Locked Hearts

Chapter 4

This has got to be the stupidest thing I've ever agreed to, and that's saying a lot.

The stairs were packed, with teenagers making out, drinking, and conversing loudly over the music, as we squeezed our way up, Ruby leading the way. We passed several rooms when we were upstairs, with some of them having their doors closed shut. I did not even want to imagine what went on behind those closed doors. A girl ran past us with her hand pressed on her mouth, looking like she was going to throw up. I saw a couple—well, what I think was a couple—making out against the wall.

We finally stopped outside of a room that had its door closed. I could tell already that this was a bad idea. Who even plays spin-the-bottle at parties? The game was ridiculous if you asked me, but I couldn't say no to Ruby. It was hard to say no to that pretty face of hers.

When Ruby opened the door, the smell of smoke that hung in the air attacked my lungs, making me cough. The smoke stung my eyes, making them water. There were five people inside the room sitting on the floor. I recognized two people: Kevin and Ethan. I couldn't recognize the other three: a guy and two girls.

“Hey,” one of the girls said as she jumped to her feet, making her black long hair bounce as she did so.

She stuck out her hand with a toothy smile on her face. She seemed friendly. I shook her hand. The other girl who was smoking paid no attention to us, eyes glazed over with boredom. She had short, auburn hair tied in a small ponytail. The other guy who had long dreadlocks that was smoking with her greeted us with a simple nod.

“What is she doing here?” Ethan asked Ruby as if I was not standing right in front of him. Ethan was tall, lean and handsome—just like Ian—with brown eyes under long dark lashes. He had jet-black hair that hung above his eyes, covering his eyebrows.

“I'm right here, you know.” I said, rolling my eyes at him and waved my hands in front of him, but he paid me no attention.

Ruby noticed and she gave me a 'be nice' look. She should be giving that look to her boyfriend, not me.

Ethan just had to be here. Why didn't I see this coming a mile away? Wyatt, the host of the party, was on the Lacrosse team, so Ethan's presence came as no surprise. But did he have to be here? Ethan didn't like me, and the feeling was mutual. He didn't like me because of some stupid reason I didn't care to know about. I thought after that night he'd, somehow, change how he treated me but he hasn't; he's gotten worse instead.

His eyes drifted in my direction and scowled at me. “I wasn't talking to you.”

I rolled my eyes. “Oh my God,” I muttered under my breath.

When I looked at Ruby, she looked at me with pleading eyes. She clearly did not want me to pick a fight with Ethan in front of other people, so I remained quiet and massaged my temples and sighed. This was going to be a really long night. Why did I agree to play this game again?

“Can you two be nice to each other just for one night?”

“No!” Ethan and I said at the same time.

Ruby looked at me and then at Ethan with her hands crossed against her chest. “Please, do it for me.”

“Fine,” I huffed, and Ruby smiled at me.

“Fine,” Ethan said too, but I could tell he didn't seem pleased by it.

Ruby cleared at her throat. “All of you know Ethan and Kevin and me, of course. This is Zoe and Ian,” Ruby said, pointing at me and Ian.

“I'm Jessica,” the nice girl said.

“Miles,” the guy who was smoking said.

Jessica pointed at the other girl, who was busy smoking to mind us. “She's Liz. Elizabeth,” Jessica spoke for her. “Don't mind her. She's just... well, she's not talkative.”

“I invited Zoe and Ian to join us,” Ruby said with a smile. “I hope it's okay with you guys.”

“Sure,” Kevin said. Kevin was brawny. He was co-captain of the Lacrosse team.

Ethan scoffed, and I glared at him.

“Is that why she's here, you invited her?” Ethan said in disbelief and then snorted. “You do realize that she won't play the game, right?”

“Can I hit him now?” I asked Ruby.

“Ethan, be nice,” Ruby said. Ethan rolled his eyes at her and mumbled something incoherent under his breath. “And no, Zoe, you can't hit him.”

Ethan smirked at me.

