chapter five

cassandra clark's fated birthday invites

THE START OF school also brought with it Cassandra Clark's birthday. The most exclusive event of the year—securing an invite rivaled that of the MET Gala. She always shut down the Wallflower Diner, paid for cleaning services and bought out all of their food and drinks, even the ones they shouldn't have sold her. But this birthday was going to be bigger than anything she'd ever had. Bigger than 13. Bigger than 16. This was her 18th birthday, which meant she could do almost anything—legally this time. The school was buzzing as she walked down the hallway with three bags. Her hair was up in a ponytail with her loose jeans and bright red half zip, tucked in, of course. Her red lips and cherry earrings spelled trouble as she hoisted the three bags into the waiting hands of Stephanie, Tammy and Natalie. Stephanie rolled her eyes and rummaged through the letters in her bag.

"God couldn't you invite anyone good?" Stephanie grumbled as she turned her nose up at some of the names.

"Excuse me, I determine who's 'good' and you'll do as I say," Cassandra snapped back. "The invites came in last night. Handcrafted in Indianapolis. This year is going to be bigger and it's going to be better. And I will not have any of you—" she snapped narrow eyes towards Stephanie "—mess it up. Got it?"

Tammy nodded meekly and Natalie rolled her eyes in good humor with a smile.

"Yes, your highness," Natalie teased sarcastically. "No wonder you're obsessed with Princess Di."

"Do you know what you're wearing yet?" Tammy asked excitedly as she swung her bag in front of her. "I have to go shopping and you can come if you want."

"I'm having it sent in." Cassandra smiled proudly as she pushed past the girls and walked towards homeroom. "Have it done before lunch. Skip class if you need to."

"God she's—" Stephanie seethed.

"Calm down, Steph," Tammy cooed sweetly. "Remember how she got your boyfriend for you?"

"Yeah only because he was totally in love with her."

"But she told him it would never happen and then set you two up!"

"That's because she's still pining after Steve Harrington."

"He'll wake up and realize one day that it's always been her," Natalie interrupted sweetly. "They're meant for each other. The King and the Queen."

"Well her new boy toy is about to dethrone him," Stephanie remarked as she looked through Tammy's bag at the names.

"Who? Billy?"

"Yup. He's bigger than Steve and apparently better at basketball. At least that's what Brad told me."

"And he's so dreamy," Tammy swooned as they watched students filter into homeroom. "Did you hear he's from California?"

"I have a feeling that she knows that," Natalie mumbled as she watched Cassandra's retreating figure. "Both the dreamy part and the dethroning part."

"Why have one when you can have both?" Tammy remarked with a smirk.

"Time for class," Stephanie interrupted with a roll of her eyes. She hoisted her backpack onto her back, clutched her bag and walked into homeroom, the other two girls in tow.

The people around Cassandra could smell her perfume as she sat down delicately. Boys tried to talk to her, but she ignored them that morning. She ignored everyone. While she loved the gazes, the compliments and the shoving for her eyesight, she loved the anticipation and the mystery. Who would get an invite? She loved feeding the sick feeling with her silence and her indifference as her classmates shifted uncomfortably around her wondering what they'd done wrong. She could feel the whispers around her and the eyes looking at her and then at friends. The whispers turned to notes when their teacher entered the room.

Cassandra was pleased to see that all of her invites had been placed in lockers by the end of third period. The hallway erupted with shrieks and jumping with friends. The medium sized pink envelopes were torn and the compact discs were being carefully handled by their recipients. On the cover was the party information in white backed by hot pink and on the back was the playlist of songs on the disc—only the party jams that Cassandra deemed fit. Girls and boys flocked to her and thanked her for the generous invite before returning to their friends.

Cassandra stood, arms crossed over her chest and smirking as she watched the chaos unfold before lunch. Once she was satisfied, she made her way to the cafeteria. The crowds parted for her as she moved through them and giggled or sobbed as she walked by. Only a few people rolled their eyes, but she paid them no mind as she flitted down the hallway. She cut a band girl with short hair, took the plate that was handed to her and found her usual seat at her usual table. She was at the head, Billy usually to her left and Natalie to her right. But, since she'd caused such a commotion, she realized that people hadn't really made their way to the cafeteria yet except for a few nerds, some band kids and the leader of Hellfire, who was sitting at his head seat almost directly across from her. She didn't really notice as she poked at the canned fruit on her plate until a small piece of paper hit her face. She looked up furiously, but didn't see anyone else looking at her until her eyes landed on him. She met his eyes with a nervous half, barely there smile on his face. She quickly picked up the paper and scanned the writing. All this because of you? She smiled and shrugged, her eyes crinkling at the sides. Eddie rested his head on his hand as he looked at her and mouthed something. She shook her head, not catching it and squinted a little. Pretty. Her cheeks went pink as she tried to fight a smile and took in a deep breath. But, the baseball and basketball teams entering tore her attention away from him and caused him to look down.

