Lovestruck (EDITING)

7: You're Not Going to Throw Up ✔︎

I've been to plenty of parties where the game has been been played... but I've never actually participated in a game of spin the bottle. I mean, why would I want to? The idea of some drunken stranger shoving their tongue down my throat doesn't particularly appeal to me. I look over at Shana and she looks back at me, her eyes wide and filled with a mixture of excitement and fear. It's a familiar expression. It's an expression that no doubt covers my face as well. For Shana, however, the fear is never enough to outweigh the excitement. Never enough to hold her back. That is not the case for me.

I look on anxiously as the bottle is spun and lands on a girl just two seats away from me. I let out an audible exhale of relief as a greasy-looking teenage boy crawls towards the girl, puckering up for a kiss. Several awkward pecks and two fights later over who's girlfriend kissed who, a blonde girl wearing a little too much eyeliner crawls forward to spin the bottle. I feel the same nervous butterflies I get each time the bottle is spun, but it doesn't land on me. Close, though. It's pointing directly at Shana.

Her eyes widen slightly as the blonde girl crawls towards her, but she leans forward for a kiss without hesitation. I drink a mouthful of whatever Hayley put in my cup, almost spitting it out when the blonde girl crashes her lips into Shana's, her hand grasping her hair with force. I can see the surprise on my best friend's face, but she doesn't pull back, instead she reaches her own hand up to the girl's cheek, pulling her in closer and kissing her harder before pulling away abruptly. She plants a softer kiss on the girls lips before falling back onto her spot on the pillow next to me, a smug grin painted on her face. I watch in shock as the blonde crawls back to her beanbag chair and people begin to clap.

I can't believe what I just witnessed. I look at Shana with wide eyes but burst into laughter at the sight of her smudged lipstick and messy hair. I take another mouthful of the sweet liquid from the red cup in my hand, shaking my head as my best friend laughs breathlessly beside me, wiping her mouth and smoothing her hair quickly. She takes a sip from her own cup before frowning.

"What even is this?" She calls out to Hayley, waving her cup around, but she seems a little too distracted by the boy she's straddling in front of everyone to notice the question.

Shana looks back at me with an eyebrow raised and I just shrug my shoulders, causing us both to burst into giggles. Three cups full of the mystery liquid later, I'm laughing and laying on Shana's lap when the circle falls quiet for what feels like the hundredth time as someone new is forced to kiss a total stranger. I begin to feel thankful that I haven't been chosen... And then Shana squeezes my arm.

I know exactly what it means.

It means I thought too soon.

I sit up on my pillow and look down at the bottle pointing at me before my eyes begin to search the circle for the spinner. My mind races, going through all the possible options, and I begin to panic when I spot a guy with a cold sore on the opposite side of the circle. However, my train of thought comes to a screeching hault when a boy leans forward, wide eyed, from the crowd of confused bystanders.

His hair is short and brown, slightly darker than my own, and his skin tanned. His dark brown eyes stand out against his olive complexion and catch my attention in a strange way. They look familiar to me, as if I've seen those same eyes before, but I'm forced to dismiss the thought when Shana taps me on the back.