It felt weird.
I was constantly reminding myself that I wasn't being a stalker and that I was doing the right thing as I watched Nolan toss his backpack into the trunk of his car.
No matter how hard I tried to convince myself that what I was doing wasn't borderline creepy, I couldn't shake the unwanted idea out of my head.
"What if he reaches behind his back to pull out a wedgie?" I asked, facing Neets who was crouching behind a nearby car with me. "Aren't we violating his basic human right? Privacy?"
"Do you want him dead?" She asked, with no trace of humour found in the tone of her voice. I shook my head, to which she responded with a lopsided smile. "Then stop whining about how weird the nature of what we're doing is and save him."
She was right. I had to stop worrying about how we looked and transfer that effort into what we were actually doing. Nolan was sitting on the back of his car, talking with a group of his friends, most of them likely his teammates. Aurora was in the group as well, talking to one of the girls wearing a cheerleading uniform.
One of the mysteries of Aurora Holden was that although she had pretty much everything going for her, she wasn't on the cheer squad. She had the looks, the physique and was also close friends with almost every cheerleader on the team, she just never tried out for it. I always wondered why but never got around to asking the question.
"Over there, lover boy." Neets joked, pulling my head by the chin from where I was looking. Nolan was walking away from his car with two other people.
"What do we do now?" I asked in a moment of hesitation. Him heading to anywhere other than his house wasn't planned for.
"We need to follow him." Neets said, already beginning to move from her place. I had no choice but to follow her as we maneuvered in between the parked cars, in an attempt to get closer to him.
"It's going to be epic!" One of the guys shouted rather excitedly. "This year's party is going to be the best yet. I can feel it."
Nolan nodded in agreement then looked at the other guy. "At your house, as usual I'm guessing."
"Parents are in Aspen for the week, you bet." The guy responded. It was Dwane Terrell, also known to be one of the richest kids at school. Most, if not all of the parties thrown within the school year were done so at his massive house.
"And he'll be there?" Nolan asked. Both guys looked at each other before looking back at Nolan and nodding simultaneously.
"I'll be getting a test batch later today, I'll run it by you tomorrow after English Lit." The other guy said before bro-greeting the two and leaving.
Nolan and Dwane slowly began to walk towards the car Neets and I were hiding behind, only increasing the sounds of their voices and consequently, the beats of our hearts.
"Are you sure you want to get yourself into this?" Dwane asked. "You do realise if you get caught, this could end whatever shot you have at getting a basketball scholarship."
Nolan stopped dead in his tracks only a few feet away from us but luckily, his side was faced towards us and we could only see half of his face, which was enough to reveal the devilish smirk that was beginning to form on it.
"Sometimes, you've got to take risks."
***
"Are you sure? I mean, it could be something else you know." Neets tried to convince me but to no avail. I knew what Nolan was planning on getting at the party and they weren't a fresh batch of brownies, that was for sure.
"Drugs? Seriously?" She asked, not buying it.
"Got any other ideas?" I asked back. "Maybe that's it. Maybe whoever is planning on killing Nolan has some sort of relationship with him through drugs. Maybe it's a dealer, maybe he is the dealer. All I know is that we have to be at that party and we have to keep our eyes open for the guy they were talking about."
She sighed. "I don't like this."
Neither did I, but as we parted ways after a long day of observing Nolan, I came to the conclusion that whatever was about to happen in the next few days was bigger than me, bigger than Neets and heck, bigger than Nolan himself.
I spent the entire walk home coming up with multiple scenarios for how the night of the party might play out. I needed to come up with a balanced and strategic plan, good enough to be followed, regardless of what would be going on in that house.
Once I got home, I transferred all my thoughts onto paper and began brainstorming. Nothing fancy like those big shot murder cases on tv, where they pinned pictures on a cork board and connected then using red strings, but more of a low budget, arrows drawn with sharpies, cello-taped to my wall type of thing.
After hours of careful thinking and sticky-taping, I was satisfied with my little, high copy NCIS work and took a step back to look at the major plot I had come up with. The digital clock set on my bed stand clicked and it was already midnight. I officially had five more days.
"Let's do this."
----------
A/N:
It's been a looooooong day (more like months) without you my friend..
I know, I know, I've been gone for hella long but I'M BACK NOW and that's what matters 🙊
It's the summer holiday so I don't think it'll be wise to stick to an updating schedule, I'll just post the chapters the second I finish writing them.
Feel free to comment, vote, follow, whatever :')
----------
YOU ARE READING
The Butterfly Effect. (ON HOLD)
Fantasy*** "What I'm about to tell you will either make you question life itself or run the hell away from me." *** For almost a decade, twenty nine year old Vincent Bahn has had a special ability he likes to call 'The Cascade' which allows him to go sever...