She could barely hear herself think once everyone had entered the cafeteria. Teen magazines and phone calls home to parents to let them know that they were going out took up a lot of the sound waves. But, once the rest of the cheerleaders sat down, she looked at the younger girls with a critical eye. They could feel her studying them as her thoughts to the next year started to flood her mind. She'd spent too long building their status for it to crumble in a year. Her eyes landed on Chrissy Cunningham, who was laughing in a conversation with another girl on the team.

"Chrissy, come, sit." Cassandra smiled and patted the seat next to her. She smiled sweetly at Natalie, who moved down for the younger girl. "Do you mind Natalie?"

"Not at all," Natalie said quietly before continuing her conversation with Tammy.

Cassandra watched as Chrissy sat down nervously next to her, sending looks to her friends ever so often. She smiled timidly, but sweetly as she looked at Cassandra. "So, Chrissy, you're dating Jason? Right?" Chrissy nodded. "How's that going?"

"Oh he's the sweetest!" Chrissy exclaimed quietly as her eyes slid over to him momentarily. He beamed and winked. "He just gets me, you know?"

"I do." Cassandra slid her a rare, true smile. "And you look really good during practices."

"Thank you!" She beamed and shifted in her seat. "I practice after as well to make sure it's perfect."

Cassandra let out a small laugh. "Not even I do that!"

"Then how are you so good?" Chrissy furrowed her eyebrows.

"Experience, I suppose." Cassandra paused and poked a grape before looking back up. "Chrissy, have you ever thought about becoming captain of the cheer team?"

"Isn't it a little early–"

"I've been captain of this team for two and a half years, after Michelle twisted her ankle two years ago. I've been in charge for a while and I don't want to see it fail after I leave." Cassandra's eyes narrowed at Chrissy as she spoke.

"No, no, of course not." Chrissy's voice was quiet as she spoke. "You need someone to follow you, of course. Learn how you do things."

"Exactly." A smile curled onto Cassandra's lips. "You're good, you're popular and the girls seem to like you. I want you to come up with the cheer for the big game on December 14th. It's the last basketball game of the season and it's right before winter break. It's a really big deal and you can't mess it up."

"I won't let you down." Chrissy gulped and while she looked nervous, there was still a determined look in her eyes.

"Good," Cassandra set her head on her hand as she looked at the girl. "Now tell me about what you're going to wear to my party."

Chrissy relaxed more as they gossiped about fashion and the best stores in town, offering each other advice and learning about their muses. While Chrissy preferred Liv Tyler's style while Cassandra took after Phoebe Cates, they both agreed that Princess Diana was the ultimate fashion muse.

"It's like everything she wears is perfect!" Chrissy exclaimed as she smiled widely.

"Exactly!" Cassandra exclaimed with a smile to match. "Some people just don't get it."

The conversation continued until it couldn't as students started to shuffle out to the second to last period of the day. Cassandra bid Chrissy farewell as she flounced down the corridor, making people stare hypnotically at her swinging ponytail, hips and curled up cherry red lips. She unflinchingly passed by people, but had to resist stopping when his long curly hair brushed her shoulder as he passed by. He still smelled like the forest and faint traces of her laundry detergent, when she'd force him to wash his clothes whenever he went over to her house. Her hickeys from the previous week were still healing, but she knew that her marks on his back were healed by then. The rest of the day was a blur past that point as they usually were.

Cassandra Clark had found that as she got older and slowly lost the people in her life to the soil and dead phone lines, the days all seemed to mesh together in a flurry of green and blue. In a flurry of fake smiles and the smell of engines. She changed into her cheer uniform and went through the routines like normal on the other field—the soccer boys watching them. But, she was stopped in her tracks when she hit a strong chest clad in a loose tank top on her way out of school to her car. She looked up and smelled the cigarette smoke of Billy Hargrove.

