by M.G. Marquez
CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
MAGGIE
Holding hands, Guji and I walked back to the tree house. Though I’m still feeling giddy around this place, thinking there are darts inside, I tried to be calm. I trust my friends.
They won’t kill me.
“There you are!” Klein approached us and we instinctively broke our linked hands. He stood between us and put an arm on our shoulders. “We’re going to play spin the bottle. You guys must join,”
I noticed that there’s a bottle of alcohol and a pitcher of juice sitting at the center of the floor. “So I’m guessing we have to drink first before we play,”
“Wow, Janella. I never thought you use your head!” I rolled my eyes at Jason.
I sat down next to Nikki and Guji sat beside me. I asked Via and the other girls if they will drink with us. This will be their first time (not mine) to drink so I thought they don’t want to. But Via said, “Bring it on!”
And so we did. We drank one by one by passing the glass round robin style. Guji did not let me drink more than five glasses and took my turns instead. I could feel the alcohol burning up my chest and later my throat. I laughed. I’ve never drunk more than two.
“Forget what we have outside of this house,” Nikki said before we start our game. “No boyfriends, no girlfriends. This is just a game. Okay?”
We all agreed. She placed the empty bottle on the floor and made it spin. We held our breaths as that bottle slowed and its tip stopped in front of Jason. Jason scowled.
“Dare or dare?” Via asked. Jason spit out the word ‘dare.’
As the self-proclaimed Game Master, Via asked him to do a sexy dance in front of Kate. Sexy dance, she meant sexy, vivid, slow dance as he takes his shirt off in front of her. I gulped. That show made me bite my lip.
After that, Jason took his turn and made the bottle spin. I held my breath as the bottle went past me and stopped in front of Nikki. Via, as usual, gave her orders and Nikki stood up to kiss Klein’s cheek. Every one of us laughed when he blushed more than he should.
The game went on with the bottle stopping at random and Via giving countless ridiculous dares. Even Guji’s dare was beyond ridiculous.
“Kiss Janella’s lips for 30 seconds,”
That made my jaw drop. “You’re not serious, are you?”
“Playing hard to get, huh?” Via smirked at me. “Oh c’mon, you could get your awesome first kiss from someone who’s beyond perfection. You should thank me for this magnificent idea,”
I just did. A century ago.
“Might at least have something in between? This is so scandalous,” I blurted out. “In front of you, really? You might throw up.”
“Yeah, the thought of you kissing Boss – that is remarkably disgusting,” then they laughed altogether. I turned to Guji and said, “Have something to say?”
“Oh, nothing. Except that I kinda love to kiss you. No spaces in between,” I punched him right after I saw that dirty look on his face. Bastard.
I placed three fingers on top my lip and announced to get this dare over with. With all of them watching and cheering, Guji leaned forward as he closes the spaces between us. I felt his soft lips against my skin. I closed my eyes as the heat overwhelmed my body.
I heard them counting, slowly. I don’t know if it’s just me or they’re doing it on purpose. “6. 5 and 3/4. 5 and 1/2. 5 and 1/4…” Is that even the normal way of counting?
I felt Guji’s hand holding my arm. He whispered, “I could pull this down if you want me to,”
“Shut up.” By the time they finished counting I put my hand down and turned away from him. But he caught my face and planted a peck on my lips. It lasted just for a second but for me, it felt like forever.
“I just stole a kiss from you. It felt great,” he sung like an idiot. I told him, “You’re such a PDA-ist.”
“Nobody’s paying attention to us so it’s okay.” He repositioned himself and went back to the game. Indeed, nobody was paying attention to us so nobody saw what he did. Then I happened to look at Yvan who’s staring at me, wide-eyed. I bit my lip and looked away.
The game continued until someone in the name of Klein complained, “All of us have been dared, except for one.” He threw me a disgusted look. “Why is the bottle not stopping in front of you, huh? It’s so unfair!”
“Then dare me,” I challenged him. Via accepted my challenge and ordered me to “Kiss Guji’s neck for five seconds.” I raised my brow at her in disbelief but did it anyway. Easy.
I took the bottle and made it spin. We waited until it stopped in front of Yvan. Shaking his head, he asked, “What do you want me to do?”
We all looked at Via who’s looking up the ceiling, thinking. When she snapped her fingers and made her lips curve into an evil smirk, I know Yvan’s in deep trouble.
“Kiss the forehead of the girl you like,” my mouth went O-shaped at that. What’s with her and kissing other people? It seems to me that she’s too much into kissing scenes. “I know she’s in here,”
In here?
Does she mean that she knows about Yvan’s special someone and that she’s in here? Seriously? How could I not know?
“Are you serious? I have to do this now?”
“Okay, let’s wait until tomorrow – NOT. Oh crap, Yvan. Don’t be such a gay,”
“You asked for it. My apologies to those who cares.” Shaking his head, he stood up and walked to our direction. I looked to my right and saw that Nikki’s looking at me, too. To my left, Guji’s eyes were planted on Yvan who’s now kneeling in front of me.
Me?
Then everything went spiral, and my mind went blank. I felt a warm sensation from my forehead and it went down to my toes.
Yvan kissed my forehead and Guji was beside me, watching.