Isle of Sanctum | The Aya Thrasher Chronicles | Book 1 |[Editing]

Chapter Ten

CHAPTER TEN

RAYNE

"Aya." I nudged Aya's arm over and over. "Aya, get up."

Aya's eyes slowly began to flutter open, bloodshot and scared. I didn't understand how she could fall asleep during a party, especially with all the noise. She looked at me almost as if I was a stranger.

"Rayne?" Aya called out. "Where am I?"

"At Trevor's party," I replied. Aya slowly sat up on the couch. "How did you fall asleep?"

She grabbed onto one of the strings of my hoodie, her face violating my personal space. I could feel the heat of her breath against my neck and I got down on one of my knees. The music had gotten louder, making it even more difficult to hear over it. I could tell she was trying to tell me something, so I leaned my head in as close to her as I could.

"Is he dead?" Aya muttered into my ear. "He's dead isn't he?"

"What? Who's Fred?" I yelled over the loud music that was dominating my voice.

Aya shook her head. "No, not Fred. The boy in the bathroom. Is he dead?" She shouted.

"Which boy? In which bathroom?" I asked.

She pointed to one of the corridors. "I saw him. In the bathroom down there. Is he dead?"

I still had no earthly idea what this girl was talking about. Before I gave up on talking to her, I saw Lake from the corner of my eye. She waved and came over, her boots beating against the floor like a drum, as she walked.

"What's going on? Sorry it took me so long." Lake apologized.

"Your friend is spazzing out about some dead guy," I replied, hoping Lake would take Aya off my hands.

"I was dreaming wasn't I?" Aya asked.

Lake nodded. "Probably."

"It could still be true," Aya said. "My dreams come true...sometimes."

"Sometimes is not always," I replied and Lake nodded in agreement.

"Someone would have found him by now, anyway," Lake commented.

I turned around to walk away, but I felt a body slam against mine. I glanced at the perpetrator. It was Trevor.

"Oops, my bad," he said with a prideful smile that I wanted to slap off his face.

I rolled my eyes. "Yeah, whatever."

"You guys up for some 'never have I ever'?" He asked. "We're playing it on the roof."

"That game is ancient," I snapped back at him.

"I'm in," Aya said. She seemed perfectly normal now that Trevor was around. Of course, everyone just loved him.

Over the roof, the sun was just setting, and it was kind of nice to watch the deep purple swirls disappear into the pink and blue sky. It reminded me of cotton candy. Soren stood by the ledge of the roof's fence, his arm was propped up against it as he gazed out at the soon-to-be night sky. His posture soon changed and he had started to climb up the small fence. Lake tried to talk him into stepping down, and he listened to her.

Trevor was arranging the heavy metal patio seats in a circle. To me, he was showing off trying to impress the girls with his upper-body strength. I didn't buy into it at all. Piper was the last one up, I could hear her breathing like a horse was stampeding inside her lungs.

"You sound like you ran a marathon," I remarked.

"Sort of," Piper nodded. "I ran back to the suite to get this." She held up a dark green bottle with an image of a blue and yellow snake. It looked expensive.

"What's that?" I asked.

"Xerxes snake venom," she said. "It makes your mouth numb."

"And why exactly are we going to drink that?"

Piper poured the venom into a cup and offered it to me. "It's fun. Try it."

"You want us to drink poison?" I asked inching my way toward the edge of the seat.

"Why not?" She kept pushing the cup toward me.

"It's dangerous. Are you trying to kill us?" I yelled.

"Whoa, chill out," Trevor said. "It won't kill you unless you drink the whole bottle. Xeres venom has a very low concentration of poison," he explained. "You can drink something else if you don't feel comfortable—"

"Are we even allowed to be drinking?" I blurted out, crossing my arms. I wasn't usually a narc, but Trevor bothered me.

"Oh yeah. The drinking age is eighteen here, but you can drink a little at seventeen, but just beer and wine," he said trying to sound cool. "This doesn't count as alcohol."

I shook my head. "Whatever, let's just play this dumb game."

"Who wants to go first, party people?" Piper asked handing out the plastic glasses as she filled them with the venom.

"You should," I responded. I always hated going first in anything. "You seem the most excited."

Piper looked to Trevor. "Never have I ever...kissed a guy." She smirked and raised the glass to her lips.

I looked around the circle. All the girls, except for Aya, took a sip. Technically, I had kissed a guy in a play, so I counted that.

Brennan went next. His glass was on the floor, and he was fidgeting with his hands. "Never have I kissed a girl," he said picking up the glass to take a sip.

"Hey you can't copy mine," Piper complained.

"I'm not. You said boy, and I said girl," Brennan responded.

"Fair enough," Soren chimed in.

All of the guys took a sip, not surprising. Lake did too, which made it a bit more interesting.

"Never have I ever...driven a vehicle," Lake said, reaching for her cup.

This time Soren, Trevor, Lake, and Piper all took sips. We had almost completed a cycle of boring 'never have I ever', when it was finally Aya's turn. I glanced at her, and it seemed like she was nervous. Her eyes were darting back and forth from Lake to Brennan.

Aya finally mustered up some words. "Never have I ever...stolen anything,"

I was the only one who took a sip. Was it possible that all the others were really that good? That pure? Was I the only bad seed? I could feel them all looking at me. Staring at me like I was a criminal. It didn't matter.

I didn't want to play this stupid game anyway. If they thought I was a criminal, they were lame for even playing. I tried to ignore them, but something else was bothering me. My mouth felt weird, like a bunch of fire ants had slipped in. The roof of my mouth and the inside of my cheeks were on fire. I knew I shouldn't have drank that dumb poison. I should have used my common sense.

EDITED: 01/24/2020