Making it.

Chapter 35 - Happy new year!

"Wheyyyy!" Brandon and I shout at the same time as I've just landed another ping pong ball into one of the many red cups on Simon's and Milli's side. He turns to me and we double-high-five, our fingers intertwining for a moment longer afterwards before we pull away again to look at the losers I call my bestest friends.

"How many in a row were this? Six? Seven?"

"Eight, to be exact." Brandon corrects me with a smirk as Milli takes another swig out of the cup.

"Nobody likes braggarts." Simon exclaims, rolling his eyes with a slightly concerned look for his cousin. He whispers something in her ear but she gives him a serious look and firm nod, probably trying to let him see that she can handle it.

"Nobody likes to lose either, but oh well." Brandon shrugs, leaning his arm on my shoulder which weighs my already tipsy self even more down.

"God, your arm weighs like five pounds." I complain, looking at him sideways.

Instead of taking his arm off of me the way I would have wanted him to, he simply flexes his other one, showing off his well-defined biceps. "That's all muscle, babe."

"Do you guys want to flirt a bit more or get back to the game." Milli says with a smirk and I just shake my head with a laugh.

"You mean the game you're clearly losin' right now?"

"Watch yourself, babe." Milli threatens in a playful way and one moment later, the little white ball has made its way into one of our cups. Good throw, I think, but definitely don't say that. Instead, I just smirk and down the liquid inside of it.

As I set down the now empty red cup again, I feel a shiver run down my spine. Taking a quick glance around the room, I don't notice anything strange and simply blame it on the alcohol making a mental note to not drink anything more tonight. I mean, it's not even that long until New Year's anymore so I think this shouldn't be too hard, right?

"You got one out of three in. I'm frightened." I joke, nagging on her lack of throwing skills and watch the ball that Brandon threw swiftly land in the cup.

There is a slight pause when Simon looks over and into the plastic cup where the ball has made itself comfortable in, only to give Milli a strained expression.

"What's wrong? Can't do it anymore?" I ask him, sounding pretty pitiful. Wow, drunk Hailey can get really competitive.

"You guys won. We're all empty." He states, throwing the cup back down for us to see that it really is just that, empty.

"We won!" I shout after a moment of realisation and move to give Brandon another high-five but he just shakes his head, pulling me into a strong hug.

His arms around me feel comforting in this moment. Kind of like a blanket shielding me from everything around us right now. I give him a few pats on the back when he doesn't let go immediately and he pulls away but keeps his hands firm on my hips.

"We do make a good team together, don't we?" He asks and I nod with a smile.

"I think we should have won a prize for how we pulled them apart."

"You know what else we would be good together as?"

"What?" My drunk brain asks before I get the chance to think about my answer for even one second. Something inside of me really wanting to know what is going on in his mind right now.

"If you don't get your hands off of her you won't live to tell her that." A deep voice booms through the room and my eyes snap open, just like my mind seems to snap out of it in the split of a second.