Alexa Javier was the devil.
Her claim to have moved here from Texas was obviously a lie because the only place someone like her could have come from was the fiery pits of hell. How else would she be this skilled at torturing poor souls like mine?
What more did she want from me? I already wore clothes she had approved of, i.e., had appalled her the least, let her mess with my hair and put gunk on my face.
Not only that, I didn't make a fuss like I usually did when she dropped hints about playing spin the bottle. Didn't even bat an eyelash. I'd learned to accept playing that game as one of unavoidable things that I had to deal with once in a while when I reached a certain age. (Like zits: embarrassing and gross and sometimes even painful, and calling attention to yourself when dealing with either one made the experience a thousand times worse.)
I was gonna put on my big girl pants and suffer in silence. It wasn't a big deal. Just a quick peck that lasted a second, tops, and I would have been free for the rest of the night with the one I really came to party with: the chip-and-salsa platter.
But then, Alex, being Alex, decided to change things up a little.
This was so unfair. For maybe the first time in all two of my teen years, I tried to be a team player and not be a little bitch and look at where it got me: Inside Alex's front hall coat closet with a boy I was worried would start hyperventilating at any moment.
I had flipped a switch on the wall as soon we went in but the light in here barely gave a faint glow. My back was to one side of the closet and I could see that my companion was standing the same way, though fidgeting a little, on the other side. Maybe we both had the same idea and were trying to put as much space between each other as possible in this cramped space.
Why couldn't Alex leave well enough alone? Her party was already a success. Good turnout, even some older kids showed up, which I was sure made Alex happy. Everyone was having a good time, but not great. In other words, nothing or nobody was getting smashed.
Even Sonja was stepping up—replenishing snacks and Alex the upstairs bedrooms and basement, making sure no one was sneaking into the upstairs bedrooms and/or the liquor cabinet—instead of disappearing off somewhere and leaving to fend for herself as she usually did.
At around ten, the party seemed to be winding down. Some of the kids had already left and I thought I was home free. Spin the bottle was more of an icebreaker type of game, wasn't it? Maybe I'd missed it while I was in the bathroom or something; I sometimes lost all concept of time when I stepped inside of one.
It was my own fault for letting my guard down because the moment I did, the inevitable happened.
I was in the kitchen, getting ice, when Alex came rushing to my side. Her eyes were bright, cheeks flushed.
"I've been looking everywhere for you," she whispered in her breathy, excited voice. She grabbed the crook of my arm with one hand while she held a clear glass bottle that used to contain fancy lemonade by its long neck with the other. "Come on, we're just about to play."
She led me to the living room. All the furniture had been pushed to the walls and sitting in an imperfect circle on the floor were the players she had called together. I noticed they were all from our homeroom class. Including Alex and myself, there were nine kids in all. Sitting together on one side of the circle were all the guys. From left to right, they were Seth Frasier, Matt Engels, Tristan Lazaro and Ethan Scott. The four of them did everything together when we were younger and it didn't take long to fall back into their old ways when Seth came back.
On the other side of the circle were three other girls. There was Chloe Wasserman, who was blonde, blue-eyed, a ballet dancer and easily one of the prettiest girls in our school, right up there with Alex. Beside her was her best friend, Beth Dawson, who also took ballet. She was nice enough, but aside from being so much like Chloe, I wasn't sure what her deal was. The two of them were more Alex's friends than mine.
The third girl, Molly Brenner, was even less familiar. She was new this year. I didn't know anything about her except she must like polka dots as she was wearing it from head to toe tonight.
Alex and I walked over to the girls but remained standing. Alex turned to me and waved the lemonade bottle with a flick of her wrist. "Go ahead and get things started, Adrian."
I made a face at the bottle but ended up taking it anyway; the way Alex was holding it had me worried she was gonna drop it. "Why can't you do it?"
"Can't. I'm sitting this one out." Alex sighed, like I was the one being a pain in the butt. "That way, there's an even number of girls and boys. Besides, I can't kiss other guys at this party. It wouldn't be fair to Grant."
"Who the hell is Grant?" I was flat-out yelling by this time. As if on cue, a guy walked over to us and draped an arm around Alex's shoulders.
"Yo, I heard my name."
He was tall, had broad shoulders and was wearing a beanie. He also had a bit of scruff around his face. He definitely wasn't in our homeroom class. I'd never seen this guy before in my life.
He looked older than my sister, who was a senior in high school. The only way he could be from our school was if he'd been held back four times-or if he taught a class there.
"Adrian, this is Grant. Grant, Adrian." Alex turned to the other kids. "Everyone, this is Grant."
Grant nodded and held out a hand for me to shake. I eyed it with disdain and made no move to do as he expected. He shrugged and turned to the rest of the group. "'Sup?"
