Memoirs of a Very Mean Girl |Derek, Melody, Shane|

[Crystal Deboir]

Crystal sat at the table in the small coffee shop, Ipod on as she buzzed away with her pen. She had a small paper bag with twine handles next to her that had a logo on it, and inside it were stuffed four more notebooks, plus a packet of gel pens, erasable pens, white out, mechanical pencils, and a case of blank CDs. She'd spent a stupid amount of money on all of this stuff, and stopped to enjoy herself briefly before she had to start writing again. This was notebook number twenty, journal entry number 'I've lost count'.

Crystal took a sip of her chai shake, and then bent over her paper again, pen tapping on the paper for a second. She frowned, and then began to write - her writing that had mostly been curly and girlish in high school had become very small and blocky, almost unique enough to be its own font on a word program, though - there was some sort of obsessive compulsive way the letters were all just so, none taller or shorter than they absolutely had to be, with the exceptions of t's, l's, and f's and the like. There were very few errors, or things she had to erase - and when there were, she didn't erase, them, rather, crossed them out and wrote anew, leaving the stricken out thoughts there to try and map some of her confusion onto the paper.

Her phone began to ring, and she pulled one of her headphones out, looking at the caller ID. She didn't recognize the number, and she felt her heart sink. Griffon? Why would he call her? She looked up and around as she pressed mute on her phone, sending the call to voicemail. She moved rather quickly as she gathered up her things, and she jumped up to toss her shake in the trash. When she came back, she was in such a hurry that she had closed her notebook, but forgotten to drop it in her bag with the rest of her things. She rushed out of the café wordlessly, and to onlookers it could have been that she'd just had an emergency phonecall of sorts. Nobody would know that Crystal thought suddenly the man trying to kill her had just shown up to say hi.

The odd writing of the journal would entice anyone to read it, and although Crystal would have blamed Derek for his weakness to curiosity, the journal did not, and was opened with no protest.

Page One
It all began with a thud. Not a normal sort of thud, but one that sounded like a body dropping onto the floor. It was unmistakable, even mixed in with the din of the conversations around her and the loud, bass-ridden music that blared from the large surround sound system, next to which she was directly placed. No, she'd heard it loud and clear. Kat Andra Amber looked up, curiously at first, and then it became hard to push away the sinking feeling in her stomach that she couldn't attribute to merely having imbibed too much alcohol. She set her drink down headed to the stairs, drink in hand. As she walked, she looked around, and it was clear that everyone was either too drunk to care or simply too deaf to hear what she had.

She walked up the stairs, a final glance to the clock on her left. Red digital buttons rolled over to 11:54. She remembered briefly someone before telling her that she needed to be out of there by midnight, and she had every intention, but Tara had insisted that they stay and mingle. Amber had shaken it off at the last possible minute, but as the butterflies in her stomach bounced around mercilessly, she knew that she was wrong to ignore the advice. She came around the corner of what seemed like a five and a half minute hallway, but her vision zeroed out on the last door on the left. She had that strange feeling a person gets against their eyes, like she'd walked through a thin layer of energy - something perhaps to keep her away, or give her the feeling of unease so that she'd pretend she'd never seen.

Opening the door, the scene splayed before her was something that she'd never be able to erase. Tara was being held from behind, one arm wrapped crossways on her body, holding down her limbs, while the other was pushing her head to the side at such an angle Amber couldn't help but cringe at how much pain she must've been in. "Hey!" she heard herself screaming. She ran across the short distance, intending to tackle the boy holding her friend, but was intercepted equally forcefully by another boy. This one was shorter, but built well, and had blonde hair the colour of vanilla.

He taunted her as the other boy bit Tara -- wait, what? He BIT her! Amber screamed for him to stop, but the boy holding her covered her mouth with his hands, pinning her against himself so hard that she cried out in pain. She could hear Tara screaming, screaming...

By the time Derek would realize it, he would be on page 3 - and the journal only got worse. It went through, in gory detail, the real events of the Bash Crystal and Jessica had attended, only the locations, names, and certain aspects of the house had been changed enough that the story may very well have been a manuscript of some sort. It certainly wasn't something anyone would have expected from the withdrawn, once-perky cheerleader, but what one read was simply what one got.

Towards the end, the pages became blank, and then there was more strange writing - not in story form, but in broken, dissheveled thought.

don't know what i'm doing anymore, he's everywhere. burning me like i burned that house, like i tried to burn myself.

