Tortured: Book Three of the Jason and Azazel Trilogy (11 page)

* * *

At dinner that night,
Jason seemed tense. He moved his food around on his plate with his fork, but
didn't actually eat much of it. I squeezed his hand under the table, and tried
to tell him with a look that everything was going to be okay. I didn't know if
everything was going to be okay or not. But I wished someone would tell me that
right now.
Palomino and Chance didn't notice that the two of us weren't our usual selves,
due to the fact that Mina chattered constantly, relaying our adventures in
Milan, including how awed I'd been with the Duomo, which Palomino found
hysterically funny. Chance defended me, saying that he thought it was pretty
amazing too.
 
Then Palomino launched into detailed descriptions of our dresses.
"Wait," said Chance,
"aren't we guys not
supposed to know about these dresses until prom?"
"You're thinking of bride's dresses," said Palomino. "Grooms
aren't supposed to see the bride before the wedding."
"Oh," said Chance.
 
"Azazel's dress is really pretty," said Palomino.
"So is yours," I said.
"Mine is slimming," said Palomino.
I rolled my eyes. "You're one of the slimmest people I know," I said.
"You don't need to be slimmed."
Mina patted her still-flat stomach as if she was actually showing her pregnancy
already.
 
"Is this seat taken?"
We all looked up to see who was talking to us. It was Fairie Weem. We exchanged
a look. Why would Fairie Weem want to talk to us? No one said anything. Fairie
seemed to take this as an invitation. She sat down.
 
"Hey," she said brightly.
No one said anything.
 
"So how are you guys?" she asked.
I looked around. "
Where's
the rest of them?"
I said. "How does this turn into a big joke on us?"
Fairie sighed, chewing on a celery stick. I noticed she only had low calorie
foods on her plate. Celery sticks.
Lettuce.
Cucumbers.
Maybe she was anorexic. "Look, I know we
gave you guys a hard time at first, but honestly, it was all in good fun."
"You said that I was on heroin and that I had AIDs," said Palomino.
"How was that in good fun?"
"I'm sorry," said Fairie, sounding defensive.
"Geez.
But, you know, I never said anything like about you two.
Amy
and Jeremy."
She beamed at us.
 
"Did George tell you something?" Jason asked.
 
Fairie looked completely confused. "What's George got to do with this?
Okay, Faruza's
only banging
him because he's got a
really big dick. She might dump him anyway, if you guys—" she gestured at
Jason and me "—think he's stupid."
What the hell?
 
"Look," she said, "a bunch of us are having a get-together
tonight.
Outside by the rec center.
Starts
around nine.
Don't worry about curfew. It's totally taken care of. It'd
be really cool if you showed." She smiled and got up. "Oh, Amy,"
she said. "You should totally wear that little black tank top you were
wearing the other day. It's super cute."
 
And she swept off.
 
I felt like I'd just been hit by a bus. "That was weird," I said.
 
"It
 
is
 
a
cute tank top," said Palomino.
"They hate us, though," I said.
 
Palomino shrugged. "Well, I think we should go."
"Are you kidding?" I said. "They'll dump pig's blood or
something on us."
Chance chuckled darkly. "I think they'll wait until the prom for
that."
"Okay," said Jason. "We'll go."
I turned to look at him, astonished. "What?" I said. "But—"
 
We
have a body to dispose of tonight.
 
He gave me a look.
I shrugged. "Guess we're going."
"Cool," said Palomino.
"Party."
She grinned,
then
frowned. "Damn it. I can't
drink!"
I made a sympathetic face. "I'm totally not wearing that tank top,
though," I muttered.

