Ocean Eyes . Jonathan Brandis

Five

I had no idea what I was getting myself into, but I for sure wasn't going to let Laura walk all over me like that.

"Grace can go first, since she's the newcomer," Laura smirks at me and laughs to the people around us.

I glare at her in annoyance then look over to Jon, who was trying to hold back a laugh. 'I'm gonna kill you,' I mouth to him before turning my attention to the game.

So how does this work? I had a ping pong ball in my hand and I'm pretty sure I was supposed to get the ball in a cup. I summon the best of my basketball abilities and go for it, closing my eyes after my release. In no surprise, I miss, getting a laugh from everyone.

"That's just too bad," Laura gives me a fake sympathetic smile. "Better luck next time," she adds before tossing her ball. It landed perfectly into the center cup.

A feeling of embarrassment comes over me. "Shit," I mumble.

A boy, from the crowd watching us, hands me the cup of beer.

"Chug, chug, chug," I heard over and over again. I had to do it. Or things would probably get even worse. Either way, the shit hole I was in, is gonna get deeper and deeper.

I take a deep breath. I quickly down the drink before I could really taste it and before I knew it, it was gone. People stared at me like they've never seen a human before.

"Dude, she downed that in like two seconds." "Who even is that?" "Damn." I could hear even more mumbles and exaggerations. I laugh at some of the remarks.

I look to Laura who clearly wasn't amused by the attention I was getting. "Whatever, lets just get on with this," she seemed pissed which made me smile.

I find the ping pong ball and try again, this time not thinking as much. It found its way into one of her cups surprisingly.
I raise an eyebrow at her smiling.

"That was luck," she rolls her eyes almost surprised also.

She downs her drink after about a minute then it was her turn. No attention to her.

...

I ended up finishing all my drinks before her, meaning I lost, which I was totally fine with since everyone was pretty surprised by me and paid no attention to Laura. She insisted she was happy and proud she won, but I could see right through her. She was jealous and pissed off.

"Grace," I hear Jon's voice and I look over to find him.

"Hey," I smile proudly, almost falling over.

"I didn't know you had that in you," he laughs at me, helping me stand.

"I didn't either," I reply laughing.

"What happened to your no drink rule," he questions.

"There was no way I was letting Laura talk to me like that and not do something about it," I say getting angry.

"You definitely showed her," he says hinting sarcasm, making us both laugh.

I see he had drank a little also and noticed his eyes were intensely blue right now. It was crazy, I didn't even think that was possible. But his smile seemed to make them stand out even more.

"So is this ringing in my head normal," I ask groggily.

"If you've had too much, yea," he laughs at me. "I honestly don't know how your still standing after 10 cups of beer," his laugh fades.

"Oh, well believe me. I could pass out at any moment," I laugh tripping over my own feet. He catches me.

"I think you should sit down," he tries to keep me from falling. He takes me over to the couch and let's me sit. "I really regret this Jonathan," I tell him as he kneeled in front of me. He had a look of worry. "Hey. You're fine, you just shouldn't drink anymore. This is your first time right?" He asks me.