NERVOUS! stick goldstein

CHAPTER FOUR, spin the bottle

"You're turn, Ashley." Sadie passed the bottle to Ashley. 

Everyone was now gathered around the coffee table and Winnie was much nervous than she was before. "I love that we're making this milestone happen for you." Madison smiles at Ashley and glances at Winnie with a smile. "Same for you, Winnie." From her place between Ashley and Brooke, Winnie smiled nervously in response.

"I love that we're connecting by doing something relatable." Ashley commented.

Brooke smiles at her. "I'm so proud of you." She starts to get teary eyes. "This is why I teach." Ashley smiled and she kneeled instead of sitting down, setting the bottle on the middle of the coffee table. Just as she spun the bottle, the door opened revealing Tad.

"Tad is in the house!"

Ashley's eyes widened upon seeing Tad and accidentally knocks over a can of soda with the bottle, causing some soda to spill on the white carpet below. While Tad greets some people, Madison gasps, standing up with a worried expression on her face. "My mom's carpet! She's gonna find out I had people over. Tonight was such a bad idea!" She walked into the kitchen before anyone could speak to her.

Ashley and her two best friends stand up with worried expressions. "Madison, I'm so sorry!" Ashley called out to her. She grabbed a towel off the table, kneeling beside the stein along with Winnie and Brooke. By now everyone went back to doing their own thing so they paid no attention to the three girls. Winnie and Brooke grabbed some towels as well, helping Ashley clean the stein, but it looked like it wasn't going to go away with only towels.

"She's gonna hate me, isn't she?" Ashley worriedly asked.

Winnie sympathetically smiles at her. "Maybe, maybe not."

"She's not gonna hate you," Brooke glances at Ashley sympathetically. "But it's not great."

"What am I gonna do?" Ashley inquired.

"Work on the stain." Brooke replies. "I'll bump into someone so they spill and make a bigger mess than yours."

Winnie cringes, pointing at Brooke. "That's probably not a good idea. More stains would probably make Madison mad."

Brooke smiles and stands up. "Still gonna do it." 

Winnie couldn't help but chuckle and she continues to help Ashley with the stain as Brooke walked away.

****

Luckily, someone came to their rescue with cleaning up the stain and Winnie was surprised that someone would be Tad. She didn't think he would know anything about cleaning a stain. But he had found some wine, saying that it helped gets the stain out. The downside of it was the fact it took three minutes to set in. Tad did add that it could've take four hours, he couldn't remember, and Winnie just hoped it was the three minutes one.

Ashley and Tad were having a cute moment until Tad's phone dinged. He picks it up, panicking after seeing the notification and stands up. "I gotta go!" Tad quickly heads for the door. Ashley and Winnie exchange a confused glance. "Why?" Ashley asked, standing up.

Tad stops, turning to face the two girls. "My ex-girlfriend says she's on her way. We agree we can never be in the same room, so wherever Bella wants to go, I have to leave."

Ashley furrows her eyebrows. "Why do you have to be the one that has to leave? That's not fair."

Winnie nods in agreement, throwing her arms up out of frustration. "That's what I always say!"

"Me too!" Tad agrees. "But then she explained it to me. I was wrong."

"I think she's the one who's wrong." Winnie mumbled. She didn't like Bella at all for many reasons and the fact that Tad has to be the one to leave the room instead of her is one of the reasons.