"Hello Billy," she greeted sweetly, but coyly.

"Hello pretty girl," he mumbled as he looked down at her. She took a few steps back, but stayed close to him. "Loved the disc of ABBA songs. I really can't wait to play them while I giggle and do my hair."

She rolled her eyes. "You're welcome for inviting you to my birthday party."

"Would've crashed if I wasn't." He smirked as he looked down at her.

"And why's that?"

"Wouldn't want to be with anyone else on one of the best days of the year."

She blushed and bit her lip. "We could go to the diner tonight. Make sure everything's—"

"Can't," he grunted. "I have this stupid family dinner." She tilted her head to the side. "One of my dad's pathetic ways of trying to make us a family."

"Well I'm sure it isn't pathetic." Her stomach churned with jealousy as she looked at him. "It must be—"

"Well then your family must be saints if you think that family dinners are nice."

"What if I came? Would that make it better?" She raised an eyebrow as the true weight of her question didn't come crushing down on her yet.

He raised an eyebrow and studied her. "You're not my girlfriend, Cassandra." He scoffed as he looked down at her.

She had to stop herself from vomiting as the realization washed cold over her body. "Dear god, of course not. But we're friends—"

He smiled, licked his bottom lip softly and then pulled it between his teeth. "Sure, friends, pretty girl."

She looked behind him to see Stephanie leaning against her car. "I should go. Stephanie's waiting for me." She pushed past him, but he grabbed her arm as she tried, making her look up at him with a quirked eyebrow.

"I'll call you if I need you, how about that?"

She let out a small laugh and smiled tauntingly. "Go for it, Billy."

He let go, satisfied, and watched her walk over to her car, unlocking it before she reached it. Stephanie climbed in and started playing Cindy Lauper. Cassandra slid in, sent a wink to Billy and pulled out of the driveway. On her way home after dropping her off and promising to vote for Stephanie's dad, Larry, when the mayoral election came around, she stopped by Bradley's Big Buy to pick up some food. She roamed the isles with the jaded mothers picking out cheese and the fathers hiding from home in the liquor isles. She placed boxes of the last raspberries and strawberries into her basket before heading over to the frozen food isle. It was packed with everything from Eggos to chicken parmigiana, but she eventually settled on some chicken with vegetables and mashed potatoes. She threw a few more into her basket and hesitantly grabbed a couple bags of gummy bears to stick in the freezer with them. She checked out, sent the cashier a smile and was on her way just as quickly.

When she arrived at home, it was silent and eerie. The woods surrounding the house always scared her at night, so she walked in a locked the door quickly. She could hear her own breath as she flipped on the kitchen lights and stuck one of the meals into the microwave oven. She let it warm until the mashed potatoes' oil almost boiled and gingerly took it out. She ate it with a fork on the kitchen counter, not having the energy to go into the dining room. As she settled into the room, she suddenly felt her skin prick as the cool air mixed with the drying sweat, making her zip up her sweatshirt.

She threw out the almost empty container and started on her homework up in her room. Humming along to the music that was playing from her radio, she was halfway through her calculus work when she heard her window slide open. She didn't even look up, but she did smile when she heard footsteps thud in.

"What're you working on?" the person inquired as they kicked off their shoes and sat behind her on her bed, placing their chin on her shoulder, peering at her work. "Ugh, Calculus. God, Cass."

"I actually like math, Eddie," Cassandra said, her voice cracking slightly, as her pen curved with the numbers on the pages.

"Well, I guess one of us has to be smart."

"You're smart," she said quietly as she focused on her work, "you just don't do your work."

He pulled away from her and sat back on her bed with a playful grin. "Not really sure about that. 'Smart' isn't usually used to describe us Munsons."

"Well I'd use it to describe you." She over her shoulder and smiled at him, making butterflies swarm his stomach.

He leaned forward and wrapped his arms around her waist, pulling her body into his chest and pressing a kiss to her neck. "Break time. You've been working for too long."

"It's been like twenty minutes!" Her voice cracked with her laughter as he attacked her neck with little butterfly kisses.

