My Brother's Best Friend

Chapter 9

Maddie

There's so much smoke in here that I can hardly breathe. I'm trying to find Mark or any person that I know for that matter, but I'm unsuccessful. Maya should have come with me tonight. I tried so hard to persuade her, but I guess her biology test was more important than Mark's get-together.

I don't blame her. Everyone seems to be high and drunk while I try desperately to find the one person who asked me to come. I just want to say hello and then find an excuse to leave. That's it.

"Hey, Maddie!" I hear a female voice shout.

I'm squinting through the thick clouds of smoke to try and figure out who it is. I inch closer to the voice, and I finally see Kelsey leaning up against the wall with a solo cup in her hands. Her red hair is piled up into a bun on her head, her freckles almost invisible from how pink her face is from the liquor. I'm jealous of how good her body looks in those low-rise jeans, and I immediately feel like an idiot for wearing a sweatshirt and leggings.

I really need to figure out how to be cool.

"Um, hey," I reply uneasily. Kelsey has never once talked to me before, so I'm not sure why she's starting now.

A couple of members of the football team are with her, and finally, I see Mark emerge from the kitchen. His smile brightens when he scans me over, and I find myself blushing.

To try not to make it look obvious, I focus my attention back on Kelsey, a tiny grin sprawled out across her face.

"Didn't think you'd be here," she says. "Since when do you party?" Bringing the cup to her lips, she's still smiling as she sips on it, and a couple of the guys from the team laugh alongside her.

A part of me wants to be embarrassed and shy away, but I'm done being that girl. I want to be confident, and I want to be cool. I'm done being the annoying, lame nerd. "Since today," I reply and reach out my hand for Mark's cup that he's holding. "May I?"

"Absolutely." He passes it over towards me and looks me up and down again. "I love this new you, Maddie. It suits you."

"It does..." Kelsey agrees and diverts her eyes toward the closet by the staircase. "Maddie, have you ever played blind seven minutes?" She's still looking at the closet, and my mouth dries out. She's trying to crack me. She's trying to get me to chicken out, but it's not going to work.

I'm not going to admit that I'm a virgin and be made fun of even more. I'm not going to be weak. That's exactly what she wants.

"No," I admit. "What is it?"

One of the guys from the football team takes two blindfolds out of his pocket and twirls them around his fingertips. "We choose a guy, the girls choose a girl. You wear these blindfolds, go into the closet, and whatever happens, happens."

I gulp loudly as I'm staring now too at the closet, my throat seeming to close up. I'm positive my heart is beating louder than the music in this house when Kelsey says, "The girl I'm choosing is you. Care to participate?"

I'm trying to be cool. I'm trying not to be lame. The lame version of me would say no, and Kelsey is trying to test me. She's not going to win this time.

"I absolutely would like to play," I reply and take one of the blindfolds from the random player's hands. "I'm assuming I can't know who the other person is?"

"Oh, we will take care of that." Kelsey giggles, resting her hand onto my back as she leads me over towards the tiny closet. "The lucky guy is almost here."

The closet is tiny and dark, and she instructs me to put the blindfold on. My heart is beating out of my chest. I can hear my heartbeat in my ears when everything goes pitch black from the blindfold, and just for a second, I think about changing my mind.

No. You are going to do this.

I let out a deep breath when she begins to shut the door, but just before she does I hear Mark in the background. "Hell no," he sneers with anger toward her. "You want him to do this to her? She isn't like you guys, Kelsey. This isn't who she is."

"And what the hell is that supposed to mean, Mark?"

"Exactly what you think it means. She's not a slut."

The door shuts before I'm able to hear any more of their conversation, the loud music drowning the rest of it out.

What the hell am I doing?

This isn't me.

I don't do stuff like this.

I try to calm myself down and take slow breaths. I'm just overthinking. Maybe I can prove to everyone that I'm not some boring virgin by doing this. I can make out with someone, right? I can fool around a little bit. It's not going to ruin me.

Yes. I nod to myself in the closet, making my decision final. I'm going to do this. I'm going to be confident, and sexy, and prove every single one of them wrong.

Daredevil Maddie is back.