Chapter Four
2687 Words
Chapter Four
“You came here just to get Emily into the party, didn’t you?” Kevin says to me, as he smiles at a guest walking by.
“Yes,” I admit because it is clear he already knows. “Figured I could help her out.”
We turn down another hallway which is a little bit more crowded. He is leading me outside, I realize, where I am definitely going to start running into people I know. I must slow down a little because he glances at me.
“Are you okay, April? You look pale.”
“I’m just great, Mr. Hunter,” I say to him even though I want to tell him I know he is just trying to get under my skin. “Can’t wait to meet a possible client.”
He smiles at me. In the smile, I see Bennett. I avert my gaze. Last thing I want to do is start finding Kevin handsome. Or Bennett. Anyone from the Hunter family. No way. I scan the crowd as we step out onto one of the pool areas.
This pool is in full use. People are diving in. One side has a bar in the pool and it is crowded with people. It is so hot outside that I have no idea how Kevin can be wearing a suit and look so natural. Just the air about him, I suppose. He always looks dignified.
“My son spoke so highly of you about the photo shoot,” he is saying to me now. “He was impressed with your skill.”
“Was he?” I ask sarcastically.
“I never understood why you two never got along.”
“Really?” I deadpan. “Where is this person you mentioned?”
Kevin looks around slowly, “Hmm. Must have run off.”
At that point someone comes over to us from another crowd. They are big, big fans of Kevin’s work. The man is about seventy and looks out of his element here at the party. Kevin is kind to the man but I am anxious to leave. I feel now that Kevin wasn’t really talking to anyone about my work. Why am I constantly falling for BS?
Irritated, I slip my arm away from his and turn around, planning to duck out of the party. Kevin wants to stop me but the old man is clearly talking his ear off about business. I weave my way through the crowd, happy to get away from him.
I am almost into the hallway I had come from when I see Spencer coming out of the doorway. In a panic, I turn around and wildly walk to the right. I can almost hear my mother nagging me in my head to be nice to her. I am not in the mood.
I walk by the pool and end up near the DJ booth. The music is blasting. Everyone is dancing and drinking. The sun feels as if it is roasting my skin. I don’t see anyone I know but I do not see Spencer either. I cut across the lawn and make my way over to one of the guest houses. If I circle around the guest house, I can make it around to the parking lot.
There are two people pressed against the back of the guest house. They are heavily making out. I am surprised, only because the party is hardly underway – this sort of behavior doesn’t happen until later in the evening after everyone’s had a few too many to drink. The woman has her arms wrapped around the man’s neck. He is bent over, kissing her and pressing her against the side of the house. I stop and decide to go another way.
As I back up, I accidentally trip over one of the rocks in the landscaped yard. My foot slams against it and I curse in surprise, leaping back.
The couple splits apart and the man looks up. With a sinking feeling in my stomach, I realize it is Bennett. His eyes flash upon seeing me. The woman is looking at me as well. Her face is scrunched up in irritation. He says something to her and she nods, turning around and walking off towards the main hub of the party.
I turn around to leave as well. But Bennett grabs my arm and stops me.
“Where’re you running off to?”
“Nowhere. I was trying to get to my car,” I tell him, looking back behind me.
“Through the guest houses?” he replies and I cringe inwardly at the plural usage of houses.
“Yes.”
“You just don’t want Spencer to see you.”
“Don’t worry, I already said hi to your father,” I reply. “He’s always so kind.”
“Yeah, he’s great,” Bennett says and for the first time I detect a note of hostility.
“What about you? Making out with some poor girl already?”
He shrugs, “Mary? I was bored.”
“That’s disgusting,” I say to him and move past him, deciding to cut through the guest houses anyway.
Bennett’s shoulder brushes against me as I move past him. For some reason, the mental image of him kissing Mary against the house flashes up in my mind.
“Why do you care?” he says after me.
“Excuse me?” I stop in spite of myself.
“About Mary.”
I face him. “I just think it’s disgusting you are making out with someone because you’re bored.”
“Why? You think making out should be special?” His voice goes up on the last word, mimicking me.
