Sins and Reborns

Chapter fourteen

GRACE

I had roughly seventeen minutes until the sauna party. I couldn't possibly go. Could I? I'd been invited; it was rude to decline.

I can climb through the window, down the roof, and I will touch the ground. I can run there. I can go. I can leave if I do not enjoy it. What harm will going do?

At a rapid speed, I searched through my closet for the perfect attire. What do you wear to a party? Not just any party, but a sauna party. Shoving the old-fashioned dresses out of the way, I finally stumbled upon Aunt Marge's gift. It wasn't anything risqué, but it had a shorter collar (not enough to show a hint of cleavage), ended six inches below my knees (enough to show the thin ankles). It flowed down my thighs like the sun in fresh summer heat. I also slipped on some flip-flops that's sat in my closet for years.

I lived on 147 Madeline Lane. Everly Lane was a fifteen-minute walk away. Our streets connected on a corner bistro, rundown, unknown. The watch I'd taken from Father's study said it to be ten after eleven. I'd already run late.

Don't be tardy, Mother's shrill voice rang in my ears.

The watch was on my wrist to keep tab of the time. I needed to get back by three.

Pop music blasted the closer I got.

What if the people there don't like me? What if they make fun of me? What if they tell on me to my parents? What if Connor isn't even there? What if?

The house was located next to a hill. A pretty house: freshly painted baby-blue, split-level, one-floored house. A cedarwood, barrel shaped sauna in the backyard, steaming erupting from the thick door whenever someone banged against it. A black and white akita pit ran up to me, barking and pawing at my knees. It got my dress all filthy. A sign I shouldn't be there?

Dogs tended to frighten me. We used to have a dog before, small, always yapping. I was very small then; Wesley not even been born. I liked the dog most days, except when it'd accompany me downstairs. Even now, I remembered its bared teeth, the clang of white bones thrown in front of me, the leash extended. Then one day it broke into Father's study, crashed papers around. Perhaps the dog knew what he'd done, detected the sense of evil. It was with us one day, and then it wasn't. I never knew what happened to it.

"Bono!" a silvery voice shouted. Her voice energetic, like she'd been laughing for the past hour. Doe eyes glinted at me. She was even prettier up close. Smiling like I was a prize she'd worn at a carnival. That red bikini again, triangle shaped, pointy nipples poking through. Covered in sweat that layered above her chest, she still managed to look radiant. "I'm so sorry about Bono. He can be a little troublemaker."

"It's okay." Compared to her, my voice sounded like I'd been afraid all my life.

"I'm Anna Rayner. And you are..."

"Grace."

"I like that name. You here for the party?"

"Yeah..." I stretched out, uncomfortable saying who I'd been invited by. "I was invited by Tim."

Anna giggled like a school girl. "Tim likes to keep himself occupied, I see. How do you know him?"

No. Her tone wasn't accusatory. It was filled with light-heartedness. She really was just curious. Why would she be anything else? Tim had her on his arm, why would he mess around with anyone else? Besides, he wouldn't go anywhere near someone like me. Anna was everything. She didn't need to be jealous, not like I was with Connor.

"I know Connor. I've met Tim by him."

"Ah, yes, Con." Con? His friends called him that. Was Anna another friend? How many girls called him that way? Did he like Anna? Did he see her as beautiful, magnetic too? If Tim wasn't in the picture, would she get with him? Did the guys share her, each want a piece?