Spectrum

I lifted the bottle of sprite to my lips as I watched my brother and his friends having the time of their lives. The music booming loudly as the DJ bumped his head to the beat, the walls moving steadily to the bass of the music.  People were downing liquor and beer by the litre as the crowd raved on. Couples making out on the white walls of my father’s favourite house. The house in utter and complete chaos as those who weren't trying to get high were too out of it to realize what exactly they were doing as they tripped and fell over some of my father's expensive vases. The house was in total dismay and I loved to see it. I was merely minding my business when my brother’s friends had come up with an idea, dragging my hazy brother along with them. Earlier that year, Katie, an associate of theirs had been cheated on by her boyfriend of nine months, Bradley Mews, a notorious playboy and womanizer but she had chosen to look past all of that and had refused to see the red flags raised high.  We had all watched Bradley walk around the school halls with various types of girls on days Katie had games outside of school. The whole school had watched him cheat and lie to Katie before dumping her for another. Personally, it was none of my business and even if I did try to tell her I would have been made victim to her hateful glares and harsh words of denial. Others, her friends specifically just didn’t care and to me, it was her dose of karma for helping Bradley cheat on his long term girlfriend at the time. As they say, you lose them how you get them. I had harboured no feelings of sympathy for her as she had cried her eyes out after she had gotten the news of his infidelity and I would be a fool to label her as a victim. She had known what it was that she was getting into. So, initially, I was against the idea of egging his house, standing my ground as I was not about to leave the house because despite how wealthy the party-goers in my father's house presented themselves to be, they were just as thieving as the poorer man. As much as I wanted to stay, I couldn’t let my brother go by himself, I didn’t trust his friends and I was sure that they knew that too, hence the remark from Noah as I had said no for the fifth time of the night but they knew, the Knox siblings always stuck together. “ You wouldn’t want your brother out there by himself with no possible ride home, would you? “ He smugly said to me. My brother was 18, a year older than I was, he could take care of himself but he was my own flesh and blood and in his current state, I would never forgive myself if anything were to happen to him while out with people I myself did not trust in the slightest bit. So, I pulled the keys to my Evoque out of my pockets before forcefully pushing past his friends to speak to inform the house staff of my departure. Going back to where I had left Mason's friends, I gently wrapped my brother’s arm around my shoulder leading him to the car. My brother got worn out easily and people do tend to take advantage of that and I really couldn't pretend that I was happy with his friends at the moment. Starting the engine, I watched as Noah’s SUV which was carrying his six other friends retreated down the long driveway of the Foxhall mansion and through the tall intricate gold and black gates. We had driven to the other side of town where Bradley’s house laid on a private lake and soon everyone was piling out of the cars even my brother who was now sober enough to slide out of the backseat of my car. “ Come on Mi, “ he whispered to me as I had made no move to get out of the car. I rolled my eyes as I turned off the ignition proceeding to join the others on the lawn. “ His house is so small, what was it like dating a welfare kid K? “ Victoria chuckled as she took a look around. “ Ugh, he even has a queen-size bed, I could feel myself falling off every time I turned, “ Katie replied with a disgusted look on her face. As much as I wanted to rebut I kept my lips sealed as I wasn’t in the mood to strike a conversation with them. The night was dark and Bradley’s two-storey house gave off a chilling feeling as it stood proudly, the sound of the water from the lake slapping the wood of his back porch as it constantly rolled over itself. All lights were off telling us that whoever was home had gone to sleep which was sign enough for Noah to go and get the eggs and toilet paper before distributing it amongst his friends, my brother and I excluded as I had harshly declined. “ This feels cheap, “ Alessia’s squeaky voice made it’s way to our ears, making Noah, Josh and James roll their eyes. “ Do you think I was going to waste money on this piece of s**t? “ Katie replied obviously annoyed. It was a known fact that the group did not like Alessia, she was only there for the looks and to paint a certain image. She often acted like she didn’t know but more times than once I had found her in the downstairs bathroom bawling her eyes out, she was soft and they took advantage of that by reaching at any moment to insult her. “ Are we just going to stand here or are we going to destroy someone's house? “ James asked as he handed Katie a knife more than likely to key Bradley’s car and s***h his tires. “ You two, “ Josh pointed at my brother and me, “ Keep watch. “ With that, I pulled out my phone not paying attention to what they were doing. “ You know, we’re more than likely going to get caught right? “ My brother said to me lowly chuckling causing me to chuckle with him, not because of the situation but because of how stupid his friends were. We both knew the drill, we would be let off after some time at the station our father not long after getting word of it. His friends would be arrested while we sat peacefully in the waiting room waiting for our father to come for us. This happened often and you think that people would learn. We were never a part of the act, we were just tagging along. Before I could reply I hear a crash causing everyone to stop what they were doing and turn our heads towards where Katie was standing beside Bradley’s Jeep to which his driver’s side window was now shattered. “ Are you dumb? “ Noah whisper shouted at her and with that, the porch lights turned on forcing us to run and hide behind the nearest bush. The front door slowly opened, a middle-aged woman stepping through the threshold before slowly walking down the wooden steps a silver baseball bat clutched in her hand. She walked looking around for a lengthy period of time before stepping back inside allowing us to release our breaths as the lights were then turned back off. Katie was the first to step out of the bushes, “ Where are you going? “ James whisper shouted as she stepped over the bush pulling up her black skirt in the movement.  “ To continue what I started, “ She replied determined, and with that everyone followed suit allowing my brother and I to return to what had previously kept us occupied. Noah and the others had then grabbed the unused eggs and toilet paper and had started doing what they were supposed to. This continued for a bit before Katie had gone for a can of spray paint with a sinister look on her face. “ Isn’t that going to make up too much noise? “ My brother asked. She looked to him smiling before replying “ Well yes, but not enough to wake anyone up. “  Oh, how I wished what she had said was true. She had gone to do her handiwork before anyone else could ask her any more questions. Shock was an understatement of the group’s reaction when we had seen what she had written on the wall. Katie wasn’t one for insults, sure, she could be mean but she would rather kill you with kindness than act defensively and this was one of the few times that the group had seen her break out of character and it was surprising for them to say the least.  ‘ I HOPE YOU HAVE A FINE TIME WITH HERPES CHEATER ’ was spray-painted straight across the front of his house, her signature right below her work. Sadly, we didn’t have much time to marvel at her masterpiece as a shrill voice made its way towards our ears. “ FREEZE, HANDS UP! “ And that was how we had been caught red-handed.