"Pretty girls like you get lost in these woods all the time, Alexa."
On the night of Sebastián's annual Beginning of Summer Bash, amiable and adventurous Melody Tryniski went missing. What might have appeared as a juvenile escapade - a casual incide...
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MY EYES SHIFT FROM the hand that holds my heels to my phone that's tugged on the front pocket of my jeans.
10:50 p.m. Only 10 minutes left.
I put my heels on, straightening my back soon after. Throwing a glance back at the door --- knowing well that Sebby is behind it --- I begin to walk towards freedom. I leave him behind.
The sound of giggling makes me halt for a moment. It's not just any giggling. I've heard it before with its occasional soft snort and the quick intake of air between giggles.
It's Alexa.
The hall in front of me is completely dark, hiding anything or anyone that might be lurking around its vast depth. The giggling greets me again, this time as a distant echo. It's like the darkness can speak, using its voice to mock me. But, as my eyes adjust to the darkness, two silhouettes appear from what seems to be nowhere. One of them is leading the other to an even darker place --- somewhere in the house that's unknown to me. Then, as if only being two figments of my imagination or lost souls, they disappear.
What the actual fuck?
I wait there for a moment, willing them to appear to me again. They don't. The giggles stay with me. They resonate in my chest as if they're my own, ominous as they repeat their familiar sound in my head. I can't shake Alexa away, but I don't know if it was really her. Then, out of nowhere, one of the shadows approaches me. Once in the light, its identity is revealed.
Christopher, not Alexa. If he's one of the silhouettes, then she's the other.
Christopher looks at me for a moment, then looks back over his shoulder. When he turns back to me, he sighs. "Do you know what you're doing?"
"Does it matter?"
He rolls his eyes. "Are you sure about what you're doing?"
No, but I'm not going to let the fear get the best of me. Besides, it's only two months with the hottest man in town.
"Are you with Alexa?" I mumble, looking over his shoulder and encountering with darkness.
"Yes," he whispers timidly, his cheeks tinging a dark red.
I realize then, in the timid intonation of his voice and the physical reaction provoked by just the mention of her name, that I long to be loved like Alexa is loved by Christopher. The guy is in love with her, just as she's in love with him, but it's almost forbidden. It is forbidden. If Alexa knew that he's the son of W.S., would she still love him? Her attraction for him would only grow, that much is obvious. But, with love, it's a different story.
