To Lie and To Love

Chapter Nine

“Lilith, are you sure about this?”, I asked nervously as I pushed the window open.

The window through which we were about to sneak out of to a party only God knows where.

“It’s too late to turn back now”, she shrugged.

“You and I both know too well that we could just forget about this whole thing and just go back to bed.”

“Oh, come on Nova,” Lilith groaned. “Stop being such a wet sock.”

Wet sock, huh. Well, at least I wasn’t the one dragging the antisocial sister to a party just because I had uncertain sentiments about it.

“You haven’t even told me how we are going to get there?”, I said.

“Just trust me on everything here on out, okay?”, Lilith winked and flashed me a toothy grin as she lowered herself down the tree and next to me in under than five seconds.

A slight breezed brushed away at my hair.

“See?” she laughed. “We’ve made it this far without getting caught. What could possibly go wrong now?”

‘Everything!’, I wanted to say but I doubt she would’ve even heard me with the way she was excitedly shifting from one foot to the other.

She glanced at her watch and muttered:

” Just a few more minutes and we’re out of here!” before a sleek black car silently rolled onto the street from across us.

“There’s our ride”, she announced and begun walking towards the car. The dark glass at the driver’s seat rolled down slowly revealing Oscar, a quarter back in my math class. I also spotted Sarah, who was on the cheerleading team with him. They looked quite surprised to see me (I mean who wouldn’t have?) but didn’t say anything when I entered the back seat beside Lilith.

Oscar coughed after a few minutes of silence, which I knew was caused by my presence, before saying: “You didn’t exactly tell us you were bringing company, Lilith?”

“Oh, come on, Oscar. Nova isn’t ‘company’. You literally in her math class. Plus, she’s, my sister.”

“Well, fine. If you say so.”, he shrugged and said nothing more. I exchanged glances with Lilith and she gave me yet another reassuring smile. I couldn’t help but look away as Sarah and Oscar shared a passionate kiss. Instead, I looked out the glass at the passing trees and the dark sky.

The silence was deafening.

The odd feeling in my stomach was getting stronger and stronger and it doubled as Oscar drove out of town. As we passed by my mum’s shop, I couldn’t help but feel a sudden sense of betrayal.

I wondered if any of them back home had figured it out already. Or whether they had found at that the figures underneath the sheets were just bundles of Lilith’s laundry.

Before I knew it, we stopped in front of this grandee house with many other cars parked around it.

It was large, really large; made of what looked like imported marble or something. It was nestled in a forest of trees, with established flower beds out front and a lot of greeneries. The driveway was filled with cars, some with occupants; mainly couples kissing and groping and doing whatever couples did. The house had a shiny red roof, large windows and was carefully constructed with striking materials like glass, affording a tree top view from the upper windows of the third story complimented with a neatly mowed lawn, now cluttered with plastic cups.

Clearly, I was impressed. It was isolated from the rest of the city and so no one could really make out the music booming out the speakers coming from the house. It didn’t take a second to guess why it was chosen as the party’s venue.

As we headed out, I heard Lilith say to Sarah: “Sheesh! How did you even think up such a place?”

“Huh? Oh, well it’s one of Levi’s family houses. He chose the place to host the party.”

I blinked twice at the mention of his name.

Levi? Levi West?

Meaning he was going to be there at the party too. And from what Sarah had said before, if he was host then I would probably see him around a lot.

It also explained why I could see a lot of cheerleaders and athletes scattered around in little groups all around.

Immediately, I felt left out. And then a sinking feeling.

“Here we are now, Nova.” Seeing the look of uncertainty on my face, she added:

“Chillax; have fun and enjoy the party. Its time you got out of that boring bookworm Nova shell and become an interesting fun-loving Nova. Okay?”

I trudged along slowly as she and Sarah went inside, high-fiving all sorts of people I knew by popularity and not personally. Meaning they neither knew me or was I a friend for that matter; earning me a lot of ‘looks’ from people who were probably half surprised to see me there especially those I had classes with.

I tried to stick close to Lilith as possible but she was swept away by a group of friends in less than a minute and I was left alone. By myself. At a party with no friends and a host who probably thought I was a stalker by now.

I definitely shouldn’t have allowed Lilith to convince to attend this party, I sighed to myself.