Shrinking Violet

chapter eight (3/3)

The rules of paranoia are simple. Everyone sits in a circle. Someone whispers a question in the ear of the person on their right. The person says the answer aloud for the whole circle to hear. Then they flip a coin. If it's heads, they have to tell the whole circle what the question was. Tails, the question stays between the asker and the person asked.

It's the best and the worst game. And it's the game we decided to play at Thomas's party that night. To make it more fun, we added another rule that you had to take a shot with the person whose name you said if the question was revealed.

"Sam," Marcus said aloud with a grin as the answer to a question he was asked. Isa, who was his girlfriend, hit him on the shoulder. "Ow woman!" He flipped the coin, and it landed on heads.

"The question was: who in the circle do you think would fuck a teacher," said Marcus. Isa nodded in satisfaction.

"Hey I take offense!" Sam said. "But also, I'm taking it as a compliment. So thank you. And cheers." Sam and Marcus took a shot together. Then Marcus whispered in Isa's ear.

"Oh jeez. Dewey for sure," she said, laughing. She flipped the coin, and it landed on tails.

"What the hell? Dewey what?" Dewey demanded. Isa giggled.

"I play by the rules!" Isa said. Then she turned to whisper in my ear.

"Who in the circle would have sex for money?" Is a whispered. I thought about it for a second. My first thought was Sam, but I didn't want to say that.

"Thomas," I said. I flipped the coin, and it landed on tails. I handed it to Violet, and she grabbed my hand. She was really drunk. It was funny, I had never seen drunk Violet before. She was like butter, melting all over everything. If I thought she was touchy sober, she was so touchy drunk.

"If you could kiss anyone in the circle, who would it be?" I asked Violet. This would be a great way to facilitate Sam and Violet hooking up at the party. Sam owed me.

"Lulu," Violet said aloud. My eyes widened. Everyone in the circle laughed. The point of paranoia was that you'd be paranoid if your name was said. Since I asked the question, I had no reason to be paranoid. I did have reason to be completely baffled. Violet flipped the coin, and thankfully it landed on tails. What was she talking about?

The game went on. Violet whispered something to Eli, but I stopped paying attention. I was zoned out, thinking about what Violet had said. Eventually I came to the conclusion that it was a joke to mess with me, and I was the crazy one for thinking about it for so long. After we stopped playing paranoia, we went back to drinking games. At some point the drinking games just devolved into dancing, because someone played "I Wanna Dance With Somebody" by Whitney Houston. Of course everyone had to dance.

I was partners with Violet for pong when the song came on. We held each other's hands and sang poorly to Whitney Houston. I was laughing and dancing. We started swing dancing for the chorus, and everyone cheered. I spun into Eli, who caught me.

"Eli!" I said, happily surprised. I slumped into his chest, glad to stop moving. He laughed and wrapped his arms around me.

"You're drunk," he remarked.

"No no no you're drunk. I'm sober," I slurred.

"You should lay down."

"No you should lay down!" He shook his head, and he led me outside of the kitchen, where everyone was packed together. He basically had to carry me. Finally he got me to the couch. I laid down, my head in his lap.

"I should take you home," he said. I shook my head.

"I can't go home. My mom will be so mad at me. And I already told her I was spending the night at Sam's."

"Can you ask Sam if she can leave now?"

"Can't do that. Sam needs to stay to hook up with Violet. They planned it," I said.

"Right... I'm sure Sam would understand."

"No! No no no!"

"Okay, Lulu, it's okay. What if you spend the night at my house?" Eli asked.

"No no it's okay. I can just go to sleep right here," I said, smiling.

"No, you definitely can't. This couch is... wet for some reason, and there are rave lights. Come home with me."

"Ahoy matey," I slurred. Eli shook his head and picked me up bridal style to take me to his car.

"Hey!" I protested. Then I curled up into his chest. I didn't really remember getting to his car, because I was drifting in and out of consciousness. I also didn't really remember the car ride, presumably because I was passed out. I remembered getting to his bedroom and yelling at him to take the bed with me instead of sleeping on the floor until he relented. We both fell asleep in our clothes on opposite sides of the bed.

I drifted off to sleep thinking that Sam would have a field day when she heard this.

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Author's note: as always these house parties as dramatic!! Let me know what you think in the comments xx