The guys were Chad Klein and Red Jones, two of Jimmy’s football teammates. Everyone in the room looked up at me and smiled. “Hey Devon,” Chad said. And now I was almost positive that I was being set up for some sort of joke. Why did Chad Klein, the school’s quarterback, have any idea who I was? I mean—I’d been going to school with him for over eight years, and we were in most of the same classes—but still. Wasn’t I invisible during school? Did he actually hear my name when the teacher called it out?
“Hey Devon,” Natalie said. I was even surprised to hear her say my name. Back in junior high, I wanted her to talk to me so badly but I was always too afraid to approach her. Now she was talking to me and I didn’t know what to do. I parted my lips but no words came out. I managed to cough and make some sort of strange noise that could have been mistaken for a ‘hello’.
“Sit wherever you want,” Jimmy said as he took one of two remaining seats. So that just left the floor and the space between Natalie and one of the brunettes. I didn’t want to be the only one sitting on the floor, but I wasn’t sure if I was allowed to sit between the girls. I mean—Jimmy did say to sit wherever, but I don’t think I’d ever sat so close to girls before. I would possibly be touching them if I squished myself between them. Was that okay? Or did Jimmy just mean to sit wherever I wanted on the floor? “You going to sit or what, dude?” Jimmy said from his comfy seat next to Rex and Chad.
I walked over to that empty seat. The girls looked up at me with smiles, and I wondered if I was having a nightmare, even though it was also technically my fantasy. But in my fantasies, I wasn’t nearly as anxious as I was now. I sat down between the girls and there was no protesting. I looked over at Natalie who was looking at me. “How’s it going?” she asked. And I could smell her sweet perfume—like vanilla and raspberries.
“I—uh—I’m good,” I said. “How are you?”
“Devon got me an A in biology this term,” Jimmy said. “The kid’s like a biology super genius.”
Everyone looked at me again, making my heart skip yet another beat. “No way,” said one of the brunettes. “Can you help me with my bio homework? I can’t figure out that photosynthesis stuff.”
I nodded my head. “Sure. Do you have it here?” I asked.
Everyone laughed. “No talking about school,” Jimmy said, even though he was the one who brought up school. So now I didn’t know what to say.
“Do you play sports, Devon?” Chad asked from across the couch. And it took a moment to realize he was talking to me, even though he said my name directly.
“Do I play sports?” I repeated. I was trying to hide my trembling hands from the girls next to me.
“Yeah—that’s what I asked.”
“I don’t play sports—no,” I said. And the room became silent. “Uh, do you. I mean—besides football.”
“Yeah. I play basketball and lacrosse,” he said. And there was that silence again.
And the silence lasted a long time, until one of the brunettes looked at me and asked, “So are you excited?”
“Excited for what?” I asked. I had my hands clasped around my beer, which was nestled between my thighs, which were pressed together.
“Jeannie,” Jimmy said. He was motioning for her to shut up. My heart fluttered down into my stomach.
“Oh, sorry,” she said. And that just about confirmed it: they brought me over to torture me—I just didn’t know how they planned on doing it just yet. Maybe they would lock me in a room. Maybe they planned on humiliating me somehow—taking pictures of me while I was naked or something… But why would she ask if I was excited? What could she possibly mean by that?
“Let’s do some shots,” said Rex. He got up and left the room along with Jimmy and Chad. I was now alone with the four girls, who were all looking at me. Natalie’s eyes were sparkling. I wondered if she still had that herpes. Is that something that goes away?
“You know, I had a big crush on you a few years ago. I always wished you would come talk to me,” she said. My heart stuttered.
“What?” I said.
“I had a crush on you. I thought you were really cute. I’ve always been into nerdy guys I guess. Did you ever have a crush on me? I always thought that you did.”
I shook my head. “Sorry, no,” I said, lying. And I’m not sure why I didn’t just tell the truth. I was too afraid to admit that I had crushes, because if I admitted that I had a crush on her, then I was admitting that I was too much of a coward to act on it.
“Oh. Okay,” she said.
