7 Minutes in Heaven (Short Story)

I was at a party. Not just any party, but my best friend Anna's Sweet 16th. And it was big. People everywhere, music blaring in my ears, and drinks and snacks crowding the tables. Anna was leading me through her mansion of a house, to where a small, oddly isolated group of people stood, talking and laughing amongst each other. Anna walked me up to them, and I was introduced to all of them, including Anna's boyfriend (who I only first met then), who swept tiny Anna into a bear hug when he saw her. Cute. I randomly noticed that they both had sandy blonde hair. 

"Joshy, this is Jessica, my BFF!" Anna exclaimed.

"Hey." Josh said, smiling politely.

"Hi." I returned the smile.

As the night went on, I tended to stick with this group of people, purely because I really didn't want to meet any more people. I was good at remembering names, but there were so many of them floating through my head at that moment that I could barely think straight. At about 1:30am, however, I met someone who's name and face stuck in my mind for a very long time afterwards.

It all started when Anna and her little posse dragged me off to one of the bedrooms - Anna's bedroom. I'd been in there heaps of times, coz, you know, we're best friends, but this time I had a feeling we weren't in there just to talk. There were seven of us in the room, including me and Anna. It wasn't until Anna and a brunette girl (Nicole, I think her name was) announced exactly what we were going to do that I started to feel mildly uncomfortable.

"Okay guys, we're gonna play a little game." Anna couldn't stop the smile exploding on her face. "7 Minutes in Heaven!!"

At these words, the girls squealed excitedly and the boys whooped and wolf whistled. I had no idea what I'd gotten myself into. 

"This is how the game works." Nicole began. "We take turns to spin a bottle-" she held up and empty Coke bottle "-and whoever the bottle cap points to has to go into that bathroom-" she pointed to the en suite joined to Anna's bedroom "-with the spinner . . . for 7 minutes!!!" She giggled, as did Anna and the other girl (a redhead by the name of Lily, I'm pretty sure). The boys were just wearing goofy smiles, no doubt thinking about all the things they could do in seven minutes . . . with a girl. I mentally cringed.

"There's no rules, you can do whatever you want, however!!! To make it funner-" was that even a word? "-we've decided that you HAVE to kiss, atleast once!!"

I was literally horrified. I pulled Anna to one side. "Listen, Anna, I don't think I can do this . . ." I said worriedly.

"Oh, sure you can!! It's easy! It's not like you've never been kissed before . . . have you?" she faltered, looking slightly embarrassed.

"Yes, I've been kissed before." Only once, though. And it wasn't through a game. 

"Oh thats good." Anna said with a smile. "Oh, and Branden over there-" she pointed to a brown-haired guy with striking blue eyes "-has had his eye on you all night." I just looked at her disbelievingly. When she smiled and winked at me, I blushed a little. I. Was. Going. To. Kill. Her. I looked back over to Branden, and he caught my gaze. He smiled and I swear my face turned red as a tomato.

The game started a few minutes later, and I found myself sitting in a circle beside Anna and Josh. I was beginnning to get downright nervous. You see, unlike my gorgeous best friend Anna, I wasn't so good around boys and big crowds and kissing games. I was the quiet, straight-A student, always studying, not worrying about how I looked when I went to the shops. You must be wondering how I became friends with Anna. Let's just say we got talking one day.