[Derek Walsh]

If he was to be absolutely honest, he didn't take a whole lot of notice when Crystal booked it out of the cafe, except that he moved slightly to be out of her way and caught some scents off of her that weren't strong enough in his human form to scream bad things at him, but were enough to make him briefly wonder what was up.  An instant later, Melody was his full focus again, as was finding a table that wasn't absolutely filthy.

He zeroed in on one and moved immediately to plant themselves there, regardless of the fact that there was some book on it.  Frankly, he didn't really think much of it until he actually reached the table, and then he picked it up more out of curiosity than anything. 

Melody was talking to him as he cracked it open to the first page, wondering whose it was and actually hoping to find a name in it that he could use to figure it out.  Instead, he found a story that sounded painfully familiar inside, and he was on the third page before he realized that Melody had been talking to him, then asking if he wanted anything.  She only really got his attention when she pulled on his sleeve, looking at him a little crossly for not listening, and he stared at her for a few seconds before snapping the book shut. 

"Sorry, just...was wondering if there was a name in here.  I'm not really hungry or anything," he told her simply.  He didn't want to explain, but he definitely had no intentions of letting her read it.  He'd gotten far enough to know that terrible, terrible things had happened in this 'story', and it sounded disgustingly similar to a bash.  He'd never forget the one he ended up at, and he knew that Melody was in the same boat.  No way was he going to let her sit and dwell on what was in that journal.

[Melody Craft]

"Do you want to go straight back to the apartment after this or do you want to swing by the mall? I know you hate the mall, but your mom's birthday is coming up and I was thinking we could start planning for a present she'll love until she realizes it's from me," she said. She paused, watching him as he looked down into a book of some sort. She hadn't seen him with it a second ago... Whatever, maybe he'd picked it up inside.

  "Derek, did you hear me?" she repeated. When he didn't respond, she began talking again. "I was thinking about taking your credit card for the weekend and going to Atlantic City with Shane, is that okay? It is? Why, that's amazing!" Another pause.

  "Derek!" she finally said, tugging on his sleeve. Truth be told, she'd been sipping her vanilla bean frappuccino so she hadn't really seen what he was reading, but she'd never seen him so engrossed in something before. When he responded/explained himself, she took the book from him before he could stash it away somewhere.

  "Let me see it, maybe I can find something," she said. She turned away from him and began flipping through it, her brow furrowing as she saw endless bubbly handwriting. "I think this is someone's diary," she said with a scowl. She looked back up at him. "Someone really clunked in the head. Did you see the last thing, right before it ends?" she asked. She put a finger on the page and pointed to the reference to burning houses.

  "Sounds creepy. You know some basket case set a house on fire not far from where all that.... Stuff happened with Shane? It was last year some time, actually. Kind of weird, come to think of it. You remember when that girl got killed in Ramsa? Same house. We went to school with her older sister, Candy. I think... Jessica was her name. You remember Candy Brunswick? Her little sister," she added. "Wow, this is... really morbid."

[Derek Walsh]

Yeah, he'd totally missed what she was saying, and that much was obvious by the fact that she'd gotten away with talking about his credit card and her brother in the same sentence without him laughing at her or disputing the idea.  He was also still caught up in what he'd read, even if he'd closed the book, since she managed to swipe it from him.  He was Uncia, so of course he had amazing reflexes.  That had to be one of the few times she'd actually managed something like that.  It was almost embarrassing.

He was seconds away from snatching it back when she started commenting on it.  All he could think was that maybe she wasn't reading too much of it, just skimming, or that she didn't want to associate it with her own experiences.  She was totally on the money in mentioning the fire and the girl that died, he knew it was insanely 'coincidental' as soon as she said it, but he was thrilled that she wasn't calling it a bash.  Maybe she was even right.  Maybe it wasn't real, and it was just someone's twisted story. 

"It's probably just some emo kid's story.  You know how they get with all their darkness and rainclouds," he offered, smiling and hoping he was right.  "Did you see a name for the author in it?"

He really didn't THINK he was right.  He might have to ask Christian if that Jessica girl had been killed during a bash, and what else had gone down.  He was probably stupid to think that Christian might know, but he still felt like the hunters would know that stuff.  Didn't they watch for those things? 

