The Seven Deadly Sinners

4

I took an Uber to the address Axel had sent me. I couldn't see the house numbers, but I didn't need to. The music and people could be heard from a whole block away. It was already 11 when I made my way through the little green gate and went up to the front door of the house, which was slightly ajar. I walked in to see a massive party. There had to be at least 150 people here, and it had only started an hour ago. Everyone hadn't been kidding about these things begin insane. The house was pretty big, too. Big enough for at least seven people. But that's not why I was here. That wasn't any of my business. I pushed the thought to the back of my mind and took a few more steps inside before cracking the door again.

"You're new," a guy said, walking up to me. He was clearly drunk, a red solo cup in his hand. He had dyed hair, purple and pink and blue in different places. It was a shit job, but he somehow pulled it off.

"I am," I replied over the loud sound of music and people's voices.

"My name is Jake," he said.

"Jupiter," I replied.

"What, like the planet?" he asked. Obviously, like the planet.

"Yes, Jake. Like the planet," I said. I wondered if he was this stupid when sober. Woah. Chill out. Don't need to be a dick. This isn't work, you don't need to protect yourself and assert your dominance here. "Sorry, that sounded mean," I followed up.

"How about you do me a favor to make up for it?" he asked. I raised my eyebrows.

"Like what?" I asked.

"Hm... you see that girl over there?" he asked, pointing to a random girl with green hair.

"Yeah," I replied.

"Go kiss her."

"Excuse me?" I asked.

"Go kiss her," he said. And then I noticed that his eyes glinted red when he said that. Just like Colby's did blue.

"Do you live here?" I asked.

"Yes. Now go kiss her. I promise she'll kiss you back. She kisses everyone back," Jake said. I thought for a second. That glint in their eyes. It was totally a control thing. I needed to figure out how this worked, and I didn't want to expose myself before I even started to investigate.

"Fine," I said. I walked over to the girl, tapped her on the shoulder, and kissed her when she turned around. Jake was right, she kissed me back. I didn't particularly enjoy kissing strange girls though, so I quickly pulled back and went back over to Jake. "Alright, now we're even."

"Who invited you?" Jake asked. He wasn't being rude, just curious.

"Colby did," I said. "Do you seriously recognize everyone here enough to tell who's new and who's not?"

"I'm usually the one who invites people. Let's just say it's in my nature," he said with a wink. In his nature? What, like lust? "Colby's in the kitchen," said Jake, pointing over to an opening in the wall.

"Thanks, Jake," I said, walking toward where he'd pointed. I peered into the opening to see a long island in the kitchen with red solo cups set up in formation. It was a giant game of beer pong, the kitchen packed with people watching and taking videos on their phones. I looked at the players to see a blonde guy playing on one side and none other than Colby playing against him.

Everyone watching would scream and react way too over the top after each shot, clearly overinvolved with the game. I wasn't a fan of standing shoulder to shoulder with yelling people, so I moved away from the kitchen.