I knew I should say something—tell her that I was lying—but I was too afraid to speak, feeling the heavy pressure of the moment. I was still trying to wrap my head around why I was in that room: three handsome men, four beautiful women, and me—the small, skinny computer nerd; the guy with no friends, the guy who hated sports.
“I wish I had your eyelashes,” Anne said. “You’ve got such beautiful eyelashes.”
I nodded my head. “Thank you.” I took another long sip from my beer. Where were the guys? Why did it take three of them to retrieve some shots? I looked down at my watch. It wasn’t even 9:00 PM. How long was I supposed to endure this? I thought about leaving, slipping out while the guys were getting drinks, before they had a chance to prank me. Because I had a feeling they weren’t just getting drinks. I had a feeling they were setting up their humiliation. Maybe they were slipping a pill into the shot that was meant for me. Maybe they were going to drug me so that I would do something embarrassing, so they could film it and show it to the whole school.
But why would Jimmy want to humiliate me like that? It was true—I got him an A in biology. Maybe he really was just thankful. Maybe I should have been happy to sit between those beautiful women. Maybe Jimmy had a positive surprise for me, and that’s why he told Jeannie to shut up.
“I think I need to use the bathroom,” I said, standing up. “Which way is it?”
“It’s just right there,” one of the girls said, pointing at a nearby door. I was hoping that the bathroom would be upstairs, so that I could slip away without anyone noticing. But there was no escape down in the basement, unless the bathroom had an emergency exit, or a window I could crawl through. I opened the bathroom door and was surprised to see a bedroom and not a bathroom at all. I stalled in the doorway, and then the girl said, “It’s an en-suite. It’s just to your left.”
I walked towards that door on the left. But I had to watch where I was going because the floor was littered with women’s clothing. The bedroom must have belonged to Jimmy’s younger sister—judging by the posters of Justin Bieber on the wall. I didn’t even realize that Justin Bieber was still relevant.
The bathroom wasn’t much tidier. There was a bra and a pair of panties hanging on the shower rod, and another bra scrunched next to the sink. At least the toilet and floors were clean. There was a small window above the toilet, but it wasn’t anything I could fit my body through—and I know because I tried. I stood up on the toilet bowl, opened the window, and tried to pull myself through. But even with my girly narrow shoulders, I couldn’t get through.
So I went to the mirror and stared at myself. “Just leave,” I said. “Just go upstairs and leave through the front door.” I had a feeling they would forget that I was ever there within a minute of me leaving. I could say that I had a family emergency, or that I wasn’t feeling well. And it was true: I wasn’t feeling well. I was nauseous with anxiety.
I took a deep breath and emerged from the bathroom. The boys were back, sitting with the girls. Shots were lined up on the little coffee table. “There you are,” Jimmy said. “Sit down and let’s do shots.”
But I didn’t sit down. I looked over at the way out. I tried to remember how to exit the house: there were a few doorways, a few hallways, a few turns, and then the front door.
“Well?” Jimmy said.
My skin felt suddenly cold. I took another deep breath and then I managed to force a smile. “Okay,” I said. I sat down in defeat. There wa
s a small chance that they hadn’t brought me over just to make fun of me. There was a small chance that they were giving me the opportunity to shed my loser status and become one of the popular kids. If I made a good impression, maybe I would get invited to Jimmy’s next party, and maybe that one would be a real party, filled with all of the memorable shenanigans that supposedly happened at all of Jimmy’s other parties.
I picked up one of the shots. I’d never done a shot before—but how bad could they be?
“Cheers,” Jimmy said. Everyone slammed back their little shots, so I did the same. The alcohol burned the inside of my mouth and my throat suddenly felt hot. I tried to gulp the booze down as tears filled my eyes. I nearly spat the whole thing out. I’m not quite sure how I managed to hold the alcohol down. Now it was burning my stomach. I looked around. No one else seemed to be quite as put off as me, so I did my best to look calm and cool.
“Good shot,” I said, forcing a smile. My stomach was rumbling now. Jimmy was pouring a second round of shots. I bit down on the edge of my tongue. Maybe this whole partying thing wasn’t for me. Maybe I really should get up and leave…
Another shot was in my hand. “Cheers!” Jimmy said again. And we all drank our booze. I nearly spat up again, but I managed to hold everything down.