I roll my eyes at him and turn to go again. I can hear him following me. I am furious with myself for letting Kevin drag me farther into this party. Now I am trying to shake off Bennett. I honestly don’t care that he was making out with Mary.
“How can you be bored at this party, anyway?” I ask as he walks next to me. “There are millions of things to do here.”
“You’re bored here. You whine every year about coming here. You say it’s dull,” he counters back quickly.
I am irritated at myself for falling into his trap. We are crossing the field now which leads back to a side pathway. It’ll take me to the front of the mansion and I can get out of here. The pathway is crowded, however, and it ends up being slow going. Bennett doesn’t leave. Instead, he hovers, clearly determined to irritate me more.
“Listen, I’m done talking to you,” I say to him as we move past a group of girls who look like teenagers. “I’m leaving.”
I manage to squeeze through a group of friends and I bump into someone.
“Sorry,” I say, looking up. “I—”
The words die on my lips. I am staring into my own eyes.
“April,” my sister says to me, “you made it.”
“I’m leaving,” I say but my tongue feels heavy.
Spencer grabs my arm. We are jostled by the crowd. Bennett has left. Even he doesn’t want to stick around to see my sister and I talk to each other.
“We need to talk.”
I want to protest and yank my arm away but Spencer is stronger. She gives a firm yank on my arm and barrels through the crowd. Unlike Adam, who smiled at everyone, Spencer merely glares. People grumble but she doesn’t notice.
We step into a hallway that turns onto another hallway that has the library. I trail after her, not saying anything. Even though I didn’t want to see her, there is no point in running off now. Spencer will only chase me down if I try to leave. Better just to get it over with.
She stops in front of the library and shows the guard something. He moves to the side, watching her curiously. I realize she has Kevin’s key to the library. How did she get that? Before I can overthink it, the door unlocks and she steps inside.
I follow her. The door shuts behind us. The library is soundproof. It is as if I have stepped into another house completely. I can’t hear anything from the party. Spencer stops to look around the library. I find myself taking it in as well. It has been a few years since I have been in this room – it’s elegant and comfortable. There are rows upon rows of books. Kevin probably collects the books because he has money to burn and can brag about it.
Spencer has stopped in front of one of the shelves of books. She runs her finger across the shelf, as if checking for dust. I don’t say anything. I don’t know what she wants to discuss.
“Remember when we were kids and we snuck in here once?” she finally says.
It isn’t what I am expecting to hear from her.
“Yes,” I reply. “I remember.”
Her back is to me. Her brown hair is falling down her back. She has always kept her hair long – it’s been highlighted since the last time I spoke to her. It reflects in the sunlight pouring through the windows and seems to twinkle a little bit at me.
“I remember we thought there were going to be artifacts in here,” Spencer continues. “We had been playing too many video games. We became convinced that Kevin had all sorts of relics. There was one we thought we’d find in here...” She struggles to remember the name.
“The relic of Tukan,” I speak up, “but Tukan turned out to be a fake city only in whatever video game we had been playing. Kevin was furious with us for breaking into the library at one of his cocktail parties. You were eight. I was about four. There was no relic. There weren’t any sort of relics or artifacts in the library at all. Instead, we just got in trouble.”
Silence fills the library. I don’t think she knew if I remembered that or not. But I did. I remember it because even though there had been no secret relic in the library, it had still been fun to break the rules and be with Spencer.
She turns slightly now. I can see half of her face but her back is still to me. I have nothing else to say.
Finally, she speaks, “Are we ever going to discuss what happened?”
“There isn’t any point,” I reply, my voice hollow. “There isn’t any changing it.”
Spencer turns away from me again. Her posture is stiff. I don’t know what she is thinking. I don’t have anything to say about what happened two years ago.
“Does it ever hurt?” she finally asks.
“In cold weather,” I reply. “Acts up then.”
She takes a minute to digest this and then says, “I was hoping we could... I was hoping you’d come back. To the family. That’s why I didn’t allow Emily to use my invite. I knew you’d have to come.”
“I know. But I really am leaving now.”
