Babyface O'Connell listened to this and laughed. “A fighter, eh? I like your moxy, kid. We're a lot alike. I get a couple more in me an' I might be your sparring partner.”

Caitlin laughed. “Oh god, I hope not.”

“Yeah, don't even say that,” said Lindsey. “We all know Chase would kick your ass and the ass of anybody else here.”

This surprised Babyface O'Connell. “She would, huh?” She looked Chase up and down. She didn't look that tough. Still, O'Connell wouldn't disregard this information completely. Maybe it was a good idea to watch out for this Chase chick, in case Babyface needed to fight her way out of here.

And maybe it was a better idea to bump her off before that situation even arose.

The party looked to be a smashing success. In the living room, people were dancing and filling their cups from the keg. Despite being thoroughly buzzed from the shots, Lindsey and Babyface insisted they make a stop here, and Chase couldn't resist getting a cup of her own.

Every room and hallway was filled with people talking and flirting. As they passed the staircase, they noticed a guy and girl lying on it and making out. It didn't look very comfortable. A mixed group of guys and girls had gotten a drunken volleyball game going in the backyard, which was now emanating laughs and screams throughout the neighborhood.

“Oh god, I wish they'd be quiet,” worried Caitlin, as they walked through the throng of people. “We're so gonna get the cops called on us, we're SO gonna.”

She had a lot more fretting in mind, but she forgot it all immediately. The reason: she bumped into Marcus.

“Oh...hello, Marcus,” she said stiffly. She was so busy worrying about crossing paths with her mom that she didn't even consider the possibility of crossing paths with her ex.

“Caitlin,” he acknowledged, a very warm greeting indeed.

They stared at each other. He held a cup in his hand but made no move to drink from it.

Caitlin cleared her throat. “You look...” she said. She wasn't sure what he looked like, or what kind of nice words it was okay to give him in this situation, so she abandoned this compliment and went in a different, more neutral direction. “You're here.”

“Yeah. That's true. I guess we both are,” he said cautiously. “You look well.” Remembering their last argument, he backtracked to nervously add, “Not that I'm saying...I mean, you look intelligent too.” They stared at each other for another couple of seconds before Marcus added, “Great party, Alicia,” and made a quick retreat.

Lindsey watched this exchange with amusement. “Damn,” she said. “Awkward.”

Caitlin moaned. “Why does he have to be here?”

Lindsey handed over her cup, and Caitlin took a heavy draught from it. “It couldn't be helped, Cait. He's on the football team. Even if this possibility occurred to her, it's not like Alicia could invite everybody on the team except him.” She looked at Babyface O'Connell. “Right?”

“Uh, yeah, whatever,” said O'Connell, mildly annoyed by this teenage drama.

“I still feel kinda bad about breaking up with him,” said Caitlin, directing her statement to the woman she thought was Alicia. “I mean, we weren't clicking, I didn't think he really respected me. But at the same time, we only had one more date after Harvest. Maybe I judged him too quickly. Maybe I should give him another chance. What do you think?”

“Hey, why are you asking her?” asked Lindsey. “I have way more experience with love than she does.”

“Alicia, take it away,” said Caitlin adamantly.

O'Connell shrugged. “Look, ponytail, you seem like a nice kid, so I'm gonna level with you. You want to be respected. That's good. There's nothing more important in this world than respect. But you don't quite get it. In this world, nobody respects anybody. Power, people respect that. Guns and money, people respect that. And if you're holding any of that you might be respected by association. Some of that respect just might rub off on you, understand? Ain't nobody ever going to just give it to you, ESPECIALLY not a man. Men ain't worth keeping around. You get too close to a man, you might start to love him, and love makes you weak. Love makes you do stupid shit and make bad decisions. Take a ride and set 'em aside, kid. We're born alone and we die alone, and you'll be better off if you do everything in between alone, too.”

Caitlin was dumbfounded. “Uhh... wow. Okay, thanks for your input, Alicia.”

“That's our Alicia! The cool lone wolf who has a casually jaded disregard for romance and friendship!” shouted Lindsey, putting an arm around Alicia's shoulders. Then, she frowned, looking inebriatedly befuddled. “That IS our Alicia, right?”

