Page 1 of Until He Confesses

PROLOGUE

CALLIE

Iwas nervous as hell.

Anna was too but she had managed to convince herself otherwise and so here we were, nervous, and briskly walking beside each other as we tried to locate the house. A few minutes later, and just as we turned the corner, we came upon it. iIt was impossible to miss.

The chatter from the few students loitering outside as well as the music immediately explained to anyone, just exactly what was happening within.

“Here we are!” Anna said as she grabbed my hand. “I told you it wouldn’t be that far from the bus stop.”

“Getting to the bus stop took twice as long as you said it would, Miss,” I shot back. “You better hope Sandra is here otherwise we’re screwed. I’m still a hundred percent sure she was bluffing.”

“She wasn’t,” she said. “She knows she’s our ride home otherwise wearescrewed.”

I smiled because if getting caught and landing in severe trouble with our parents was the outcome of this night, I was certain it would still be one I would remember.

“Let’s go,” I snatched my hand away from hers as we arrived at the door, and she gave me a nervous look.

“I thought you had guts,” I mocked, and just as expected this spurred her entrance into the house.

The living room was packed, which made me wonder just how many people from our high school had been invited. It couldn’t have been everyone so perhaps students from other high schools were also present?

This seemed to be the case because as I stuck close to Anna as we pushed our way through, there wasn’t a familiar face to be found.

Especially Sandra’s, the outgoing classmate who had invited us on what we still believed was a spur of the moment’s excitement.

The information had been spread by excited whispers in class and huddled conversations in the hallway until eventually we’d had to ask Brett at lunch what the hell was going on.

“Party of the year,” our friendly classmate from middle school had informed us.

“Simon's parents are going to be away for the weekend so everyone’s going to be there. Students from all three grades I heard, and maybe students from other high schools?”

My subsequent question and concern had been simple but still remained unanswered.

“Is there going to be a chaperon or lifeguard there?”

Anna gave me a look that showed her regret at inviting me.

I didn’t blame her as I didn’t think I was too taken with the rowdy nature of parties.

It took me and Anna a few more minutes of filtering through more faces before we eventually stumbled into Brett lounging in shorts by the pool side.

He waved the moment we called out to him, so we headed over.

Just before we arrived two girls suddenly dove into the water and Anna was annoyed.

“Goddamn it,” she cursed at the wet stains that appeared on her bright red, frilly blouse.

“I can’t believe you’re both here,” Brett said.

“I can’t believe you were invited,” Anna said, and he gave her a vicious look. I was amused at the exchange, until I finally noticed the chubby boy lounging by his side. He was familiar as I had seen him around school, but we’d never had a chance to meet.

Tonight however, we waved at each other and said hello.

“I thought you said you were going to be surrounded by the ladies,” Anna mocked Brett as my attention went to the students loitering all around in pairs, all cliques.

“We’ve been rejected,” the other boy said. “So, we’ve settled for the stars and sipping martinis.”