Something's not right

"I'm telling you, Char, something's not right about that kid," Brooke said, as she laid on her bed with the latest laptop model resting on her pillow. "Look- no instagram, no facebook, nothing! What type of person who lived in Los Angeles all their lives has no social media account?"

"Fine, it's a little weird. But so what? Maybe he used a nickname, or he's just old fashioned," Charlie said, frowning at the memory of Zeke leaving the burger restaurant so hurriedly.

"Whatever," Brooke said, grumbling. "Ellie's not picking up. Where is she?" she demanded. Charlie glanced at her phone. "Back in Europe," she replied. Brooke groaned. "Didn't Ellie just tell us this morning that she was done with trips for a while? I thought we were going to be planning the Halloween party together."

The Halloween party. Brooke grinned at the thought. Each year, Brooke and her minions would throw the largest Halloween party at her parents' vacation house. There was the traditional halloween contest for the best costume, meaning points went out to the person dressed in the sluttiest outfit, and was also the first party, after Ryan's party, of course, that all the students looked forward to attending.

"There's still a month left, Brooke, relax," Charlie said, hopping up onto the bed as well. "I should go, I still have a lot of homework," Charlie said, beginning to pack up her things. "And cut Zeke some slack, will you? He did save me from an additional hour of being trapped in the locker room."

Brooke rolled her eyes.

The next few weeks came and went faster than Brooke had expected it to. During the entire time, Ellie never showed. Also, it seemed Brooke had lost Charlie to that new boy Zeke, who wasn't so new anymore. In fact, he was getting a growing reputation as the guy who punched Tyler Thompson in the face at Ryan's party. Charlie had begun to hang out with him almost every day after school. And although she kept insisting that they were just friends, Brooke knew it was only a matter of time before one made a move on the other.

So, she did her best to keep the two apart.

Halloween was arriving in less than a week, and Brooke had left Charlie in charge of almost all the party planning, much the anger of her other minions. Why had she done this? Because Charlie was too busy digging up dirt of Zeke White on the internet to be bothered with the party details.

So far, all she had learned was that Zeke White loved using nicknames for his accounts, because Brooke couldn't find any. It was either that, or Zeke was a strange person who never posted anything online.

It was three days before the Halloween party, and school had just ended. Brooke was letting a handpicked minion drive her home when she received a call. "Charlie?" Brooke said, glaring at her minion driver who looked way too interested in the phone call Brooke was having.

"My god, Brooke- I don't know if it's like, an official date or anything, but I think I just asked Zeke to be my plus one to the party?" Charlie said in a rather high pitched voice. Brooke groaned. "Char, I told you I didn't want him at my party!" Brooke yelled into the phone. "Fine, but you have to meet him at least once, okay? Just give him a chance at the party, and if he does not meet your expectations, I'll try not to mention him in any more of our talks," Charlie said, hanging up before Brooke could even responding.

A couple more days went by, and it was the night of the party. Brooke, who had decided to indeed give Zeke a chance, was looking in front of the mirror, applying a dark red gloss to her lips. A car honked from downstairs.

"I'm coming!" Brooke yelled down to Charlie. She grabbed her stuff, and walked downstairs. Brooke was surprised to see Charlie in the backseat of the car. She was even more surprised when she realized that Zeke would be driving them in his own car.

"Seriously?" Charlie said, staring at the car with distaste. "Brooke," Charlie warned, reminding her of their conversation from a few days ago. "I had to spend an entire hour convincing him that you aren't the devil in disguise. Don't let that be in vain, okay?" Charlie said, helping Brooke into the back seat.

When they got to the mansions, Brooke looked around, and raised her eyebrows in approval. The party had not turned out to be a total disaster without her own interference, after all.

Brooke turned around, and found herself staring at Charlie and Zeke, deep in conversation. Brooke huffed mockingly. "Just get a room already," she said, walking away with a smirk.

Brooke managed to reach the minibar, after being hit on by half a dozen guys, at least. She smiled. Some people might have thought it was tiring, but Brooke loved being the center of attention.

"Brooke," a voice said from behind her. Brooke turned around. "Alex," she said, repeating the greeting.

Alex Mendoza, the quarterback of the football team. Brooke and he had messed around a couple of times during the summer, mostly because both of them had both been pretty bored.

