Milkshake Hearts

Chapter 35: Evidence

A/N: CW for alcohol and sexual references but no direct explicit content.

————————————————

Truthfully, Shayne is kind of pitiful at beer pong, and his depth perception is more than a little wobbly already, but he manages to make his first shot anyway. Sarah drinks, throwing a middle finger up at him as she does. He is distracted from the game for a moment, feeling a hand run intentionally across his back. He turns to chastise whoever it was until he sees Courtney appear beside him, smiling conspiratorially. He calms down, then. She's the only person allowed to touch him like that.

"Hey, no third team members!" Emily calls out, pausing before she takes her shot.

"Oh, I don't think I'll be helping him at all," Courtney brushes the comment off, tone darker than she'd usually use in front of anyone else, before using everyone's focus returning to the shot as distraction as she slides her hand into his back pocket, squeezing lightly. The ball misses on the first try, but on the second attempt thrown by Sarah, it lands squarely in their central cup. Damien takes the drink, before stepping up to take his turn.

"I'm going to get you by the end of this game," Courtney leans in to whisper in Shayne's ear as Damien takes his shot, kissing him firmly near the base of his jaw before she moves away from him, standing almost directly in his line of sight over behind Sarah and Emily. Damien gets his shot in, thankfully, so Shayne has a break for a round, watching the girls opposite them miss their two attempts in response.

Shayne misses his next shot, watching Courtney absentmindedly running her fingers up and down the near-empty beer bottle she's holding instead of watching where his shot goes. She laughs in response, playing up her support for Sarah's team with the other group over that side of the table. He has to drink, the next time, and he makes a point of staring straight at her as he does.

Despite his regular distractions across the table and the surprisingly accurate aim from the other team, Damien and Shayne do manage to stay roughly on par with them, though, each ending up with two cups left each.

"Hey, Shayne, that lipstick you've got on is staying pretty well, what brand is it?" Sarah calls out, some attempt at a teasing joke the next time he goes to throw after their tie at two left, both teams having called for a rerack at the same time.

"NARS," he answers, matter-of-factly, figuring there's no way he can really avoid the implication and she was wearing quite a deep colour, so god knows where it is on him now, "it's a good colour on me, I know."

He lands the shot with a wide smirk, Sarah sighing as she hands off the drink to her partner.

"Is it actually, Courtney?" Sarah turns to her, and Courtney laughs.

"I can't fucking remember, probably," she shrugs, before disappearing back into the crowd as the game continues. Shayne isn't surprised when he feels his phone buzz in his pocket a moment later, and he tries to find the will to ignore it for five seconds before he relents and reaches into his pocket, flicking across the screen to open the notification.

"It is NARS, it looks extra good somewhere else," the text reads, followed by an eggplant and water droplet, because apparently she is going the shameless route.

"Someone want to tap in for me on the actual drinking? I was sober before this game and it is hitting me way too quickly," Damien calls out, before Sarah takes a shot again a couple of rounds of misses from both sides later.

"I'll drink for you," Courtney steps forward, apparently having navigated around to their side again. Their judge-of-sorts – Garret, currently, by his own decree, although he's also involved in an argument with someone else off to the side about god knows what – agrees, and Sarah makes the shot, Courtney reaching for the cup and downing it immediately. It's kind of hot in a way Shayne can't quite describe, and he pauses for a moment, staring at her.