Chapter 12

I’m curledup in bed with my light still on, trying to get lost in a fictional world. I tried to fall asleep and couldn’t, so I’m trying one more time to make myself love The Great Gatsby. I had to read it for English lit last year and do a paper on it, but every chapter felt like a chore. I want to give it another chance this year—another year older and wiser, maybe.
Maybe not, since I did go get wings with stupid Carter Mahoney and his stupid jerkbag face. Ugh, I’m so mad at him.
I shake it off, rolling out my shoulders and trying to refocus on Gatsby, but my mind keeps drifting back to Grace. She’s almost never mad at anyone, so that she’s mad at me makes me feel terrible, but I feel even worse that she thought I was being self-obsessed. She even made me doubt myself for a minute—maybe I am being paranoid. I really don’t think I am, all my experience with Carter considered, but I guess he never actually admitted to being the one who told Shauna to invite Grace. It seems a bit far-fetched to me, but I guess it’s not impossible he wasn’t involved. I guess it’s not impossible that Shauna decided for the first time ever, completely out of the blue, she would invite me and Grace to one of the parties they have all the time.
No, that’s absurd. It was Carter’s doing. I’m not being paranoid, I am right, and everyone else is wrong because they believe the bullshit façade Carter shows them. They all think of him as some golden boy, as the hot, wealthy football star—none of them know what he is. Hell, I don’t even know what he is, but I’ve seen more of a glimpse than Grace has, that’s for sure. Plus, Grace is always looking for the best in everyone, so even if she saw that there was something off about him, she’d probably try to save his ass rather than stay away from him.
God, Grace, I love you, but you need to get your shit together.
My phone vibrates on the bed beside me. It’s like she can hear me thinking about her. Her name flashes across the screen—a video call. A smidgen of relief hits me. It must be bothering her that we ended our last call on such a sour note, too.
I stick my bookmark in Gatsby and put the paperback down, grabbing my phone and sliding my finger across the screen. Grace’s face fills the screen and I offer up a smile.
“Hey.”
I can barely hear her, but she’s smiling. “Zoey!”
Something is majorly off here. Why is it loud? Is that music? “Where are you?”
“At the party! That’s why I’m calling. You were totally wrong. I’m havin’ a blast. You need to come have fun with me.”
My smile falls right off my face and alarm wraps around me like a blanket. “What? You went to the party without me?”
Grace nods, but it’s a loopy nod and she’s only half paying attention to me. Looking just out of sight, she grins and takes a red Solo cup. “Thank you. You’re so nice.”
My heart stalls. “Grace, focus. Are you drinking?”
She shakes her head dismissively. “Not alcohol. It’s just punch. They do have spiked punch, but I don’t drink, so Carter’s been gettin’ me some of the fruit punch out of the—the non-alcoholic bowl. Come have fun with me!”
It feels like my rib cage is shrinking, crushing my lungs and stealing my ability to breathe. “Carter is getting you drinks? Grace, put that cup down. Don’t you dare drink that. Don’t drink anything he touches.” Throwing the blankets back, I spring out of bed and pace the floor, but I’m not sure what to do. If I go pick her up myself, Carter will get me inside that house. If I tell her mom, her mom will see that Grace has been drinking—non-alcoholic punch, my ass—and she’ll have a conniption. Grace will be grounded forever, and then she’ll really be pissed at me.
I could call the police with a noise complaint, but Grace is there, so she’d get in trouble for underage drinking, too. I could take my mom with me to get Grace, but she’s being ridiculous about Carter, so if he comes out, she’s going to switch sides and not be on mine anymore.
As I’m trying to figure out what I should do, I see an arm slide around Grace’s waist. My blood turns to freezing water in my veins as she turns her face toward him, and then I see Carter Mahoney on my phone with his arm around my best friend.
“Hey, Ellis,” he says casually, smirking like he’s already won this round.
“Stop touching her,” I snap. “Did you do anything to her drink? I swear to God, Carter—”
Grace has the absolute gall to shake her finger at me. “Zoey, you shouldn’t swear to God.”
My eyes bug out. “And you shouldn’t take drinks from rapey jocks! But here we are.”
“Stop being such a drag, Ellis. Come party with us,” Carter says.
