Graceful Ashes (10 page)

“You’re kidding me, right?”

Her voice upped an octave as she squeaked out her words.

“Nope, not kidding.”

“Girl, I need to teach you a thing or two. If I had someone like Hendrix I’d be all over that man twenty five hours a day.”

“There’s twenty four hours in a day, not twenty five.”

“Exactly.” She laughed.

“You’re such a perv.” I laughed.

“You love me though.”

“Did you call me to talk sex or what?”

“Honestly,” she paused. “I don’t remember exactly why I called you…”

She always called me rambling and not even about the subject she initially called me about.

“Go figure.” I laughed.

“So what’s going on in your world?”

And now she begins the small talk…

“Oh, you know…just getting kicked out of school for a few days or so is all.” I made sure to sound like the news hadn’t fazed me, even though it had.

“What! How in the hell did that happen? Are you freaking out? You’ve got to be freaking out? Does your brother know yet? Oh…My…God…Zoey…” Clara paused.

I heard her suck in a breath.

“What are you doing to do?” she asked.

“You would think you were the one getting suspended by the way you’re reacting.”

“How are you not freaking out right now?”

“Honestly…” I paused to think of how exactly to say it. “I’m more afraid of what Talon is going to say than anything else. The rest is minor details.”

Silence hung thick across the phone line. I looked at the screen to make sure the call was still connected.

“You’ve changed.”

Clara’s voice wasn’t fun and happy this time, it was serious and concerned.

“Everyone changes.”

“I don’t know about that.” She sighed. “I’ve been as wild as wild can be at parties, but I always come back to being the music major. The girl who lives and breathes music deep in my bones. You’re not as passionate about dancing anymore. You haven’t been since Hendrix walked into the picture. I’m not saying he’s to blame—”

“I think you are.”

“Zoey, hear me out, okay? With dance being your entire world for as long as you can remember, you don’t know how to manage when something else is added to the mix. You think you can’t juggle both your dancing and Hendrix, but you can. You have to find that happy medium.”

Clara had a point. If I could find a happy medium it would be fantastic, but deep down I wasn’t sure how to even remotely do that. Hendrix was consuming my entire being. From me wanting to spend as much time with him as I could, experiencing new things with him, and craving more…. I was finding it easier to leave the life I once thought I wanted behind.

I thought wanting to leave that life would frighten me, but it didn’t.

“I don’t know…I guess I’ll see how everything falls into place…or apart.”

“It doesn’t have to be that way, Zoey.”

“Yeah, I think it does.”

Clara sighed. “How ‘bout we get together tonight? It’s been over two weeks now since we’ve had a chance to hang, and then it was for a quick coffee trip.”

I squeezed my eyes shut as I turned the key in my apartment door to unlock it. “Hendrix wanted me to go to this party uptown with him tonight. I wasn’t going to because I had class tomorrow but since that’s changed…”

“If you don’t invite me, I’m kicking your ass.”

That was the Clara I knew and loved. “Of course you’re invited ass wipe.” My name of choice had her laughing. “I’ll see you at your place around nine thirty.”

“Can’t wait!”

If I’d known inviting her to a party would stop the heart-to-heart conversation, I would’ve opened with that. My mind was on the fritz and I didn’t know if I could handle one more person telling me that I was throwing away my life. I just had to come up with a way to avoid my brother’s calls for the night.

Chapter Ten

“Should I dress slutty?” Clara’s question made me laugh until I looked up at her from the comfy position of lying on my stomach.

She was dead serious.

“You always dress slutty for parties…what would make this one any different?” One of my eyebrows rose in question.

Clara shrugged.

That’s odd.

“The Clara I know has never asked if she should dress slutty.” I flipped my leather legging clad legs around to sit on the edge of her bed. “What’s going on with you?”

“I don’t know.” She turned her back to me as she dug through her closet once more. “I just felt like maybe I should switch it up for once. Dress more like you, than me.”

“I’ll take that as a compliment.”

Clara looked back at me over her shoulder. “You look hot tonight. I didn’t mean anything else.”

“You always do, too.”

She gave me one of her signature “don’t bullshit me” looks.

“Slutty doesn’t scream hot, it screams easy. I’m tired of being the girl who is seeking the attention of any and every guy in the room.” She paused. “God, I sound like a whore.”

I couldn’t help the laugh that bubbled up my throat. “Maybe a bit.” I put a scant distance between my thumb and index finger to indicate how little she sounded like a whore.

