***

Josh

Everyone ends up on the couches in the family room once dinner has been cleaned up. The beer already has a good dent in it and the bottle of tequila that piece of shit Damien Brooks brought is looming over the coffee table like a bad omen.

Sarah drank two beers during dinner and she’s already acting ridiculous. Two more and she’ll be face first on the carpet. The good thing about Sarah drinking is that, when she does, she stops being such a bitch for a few minutes and I remember why I actually liked her once and why I hate how she’s become.

I look around for Sunshine and see her coming out from the kitchen, passing Damien who grabs her arm for some reason to stop her. I don’t even know what happens, except that about one point five seconds later, Damien is face first on the ground with her knee pressed into his back. Then, just as quickly, she’s off him.

“What the f**k was that?” he whines, pushing himself up from the ground and acting like nothing hurts, but it’s obvious that something does. I’d think it was funny if I hadn’t seen her face. But I did, and I know there’s nothing funny about it. She’s backed against the wall, and I can’t tell if she’s terrified or enraged. I try to catch her eye to see if she’s ok, but I think she’s purposely not looking at me. I’m wondering if there’s a way for me to get her out of here for a few minutes, but I don’t even get a chance to come up with anything.

“You have got to teach me how to do that!” Sarah’s eyes go wide and she looks at Nastya for the first time with something other than disgust. It’s pure awe. I’m kind of in awe myself. Damien is bigger than all of us and everyone is bigger than Sunshine.

Tierney looks sideways at Drew. “I’d like to get in on that, too.”

The next hour becomes an impromptu self-defense demonstration. All the furniture is pushed against the walls and we’ve padded the floor down as well as possible.

I get to play the role of predator and get the crap kicked out of me while Sunshine points out every vulnerable spot on my body, from eyeballs to lower ribs to groin‌—‌which I like the idea of having her hands on, but I won’t even let her pretend to hurt‌—‌to feet. There’s no doubt that I got the shit end of the stick here. Thankfully, she doesn’t really want to hurt me, but she does seem extremely serious about making sure they get what she’s showing them to do. There’s no question that she doesn’t think it’s a joke.

“I’m afraid I might break you,” I say when she makes me come at her again. Really I’m afraid she’s going to break me. She’s freakishly strong.

She snatches a piece of paper from the counter, scribbles on it and shoves it at me. Her eyes are narrowed in challenge and I try not to smile.

You’ll have to try harder than that to break me. Quit being a pussy!!!!!

She’s daring me because she thinks I’m not really trying to hurt her. She’s right; I’m not. Every time, I plan to go at her full force, but I can’t and I pull back some. She has to be mad if she’s actually writing it down, so I try harder. Finally, I go at her like I really want to take her down. The only person who ends up down is me. She must have practiced this move a thousand times; I have no idea how she even did it. The sad part is, I think that time she pulled back for me.

Then, before everyone scatters, she picks up the paper and starts writing again. I think she’s writing something to me, because it’s odd for her to be writing at all. But when she’s done, she hands it to Sarah and the other girls, then immediately turns away to start picking up the pillows off the floor.

We try to put the room back together, but it’s a half-assed job. Once the couches are back in place, we figure it’s good enough. Sarah lays Sunshine’s note down on an end table when she goes back to the kitchen for another beer, and I finally get a look at it. She’s written the name of the martial arts studio she goes to and a phone number and then underneath that, only a few words, written in all caps –

RUN FIRST AND RUN FAST.

***

Drew sits down on one end of the couch and pulls Nastya into the seat next to him. I settle on the other side of her. My leg presses up against hers when I sit, but she doesn’t pull away and I don’t either. I’ve spent the last hour with her hands all over me; you would think that would be enough. But it’s not even close to enough. It never is. Not like it matters, she’ll probably be in Drew’s lap by the end of the night anyway.

“I know,” Sarah slurs, putting another empty beer bottle on the counter and throwing herself onto the loveseat. “Let’s play truth or dare.”

“Lame,” Damien yells from the kitchen where he’s opening every cabinet looking for shot glasses.

“That game sucks ass,” Chris seconds.

“I’d play truth or dare,” Drew says, running his fingers down Sunshine’s arm and making me want to punch him.

“You would?” Sarah’s already too far down the road to plastered to be skeptical.

“Yeah, if I were thirteen and a loser.”

Before Sarah can tell Drew to shut up, Tierney leans over the counter from the kitchen. “Afraid of a game, Drew?”

“Fear is coursing through my veins, T. Remind me again why you’re here.” He picks up Nastya’s hand and kisses the back of it and then puts it down on his leg. I’m hyperaware of every time he puts his hands on her and it’s making me feel like some sort of obsessed stalker.

“To play truth or dare,” she contends matter-of-factly, coming around the counter and grabbing the shot glasses from Damien’s hands. She puts them on the table and fills them with tequila. “Everyone plays. You cop out, you do a shot. Simple.” She tops the last glass off and rights the bottle without losing a drop.

I’d half expect Clay and Yearbook Michelle to be a little shell-shocked, but they look more amused than anything. I imagine if you’re just a spectator here, this whole evening would be pretty damn entertaining.

