The Tutor || S.M.

Chapter 6 || "Does Anyone Want To Play Beer Pong?"

Once the initial shock of seeing him standing there wears off, I roll my eyes and keep walking like I didn't hear him. Shawn calls my name again, and when I don't respond this time, he runs over to me and grabs me by my arm, spinning me around so that we're face to face.
   
"Let go of me." I mumble, jerking my arm away from him.
   
"Are you still mad at me for what I did today? You didn't even get in trouble. If anything, I should be the one who's mad." he says.
   
"Whatever." I say, and turn to walk away, but what he says next catches my attention.
   
"Aw come on Helena, can't we just kiss and make up?" Shawn asks, a mischievous tone to his voice. A few people around us laugh. I look at him and wish I could smack the smirk right off his face.
   
"No, but you can kiss my ass." I respond, and more people laugh. We've garnered a crowd now, and there's at least twenty people around us eagerly waiting and watching for what will happen next.
   
"Is that a promise?" Shawn asks, looking me up and down before biting his lip, his lips spreading out into a smirk while doing so. I feel all the blood rush to my face, and everyone bursts out laughing. A few people whistle and I feel the same anger and humiliation that I felt earlier today return.
   
"Fuck you." I spit, walking away. As I walk away and head back into the living room, I hear him call out, "Anytime you want to, let me know!" More laughter follows, and I quicken my step. I look at my cup before tilting my head back and downing half of the cup in one gulp. This is going to be a long night.
   
Nearly an hour passes, and I find myself outside on the back deck with my group of friends. Julia and Carson seem to have made up, as they're hanging all over each other. I'm leaning against the railing, listening to the conversation between Kennedy and Charlotte.
   
"Does anyone want to play beer pong?" I ask suddenly, growing bored. The cup in my hand is nearly empty, and I desperately need more alcohol pumped into my system if I want to stay at this party. This is one of the reasons why I never go to parties anymore- if you want to remain sane and not become bored out of your mind, you have to drink copious amounts of alcohol in order to do so.
   
"Sure." Kennedy says, looking up from her conversation with Charlotte.
   
"I'll play too." Julia pipes up, walking away from Carson for the first time all night.
   
"How are we supposed to play if there's three of us?" I ask.
   
"Teams." Julia offers, and turns to the group. "Does anyone else want to play beer pong with us?"
   
"I do." I hear a deep voice say from directly behind me. Across the table, I watch as Julia's face scrunches up, trying not to laugh. It takes me a second to recognize the voice, but the moment I do, I feel my blood heat up.
   
"Are you following me?" I ask, turning around to look at Shawn. He looks at me and shrugs, smiling a little.
   
"It's a party. There's not a lot of places to go." he responds.
   
"Kennedy, come be on my team." Julia says, and I shoot her a look. She pretends not to see it, and waves Kennedy over. Kennedy walks over, and Julia pulls her in and whispers something into her ear. When Kennedy pulls away, she's grinning. I roll my eyes and move over for Shawn to stand next to me.
   
"Guess we're partners." I say, leaning over the table and grabbing the red solo cups to set them up. I lean further to try and grab the cans of beer there as well, but they're just out of my reach. As I try and extend my arm just a little bit further to reach it, I feel Shawn come up behind me and gently place one of his hands on my lower back, the other one finding its way to my shoulder.
   
"Guess we are." he says quietly in my ear. His hot breath against the otherwise cool skin on my neck sends shivers down my spine, and I feel goosebumps rise up all over my body. "I'll get that for you."
   
"O-okay." I stutter, standing straight up. He removes his hand from my shoulder and back, letting the hand on my back snake down my side and touch the outside of my thigh for a moment before pulling away. As I move out of the way, I brush against his chest and feel myself blush. I look down and silently curse myself out. An hour ago, I wanted to kill Shawn for embarrassing me not once, but twice in front of a large crowd of people today, and now I'm blushing over him?
   
When I look up, I see Julia and Kennedy staring at me, grinning and giving me a thumbs up. I hold up my middle finger, and when Shawn looks over at me, I quickly lower my hand.
   
"Ready?" he asks, and I nod, standing next to him.

"You guys can go first." I say to Julia and Kennedy. Julia raises her arm and tosses the ping pong across the table. She misses, and the ball bounces onto the ground. Julia and Kennedy laugh at Julia's miss, and I bend down to pick the ball up off the ground. I walk back over to the table and look at the triangle of cups before throwing the ball. I miss completely, and the ball hits Kennedy in the stomach. The three of us burst out laughing.
   
"God Helaina, how much did you have to drink before this?" Kennedy teases, and I laugh even more.
   
"Oh shut up, Julia missed before too." I respond. Beside me, Shawn remains surprisingly quiet and doesn't offer up any snarky remarks at my miss.
   
Kennedy throws this time, and the ping pong ball shoots right into a cup in the middle. Her and Julia cheer, throwing their arms into the air and then around each other. I grab the cup from the table and look at it, before looking up at Shawn.
   
"You can drink it." I say, and he shakes his head. "Why not?"
   
"You missed the first time, so you drink." Shawn says, and I roll my eyes, turning to look at Kennedy and Julia for support. I expect for them to come to my side and defend me, but they do the exact opposite.
   
"Shawn's right." Kennedy says.
   
"Come on Helaina, drink the cup!" Julia cheers. I look from the cup, to Julia, to Kennedy, over at Shawn, and back down at the cup, before frowning slightly and shrugging. I tilt my head back and drink the beer inside before putting the red solo cup back down on the table. Kennedy and Julia cheer once more and Shawn laughs. I wipe my mouth and hand him the ball.
   
"Your turn."
   
Shawn takes the ball from me, and without any hesitation, throws the ball across the table. It lands perfectly in the first cup, causing Julia and Kennedy to shriek. The people around us watching cheer, and Shawn turns to me, a smug look on his face.
   
"I think I've got this."
   
The game lasts about half an hour, with Julia and Kennedy losing massively compared to Shawn and I. If it wasn't for Shawn on my team, I would have been right there alongside my opponents, as I've only managed to get four accurate throws the entire game. Shawn finishes the game by throwing the ping pong ball and landing it in our last remaining cup. Julia picks the cup up, giggling, and raises it to her lips. She throws her head back and chugs the drink. Even though I'm pretty drunk myself from Shawn making me take a shot of beer for every two times I missed, Julia and Kennedy are beyond wasted at this point due to how bad they are at beer pong, and how good Shawn is.
   
"That game went awful." Julia giggles, and Kennedy nods back, giggling herself. Julia looks over at me, and I see the slight haze in her eyes from all the alcohol in her system. "Hey Helaina! You guys kicked our ass!" Julia yells, and her Kennedy break out into a fit of laughter. She tries to walk over to us, and she nearly falls, stumbling over her own feet. Carson notices, and rushes over to her. He takes her arm and puts it around his shoulders, helping her stand up right. "Thanks babe."
   
"Why don't we sit?" Charlotte offers, and I look over at her. She's the only one of us right now that looks sober, and she seems concerned that one of us is going to get hurt. I walk down the steps carefully that lead over to the fire pit and sit down on one of the lawn chairs. The others follow me, and soon enough, my entire friend group plus Shawn is there.
   
"Did you guys see how much Helaina and Shawn kicked our ass in beer pong?" Julia asks, slurring her words slightly. She's sitting on Carson's lap, and even from over here, I can smell the weed coming off of him and see his eyes are red in the poor lighting.
   
"We suck." Kennedy agrees, and everyone laughs.
   
The group remains quiet for a moment, before Shawn speaks up and asks, "Who wants to play truth or dare?"