In Lakewood, a small town with a reputation of crime, gangs, outcasts and violence, Lana Takumi is an orphan and a gang member disguised in ripped jeans of her late mother and old flannels of her late father. She feels stuck in an endless cycle of b...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
E V E R E T T
"I'm going to a party and I might get drunk."
That's what I said to my parents when I left for the party today. While my parents glanced at each other with silly smiles and shooed me out of the house after stating, "don't get arrested, use protection and don't do drugs," I could practically see Emma sitting on the staircase and rolling her eyes at me.
She always said I needed to get out of the house more. My parents did too. But then again, all I needed to get through the day was inside and in my room, so why go outside? Every time I asked Emma that question, she groaned and rolled her eyes, saying I was missing the point.
So here I was, at a party, trying to figure out the point of it. The music was loud and the rap was so fast, I had no idea what the artist was saying. The air reeked heavily of alcohol and sweat. People were laughing and chatting, loudly over the music. Everything was just so loud and this place was too small to keep it all crammed in. For a second, I wondered why the walls hadn't broken down and why the roof hadn't collapsed down on us yet.
"You happy about the truce?" Ali asked, bringing me out of my head. His cheek was still swollen but he looked better than yesterday. He didn't talk much about Arjun or The Lions in general last night or today. I figured he wanted to wait so I decided to just drop it and ask him again another day or maybe wait until he told me about it himself.
I nodded. "Yeah. Sure. The Sirens hating my guts sucked. No way I'm going through that again."
Ali smiled. "Yeah." He then watched me for a moment before asking, "You okay, dude? You seem kinda...off."
I scratched the back of my head and pushed my weight off the wall I was leaned up against. "Uh, yeah. I just kinda need to talk to Lana."
"Then go for it. I think I saw her leaving. Maybe if you hurry, you'll catch her outside," he said, nodding at the front door.
I glanced inside the living room where the Sirens were huddled on the couch together with red plastic cups of beer in their hands, laughing over something Isha was slurring about. Except for Lana. She wasn't there anymore. Maybe she left earlier. I had no clue.
"Okay. I'll catch you later." I headed to the front door and stepped outside into the frigid, autumn night. Lakers were huddled around the house and spread out in groups in the garden too. I could still hear the heavy beats of the music vibrate through the walls of the house, but it was still way quieter out here and peaceful compared to inside the house.
I caught sight of Lana alone by a willow tree, in the upper corner of the front garden. As I trudged across the grass, I noticed her gaze scanning the garden as if she was in search of something or someone.
