Never Be

seven minutes in heaven

A few hours and drinks later, most of the people had trickled out of the house. The music had been set to low, and we had moved from the kitchen back to the main area. While Kira, Mikey and Julia started to clean up the place, the rest of us sat around the living room. Amelia whispered a survival guide for the boys into my ear.

"You can very rarely find one without another. They're, like, always together. And, um, they sing a lot-" She motioned to Brooklyn, who was now standing on the couch, singing McFly songs until Andy launched a pillow at him and he staggered around, pretending to be badly wounded, ending the act with a dramatic fall to the floor.

"And they're all idiots. Better go help that one," she sighed before getting up and going over to him, trying at first to coax him into getting up on his own, but eventually just tickling him until he was forced to give in.

"LET'S PLAY SEVEN MINUTES IN HEAVEN!" Jack yelled out.

"We're not 13 anymore!" Andy called out in response.

"Please! Don't be a party pooper!" Jack whined.

Rye shot a glance at me. "I'm in," he said.

Reluctantly, the others gathered around until the six of us formed a circle – or, at least, our drunken attempt of one.

"You know, Andy, if you really don't want to play, you could go join Kira cleaning up," Rye pointed out. Andy shook his head rapidly.

"I'll play, I'll play."

"He'll do anything to get out of cleaning," Rye tried to whisper, but it came out much more loudly than he intended.

"That's not true!" Andy tried to rebuttle, but the rest of the group chimed in their support for Rye's remark.

"I found an app to randomly assign people," Amelia said, showing us before tapping a button to randomly assign the first two – Which ended up being Amelia and Brooklyn.

"HOOYA!" Brooklyn yelled at his luck, which made Amelia blush. He grabbed her hand, saying "I wasn't going to play if I didn't get you anyways," and then they disappeared into the closet.

The seven minutes seemed to last forever and no time at all. My heart pounded as I wondered who I would get. If it was Rye, would we kiss? I certainly didn't dislike the idea. The seven minutes took an eternity, but also passed in no time at all. When Brooklyn and Amelia walked back over, his arms around her waist, her flushed and giggling, I felt completely sober with both nerves and excitement.

She picked up her phone, and... "Andy and Rye," she called out and laughed. The two of them got up grudgingly, Rye shooting a lustful look after me, as if trying to tell me with just a look that he wished that the two of us had been paired together instead, before mumbling under his breath if it was really necessary that the two of them have to go through with this?

"Rules of the game," Amelia said, smirking.

"Come on, baby," Andy said sarcastically, leaning over and planting a kiss on Rye's neck. Rye screamed and laughed, and allowed himself to be dragged off into the closet. That left only one more pairing – It would have to be me and Jack. I leaned back, trying to check him out one more time but without making it too obvious.

He caught me looking at him anyways and raised his eyebrows, a playful smile spread across his face. I shrugged, hoping to death that the warm heat that I felt rising into my cheeks wasn't too obvious. He licked his bottom lip, trying to over exaggerate what was usually a sexy move, and I gave him a gagging face in return, even though the thought of him didn't sound that bad at all to me. We continued on this way, him making flirtatious faces – a wink, blowing me a kiss – and me turning him down, until the timer on Amelia's phone buzzed, and Andy and Rye exited the closet.

Rye practically ran out of there and back to the floor, landing in a half-fall that he tried to pretend was on purpose.

"We genuinely didn't do anything but talk, so I have no idea what he's being so overdramatic for!" Andy called out, opting for a much slower dawdle back.

My heart began to race as Brooklyn announced that it was time to me and Jack to go. Jack reached for my hand once he walked over to me, and I swallowed hard, grabbing it as he helped me up. I glanced back at Rye once more as we began walking over to the closet. He made the cuckoo motion and rolled his eyes while he pointed at Jack. I giggled, but then I had been pulled inside and the door was closed, and he was no longer in view.

"Wow. This is a big ass closet," I said, noting that in awe. I mean, I supposed it shouldn't have been that much of a surprise, considering how large the rest of the apartment was, but I couldn't help it – It was the size of my bedroom back at home.

"It's not the only thing that's big," Jack noted.

"Yeah, the whole place is pretty huge," I smiled, purposefully dodging what he probably thought was a clever comment.

"So..." He started, his voice trailing off as he struggled to find something to say.

"So," I repeated, partly agreeing in his lack of a conversation starter, and partly making fun of him.

"So." He cleared his throat. "You wanna Marvin Gaye and get it on?" He asked, cutting right to the chase. I laughed, admiring his determination.

"Is that a yes or a no?" He asked, still a little cautious despite how straight forward he was being. He searched my eyes for my answer. I shrugged, feeling a little guilty that I was stuck here with him and not Rye, but that wasn't really my fault, was it? I hadn't had a make-out session without any negative repercussions in so long, and here was an attractive boy, willing to kiss me, standing right in front of me...

I supposed that that sort of mindset was part of what got me into my bad luck streak in the first place, but I wasn't one to hold onto the past so long that it ruined the future. I didn't fight back when he placed his hands on each side of my face and leaned down to kiss me. Despite the fact that we'd all spent the night drinking, he tasted fresh – like a combination of mouthwash and cinnamon. Maybe he'd been prepared for this moment? I didn't care.

For the time being, I let myself go, forgetting that anything else existed except for Jack. I buzzed where he rested his lips and his hands on me, feeling as if he left a glow-in-the-dark trace on wherever he touched me. I jumped at the sound of the buzzer, signaling that the 7 minutes were up. I looked up at Jack and he seemed just as electrified as I was, breathing hard, green eyes traced with excitement and temptation. The buzzer might have ended our game of seven minutes in heaven, but I hoped that this wouldn't be the end of us.