by Amanda Abram
“Fine,” I grumbled. “Lead the way.”
Jase shot me an appreciative glance as we followed Kylie to another room.
“You owe me. You'd better hope our spins do land on each other, because if I have to kiss anyone else I will seriously kill you for making me go along with this.”
“Relax, honey,” Jase said. “This will be fun.”
As we entered what appeared to be a rec room, I quickly glanced around for Jeffrey. I breathed a sigh of relief when I noted he was not part of the circle of kids that had already formed on the floor.
“Hey guys,” Kylie said to nobody particular in the circle, “move over. We have two more players joining in.”
People automatically obeyed, opening up two empty spaces for me and Jase. I ended up being sandwiched between one of Jase's fellow hockey players and the senior class president, and Jase ended up between Kylie and the party host himself, Zach. I couldn't help but note how happy Jase seemed to be that he'd gotten a spot next to Kylie.
“Okay,” Kylie said, setting an empty beer bottle on the floor in the center of our circle. “The rules are as follows: when it's your turn, you spin the bottle. When the bottle stops spinning, you have to kiss whoever the bottle is pointing to, no matter if it's a boy or a girl.” A couple of boys let out whistles, causing Kylie to roll her eyes before continuing. “You must kiss this person for no less than ten seconds, and it can be whatever kind of kiss you want, but please note that if the kiss is too chaste, you will be removed from the game.”
Sign me up! I glanced over at Jase to exchange a look of exasperation with him, but he of course was not looking over at me. Instead, he was watching Kylie, listening intently to her instructions.
I was starting not to like the person Jase was when he was around her.
So the game started with Kylie herself spinning the bottle. It landed on the class president next to me, who happened to be female, and for ten excruciating seconds of them kissing each other, I had to endure listening to loud and obnoxious cheering coming from each and every male in the circle.
And yes, Jase was one of those males.
The game proceeded in a counter-clockwise direction, leaving six people to go before me. Words could not express how badly I did not want to be there. I had to have been the least popular person playing and under normal circumstances, the other kids might have cared. But since a majority of them seemed to be bordering on drunk, none of them even seemed to notice I was there. Which made me wonder if perhaps they would even notice if I slowly and inconspicuously crawled out of the circle...
“You're up next, Lexi!” Kylie exclaimed, instantly foiling my plan for a quick and painless getaway.
“Oh goodie,” I said with as much fake enthusiasm as I could muster. I glanced over at Jase to see him watching me with a look of anticipation on his face. He gave me a slight nod; it was his way of trying to encourage me to do what I was about to do.
With a flick of my wrist I proceeded to spin the stupid bottle. When it began to slow to a stop a few seconds later, it appeared as though it was going to land on Jase. But before the tip of the bottle could point at him, it came to an abrupt stop right before him, and my heart sank as I realized who it had landed on.
Zach O'Connor.
On the list of people I would rather not kiss ever, Zach would be pretty high up there. Not that he wasn't cute, because he was. And not because he was gross, because he wasn't. It was because he was Zach O'Connor, the most popular guy in school. The guy who'd had dozens of girlfriends. The guy who would know right away how inexperienced I was and probably make fun of me for it in front of everyone.
My frantic gaze shot over to Jase and my eyes silently pleaded with him to do something to help me get out of this. But he did nothing but shrug as if to say, “You've gotta do it.”
I made a mental note to kill him later.
“Well, kiddo,” Zach drawled as a grin formed on his face, “it looks like it's your lucky day.”
I somehow refrained from making a remark about how if I was truly “lucky”, a bolt of lightning would strike down and kill me before I had to force myself to kiss him.
“Come on over, babe.” He motioned with his hand for me to scoot on over closer to him. Why was I not surprised he wouldn't meet me halfway, like everyone else had done with each other?
With another deep breath, I quickly crawled over to him, ignoring Jase even though I could see him staring at me from the corner of my eye. I just wanted to get this over with as quickly as possible, which was stupid considering the ten seconds I had to spend kissing Zach would not go any faster than they had for anyone else.
