Mark My Words

58 | Confession

"What're we doing here? The party's outside," Alyssa said from the beanbag in the Preeces' pool table room. She had her long blonde hair curled to perfection, a glass of red wine in one hand, and her phone in the other. Beside her, Juliana looked equally annoyed at Rosalie.

Rosalie ignored the prick of annoyance that tensed the muscles on her jaw. She looked away from Juliana and to Joanna, who pointed at Alyssa and said, "You're on thin fucking ice."

"Excuse me?" Alyssa said.

A pair of fast footsteps hurried down the stairs from the ground floor. They were accompanied by Brynn's vibrant voice saying, "Ooh, are we sharing secrets? I love secrets."

"Can we just chill for a hot second? Jesus," Ray said. Brynn bounded to the basement floor with a frown until Lu arrived behind her and nudged her forward.

"Is the door closed?" Rosalie asked them.

"Yeah, I shut it," Lu said.

"What's this about?" Lennie asked from the far side of the pool table.

Joanna eyed him sharply, and Rosalie couldn't help but wonder why Lennie was even there if Joanna hated him enough to shove him into the lazy river. Lennie swallowed nervously and said, "If... I'm allowed to ask. I don't know what's going on."

"You're here because I have to prove a point," Joanna said, pointing to him. She pointed to Jamie then, who stood between Lennie and a smiling Blake Miles. "You're here because you're cool. Same with Blake, Cox, and Lu."

"Aw, thanks hun," Blake said as Dylan gave her a satisfied thumbs up.

"I'm surprised," Luanna confessed, a hand to her heart. She dropped down into the beanbag next to Alyssa, and Brynn soon joined her. Brynn put her arms around Lu, who seemed indifferent, if not comfortable.

Joanna went on. "Sami and Isaiah are here because they inherited the responsibility by being Rosalie's dads or whatever."

"This is news to me," Sami admitted, scratching his chin.

"You're looking good for having a seventeen year old daughter," Isaiah told Sami.

"But you," Joanna said, pointing a finger at Isaiah. Isaiah squeaked, a hand over his throat. "You're on thin ice, too. Nothing leaves this room without my say-so."

"Ay, ay," Isaiah said.

"The rest of you are here because Rosalie and Ray told you to keep an eye out for German hoes or whatever. I don't really care. But she thinks you all need an explanation so here goes," Joanna said. She clapped her hands and rubbed them together as she scanned her eyes over the lot of them. After a shaky sigh, she said, "This is gonna sound so fucked up... but whatever, I guess."

"It can't be that bad," Alyssa scoffed, glancing over at Lu. She shrugged and met Joanna's eyes with a little shake of her head. "What did you do, kill someone?"

***

Joanna finished by flipping Lennie off and saying, "I win the most fucked up ex-girlfriend award. So Harper can suck it. Any questions?"

In the moment of silence following Joanna's speech, Rosalie scanned the room. Everyone was staring at Joanna, and it was Dylan who broke the silence. He leant back on his heels and whistled low. "Damn," he said.

"Wait, so your ex is part of a cult?" Luanna said, leaning out of the beanbag. She furrowed her brow when Joanna shrugged. "Who's in charge of it? It's international, right? It's gotta be."