"I don't understand that question and I won't respond to it," Beth said in a snotty old lady voice.
It was so random and unexpected of her that I turned my head sharply in her direction. There was a sly little smile on her face when our eyes met and I found myself liking Beth Dawson a little more.
"Then think of another game we can all play," I told Alex.
Alex arched an eyebrow and I could almost hear the gears in her head turning. "Truth or dare?"
That could work. I wouldn't even have to feel guilty about thwarting a certain boy's expectations for the night. Spinning a bottle was really just a means to an end, anyway. An end that he could achieve in truth or dare.
If absolutely necessary, I could send a kissing dare his way to help him out.
The more important thing was, it reduced my risk of having to kiss anyone by at least half.
"Everyone okay with truth or dare?" I checked with the group. No one seemed to have a problem with it. I glanced at Seth, who'd been overly quiet this whole time. He was busy tapping away on his phone and barely glanced up to nod his agreement after someone had prompted him with a nudge.
Guess he decided to play it cool this time around.
So we were all agreed. Alex and I plopped ourselves down next to each other. No one volunteered to go first—not even Alex, I was quick to point out—which was why we let the bottle I was still holding decide. I gave it a spin, which landed on Tristan.
"Oh thank God we changed the rules!" he said, letting out a relieved sigh. Everyone laughed, including me; I felt the same way. "Truth. I'm an open book."
"Exactly. That's why no one's interested," I said, scoffing. "Pick dare, you loser."
"No. I have a medical condition and you're really mean," he said, whining and drawing out the last part. "Truth. Make it good."
I never got the chance to. Out of the blue, Misty Brenner leaned way forward, bracing herself on the floor with both hands, as if about to pounce. In an overeager tone, she spoke up. "Is there a girl you like in our school?"
I suppressed a frustrated groan. Usually, crush questions didn't pop up until after several turns when everyone had warmed up. Nobody ever wasted one on Tristan, either. Only Misty would be so clueless; she was the only one who hadn't known him long enough.
There was something else I now knew about the new girl, although the polka dots should have already clued me in on her unconventional tastes.
"Nope." Tristan replied, deadpan. The sad part was, no one was gonna question this. Tristan just wasn't interested in girls, and usually for most girls the feeling was mutual.
Misty's cheeks pinked and she returned to her original sitting position. The urge to face-palm was strong, but I fought against it.
"Idiot," I said in a low but audible voice, looking directly at Tristan so that there would be no mistaking whom I was referring to.
Tristan remained oblivious; he simply shrugged and turned his attention back to me. There was a mock-gleeful expression on his face as he rubbed his palms together. It made my heart drop to my stomach. "Your turn."
I felt like kicking myself for giving Tristan a hard time for picking truth. My hubris just increased my chances of having to kiss someone.
"Dare."
"I dare you to pick truth."
"That's against the rules, not to mention, the stupidest thing I've ever heard," I had snapped before I could think better of it. "Truth has no place at a party."
Seriously, was being contrary my default setting?
Tristan looked at me with comically narrowed eyes. "What are you trying to hide?"
Taken aback, I couldn't do anything but stare as a chill ran down my spine.
"She can't handle the truth!"
I shot Beth a glare and she merely smiled back, looking angelic. I might have spoken too soon about liking her. That could get old fast.
"I'll pick her dare," Alex said. More chills. Before Tristan and I could both protest, she continued, turning to Tristan. "You really think she's gonna do anything you tell her?"
"If she were a good sport," Tristan said, to which Alex raised an eyebrow. He gave a thoughtful pause and then held up both palms in a gesture of surrender. He and Alex turned to me with identical smirks on their faces.
I might have cried out in anguish.
"Okay, your dare is . . . seven minutes in heaven."
The collective intake of breath that followed was sharp. "Oh. Em. Gee," an awed Chloe Wasserman breathed.
Ignoring Chloe, I turned to Alex and arched an eyebrow. "What will your date think?"
One of the girls gave a shocked laugh, puzzling Alex at first, and then after a beat she gave a start. "I didn't mean with me," she said with a look of disbelief and frantically turned her head every which way. Fortunately for her, Grant must have walked away unnoticed when the game started and was not around to hear.
I smiled, feeling pleased with myself. It was very rare that Alex was the one to get flustered in these situations. "You didn't?"
""I meant with one of them. Duh." She scoffed and waved a hand at the boys' side of the circle. "Just pick one. Doesn't even matter who."
"Hey." The protest came from an affronted-looking Seth, who reddened a second later and said nothing else.
I kind of felt bad for him. Alex wasn't trying to be mean and neither was I. It was just really uncomfortable for me, doing this with a group of kids I had known since the days of training wheels and water wings.
