Making Bad Choices

by Rita Stradling

  I stepped away, grabbing his phone off the floor and handing it to him. Looking at the screen, I said, “It’s Spencer.” Then I walked out and left him alone in my bedroom.

  Chapter Fifteen

  “Hey, Cassie!” Spencer called from where he sat at a long table covered with alcohol, with about seven other people, including Culter. Not that I was keeping track of Culter or anything.

  I tried not to laugh as my mouth was full of a big glob of ice cream. Tyler and I sat together on the couch, feet up on the coffee table, surrounded in junk food.

  “Cassie!” Spencer called in a warning tone.

  “Uh, oh.” I leaned in toward Tyler, who had paused with a pretzel halfway out of his mouth. “Am I in trouble?” I laughed through my words.

  He laughed, leaving the pretzel hanging from his mouth, eyes all squinty.

  Most of the party was out in the top part of the house, but Spencer and Culter had practically dragged Tyler and me down to the brick-walled basement where I was pretty sure the core of their group was hanging out. Twinkling lights and beer signs hung over a real actual bar in the corner of the room. A bigger TV than I had ever seen before hung up to one side of the room. Signed and framed sports posters made me think that either this was an adult’s hangout room, or Spencer’s parents had money to burn.

  “Cassie, I threw you a party and you won’t even come talk to me. It breaks my heart.”

  Everyone at Spencer’s table looked at me.

  “You guys are playing drinking games, and we’re not drinking,” I called back, before eating another bite of ice cream.

  Spencer beckoned. “Come here. Come on. It’s not my fault you’re not drinking, why should I be punished?”

  I blew out a laugh. I kind of did want to go over there. I mean, Tyler and I were having a blast eating on the couch, but that group had been having a whole lot more fun. They were all still staring at me, so I stood up and said, “Fine. Tyler, you coming?” I looked back at him.

  “Hell, no,” he said, practically giggling the words, and making me laugh, too.

  I shook my head, but walked across the distance.

  Beefy stood up and pulled a chair over for me, wedging it between him and Spencer.

  My body felt all tingly as I crossed the distance. Unlike the mental high weed Max usually got, this stuff gave me a total body high. As I approached the table, I covered my nose, trying to block out the myriad of alcohol and juice mixer smells. Unlike the party upstairs, no one in this group appeared to be wasted and stupid.

  I set my ice cream carton on the table and squeezed in smiling.

  Spencer turned to me. “No way, chocolate fudge brownie?”

  “Here,” I fed him a bite.

  “Hell, yeah,” he said with his mouth full. “Cassie, truth or dare?”

  “No,” I said, laughing as I looked over the alcohol bottles to the people that sat around. I knew most of the faces by now, the elite of this school, so far as I could tell. Queen bee Snow White sat to one side, her second-in-command Misty beside her. Beside them was another beautiful girl, whose name I didn’t know. Then there was Culter and Mason and Isabella, who all smiled at me. Another guy I hadn’t met before and who was very pretty, sat on Snow White’s other side, his arm casually slung behind her chair. “Why is everyone looking at me?” I whispered to Spencer, laughing.

  He grabbed my hand that held the spoon, and used it to scoop another bite of chocolate fudge brownie ice cream. “Truth or dare?” he asked again with his mouth full. “It’s your turn.”

  I squinted one eye at him. “Truth.”

  “If you had to sleep with one guy sitting at this table, who would you pick?”

  “No,” I laughed.

  He grinned at me. “You have to answer or drink, Cassie, those are the rules.”

  I let my head fall back, groaning. “Damn it. Fine. “

  When I looked back at the table, my eyes immediately connected with Culter’s blue gaze. It was like he was a magnet, and I’d immediately stuck to him. Hot adrenaline flooded me, and I moved my gaze away quickly, looking over the other faces at the table. Really, I’d only be able to pick out of Beefy and Spencer, as obviously I couldn’t pick Mason and the guy I didn’t know looked to be with Snow White. And, if I picked Beefy, it’d be a hell of a lot more of a declaration.

  I looked over at Spencer. “You, Spencer. I love you, so very, very much.” Then I busted up laughing.

