Traci and I got invited to a party tonight, which is no big deal, really, on account of its right down the beach, and the two of the guys throwing it had been walking up and down in front of us all afternoon. Neither one of them was anything much, but from the way Traci’s heart started pumping when they invited us, I knew we were gonna have to go.

It turned out to be pretty awesome, really, although I think we were the youngest girls there by like four or five years, and from the looks of the other girls, they resented it. I’m sort of used to that, and when it gets bad I just tend to shut up and back away, but Traci’s a bit more socially adept, and she wasn’t about to back down from a challenge. She unbuttoned two buttons on my blouse and tugged me over to where the queen bitch and her boyfriend were holding court, all but shoving me into his face as she smoothly engaged with the older girl.

“So where was it you said you were from?” Traci asked even as the guy realized what was in front of him and started staring down my shirt.

“Virginia” said the girl, but even with superhearing, I pretty much lost the rest of their conversation as the guy in front of me suddenly fixed his huge brown eyes on me and I felt myself beginning to melt.

“You are beautiful” he said in a deep baritone which seemed to reverberate inside my head. His hand reached out to touch mine and the world suddenly seemed to start moving at superslow speed. He’d pulled me to the side and had his hand on my back when Miss Virginia’s voice suddenly broke the spell.

“Jonny!” she called out, “you get your mitts off that girl now, or else.”

Jonny did, and he was led off by his mistress, even as Traci grinned at me.

“Nice work, Daph” she said laughing. “That bitch got shown exactly what she needed to.”

“Wha?” I said frowning. “Now, I mean, suppose I….”

“Object to my pimping you out?” Traci replied smiling.

I frowned again, and then shook my head, laughing.

“Ok, I guess….”

“No harm no foul, Daph” Traci said smiling. “Come on, lets get a drink before you remember to button your blouse.”

I did just that, and even as Traci led me over to the table where the drinks were it didn’t take superhearing to hear the girl’s scream. In fact, it seemed like just about everyone heard it, and the party seemed to move towards it, even as I deftly darted into the mass of people, endeavoring mostly to discretely lose Traci before I cut straight for the dunes and then ran the rest of the way, arriving well ahead of the rest of the crowd as I got to where the body lay.

He was breathing I saw quickly, before I followed the tracks back between two houses and spotted two men slipping quickly into a white van. Miss Virginia’s voice struck out then, just as I was about to take off after them.

“What the hell are you doing here?” she said. “You… did you have anything to do with this?”

Stifling the urge to give chase, I contented myself with memorizing the license number before turning back to the nasty girl.

“No, I.. I just heard you scream” I said even as Jonny moaned on the ground. He’d been hit hard on the head.

“Stupid dumb jerk. What do you think you were doing …” the girl said kneeling down and ignoring me, even as the rest of the crowd started to arrive. I made my exit then, and Traci and I walked back to the condo. Traci was yammering, talking about what might have happened, and I tried my best to keep up, but at the same time, I was trying to put the pieces together in my head.

When we got back to the condo, the door was locked. I stopped Traci before she used her key.

"We sleep on the porch" I said, shaking my head. "Hear that?"

Sure enough, even without superhearing, Traci could hear the grunting and groaning coming from the living room once she put her ear to the door. Of course, I could see it as well, and let me tell you, it was pretty awesome, even it if was kind of icky to be peeking in on my sister's brother. I turned away quickly from the door and landed on the little wicker couch.

We stayed up pretty late talking.