We are back upstairs in the main room. More guests have arrived. The excitement is palpable. It's intoxicating. It's suffocating. I cross the floor as fast as I can, weaving in and around the crowd so no one can follow me. No one does. It's my first time tonight I'm alone.

I take the exit on the left side of the room. The landing leads to a narrow hallway with marble floors. There is an eerie quietness about it but still my footsteps are muffled by the hum of music reverberating throughout the mansion.

As I walk along in the quiet, I take in the expanse surrounding me. The ornate wood-carved hangings, the glossy marble sculptures and painted crown-molding on the ceiling. This entire mansion is a work of art –even the hallways are extravagant. I remind myself this should be unsurprising. Look where you are after all.

It's a study or library of sorts. Three walls are covered in floor-to-ceiling bookcases and the fourth has double French doors. The curtains are drawn back to reveal the moonlit terrace. I cross the room and look at the titles of the books –at the antique desk and chairs and rich oil painting hanging above the fireplace. The mantle is massive and decorated with more books and candles and paintings.

A vintage rifle is encased in crystal on top of the nearest bookcase. A rusted sword mirrors it on the second bookcase. Animal busts and hides are mounted to the walls.  I feel like I'm in some weird antiquated safari museum. The tempo in the floor increases beneath me and my heart picks up with it. Everything feels quiet. All the party sounds are muffled. It's like the pseudo human-hunter/dad from Jumanji is going to pop out from behind the sofa bed.

You know the dude.

The candlelight dances over something on the last shelf. It looks like a small globe made from crystal. It's not round, but like a 3D dodecahedron. Each continent and country is a different color gem or stone.

"Em?" I hear a voice call behind me.

I turn swiftly to see Alex standing in the doorway.

"Hey," I say, looking back at the crystal globe resting feet above my head.

"What are you doing in here?" He asks, smirking. "And alone?"

"Getting lost, obviously." I roll my eyes.

He walks over to stop in front of the towering bookshelf I'm staring at. His eyes follow mine. He is only about one foot below the many-faceted globe.

"Is this what you're drooling over?" Alex asks, looking at it.

"I wasn't drooling," I nudge him. I notice next to him how tall he must be. Taller than Brooks maybe. His eyes are the lightest brown quartz color I've ever seen.

"It's OK," Alex teases. "It is pretty cool."

"Very cool. It shouldn't work," I whisper.

"Why not?" He asks, laughing at my intensity.

"Globes are round," I sigh in a duh kind of way.

"This one is round," he says like he's explaining something to a child.

"Not really," I roll my eyes. "It's all faceted and shit."

"And shit," he repeats, laughing at me. "Want to touch it?"

Alex moves behind me and hoists me up by the hips without warning.

"Alex!" I squeal, laughing and flailing. "Stop! Stop!"

"Oh come on, you want to see it! Come on, hold the world in your hands." He laughs.

"She said stop." A low voice interrupts Alex.

Alex spins around, me still lifted in his hands. He sets me down on the floor so my heels make a click when they find the wood. Alex hangs his head and sticks his hands in his pockets. "Hey, man."

"What are you two doing in here?" Brooks doesn't smile or look even remotely friendly.

I'm reminded of a vampire in the shadows and about a million other clichés for douchey, protective boys.

"Getting lost," Alex repeats my words, glancing at me laughing. I laugh back.

"Obviously." I roll my eyes. Brooks just stares at us, looking back and forth and hesitating in the middle, like he's seeing some invisible things between us.

"What were you actually doing?" Brooks asks, his voice almost growling.

"What? Brooks knock it off." I say.

"Yea man. I just walked in," Alex says, stretching his arms out to show his innocence.

"Right. And the laughing and touching is just casual right?" Brooks asks, agitated. His fingers rake through his hair again.

"Yes, seriously!" I say.

Brooks walks toward us, headed for Alex. I step in between them to stop him from doing anything stupid. The look on Brooks's face –I can't quite place it.

"Brooks. Enough. ENOUGH." I raise my voice. Alex shifts awkwardly between us.

"Well, I'm heading back. See you guys," Alex says. He leaves the room through the same door he came in. He has to sidestep Brooks on the way out.