The Year of the Great Seventh Read Free Page B

his walkie-talkie, pointed us up the hill with a flashlight to the parking lot right at the top.
    Megan looked stunning with her knee-length, open-back red silk dress and stiletto shoes. Sometimes I envied her beauty and the elegant way she carried herself. Megan could be Mom’s perfect daughter; Mom was absolutely dazzled by Megan’s charm and acting skills.
    Tyson and Chase were grabbing their blazers from the trunk of the car when I caught them looking at each other out the corner of their eyes. Suddenly Chase grinned. “Sophie, you look very nice. Are you expecting to see someone special tonight?”
    I knew he was going to bring up Emma’s comments about Nate, and before he could continue teasing me, I said cuttingly, “I know Nate will be here tonight, but I’m not interested in him.”
    “Chase, drop it!” Emma interrupted.
    Emma was also wearing high heels, and as it was difficult to walk on the cobblestone road leading to the house, she brought her arm around mine to help her stagger upright. The road wound to the right, and as it came into view from behind the tress, we saw Ethan Dulwich’s mansion shining like a wicked castle.
    The mansion was built from white marble and was two stories high. It had four Roman columns centered in the middle of the façade that reached the white, triangular marble roof, which rested on top of the building. It resembled a grandiose Venetian palazzo. There were ten wooden French windows at each side of the main entrance, and a ten-foot Michelangelo's David stood pensively in the front yard. Through the French doors, we could see people crammed inside. We could hear the music and the roar of the masses.
    “Let’s do this!” Chase yelled, walking through the main doors.
    “We‘ll probably get lost in the crowd, but let’s text each other to touch base,” Tyson added.
    The arched high ceiling in the main living room was covered by a copy of Michelangelo’s “Last Judgment” fresco, and four baroque crystal chandeliers hung along the room. The cornices featured gold rococo ornaments, and a gray marble column separated each French window from the next. The windows had white embroidered valances and curtains, and two Roman marble sculptures guarded the doors.
    Ethan had done his best to convert this tacky, over-decorated palace into an ‘80s party scene. He’d adorned the room with big disco balls and tinfoil strips that hung from the ceiling, reaching all the way to the floor. The room was completely dark, lit only by the moonlight and a strobe light.
    “Is that the actress who played Cat Woman in Batman ?” Chase asked Tyson.
    Their eyes were about to pop out of their heads. Tyson said, “Girls, we’ll find you later,” and before we could react, they’d disappeared into the crowd.
    I knew sooner or later my friends were going to vanish one by one. Emma and Megan knew many people here because they were in the film industry, and Tyson and Chase had made a list of girls they were planning to hit on. They were here on a specific mission. I wasn’t worried about ending up wandering around on my own. I almost preferred it that way. It forced me to meet new people. Anyway, we always ended up reuniting at some point in the night.
    The DJ was playing music on the side of the spiral marble staircase, and the scene of people dancing, laughing, and shifting around in the darkness at the tempo of the strobe light reminded me more of a horror movie than a high school party.
    “Guys, I’m going to see if I can find Jason, the cute guy from our English class. Do you mind?” Emma shouted, pointing toward the garden. Megan and I nodded, and seconds later, she also disappeared.
    The staff, dressed in all white suits, passed around trays with champagne and cocktails, and even though it was early in the night, everyone seemed already inebriated.
    “Megan, is that Alex Giordani from The Night Splendor ? You know him, right?” I murmured into Megan’s ear.
    She hesitated for a