  He leaned in, and whispered, “Anytime, sexy Cassie.”

  “Ha. Yeah, sure, does that mean it’s my turn?” I asked.

  “Yeah,” Culter said from across the table. When I looked up at him, he looked far from amused.

  Licking my lips, I looked over the table. How to walk a tightrope when you’re stoned? That was the game I was at this moment playing. Misty gave me a small smile, so, what the hell, maybe I’d make a friend out of the pretty blonde. “Misty, truth or dare?”

  “Dare.” She grinned, a look of excitement in her pretty blue eyes.

  “I dare you to take off one article of clothing, of your choice.” I thought it was a relatively smart dare, I’d give her all the boys’ attention and she could tease them and take off her shoe.

  At least, that was how I would play it, but Misty rolled her eyes, sighing prettily, and then took off her shirt. And, holy shit if that didn’t get the whole table’s attention. She wore a bright red lacy bra, and had some fabulous curves. Blushing prettily and fighting a grin, she turned to Snow White. “Lily, truth or dare?”

  “Dare,” Snow White said, leaning one elbow on the table.

  “Take off your shirt, too,” Misty said.

  “Hell yeah!” Spencer called, clapping his hands.

  Looking up to the ceiling like she didn’t want to do this, she took off her shirt, revealing a lacy black bra. She rolled back her shoulders, making her boobs stick out even more. Looking over to me, Lily said, “You started this, you should share in our misery. Truth or dare . . . what’s your name?”

  “Her name is Cassie, Lily,” Culter called, and there was a touch of warning in his voice.

  “Truth or dare, Cassie?” Her voice was a lot less acidic the second time she asked it.

  “Truth,” I said. No way in hell was I taking my shirt off.

  She looked away, clearly thinking I was being lame, then her gaze came back to mine. “Okay, list everyone you’ve ever slept with.”

  Spencer hissed. “That is one fucked up truth question.”

  “It’s fair. She made Misty take her shirt off.”

  No, I hadn’t. I’d have to agree with Spencer, that was a bitch slap of a truth question.

  “Just take a drink,” Spencer said, just as Culter said, “She doesn’t need to answer that shit.”

  I didn’t need to answer and I could drink, but then everyone at the table would think my list was so long that I didn’t want to recite it. I knew two things instantly about Snow White: she thought I was in competition with her and she was a mean, cruel competitor. Too bad for her, the answer to this truth wasn’t something that I was at all ashamed of.

  I exhaled slowly. “Fine, there was only one and his name is . . .” I bit my lip kind of nervous to say it, “his name is Markus Berry-Young.”

  “No way,” Spencer said, laughing. “Coincidence, right? Just some other guy with the same weird-ass name?”

  “Nope, the actor, he went to my high school.” I shrugged, feeling just a little smug from all the super shocked expressions around the table.

  “You’re full of shit,” Lily said, with a laugh.

  “Go fuck yourself, Lily,” Culter said deadly calm from across the table.

  I looked between them, as Lily looked over to Culter and said, “I call bull. That is such a lie.” She looked back at me. “Do you have any proof?”

  Well, fuck, I didn’t. Not here. I had some pictures backed up on my laptop, but none on my phone. Obviously, instead of impressing people, I was going to be looking like a liar and a
poser in front of this group. But then . . . I might be able to get proof. I looked over to Spencer. “Can I borrow your phone? Mine’s upstairs.”

  “Yeah, but you don’t need to prove it, Cassie. Everyone else here believes you, Lily’s just being a bitch.” That’s what he said, but he handed me his smartphone.

  “I probably won’t be able to prove it, and it’s a little embarrassing, but I’ll try,” I said as I opened his texting app.

  Thankfully, Markus’ number was one of the only ones that I knew by heart. I’d dropped my phone in a fountain a year ago when we were still together, and had been using friends’ phones for weeks. I’d written Markus’ number on my hand every day.

  Hey Markus, this is Cassie, I texted. It probably wasn’t going to work and it was almost midnight. I shouldn’t be texting him, it was an asshole move. Truthfully, I didn’t even know if this was still his number.

