Devils Roses 01 - Cursed

wide open. They were passing joints and cigarettes after taking a hit. I felt my lips twist into a look of severe disapproval.
    Shane laughed at my face. “Okay, let's walk this way.”
    He pulled me away from the kitchen and the smell as I started to rant. “Do they have any idea how many toxins and narcotics they’re breathing, in at that moment? There are four thousand chemicals in a cigarette, forty-three of them are known cancer-causing toxins like weed killer and bug spray. They could just suck on the can of DDT. And don’t even get me started on the marijuana, it can raise your heart rate anywhere from twenty to one hundred percent and cause heart attacks. And it has more cancer-causing chemicals than a cigarette.”
    Shane raised an eyebrow at me. “You’re really fun at parties.”
    I stuck my tongue out at him. “Cancer is a serious problem, not only for health reasons, but also on the costs it presents to the economy. Did you know there is even an increase in dogs with cancer, since smoking has become a national pastime?”
    “ I can dress you up like one, but you will never be one.” he smirked and looked around the party. “Want to get out of here?”
    His eyes had a gleam to them, which told me he had plans other than dropping me off. Like the releasing of the hounds, butterflies raced around my stomach. I shook my head. “Can we stay for a couple minutes longer?” I felt guilty that I wanted my hot, new ‘sort of boyfriend’ to stay at a party, in hopes I would get to see the one guy I couldn’t get out of my mind.
    He nodded, showing a minuscule amount of disappointment in that request.
    I didn’t know what I would find, when I did finally locate my sister. I sort of assumed she would be sitting on the stairs somewhere, dressed like a whore. Blake would be kissing her neck from the back and Aleks would be kneeling and kissing her hand. Her beauty would mesmerize them. She would sip from her drink and smile that wicked-stepmom grin, she had mastered when we were little. She always focused on the wrong part of the classics.
    I looked back at Shane feeling reassured. He had, at least, crawled his way from the pit of despair and unrequited love with my sister. He was not under her spell.
    I stood beside Shane, as he held my hand protectively and chatted with Tommy.
    “ Holy shit—Aimee James, is that you? Damn, I thought we had a new girl at the party and I was wondering how Shane found her first. You want to dance?” His wide smile and pointed eyebrows reminded me of the bad guys on my Saturday morning cartoons.
    I looked at Shane, whose breath had started to increase. “She doesn’t want to dance T.J.”
    Tommy shrugged his filthy smile. His eyes never seemed to reach my eyes. “When you get tired of this, you know where to find me.” He turned and walked away, making a howl like a wolf. Everyone at the party howled with him. I felt like an outsider, with no initiation yet on Crazy Island. The ritual was going to be something I wasn’t willing to bargain on.
    Shane leaned into me. “Sorry, ignore him. I think most people do. I’m going to get a drink of water. Want one?”
    “ From the tap and clean glass from the cupboard?”
    He laughed. “Yeah.”
    I nodded.
    As he walked away I felt the warm wind hit me. I looked around, as my sister walked through the front door with Blake. She was wearing her usual uppity self-indulgent smirk. It was full of the knowledge that she could have any guy in the room, and you were lucky she let you keep yours.
    Blake looked uncomfortable but true to form. He wore a grey t-shirt with a symbol of an atom on it. His dark hair was styled, and without his glasses, his blue eyes were brighter than ever. He had on baggy cargo pants I didn’t recognize and a watch that was most definitely not his NASA space camp one. My sister had started to put her tastes on him; like a puppet he wore what she wanted. He saw the look of distaste on my face and slid his hand behind his back. He was ashamed of his new watch, which oddly was enough for me. I was glad to see that a small amount of the person I had always adored, was still inside of him.
    Alise wore a bright purple party dress. She outshone me, of that there was no doubt. I tried not to think about the fact, and I put a smug look on my face. She rounded the room to where I was standing.
    “ Nice dress, little sister.” Her perfectly manicured right eyebrow lifted. Her lips glistened with a