* * *

Jason explained to me that he thought it would be
easier for us to sneak out of the party to take care of Jude's body than it
would be to sneak out of the dorm.
Plus, being at the party
meant that we could use the rich kids' curfew pass to our advantage.
It
made sense, but I was kind of frustrated with him because the clothes I wanted
to wear to move a body were not the clothes I wanted to wear to a party. I
tried to find a happy medium. Clothes that looked kind of nice but could get
messed up, and I wouldn't care. This was really next to impossible, so I ended
up in an outfit that I figured I was just going to have to sacrifice.
We showed up at the party around nine, even though Mina protested that it was
totally uncool to be on time. Jason and I wanted to get there early enough that
we could make an appearance and then sneak off without anyone realizing we
weren’t still there. We figured this would be easy, since we weren’t very
popular at the
Sol
Solis
School
.
We didn’t know very many people, anyway. We were wrong.
When we got to the rec center, about ten of the richest kids in the school were
already there. They had set up a snack on the picnic tables under the pavilion.
The picnic tables were covered in crimson tablecloths and set with real
silverware and plates. It looked very elegant and innocent. Faruza and Fairie
were there already, fussing over flower arrangements. When they saw us, their
identical faces lit up, and they rushed over.
"Hey!" said Faruza.
"Hi!" said Fairie. "You came! I wasn’t sure if you would."
Faruza shoved Fairie playfully. "I told you they’d come," she said.
She linked arms with me and started to walk me over towards the picnic tables.
I shot a terrified glance over my shoulder at Jason, but he was following,
being led in a similar way by Fairie. Behind us, Chance and Mina trailed,
looking confused.
I felt confused too. This had to be a set up of some kind. People who hated you
didn’t suddenly just get nice for
no
reason.
 
" .
. . so don’t worry," Faruza was saying
to me.
"Huh?" I said, trying to concentrate on what she was saying.
"I was saying that all this stuff is just a show for the heads," she
said. She meant the headmasters and mistresses of the school. "They
usually show up to these things when we throw them and stay for about an hour
or two. Once they leave, we break out the booze."
I nodded. "And you don’t get in trouble for throwing parties on
campus?"
Fairie pulled close with Jason in tow. "Our parents donate a significant
amount of money to the school," she said, smiling and winking.
 
So I guessed that was what it was like to be a really rich kid. And the Weem
twins were very rich kids who went to a school full of rich kids. They were the
richest of the rich.
 
Sure enough, within fifteen minutes, the heads of the school showed up. They
got snacks and chatted with the students while sitting at the fancy picnic
tables. Jason and I didn’t have a minute to ourselves. Faruza and Fairie yanked
us around, introducing us to people who didn’t know us and asking our opinions
about all kinds of ridiculous things. Faruza seemed very concerned over my
thoughts on the pattern of the china which we were using. "Next
time," she said, "you should totally help me pick it out or
something, because I want to make sure you guys like it."
Why did she care if we liked it?
It got worse. "I told George not to come," Faruza told me as we
munched on smoked salmon and crackers. "I know that you guys aren’t really
very fond of him."
"Um, I really thought it was the other way around. I thought you guys
didn’t like us."
"That’s just not true," said Faruza. "I mean, I think at first,
I was caving to a lot of peer pressure and stuff, and I really want to
apologize for that, because it seriously wasn’t cool. We think you and Jeremy
are pretty much the most awesome thing that’s ever happened to this
school."
"
Yeah?"
I said.
"Since
when?"
Faruza looked a little troubled for a second, as if she was thinking really
hard. "Well," she said, "I want to say since always, but that
doesn’t make sense, does it?
Because I remember that I was,
like, really mean to you.
I remember that Fairie and I had the idea to invite
you to the party last night. We couldn’t believe we’d left you out."
"To invite Jeremy and me," I said.
 
"Yeah."
"But not Chance and Mina?"
"
Oh, of course, it’s fine if your friends want to come. It’s one of
the things I admire about you the most. That you’re just so nice to everyone,
even people like that."
"Chance is my—" I stopped talking. I'd been about to tell her that
Chance was my brother, but I couldn’t say that out loud.
 
