REALLY ✓

21: The Water Falls

*

      TAYA's POV:

Why was the sky spinning? Why were the trees moving? Wait—what? Where am I?

My eyelids weighed a ton and my head was pounding as I forced myself to open my eyes. The first thing that I saw was his face. Judah was asleep, his eyes were closed, and his breathing was steady. He looked so peaceful, it was truly a sight to see.

Slowly, I propped myself up on my elbows and took in my surrounding. I was on the back of a moving truck, and my body was draped in Judah's jacket. I looked up to see who was driving— and I saw Hallee and Jesse were in the driver's seat. Behind me I noticed Gabe, passed out like a damn log. My hand went to rub my temples as I tried my hardest to remember.

What the hell happened last night?

*

I remembered... We were at the dance... I remembered Hallee and her boyfriend, Jesse, came over to us and suggested that we go somewhere. Gabe had lucked with Maddie and he was miserable. And since misery loves company, he decided to join us.

The next thing I remembered... we were all piling up in the back of Jesse's truck. Jesse used his fake ID and got us all two six-packs and a big bottle of Vodka from the liquor store. We drove around all night, blasting old rock songs on the radio, drinking cheap beer, and standing on the back of a moving truck with open arms and wild laughter.

If someone told me last year that this was what I would be doing on my Winter Formal night, I wouldn't believe it one bit.

But that was what happened. And after driving around for a while, we decided to go to this waterfall at the edge of town. The night sky was twinkling with stars above us and the sound of the waterfall was like music to our ears.

The five of us sat huddled around each other as we lit up a small bonfire in the middle. We were laughing, making stupid arguments about god knows what, and drinking like there was no tomorrow.

"Let's play a game!" Hallee squeaked. "Truth or dare or drink. So you pick truth or dare, but if you chickened out, then you have to drink—let's start with Gabe, truth or dare?" she slurred.

"Let's do a dare," I could tell Gabe was a little tipsy by now.

"I dare you to call Maddie right now and tell her how you feel about her!" Hallee started the game with a bang.

"That's creepy. She doesn't even know I exist," he groaned.

"That's the dare, Gabe. What are you gonna do?" Hallee pressed on.

"Ugh, you are evil," he grabbed the bottle of beer half-heartedly and took one big gulp. We all laughed in unison as he winced at the taste.

"Hallee, truth or dare?" I said to Hallee.

"Um... Dare,"

"I dare you to... strip for the duration of the game!" I said as everyone went 'oooh' and Jesse's eyes widened in excitement. I just assumed that Hallee wouldn't do it and take the drink instead, but no.

"Oh, you are so gonna pay for that," Hallee shook her finger at me knowingly. Then she stood up, turned around and unzipped her dress seductively before letting it fall on the ground. We all sat in awe as Jesse started clapping at the performance. As Hallee sat back down next to Jesse and he put his arms around her, she shot me a wink. That was when I knew I had done messed up.