Bottle It Up [HIATUS]

Prologue

Bright sunlight streamed through the windows in my bedroom as Marissa, Callie, Becky, Jemma and I sat in a small circle, gathered around a hat filled with slips of paper. We all held a breath as Becky put her hand in the hat and picked a slip of paper. She smiled, knowing that we wouldn't breathe again until she said one of our names. She intentionally waited, then, enjoying the power she had in her hand, or rather, voice.

Finally, in what seemed like forever, she said one word. "Marissa," Becky called. Marissa's face went from being blue, from not breathing, to red, with embarrassment to having attention. Marissa is shy when she is not prepared to say something, and at this moment, she was definitely not prepared. "Truth, or dare?" Becky asked. Marissa's face only got more red with this.

We were all deeply absorbed by this game of Truth or Dare, at the moment, Marissa's reply. It was Callie's idea to play Truth or Dare. It was sweet summertime, but the previous day's rainy weather and accompanying humidity would make our routine of playing outside cancelled for the day. For an hour, Jemma found pleasure in playing a simultaneous game of chess with all of us, but as always, she won all of them and we were, as always, disappointed. Then, Callie, who is very creative, decided to liven up the mood by this game of Truth or Dare.

"Truth," stated Marissa. "Truth, please." Upon hearing this, Callie's face quickly dimmed due to lack of excitement, but as soon as it had changed did it revert back to its normal amount of glow. Becky, however, gave a slight, but audible, chuckle. Marissa's face paled at this in fright. And Jemma maintained her neutral expression. I wondered to myself what others thought of my face right now.

Becky read, "You've won a free dinner at Ruby & Ruth's for two. Who do you take with you?" Obviously, Marissa herself wrote this one because she likes food the most out of all of us, and she probably regrets it right now. A dead silence passed over everyone as we eagerly awaited her answer. Ruby & Ruth's was a prestigious, but very expensive, restaurant in the bigger, urban part of town. I have been there a few times myself, and their food is delicious and then some.

After a minute or two, Marissa answered, "Marlee." Marlee is Marissa's older sister, who is a sophomore in high school. "Marlee is going through a lot in high school. She needs this dinner the most! Besides me, of course." Then, it was Marissa's turn to reach her hand in the bag and draw out a slip. Breathing out a sigh of relief that she was spared for the moment, she said, "Leanna: truth or dare?"

I was initially surprised: I had hardly been picked. Everybody's time comes, though, I guess. I decided to do a dare. It was time to spice things up a bit. Before Marissa came Becky, who also did a truth. She was still tired from her dare of running five laps around the property. It was a good thing that she was the one to do it, though; she was the most trained. She is very committed to track & field, and even runs a mile every other day.

When I said, "Dare," everybody's eyes brightened up, and I knew that this had been the right decision. Even Jemma, who could sometimes seem not empathetic, was visibly happier. I knew this must be going very well, then; that is, until Marissa read out the dare. Strangely, Jemma was only more happy. I suppose she wrote this then.

I had to write down the name of a person, any person, on the slip of paper with my name on it. The person could be real (that we know of) or made up. Now this was hard. I had no idea what to do. I glanced up from the carpet for a moment and saw everybody's eyes on me. Even better that they were actually quite excited for this one. I quickly resumed studying the carpet patterns because their constant stares were beginning to scare me even more.

On a whim, I decided to write down "Max William Thames" with a purple glitter pen. No going back now, I guess. Callie was the first to ask why I chose that name. To which I replied, "I have absolutely no clue. It was the first thing I could think of." Then, "Don't judge me!" Marissa then told me that there was a second part to this dare.

She instructed me to slip the piece of paper into a Coca-Cola bottle and seal it. Then, send it off to sea and possibly let some random stranger find it. My mouth curved upwards, relieved that this was a simple task and would only take 5 minutes. When we went outside to throw the bottle into the ocean, the weather had greatly improved. I tossed the whole event out of my mind like I tossed the bottle, and we all started to play outside as usual.

I never thought I would need to remember this day until today...