“Anyway.” She shook her head and shifted her attention to the clothes hanging before her. “I want someone that only wants me. Like what you and Hendrix have.”

“We don’t have anything set in stone though.”

Clara slipped something from its hanger before removing her own shirt, leaving her bare back toward me. The black flowy material slipped over her body and she turned to face me. The top was solid black and dipped in a V to show cleavage, but not too much. Fitted around her chest, the blouse flowed past her waist at different angles, giving a sexy yet comfortable look.

“Love.” I pointed to the shirt. “Teal skinny jeans and long earrings.”

“Isn’t it funny how this role is reversed all of a sudden?” She tossed the shirt she had discarded at me. “When did you become so fashionable?”

I shrugged. “You better hurry your butt up. We have to make it to the station to catch the ten fifteen train.”

Clara checked the time on the clock resting on the dresser. “We have plenty of time.” She smiled at me before slipping into the bathroom to put on her makeup.

“Plenty of time my ass,” I argued through gritted teeth. The sound of my ankle boots hitting the concrete sidewalk at a fast pace echoed through the cold night air.

“You can’t blame me
completely
for us being late.”

My head whipped around in her direction. “Why the heck can’t I?”

“Well, if I remember correctly you took a good five minutes trying to decide if you should take your phone or not before finally shooting Talon a text lying about going to bed.”

“That was five minutes, Clara!” My voice rose louder than I had anticipated. “We’re almost half an hour late!”

“Being fashionably late is better than showing up early.”

I rolled my eyes, knowing she couldn’t see me do it, and groaned in annoyance. “You’re a flippin’ mess.”

“All the best people are.” She smiled as we watched the quarter ‘til eleven train slip past us.

“Great!” I threw my hands in the air.

Clara held up a hand to stop me from saying any more as she typed away on her phone. “Crisis averted.” A proud smile stretched across her face.

Not understanding how she thought our crises was averted, I mentally beat myself up for leaving my phone behind when a cab pulled up to the curb before us.

“Come on.” Clara tugged me into the cab.

She threw the cabbie extra cash to get us there quicker, which was a blessing and a curse. I hated fast driving, and the word fast didn’t touch the speed the driver was doing. I kept my hand latched over my mouth in hopes that I wouldn’t upchuck, but it wasn’t looking promising.

I took a calming breath as the cab came to a stop at the corner of a large rundown building that read private across the front entrance. Never in my life had I seen such a crappy looking building with a sign letting people know the place was private. I laughed aloud at the giant contradiction.

Clara raised a dark eyebrow.

“The sign says private.” I waved my hand at it as we both slipped from the cab.

Her eyebrows dipped in confusion.

“It’s such a junky building to say that.” She still didn’t understand the humor of it so I waved her off. “Never mind.”

There was absolutely no signs of a party going on at the location Hendrix had given me, and he was nowhere in sight.

“Do you think he gave up on us showing?” Clara hugged herself tightly as we both glanced around the perimeter.

“Surely not.”

“Zoey?”

An unfamiliar voice called my name.

Clara and I both spun toward the alley next to the building and instinctively took a step back.

“Yeah?” I asked.

“Hendrix sent me after the two of you.” The long blonde haired woman was thin, almost too thin, with heavy black eyeliner and a ring hooked into the center of her nose.

“Why didn’t he come to get us?” Clara spoke up before I could.

“He’s a little…” The girl paused. “preoccupied.” 

I didn’t like the sounds of that, but we followed her anyway, hoping she wasn’t taking us somewhere to murder us and mutilate our bodies before dumping them who knows where.

“This is odd,” Clara whispered.

“I don’t know why Hendrix wouldn’t have come himself. It’s a party, it’s not like he’s…”

The girl looked in our direction as she stopped before a boarded up door.

“Through here.” The blonde squatted and moved a board so we could pass through the hole. She followed us then repositioned the board. We continued down a dimly lit walkway. The only sounds were our shoes slapping against the concrete. The location was far too odd and the silence too deafening to believe a hellacious party was going down.

“Are you sure we’re in the right place?” Clara asked me.

“It’s in the basement,” the blonde said.

“Are they meditating? Because I don’t hear a thing,” I countered.

She laughed as the faint sounds of bass thumping caught my attention.

“It’s been sound proofed to a certain extent,” she said.

“Who in the hell would need to sound proof a building to have a party?” Clara asked.

“Rizzo, that’s who,” the girl said.

She looked at us like we should’ve known who was hosting the party.