[Melody Craft]

  Melody looked at him flatly. "What emo kid do you know that writes in this Crushed-Out Girl looking print and uses a hot pink gel pen?" she demanded. She looked at it again, and shrugged, holding it back out to him. "No name that I can see. You didn't see where it came from at all?" she asked, doubting him. Derek had a high power of observation when he wanted to, but if he'd been watching something, like say, oh, Melody as she bent down to pick something up off the sidewalk, he'd have been oblivious. Cats and their selective attention spans.

  "I didn't really read a lot of it, but it reminds me of all that stuff that happened. It was right after I graduated. There was some party and then the next day people are missing. Cheerleader pops up saying that she was kidnapped or something, best friend's body was found hacked to bits. It was all over the news. Don't you remember, mom wouldn't let me see you for like a week because she suddenly thought everyone wanted to axe murder me," she said, nudging him.

  "I heard the girl that she was with dropped out. Changed her story on the police a few times, so they locked her up in a ward. She came back, dropped out of school, vanished. Freaking crazy, she was super popular and everything. She did 'bout what I wanted to do when all that stuff happened with Shane, but he'd have split my head open if I'd have dropped out," she muttered. All this death talk made her cranky.

[Derek Walsh]

He returned her gaze with his own blue eyes when she asked him about emo kids using pink gel pens, and he shrugged.  Yeah, bad call on his part.  "Point," he conceded, but it still didn't mean he wanted to think that what was written there was true. 

She certainly caused him to hesitate when she asked if he'd seen where it came from, and his first instinct was to say no.  Why would he know?  "I found it on the table."  He took it back, but that hesitation came, stopping him from telling her that he had no idea whose it was or where it had come from before the name.  He caught a whiff of something that he thought he recognized, and he thought things over quickly.  As a chai, he didn't have a half form, but if he started shifting and stopped really fast, he could improve his senses enough for a decent sized boost.  Usually, it screwed up his eyes, just like it did after shifting (which had really helped out him with Melody the night of that bash), but he had sunglasses on him.  Melody didn't mind seeing it, either.

So, he sat down and put some thought into it, letting the shift start despite his pulse yammering over how wrong he was to try this in public, and stopped it as soon as it started.  He raised the book, trying to be discreet about sniffing at it, then flipping through the pages. 

Oh yeah, that was enough scent to get the point across.  He knew it, but not personally.  Hadn't he smelled it off of that girl?

He didn't really remember much about her, since Melody had dropped something on the sidewalk right as the other girl passed (and he totally wasn't going to miss THAT).  Mel sometimes teased him about his attention span being so ridiculous, since he could totally pay attention to one thing with every ounce of focus he possessed or pick up a little bit of everything that happened around him, but didn't seem to have much in the way of middle ground.  It was all or nothing, and right then, she'd been all.  He'd noticed the other girl only because she was an instant before Melody bending over, but he couldn't have said anything more than blonde hair.

"I remember," he agreed, frowning and reversing the shifting as completely as he could.  He'd gotten what he wanted, and now he was going to need sunglasses to keep random people from commenting on his eyes for a little while.  "It was frustrating, because between your brother and I, you were the safest girl in the neighborhood."

He stopped, looking at her and hoping that he wasn't going to seriously upset her, but it had actually been something he wondered about when the incident had first happened.  He just hadn't wanted to bring it up.  "Do you think that was a bash?"

Could the diary belong to that girl? 

[Melody Craft]

  Melody frowned a little. She still didn't want to think about any sort of bash, regardless of who was involved. One of them had nearly turned her into another nameless victim, and her brother... Shane was still adjusting, some odd years later. She looked down at her drink, pretending to concentrate on it more than the situation at hand for a moment while she gathered her thoughts.

  "Maybe," she finally said. "Only one way to know for sure. Any idea how to find her, or should we wait until she comes back? I mean, if I left something like this laying around, I'd definitely be looking for it," she said, looking around through the crowd. Summer meant lots of people, and there was very little doubt that whoever the author was, she wouldn't come back for it. It was just a question of how long it took for her to realize it was gone.

  "I guess we can wait here for a little. Won't hurt us," she suggested. She got comfortable and motioned for her boyfriend to do the same. They'd wait for a little while and then go on about their day. "If she doesn't come back, should we take it? I don't want it to fall into the wrong hands," she said, frowning over the top of her straw at him. She always looked to Derek for the "adult" decisions when Shane wasn't around - and Shane's ideas usually involved violence, anyways.