Jimmy was pouring a third round, emptying out the last of that bottle. “One more,” he said. We all took the shots. My head was spinning. I’d never been drunk before. I didn’t know what to expect—but I knew it was inevitable after those three shots and that beer that I nervously finished before going to the bathroom.
“Okay, now we’ve got a bottle. So should we get to it?” Jimmy asked.
“I’ll move the table,” Rex said.
“I’ll push the couch back. Everyone up!” said Chad. Everyone stood up but me. I remained seated, trying to fight back the nausea. What was going on? What game were we playing? “Devon—mind standing up, buddy?” I slowly rose to my feet, and then he pushed the couch back until it hit the wall. The room was suddenly wide open and everyone was sitting down on the floor. Jimmy placed that bottle down at the center of us.
“So who gets to spin first?” he asked.
“You’re the host, so you make the first spin.”
CHAPTER III
It took my slow, alcohol tinged brain a moment to realize we were playing Spin the Bottle. I’d never played before, but of course I’d seen the game played on TV and in movies. Everyone knew the rules: spin the bottle and kiss whoever the bottle lands on. But this version of the game was different. Jimmy pulled a die out from his pocket and a little sheet of paper. He put the paper down on the ground, where everyone could see it:
Kiss
Remove piece of clothing
Truth
Dare
Sexy rub
Everyone drinks and then roll again
‘If 6 is rolled a second time: Seven Minutes in Heaven,’ the note concluded. The rules were fairly straightforward. I wasn’t sure when the die was rolled, but I found out a moment later, when Jimmy spun the bottle and it landed on Jeannie. He picked up the die and rolled a 3. “Truth,” he said. “Are you a virgin?”
Jeannie’s cheeks suddenly turned red. “Depends how you define a virgin,” she said.
“Has anyone ever fucked your pussy?” Rex asked suddenly with a big grin.
“Then no,” she said, holding her head up high. Her cheeks were the darkest possible shade of red now. “So it’s my turn to spin?” She grabbed the bottle and spun it. My heart was racing. This was all happening too fast. Was I playing? If the bottle landed on me, did I have to do whatever the die said I had to do? No one asked if I wanted to play. What if I didn’t want to do whatever it said I had to do?
The bottle landed on Rex. Jeannie grabbed the die and rolled it: 4. “Dare,” she said. And then she thought for a moment. Then a grin appeared on her face. “What’s that girl’s name—the girl you did your chemistry assignment with last week?”
“Fey Babiard?” Rex asked.
“Yeah, her,” Jeannie said. “You have her number?”
“Yeah. Why?”
“Text her and tell her that you love her.” Everyone started giggling. Rex’s face became white. Fey was a chubby girl with an unfortunate amount of acne. I’d been going to school with her since the first grade, and I was pretty sure I’d never heard her speak, because she was so cripplingly shy. The dare seemed mean, but I wasn’t about to say anything. I was just happy to be included for once. There was a real chance that the bottle could land on me and then one of the girls could roll a 1. It could be my first kiss. And hell, if one of the girls rolled two 6s on me, then it could be much more than my first kiss… Though is that what I wanted? Did I want to my first kiss to be an awkward forced experience?
Rex shook his head as he wrote out the message. The girls watched over his shoulder, to make sure he wasn’t cheating. “Say—I’ve been meaning to tell you for weeks,” Jeannie said while snickering. SO that’s what Rex wrote, and it was only a moment later when he got a reply.
“Read it out loud,” Jeannie said.
“She says, ‘I love you too. Can you please call me?’” Rex said with an awkward, monotonous voice.
“Are you going to call her?” Natalie asked.
“No, I’m not going to call her. I’ll text her later and say that someone stole my phone. Goddamnit—now I have to deal with this.” Rex’s phone was lighting up as Fey sent him message after message. So he turned his phone off and tossed it aside.
“Okay Rex, it’s your turn to spin,” said Jeannie. So Rex grabbed the bottle and he spun it hard.
