Partners in Crime

Adeline

Adeline Parker was never going to play spin the bottle again.
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"Adeline!! Come here"
Called Vanessa. Adeline turned around, spilling some punch on herself. She started walking towards Nessa and her group of friends. They all sat in a circle except Adeline. She stood there not understanding what was going on. She looked around.
"Adeline, sit down. We're playing spin the bottle."
"Oh."
Softly said Adeline. She slowly sat down next to a boy she didn't know and a girl from her class, Ava. What caught her attention was the boy. She had never seen him before. Neither at school, or hanging out with Nessa. The boy had curly, messy, dark brown hair. It looked so soft. He also had beautiful dark eyes. He was wearing a jean jacket and a white t-shirt. He had jeans and old sneakers. He also smelled crazy good. Adeline didn't realize she had been staring at him for a long time until she heard Nessa speak.
"Brad, is that beer bottle next to you empty?"
The boy looked around him and handed Nessa a beer bottle that was lying next to his knee.
"Yeah, here you go"
He had a lovely British accent.
"Alright"
Nessa sounded so excited.
"Let's add some fun to this. If you peck, both people have to take 3 tequila shots. If you kiss for less than 5 seconds, both get 2 tequila shots each. If you actually make out you can have only one. If you want to pass the round, you take 4 shots. Who's going first? Emma? Jack? Ava? Abbie? Harry?"
"I'll go"
Said a pale boy that was sitting right across Adeline.
"Jason, go ahead"
Nessa handed him the bottle and he placed it in the middle of the circle they were sitting in. Turning around she placed a tequila bottle and shot glasses in front of her. She started pouring some for Jason while he spun the bottle. It ended on Harry's sister, Rachel, a 10th grader from another school. Jason whispered something into Rachel's ear and then they pecked. Jason took 3 shots and Rachel sipped 3 times out of a beer bottle.
"Wh-what is this?"
Said Abbie in an outraged and confused tone.
"Rachel is underage. She can't really take shots. Our parents would kill us. She just sips beer so she doesn't get drunk."
Explained Harry. Abbie rolled her eyes and mumbled "Beer gets you drunk too".
"Ok, Rachel, spin the bottle girl!"
She spun, Nessa did her thing, the bottle ended on Daniel, Nessa's ex, Rachel kissed him, they took their dose of alcohol. Again, the bottle spins, Daniel skipped on kissing Harry and took 4 shots. Harry spins and has to kiss Nessa. They make out and take 1 shot each. Nessa spins and makes out with Ava while all the boys around them go "OoOOOooh". One shot each. The night goes on pretty much all the same. The only not drunk ones are Adeline and the boy sitting next to her. He only took 3 shots and Adeline took none. Nessa was making out with someone. Adeline was timidly sitting in her spot with her legs crossed. Looking around herself and not listening to the drunk group of 19 year olds surrounding her.
'Why did I even come here?'
She thought to herself. She looked at them. Jack and Emma were making out, Nessa, Ava, Harry and Jason were singing. Daniel was taking extra shots and Rachel, whom was supposed to not get drunk, was making out with a wall. Adeline looked at the boy next to her. He was talking to another guest, Aalyah. Aalyah made him laugh and Adeline saw how cute he looked then. His eyes would slightly wrinkle and his dimples would show. He brushed his curly dark hair out of his face and looked at where Adeline was sitting. She quickly turned around to look at something else and pretend she wasn't staring at him. With the corner of her eye she could see him staring at her now with a blank expression. He shrugged, smiled and turned back to Aalyah.
Adeline suddenly got a text.
It said:
"Heryt Adslakine,_: whatyoudbkoin doingdhsalonne overthebsnam"
It was from Nessa. Adeline looked at her. She was texting someone else now and Ava was laughing. She probably meant "Hey Adeline what are you doing over there all alone?" Adeline rolled her eyes and just opened Instagram instead. Scrolling down she saw a picture of the same boy sitting next to her with Nessa and her sister. She clicked on the tagged username. "@bradleywillsimpson"
She had already heard of him somewhere. Making sure she did not leave any likes, she went through his posts. His bio said that he went to her same school and was attending the last year of high school too. Then it hit her. Brad Simpson. The so-called 'Bad Boy', 'Rebel', 'Rule-Breaker', 'Play Boy' or some shit. She knew him beacause Nessa used to date him 4 or 5 years ago. He grew up so much. He cut his hair. He had perfect teeth and beautiful eyes. He looked so hot now. He didn't hit puberty, puberty hit him. With a baseball bat. Adeline heard about him since the school always gossiped about 'Brad Simpson doing this, Brad Simpson doing that'... She had never personally met him. Until now. It felt strange sitting bext to the so-called 'bad-boy'. What did it even mean? A few graffities here and there? Skipping school? Getting drunk? Doing drugs? Getting bad grades? Sleeping with any and every girl? Being a heart-breaker? Even though some of them might not be his case, or some don't seem so bad, Adeline chose to stay out of his way. Not that she was a little-miss-perfect, or a goody-two-shoes, or a perfect straight As student. Adeline was shy and an introvert that stayed away from people, especially those she knew were out of her league. She got normal grades and kept them up. She was an average student. She didn't get noticed a lot by the teachers for being the Hermione Granger of the situation, because she was not, or for being the worst of all students, given that she wasn't that either. She gave a few answers here and there and had a few friends she hung out with. Being an introvert Adeline didn't care that much about being surrounded by people. She didn't hate people either. She just preferred to be with a few, selected, beings. That's why the party she was at was a nightmare for her. A small, dark, loud place filled with 5% people she knows, 10% people she's heard of, 85% people she's never acknowledged the existence of and, worst of all, 100% of them being drunk. Nessa, the only person she knew very well there, wasn't considering her so she was left sitting there, looking at the pictures of her friend's ex-boyfriend that had become super hot.
"Brad, you need to spin"
Said a girl's drunk voice, snapping Adeline back to reality.
"Alright, fine" said the British, good-looking boy. So he spun the bottle. After about 30 seconds of spinning, the fast movement of the green glass beer bottle was slowing down. The bottle stopped. Its neck pointes towards Adeline, who was staring at it, as everyone did. "Maybe you wanna spin again, Brad. It doesn't look precise-" said the girl.
"No. No thanks, Mal" he interrupted her. He then turned to Adeline and smirked. Adeline looked surpsised and sort of scared. Maybe this was a prank or something. Everyone and everything else around them suddenly fell silent. The music stopped, the talking and laughing, everything. "4 shots, coming up" said Aalyah, implying that Adeline would skip. Adeline picked up on that. "I-I'm not skipping, Aalyah" said Adeline stopping Aalyah from pouring tequila in the shot glasses by blocking her hand. She looked surprised. "Well, fine Adeline, you do you...". Brad was piercing her soul with his eyes now. Deep dark brown. He leaned in closer, grabbed her hand and pulled her in closer. He leaned in closer and so did Adeline without thinking. Now Adeline could feel his breath near her. Finally, softly and slowly, his soft lips pressed against hers. His kiss was so intense and Adeline could feel her cheeks burning. Their lips parted. He stared at her for long and smiled. Adeline didn't care about her face expression in that moment. This kiss felt so surreal, so magical. What now? Thought Adeline. "Here you go" said Nessa, handing them their shots. They held them in their hands, still making eye contact.
What Adeline had realized was that Brad probably couldn't give a damn about this kiss or her. It was just a game. Just a silly game.