Reese Hoover
When I wake up in the morning, I am met with the sight of my sixteen-year-old brother, Lucas, stretched across my bed.
"Luke, get your fat ass off of me!" I yell at him.
"At least I have an ass." He retorts.
"What happened this time?" I question him, because he only ever comes in my room if something happened.
"She broke up with me." He replies, chuckling a little.
"Who?"
"Nichole."
"I told you it wasn't gonna last."
"Yeah, yeah, Reese. I really don't care. I'll find another girl." He tells me.
"Gosh, dang it, Luke. I swear, you gotta take a girl break." I sigh, falling back against my pillow.
"Just get up and get ready, heifer. We're going to Danny's house." He explains, rolling off my bed and onto the floor.
"Ugh," I roll my eyes at him, "Fine."
He leaves my room and I throw my covers off of me and stand up. It's just Danny's house, so I don't worry about dressing nice. I pull on a pair of light blue jeans, yank a grey tank top over my head, and then slip on my navy blue vans. After getting dressed, I walk into my bathroom and look myself over in the mirror. My naturally curly hair has turned into a frizzy mess, so I plug my straightener in and brush my teeth while I wait for it to warm up. Eventually, Lucas bangs on my bathroom door and yells at me to hurry up. I just laugh and continue straightening my hair. When I'm done, I unplug the straightener, grab my phone, and head downstairs to meet Luke in the living room. Our dad is passed out on the couch, still in his security guard uniform, after working the night shift at the minimum-security prison a few counties over. I grab a post-it note and a sharpie off the coffee table and write, Reese & Luke gone to friend's house, be back later. LOVE YOU!. Then, I walk with Luke outside to his jacked up, blue F-150. I climb in the passenger seat as he hops in the driver's side. Almost as soon as we both close the doors, he starts the engine and gases it out of our driveway.
It doesn't take long to drive to Danny's house. When we get there, however, I see about five other trucks in his driveway. I know I'm going to be the only girl here, and my fifteen-year-old self is also the youngest. The guys always love messing with me, and I hate that. They're all sixteen or seventeen, and whenever they're together like this, they drink and smoke. It's kind of like a "getting over a breakup" frat party, I guess. For some reason, Luke always feels the need to drag me along with him. I guess he knows I worry about him a lot. During previous "gatherings" with these guys, I've been offered a smoke, a drink, and more bodily contact than comfortable. Now, I know these guys and they're like brothers to me.. even in all their drunken retardedness. Since I know these guys so well, that also means I know their trucks. Danny drives a red Dodge Cummins, Tyler drives a white Chevy, Josh drives a grey Dodge, and Ryan drives a white F-150. But today, there's another truck. This one is black, and I can't tell what make or model it is. I've never seen it before, not even at school.
"Are you gonna get out or not?" Luke questions me.
I quickly open my door and hop out, following behind Luke up Danny's driveway.
"Do you know who's truck that is?" I ask him as we walk passed it.
"Some dude Tyler knows from somewhere, I think. He offered to bring beer. Dumbass." He mumbles.
Once we reach the backyard, where all of the guys are sitting on the back porch. They're all sitting in lawn chairs, sipping on red solo cups full of beer. Immediately, I regret wearing a tank top. The one guy I don't know turns out to be pretty freaking cute. I then follow Luke up the stairs of Danny's porch, and also regret that decision very quickly. One of the guys, Danny, grabs me by the waist and forces me to sit on his lap.
I start to get mad at him, but then he whispers, "Just go with it." In my ear.
I stand up and yank him up by the arm so that he is standing extremely close to me. Then, I walk down the steps and away from the other guys, with Danny still practically attached to me.
"Okay, so what's going on?" I question him, still standing close.
"That guy that don't belong, he heard us talking about Luke bringing his sister. He said he wanted to meet her. That's why I need you to pretend to be my girlfriend. Be all over me, kiss me, I don't care. I just got a feeling he's up to no good, and I don't want you getting hurt." He explains to me.
"Fine." I sigh, pulling him even closer and giving him a little kiss on the lips.
He grins, "Well, damn." Then he grabs me by the waist and his hands start moving toward my butt.
I grab his hands just before they get there, "Danny, we're pretending." I remind him, and walk back to where the other guys are still sitting.
I sit in a lawn chair right next to Danny's, which just so happens to also be right next to the stranger's. I decide to pull a what the hell day and begin to take a sip of Danny's beer, but the stranger guy grabs my wrist and stops me.
"I don't think you wanna do that." He whispers.
I almost started to ask him why, but Danny sat back down and grabbed the cup from my hand and pulled me back onto his lap.
"What do you think you're doing?" Danny questions me.
"Not caring, babe." I respond, smiling.
"You're not getting drunk." He replies.
"Whatever." And with that, I grab both sides of his face with my hands and kiss him.
Danny and I are both really getting into the kiss, and it goes on for about a minute straight. That is, until I suddenly feel him go limp. I quickly stand up and look down at him. His chest rises and falls gently, so he's alive. Then, I look around at all of the other guys, and everybody except Lucas is knocked out cold. Stranger guy, however, is nowhere to be found.
Lucas runs over to me and grabs my arm, "Let's go." And starts running and pulling me toward his truck.
In an instant, I feel the pressure on my arm go away. Then, I see my older brother lying face down in the grass. Somebody grabs both of my arms from behind and spins me around to face them. It turns out to be stranger guy.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?" I question the man in a low, pissed off voice.
Almost as soon as I complete my question, the guy hits me. He doesn't hit my head, unlike anybody else trying to knock somebody out. Instead, he hits one of my pressure points. The last thing I remember thinking before I fell unconscious was, Damn, he's got skills. From then on, I don't remember anything.
YOU ARE READING
Game of Life
Teen FictionIt all started with a small group of four innocent teenagers. An unusual-looking board game somehow falls into the hands of one of them. As they begin playing, they discover that events on their game are actually beginning to unfold in real life.