[Derek Walsh]

He didn't really want to think of the bashes, either, but it was hard not to.  This diary, or whatever it was, had a tale in it that was frighteningly similar to their own, only with more dying and less success.  He'd stalled long enough for hunters to help some people, and Shane had been turned, but hadn't been outright killed.  Melody was safe and hadn't been ridiculously traumatized.  Yes, people had died, but it wasn't as much of a horror to him personally as this story was to the author.  It also sounded far too much like the news they'd gotten regarding that girl who'd died, and the fire.  Melody obviously paid excellent attention AND could put those details together, because as soon as she said it, he couldn't let it go.  It all made too much sense. 

"That girl, the blonde that was walking out as we came in?  Pretty sure it's hers.  I could try to locate her, but I'm not a wolf," he admitted, as though he had to.  Wolves were pretty insane about their sense of smell.  His was good, but a wolf?  A wolf could do it, for sure.

She was probably right about waiting, and even if she wasn't, he'd admit that it was a good idea.  Frankly, he was all for any idea that made it look like they were trying while still allowing him to slip his arm around her and waste time just enjoying her company.  It was a good plan, and he didn't mind telling her so.  "You're a genius.  We'll stay right here, doing what we were already going to do, and maybe she'll come back."

And if she didn't?  Well.  "If she doesn't, I do think we should take it, just in case a vamp drops by.  They might have better luck finding her than we would."

Unfortunately, that would always be an issue.  Vampires were a pain in the ass.

[Griffon Reich]

Now just where had that bitch gotten off to, now? And what the fuck had she taken with her when she'd left her house? She hadn't thought he'd seen her, but he had, because he always saw what she was doing, what fucking sneaky thing she was up to. It, her scent, her fear and pain - it had landed him outside of a Starbucks. He almost laughed because of how fucking typical it was. That stupid bitch really thought she could have some semblance of a normal life by going to an expensive place that served rotten drinks and hope to do what, exactly? Reclaim her innocence? As far as he was concerned, he'd only robbed her of stupidity, but it seemed like she just kept finding more and more of it over time to shove back into that bank of her head.

Griffon really wanted to know what was in that book. That's what he thought it was, at least. At first he'd thought it was that stupid Summer of the Swans book she read over and over again - the one that made her cry. It was some stupid book about a girl and her short bus brother, and Griffon had only let the issue go because Crystal didn't really seem like the reading type. He could only accuse her of being an illiterate bitch so many times before it got old. He'd burn that fucking thing, now, for all of this trouble it was causing him.

He ran his fingers through his fair blond hair, looking back and forth. Her trail went stagnant around the outdoor area, but still, he knew she'd have come here. He scanned the tables slowly for any sort of sign of a friend, someone she might have been trying to meet with - to plot to leave, no doubt, like it would work anyways - and his eyes fell on that book of hers. It appeared to be comfortably resting on the table next to a brunette who probably could have been someone Crystal would talk to (she looked idiotic enough) and a frilly shapeshifter who looked like someone Griffon would have pounded in high school.

With all of the grace of his kind, he slid a worried look on his face and jogged just a few feet into the crowd, making everyone around him think he'd been looking for the girl. They pointed this way and that, their minds clouded with that Kendra power as he slowly prodded for the information he wanted. All signs went right to that table, which was the last place she'd been seen. He stopped short, the earbuds for his MP3 player still dangling around his neck. He looked like a normal boy, not clean cut but certainly not a sort of drug addict or freak. Jeans and a regular gray shirt that was bland enough to blend in - no, he was normal. He could dim his aura down to damn near nothing, and he had to.

He, of course, didn't really run into a lot of shapeshifters, so he didn't know how this was going to work out, but he'd bank on the girl opening her mouth before the idiot pretty-boy did.

  "Hey, I'm sorry to bother you two," he said, feigning a slight sensation of being out of breath - but he seemed to have been rushed, worried - in a hurry, even. "Have you seen a blonde girl, about so tall here? She's my sister, and she's really not supposed to be out here on her own," he added. He smiled, a sort of pained smile. "She's a little sick; mom told me to watch her but I just turned around for a second and she zipped off..."

  He didn't look at the book, not yet. He wanted them to just come clean before he had to start doing damage.