***

“OK, Drew. Truth or dare?” We’re four rounds in and this one comes from Chris. Things started getting ugly after the first round and the tension in this room is starting to wear on me. I’m ready to go home.

Sunshine is three shots down and way past half-lit. She picked truth every time and wouldn’t even write the answers to anything. They asked her how many guys she’d had sex with, how old she was when she lost her virginity, and the strangest place she’s ever had sex. She took the shot every time. By the last round, when Piper switched off the sex topic and got bold enough to ask why she doesn’t talk, I stood up and took the shot for her.

“Truth,” Drew answers.

“How long did it take to get her to‌—‌” Chris looks in Nastya’s direction and cuts himself off.

“To what? Why ask the question if you can’t even say it,” Piper laughs mockingly.

“I think he’s scared,” Sarah giggles. “He knows she can kick his ass.”

“That’s such a waste of a question anyway. Everyone knows she screwed him. Who cares when?” Damien says.

“Doesn’t matter,” Tierney counters. “Question was asked. Answer it or shoot.”

Drew looks at Nastya, and if I wasn’t paying attention I might miss the exchange that goes on between the two of them, but I know that there was something unspoken happening that no one else picked up on. The whole thing bothers me and that bothers me even more.

“Trevor Mason’s party. Second week of school.”

“That was a couple months ago. Isn’t that like a record Drew?” Tierney asks, but she can’t seem to force the malice she’s going for into her tone.

Everyone is still talking, but I’m not listening anymore. Trevor Mason’s party is the one Drew got Sunshine so shit-faced at that she spent most of the night on my bathroom floor, and I got so scared that she had alcohol poisoning that I almost took her to the hospital. He f**ked her and I cleaned up her puke.

There’s a part of me that wanted to believe that he had never touched her; at least not really touched her. But I didn’t ask, because only a part of me believed that. The other part of me knew that there was still a possibility that it had happened, and if it had, I didn’t want the confirmation.

“Drew,” I say, not giving a shit how pissed I sound. “Truth.”

“Drew just went and you have to give him a choice anyway,” Piper whines, but no one else gets on the rule-enforcing train because they all want to know what the hell this is about. Except for Drew and Nastya, who look like they want to tell me to shut the hell up. It would be good advice. Too bad I don’t listen.

“Truth, Drew.” I haven’t taken my eyes off of him and I can feel the tension rolling off of Nastya. She pulls her hand away from Drew and subtly presses her leg against mine, but I don’t want any part of it.

“Fine,” Drew says.

“Did you f**k her before or after the party?” He knows exactly why I’m asking.

“Pour the shot, T,” he says, not looking away. Maybe I’m an idiot for thinking he wouldn’t screw her when she was that drunk.

“Hey!” The voice breaks me out of the stand-off I’ve got going on with Drew, and I freeze, watching Leigh walk in. None of us even heard the front door open. I start racking my brain. Was I supposed to meet her? Did I even know she was coming? All of a sudden this room is a hundred times smaller and I feel very trapped. There’s something about having Leigh and Sunshine in a room together that makes me imagine two planets colliding. World-ending destruction. I reached my drama threshold hours ago. This is the reason I avoid this kind of crap.

Leigh smiles, completely clueless about what she’s walking into. It was bad before she got here, and this is just worse. I stand, out of instinct, as she approaches me. I can see Drew pull Nastya into his lap and whisper something in her ear. Her eyes just barely shift, and I haven’t forgotten that I want an answer from him before I leave here.

“What’s going on?” I ask, trying not to sound as annoyed as I am, because Leigh hasn’t done anything wrong, but I really, really don’t want her here.

“I came down last minute,” she explains. “I stopped by your house but you weren’t there. Home Depot is closed,” she smiles knowingly at me, “so I figured you had to be here.”

“You don’t have to cover for the fact that you wanted to see me, Leigh, but subtlety is always appreciated.” If Drew thinks he’s lightening the mood, he’s an idiot.

“You haven’t changed at all, have you?” She smiles at Drew.

“You have. I think your tits got bigger.” He lifts his chin towards her and then switches gears before she can respond. “Too bad you missed an awesome game of truth or dare. We just finished.” Maybe he’s not such an idiot. His survival skills are kicking in. Leigh walking in gave him an out and he’s taking it.

“I haven’t played truth or dare since I was in middle school,” Leigh laughs, sitting on the couch with Drew and Nastya and pulling me down with her so that there’s not an inch of space between us. Nastya’s eyes keep darting to Leigh but she won’t look at me.

“Wish we could say the same,” Damien groans.

“You didn’t seem to mind when you were daring Piper to jerk you off in the closet,” Sarah spits back.

“What-the-fuck-ever.” Tierney lets out an exaggerated breath. “There’s way too much drama in this room. Enough with the tequila; it’s just making you people worse.” She tosses a bag of weed onto the coffee table and turns to Drew. “I need a two-liter soda bottle, something to cut through plastic, a screen and a pitcher of water.”