“Hi there, Mina,” the ringleader of the group, a girl named Dana, said as she stepped up. Dana was pretty, with raven black hair and blue streaks, hazel eyes, and her makeup was flawless, if a little dark. Though the girl was smiling at me, I felt myself involuntarily shiver at the look. It didn’t seem genuinely friendly. But I didn’t want to be rude. The fact that these older kids were even acknowledging me was thrilling.
“Hi, Dana. You look so pretty in that dress,” I said, admiring the ice blue silky skin tight dress the girl wore. “Like Elsa.”
“Well, aren’t you sweet?” She grinned and glanced up over my head as though looking for someone.
I studied the other girls. “How do you all get your makeup so perfect?”
One of the girls, a redhead who was swaying a bit on her feet, giggled. “YouTube videos, sweetheart.”
“I’m not allowed to wear makeup yet. James says I can’t until I’m thirty.”
All the girls laughed at that, except Dana, who was still scanning the crowd.
“Shay shows me YouTube videos,” I went on, loving the attention from the cool older girls. “But he shows me things like cats attacking people… or ballet videos. I just started ballet a few months ago,” I said proudly.
“Are you any good?” one of the blondes to Dana’s right, a girl named Olivia, asked.
I shrugged then and looked down. “No. I’m too little, still. I suck.”
They all sniggered and I could feel my cheeks turn pink.
“Shay shows you videos, huh?” Dana said, her eyes still off. “You hang out a lot with your big brother?”
I nodded, grinning broadly now as I looked back up. “He plays games with me all the time,” I said, loving the chance to talk about my brother. “He takes me places, too, like to the ice cream parlor, or to the river, or the park.”
The girls glanced at each other, eyebrows raised. Dana’s smile went tight. “He does, hey? Well, isn’t that sweet…”
I may have only been seven, but I could still pick up on the hostility behind the girls’ tone. It caught me off guard. None of these girls were kids of members of the club. They only came by because they knew the boys from the school they all attended. Clearly, they had heard about the bash that day and decided to crash.
“Ugh!” The redhead stomped her foot, sounding irritated. “They aren’t replying to any of my texts!”
“Are you looking for the boys?” I asked, putting it all together. Why else would they be here? Certainly not to congratulate my mummy or James. They wanted Shay and his friends.
“We are, cupcake. Do you know where they went?” the friendly blonde, Olivia, asked.
I looked over my shoulder. Mum was in the same spot, sipping that large glass of wine, with a crowd of other women around her. There were a bunch of couples on the dance floor, but James and his three buddies were still inside the clubhouse. I may have kept it a secret from the grownups, but I knew that Shay and his friends liked it when these girls came by. In the end, if it would make Shay happy, then I’d help them. I looked up at Dana. “I can show you.”
Dana smirked. “Thanks doll. As payment, we’ll share a drink with you.” She opened her bag a bit to reveal two bottles, one looking like water and the other looked to be apple juice. But I knew that they were liquor because they looked just like the bottles James kept in a high cabinet that he said was off-limits to me.
“I’m too little for that. But I’ll show you where they are, anyways,” I said, eager to please the girls.
“Thanks,” Dana said, not sounding like she was grateful at all. She had her phone out and was texting someone, but shoved it in her bag and followed as I snuck them around the side of the clubhouse and into the trees.
The path to the shed where the boys were took a bit of time, as it was nicely hidden so that the adults wouldn’t pry into their business. The girls were chatting amongst each other as they walked along, following me through the underbrush.
“I like your dress,” Olivia said. “Were you the flower girl?”
“I was,” I said proudly, smiling over my shoulder at her. I liked Olivia. She seemed to be the nicest and didn’t make me feel as uneasy as others in the group. “I did a good job, too. I didn’t get scared when everyone was looking at me. But it was gross when James kissed my mum.”
The girls all laughed hard at that, especially the redhead, who was stumbling worse than ever now that we were on uneven terrain, and was taking large swallows out of her own private liquor bottle. In truth, James kissed my mother all the time, but I’d never seen them do it so publicly in front of a crowd before. I didn’t like it. Why would anyone want to kiss a boy? Yuck!
“You don’t like boys?” Dana asked, “What are you, a lesbo?”
“Knock it off, Dana,” Olivia snapped at her.
“What? Just askin’…”
“What’s a lesbo?” I asked curiously, having never heard that word before.
“It’s nothing, cupcake. I’m sure when you’re older your mum will explain,” Olivia said.
“So, how much farther?” Dana asked, unscrewing the cap to one of her bottles.
“Not a lot,” I stopped and pointed up a small slope. “It’s behind that hill in the middle of a bunch of trees. You’ll see it when you get to the top.” Nervously, I glanced over my shoulder back the way they came. If I was gone for too long, no doubt my mother would come looking, and that meant Shay could possibly get into trouble. Mum and Shay never stopped bickering, and she loved to try to pin any conflict or trouble on him. “I should go back.”
“Naw, you can’t walk around the woods alone. Come hang out with us.” Dana draped an arm around my shoulders and urged us along.
“Dana, stop screwing around.” Olivia’s voice was biting.
“What are you talking about? I’m being nice to the brat!” Dana snapped.
At once, I bit my lip, trying not to let her see it wobble. A brat? Dana thought I was a brat? Why? I thought I had been helping her. I hadn’t said anything wrong, had I? I fought back the tears forming behind my eyes, not wanting to look like a crybaby in front of the big girls. Dana forced me along at her side, her nails digging a bit into my shoulder as we made it over the ridge and the shed finally emerged in the distance between the trees.
“Hey, what do you know? You aren’t full of shit!” Dana laughed and looked down at me. “Here’s your payment, brat.” She held out the bottle for me to take a swig.
“No, I’m too little, remember?” I felt incredibly uncomfortable being held at this girl’s side and just wanted to go back to the party and maybe get a piece of that huge, beautiful, yummy-looking wedding cake.
“C’mon, a swig won’t kill ya.”
“I can’t-”
“Mel, hold her.”
“Dana, stop it!” Olivia snapped, reaching for me, but the drunk redhead named Mel, swooped in and grabbed my shoulders to hold me still as Dana gripped my chin and tried to force my mouth open. I cried out and scratched the older girl’s arm, fighting to free myself.
“Ow! What the fuck! You little shit! You cut me!” Dana’s furious eyes inspected the scrapes on her forearm. Her blazing hazel eyes flashed towards me and she practically snarled, “I was being nice, you dumb little bitch!”