[Derek Walsh]

They hadn't had much time to themselves before Griffon walked in, and Derek couldn't have said what it was about the guy that had his attention immediately, but there was something and he was blaming it on the fact that he'd been fucking around with his shapeshifting to try to get the girl's smell off of the journal.  He didn't know why he had troubles with it the way he did, but it was almost like he subconsciously didn't want to go back to human each time, so his body took its sweet time in re-adapting.  He'd have asked his parents or Eva about it, but he didn't like the idea of telling them that he was a weak link in their chain, or something.  Regardless of why things happened to be that way, he noticed Griffon instantly, and didn't like him the way a leopard would notice and dislike a human with a rifle.  It wasn't fear, but an understanding that if they tangled, one probably wouldn't walk away.  Fortunately for Derek, Christian had put in the effort to make him a better match for vampires, particularly the younger ones. 

It would have been embarrassing for him, both in the sense that he'd be letting Christian down and probably getting into serious trouble, if he hadn't been wary of Griffon, especially after seeing that journal.  So soon after reading that the little blonde girl was afraid of a male mystery stalker, this guy comes in with a story about his sister and looking for her?  Derek wasn't that stupid, and he squeezed Melody's shoulder briefly where his arm was around her before he disentangled himself.  He didn't want to be parted from her, but he needed full range of movement, just in case.  He also reached out and slid the journal off of the table and into her lap, all the while staring at Griffon with his luminescent blue eyes.  He faked a smile nearly perfectly, but there seemed to be no surprise on either side that it didn't reach those eyes. 

"Sorry, wish I could help, but we haven't seen your sister," he offered in a friendly, casual sort of tone.  "What's your name?  If we do see her, we'll let her know you're looking."

No, he didn't expect honestly, but there was a chance, so he was taking it.  Besides, it seemed like the right thing to say.  Did this guy want her to know he was looking?  If Derek found her first, he wasn't letting her out of his sight until he knew she was safe, and he was sure Melody would agree.  He couldn't imagine her not wanting to do whatever she could for someone who'd suffered in a bash, not after their own experiences.

[Griffon Reich]

 Griffon felt his entire being ice over. The fucker was lying through his teeth - he knew it, the prat knew it, and he was willing to bet anything that the bitch he was trying to be protective of knew it, too. He was going to have to rely on the pressure of his vampire tricks to get this job done without having to fuck this cat's face up in the middle of the pavillion. He didn't doubt his ability to make everyone around them think nothing had happened - Griffon was talented for a young vampire - but he didn't want to push his luck. Instead of reaching over and trying to rip the sissy boy's face off, he turned to Melody.

  "Sure thing. You didn't see her either, I take it?"

  Tell me what I want to hear.

  Melody's facial expression seemed to change from that blank, almost stunned expression to one of pleasant surprise. "Oh, we found her diary - here, maybe you should take it. I don't know where she went, but it was only about five or ten minutes ago. Maybe you can catch up with her?" she asked hopefully.

  As Griffon retracted his power, the girl's face just dropped. She seemed to realize what had transpired even if she didn't have any control or way to explain it, and she just looked to her idiot boyfriend like he was going to be of some help.

  Griffon smiled broadly, staring Derek right in the eye. He was fucking daring him to try something. Now he'd totally cracked his bitch girlfriend's brain open for the info, which he might have been able to do with the shifter but didn't want to waste his time with - and right in front of him to boot - there was sure to be trouble. Griffon was pleased.

  "You told me just what I needed to hear, sweetheart. You two have a nice day," he added, tipping the diary at them. He turned and dashed off into the crowd.

[Melody Craft]

Melody watched the entire exchange, bewildered. Derek slid the book discretely to her and she held onto it tightly, understanding that it was better if she didn't say anything at all. She wasn't planning to, avoiding the questions of the guy and letting Derek handle it. She hated having to do that; hated being so frail and useless, but if it's one thing she'd learned, it was that humans had no place getting involved in things beyond their comprehension. Of course, Christian and other human hunters comprehended - it was different for them. Melody was... Melody. Her biggest fear was Derek's mother.

  When she glanced up at the boy, though, he seemed so... innocent. And he was worried about his sister so much, she could see it in his eyes. He reminded her of Shane and how over-protective he was, and she thought suddenly about what lengths Shane would go to for her, and she opened her mouth and the words came out and she handed him the diary and then...

  Derek had the most... scariest facial expression she'd ever seen before. Her entire body froze, and she instinctively shrank away from the direction of the males - but the boy had already gone.

  "I... I have no idea what just fucking happened," she whispered, her voice shrill and frightened. Melody had never been controlled like that before. A sudden rush of emotion and then gone, leaving her empty and aware of what had happened. "Oh God, I'm such a fucking human," she said, putting her hands over her face.