Grace nods vehemently. All I can focus on is his arm still wrapped around her, his hand resting on her hip. I want to burst through the phone and rip her away from him.
“Don’t drink that, Grace. Not a single sip. I’m coming to pick you up. I am not coming inside the house; I will call you when I’m in the driveway.”
Carter glances at his watch. “You’re probably gonna have to come inside. See, as much fun as we’re having here, Grace wants to talk to me about Jesus. We’re going to go upstairs in a few minutes so we have a little privacy.”
Hot fury hits me with a fear chaser. “Don’t you dare take her upstairs, Carter. Grace, do not go anywhere alone with him.”
Smirking, Carter cocks his head. “I bet she’s a virgin, too. You know how much I like those good girls, princess.”
I’m going to vomit. My hands shake with helpless rage as I grab the outfit I wore today and push down my pajama pants, since Carter can’t see below my shirt on the phone. “I swear to God, Carter, if you lay a finger on my friend, I will destroy you. I don’t know how, I know you’ll strike back harder, but I don’t care. I will decimate you, and I will not rest until I do.”
“Like I said, you can try,” he replies easily, taking Grace’s phone out of her hand and turning away from her. “Here’s the deal, Zoey. Erika lives over on Meadow Ridge. That’s about a 5 minute drive from your house, but I’m gonna be nice and give you 10 minutes to get here.” He taps the watch on his wrist, lifting an eyebrow. His finger moves down just slightly. “Now, it gets to be 15 minutes and I take Grace upstairs.”
My body is so amped up, I can scarcely breathe. “Carter, this is not funny. You leave Grace alone.”
He taps the watch again. “It’s in your hands now, Ellis.” Pointing a little lower, he says, “I wouldn’t let it get to this 20-minute mark, because if it gets to this 20-minute mark and you’re still not here? Well, then good little Gracie’s gonna lose hers before you lose yours.”
My skin burns with rage. “Don’t you touch her. I’m so serious about this, Carter. I’m not playing some stupid game with you—”
“Yes, you are, and the clock’s running.” With one last little smirk, he says, “Tick tock, princess.”
Then he ends the call.

It has been12 minutes by the time I pull onto Erika’s road. Dread moves through my body and my stomach aches, because I know this can’t go well. I can’t believe Grace came here without me. I can’t believe Carter is being such an enormous shithead. I tried to call her four times on the way over and she didn’t answer her phone. Why isn’t she answering all of a sudden? Maybe she just doesn’t hear it ringing over the music, but maybe Carter is doing something horrible and she can’t.
I was a fool to believe him when he said he doesn’t terrorize other girls. I can’t even believe I fell into that trap—thinking I was some sort of exception. He’s a psycho, and I want to rip his dick off and feed it to him.
Every step I take toward Erika’s front door feels heavier than the last. This is the last place I want to be. These are the absolute last people I want to see.
I hesitate at the door, unsure what to do. Should I knock? Just open the door and barge in? There are six small windows on the front door, so I can see inside the house, right into the living room. I can see it packed full of people, jocks piled on the couch, a cheerleader sitting on the arm, grinning and drinking from a red Solo cup.
I decide to knock first, but if no one hears me, I’m busting in.
I grab my phone to check where I’m at on time. Fuck, 15 minutes. I look in the window again, searching for either Grace or Carter.
Instead I see the blue eyes of Jake Parsons move directly into view on the other side of the window. The door drifts open, the noise growing louder, and Jake cocks an eyebrow at me.
“Fancy seein’ you here, Ellis.”
I glare at him. “Where is Carter?”
Now Jake rolls his eyes. “Tell me something, Zoey. How is it that I come onto you and get my ass handed to me, but after what me and Shayne saw him do to you, you’re hangin’ around the guy all the time? Is it because he’s rich? I don’t have enough money to impress you?”
“Carter doesn’t impress me. He’s terrorizing me. I do not have time for this—he has my friend somewhere alone. Alone, like he had me in that classroom. Where is he?”
Realization suddenly dawns on Jake’s face. “Oh, shit.” He turns and indicates the stairs. “He and Grace went up there a couple minutes ago. She seemed like she went willingly though….”
I don’t waste time explaining, I just brush past him and jog up the stairs to go save Grace.