Inevitable (Book One)

Chapter 35

Lyla

I take a deep breath to calm myself as Shawn holds my hand in his and we walk down the crowded street full of people partying. Shawn looks down at me and offers a reassuring smile and I return one to him. I see his eyes glance down at my outfit again and he shakes his head slightly then turns back to focus on leading us to where a few of his teammates have setup a couple pickup trucks and drinking games in the crowd. The outfit had been pre-planned and selected by Megan and I had just nodded along with her decisions, knowing that I didn't have a choice in the matter. Not that we look bad, hell we look amazing. We both are rocking bright red spandex booty shorts with a black and red striped cropped tank top. Megan had used red face paint to place lines under our eyes, 'like football players do' was her explanation to me as she applied it earlier.

Once our hair and makeup was complete and we stepped out of Megan's bedroom, both Max and Shawn's jaws dropped. Max went to immediate compliments as he pulled Megan into an embrace. Shawn stared at me a few moments longer before he finally spoke, stammering out that I looked amazing but he begged me to put on something that covered up a bit more. Megan was quick to my defense before I could say anything and told Shawn to grow up and stop acting like a caveman. That didn't go over too great with Shawn, but I gave him a pointed look and he realized he was fighting a losing battle.

"There they are!" Shawn shouts back to me as he points over to a crowd off to the left side of the street. I glance back to make sure that Megan and Max are still following and find them right on my tail. We break through the crowd to where we find some of Shawn's teammates, most of them I recognize from games and parties, a few unfamiliar faces are thrown in amongst them. Shawn greets some of them then let's go of my hand to go and grab us some drinks from a cooler, he returns with four beers and passes them out to all of us.

"Lyla, they have flip cup over there!" Megan exclaims excitedly as she points to an area where it looks like they've lined up five tables one after the other to create the longest flip cup table I've ever seen. There's probably about twenty people or more lined up on either side as they all chug their drinks and race down the table.

"We're playing!" Megan tells me as she loops her arm through mine and drags me towards the table before I can reply. Shawn and Max follow us over and we wait for the current game to finish before we squeeze our way in. Megan and I stand on one side with the boys facing off across from us. Shawn smirks at me across the table.

"You're going down!" He shouts over the crowd and music. I shake my head in response and smirk at his cocky grin. We both have a competitive side, so this should be fun. I watch as the two people at the start begin the race. We are probably about ten people down in line and Megan is in front of me as it's suddenly her turn already.

We are in the lead as I watch her expertly chug her drink and flip her cup, landing it on the first try. She elbows me in the side and I realize it's my turn as I grab my cup and chug the few swigs of beer down. I flip it off the edge of the table and it topples on its side. I grab it and flip it again this time landing it and Megan shrieks beside me and we hug each other as the guy beside me continues our teams efforts. I glance across the table at Shawn and see that he's trying to coach Max who continually keeps over flipping his cup. I can see Shawn getting frustrated, in a playful way, that Max can't land his cup. He is so competitive even in silly drinking games.

Max finally lands his cup and Shawn completes his turn perfectly and within seconds as the guy beside him goes next. Shawn glances across the table at me and I stick my tongue out at him and he rolls his eyes playfully. I look to the end of the table and watch as our last player successfully flips his cup and everyone on our side starts to cheer and jump up and down. Megan and I are hugging again and I can see Shawn shaking his head from across the table. I can feel myself relaxing and actually starting to enjoy my day, letting the anxiousness slip away. We play one more game, Megan and me beating the boys again before we decide to take a break from flip cup.