I was all set to mentally prepare myself for my impending doom, but before I was even given the chance, Zach reached out and grabbed the back of my neck and pulled me to him, crushing his lips against mine.
The very first thing I noticed was the taste of alcohol on his lips, which was a good indication he was drunk, which meant he probably was not going to remember any of this. The second thing I noticed was how tightly he was holding me, since he had snaked his other arm around my waist and pulled me to him until his chest was fully up against my own. And the third thing I noticed was his tongue, and the fact he had shoved it into my mouth before I even knew what had hit me.
Seriously, we hadn’t even made it three seconds in before he was attempting to play tonsil hockey with me. And while it certainly wasn't the grossest thing I had ever experienced, I did not want to be French kissing Zach. Especially not in front of all of his friends, who were all whistling and cheering at us.
Rules or not, I wanted out. So bringing my hands up and placing them on his albeit nicely sculpted chest, I tried pushing him away. I failed miserably, so I decided to just wait it out, letting him kiss me but refusing to kiss back.
Five seconds went by. Eight seconds went by. Ten seconds went by.
And then fifteen.
What the hell! I began to panic. We were now well over the ten-second limit and he was still kissing me, and I couldn't break away from him no matter how hard I tried to squirm away. I think I might have heard Kylie mention it was time for us to break it up, but apparently Zach hadn't heard her. Or if he had, he'd chosen to ignore her.
Oh my God, I thought. What if he never lets go of me? What if I'm doomed to make out with Zach O'Connor for the rest of my life? What if—
Luckily, my “what-if”s were instantly brought to a halt when I felt Zach being yanked away from me. Opening my eyes, I saw that Jase was the one who had taken charge of the situation, and for that I decided not to kill him later after all.
“Dude,” he said in strained voice to Zach as he returned him to the circle. “Not cool. Lex is my girl. I'm the only one who gets to kiss her like that.”
I felt myself flush at his words.
“Sorry, man.” Zach slapped Jase on the back. “I'm totally wasted. I cannot be held accountable for anything I say or do at this party.”
All of his moron friends began to laugh, as though alcohol consumption was an acceptable excuse for poor behavior.
Wiping my mouth with the back of my hand I returned to my spot and folded my arms protectively over my chest. Amazingly enough, this game had turned out even worse than I had expected.
But it was almost over. There were only three more people left to take their turn, including Jase. When Zach's time came, I was more than pleased when the bottle landed on one of his jock friends, although neither he nor the other guy seemed all that fazed over having to kiss each other, which was pretty disappointing.
And then finally came Jase's turn. I knew even before the bottle stopped spinning who it was going to land on. Call me psychic, or just call the whole situation totally clichéd. Either way, Jase looked positively elated when the bottle stopped and pointed in Kylie's direction.
She looked pretty darn happy, too.
I told myself I wasn't going to watch it, because I wasn't sure I'd be able to keep down all of the food I'd eaten that
day, but it was like a really bad car accident, and there was just no way I couldn't look, because I was just so horribly morbid.
Whereas everybody else's kisses (mine certainly included) had been either awkward, playful or downright dreadful, theirs was sickeningly sweet. First, Jase reached out and brushed a strand of hair away from her face. Then that same hand rested on the back of her neck as he leaned in close and lightly brushed his lips against hers. And then, after a brief pause he picked up the pace and they were engaging in full make-out mode.
Gross. Disgusting. Utterly revolting. I made it all the way to the seventh second mark before standing up and making a not-so-subtle exit from the circle. I'd had enough of that stupid game for one night.
I felt everyone's eyes on me as I left the room, and I had to wonder if Jase and Kylie's kiss ended earlier due to my departure, since Jase was tapping me on the shoulder no sooner than I had stepped into the next room.
“Hey,” he said, sounding slightly out of breath, and not because he had run after me, but because he had just made out with the love of his life. He glanced over his shoulder at the crowd that was now breaking up in the rec room and then grabbed my arm and began to lead me away. “That was so amazing.”