"Nice shirt," Brooke said, glancing at Alex's shirt which was plastered with wet paint. "The computer geeks," he said in explanation. "Seriously? Brooke said, accepting the drink Alex offered her. Alex shrugged. "This is the one party everyone gets invited to. You can't explain the nerds and the geeks to stay quiet at a huge party like this one," he said.

"Dance with me?" Alex said with that mischievous smile of his. Brooke drained her cup, and took his hand. Fifteen minutes later, Alex and Brooke had both inhaled two cups of beer and six large shots of alcohol each. In other words, Alex was grinding up on Brooke in the middle of the living room while she poured fresh cold water on herself- although the water may have been vodka. She wasn't sure- her sense of smell had been blocked out a couple drinks ago.

Two more shots later, Alex and Brooke were making out on her parents' couch as all the nerds and geeks stood by, watching. Another shot later, Brooke was dragging Alex up to the bedrooms on the upper floor, only to find them all occupied.

"Seriously?" Brooke yelled to no one in particular. She hobbled her way back down the stairs. "Ten guest rooms in this house, and they couldn't leave one for the host?" she said, clinging onto Alex as he helped Brooke climb down the stairs without hurting herself.

"Outside?" Alex suggested. "Outside," Brooke murmured, feeling certain she was going to pass out any second now.

It didn't for one second, occur to her that her parents' vacation house was located almost right next to the borders of the alleys of Brooklyn.

Alex and Brooke continued where they had left off in a more or less secluded area a few blocks down from the vacation house. She was pretty embarrassed to admit it, but Brooke was almost certain she had blacked out halfway through. "You go ahead, I'll catch up," Brooke said as the world began to spin. She balanced herself on the brick wall beside her.

Now, if it had been under any other circumstances, Alex Mendoza would not have left a drunk teenager alone in the streets of Brooklyn. Unfortunately, he was drunk out of his mind- Alex had already taken three shots before Brooke had arrived, and now, he was ready to pass out for about 48 hours. So he hobbled off.

Brooke was about to do the same, as her headaches were slowly starting to stop. That was when she heard a man's voice from just across the street. Brooke squinted, and saw that he was holding a- shit.

Brooke quietly crouched down behind a dumpster. As drunk as she was, she still had her brain. And her brain was telling her to shut up and stay still until the thug, who hadn't the slightest idea that Brooke was there yet, left.

Brooke silently peeked at the alleyway across the street from hers. She could make out a faint voice- "I swear to you, I had no idea, okay? I had no-" BANG. Brooke stifled a scream as she saw the man shoot someone who had been kneeling on the ground. She saw the man turn to someone else, who was standing a few feet away from the now dead body.

That person standing next to the dead man decided to do something that would ultimately change Brooke's life forever. He ran.

The victim ran like hell. Brooke thought that if the murderer chased after the victim, she would get a chance to make a run for it. Unfortunatley, the murderer was skilled. He shot two bullets at such an angle that forced the victim to flee straight in a vertical line- straight towards the alley where Brooke was hiding.

The victim was too busy running to notice Brooke. He ran to the edge of the alley, and saw that there was no way out. The murderer, who walked past Brooke like he hadn't even seen her, walked towards the terrified survivor, and said, in a low voice, "Where are they?" The victim whimpered. "I don't know, I- he mentioned something about Florida, please-" BANG.

Brooke clenched down on her tongue with all her might. She couldn't scream, or the murderer would definitely know she was here-

"Come out from the shadows," the murderer said, staring in at the lifeless body of the man he had just shot. Brooke frowned. Was the guy- was he talking to her?

"Now!" the guy yelled, pointing his gun at Brooke. Brooke yelped, and scrambled out from behind the dumpster, which had been the only thing preventing the murderer from seeing her face.

Now it was Brooke who was in the light, and the murderer who was hidden within the shadows-

Brooke heard the man take in a sharp breath at the sight of Brooke's face. "Get up against the wall," the man said. Brooke did exactly as he said, and he slowly began walking away, being careful to stick to the shadows. Brooke couldn't believe her luck- was she seriously going to be getting out of this situation alive?

No. No, of course not. She blamed the rest of it on the huge truck that lumbered through from the direction of Brooke's house.

The truck's headlights shone directly at the man, and Brooke's eyes widened as she saw the face of the murderer- It was Zeke White.