7 Minutes In Heaven

Dumb.

I stumbled down the stairs in my slightly tipsy state looking for something else to do before I drank myself to death. I don't even know why I'm here, I hate parties! My friend dragged me here to help me get over my recent break up, little does she know she's the cause of my three year long relationship coming to an end. I nearly fell when someone coming up the stairs knocked into me.

"Nessa, there you are! Come play 7 minutes in heaven with us!"

Ah, the friend I was talking about. Jessica Lincoln. She's actually my best friend. The type of best friend who makes you look, and feel, invisible. Everyone always invited her to parties while I was just standing there, desperate for an invitation as well. And I guess that's why I don't like parties, everytime I'm at one I feel unwelcomed because I'm just there as a plus one. Jess is my only friend, which can get kinda lonely because she's also one of the most popular girls in school. She turns heads, makes the guys pop awkward boners, and even makes some of the girls blush. I'm one of those girls. How could you live next door to someone as beautiful as her for 16 years and not fall hopelessly in love at some point? You can't, so here we are.

I was dragged out of my thoughts when Jess started pulling my arm so hard I felt like she'd pull it out of it's socket as she rushed me downstairs, nearly bumping into a few people before we entered what seems like the designated area for being a dumbass. Which, if I'm being honest, is also the whole house. Guys all around held beer bottles and solo cups as they laughed obnoxiously loud and shared sexist jokes. If I wasn't drunk and didn't have Jess on my arm holding me down I'd go over there and slap each and every one of them. Jerks.

But that's what's so great about Jess; shit like this doesn't bother her. There's been too many situations to count where Jess had to keep me from beating the crap out of some asshole. I've always been jealous of her carefree nature.

"Hey, you good?" She asked, noticing the clear discomfort and slight pissed off-ness in my expression.

"Yeah." It's not like giving some dude a black eye would make me feel better anyway.

Suddenly all the noise was interrupted by a guy, I recognized him as Brody, standing on the couch with what I hoped was a broken megaphone.

But of course it wasn't. "Yo! Who's ready to play 7. Minutes. In. Heaven." He emphasized every word like he was at a damn pep rally. The added loudness of the megaphone wasn't helping how much he looked like a douche.

Jess dragged me over to the circle that was quickly forming, gripping my arm harder than she had before. No doubt she was gonna leave a mark, but that didn't bother me much.

"Okay, here's how this is gonna work. We're playing like 11 year olds who just learned what 'spin the bottle' is but instead of kissing, you go in the closet for 7 minutes." Brody explained, this time not using the megaphone which I was thankful for. Most of the people cheered after that. Sex addicted freaks. Jess sat next to me, smally giggling at everyone's enthusiasm. She wasn't holding my arm anymore, giving me a sense of emptiness. I just ignored it.

"Of course, it's none of our business what you do in the closet. But where's the fun in just staring at each other when you could be trading saliva?!" Brody yelled the last part and took a chug of beer before crushing the can and jumping off the couch. Everyone seemed to think he was the coolest guy ever. Honestly, outside of this experience, Brody has been a pretty nice guy to me. But right now he's acting like an idiot.

"I'll go first!" One of the star football players said, probably louder than necessary considering we're all sitting right next to each other. He reached for the beer bottle and spun it around, landing on one of the popular cheerleaders. What a coincidence. I'm pretty sure they're both dating other people, who are also jocks, but who am I to judge? He took her hand and led her to the closet with a sign on it that read "closet of loveee!" With another line below it reading, classically, "do not disturb." I wonder what genius came up with that. Probably Brody, he seems to be in charge of all this drunken insanity.

While they were gone doing god knows what in that closet there was pretty much nothing to do except sit around and talk. Most people talked about what they're probably doing and how dirty they could get while in a closet. But I tried not to pay much attention to their tomfoolery and rested my head on Jessica's shoulder, waiting for the time to pass. I don't know what I'm waiting for though, once they come out the same thing will go on and on until I'm forced into a small room with some stranger I probably don't want to touch let alone let them touch me. This game is so gross. I'd rather be at home wearing clothes that don't make me feel like an anxious disco ball and watching cheezy romance movies with Jess.

Everyone cheered as they stepped out of the closet with 10 seconds to spare, hickeys on their necks that hadn't been there before and their clothes sideways. They definitely had sex. And in 7 minutes, which doesn't sound enjoyable at all. But people sure seemed excited about it.

"I think we're gonna go now, see you guys on Monday." The football player said before grabbing the cheerleader's hand and rushing up the stairs, probably going back to his house to have sex again. Animals.

"Who's next?" Brody asked. A bunch of people raised their hands just waiting to shove their dick in someone or get a dick shoved in them. What I didn't expect though, was for Jessica to raise her hand. I glared over at her, she looked shy. I've never seen her shy before, she's always been so confident in her decisions.

"Jess! I was wondering when you'd finally do something crazy!" Brody said, pointing at Jess's raised hand. I guess he was right, Jess lived pretty inside-the-lines, but it's not like she had to be a dumbass to have friends like all these other people did. She's just interesting like that.

She blushed and reached for the bottle, giving it a sharp spin. She spun it so hard it went around twice and almost landed back on her, landing on me instead. I looked at her awkwardly, everyone cheered at us but I could barely hear them over the sound of my heart beating out of my chest.

"D-do you wanna-" Ignoring me, she leaped up to her feet and held her hand out for me. I stared at her chipped nail polish for a few seconds before my eyes raked up to her face, seeing her bottom lip tucked between her teeth and her mouth quirked into a small smile. I took her hand, hoisting myself up and following her to the closet.

I heard a faint click sound before the small room was lit and looked up to see Jess's hand on a string that was dangling from a lightbulb. It was rather dim, but better than complete darkness I suppose. Jess looked at me, her eyes looking darker, but maybe it was just the lighting. She bit her lip, looking down at my lips before looking back up to my eyes. She wants to kiss me.

That's ridiculous, she's only doing this on a dare in the fate of a dumb bottle.

"Uh... W-we don't have to do anything, ya know. We could just tell them we made out and they'd probably believe us." She said, sounding nervous, almost scared.

"Do you want to do anything?" I asked, avoiding her eyes. I know if I look at her I'll lose all common sense and kiss her. And that would reveal everything I've been hiding since the 6th grade, and, probably ruining our friendship in the process.

"Vanessa, I've had a crush on you since elementary school. Why do you think I was always jealous of your boyfriends?" She said, seemingly relieved once she did.

"W-what? I stammered. There's no way this is actually happening, I must have misheard.

She opened her mouth like she was going to reply, but crashed our lips together instead. It was light, but passionate. Sweet, but bitter. Magic, but poisonous. It was wonderful.

I grabbed her face and pulled her closer. Her hips collided with mine, making us both moan. Her tongue made it's way into my mouth and explored all corners. My fingers tangled in her hair in desperate attempt to bring her even closer to me. We pulled away for air before going back again like we both finally had something we'd been craving for years.

And maybe we had. Maybe this dumb party with all these dumb people and their dumb games had given us something that wasn't so dumb.