The reality of what was going on came crashing down on me.
Oh my god. This girl thinks I'm Kaia, and Kaia is with Tim
.
I pulled the girl roughly towards me, my nose inches from hers. "Which way did I go?"
She pointed feebly down a wooded path, and I took off running. I left the light from the fire behind, but the moon was out, and I could see well enough as I followed the thin path through the trees.
I surprised a couple of people making out behind some bushes. I was really glad that it wasn't Tim and Kaia, but as I got farther and farther down the path I started to wish that it had been them. At least then I would know where they were and what the hell was going on.
I went as fast as I could, but the underbrush was thick and the path was narrow, and I kept tripping over snaky tree roots. Suddenly I realized that I could pick out a different sound, one that rose above the dull, distant hum of the party. It was one that I recognized, and I surged ahead, shoving my way down the path, until I saw the stupid fake Ugg boots I knew so well sticking out from behind a tree.
I stormed over and kicked her in the leg. Rachel snorted in her sleep. She was passed out on the ground, her eyes closed and her head thrown back, snoring like a chainsaw. Tim couldn't be far away. I kicked Rachel again, not to try to wake her up, but just because I wanted to. What a goddamn bitch. She was Tim's lookout, or she was supposed to be, I was sure of it.
The path was completely nonexistent at this point, but I knew I had to be close. I thrust my way through a thicket of scotch broom and saw a wheel-less, rusted out shell of a truck dumped in the middle of the bushes. My eyes flew to the set of legs that lolled out of the truck's missing passenger door, and the body crouched between them. I'd found Tim and Kaia.
I didn't even stop to think. "Get off her!" I screamed. I charged across the underbrush that surrounded the truck, grabbed the back of Tim's shirt, and yanked him away from Kaia. He stumbled backwards a few steps and staggered to the side. I took advantage of his unsteadiness, putting my palms on his chest and shoving hard. I barely even looked at the stunned expression on his face as he fell to the ground on his butt.
I whirled back around and scrambled in the open truck door, closing Kaia's legs for her and pulling her skirt back down over her underwear.
Thank god, her underwear was on.
I grabbed her hands and tried to pull her into a sitting position, but she was dead weight. Great. I could send Tim flying across the ground, but I couldn't make my cousin sit up. I scooted farther into the car. "Kaia! Kaia get up. I'm getting you out of here."
Her eyes fluttered open, rolled in her head, then focused on me. "Athena?" she whispered. She tried to raise her head, but after an inch or so it flopped back on the seat cushion and she closed her eyes again.
I took her by the shoulders and shook her. "Kaia! Kaia come on! Ka-"
My words were cut off when Tim snaked his whip thin, hairy arm around my waist and dragged me backwards out of the truck. I pried at his fingers as he pulled me across the tiny clearing, but his arm was like a vise.
"Rachel!" he shouted into the darkness. "Rachel goddammit, where are you, you stupid bitch?"
"She's passed out dumbass," I gasped, trying to catch my breath. His grip was pinching off my air supply. "Looks like you roofied her too."
Tim let go of me and shoved me in the back. "Roofies? Hah. Kaia's lokoed. Your alcoholic cousin did this to herself, and Rachel's a fuckin
’
lightweight." I fell down in the pine needles on my hands and knees and Tim laughed. "Damn girl. You been taking lessons from your sister? That's just how I like it. Don't move a muscle."
I heard the sound of a zipper and I flipped over, scrambling away on my hands, feet, and butt, like a crab. "Get the fuck away from me." I moved fast. Too fast. I slammed the back of my head into a tree in my effort to get away. "Oh Jesus Christ," I moaned. Little black dots swam in front of my eyes and a wave of sound thrummed in my ears, making everything sound like a crazed howl.
Tim stopped in mid stride and snapped his neck to the left, just as a figure flew out of the woods and fell on him, knocking him to the ground. That sound wasn't in my ears. It was coming from the person who straddled Tim, raining blow after blow into his face and body.
I watched, stunned for a couple of seconds, then my eyes flicked to Tim. Already, his face was nearly unrecognizable, covered in glistening blood that looked black in the moonlight. His nose was crooked at an angle that made my stomach curdle.
I scrambled to my feet and grabbed at the person raining punches on Tim. "Stop!" I cried. "You'll kill him!"