Ugh. I wanted to smack that smirk right off his stupid handsome face, but I bit my lip trying to stop myself from causing a scene. He was always like this around people: he acted like an asshole, which he was.

I looked at Ian, almost pleadingly.

“If you don't want to play, we can just leave,” he said, holding my hand.

I did not want to play this game for a number of reasons but the ones that stood out were:

1. Kissing strangers, especially Ethan, was not on my to-do list for tonight.

2. I did not want to watch Ian kiss other girls and the thought bothered me. I would not be able to stand that.

3. Kevin. He was my best friend. It would just be weird for us to kiss.

I took a slow deep breath and finally spoke, finally deciding on what to do.

“I don't want to play,” I said to Ruby, giving her an apologetic smile. She looked disappointed, but she nodded nonetheless.

“Told you,” Ethan said with a self-satisfied smirk on his face. That's it. I was not going to give him the satisfaction of him knowing that he won because he sure as hell did not.

“You know what, I'll play,” I said, the words rolling out of my mouth before I registered what I was saying.

The façade of indifference that Ethan had been maintaining the entire time crumbled for a second, replaced by a look of surprise. But he quickly hid it with an expressionless look. Ruby clapped her hands in delight. Her face lit up with excitement, and she quickly sat down on the floor.

“Are you sure?” Ian asked, whispering in my ear. I nodded. I could see Ethan's jaw tighten and seeing his expression, it was hard not to smirk.

“What are you waiting for then?” Kevin asked. “Come sit down.” He patted the floor.

For a moment I was hesitant, but I sat down on the floor between Ruby and Ian. There was an empty bottle on the floor in the middle of the circle. I looked around the circle and saw that Jessica and Ruby were eager to start playing the game. Liz seemed to be in her own world, while she puffed out a cloud of smoke before passing the cigarette to Miles. I noticed that Ethan was staring at me with an unreadable look on his face, but I didn’t think too much about it. I looked at Kevin who gave me a warm smile, and I smiled back at him. Ian must have felt how tense my body was because he gave my hand a gentle squeeze, and I felt the warmth of his hand travel to the rest of my body, making my body relax. I looked up at him and mouthed a ‘thank you’.

“Do you wanna go first?” Jessica asked, looking at me with a smile on her face. I smiled back and shook my head.

“Okay then, I will go first,” Ruby said as her hand reached out to touch the bottle ready to spin it, but before she could do so, Ethan touched her hand, stopping her.

Ruby looked up at Ethan with a confused look. “Aren't we gonna play?”

“We are, but first we have to establish some rules,” he said with a crooked smile. I did not like the way he looked at me. “We all know the basic rules, right? Good. And if you back out from a kiss, you have to take off one article of clothing.”

I looked at him in disbelief. Was he serious? He must be joking, but the look on his face told me otherwise. There was no way in hell that that was going to happen. I was not going to strip naked in front of them. Not a chance. He knew that I would back out and he was doing this to get back at me. Ethan was crazy. He was crazy and delusional if he thought that was going to happen.

“Wait, what? No, I don't wanna play this game.” I stood up.

“You already said that you're gonna play, and to me it seems like you're backing out,” Ethan said with a smirk. “And you know what that means. Now come on tell me, which one do you want to take off first? Your jacket or your dress?”

I crossed my arms, pouting angrily at him. I was going to get him later for this. I sat back down on the floor again with a huff, scowling at him.

I caved in. “I'm gonna play.”

There was no way I was going to let Ethan get to me.

“Can I spin it now?” Ruby asked impatiently, and Ethan nodded at her. Ruby's smile returned, and she spun the bottle around and it stopped, pointing at Ian and Jessica. Ian instantly looked at me for approval.

“It's just a game.” I forced a smile, but I could tell he didn’t seem convinced. I lowered my head, looking at my hands as Ian leaned forward to kiss her.

When the kiss was done, I looked up again. Jessica was grinning when I looked up at her. This is stupid. I should be the one kissing Ian, not her. If Ruby had not interrupted Ian and I, I would have been the one grinning like an i***t right now. Ian held my hand again, giving it a gentle squeeze. He lifted our interlaced hands up and gave the back of my hand a peck, before lowering our hands down. I smiled at him and drew a deep breath as it was my turn to spin the bottle.

