When he arrived at the secret forest location that wasn’t that secret because there were like a hundred kids there, he felt a little uneasy being this deep in the woods.
There was some nervousness he had about what animals were lurking around. However, with the loud music, bonfire, and noisy half-drunk teens, everyone was probably safe.
It was like a scene from a teen drama on television. Paul often wondered how teens could get away with having giant parties in a forest without parents stopping them. Why would parents just turn their back on underage drinking? And on a school night. It seemed unrealistic but here he was attending a party in the woods with underage drinking. He just chalked it up to luck.
The forest looked very festive. There were lights and balloons everywhere. There was even a DJ and a bonfire. If he had to guess, Melissa was really the one who put all this together. She had a special skill when it came to events. The amount of teens in attendance surprised him.
There were more people here than he expected. He also thought, maybe a fire in the woods was a bad idea, but that thought got interrupted when he found Quinn, who was chugging beer straight from the keg upside down.
When Quinn saw Paul, he greeted him with a cheeky comment. "Paul! My guy, after that hit on the field, I was sure you weren't going to make it."
Paul clapped back, "And miss the moment of you peaking in high school?" The two friends hugged. "Keg stands?" He continued. "If you fall and hurt yourself I'm gonna become quarterback and steal all your thunder."
They laughed together and Paul wished Quinn a happy birthday. They both grabbed a beer and sat down to grab a moment of peace away from the chaos.
"Man Paul, I am psyched for the year and with you by my side it will be awesome. Thanks man." Quinn said with a slight drunken slur.
There was a slight worry that his friend was drinking too much already, the party had just started, and his best friend was already getting sappy. "For what?" he asked.
"You know, being my friend. Defending me on the field. You are always there dude. We are basically unstoppable together. High school was great but imagine when we get to college."
Paul had a love hate relationship with drunk Quinn. He was emotional, but he was also positive and nice. It was also great to hear how much Quinn appreciated him even if it did make things slightly awkward.
"Wow there's a lot of people here. Who didn't you invite from our class?" Paul asked, trying to change the subject.
Quinn stood up, placing his hands on his hip in a heroic pose. "Like everyone from our class, they must all bear witness to the greatest Quinn party this town has ever seen."
Paul noticed Rhea was here. It was strange, a party in the woods wasn't usually her type of thing. He asked about it. "Hey, that girl Rhea is here. Did you invite her?"
Quinn stumbled through his reply. "Uh, no clue man. I mean, she probably crashed. Uh, it could be someone else brought her, who cares?" Quinn took a huge gulp of beer. "Speaking of not being invited, there’s the guy who tackled the crap out of you."
Paul got up and quickly looked around. "Where is he?"
Quinn pointed. The guy was there chatting with Delilah. "I don't like the look of that."
Paul wanted to sprint over there and interrupt, but the twins walked up. Paul played it cool. After a couple minutes or of small talk he asked Beatriz, "Hey, who is that guy with Delilah?"
Before she could reply, Tyler interjected, "Oh, him, Mr. Mysterious? Yeah, he is in my third period class. He is definitely a know-it-all. He even corrected the new history teacher."
Beatriz added, "Yeah, seems pretty nice. Didn't really get to meet him. However, he does seem to be interested in getting to know Delilah."
Paul decided it was time to introduce himself to the new kid. Dodging teenagers left and right he slipped through the dance floor. "Hey, Delilah," he said loudly, walking up to her and that new guy. "Glad you’re here!"
Delilah gave him a brief hug. "Oh, hey, Paul. Glad you're here too."
Paul looked at the new kid when Delilah introduced him. "Oh, this is Zane. He's new to the school, and he is a senior too."
"We've met. I'm Paul," the begrudging teen replied, reaching his hand out to shake.
Zane extended his hand, "Hey man, sorry about earlier. It feels like decades since I've been on the field, and I guess I just wanted to give it my all."
"So you're new here, where ya from." Paul questioned, not really caring but wanting to be polite.
