Tear: A Seaside Novel

Chapter Eight

Maybe those two sips of rum punch messed with my head.

"So..." Alec politely ignored my second awkward moment that night. "Until the pizza gets here, what do you say we play some cards?"

"Cards? You play cards?"

"Um, yeah? What else do you think there is to do on tour busses?"

"Sing?" I offered.

"I think not." Alec sauntered to a drawer and pulled out a deck of cards and a pad of paper. "I take a vow of silence while I'm on the bus, saves my voice."

"A vow of silence?"

He nodded.

"How exactly does that work?"

He smirked and shrugged.

"Oh, very funny." I narrowed my eyes and ripped the deck of cards out of his hands. "So a vow of silence. So you're like a monk?"

"Sure." He smiled. "Just call me Ghandi."

"Was he a monk?"

"I have no idea. That's why I'm in school, to learn smart crap like that."

I laughed and shook my head. I loved this side of Alec. He was so funny and different. I cleared my throat, hoping it would clear my head as well. "So what game are we playing?"

"Go fish," Alec said without smiling.

"Seriously?"

"Oh, absolutely." Alec grinned and reached behind him revealing a giant pack of Swedish fish. "So, this is how it works, every time a player says go fish, you have to literally go fish, but you can't use your hands."

"What do I use?"

"Your mouth." He winked. "And you can't let your lips touch the counter, it has to be all teeth. Cheaters will be punished."

"You've played this before?"

"Oh, honey, if this was an Olympic sport I'd have more medals than Phelps."

"Crap." I quickly dealt the cards and so started the game.

Within ten minutes I had already eaten five Swedish fish and accidently touched the table with my lips twice. The punishment he spoke of was the other player licking the Swedish fish and placing it on the cheater's cheek. You had to stay that way until it fell off, and then you had to eat the fish.

Good thing he had a five pound bag, because with the way I was playing it was going to be gone.

After the first game, I had successfully eaten fifteen fish. Alec had four.

A knock sounded at the door. "Oh, that's the pizza." Alec shot out of his seat toward the door, then abruptly turned back. "No cheating!" He placed his cards farther away from me.

I was never one to listen and had always been a rebellious little girl. Plus, I had the biggest sugar high. I grasped his cards and swapped them so he would have to keep eating the fish.

By the time he came back, the smell of pizza filled the living room. My stomach growled.

"I knew you were hungry." Alec went into the kitchen and returned with a couple plates and napkins. "You gotta eat before you go to a party, Nat. That's like Partying 101. Never drink on an empty stomach, kay? Promise me if you ever go to a party again and plan on drinking, that you will eat beforehand."

I nodded. "I promise, Mom."

"Thanks, sweetie." Alec patted my head and laughed.

It was so easy with him. It was like, oh gosh, I'm totally going to kill Stephenie Meyer and Twilight. It really was like breathing. Sorry Jacob and Bella, but it's true. And I'm sorry, but being with a werewolf would not be like breathing. It would be like dying.