“Come on, chica,” Tessa said, and looped her arm through mine. She tugged me along as we hurried across the lawn to the front porch, and I pressed against her as we entered the house. Metallica blared from the surround sound, and it was literally wall-to-wall with people. Tessa scoured the crowded room, then looked at me. “Over there!” she hollered. “Let’s go!”
In a line, Tessa, Marcie, and Kelly, with me sandwiched between Tess and Marcie, wormed our way over to the far wall facing a small cleared area where a make-shift stage and mic stood. The noise deafened me: laughter, music, loud conversation. Couples dancing, making out. It was like a scene from an old eighties college slasher movie.
“Okay, Kelly, let’s go get drinks,” Tessa yelled. “You guys hold our place!”
Marcie and I watched the girls weave through the crowd until they disappeared.
“This is so wild!” Marcie hollered happily. “Oh my god!”
I laughed and shook my head, not nearly as enthused as Marcie with the party environment, and involuntarily I began to search the party-goers for Brax. Death—literally, someone garbed in a Death costume—made his way through, goosing females with his foam sickle. I prayed he stayed far away from us. Still, my eyes explored, and it was so hard to distinguish people. How would I ever find him? How stupid was I? I’d dressed up so he wouldn’t recognize me. Didn’t I for one second think he’d be difficult to find, too? Lord.
A disco ball twirled from the ceiling, and flickers of light darted through the semi-darkness, and it was then someone took the stage—which was nothing more than than a few stacked pallets. A spotlight swung toward himHe was dressed in a full-suited black tuxedo and his face was painted in black and white, like a skeleton. He cleared his throat and banged his hand against the mic, and the music lowered.
“Ooh, this must be the costume contest I heard about!” Marcie leaned close and said loudly. “Epic!”
“Excuse me, assholes, could you all please shut the ever-living hell up? I have an announcement.” The chatter lowered, too. “Why, thank you. Now, as you might have heard, the typically fucktabulous Jenks failed miserably at what most would’ve considered an easy task. But then again, he’s a Kappa, not a Sigma.” He shielded his eyes against the spotlight, searching the crowd. Jenks, if you’re out there, you sadden me, bro. And here we all had applauded you for completing your Kappa Phi Dare before time was up. Instead, you were duped, which is really kind of embarrassing, given your rep, man.” He shook his head. “Goddammit is all I can say, my friend. Godfuckingdammit.”
Boos filled the room. Dare? I looked at Marcie, who shrugged, and my eyes went back to the skeleton at the mic. What was he talking about? My eyes scanned the crowd, searching for Brax. I didn’t see him in the throng of partiers filling the room. It was then I noticed a few other guys dressed in tuxes with skull face paint. What the hell?
Just then, Tessa knocked into me and grabbed my arm. Her eyes were wide, filled with worry. “Olivia, we have to go. Now.” She began to pull me.
“No, Tess, wait—”
“Olivia!” Tessa said. “Brax—oh my god, it was all a hoax!” She tugged harder. “I’ll explain later. Come on!” I resisted, though, my eyes still searching for Brax.
The skeleton speaker continued. “So since Jenks nailed the poor little self-proclaimed virgin cowgirl, only to find out she’s the Gutter Fuck—remember that live feed, guys?” The crowd roared, and the skeleton laughed, and my stomach dropped to my feet as realization slowly penetrated my frozen brain. “We had to challenge a Sigma Chi brother to a new task.” He scanned the crowd again. “Bro, if you’re out there, you’re disqualified!”
“Olivia, dammit, please!” Tessa yanked hard on my arm, but I stood my ground. More boos filled the air, and a girl approached the skeleton speaker and said something in his ear. He then looked in my direction, then directly at me, and then I noticed Kelsy standing beside the girl. He draped his arm over her and grinned.
“Oh, fuck me, will you look over there!” the skeleton yelled. The spotlight swung toward me, and I squinted at its blinding brightness.
“Oh, shit,” Tessa growled.
The guy laughed and pointed with his mic. “Now that’s a good sport right there, guys. Cowgirl, you lost your cherry a long time ago, but you got one big set of balls, darlin’! Gutter fuck? You look like an angel to me! You busy next weekend—ugh!”
The skeleton went down as Brax lunged out of nowhere, swung, and made the guy’s head jerk sideways with a forceful fist to the jaw. Brax wasn’t in any sort of costume like the other fraternity brothers. He was in jeans and a tee shirt. The crowd erupted, the light swung off of me and onto the two frat brothers. A sea of partiers closed in around them as they fought, and I could no longer see Brax. Only his fist as he raised it, smashed it back down.