The guy landed one more punch to Tim's face, then stopped, his arms hanging tensely at his sides. His guttural growl cut off, and he breathed raggedly. Standing up and turning to face me, Derek pushed his hair out of his eyes with a bruised hand. "Dude's a cockroach. It'll take more than an ass-kicking to kill him."
My legs felt like they turned to rubber, and my knees buckled. Lightning fast, Derek's hands shot out. He caught me around my waist and steadied me. One hand slid around and rested on the small of my back. My breath stuck in my throat and I tipped my head back sharply to look him in the eye, but he released me just as quickly as he'd taken hold of me. "You okay?" he asked.
I nodded and exhaled. "Yeah. But Kaia's not. I think she's drugged or something. Tim said she's lokoed, but he could be lying. She's in the truck."
Derek and I crossed to where Kaia lay stretched across the truck's backseat, looking totally peaceful. As I watched, she coughed delicately, then turned her head to the side and threw up onto the truck's rusted out floorboards.
"Oh, Kaia!" I squeezed back into the truck, making sure to avoid the vomit, and put my arm under Kaia's shoulders, tugging to try to get her to sit up. She wasn't as unresponsive as last time, but she was still tough to manage.
She opened her eyes again, and once more, a look of wonder crossed her face. "Athena, you came back."
"Yeah, yeah, I'm here. Let's get you home. Derek? Could you give me a hand here?"
I finished pulling Kaia into a sitting position, and between myself and Derek we hustled her out of the truck and sat her on the ground. I wrapped my arms around her to keep her from toppling over. "What are you going to do with him?" I asked, eyeing Tim's unconscious form distastefully.
"I don't know. Leave him here, I guess," Derek answered.
"You should drag him over by my sister," I said. "Let them wake up together."
"Your sister? Phoebe's here? Or is it the other one
…
Monica? What are they doing here?" Derek's eyebrows drew together, puzzled.
"It's not either one of them. I've got another sister
…
Rachel, Tim's girlfriend. She's passed out in the woods about fifty feet from here. I think she was supposed to be the lookout."
Derek's eyes widened in shock. "
You're
Rachel's little sister?"
"Yeah."
"But, how can you
…
I thought Rachel was Mexican or something."
I thought about Rachel's perma-tan and what I'd learned about my dad tonight, and I let out a bark of laughter that probably seemed totally inappropriate. "Ha! Maybe she is. She's over there, just look for the cheapass fake Uggs sticking out from under a bush and you've found her." I pointed in the direction of Rachel's blackout spot, and Derek nodded. He grabbed Tim by the ankles and unceremoniously hauled him away.
Derek was back in less than two minutes. "I looked for Kaia's car earlier. I thought she might have gone there to pass out, so I found where she's parked. Can you drive her home?"
"Yeah. I don't know how she's gonna get out of the woods though, she can't walk."
"I'll carry her." Derek scooped her up in his arms like a child, and Kaia's head lolled against his chest. She opened her eyes and peered at him blearily. "Who are you? Where's Athena?"
I expected Derek to look confused, but he didn't. He nodded at me. "She's over there."
Kaia turned her head in my direction and a tiny smile crept across her face before she shut her eyes and passed out again.
Derek led the way through the woods, choosing a path that was wider and easier to navigate than the one I'd fought my way down. Most of the time it was too narrow to walk side by side, so I followed behind, but at one point it widened out and I was able to walk next to him. He picked his way slowly and carefully over the rutted ground. I matched his steps for a few strides in silence.
"Thank you," I said finally, breaking the heavy air between us.
"Anytime."
"How did you know where we were?" I asked.
Derek sighed, blowing a lock of hair out of his eyes. "Like I said, I went looking for Kaia at her car. She wasn't there. The next thing I know, you blow past in your boyfriend's Lexus, but he comes back down the road two minutes later without you. So I thought to myself, 'what's the worst thing that could happen?' After that, I couldn't get to Tim's hideaway fast enough."
"I didn't see you, or Kaia's car. And Grady's not my boyfriend, he's just my friend."
"Yeah, right. Whatever."
"No. I mean, yeah, we dated a couple times, but
…
it didn't work out." My mouth pursed wryly, but I didn't think Derek could see my expression in the moonlight. "Long story."
