” the one with the nose diamond spoke using the same fake tone she’d used with Finley. “Cole said you weren’t going to show.”

I scooted away with no particular destination in mind. I could tread water for fifty plus minutes just to win the bet and then head back upstairs to the security of my room. Finley’s white blonde hair was easy to spot. She was standing next to Max, looking up at him with pure admiration. She seemed relaxed and thrilled to be standing there with him.

I peeked back through the crowd. Jude had vanished, but the two girls had been left behind. The only other familiar face in the crowd was Cole. He smiled and waved from across the room but appeared to be surrounded, and not surprisingly so, by a group of girls.

“And what is your name, beautiful?” I didn’t recognize the voice, but the mouthwash was definitely beer.

I turned around reluctantly. The guy was broad shouldered, semi-handsome, and completely drunk. And he was obviously not going to leave until I told him my name.

“I’m Eden.” I leaned out of the path of his toxic breath.

“I’m infatuated.”

I wondered how long he’d worked on that impressive little introduction. “Well, good for you.”

He stumbled closer. I took several steps back and glanced around for an escape route. Fortunately, Cole came to my rescue. “Hey, Mike, why don’t you slow it down? It’s early and you’re already shit-faced.”

The guy completely ignored Cole and leered hungrily at me. “Who’d you come here with?”

One match and I could have blown up the whole room fueled solely by his breath.

Cole took my arm and led me away and as slurred as Mike’s speech was he was able to pronounce the word bitch quite clearly.

“Sorry about that,” Cole said. “He wasn’t really invited. In fact, he’s never really invited, but he shows up anyway. His father owns a record company so most of us with family in the business just accept his presence. The dude really needs to go to rehab though. His liver is going to be toast before he’s thirty.” Cole walked me over to where his groupies were waiting anxiously for his return. They looked less than pleased to see me. I guess one more girl just meant one more competitor. “Hey, everyone, this is Eden. She’s a friend of the family’s and she’s staying with us this summer.” I guess it made complete sense that he’d made up a reason for my presence other than the true reason. But it was hard to know if he was doing it to protect Finley or himself. Surely other people in the room had to know that Finley had problems. For one, it would be ignorant for people in this kind of party hardy society to not notice that she never left the house. On the other hand, they all seemed so enamored with themselves, it was entirely possible they’d never taken note of it.

I nodded politely at Cole’s friends and then sipped my drink to keep from having to converse. The girls had no problem ignoring my presence until I asked a question that seemed to peak everyone’s interest.

“Where did Jude go?” I asked Cole.

“He rarely shows to my parties.”

“He was here just a second ago.”

A wave of pretty, powdered faces turned my direction. “Jude was here?” one girl asked. There was a glimmer of hopefulness in her tone.

“For a second,” I repeated and now regretted bringing it up.

One girl laughed. “I swear that boy does this just to torture us.” She looked at me and took the time to check out my shabby outfit before speaking again. “If you see him, you tell him that Kiley and her friends are waiting to see him.”

Cole threw me a small, almost imperceptible shrug.

I smiled back at the girl. “I will definitely tell him that. Cole, what time is it?”

He pulled out his phone. “It’s twenty-five after. Do you have some place you’ve got to be?” he asked with a grin. He caught sight of something over my head and motioned me to look that direction. Finley was sitting with Max on a small couch. She looked extremely happy and completely oblivious to her surroundings.

“Do you think she’ll be all right?” I asked.

“Yeah, she’ll be fine.”

“Who?” Kiley asked nosily.

“Our cat. She wasn’t feeling great this morning,” Cole answered.

“You know,” I said, “it’s