tangled up in blue

05

In Lee's jeep, we hurtled towards the address on Pacey's phone. He'd found it in an old text message about a party. But not just anyone's party.

Helena fucking Chan's party.

She was easily one of the most popular girls in my year, only second to her bitch of a best friend and Queen Bee, Chesca Taylor. Helena was definitely the kindest out of the two, but was still untouchable; loved to such an extent, that even Jace had known who to target.

She was gorgeous, so naturally, she was part of  the group that everyone claimed to hate, but secretly just wanted to have a giant orgy with. That's what makes people popular, I guess. Being an awful human being, but hot enough that it's forgiven. Take my arch nemesis, for example. Jace might have been a despicable, twisted maniac, but he was a breathtakingly beautiful twisted maniac. Not that I thought that, though. I couldn't think of anything more disturbed than him naked if I tried.

But you get the picture. She's kind of a big deal. And I was pretty sure that Jace had just told her I was in love with her.

"Please don't make me say it again," I groaned. "Just hurry the fuck up, Lee."

"I'll hurry the fuck up when you all shut the fuck up."

I groaned. If Helena thought I had a crush on her, her annoying little minions would have the rumour spreading instantly, and soon the entire school would be laughing about yours truly and his stalker obsession with California's very own sweetheart.

Of course, I didn't actually like her.

Most guys would think that was insane. I knew Lee and Pacey certainly would anyway. But for some reason, she'd never seemed that special to me. Sure, I could appreciate her beauty, and she was definitely sweeter than her Chernobyl-level-of-toxic friends, but there was nothing about her that seemed extremely appealing. Maybe I just needed to get up close.

Or, you know, have her accuse me of stalking.

Lee parked haphazardly, practically smashing into another car on the sidewalk. We ran, and I thought about how quickly I could change my name and cross the Mexican border overnight.

"This is it," Pacey said while we walked up to the large structure, barely able to contain his joy. "Oh man, this is gonna be good."

"This is not gonna be good. In any possible way."

I couldn't hear his response. Because sitting there, in a gigantic heap, was an assortment of objects. The first word that came to mind to describe it though, was a shrine.

There were wrapped presents with bows on them, plastic covered gift baskets, balloons, and prime and center, the rest of the cake, decorated with a giant yearbook picture of Helena.

"Holy fuck. Rest in peace, Noah," Beth breathed behind me.

I started gathering up gifts in the hopes that she hadn't seen any of it yet, and that I could still be saved, but much to my horror, Pacey started to read out the icing.

"I may be a virgin, but I want to kiss you. Love Noah."

They all burst out laughing, but absolutely nothing was funny. This was the exact opposite of funny. If Helena had seen this already, I would have no choice but to go with the Mexico plan from earlier. I'd probably have to get reconstructive surgery, too. Just to be on the safe side.