Chapter Twenty-One: Never Have I...
Somehow Lani had convinced me to attend yet another party, however, she wasn't throwing this one. It was being held in some guard's backyard on his private strip of beach. He was from Tower 7 which was neutral territory between us and Tower 8 and meant we would likely be seeing them there. I didn't really care though, especially since I had Mitchell's hand in mine.
Connor still had not called or responded to any of my texts, which worried me slightly, but I supposed I couldn't force him. Hopefully, I would see him tonight and be able to talk to him, though I wasn't sure how thrilled Mitchell would be about that. It was just something he was going to have to deal with though.
Mitchell, Lani, Miles, and I arrived in swimsuits all together. Sure we were night surfing, but there were tons of lifeguards here, alleviating my anxiety about it. And the guard, Leo, I had learned his name was, had the beach space lit very well.
As soon as we walked in, we were greeted by the one and only George, however.
"Well, well, well look what we have here." He said with a slight laugh, his eyes zeroing in on Mitchell and my hands. "Can't say I'm surprised, what I will say, however, we'll see how long this lasts." He chuckles darkly to himself before glancing over to Miles and rolling his eyes.
His attention then turned suddenly to Lani, "Never expected to see you hanging out with these low-life's, daddy's girl." He smirked. "Oh wait, actually it all makes sense now. Perfect girl gets her heart broken and starts acting out against mommy and daddy, throws away her future, and forever lives off a trust fund, sound about right?" He asked her innocently.
"Can it, George," Lani replied rolling her eyes at him. "It's so funny to me that you actually think anyone respects you or cares about what you have to say. Everyone knows you just bully people because you're insecure."
"Please," George responded as if it were the most ridiculous thing that he'd ever heard. "What would I have to be insecure about?"
"You don't need a reason to be insecure. Some people just are." Lani replied with a shrug and then shouldered past him, to which the rest of us followed.
It was probably the first time I'd ever seen George speechless, and that proved to me, that Lani had really hit deep. Before I had much time to think about it though-
"Let's dance," Mitchell said with a smirk, pulling me close to him as we walked further onto the beach.
"Sure," I replied with a smile. There was a little bonfire in the center of the beach, and there were some people dancing around it, some people hanging out in the ocean, and some people just sitting on the sand and talking in groups.
I was not surprised to see Lani and Miles dancing together, though I knew they were just friends. There was some merit to what George had said, it was true Lani had gotten her heart broken, and she wasn't really looking for anything. Miles, I knew, also wasn't looking for anything.
Mitchell and I had only danced to a few top billboard hits when he decided to go get drinks. "I'll be right back, Hal," He said, kissing me on the cheek and walking up the beach to where the keg stand and coolers were.
Taking some time to look around at the other people at the party, in particular to search for someone that I was sure was here, I instead found nothing, but was startled by a presence behind my right shoulder.
"He's not here," the voice said, the smirk that I couldn't see dripping into the tone. I turned around and standing there was the one and only, George.
"Who?" I asked him innocently, playing dumb.
He shot me a side eye look before continuing, choosing to look out at the ocean instead of at me. "Connor," he replied, humoring my question. "He's been a real fun suck lately, this whole past year really." George commented as he moved up to stand directly next to me on the right instead of behind me.
Though I usually ignored what George said, letting it pass in one ear and out the other, this comment stuck in my head.
"What do you mean?" I asked him, despite the influx of sarcasm and cynicism I knew was coming.
"Ahhh," he sighed as the side of his mouth quirked up into a somewhat sinister smile. "I have cast my rod, and the fish, that's you in case you were unaware, has taken the bait."
I rolled my eyes and sighed, "Can you just not be difficult for once and get on with it?"
"Jesus," George said patronizingly and held his hands up in a mock surrender, "though I do suppose you're right, guess the boyfriend will be back any second now.
"Let me just ask you though, should you really be this concerned with Connor when you have your own man?" At the intense turn of my head and glare I shot his way, George shrugged, "Just food for thought my little fishy. Consider this me chumming the water."
I was getting extremely tired of George and his dedication to the continuation of this fishing analogy, instead wishing he would just get to the point.
"The point, George." I reminded him, impatiently tapping my foot against the sand.