I looked at the bottle. Definitely stupid. I touched the bottle and spun it around and it stopped, pointing at Ruby and Miles. Ruby leaned forward and kissed him.

The kiss was not that long, and Ruby did not seem to be enjoying it, but it was a completely different story for Miles. My eyes flitted to Ethan, gauging his reaction. He had an indiscernible expression, seemingly unfazed by his girlfriend kissing another guy in front of him. The kiss between Ruby and Miles ended.

After Ruby's kiss with Miles, Ian spun the bottle around and it stopped. And so did my heart.

Well, s**t.

I jerked my head up to look at Ethan, who looked at me, shocked, his eyes threatening to bulge out of their sockets.

“No way,” Ethan said looking around the circle, shaking his head vigorously. “No, no. I'm not doing it.”

I would have been agreeing with him right now, but I seemed to have forgotten how to speak. The words were there, at the tip of my tongue, but I couldn't talk. My body tensed. My eyes were wide open and my lips were parted. If we kissed, everyone was going to find out. Ruby would find out. I swallowed dryly.

“Well, then I would very much like to see your abs,” Liz said, and I turned to look at her, stunned that she was actually talking. I had forgotten that she was in the room with us, and didn’t she seem like she was not interested in the game? “Your rules.” She shrugged and puffed on her cigarette. Seriously, the smoke was burning my eyes, and my lungs could not take any of it any longer. Seriously, we are going to get lung cancer from second-hand smoking.

Why did Ethan have to make that stupid rule anyway? It was backfiring on him now. I would be rubbing it all over his face, but I was too stunned to say anything. Ethan looked at me, and then he leaned forward. I backed away from him.

Ruby tapped my shoulder and I looked at her. “Like you said, it's just a game,” she said. “I trust you.” How was this not bothering her? Her boyfriend was about to kiss her f*****g best friend, and this wasn’t bothering her one bit?

“Let's get this over with,” Ethan said, sounding bored. He wasn't. I knew he wasn't. I leaned forward. I let go of Ian’s hand, suddenly feeling the warmth of his hand leave my body.

We looked at each other and then he touched my chin. Oh boy. My heart beat erratically in my chest, and my mouth dried.

His licked my upper lip before kissing me. Did he just . . . ? Oh my God, Ruby is going to kill me. When our lips touched, my body felt warm. The kiss was slow and tender at first. His lips were soft and tasted of liquor. The alcohol tasted better on his lips. Then the kiss deepened, becoming intense, and before I could let out a moan, he pulled away.

Holy s**t. Everyone saw that.

He quickly took his hand away from my chin and settled back on his spot on the floor, and I did the same. I looked around the circle. Their eyes were darting around back and forth between me and Ethan. I looked at Ruby, and she was not smiling anymore. And when I looked at Ian, he was looking blankly at the floor.

“That, that was intense,” Kevin said. He was not helping the situation at all. I love Kevin but I wanted to kill him right now. “Sorry, just trying to break the tension.”

I looked at Ethan, our eyes meeting, but he quickly looked down, his face hidden by his bangs.

“Can we talk?” Ruby asked me. She did not sound cheerful anymore. She sounded serious. I nodded, and she got up and walked out of the room. I followed behind her. This was bad, really bad. I closed the door behind me. As soon as we stepped out of the room, Ruby grabbed me roughly by the arm. I looked at her, shocked.

“What the hell was that?” she asked, sounding pissed.

“What?”

“Don't play dumb with me, Zoe.”

The music was still blaring in the house, making me feel slightly light headed. “I seriously don't know what you're on about.” Lie.

“I'm talking about the way you two f*****g kissed each other,” she said. “Is there something going on between you and Ethan that I don't know about?”

“What? God, no,” I denied.

Ethan and I didn't like each other but the kiss – it felt right. And how the hell do you tell your best friend that?

Solution: You don't.