“Um...yes,” said O'Connell. Chase narrowed her eyes at the redhead but said nothing.

The doorbell rang. O'Connell ignored it. Whoever it was rang a second time.

“Is somebody going to get that?” she asked, annoyed.

“Uh, if anybody does it ought to be you, right?” asked Caitlin. “It's your party.”

“Oh. Oh yeah, of course. I knew that,” said O'Connell.

She walked over to the door and opened it. Standing on the front step was Victoria.

“About time!” she said, pushing past her with a huff. She looked around the hopping party, gave an unimpressed sniff, then turned to Babyface. “Were you going to leave me out there all night? Some host you are! No wonder this party is dying!”

“Why you here, Vic?” asked Chase, confused. “You not have own bash?”

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

Victoria looked at Chase as though it were beneath her to answer one of Chase's questions. “Yes, of course I have my own 'bash.' And it's far more exciting and noisy and packed with cool people than this one!”

“Yeah? Then why aren't you over there right now?” Lindsey asked with a yawn.

Victoria faltered for a second, but then she thought of something, and a smug grin appeared on her face. She flipped her hair over her shoulder cockily. “Well, you see, the party was just getting SO wild that I decided to come to Alicia's party and get some peace and quiet! Heh heh!”

Lindsey took a drink. “It's really weird. When I hear you describe your party that way, for some reason I just get a mental image of you alone in your pool, doggy paddling around with your water wings on, crying to yourself.”

“For the last time, I don't use water wings!” shouted Victoria.

“You did that one time,” said Lindsey.

“I have EXPLAINED this!” Victoria replied, incensed. “Those were not 'water wings', they were 'inflatable adult flotation aids!'”

“Same thing.”

“You couldn't swim even with water wings! You'd sink right to the bottom because you're full of so much HOBO SEMEN, you SLUT!”

Lindsey wasn't expecting this at all. “What the fuck? Fuck you, Victoria!” she responded in shock.

“No, fuck you!”

The argument was starting to draw attention now. “H-hey, Alicia, shouldn't you intervene?” Caitlin asked. Usually Alicia would have defused the situation by now.

Hearing this, Victoria gave a condescending laugh. She turned to O'Connell. “Oh, yes my CAPTAIN, please do. Give us both a stern talking-to. Show us some of that firm, decisive leadership. Or you could just do what you always do and use 'keeping the peace' as an excuse to be a waffling weakling. Whatever works.”

Lindsey, Caitlin, and Chase were not going to hear Victoria talk about Alicia this way, and were about to intervene on her behalf, but Babyface O'Connell surprised them by leaping into the fray first.

“Who the FUCK are you calling a weakling, you stuck-up little bitch?!” demanded Babyface.

Everyone was shocked, no one more than Victoria. “A-Alicia! You've never spoken to me like that before!”

Babyface O'Connell grabbed Victoria by the collar and yanked her up off the ground by it with one hand. She curled her other hand into a fist and raised it threateningly. “Yeah? And I'm sure I've never punched your lights out like THIS, either.”

“Cheerleader fight!” shouted some drunk guy.

“D-d-don't!” shouted Victoria. “C'mon Alicia, it's me, Victoria! P-put me down! You don't wanna stretch this top! A-a-a-and you don't wanna hit me either!”

“Yeah? Why don't I?” asked Babyface O'Connell.

“B-b-b-because I'm sorry! I was just joking around! I'm sorry, okay?!”

Caitlin and Lindsey gasped. They'd never heard Victoria apologize for anything before.

Babyface was not as impressed. “You're sorry WHAT?”

“I'm sorry, ma'am! I'm sorry, thank you! I'm sorry, you look nice today!” said Victoria, not sure what Alicia wanted to hear and deciding to try everything.

Babyface frowned in disgust and let go of Victoria. The girl fell on her butt to the floor. Towering over her, Babyface gave her a cool, calm look. “Drinks and snacks are over there. You can stay, but keep outta my sight, shrink-wrap.”