The only thing that stood out to me was the name she mentioned. It was the same name Hendrix had thrown at those guys when he’d first taken me to his place. I wasn’t sure who Rizzo was, but from the sound of it, he had a lot to keep private.

We stood back as the girl punched in a code on the metal pad beside a tall dark door.

My heart raced and I looked to see if Clara was silently freaking out like myself. Sure enough she was. Her eyes were wide as she twirled a strand of her hair, one of her nervous habits.

As the door opened our ears were filled with the loud music. Colorful lights danced across the stairs as we descended into the basement. The door shut firmly behind us and the blonde disappeared into the large crowd as soon as we hit the concrete floor.

“Do you see Hendrix?” Clara called out over the music.

I shook my head.

“Me neither.” She frowned.

I hated being uneasy, and it was settling over me in mass form. We pushed through the crowd of people dancing and maneuvered ourselves into what I assumed to be a sitting area. Long navy blue couches sat in two lines facing one another with people mashed together on them doing just about anything you could imagine.

One couple was snorting a line of white powder off of what looked like a mirror, while the couple across from them was half naked and devouring one another.

My cheeks heated from the scene before me. I’d never in my life watched others act as these people were.

I officially needed bleach for my eyes.

“What kind of party is this?” Clara’s face was full of shock as she glanced around the sitting area.

“One that we’re not used to attending.”

“Isn’t that the truth,” she huffed. “I feel like it’s best not to sit on those couches unless we’d like a parting gift that isn’t something you can wash off.”

A round of laughter escaped me at the grimace on her face. The situation wasn’t a bit funny, it was that fact that I felt the exact same way she did about it.

“Maybe we should just leave?” I asked.

“Hell to the no.” Clara sternly replied. “We’re going to find Hendrix and ask him just why in the hell he would invite us here. This shit is ridiculous!”

She waved at the couples on the couches like she was a floorshow model then tugged me behind the stairs in search of Hendrix.

After we’d maneuvered our way throughout the entire basement about three full times, we still came up short on finding Hendrix. I didn’t like the fact that he was nowhere to be found, not to mention how the blonde had said he was preoccupied. If this was the type of life he was living when I wasn’t around, I was unsure as to whether or not I wanted to be involved with him.

“Fuck this shit, we’re dancing!” Clara gripped my hand and pulled me into the crowd of people bumping and grinding on one another. Clara started dancing on me almost as provocatively as the rest of them.

“You’re crazy!” I laughed over the music as she sang along to the words of the upbeat rap song vibrating our bodies.

“Let loose! Unless you want to take a seat over there with Fabio.” She giggled and nodded toward one of the couches.

I followed her gaze to a long-haired blond man sitting on the end of the couch. His hair was silky smooth, pulled into a ponytail at the nape of his neck. His arms were thick from lifting weights most likely and his gaze was locked on us.

A wave of unease washed over me as I turned my back toward the attractive man Clara had named, Fabio. “Let’s dance!” I smiled widely as I moved to the beat of the song.

We danced through numerous songs until we were covered in a sheen of sweat. A brunette girl in a tight black leather skirt and white v-neck shirt had been walking around handing out drinks. We had no clue what was in them, but that didn’t stop us from consuming them.

The song came to a close and I gulped my mysterious drink of bright blue liquid then fanned myself. Still hot, I bunched my hair together with and lifted it from my damp neck. I leaned over so Clara could hear me. “I’m burning up. I need a time out.”

She agreed about being hot as hell, and we slipped out of the dancing crowd to find a cooler spot. We took a seat at a small high table directly behind a large support pole with very few people around it. Although more secluded than the sitting area or the dance floor, we could still see pretty much the entire basement.

I felt a pang of disappointment and confusion as to why Hendrix hadn’t shown his face. Since I didn’t have my phone, I couldn’t contact him, or check if he’d contacted me. But why would he invite us to come if he wasn’t going to show up himself? Especially with all the sex, drugs, and Rock-n-Roll going down.

“A drink?” The brunette stepped up to the table holding a tray of those bright blue drinks.

We both took another cup.

“Thank you,” I said.

She gave us a closed lipped smile and moved along the path she had been following the entire night.

“I’m going to find a restroom.” I took a large swig from my Solo cup and slipped from the chair.

“I think they’re back that way.” Clara pointed down a hallway behind me. “Do you want me to go with you?”

“Naw. I’ll be right back, promise.”

Without giving her a chance to say anything else I made my way down the hallway. The two doors on the right were marked as restrooms while the door, on the left side said private. I entered the women’s restroom and did my business.