Zane simply smiled. "Chicago. I needed something quieter so I moved here with my uncle."
Paul noticed the pair were shaking hands for a little too long. He also noticed this was an awkward situation. The three teens could feel the tension. Before it could go on any longer, Melissa ran up, very tipsy.
"O.M.G! Guys, how fun is this party? Quinn really excels at entertaining. I'm so glad everyone is here. I thought it'd be awkward after you two broke up last year, but you guys make such good friends! Oh hey, Zane," she took him by the arm, "Let's go get a drink."
It was clear Zane didn't want to go with her but went in an attempt not to be rude. This moment was more awkward than the last. He was alone with his ex-girlfriend and had no clue what to say to her. It showed.
Delilah broke the tension. "Hey, I meant to say thanks for checking in and for sending funny videos and memes. They definitely helped."
Paul was happy to hear that, "Oh, no problem. Glad you saw them. So you and that Zane guy—"
Delilah cut him off, "I'm just showing him around. You know being the new kid sucks."
Paul laughed in agreement. "Okay sorry, guess the beer is making me suspicious of new people." He was relieved it was all in his head, but in the pit of his stomach he knew something was up.
Delilah began to walk away backwards. "No worries, I'm going to go find the twins but hey find me later we'll play some beer pong. We are still an undefeated team." She turned around and disappeared into a crowd of people.
Paul went off to go find Quinn. Locating him was turning out to be harder than he expected due to the size of the party. He was about to give up when he heard voices arguing from the woods away from the party. He wandered off towards the voices. One voice was Quinn's, but he couldn't make out the other one. It sounded intense. It was probably a bad decision to go off into the trees, but he did it anyways.
"Hey, I told you it was just—"
A twig snapped under his boot causing the arguing pair to quickly turn their heads.
Quinn was arguing with Rhea. "Is everything cool, guys?" Paul asked. "Wandering off during a party is the best way to get serial killed."
"Yeah, we're good. We were just headed back," Quinn said, walking away from Rhea to return to his party.
Paul waited a few seconds to let Quinn walk away. "You good, Rhea?"
It was clear she was upset but didn't want to talk about it. A big part of him wanted to stop her and convinced her she could talk to him. However, he didn't want to make her feel worse.
In Paul's gut, he kind of knew what was up. It was obvious. Something happened between the two. Paul just couldn't believe Quinn would do that. Melissa was a lot and Melissa was just flirting with the new guy Zane, but she didn't deserve that.
Although, it was a comfort that this didn't really involve him. It was also a comfort to know that even though relationships were the most complicated part of high school, in the grand scheme of things, it's not like it was life and death. It was just high school.
Paul went back to the party and found his friends. He started to let loose and actually was having fun. He played some beer pong, did some dancing, and even flirted with someone other than Delilah. That was something he didn't expect to do that at the beginning of the day.
This party was excellent. Paul was about to start another beer pong game when there was a commotion. Tyler came running from the woods holding someone while everyone stopped what they were doing. Even the music stopped. It was hard to see much. Tyler started yelling for the group to call an ambulance. Paul went over to offer any assistance. As he got closer to the unconscious girl, he saw blood, quite a lot of it. That's when he discovered it was Rhea.
Paul drove home in disbelief. Trying to process what happened. Although he didn't know exactly what transpired, he was sure he could get it out of his mother since she was the head nurse at Autumnvale Memorial. Paul went to bed, contemplating all the possibilities.
Serial killer was his first thought. It was a classic slayer set up, a bunch of teens in the woods. Looking back, that was a terrible location. Something uncomfortable crept into his head. What if it was Quinn? He did catch them arguing. His friend could have done it in anger. Paul felt guilty for even thinking that.
The next possibility was wolf attack. They were in the woods and animals were in the woods. The wolf idea is better than it being his friend. He made a mental note to check if the forest had bears. Would it be better to fight a bear or better to fight a wolf? He drifted off to sleep letting his brain work through his thoughts.
The last thought he had was a worst case scenario about having to attend a funeral for someone he knew from school.