Secret Games

21

Liam P.O.V.

I lay on my bed, motionless, looking at the ceiling. The school year was about to end, and what better way to finish it than with a massive, crazy party? There was no time to waste. I could create a group chat at this very instant if I wanted to, and it would be happening. However, if I was going to do this, I had to make sure that the one person that mattered would come. I didn't care that it was 1 in the morning, or that it was a school night: I needed to know. I texted Emily: Heyy, I'm thinking of throwing this massive party at my place. If I did, would u come?

To my surprise, she responded in a matter of seconds. Of course! Tell me the date and time and I'll be right there.

I sighed in relief. Now we just had to wait for the day to come, and it was happening, no matter what.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

When I told my friends about it

Everyone had arrived, I had asked Cam and Noah to come over a few hours before the party just so they could help me set everything up. There were drinks everywhere, some were on the floor, others on the table, furniture. The chaos was characterizing my house, or at least that's where I thought I was, right at that instant it was completely unrecognizable. There was this almost unbearably loud thumping music, usually the popular stuff of the time mixed with some old classics. Already many were tipsy, others drinking or hanging around. I could see the typical hilarious drunk person stumbling everywhere with every move, a few people in clusters blabbing outside either making out or dancing somewhere. The regular ambiance of a high school party. It was just perfect. As I went inside the salon, the crowd directed me to the dance floor. The loud cheering invaded the room, but I had a plan, I needed to find Emily. As I resisted the impulse to stay stuck to the dance floor I started looking in every direction, trying to spot her slim figure.

" Oh hi!" She greeted me enthusiastically. "Ya know, Hailey, Noah, Laela , Cam, Hannah, and Marcus are playing something in one of the bedrooms, wanna play?"

She literally made things so easy, I mean around girls I can be considered to be a little socially awkward. But she really made things flow naturally. I knew she noticed that, but I guess she found it quite cute. I grabbed her hand, she took the chance to drag me inside the room.

"Hey, you two! We're playing spin the bottle, wanna play?"

"Sure." Funnily enough, we both said it at the same time, as though we were one. She beamed at me as we sat down and joined our little circle.

"How about a kissing game?" Laela said "It would be interesting"

"Isn't that what we were playing all year?" Noah groaned. "A kissing game?"

"Let's just spin!" Hailey said excitedly.

My stomach felt like I was going down a rollercoaster, as though my heart has skipped a beat. The tension was real. The first lucky one was Cam, but before he could spin the bottle to find out who he would be kissing Noah stopped him.

"Let's change the rules a little, shall we? We're all allowed to choose our first kissing partner." We all agreed: it was the best we could do.

Without hesitation, Cameron spit the words out of his mouth

"Ok then, Hailey"

"You didn't take long to decide, huh " Laela teased him.

Cam leaned sweatily approaching Hailey's lips. Just as a plane landing on its destination. "Next spin then?" Hailey said. We spun again, and it was Laela's turn.

"I don't know... Noah." She decided, with hesitation that seemed really fake.

"You really don't get a thing!" Noah yelled frustrated.

"Yes, I do. Believe it or not, I know exactly what you're going through."

"No you don't, you bitch!" Noah snapped aggressively.

"What did you just call me?" Laela questioned, clearly offended

"I mean, do you wanna go out?" Noah blurted out randomly.

"Excuse me?"

Noah grabbed his head with his hands and shook it, muttering to himself frustratedly. "I'm sorry, okay? I'm just confused." He concluded.

"I can work with confused" Laela said intensely.

"I'm going to kiss you so good you're not even going to know what time it is!" He exclaimed.

Everyone around them was just staring as they kept going on and on, observing the weirdest, most awkward conversation in a million years. Finally, they shared a minuscule kiss.

It down to Emily. My hands were sweating so much as she kept her mouth shut, figuring out who she would share her kiss with.

"Well I dunno, Cam is with Hailey, Noah is with Laela, Hannah is with Marcus so I guess... Liam?" Even If it seemed quite pathetic, I was still feeling very accomplished to be chosen by her. She looked confident as she leaned on to me, but it was only if you look closely you could see how nervous she felt.

Her hands were slightly trembling as she placed them on the floor, getting closer to me. I then felt the contact between our lips. It was a cute, but short kiss, and I didn't like that. When we parted, I grabbed her cheeks and kissed her again, but this time more passionately, and to my surprise, she kissed me back. I then felt her hands pulling on my shirt, dragging me closer and closer, holding me tighter and tighter. The moment was perfect, however, it was sadly interrupted by someone cleared their throat really loudly.

"I hate to interrupt," said Noah with his hands over his mouth, snickering teasingly. "But you were only supposed to kiss, not make out."

I felt my cheeks flaming and sat back down.

"You know what? I think we're going to give you two some privacy..." Hailey started, but before she could finish her sentence, Cam took her hand and dragged her out of the room. Noah recreated his actions and took Laela by the hand. I guess we all had our couples now. I stood up and helped Emily up, placing my hands on her waist. She consequently placed her on my neck: This was my night.... But if I wanted this whole thing to go somewhere, I had to take a different approach. "Listen, Emily."

"Yes?" She asked, looking me straight into the eyes.

"I want all of this to go somewhere. I don't want us to make out, and then ruin everything as it happened with Laela and Noah." I told her. "So, I'm asking you now: would you like to be my girlfriend?"

She smiled at me, and right before our lips met, she whispered: "Of course."