"Twenty minutes too long." She turned around to fully face him with excited eyes and pressed a sweet kiss to his lips. As she pulled away, one of his hands cupped her face and pulled her in slowly, hovering over her lips, but never actually touching them. Eddie's mouth formed into a cocky grin as her cheeks grew red with frustration as she pulled away. Both of their eyes clouded over. She leaned forward and pressed a sweet yet sultry kiss to his lips. He breathed in deeply as his hands cupped her cheeks and pulled her into him and her arms steadied themselves on either side of his waist. They barely pulled away before crashing back together again. He pulled away once more and smirked as he did. "But only for a little bit, you have work to do."

"Shut up," she whispered as she leaned down and pressed a kiss behind his ears, making a trail of kisses down to the base of his neck. She played with the hem of his shirt, pulled away and helped him pull it over his head. She then turned and he unzipped her cheer shirt, letting it fall to the ground, revealing a pink lacy bra. She pressed a sweet kiss to his lips before pushing herself down and trailing kisses down his neck. She stopped just before his collar bone and made her mark, making him hum in pleasure and tangle his hands in her hair. She made an identical one a couple inches away and was determined to make a third when she heard footsteps outside her bedroom door. 

Quickly, she slammed a hand over Eddie's mouth and motioned for him to go into the closet. She didn't know who was out there and she knew that her family had a lot of enemies and she wasn't about to let Eddie get tangled up in all of it. He stayed sitting for a moment, just looking at her before nodding and quietly clambering off of the bed, grabbing his shirt, throwing it over his head and into the closet. She grabbed her cheer top and zipped it up quickly before straightening her hair and makeup in the mirror and opening her door carefully. 

She opened it fully when she saw her father fiddling with his gleaming golden cuff links and his eyes immediately cut to her. Their eyes were identical—the same shade of emerald green that enchanted everyone they looked at, like broken sea glass pieced together with little traces of trapped golden sun between them. He immediately snapped his eyes to a man that approached him. He was a little shorter than her father, but much bulkier. He was dressed smartly and she noticed the white streaks in his otherwise midnight black hair. The other man immediately looked at her as he neared the door frame, as his body turned, the distinct handle of a gun glinted in her lamp light from up his suit jacket, making Cassandra gulp.

"So this is your daughter?"

"Yes, one of two." Her father's voice was calm and authoritative. Even if he was feeling nervous, no one would've guessed it. 

"Strong family resemblance." He narrowed his eyes at her. "How old are you?"

Cassandra opened her mouth to answer him, but her father interrupted her. "She's seventeen. Let's move into my office."

The other man gave a curt nod to him before turning to her and giving her a polite one with a sly smile. Cassandra's eyes trailed them as the two men stalked into her father's office, the door closing behind them without a second thought. Her mind reeled as she closed her bedroom door, tightly and backed up against it. 

"Cass," she heard a voice whisper from the closet.

"It's safe." Her voice wavered as her eyes searched the carpet for answers.

"Was that your dad—" He quickly emerged from the closet, shutting the door behind him—eyes ecstatic and not being able to focus properly on her. 

"Yeah."

"You know, I've never actually heard him talk. That was wild—"

"There was another man too," she interrupted and that's when Eddie's eyes finally focused on her and immediately struck with concern at her searching eyes and deep frown. 

"Hey." His voice was gentle and he carefully stepped towards her, placing his hands on her shoulders softly, caressing them. "Everything okay?"

"Why would my father have a business meeting at—" her eyes flicked over to the clock "—eleven at night?"

Eddie's eyes searched her own that had just looked up at him. The same feeling that had shot through her body started churning in his stomach. She hadn't lied when she said that the house was cursed, haunted and otherwise maliciously inclined, she just didn't know how this time. "I—I don't know. But don't think about that right now." He pulled her into his chest and kissed her forehead. "You should go to bed. You've had a long day."

She slowly nodded and pushed her hair to the side as he carefully unzipped her cheer top—her mind still up in space. Her top fell to the ground as he unzipped her skirt, letting that fall as well. He pursed his mouth as she stayed still, lost in her mind, and carefully gripped her waist and turned her around to face him. Her skin was warm—burning in his hands and making the blood rush around his body. His hands moved from her waist to her cheeks as he brought her face to look up at him. There was a vacant look to her eyes as he slowly leaned down, his lips hovering over hers. She could feel his hot breath fanning her and she could almost feel him as the blood started to crawl back into her. Carefully and slowly, he brought her lips to his. His fingers were as light as feathers and she begged for their touch as the blood rushed to her brain and she was brought back down to earth. She leaned in, making Eddie exhale and push further—testing the waters—before pulling away again. 

