new girl // brandon arreaga

5

cassie

"alright, ladies, truth or dare time!" dee says, piling a bunch of pillows and blankets on her living room floor for us to get comfortable.

it's finally friday night; the night i've been waiting for since maddy invited me to the sleepover.

all of us are tipsy after the vodka coolers we've practically inhaled, making everything seem ten times funnier.

"alright, who goes first?" i ask, taking a sip of mine.

emma scans the three of us and comes to a conclusion. "i think you should. you're new, we have to break you in."

i laugh. "okay then, i guess. i didn't realize i was a shoe." badumtss.

"so, truth or dare?" emma asks, wiggling her eyebrows at me.

"hmmm..." i debate the worst possible outcomes for each decision and decide that, honestly, i don't care. "dare," i say.

emma smirks and doesn't even hesitate to speak. "i dare you to prank call someone and tell them you need a therapist because your goldfish died."

i can't even fathom a sentence to say without laughing first. "what the hell?" i ask.

"emma, where did you come up with that shit?" dee asks, practically cackling.

emma shrugs. "i have no clue. but do it," she urges me.

"i don't know who to call though, you never told me." i recover from my laughing fit, taking yet another sip of my drink.

maddy gets an idea. "wait!" she says, "didn't you get brandon arreaga's phone number?"

i forgot i had told the girls about that. i needed to rant to someone about how i was called unfuckable, and i low key exposed brandon for giving me his phone number.

i scoff. "sadly, yes. i don't even remember where i put it though. i never texted him."

i reach for my backpack to put on some lip balm and suddenly it hits me.

i put it in the bottom of my backpack.

"wait, i do know where it is. it may still be in here," i say, dumping everything out of my bag. i was too lazy to pack a different bag, so i used my backpack instead.

i throw all my clothes on dee's floor and search for the slip of paper. i find it crumpled on the very bottom of my bag, squished and almost torn.

i unfold the slip and look at brandon's number in all of its expected glory, but it doesn't seem special to me. it's just a bunch of random numbers. why would so many girls at school die for this?

"you have to call brandon." emma says, reaching over to take the paper from my hands.

"what?" i say, "no! i'm not calling him."

"why not?" dee asks. "he gave you his number for a reason."

i roll my eyes. "he gave me his number so we can work on a science project. not so i can tell him i need a therapist because my fish is dead." i say. "i don't even have a fish!"

"cassie, do it!" maddy pushes. "it'll be hilarious," she says.

"please do it!" dee shouts. "we have been irrelevant our whole lives and now is our time to not feel irrelevant for three seconds!"

all three of them start yelling at me to call brandon and i eventually cave in. "alright! fine, i'll do it."

i grab my phone from the coffee table and punch in brandon's phone number. for some reason i start to feel really nervous. maybe it's because i'm actually going through with this extremely stupid idea?