The path narrowed down to one lane again, and I had to drop back behind Derek while he twisted and turned to make his way out of the woods and not scrape Kaia up with the branches that poked and grabbed at us. I wasn't sure, but it looked like he held his shoulders just a little straighter now as he walked.
We broke free of the woods. We weren't back at the party, though I could hear it raging off in the distance. We were on the side of the long dirt driveway. Parked cars lined each side as far as the eye could see.
"Kaia's car's this way," Derek said.
We walked about a hundred yards until we found Kaia's tiny old silver Honda Accord wedged between two larger vehicles. No wonder I hadn't noticed it on the way in. It was dwarfed by the SUV and the minivan on either side of it.
Derek moved around to the passenger side, and I hurried over to open the door. He set Kaia gently inside and leaned her seat back a little so that her chin didn't bang against her chest as her head lolled. He reached across her body to buckle her in, then closed the door. It popped back open.
"You have to slam it," I said, taking the door in my hand and flinging it closed. It stayed shut.
"Are you gonna be okay to drive her home?" Derek asked as he walked with me to the driver's door.
"Yeah, it's a stick, but I've driven it few times. I don't love it, but I can manage."
I went to open the driver's door, but Derek reached out and touched my arm before I could grab the handle. I stared at his fingers on my skin. It had been so long since Derek had touched me, but my reaction was the same. It felt like little electric sparks raced through me.
"Hey," he said.
I waited a couple beats, nervous about what my voice might sound like if I spoke, but he didn't say anything else, so finally I forced myself to deliver a response. "Yes?"
"I get it now. I thought, before, that you knew my stepbrother from a party, or just from around or something. I had no idea Rachel was your sister. I get why you don't want to be around me." Derek still held my arm, but his eyes looked at a spot on the hood of Kaia's car.
"No, Derek." My words came out in a rush. "I was wrong. I was so wrong. It's not your fault Tim's your stepbrother any more than it's my fault that my family is who they are. It was really messed up of me. It's just
…
something happened between me and Tim and Rachel that really freaked me out, and I guess I just panicked. I should have talked to you about it."
"I kind of have an idea what went on," Derek said. He raised his head and looked me in the eye. "Tim's always saying how the best thing about Rachel is she can always bring a party favor, she's got so many sisters. I've also heard him talk about 'the one that got away.' That was you, wasn't it?"
I nodded miserably. "Yeah. He still comes to my house at night, tapping on our windows, supposedly looking for Rachel but I swear I hear him whispering my name sometimes. Gross, huh?" I stared at a rock at my feet.
Derek put his finger under my chin and tipped it up so that I had to look at him. "He will never tap on your window again, I promise." He stepped away from me. "This wasn't the first time I've had to kick Tim's ass, and I think it's pretty clear that it won't be the last." He smiled wryly. "It's a good thing douche bags were invented, otherwise I wouldn't know the right thing to call him."
I smiled back at Derek, and it crossed my mind that I should hug him or something, and I might have gone for it, but at that moment a loud boom blasted my eardrums and I clapped my hands over my ears. "What the hell was that?"
"Sounds like something blew up. I'd better go back and make sure it wasn't the house." Derek grinned at me and ran his hand through his hair.
I smiled at him. He bounced lightly on his toes, and another boom sounded in the distance. "You know where to find me, if you need me," he said. Grinning, he wheeled around and jogged back down the dirt road, head held high.
Yeah, unless the house burns down first.
Shaking my head, I got into the driver's seat. I searched Kaia for her car keys and found them in the front pocket of her hoodie.
I was getting a lot better with the stick shift. Even on the dirt road, I only killed the car a few times. Once we hit the blacktop, I was home free.
I didn't really have any great ideas about what to do with Kaia though. I couldn't take her to my house, but she needed to go somewhere safe, where she could sleep it off. It was the middle of the night, and I really had no options. I was going to have to risk sneaking her into her house.
We pulled into the driveway, and while Kaia was nowhere near coherent, she was at least able to stumble to the door under her own power while I held her steady. I sorted through her key ring until I found one that looked like a door key. I slid it in, the lock turned, and I couldn't believe how easy this was going to be. Then I heard the beep.