She threw her arms over his shoulders and pulled him into her body—her torso, shoulders and back burning his arms and hands as he enveloped her into him. Her left hand clutched his shirt while her right tangled in his hair at the base of his neck. She felt him breath slowly and she closed her eyes, becoming lost in the way that he smelled, the way his hair felt, the way his hands held her. He smiled into her shoulder as he felt him drop and the muscles in her body relax. He was the first to pull away, his hands still on her hips as he pressed another kiss to her forehead, making her eyes fluttered open. 

"Let's get you ready for bed, hm?" She shook her head, but yawned as she did, making a sunny side up grin crack on his face. He bit his lip softly as he looked at her, but caught himself and pulled away from her entirely and went back into her closet. Immediately going to the third drawer down on the set of drawers next to the large hanging space, he pulled out a matching tank top and shorts set with little rosettes on it and a fresh set of underwear from the second drawer and handed it to her. She pulled replaced her underwear as he carefully undid her bra and helped her pulled the tank top over her head as the questions about her father swirled back into her mind. "Don't think about it, Cass, I'm sure it was nothing."

"He had a gun," she whispered as she pulled up her shorts and let her ponytail down. Eddie had reached to grab her hair brush when he froze and looked back at her.

"I'm not leaving you here alone if there's a guy that has a gun." 

"You need to go." She gained clarity as she looked at Eddie—her mind focusing on protecting him rather than the endless questions. 

"Cass—"

"You're not getting mixed up in my family's—"

"You can't just—"

"You're not getting mixed up in all of this." Her voice was forceful, but kind. "I don't know what's going on, but you're not staying here." 

"You don't know what he's—"

"My father wouldn't let anyone hurt—"

"How do you know that—"

"Because I'm his sole heir." She stepped forward and sat at her vanity and grabbed the hairbrush that Eddie had failed to. She dragged it through her hair, her eyes locked on herself. "He knowns that Dani will disinherit, so it all comes down to me. We've been over this."

"I still don't feel—"

After working the brush through her hair a few more times, she was satisfied, even though her hair was creased. She stood up and walked over to him. "I'll call you if I need help. If something happens, I'll call you and go to skull rock. Go home. You're just as tired as me, I can feel it." She reached up and pressed a kiss to his lips, bringing him back down to her. 

Once they pulled away, he pursed his lips as he looked at her for a beat. "Fine." His voice was reluctant, but resigned. "If anything happens—"

"You're the first I'll call . . . after the police." She fought a smile as Eddie rolled his eyes and chuckled. She followed him over to her window, her hand in his. He jumped out, onto the side of the house. He had a strong grip, having done this dozens of times as she propped her arms on the window sill. Her smile was serene as she looked at him and the way the early autumn air shifted his hair and her lamp made his dark eyes sparkle. She leaned forward and pressed a kiss to his lips, making him smile and lean up. She pulled away, smiled and rested her forehead against his. "Stay safe out there, okay?" 

"See you later." He grinned as he looked up at her. The wind made her hair flutter and the lamp backlit her, making her look angelic and brought him back to the previous weekend. She watched his carefully as he started to climb down, but he stopped and looked back up at her with a devilish grin. "Still a little offended that I didn't get an invite to your birthday party."

She tried to bite back her smile, but utterly failed as she grinned widely. Her eyes sparkled as she looked down at him. "Fuck off, will you?"

"Might be the blow of the century." He mock stabbed himself, taking one hand off of the side of the stone house, making her gasp and lurch forward. He eased himself back to the side of the house, finding his hand's hold again. "Might kill me, Cass."

"Ah, but you're supposed to come to my party!" They grinned at each other, but he looked back down and focused on climbing the rest of the way down. He jumped off the side once he reached the grass and saluted up to her, making her giggle and salute back. His mind told him to run back to his van so he could try getting a somewhat decent amount of sleep, but his heart kept his feet firmly planted and his eyes looking at her. Her flowing hair, her tank top that rode up a little, the way she held herself in the breeze that nipped at her bare skin. She looked like forbidden fruit atop her ivory tower—her suitors waiting below in fast cars, yet she stayed looking at him, Eddie the Freak, like he was the shining sun that made her bloom.