  Holy shit. Cassie? I was just thinking about you, I got back.

  I couldn’t help but smile. I have a super embarrassing thing I’m going to ask you to do.

  Ask me anything, he said.

  I had to say, I missed the big flirt; I forgot that I missed him. Can I call you?

  That’s not a favor, he sent back.

  Not the favor, I sent.

  The phone rang, and I immediately answered.

  I looked away from the group at the table, as I couldn’t help but notice everyone was just watching me, expectantly.

  “I love doing embarrassing things, what do you want me to do?”

  “I’m so sorry, Markus.” I said it, though I knew from his tone, he didn’t give a shit. Markus was a good person.

  “You okay?” he asked, sounding concerned.

  “I’m pretty good. Okay, so I’m playing a game of truth or dare—”

  “Lame.”

  “Yeah, I know. Well, anyway, I called truth and someone told me to list all the people I slept with. So, of course, I said only you—”

  “Really? Still only me?” he sounded very interested in this fact.

  “Shh. . .” I laughed.

  “Cassie, are you drunk?” He sounded a tad bit judgmental, which wasn’t all that unexpected from the perfectionist health nut.

  “Nope, didn’t drink anything, I swear. Anyway, I said you and no one believes me. They called bull and asked me to prove it. I am so sorry.” I said it over his laughter, because he was full out laughing at me. “Stop laughing at me,” I grumbled.

  “Put them on. Do you need me to video conference you?” he asked.

  “You don’t have to,” I muttered. Fuck, this was embarrassing. I didn’t realize how embarrassing this was going to be.

  “You want me to put on some makeup and fangs from the show, so they’ll know it’s me?” he teased.

  “I am so sorry.”

  “Shut up, Cassie, I miss you. Any excuse to talk, yeah? But maybe we can have a real actual conversation next time.”

  “I’d like that.”

  “Okay, I’m going to hang up on you and call you back with the video conferencing. . . does your phone have it?”

  I looked over to Spencer. “Do you have video conferencing?”

  His brows were high up his forehead, like maybe he hadn’t believed me about Markus. “Yep.”

  “It does.”

  “Okay, hang up,” Markus said.

  A moment later, the phone beeped that there was an incoming video call. I clicked on it. Markus’ smiling face appeared on the screen, he lay in bed, the camera angled down at his face.

  “Hey beautiful,” he said, and his voice echoed loud over the speaker.

  I face-palmed with my free hand. “This is so embarrassing. I feel like a real jerk.”

  “Cassie, it’s fine just show me to your friends,” he raised his voice, “who obviously don’t know you very well if they thought you would ever lie about something like that.”

  I rolled my eyes, but grinned at him. “Thank you.”

  When I turned the phone to the table, more than one person leaned in.

  “Hey,” Markus called out. “For the record, Cassie and I lost our virginity to each other, and it was the best day of my life. Not that it’s any of your business. And, yes, I am the real Markus Berry-Young.”

  “Holy shit,” the guy I didn’t know said, leaning in.

  “For the record, only one person here didn’t believe her!” Isabella said, leaning in. “I believed her.” And, looking at Isabella, I amended my thought that no one at the table was shitty drunk. She practically fell into Mason, who had an arm around her.

  “All right, Cass, I got to go to bed.”

  I turned the phone again, feeling so fucking stupid. Why the hell did I even do that? Like I gave a fuck what Snow White thought of me.

  I must have looked as embarrassed as I felt, because he said, “How about I call you tomorrow, so you know that I don’t care and that I was just happy to talk to you.”

  “If the embarrassment hasn’t killed me by then,” I said.

  “Talk to you tomorrow, beautiful,” he said, before hanging up.

  I handed Spencer his phone back, before covering my face again. “Why did I do that? Damn it.” I looked over at the table, “Sorry, guys, I’m one hundred percent out of this game.”

  “Wow, Lily,” Spencer said, sounding annoyed. “Way to humiliate Cassie at a party I threw for her, real nice.”