And then the bottle landed on me. My heart skipped a long beat. I tried to draw a breath of air in, but my lungs wouldn’t allow it. I looked up slowly at Rex, who was rolling the die. If he rolled a 1—would I have to kiss him? I didn’t want my first kiss to be with a man. I don’t think I could kiss a man. What if he rolled two 6s? Would I have to go into a room with him? What would they expect us to do together?
Thankfully, he rolled a 2. “Off with your shirt, Devon,” he said. I wasn’t excited to show off my pale, twiggy body, but it could have been worse. I took off my shirt and placed it next to me. A few of the girls giggled—presumably at my lack of muscle mass—and then one of them said, “I wish I was as thin as you.”
I forced a smile and grabbed the bottle. I took a breath and gave it a spin. It landed on Anne Berkley, the beautiful blonde captain of the cheerleading squad. She looked into my eyes with a gentle smile. I looked into hers and completely forgot what I was supposed to do next. “Roll the die, Devon!” Jimmy said. I shook my head, snapping out of my daze, and then I picked up the die. I tossed it: 1. I looked over at the sheet and my body became frozen.
I managed to look over at Anne as she was crawling towards me. My eyes suddenly felt dry, possibly because I wasn’t blinking. Her lips were suddenly hovering an inch from mine. Her eyes were closed. She was waiting for me to finish the act. So I closed my eyes and leaned forward with my lips puckered. We kissed, pressing our lips together. It lasted two seconds—and then it lasted five seconds. Anne gently opened her mouth and playfully grabbed my top lip with her teeth. Then, her tongue penetrated my lips and teased the tip of my tongue. The whole time, I remained frozen stiff. When she pulled back, a bit of her saliva continued to connect our lips.
Then I heard the snickering. “You like that, Devon?” Chad asked.
“Huh?” I said. My face had never felt hotter before.
Then I noticed Chad was looking down at my lap. I had a massive erection, holding my pants up like an upright tent pole. I quickly reached down and tucked it back. But Anne had already seen. She was giggling. “It’s okay,” she said. “It’s really just a sweet compliment.” I was suddenly feeling humiliated, praying silently that they would all forget before school on Monday.
“Okay, Anne. It’s your turn. Spin the bottle,” said Natalie. So Anne reached out and grabbed the bottle. She gave it a spin
. It landed on Chad, and then she rolled a 2. “Take off your shirt, Chad.” Chad pulled his shirt off with a grin on his face. He had nothing to hide, unless you count his rigid eight-pack or his thick pecs. The girls looked at him with glowing eyes even though everyone had seen him shirtless a million times before at school.
Over the next ten turns, a lot happened. A few 6s were rolled, but never twice in a row. So Jimmy went to retrieve another bottle of vodka, and we all did more shots. Jeannie and Anne both had 2s rolled on them, so their shirts came off, leaving them in just their bras and skirts. Jimmy was hit with two consecutive 2s, so he was sitting in only his boxers. Natalie got a truth rolled on her, so she was asked for a list of the men she’d fucked. The list was terrifyingly long, and it made me hope that I didn’t have to kiss her. Chad did end up kissing her a couple of rounds later. And then the bottle landed on me, after a spin from Natalie.
“Roll the die, Natalie,” said Jimmy.
My heart was pounding. I’d gone so many rounds without being landed on. She tossed the die. It landed on a 2. “Take off the pants!” Jeannie said with a strange amount of excitement in her voice. So I stood up and awkwardly took off my pants. Thankfully, I didn’t have a boner anymore, but now there wasn’t much helping me if I did end up with one. I still felt like I dodged a bullet.
So I spun the bottle. It landed on Jeannie. I picked up the die and tossed it as my heart fluttered around in my chest. “5,” I said. “What’s 5 again?”
“Sexy rub,” said Natalie with a big grin. “So go and give her a sexy rub.”
I got up and walked around. My heart was pounding and my stomach was churning. I stumbled slightly as the alcohol buzzed through my legs. I sat down behind Jeannie, who was sitting in nothing but a red bra and a tiny black skirt. I put my hands on her shoulders and I started to rub. Then everyone laughed. “No—not a shoulder rub—a sexy rub,” Natalie said. “You can either rub her tits or her pussy.”
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