The Bet (Book 1 in The Deception Series)

Chapter 1: stupid prompts and stupid parties

Taylor

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"Genesis"- Grimes

Write about something that changed your life.

Now who the hell cares about this? Seriously? Are they trying to get me to dig up every piece of trauma I have deep inside of me?
I groan as I place my head down on the desk that sat in my small bedroom. This past week has been brutal for me. I've been working everyday and going to school, trying to keep up with my work. I was dreading midterm week that was coming up in a few months.

My communications professor decided to be nice and give us our prompt for the midterm earlier than all my other classes. I was grateful to have extra time on it until I read the prompt.

Write about something that changed your life.

My life wasn't interesting enough for this paper. The only thing that really changed my life was my father. Who I definitely did not want to write about. He didn't deserve to be written about on this goddamn paper. And I wasn't about to cry over this while writing about him.

I stare at the blank doc that practically describes my life. Blank. Boring. Nothing.

It's kind of depressing now that I think about it. But what can you do? I rather have a boring life than a life filled with messy drama and things that cause me to break out.

"Taylor!" I hear my roommate's voice echo from the hallway. It doesn't take long for the bedroom door to open to reveal my best friend. Lily Kinsella.

She had a bright smile on her face before she revealed the reason behind her smile, "Guess who got invited to a party that the hockey team is hosting?" She reveals.

I couldn't help smiling at her excitement, "Hmm. I wonder who." I say.

"Jake invited me." She tells me.

"No way." I laugh.

She nods, "Jake Peterson invited me to a party!" She voices in disbelief.

Lily has been crushing on Jake Peterson for years now. He was on the hockey team and she has been obsessed with him. She's only ever talked to him once until I convinced her to talk to him more after he and his girlfriend broke up. When she finally did, they started talking a lot more and here we are. I've never seen this girl this happy since we got our first 2 bedroom apartment together sophomore year. We became friends freshman year of college, and for some reason we kind of just stuck together ever since. We were juniors now and the amount of memories we've made these past years was insane.

She walks over to my bed and falls onto her back. I spin around in my desk chair to face her.

"How are you feeling?" I smile at her.

"Like I'm gonna die." She says as she rests her hands on her stomach, keeping her gaze on my bedroom ceiling.

I laugh at her, "You're glowing."

She smiles and sits up on her elbows to look at me, "Really? I feel like I am. My skin has never been this clear before." She says as she places a hand on the side of her face.

I nod at her as she falls back onto the bed and looks at the ceiling again.

"So when's the party?" I ask her.

"This weekend. And you have to come with me so we can go shopping." She tells me.

I give her a pointed look and sigh, "No way." I reply.

"What? Why not?" She asks as she sits up and looks at me with a frown on her face.

"Because I hate the entire hockey team. And parties are always so boring. I would rather be in bed than around sweaty college students." I explain to her.