At this, Spencer finally turns to face me. Her eyes are wide and she looks as if she is holding back tears. I had thought she was going to yell and scream at me. Now, here she is, looking as if she is going to start bawling at any minute. Spencer never cries.
“Why don’t you tell them?” she asks me, pleading.
“No point. It’s true – I left because of the money. I don’t want the money, Spence.” At the use of my old nickname for her, she softens slightly, “This isn’t the sort of life I want. I want to make a name for myself my own way.”
“But that isn’t the only reason.”
“No. That isn’t the only reason,” I confirm.
At this, she seems to be at a loss for words. I decide I’ll leave now. This isn’t the place I want to discuss this. I don’t ever want to discuss it at all. Spencer knows what happened between us tore us apart. There isn’t any reason to talk about what could have been. We will always be sisters but we won’t ever be how we used to be. Here, in the library where we once snuck in to find imaginary relics, the memories are too strong. It is making me sentimental.
I turn to go and she speaks up. “Mom and Dad are here. They’re going to want to talk to you if they see you.”
“I know. Bye, Spencer.”
I open the heavy door of the library and step back out into the hallway. The sound of the party seems to punch me right in the face. It is as if I stepped out of another world into reality.
Quickly, I walk down the hallway into the main foyer where everyone is still entering. It is packed. Moving is slow going. Every year, Kevin talks about knocking down the foyer and trying to widen it for parties like this but he never gets around to it. I think part of him secretly likes the crowd. It certainly looks impressive for people to barely be able to get around when they first get into a party, as if everyone in the world is here.
I manage to get to the front door. Hardly anyone is leaving yet so I am pushing against the crowd. It is then that I realize I am walking directly towards my parents. They have seemingly just arrived. I already feel emotionally drained from speaking to Spencer.
So I turn around and let the crowd sweep me away. Who knew leaving a party was going to be this impossible?! I don’t want to let a bad mood brew but it is difficult. First, I thought Kevin had a potential client for me, then I had to deal with seeing Bennett making out with a girl, and finally, I had to speak to my sister.
It isn’t as if I never want to speak to my parents again. It is just that ever since I told them about my plans to make it on my own, any sort of interaction with them results in fighting or passive aggressive insults thrown my way. After the events of the party, I am not willing to deal with that right now.
I let the crowd take me the opposite direction. The first room is filled with people. Music is being piped in from the DJ outside and there is a bar in here as well. I don’t recognize anyone here but that doesn’t surprise me. There are so many people at this party that I normally would end up hanging out with Emily or Spencer. Trying to find Emily in this will be impossible. I’d have to text her to agree on a place to meet up.
I go outside the nearest door and I am by a smaller pool. There is a hot tub here. It is filled with people. The pool is packed as well. A group of people are trying to sun tan nearby. A woman is yelling at a group of men for splashing her with water. Security is already heading over.
I suddenly want a drink. It is unlike me only because my tolerance is that of a baby. Two drinks and I’m tipsy. Three drinks and I’m puking my guts out all night if I don’t space them out correctly.
I go to the nearest bar and order a drink – some strawberry concoction that looks delicious. With the drink in my hand, I sit down at a table under the shade of a large tree and take a sip. I can’t taste the alcohol in it which makes it taste even better.
I lean back in the chair and wish I had brought some sunglasses. It is so bright out. The heat from the sun is already warming my skin. The music is thumping. In another life, maybe I would have enjoyed this party. Currently, however, all I want to do is drink my drink and avoid my parents. I realize I sound like a teenager.
“April, you’re still here?”
I snap out of my thoughts and look up to see Emily. She has a drink in her hand as well. Her sundress is sticking to her skin from the heat. Adam isn’t with her.
“Long story,” I mumble as she sits down next to me. “Short version: Kevin dragged me off to meet a client I’m pretty sure doesn’t exist; Bennett was making out with someone behind a guest house; I got stuck talking to Spencer; and now I’m avoiding my parents.”
Emily is about to reply when she looks over my shoulder, “Uh, well, don’t look now but your parents are heading this way.”
I close my eyes. Of course.
- Writer