[Derek Walsh]

Okay, so, if there was ever a next time?  Totally not handing something valuable over to the only human in the situation.  He thought it'd be for the best; he needed his hands free if the vampire got out of hand (since it was definitely a vampire), but now he had cause to reconsider.  That had been stupid, and Melody had paid the price.  The furious, 'scary' expression that she saw was reserved wholly for the vampire and himself, never for her.  He was angry that he'd made the mistake of turning Griffon's attention to her by giving her the journal, that he couldn't protect her from a mental attack, and that the vampire had even done it. 

If he'd previously had any doubts that this was the man that girl was running from, they'd been completely slashed. 

The problem when Griffon took off was that Derek didn't dare leave Melody alone.  He didn't want to let the vampire get at the blonde girl who really seemed to need help, but he wasn't willing to trade Melody into her position.  Not a fucking chance.  He couldn't leave her, but he couldn't go after the vampire and take her with him.  That was just putting her in danger.  Her brother or any type of back-up would take too long to arrive, but there was one thing that Griffon wasn't counting on.

"I have your scent, asshole," he murmured, and that was a big deal.  Even better?  He was pissed, and Shane was easy to piss off on his sister's behalf.  Sure, Shane was likely to blame Derek for not somehow keeping it from happening, but he'd also want to rip that other vampire apart, and Shane had some crazy of his own going on. 

He turned his attention to Melody, getting up and taking her hand.  He pulled her in close and wrapped his arm around her, not willing to let anyone else near her, but one thing was certain: they had to get to that girl before the vampire did.  "It's okay, that wasn't your fault.  I was stupid," he told her, squeezing her close rather gently, because she was human.  He was stronger, her brother was stronger, and they both accepted it and made changes to accommodate that.  They never, ever minded or even thought that it was a bother.  "We need to try to find that girl before he does, though.  Can you call Shane and see if he knows anything about it?"

He hated to say it, but that seemed like the kind of creep Shane might have known.  That might have just been his own bias, though.

[Melody Craft]

Melody felt like crying. This had been the entire reason Derek had stayed away from her when they were growing up, and it was like she was just proving how useless she was. She nodded when he said it wasn't her fault, but she didn't really believe it. When he asked to call Shane, though, she looked up at him. "Do you really think that's a good idea? Shane is going to flip out, probably on you. I would rather avoid that sort of drama."

  She sat for a second, her stomach twisting around her vanilla bean drink that was melting away in front of her. She felt like she was going to puke. Her entire body felt numb. "Couldn't you call Christian and see if they have any information on this guy before we just try to send my brother after him? We don't know who he is." She pulled out her iPhone and began typing something into the browser bar while she spoke, and then she glanced back up.

  "The girl's name is Crystal. I can't get her address but I think I had a friend who lived near her when we were in school. I was able to pull it up on Google with just a news article search, but all I can get is her name. I just don't know if I have anyone that remembers her," she said with a shrug. She really, really didn't want to call Shane. She was going to be in trouble if she did.

[Derek Walsh]

Derek really didn't want to be talking to Shane about this situation anytime soon, but he'd have suffered her brother's attitude and aggression if it meant that both of these girls were cared for.  He hated to admit it, but sometimes having a vampire on your side could work wonders, though Melody was right about them not knowing who that other guy was.  They didn't know how old he was or how dangerous he was, and that would matter if Shane was going to try to smash his face in.  Shane was still young in the grand scheme of things, and they didn't know if this other guy was.  Derek could only guess, but he didn't think Griffon was too old.  He'd needed to ask where Crystal had gone, and the old ones wouldn't.

She had a point about Christian, but did he really want to alert his brother-in-law to the fact that he and Melody had somehow managed to fall into MORE trouble involving a bash?  At least they hadn't BEEN at this one, but he really didn't want Christian, or Eva, on guard where he and his girlfriend were concerned.  He liked to pretend that he could take care of himself without a babysitter.  His pride was going to have to take a backseat, though.

"Hang on a second," he told her, still headed in the direction they thought Crystal had gone, and that Griffon had gone, as he pulled out his own phone to dial Christian.  With a name, maybe they'd be able to figure something out. 

"Hey, this is going to sound really random, but do you know anything about a bash that happened a few years ago involving a girl named Crystal?  We're pretty sure someone burned the house down last year," he started, then glanced at Melody's phone for the address to the place.  "It sounds like Crystal survived, and her friend Jessica didn't."