His eyes are half open, but all I can see is their whites. I stare inhorror as he’s seized by a spasm and goes rigid, arms and legs frozen at grotesque angles.
Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god.
Footsteps thunder on the floor above us, and seconds later, the paramedics come rushing down the stairs. I move out of their path and find a wall to lean against, my legs weak and shaky.
“Let’s go back up and stay out of the way,” Zander says. I hadn’t even realized he’d followed me downstairs.
As we sink onto the couch in the living room, my gaze strays to the coffee table where cups and balls from a beer pong game sit, forlorn and abandoned. Fifteen minutes ago, this house overflowed with carefree partygoers. Now it’s an eerie, hollow shell. Halfheartedly, I glance around for my roommate, but it appears she’s left with everyone else.
“Molly? Seriously?” Zander grumbles as he puts an arm around me. “We can’t have people doing shit like that here. We could lose our charter.” It’s a fuzzy line the brothers have drawn between which drugs are and are not allowed at their parties. The only time the line is solid is when someone gets caught.
A commotion calls my attention to the top of the stairs where the first of the paramedics appears, leading the procession. I want to bury my face in Zander’s chest, but I can’t look away. They’ve got the poor patient immobilized on a hard stretcher with straps across his legs, chest, and forehead. Although the sight makes me clammy, it could be worse. He’s not lying there with a sheet pulled over his face. Or in a body bag.
The girlfriend and the others who were downstairs follow them outside. And because the cops have shown up, Zander and Braden, President and VP, have to go out to answer questions. Numbly, I sit and wait, watching the red and blue lights flash in the open doorway.
After what seems like hours, the brothers return.
Braden flops into an overstuffed chair and lets loose a raggedbreath. “Holy shit.”
Looking shell-shocked, Trevor rubs his face. Jenna, his girlfriend and O-Chi Sweetheart, murmurs to him softly and folds him into a hug.
Zander complains again about someone bringing Molly, and Braden joins in. I’m too dazed and freaked out to scold them for being callous. In my head, I try to replay the events of the last half hour, but they’re all a blur. That weird wave of fear, the one that seemed to come out of nowhere—it couldn’t have been from the guy who OD’d, could it? No, that’s impossible. At the time, I didn’t even know someone was in danger.
When Cole pours us all a round of Jäger, I slam mine back, wincing as it burns its way down my throat. Even though I hate the stuff, I nod at Cole for a refill. One more shot, please, because there’s no way I’m going to be able to fall asleep without it.
CHAPTER TWO
Late the next afternoon,Liv bursts into our dorm room, wired and hungover but salivating for some gossip.
“Hey! You stayed with Zander last night, didn’t you?” Her overstuffed backpack hits the floor with an earth-shaking thud. “Did you see what happened to that guy?”
I snap shutAnne of Green Gables, the book I’m reading for children’s lit. “Yeah. Didn’t you?”
“No. I was outside and they weren’t letting anyone back in.” She collapses onto her bed. “So I just left.”
“Well, believe me, you’re lucky you didn’t see it. It was god-awful.”
“I heard he bashed his head open on the pool table.”
I nod.
She’s not bothering to hide her morbid fascination. “You don’t think he died, do you?”
“I hope not,” I say, because I don’t want to dwell on the very real possibility that he did.
She sits up to undo her messy bun and comb her fingers throughher long, black hair. “Is Replay Six still playing there tomorrow night?”
“As far as I know.”
She pauses and sighs. “You’re freaked out about going back, aren’t you?”
“A little.”
“Well, it’s not like you can avoid the O-Chi house forever.”
Liv the sage. But she’s right. My entire social life revolves around Zander and O-Chi. Without them, I’d be a hermit.
“I’m sure you’ll be fine,” she says with a shrug and a flick of her hand. “Everybody’ll be having fun, and by the end of the night, you’ll have forgotten all about it.”
