23"I'm not afraid to get through that house," she says. "In fact, I bet you would be the first to run out screaming like a little four year old girl."
She is referring to Tara Kaiyan; everyone's favourite, but mine.
Tara's the person who would protect every other girl from getting their hearts broken. I don't know why she hates me. I have everything all girls I ever knew liked: my sort of messy brown hair, green eyes, and tanned skin. I'm pretty smart too. Although, if anyone asks about my grades in mathematics, there's only one explanation...my math teacher, Mr. Jenkins is out to get me.
But back to Tara. I do know she's extremely annoying, even though I admit she's cute. What first got me to notice her was her crystal blue eyes, olive coloured skin, and her short dark hair. She isn't that type of girl that would scream for a broken nail, in fact, she doesn't mind getting down and dirty at sports. And man, can she kick; when she tries to, whether at some insulting guy or a soccer ball, it's always flawlessly powerful and accurate in aim. I could've liked her if I didn't hate how protective and freakishly perfect she is.
Lucas, my best friend with black hair and brown eyes, speaks up. "If anything, he'll scream like the sixteen year old guy he is."
He's seventeen. He's also like my brother because we've been friends since elementary school.
I grab his shoulder. "Dude, don't help me." I say simply.
"All right," he steps to the side.
"I'll take that bet," I say, seeing her flinch. "Thirty bucks says you'll be so scared, you'll beg for me to help you get out."
She takes a moment to think. My mouth forms a grin at her hesitation.
"Alright," she says, holding her hand out. "We'll go this Friday after school."
Then I shake her hand and walk away.
At Friday, 6:00 pm, I arrive at the abandoned house on Fifth Street. It's known as the Dealer's House of Spades (Spades meaning the symbol of death), an old place that used to be owned by a-believed-to-be-murdered man who was an illegal card dealer. No one knows who killed him or what happened to the murderer. Now this house is called haunted and construction workers won't even walk around the place. So no one lives there or owns it any more. The deed is probably still somewhere inside.
"You made it," someone says.
I look beside me and see Tara wearing jeans, a t-shirt, as well as sneakers, and behind her is a red pick-up truck with our home-room class sitting in it. They are several of my friends and several of hers. That means there was around thirty people there.
"What's with that?" I ask, pointing at the truck. "Are they trying to have some type of truck party in there again?"
"They sort of just followed," she says. "All of them wanted to witness your shrieking."
"Actually yours, Tara!" Lucas shouts to us.
It's pretty lame, but that's what friends are for: Hanging out, and throwing lame comments at your enemies.
The guys all cheer. It's great to see that my friends are supportive when it comes to my competitions and bets.
"It's alright Tara," a girl named Amy shouts. "We know you won't lose to him!"
The group of people start to argue. So Tara and I ignore them, while walking towards the front doors.
"It isn't too late to back out," Tara whispers to me.
"Yeah," I say back. "I'll be fine if you want to hand me my money now."
"No way," she says, getting passed me.
Up close the place looks wrecked. There are cobwebs, splintered wood, shattered glass, everything to make a house look completely deserted. Tara even needed to pick up a broken branch to get rid of the webs leading to the entrance. All I did was just walk through since I didn't care if I got a couple strands of spider silk on me.
When we both reach the threshold, I'm about to knock. I know, sounds stupid. But I was always told to knock even if you're sure no one's there. Now it's a habit. But before my fist can touch anything, the door quickly creaks wide open and a gust of cold wind blows by.
I look back and see everyone else staring.
"Meet us on the other side!" Lucas says, and drives off.
He was obviously scared...Too bad this place already freaked me out too.
"Ladies first," I say, gesturing her forward.
"What a gentlemen," she says with sarcasm.
We walk around and find out this place is huge. There's a West Wing, East Wing, up stairs, and stairs leading down. Maybe that's where the basement is. Together, we decided to not go into the thought-to-be basement.
Upstairs is a hallway with an open door leading to outside. There's a mirror hanging on the left of the hall, and the thin wooden floor makes lots of creaking sounds that makes me feel like we're being followed, which makes me look back to see nothing.
I'm still trying to get over the fact that this place was built on the side of a steep hill/cliff. Seriously, it's kind of dumb. What if there was an earthquake or a mud slide? ...Okay, the mudslide might not happen since there hasn't been rain at this part of the city since the day before the Dealer died; which was a bit before I was even born.
I see the gang already out there, waiting in the truck. Tara runs to that direction ahead of me, and I'm about to warn her that the floor is weak.
Suddenly, the wood breaks at her next few steps to the door. I grab her hand before she drops in the huge pitch black hole. After a couple of seconds, I lose my balance and we both fall.