Eww. I really did not want to hear him talk about how amazing his kiss with Kylie was.
“The way you stormed out like that was awesome. Very authentic.” He flashed me a grin. “It's like you were jealous. Was that premeditated or strictly spur-of-the-moment? Either way, it was genius.”
“Um...” Actually, it was pretty genius. Too bad I couldn't take credit for it, because that certainly hadn't been why I'd gotten up and left.
So then why had I?
“It was strictly spur-of-the-moment,” I opted to say.
His grin widened before beginning to falter. “Hey, look, I'm sorry about Zach.”
Waving my hand around dismissively I said, “No big deal. He's a pretty good kisser.” Huh? Where had that come from? “But thanks for pulling him off me. I really didn't want to spend the rest of the party attached to his lips.”
Jase chuckled. And then, with a sheepish glance directed at the ground, he said, “That game turned out better than I expected. Talk about a pretty good kisser. Kylie's even better than I'd imagined she'd be.”
He proceeded to stare dreamily off into the distance and I almost didn't recognize him. I'd known Jase for more than half of my life and during that time I'd seen him with every girl he'd ever dated, and not once had he looked so completely smitten with any of them. Until now. And Kylie wasn't even his girlfriend yet.
I found myself wanting a change of subject so I said, “Should we go find Jeffrey and parade our steamy romance around in front of him?”
“Hmm, what?” He glanced down at me with an unreadable expression on his face. “Oh, yeah. Sure. I think I'll get something to drink though, first. You want anything?”
“Sure, I'll take a beer.”
He laughed. “No way am I allowing alcohol anywhere near you, Turner. I'll get you a Coke instead.”
“Whatever.” I had been joking about the beer, of course. I’d managed to try a sip of one of my dad’s beers once, and the flavor of it made me want to vomit.
“Be right back,” he said as he took off into the crowd. While I waited patiently for his return, I scanned the room for any trace of either Jeffrey or Amber-Lynne Rose. Although I was pretty sure if Amber-Lynne Rose was anywhere in the vicinity, I would smell her putrid perfume. And since I smelled nothing out of the ordinary, that probably meant they were nowhere near me.
I was contemplating searching elsewhere but stopped when somebody called out my name. Or, at least, called out something that indicated I was being spoken to.
“Hey, Holloway's girl!”
I groaned. Great. First, I was “Trish's best friend”. Now I was “Holloway's girl”. Was “Lexi” really that hard of a name to remember?
Spinning on my heel I saw Zach heading toward me with a platter full of tiny little cups with a very colorful substance in them. “Hey, Zach.”
“Jell-O shot?” He held the platter out toward me.
As tempting as that was, I politely declined his offer by shaking my head. “No thanks. I'm on a strict 'No Jell-O' diet. It's all the craze right now. There's a book about it and everything.”
“Oh.” He furrowed his brow slightly. It was obvious he was taking me seriously. “You know, you don't really need to diet. I mean, you're not fat.”
I refrained from laughing, because it almost seemed like he was sincerely trying to pay me a compliment. “Thanks.”
I waited to see if he was going to make any mention of our kiss, but I wasn't even sure he remembered it taking place. Which was more than okay with me.
He nodded and was about to walk off but I stopped him by grabbing hold of his arm before he could get too far. “Hey, wait. Have you seen Jeffrey anywhere?”
Narrowing his eyes at me, he said, “Jeffrey?”
“Yeah. Jeffrey. My ex-boyfriend.”
Zach snorted. “Are you talking about Weston? I'd better not be seeing him anywhere. He wasn't invited.”
My breath caught in my throat as Zach proceeded to move onto the next party guest. Jeffrey wasn't invited? It made sense; Jeffrey and Zach had never been friends at all. So then why did Jase specifically tell me that Jeffrey was going to be at the party if he wasn't even invited?
Son...of...a...bitch.
Okay, change of plans. Maybe I was going to kill Jase after all.
