Nobody Heard Anything

Mark and I spent nearly two hours clearing away the worst of the mess.

By six-thirty, I finally gave up.

I was still wearing the blue dress from the wedding.

My makeup had smeared underneath my eyes.

My feet hurt so badly that I had gone barefoot.

And I was far too angry to sleep.

So I walked next door.

Dave, our neighbor, answered the door with a mug of coffee in his hand.

“Did you hear anything last night?”

He frowned.

“Like what?”

“A party.”

Dave glanced toward our house.

“No.”

“Nothing?”

“Quiet as always.”

“No music?”

“No.”

“Cars? People shouting?”

He shook his head.

“If there had been a party, we would’ve heard the car doors at least.”

That made absolutely no sense.

His house was only a few yards away from ours.

I asked the woman across the street.

Nothing.

I asked the family on the corner.

Nothing.

Then I knocked on several more doors.

Not a single neighbor had heard music.

Not one had heard shouting.

Nobody remembered seeing cars arrive.

Forty teenagers don’t simply appear and disappear without making a sound.

Yet my house clearly showed signs that a party had taken place.

The street told a completely different story.

When I got back home, Mark was standing in the kitchen holding the paper crown.

Then his expression changed.

“Wait.”

“What?”

“The living room camera.”

I froze.

I had completely forgotten about it.

We had installed the camera to keep an eye on our dog.

It was positioned high on a bookshelf and captured most of the living room along with part of the hallway.

I opened the app.

Mark stood beside me.

We rewound to two in the afternoon.

At first, everything appeared completely normal.

Mark and I left.

Chloe arrived a few minutes later.

Mia watched cartoons.

Chloe sat on the floor looking at her phone.

Noah walked around with a bowl of cereal.

Everything looked ordinary.

Then Mark pressed fast-forward.

The timestamp changed.

6:40 p.m.

Noah appeared carrying two grocery bags.

Then he came back with another.

Chloe immediately got to her feet.

“What is all that?”

“Nothing.”

“That’s six bottles of soda and enough chips for an entire football team.”

“It’s for later.”

Chloe stared at him.

“What’s happening later?”

Noah sighed.

“People are coming.”

I looked at Mark.

Mark looked at me.

We both leaned closer to the screen.

“How many?” Chloe asked.

Noah hesitated.

“Almost my whole class.”

My mouth dropped open.

Then Chloe said the words I wished I could have said myself.

“Absolutely not.”