There was no way he’d forgotten again that soon after I had just told him. Something was definitely off with this guy. I ignored the fact that David was still standing right there and went after the more blatant lie that I could see being played.
“How was your girlfriend?” I asked.
“Great,” the guy said with a casual smile. “Thanks for asking.”
I feigned a polite smile back at him. “What’s her name?”
“My girlfriend?” he asked as though he were trying to buy himself a couple seconds of time. “Uh, it’s Marie. Why?”
My eyes ran down his lying little body. “No reason, I was just curious.”
I looked at David before I backtracked away from his disgusting form. “Guess I’d better go tell the guys to spread the word about the changed date for the gala,” I said.
Then I turned and went back up the stairs, leaving both David and the guy with the odd behavior on the third floor together. But instead of going back up to our dorm room, I went to the fourth floor to talk to Adam.
“What’s up?” he asked when he saw me there.
I rushed up to him. “Hey, I need you to check your student resident roster for a name.”
“Sure,” Adam said as we walked into the little office room and he dug out his list. “What’s the name?”
“I only have the first name,” I answered. “Marie.”
I waited for a minute while Adam looked through his list of names. “Nope, no Marie here on the fourth floor. Why?”
“No reason,” I said.
Now I was sure that my suspicions about that guy were definitely not my imagination. Something was up with him, and I was betting that it had something to do with David.
“Come on, Lisette, you know you can’t hide anything from me,” Adam said.
I immediately felt a wave of guilt rush over me for not being able to tell him about the dangerous game David and I were playing. “There’s just this guy on my floor and I caught him using the stairwell, which they all know is off-limits. He said he was afraid of elevators and that he was just coming up to the fourth floor to visit his girlfriend, whose name is Marie. But I got a weird feeling about him, and now I’m pretty sure I was right to trust my gut. Something’s off about him.”
“Do you know what it could be?” he asked.
I shook my head. “Not a clue.”
“Hmm. Well then, I guess we’ll just have to keep an eye out. And speaking of keeping an eye out, have you heard about the Winter Gala?” Adam asked.
“Wow, word travels fast,” I murmured before I cleared my throat. “David literally just moved the date for that like five seconds ago.”
He blinked. “He moved the date?”
“Yeah,” I said begrudgingly. “He moved it up by two weeks. Isn’t that what you were about to tell me?”
He paused. “Uh, no. I was going to tell you that they decided on a theme for the gala.”
I furrowed my brow. “A theme?”
“Yeah, every year there’s some new and elaborate theme for the party. I know you don’t care about it, but since we all are required to go and we have to look the part, I thought you’d at least be interested in knowing what the theme is going to be.”
“Oh, yeah sure,” I said.
I didn’t really care one way or another. I didn’t even want to go that night and have to deal with David and the result of his cruel game that I still needed to figure out. “What is it?”
“Masquerade,” he answered. “Apparently David put out an email stating that the only part of you that shouldn’t be disguised in makeup or costume, is your eyes. Everyone will be essentially unrecognizable behind masks and such.”
“That does sound very elaborate,” I said.
“Yeah but think about it for a minute. It sounds like the perfect scenario for something else too.”
I tried to think about what Adam could be referring to and then it dawned on me. “You think he’s going to use the party as an experiment?” I asked.
And when Adam nodded, I puffed my cheeks out with a rough sigh. It was genius actually. Everyone would be costumed and unrecognizable. There was no better theme to use as a cover up for any mishaps during his epic drug kick-off than people being able to disappear without it even being noticed.
“Yep,” Adam said. “And I think that we all need to be ready for it.”
“Agreed. I’ll tell the others about the changed date and you let them know about the theme,” I said. “Maybe there’s a way that we can use this giant party to our advantage too.”
And maybe, just maybe, the masquerade party could be used to save my boys instead of harm them.
8
The prospect of the Winter Gala was starting to grow on me the more that I thought about it.
Instead of it being the end of a deadly game between David and I, maybe there was a way to use it as a cover for us to escape. After all, everyone would be so distracted by the festivities, even David himself.
