I’ll admit, I’ve been stalking the hell out of the bloke called Jay. I cannot find a trace of Anna online, other than a list of choir award recipients from two years ago. But Jay has accounts on damn near every social media site available.
Today he posted: Raise your hand if I’ll see you shaking your stuff at Gene’s party tonight!
That started a quick strand of comments—I’m so going! . . . Gonna be tight. . . . I’ve heard his lake house is awesome! . . . Everyone’s invited! . . . Anyone know the address?
Bingo. Someone posts the address and I lock it into my mobile.
That night, with my bandmate Raj at my side, we roll up to the house on Lake Allatoona with nearly every other high schooler in the Atlanta area. Raj immediately heads down the stairs toward the smell of marijuana. I search the party with my hearing and find Jay—he’s loud and surrounded by laughing girls—but there’s no sign of Anna.
As I walk into the kitchen and glance out the window, I see why. She’s outside talking with a bloke.
“Hey.”
I look in the direction of the husky, sexy voice and see the speaker next to me. She’s got a drink in one hand, her other elbow leaning back against the counter. She’s a rocker girl with a streak of pink in her hair and plump, hot-pink lips. She’s wearing all black, in fishnets and boots.
She looks fun.
“Hey, yourself,” I say. I glance out the window again. Anna and the kid appear to be stargazing or something. Her aura is blasting a nervous gray with orange bursts of excitement. So strange.
Rocker girl doesn’t smile. Her aura is fuzzy, so she’s either been drinking a good bit or smoking downstairs, but she doesn’t wobble or show any signs of being impaired except for her heavy-lidded eyes draped in silvery-gray liner.
“Never seen you before,” she says. “I’d remember.” She reaches up a hand with chunky rings and flicks the hair above my eye. “I like your hair.”
I look at her neon-pink streak, a stark contrast to the black locks around it. “I like yours more.”
She keeps a straight face, too cool to smile, but her eyes momentarily glint. She reaches up again, and this time runs her fingers along the side of my hair before scratching behind my ear. I want to wag my tail for her, but I’m too distracted. I glance out the window again and she drops her hand.
“That chick is weird,” Rocker Girl says. She’s looking out at Anna now, too, and she sips her drink.
“How so?” I ask.
She shrugs. “I mean, she’s nice, I guess. Just kind of . . . freaky. She stares a lot. Doesn’t talk much.”
Interesting.
“You’re in school together?”
“Yeah, for, like, ever. Anyway—”
Raj bursts through the crowd. “Yo, Kai. Got us some goods.” He holds up his hand with some pills and bumps Rocker Girl’s arm.
“Hey, watch it!” she says, holding up her drink and wet hand.
“Sorry . . .” He looks her over. “Damn, you’re hot.”
Without looking away from her, Raj thrusts a pill my way, probably X, and I slip it into my pocket.
“What’s your name?” Raj asks her.
“Mandie.”
“Cute name. I’m Raj. Bass for Lascivious.”
She appears unimpressed, but I can see the swirl of orangeish-red attraction and excitement in her aura. “That’s a band, right? Yeah, I’ve heard of you guys.” Rocker Girl takes in his black fauxhawk and the myriad of piercings on Raj’s face and ears. She bites her black thumbnail between her teeth, as if considering him. Again, her eyes are alight, but she won’t crack a smile. Raj looks at me with his eyebrows raised, asking permission. I nod and turn back to the window.
Anna and the bloke are gone.
“Shite,” I mutter. I lean forward to see more of the back deck, but other people are spilling outside now, and I don’t see her anymore. I leave Raj and Rocker Girl, and Raj’s laughter follows me as I push through the crowd. I stop and lean back against the entrance of the main hall when I catch sight of Anna’s long, honeyed hair heading down the basement stairs. I won’t lose her again. I bubble my hearing around her and I spot the guy she was with, standing at the kitchen island.
Several things happen in the next few minutes that I cannot make heads or tails of. Anna seems genuinely freaked out by the drug use