The Masquerade Read Online Free PDF Page A

eye. Neither of us moved, but I felt the air shift like his thoughts had reached and had closed my mouth.
    I blinked, then looked down to the porch and shuffled my feet. Damn it, Vee, couldn’t you look mature and intelligent for just one second? But no matter how many times I scalded my slow wittedness, it wouldn’t change the sloping frown that passed his face—dark and ominous like a greying cloud overhead, heavy with the forecast of an onslaught.
    Soon after, Rick and I exchanged polite smiles, and then I went out back to retrieve Justin. It was fifteen minutes past the time that we had agreed to call Rick, but he laughed with his friends, not the slightest concern in his body language.
    “Justin.” I tapped his shoulder. “ Justin .” I shook his shoulder and twisted him around to look him in the eyes.
    “Hey, baby girl,” he slurred and fell onto my lips, sloppy tongue trying to find mine though my lips were closed. He searched for a few seconds while I waited, eyeing the chuckling girl behind him. As he parted, he stared off at the house.
    I turned, but no one was there. Just a slamming fly screen door and a departing streak from someone with khakis similar to Rick’s. Was he watching? Was that Rick leaving?
    “Yeah, okay, I’m ready to go.”
    I held Justin’s hand so he wouldn’t topple, but in the backseat of Rick’s car, he toppled anyway, lips falling into the hollow of my neck. I giggled, pushing him back, but he came at me again, growling like a mean bear and pretending to devour me.
    “Keep it together, guys,” from the driver’s seat, “it’s just a quarter-hour trip home.”
    “Do you want me to keep it together?” Justin queried, eyes twinkling. They seemed odd, pupils large, and his breath stunk. I wasn’t sure how much booze he’d consumed, but it didn’t seem to be what was affecting him. I preferred him at school. At parties, he acted strange, interchangeable, so much so that I couldn’t tell if he used weed or pills or just truly loved letting loose while sober.
    Rick said no more , pulling up at my house wordless. He turned back in his seat, positioning himself with his elbow on the centre console.
    One brother glanced around my face , and his gaze hit me so hard it felt as though his hands cupped my cheeks. His eyes were dull brown and burdened by something. And the other brother turned my face and pecked my chin. He went again, trying to get my lips, but I spoke up.
    “All right, all right. I’m going.” I opened my door and climbed out, adjusting my skirt lower on my thighs. Justin lay back on his seat, hand flapping in the formation of a wobbly wave. Rick met my eyes one last time, but dropped his gaze to his hands on the wheel, and never saw me step inside, or the door closing him out.
    I wished I could tell him he shouldn’t worry about Justin’s partying hard around me. I’d make my own decisions and look after myself.
    Yet, I wished he would never lose that gaze, holding me captive. I’d never felt so protected.
     
    • • •
     
    It was a game we played —the trio of the Delaney brothers and me. Rick would come by to drop or pick us up from somewhere, rarely stay. But when he hung around, Justin would inch closer or flirt with me. Until one night, not sober, he said, “Be my girlfriend.”
    I scoffed. “You’re meant to pose it as a question.”
    “Be my girlfriend?” His tone was softer.
    “I don’t think so.” Yet despite my sureness, I couldn’t forget the sadness in his expression, so afterward, I ran away with his wallet and he chased me to grab it back.
    By the time spring came along again, we had progressed to good friends, and one evening, he had dropped by my house with Cara. Mum cooked dinner for our family and my friends, and we fit snugly at the six-seater table setting. Mum and Dad departed to watch a ‘movie’ in their room, Robert studied for his final exams, and Cara, Justin, and I debated whether ‘movie’ was a euphemism for