Alex just didn't get it. Not one of these boys wouldn't make this weird. I tried to study my options objectively and eliminated two of them on the spot.
Ethan was out of the question, I decided. He was cool and undeniably cute, but certain events in his life kind of forced him to grow up a little too fast, in more ways than one. (Case in point: he actually looked bored with what we were doing. Even after the little twist Alex cooked up.)
Nothing personal against him, I just didn't want my name to be dragged Monday morning at school when all the girls would be talking about him and whoever he wound up with tonight.
My eyes flitted to the next boy. Obviously, not Tristan, either. Our eyes met and we both made ew faces.
Tristan didn't want to kiss me, which was fine by me. I didn't want to kiss anyone in general, but I especially did not want to kiss him. He and I liked to make fun of each other on a regular basis and we both had a brutal sense of humor. If he thought I was even the slightest bit interested in him in that way, neither of us would ever live it down. I quickly looked away and turned to the next boy down the line.
Matt was okay. I just didn't hang out him as much as the other three.
Scratch that. He always just went along with whatever got into the other guys' heads so I probably did, but he was one of those people you didn't really notice was there or not half the time.
Nonetheless, Matt was a nice, quiet boy who probably wouldn't make this too weird. I couldn't think of a reason not to pick him.
But did I want to kiss him? I held off giving a definite answer while I considered the last, but definitely not the least, of the four.
Seth would be the obvious choice. He was my oldest friend, the one I was most comfortable around. I could take him to the closet and we could just talk and laugh at how dumb everyone else was and he'd back me up when I told everyone we'd kissed when we didn't.
Or maybe I could kiss him. Just this once.
My face felt warm and it was all of a sudden difficult to word the questions in my mind. I started gesturing wildly as I spoke. "So I should just-? Um . . .get in there?"
A slow smile spread across Alex's face. She clapped her hands together once and turned to address the entire group. "Okay guys, ground rules."
Everyone started talking excitedly and all at once. It was natural that this crowd would have concerns of their own; we'd never played seven minutes in heaven before. I had always been under the impression that it was a high school type of game and therefore thought I didn't have to worry about it until then.
I guess Alex couldn't wait a couple of months and took matters into her own hands.
Anyway, details such as location, duration, and limitations were discussed. (Respectively: Alex's front hall closet; seven minutes starting from the moment the door was closed; it depended on what the two people inside the closet agreed on, but some kissing was to be expected; and finally, the door must not be locked or barred on either side.)
To be fair, I had to applaud whoever came up with the last one. I mean, that was just good common sense.
Like I said: serious business. What a weird bunch. Way too much forethought on what was supposed to be a one-off dare although I was willing to bet that no one remembered we were actually playing truth or dare and not seven minutes in heaven.
I had to give Alex some credit. She knew that some of us—myself, especially—never would have agreed to play seven minutes in heaven if she had mentioned it by name. There was a small part of me that couldn't help but be impressed. This was bold and clever of her and I had always admired those qualities in a person.
At the moment, however, there was also a bigger part of me that thirsted for bloody revenge at having been put in such an awkward position. I wanted to wipe the smug expression off Alex's face in such a way that it wouldn't be quite so pretty anymore when I was done.
"You're the devil," I told Alex, dead serious. She didn't even try to deny my accusation, just flashed her megawatt smile in rebuttal. I stood, sighing in defeat. "Come on, Matt."
I had already taken a couple of steps toward the front door when I realized the slip.
Eyes widened, I stopped in my tracks and turned to see if the rest of the players caught the mistake, too. My gaze fell on Seth first; he looked surprised, but so did everyone else.
Matt looked like he'd been turned to stone until the two boys on either side of him—Seth and Tristan—elbowed him. I couldn't hear what they were saying from where I stood but Matt hesitantly got on his feet to follow me.
It seemed too late to correct myself by then. I continued walking, not bothering to wait for Matt.
Maybe this was for the best. After all, Seth was looking forward to kissing somebody tonight. I'd already had my chance and freaked out. If I choked again tonight, he'd just get frustrated and we had already been arguing a lot—over the stupidest reasons—lately.
Not only that, I would be known as the girl who cried kiss. People might think there was something wrong with me.
For a moment, I considered going straight out the front door and then running all the way home but I dismissed the idea and turned to my left where the closet was. I reached for the door handle, and turned.
Holding the closet door open with one hand, I waved Matt in with a flourish of the other. He looked at me funny, head cocked to one side, but did as I had wordlessly instructed. I could feel everyone's eyes on us and my heart was pounding as I walked in after him and closed the door behind me.
Going back to my earlier question: Did I want to kiss Matt Engels?
Let me put it this way: Tonight had never been about getting what I wanted.
* * *
A/N: WTF the original flashback was only a couple of paragraphs.