  “It’s fine,” I said, standing and taking my ice cream carton with me. The truth was that I’d humiliated myself. Now Markus would think I was name dropping him for points at a stupid high school party. And, I kind of did, I mean that was the truth question Snow White asked me, but I could have lied and said any name. Tears pricked my eyes, as I feared they would. Why the fuck was I here? I shouldn’t be here.

  Tyler was still sitting on the couch, looking very interested in his pretzel.

  “You tripping out?” I asked as I settled in beside him.

  “You ever looked at a pretzel really close? It’s like its own little world.”

  I leaned up against him, my head on his shoulder. “Why did I come, Tyler?”

  He leaned away only to put his arm around my shoulders. “Your mistake was straying from the plan. Stick over here with me and I’ll keep you happy.” He shoved a pretzel in my mouth.

  Oh my god, that was a tasty pretzel.

  “Now take a bite of ice cream, trust me,” he said.

  Though my ice cream was pretty melted at this point, I took a big bite and made a small groan of food-ecstasy.

  “See, now you’re happy again. Done. Tyler strikes again!” He punched into the air with his free hand, making me laugh with a mouthful of ice cream and pretzel. He leaned in closer. “Who do I have to destroy with my wit?”

  “Snow White,” I whispered.

  “That was a weird answer, but I’m pretty sure I know who you mean.”

  “Least favorite of all princesses.”

  “And a mean bitch, trust me. She’s more like the evil queen that turns into an old hag and poisons princesses.”

  “I hate drama. I so don’t want to be on her radar. That’s why I usually hang out with guys or cool chicks like Zoe and Jasmine.” Both of whom either weren’t invited tonight or didn’t come. “I am a very non-competitive person, and girls like that want to beat you down for some stupid reason.”

  “She just thinks she owns the guys that hang out with my cousin, she’s like their gatekeeper or some shit.”

  “That’s fine. I have no intention of butting in on her territory. Can I just be friends with you and a couple other people and not deal with everyone else?”

  He laughed, and handed me another pretzel. “Yep.”

  “You ready to go, Cassie?”

  I looked up to find Culter standing in front of Tyler and me. His gaze drilled into mine like he was asking a question I couldn’t hear. Maybe if I was okay? I didn’t know.

  I sighed. “Sure. You didn’t drink?”

  “Of course not.
I told you I was taking you home.” He sounded a little annoyed, which I found a little annoying. What the hell did I do? He continued, “Come on, Tyler, I’m going to drive you home, too.” He kicked Tyler’s shoe.

  “I’m sleeping here. I can’t roll up like this at home at midnight. Unless I can sleep over at yours?” Tyler said, hopeful sounding.

  Culter paused, his jaw working. “Fine. I’ll give you a ride in the morning.”

  “Fuck yeah. I am ready to leave.” Tyler saluted him.

  We gathered up all the snack bags, stuffing them in the empty ice cream carton. “Jesus, I’m going to have a food hangover when I wake tomorrow,” I said.

  “Culter! You’re actually leaving?” Beefy put his arms up.

  Culter turned back. “We’re leaving.”

  “Oh, damn, don’t be like that, Culter. Lily didn’t mean anything by it,” Spencer called over. “You’re fine, right, Cassie?”

  I looked between Spencer and Culter. “Yeah, I’m fine. Just eating snacks . . . and stuff.”

  “See, you’re making a big deal out of nothing, man,” Spencer called. “It’s not even midnight; don’t take Cinderella from her ball.” He gave me an exaggerated wink.

  “We’re out,” Culter called back, sounding like that was the final word.

  As I was completely good with that, I stood.

  “Cassie,” Spencer called, drawing out the word.

  I held out my hands and gave him a grimace, like there was nothing I could do about it.

  “You’re so much drama, Culter,” Snow White called across the room. “Everyone was having fun until you got all crazy. Cassie is fine. We were just joking around.”

  I had to say, she looked pretty silly arguing with him sitting at a table with no shirt on.

  Obviously, Culter had made a lovely scene for no good reason after I left the table. This was just awesome, just what I needed.

  “We’re fine, right, Cassie?” Snow White directed the question at me, looking like she might claw my face if I said no.