"Soooooo, what do you have there?" she looked at the book, then back at me, before saying "I am not sure. It says Rules of the Sleepover."
"What do you mean?" I said, immediately getting close to her to take a closer look at the book. It was dusty and kind of worn out. "It looks old," I said. But Lexi wasn't listening to me anymore. She was focused on the book, too focused. I shook her to snap her out of it and collected the book from her hand. She snapped out of her trance and stared at me with a blank expression, which kind of spooked me out. "I have an idea. Let's explore parts of the house one by one. We could start from this room, then work our way around the house."
I could feel that Lexi's excitement had returned because she sprung up and said "Sure, where should we start from?"
I turned to face the whole room. It was a square room, not too small, kind of like an underground bunker. It was cold down here. I don't know why Jessi thought it would be warm, but there were candle chandeliers and other candles placed around the rooms, so it was lit - I guess - enough for us to see, but not enough to cover the whole room. There was this dark, creepy-looking corner where the light couldn't reach. There were no beds, just our sleeping bags. She had a wardrobe on one side of the room. It was a long wardrobe. I tried to open it, but it was locked. Weird. The smell of scented candles filled the room, so it was kind of cool to be in. But the shadows the candles were casting made it a little spooky. But compared to the other part of the house, this place felt safe. She had a shelf where we kept all our bags and stuff. After checking most of the things in the room, we went back upstairs. We met Debby there, reading a book. I could hear Delphine, Belle, and Jessi's voices outside. Lexi and I went outside to check on them and turns out Jessi's parents have a farm, a small farm with pigs, goats, and chickens, and a crop farm further back. So, this is why they are able to sustain themselves. Jessi told us that her parents sell the animal products and crop products and that is how they are able to get money to buy stuff. I went into the farm, and it was divided into sections. The pigs' pen contained 9 pigs. It was muddy and they were all eating from their feeding trough. The goats' side was cleaner and there were a lot more goats. The chickens, though, were kept in a kind of big cage and they were separated. The cage had 5 rows and it kind of looked cool. I wanted to go to the back, but Lexi said we shouldn't explore everywhere in one day. We went back inside to find Debby making Bacon and Egg. "Who is hungry?" asked Debby. It had been a while since we ate and Debby just ate a while back, but nobody questioned her. We all sat down, Belle and Delphine were going through their gallery since the internet does not work here, they were just scrolling through some videos and before long, they started playing music and we were all dancing. It was fun and I won't lie, I enjoyed spending time with the group sometimes. We ate, sang and danced until we heard Jessi's parents pull over outside. We stopped the music and went to the living room to sit. This was my first time in the main living room. It was dark like most of the house with scented candles hung up and weird paintings hung on the wall. They had no TV, so we all just sat there pretending we were doing something on our phones.
"Girls, how have y'all been? I hope y'all enjoyed yourselves," Jessi's dad asked.
"I hope y'all are finding our home comfortable and Jessi has been a good host to y'all," Jessi's mom added.
I would never get over how funny country people sounded. I had to hide any hint of smiling or laughing because they were being such nice hosts. We all nodded and smiled. They went upstairs and I went back to the room. I wasn't that tired but then again, a girl has to sleep when a girl wants to sleep. Not too long after I started drifting into the sleep realm, I heard someone enter but I was too lazy to look up.
"Kelly!!??!, Are you up?"
It was Belle. What does she want? I really don't have the time for her drama, so I just pretended to be asleep. She called my name a few times before stopping. I could hear her walking. She walked to a corner in the room and covered herself. She was probably sleepy too. But I was wrong. I started hearing whispers and they got louder. She was talking to someone. Who? I listened closely and recognized the voice. It was someone I knew very well, a voice I heard in class a lot before Delphine stole him from me. She was talking to Todd. Why was she talking to him? I thought we weren't getting any cell service here. Or did she lie? Not too long after their conversation started, I started hearing whimpering and moaning. What the fuck was she doing? It got a little bit louder. But that was when it clicked. She was talking to Todd and masturbating. No, it can't be right. There was no way she and Todd were having a secret affair. Right? It continued for a while before she let out a little moan. She probably came. They continued talking, and from what I heard, Todd was dating both of them and Belle knew everything but still continued. Why would she do such a thing? I eventually slept off and woke up just in time for dinner. Nobody was in the room, and I had to pee. I was about to open the toilet door before remembering what happened in the morning. I knocked twice but nobody replied. I opened it and went inside to pee. I washed my face and went upstairs to join the others. We all ate at the dining table, and it was brisket and rice. I ate my fill. We went back to the room at 9:00. And we were all bored, so we decided to play a game. We all sat around a single candlelight and played confession. It first started with the boys we liked currently then Delphine asked me to list all the guys I have liked. I told her nobody since I don't currently have a crush and my one and only crush was Todd. She laughed at me before saying "Come on, you can't lie during Confession, Kelly here had a crush on Todd but sadly for her, he did not like her back, he was in love with me an-"
I couldn't wait for whatever she was going to say next. I voiced out in defense "I told you I liked him, and I came to you for advice, but you just couldn't see me happy, so you went ahead and stole him from me." She started laughing and Belle joined her as well. "Aww, don't hate the player Kelly, hate the game," she said with a disgusting smile on her face. I was mad and boiling with pent-up rage. "You know what, I am glad I didn't date him, or else he would have been cheating on me with Belle instead of you," I retorted. I turned to Belle, "Come on Belle, tell her. Tell her about how you and her boyfriend were having a secret relationship."
Belle tried to deny it and was ready to shift the blame back to me before Debby said, "It's true. Even before the first breakup, she was dating him. I found out, but it really wasn't my business, so I stayed. But now that the cat is out of the bag..."
Delphine turned to Belle, and I watched as her smile turned to anger. She slapped Belle, which got Belle angry, and they clawed at each other. Their squabble went on for like 10 minutes before Belle left and went back upstairs.
I went back to sleep with a smile on my face. Finally, I had my revenge, and it felt beautiful. I looked at Debby and mouthed 'Thank you' to her, but she just smirked and went to sleep.
We all went to sleep, but Belle was still upstairs, and like always, I had an amazing night.
The next day
"If you see a face in your peripheral vision, don't panic, they are just watching."
I woke up the next day refreshed and energized. Debby was still sleeping. No surprise there. I went upstairs to check on everybody, but only Lexi was at the dining table. She seemed to be reading that weird book Rules of the Sleepover.
I tapped her, and she vibrated again. "What's up? Where is everybody?" I asked.
"Well, Jessi's parents told us that Belle left. Apparently, after what happened last night, she left early this morning without saying anything to anyone."
That was weird, but then again, I understood why she would leave judging by what happened last night.
"So, why are you reading that book? I thought you dropped it," I asked.
"I don't know. There is something here, something we should know, something that's missing, and I think that something would link everything up."