Victoria almost fell over again in her haste to scramble up to her feet and get away. “S-sure. Of course. Thank you, Alicia. Sorry, Alicia.” She scampered away.

Lindsey slapped Babyface on the back. “Heyyy, there you go! Now that's what I'm talking about! I didn't think you had it in you!”

“I didn't either,” said Caitlin, not sounding quite so approving.

This was too much for Chase. The cannibal leaned in close to Babyface O'Connell and took a couple deep sniffs of her red hair.

“Hey!” said O'Connell, shoving her away. “What the hell are you doing, freckles?”

Chase stared at the impostor silently for a moment. She weighed her options in her mind. “Oh, just want smell hair. Have nice scent.”

Curious, Lindsey drunkenly smelled Babyface's hair, too. “You know, she's right! What shampoo is that? It smells like you've been sprayed with a riot hose recently! Very exotic!” She put her arms around the gangster's shoulders and led her away. “C'mon, Alicia, I think you need another drink!”

Once Lindsey and Babyface were gone, Caitlin sighed and moved to follow them. She was stopped when Chase gently reached out and grabbed her wrist. “Cait,” she whispered.

Caitlin was immediately set on edge. Chase's tone was deathly serious. Caitlin had heard her use it a few times before, and it never preceded anything good. “Huh? What is it, Chase? What's wrong?” she asked, now even more nervous than before.

“That not Leash.”

Caitlin was confused. “What do you mean, that not Leash?”

“That girl look much like Leash. Mouth sound like Leash. But not act like Leash, and much not smell like Leash,” said Chase. “That girl fake!”

Chase let go of Caitlin's arm, and Caitlin turned to talk to her face-to-face. She took Chase's concerns seriously, and as a result, couldn't help feeling a bit concerned herself. By this point, she trusted Chase's intuition, experience, and skill with her life. Why wouldn't she? She'd had no choice but to do so on more than one occasion, and it always paid off. All the same, though, Caitlin was also a very logical person, and had trouble understanding how what Chase was proposing could be possible. “Are you sure, Chase? How could a likeness that perfect be fake?” asked Caitlin. “How and why would an impostor Alicia be here?”

“Not know,” Chase conceded. “But you know Leash more than me. Her not be mean to Vic like that. Not care what Vic say, Leash know Vic is cheer, she like Vic much. Leash feel strong that Vic should be friend and not foe.”

Like Chase said, Caitlin knew it was true even better than Chase did. “Well, maybe she's in a surly mood because she's been drinking,” she suggested. “You don't have much experience with alcohol, Chase. It can really change a person.”

“Her get mad and fight all the time when head fuzz?” asked Chase.

“Well, no...She usually just gets happier and more fun and Alicia-like,” she said, visibly growing more and more convinced. “Then again, I doubt she's had anything as gross as that stuff Tiffers brought over before.”

It didn't seem like a strong counter-argument to Chase, or, for that matter, Caitlin. Chase looked across the room, and saw Lindsey pour Alicia a congratulatory cup of booze.

Chase knew that woman wasn't Alicia. Even setting aside the difference in smell, to Chase, it was obvious. She didn't know who it was, but if they were here sneaking around and impersonating her, they couldn't have been up to any good. More importantly, their presence also begged the question of what happened to the REAL Alicia.

The mountain girl was about to go beg that question in a very physical manner, when Lindsey raised her voice above the music. “Alright everybody, it's time to make things interesting!”

Everyone stopped dancing and gave her their attention. They wouldn't have stopped for just anybody, but if there was one thing Lindsey knew, it was how to party. If she said things were going to get interesting, people took notice.

Lindsey opened one of the doors in the living room. Inside, some coats were hanging, and some towels were folded on a shelf against one wall. “Couldn't help but notice Alicia has a pretty nice closet here...”

Nicole was lying unconscious on the floor beside the couch. Lindsey pried Tiffers' empty rum bottle from her hand and showed it to the crowd. “And it appears Nicole has kindly provided us with an empty bottle...Looks like we have everything we need for...SEVEN MINUTES IN HEAVEN!”

The crowd erupted in cheers and woos. “Oh, god,” moaned Caitlin.