All Her Broken Pieces

Chapter 6

After a lot of moaning and groaning from the guys about "Gabe's fucking stupid games" all protests were silenced when Gabriel announced that I had never played before, had never even heard of the game. This was met with a lot of surprised glances my way, some pitying, some sad and a few were borderline angry; I'll give you three guesses who those were. I think they were finally beginning to put together that my life had been less sugar, spice and everything nice and more loneliness, abuse and everything neglect.

Putting on a bright smile, I tried to lighten the mood. "Come on guys, it'll be fun, I can pretend it's my first sleepover. Although I promise we don't have to do pillow fights or braid each other's hair like I've heard about." Oh I failed, I absolutely made it worse. Now half of them look like they're about to cry and the other half look close to exploding. "Guys?"

Luke is the first to speak, but his voice is wonky. "Sugar, what do you mean 'like you've heard about'? Have you never been to a sleepover before?" When I shake my head he croaks, "how is that possible, isn't that like, a girl right of passage or something?"

I sigh. "You'd have to have friends to have a sleepover, Chip." My quiet confession hangs in the air, and I get a weak smile from Luke at the nickname, until Marc clears his throat.

"Well I don't know about you guys, but I, for one, would love to have a sleepover with Sang, pillow fights and braiding included." His voice is full of fake cheer but it makes me hope anyways when I hear agreements from the others.

"I'm sure we could find a bunch of sleeping bags and make a night of it. Axel, Raven, Marc, any objection to using your place tonight?" Kota ask and they immediately shake their heads.

"We have sleepover for моя малютка (my little one), no armaments." Raven declares and I giggle.

"It's no arguments, Raven. Not armaments." Corey sighs.

"Same," comes the grunted reply.

Not completely believing what's happening right now I can't help but ask, "are you sure, you guys would really want to do this?"

Gabe stops shouting orders at the guys and turns to me, his eyes soften when he looks at me. "Trouble, someday you'll learn we'd probably do just about fuckin' anything for you."

I faceplant in his chest to hide my pitiful sniffles but I know he hears because his arms wrap tight across my shoulders before he chops me lightly on the back of my head. Shocked, I pull back to see him grin cheekily. "No more of that tonight, Trouble. Oy! Everyone get the shit I said and take a fuckin' seat around the couches," he pauses, rubbing his hands together in a spot on evil villain impression, "it's Never Have I Ever time."

I'm caught between excitement and trepidation when I see a few of the guys exchange worried and fearful glances but nevertheless we all sit down. I'm on one couch, squished in between Silas and Victor, Gabe sits on the floor in front of me leaning against my legs. Axel, Raven and North are on the other couch and Kota, Corey, Luke and Marc are sprawled around the floor or on bean bags that came out of nowhere.

Gabriel claps his hands together to get everyone's attention. "Alright, I'm going to explain the rules because this is Trouble's first time, and I don't want a fuckin' word from the rest of you." Turning to me he does just that. "Trouble this is usually a drinking game, are you okay with that?" I nod and he grins, shouting at Luke to grab beer from the fridge and a fuzzy navel for me. "Alright so the rules are simple, we go around in turns and say something we've never done. For example: Never have I ever...blah blah blah. If you have done said thing, you have to drink but if you haven't, you don't. Lastly we can ask for the story but you can pass if it makes you uncomfortable or you just don't want to explain, say pass and we'll fuck off about it, okay?" This last part is said so seriously, it seems very important to him that I understand so I nod in acknowledgement. "Great, now done with the boring shit lets get this party fuckin' started. Trouble, why don't you go first since it's your first time."