"Ah yes, the point, the tip of the hook. Where is Connor and why is he a fun suck? To be quite honest with you, I don't know. Sometime last summer he just quit coming to parties with me and the tower, something about needing to be mature or some shit like that. Long story short, he won't be attending." George sighed, holding his beer can up to his mouth and taking a slow, long sip.
His words took me to a flashback of last summer though, when I ended things with Connor. And amongst the reasons, I remembered clearly telling him that I thought we both had some maturing to do.
Before I could open my mouth to ask another question though, I felt an arm wrap protectively around my waist from the left. "Is there a problem here?"
It was Mitchell's voice, but probably half an octave deeper, and though half of me appreciated him stepping in with George, the other half of me was thinking how he could not have come at a worse time.
"I don't think there's a problem." George shrugged, as innocently as he could manage, but in total George fashion, turned to me. "Well, if there is... it's not of my making. Maybe I helped lure it to the surface, but-"
"That's enough, George." I cut in firmly, shooting him a glare to which he simply smirked, but suddenly, his smirk faded slightly, only to be replaced with a happier glee filled one.
"Well, I suppose I was wrong." He said with utmost pleasure, and Mitchell and my head's turned to see what was directly in his line of sight.
There stood Connor wearing nothing but a pair of board shorts. His hair was messy and windswept, his hands were shoved in his pockets, he had a backwards hat on, and in all, he looked like the epitome of a Greek god, right out of a Baywatch movie.
"Let me say, just this once... it feels good to be wrong." George said as he walked over to Connor, greeting him with a bro hug and a firm pat on the back.
I knew, I just knew that he was already plotting some sort of mischief, something he could do to mess things up, because that's the type of person George was. I wasn't sure what he was gonna do, but it was clear that whatever it was... he was going to start by getting Connor drunk, and I couldn't do anything about it without arousing suspicion from Mitchell.
+++
About two hours later, George called to the attention of everyone still on the beach. "Who wants to play truth or dare?" He yelled, which thankfully generated a fairly negative response.
Nobody wanted to play after what happened last time, and especially not with George. Games with him always ended in some form of nudity, and though he was not, everyone around him was beginning to grow up.
"Never Have I Ever, then?" George questioned, which garnered far more positive responses. George began to form a circle to which Mitchell grabbed my hand and pulled me towards.
"Mitchell, I don't think we should." I replied, glancing warily at George and Connor, who was stumbling slightly already. Though I'd only had one drink in the past two hours, I'd seen Connor with at least four different drinks in his hand, George always having another ready for him when one ran out.
"It'll be fun, what's the harm?" Mitchell asked.
"It's George." I replied as if it were obvious. Sure Mitchell didn't know him like Miles and I did, but he'd seen enough to know that this was bad news. I assumed his eagerness to play George's game had something to do with George's words from earlier.
"Why are you so afraid to play his game?" Mitchell asked, challenging me with the raise of an eyebrow.
As I struggled to think of a response, and quickly realized I didn't have one, I gulped and gave in, "Fine, but you can't hold any of this against me."
"Seriously?" Mitchell asked, "Come on Hallie, give me some credit."
I bit my tongue from a reply that I was sure he wouldn't like. I was worried that Mitchell had some image of me still in his head of me from when we were younger, because I certainly knew I had one of him. I was starting to realize though, despite the similar appearance, he was not the same person he was two and a half years ago. I was worried that he was going to realize I was different from what he remembered me as, and he wasn't going to like the real me.
As we sat down in the circle of around 20 people who had agreed to play, I locked eyes with George who sent me a devious look, and that was when I knew he'd made a big mistake. Sure, he had played friendly-ish earlier, but all of that was over now, and he wouldn't be holding anything back.
"Rules are simple, ten fingers up, you put one down? You drink. You run out of fingers? You're out. Last person left in the circle wins, but I'm not so sure they're recalling winning if you know what I mean." George explained, eliciting a few chuckles from people around the circle. "I'll go first. Never have I ever done a drug other than marijuana." George said, avoiding my gaze.
I knew George knew I'd never done that... so what was his plan? Was that part of his plan? Was I being paranoid?
About half of the people in the groups fingers went down and therefore half took a sip of their drink. And the never have I ever passed to the next person in the circle...
I wasn't sure what George's plan was, but I did know I'd soon find out...