Born at Midnight

Chapter 2

An hour later, Kylie walked down the stairs with her backpack and purse over her shoulder. 

Her mom met her in the entryway. "Are you okay?" 

How could I be okay? "I'll live," Kylie answered. More than she could say about Grandma. Right then, Kylie had a vision of the bright purple lipstick the funeral home had put on her grandmother. Why didn't you take that off of me? Kylie could almost hear Nana asking. 

Weirded out by the thought, Kylie looked back at her mother. 

Her mom stared at Kylie's backpack and her worry wrinkle appeared between her eyes. "Where are you going?" she asked. 

"You said I could spend the night with Sara. Or were you too busy grilling Dad's shorts to remember?" 

Her mom ignored the grilled-shorts comment. "What are you two going to do tonight?" 

"Mark Jameson is having an end-of-school party." Not that

Kylie felt like celebrating the event. Thanks to Trey dumping her and her parents divorcing, Kylie's whole summer was headed for the toilet. And the way things were going, someone was going to walk by and flush it. 

"Are his parents going to be there?" Mom raised one dark eyebrow. 

Kylie flinched emotionally, but physically didn't blink. "Aren't they always?" 

Okay, so she lied. Normally she didn't go to Mark Jameson's parties for that very reason, but blast it, look where being good had gotten her. She deserved to have some fun, didn't she? 

Besides, hadn't her mom lied when her dad asked about his underwear? 

"What if you have another dream?" Her mom touched Kylie's arm. 

A quick touch. That's all Kylie ever got from her mom these days. No long hugs like her dad gave. No mother/daughter trips. Just aloofness and quick touches. Even when Nana, her mom's mom, died, Kylie's mom hadn't hugged her and Kylie had really needed a hug then. But it had been her dad who'd pulled her into his arms and let her smear mascara on his suit coat. And now Dad and all his suit coats were gone. 

Drawing in a gulp of oxygen, Kylie clutched her purse. "I warned Sara I might wake up screaming bloody murder. She said she'd stake me in the heart with a wooden cross and make me go back to bed." 

"Maybe you should hide the stakes before you go to sleep." Her mother attempted to smile.

"I will." For one brief second, Kylie worried about leaving her mom alone on the day her dad had left. But who was she kidding? Her mom would be fine. Nothing ever bothered the Ice Queen. 

Before walking out, Kylie peered out the window to make sure she wouldn't be assaulted by a guy wearing army duds. 

Deeming the yard to be free of stalkers, Kylie ran out the door, hoping that tonight's party would help her forget just how badly her life sucked.

"Here. You don't have to drink it, just hold it." Sara Jetton pushed a beer into Kylie's hands and ran off. 

Sharing elbow room with at least thirty kids, all packed into Mark Jameson's living room and talking at once, Kylie clutched the ice-cold bottle. Glancing around at the crowd, she recognized most of them from school. The doorbell rang again. Obviously, this was the place to be tonight. And according to every other kid at her high school, it was. Jameson, a senior whose parents never seemed to care what he did, held some of the wildest parties in town. 

Ten minutes later, Sara still MIA, the party shifted into full swing. Too bad Kylie didn't feel like swinging along with them. She frowned at the bottle in her hand.