Chapter Sixteen
On a scale of one to ten of complete and total anger, I was about to turn into a female version of The Hulk, especially when my lying ass of a party date failed to return with my Coke within a reasonable amount of time.
I thought maybe he knew I'd found out about the fact he had lied to me and was now hiding from me for fear I would break one of his precious limbs. But after five minutes, when I finally decided to set out looking for him, I saw that he wasn't hiding at all. Instead, he was chatting it up with Little Miss Everything-About-Me-Is-So-Perfect in the kitchen. Both of them seemed very pleased with each other's company, as they both had impossibly huge grins on their faces.
“Hey!” I called out as I approached them. They must not have heard me over the loud music, because neither of them reacted. So marching right up behind Jase, I tapped him hard on the shoulder and yelled in his ear as loudly as I could, “Holloway!”
He jumped at the sound of my voice and as he spun around to face me, he immediately brought his hand up to his ear, as if my yelling had punctured his eardrum and now he had to nurse it. What a baby.
“Lex. Hey.”
“Hey yourself, sweetie,” I said through clenched teeth. “I've been looking everywhere for you.” My gaze flickered over to Kylie and I had to refrain from glaring at her. I noticed she was holding a can of Coke. And then I noticed Jase was too, so I turned and glared at him instead.
“Was that supposed to be my drink?” I asked, thrusting a pointed finger accusingly at Kylie's soda.
His eyes widened a bit, in a totally guilty kind of way. “Uh, well...”
Wow. He was an even bigger jerk than I had originally thought. I was his 'girlfriend', and not only did he ditch me to talk to his crush, but then he gave her my drink!
Kylie, whose eyes had been darting back and forth between me and Jase, cleared her throat and set her can of Coke down on the counter. “I'm gonna go find my friends.” And then she promptly left the kitchen without so much as another glance at Jase.
As soon as she was out of sight, I gave Jase's arm a good punch.
“Hey,” he protested, bringing his hand up to rub the spot I'd hit. “What was that for?”
Placing my hands on my hips, I said, “If you'd like a shorter response, try asking what that wasn't for.”
Narrowing his eyes at me, he lowered his voice and said, “If you're mad I didn't come right back with your drink, I'm sorry. I ran into Kylie and she started talking to
me, and I didn't want to be rude and blow her off.”
“Amazingly enough, Jase, that's not what I'm so pissed off about right now. Although, that is a close runner up.”
“Oh.” He looked relieved. “Okay, then why are you so pissed off right now?”
I paused for a moment, giving him the perfect opportunity to come clean and confess everything to me. But of course, he made no attempt to say anything at all, so I was forced to answer his question in a very low, dangerous voice. “I just had a chat with your friend Zach. According to him, not only is Jeffrey not at this party, but he wasn't even invited to begin with.”
Jase instantly paled at my words, giving away his guilt. “Look, Lex—”
“So why did you specifically tell me Jeffrey would be here?” I continued on, as though he hadn't said anything at all. “After all, Jeffrey was the main reason why I agreed to come in the first place. So why would you lie to me about this?”
“Let me explain,” he said calmly.
But I didn't want to let him do that. He didn't deserve the opportunity to explain. “Let me guess. You knew Jeffrey wasn't invited to the party. But you also knew that if I knew Jeffrey wasn't invited, I wouldn't want to come. So, since Kylie was still going to be here, you figured you'd lure me here under false pretenses anyway so you could still get what you wanted. Am I even close?”
Jase looked lost in thought for a moment, while he guiltily chewed on his lower lip. “Yeah, you pretty much nailed it. BUT—” he quickly continued, after I let out a cry of exasperation, “I still thought it would be good for you to come, because regardless as to whether or not Jeffrey is here, he's still going to hear about it on Monday anyway. Which is just as good as seeing it firsthand. And besides, maybe I just really wanted to spend some time with you.”
I rolled my eyes and snorted at his lame attempt to make his deceit seem less deceitful. “Save it, Jase. You lied to me for your own benefit. You know, I probably still would have come even if you had been upfront with me, but at least then I wouldn't be hating your guts right now.”