"No, no!" said Faruza. "I know that you four are all really
close. That's awesome. And they should stay, because it's awesome.
Seriously."
She smiled at me, as if she were afraid we
all might just bolt.
Which was annoying, because that was exactly what Jason and I
wanted to do.
I searched the crowd for Jason. I could see that he was with Fairie on the
other side of the pavilion. He was holding a plate filled with hors d'oeuvres
and stuffing them into his mouth as several people chattered at him. How were
we going to get out of here?
The night wore on. The heads left. The alcohol came out. This wasn't like a keg
party back in Bramford, however, or even a party on the beach in
Bradenton
. There were
fancy cocktails served in crystal martini glasses with glass stirrers. More of
the Weem twins' friends started to show up and swarm me. They told me how much
they liked my outfit. They complimented my hairstyle (a ponytail—nothing
fancy). They wanted to know what stylist was doing my hair and makeup for the
prom.
"Um," I said, "I was going to do it myself."
"Wow," they all said, "what a cool idea."
"Yeah. It's so simple."
"
And self-sufficient."
"
Amy, you're an inspiration."
I felt like I was going to choke. I managed a half-smile. "I need to find
my boyfriend," I said.
"Oh!" said Faruza. "We've been hogging you all night, haven't
we? I'm so sorry! Let's go find Jeremy." She took my arm and dragged me
over to where Jason was standing. He was surrounded by a group of girls and
guys. As I approached, I could hear their conversation.
"So, where did you get that shirt?" one of the girls was asking.
"I don't know," said Jason, sounding just as weirded out as I felt.
 
"God," said one of the guys. "That's so cool. He doesn't even
know where his clothes came from."
"Yeah, dude, that's awesome," said another.
Jason spotted me approaching. He reached out for my hand and pulled me close.
 
"Hi," I said.
"I am so happy to see you," he whispered in my ear.
 
I nodded. "Me too," I mouthed.
Then, more loudly.
"Oh God, Jeremy, I left something in my dorm room. Can you come with me to
get it?"
"Of course," he said. "Good idea," he whispered. To the
crowd of onlookers who had gathered around us, "Excuse us."
The crowd parted to let us out. Jason clasped my hand, and we walked away as
fast as we could. It was all I could do not to run.
 
The rec center was on the opposite side of campus than the assembly hall. We
started walking back in that direction. Within several minutes, we were out of
sight of the rec center.
"Okay," said Jason, "that was weird."
"Yeah," I said. "What was that?"
"If it's a prank, they're really putting a lot of effort into it."
They were. And they all seemed so genuine. Why would they waste so much time
being nice to us if they just wanted to make fun of us? "Do you think
maybe it's not a prank?" I asked.
Jason shot a glance at me. "You mean like they all suddenly think we're
really awesome?"
I swallowed. "Why would they think that?"
 
Jason's jaw twitched. "I think George told them something. When he ran
away from me, it seemed like he knew something, didn't he? Like he knew who we
were."
"But Faruza said she told George not to come tonight," I said.
"And besides, would that make them like us?"
"It might make them afraid of us," said Jason.
Maybe.
I considered. "So, then, wouldn't they run
from us instead of being all sweet and nice?"
Jason shook his head. "I don't know. I don't know. Maybe it's a
prank."
"Maybe," I said. It was strange that thinking it was a prank was a
comforting thought. "But if it's a prank, then we just left Chance and
Palomino to deal with the brunt of it."
"We'll go back," Jason said.
"But we'll be . . . messy," I said, shuddering a little. I didn't
want to think about what we were getting ready to do. Not one bit.
Jason had left the garbage bags inside the old church, at the top of the
basement steps. It took a little doing to get the door unlocked. Jason had to
pick it. We went in through the side like always, while I stood watch and
looked for guards. No one seemed to be out tonight. At least not near the old
church. I could see the back of the guards who stood at the entrance to the
library. Apparently, those guys never left.
 
The garbage bags were still there. But Jude's body wasn't.
 
There wasn't a trace of him. No clothes, no blood, no marks from dragging a
body on the floor.
Nothing.
 
Jason and I stood inside the small enclave of the basement, the light bulb
swinging back and forth crazily, making the shadows dance on the wall, and we
didn't move.
"This isn't good," I finally whispered.
 
"No," said Jason. "It's not."