Fire and Rain

Seven

An hour into Gareth's party, and I found myself huddled in a corner eating chips. They didn’t taste the same as the snacks in my reality—these were sinfully salty and oily, and probably had no nutritional value at all—but they grew on me. More people had been pouring in every few minutes, and as the crowd got bigger, they also got wilder. At 9 30 in the evening, mostly everyone were drunk off their asses. In fact, from my view in the living room corner, I could see two passed out on the couch, another by the stairs, and Louie dozing off every few seconds while talking gibberish to a painting.

Within the past hour, a couple of games had also occurred. One was this thing called “beer pong" where, much to my disgust, people threw small orange balls into cups of drinks, then others consume said drinks. To my surprise, Fin was so good at it that he won over Louie—which explains why Louie was in a drunken conversation with an inanimate object. Another game I witnessed was where a bunch of people drank straight from tubes that were connected to a barrel of beer. Okay, so that wasn’t much of a game, as it was just plain drinking, but people cheered everyone on and the drinkers rejoiced triumphantly afterwards.

The games weren’t the reason why I was hiding in the darkest corner of the room. Well, it was one of the reasons since my friends kept trying to drag me to join. But the main reason was because people I didn’t know kept going up to me to chat. And by the third weird look and “are you okay, Dana?” I received, I decided to just hide until it was time to go home. I didn’t know when that would be exactly, but I assumed that the party was scheduled to end at a certain hour, like how the parties at home always end by 11.

Until then, I figured I would settle with people-watching and eating chips that were so salty, my tongue was starting to numb. That plan, however, was squashed when Maria and Jonathan spotted me. The two most chaotic within my friends and the Stupid Pack.

“Dana!” Maria screamed my name as she did a funny little dance that Jonathan followed. They burst out laughing as they stood in front of me. Maria, who was trying to lean on the wall, miscalculated and almost fell if it weren’t for Jonathan who steadied her.

“Hey, you alright there, Maria?” I asked.

“Yup,” she gave me two thumbs up and a goofy smile as she straightened herself. “Best. Party. Ever.”

“That’s… good for you,” I handed her my cup, which actually just contained water. I had replaced the beer Baron handed me, so I could seem like I was drinking. It effectively kept Baron away with his constant need to refill everyone's cups.

“Yo, Dana, what are you doing in the corner? You drunk?” Jonathan teased, even though he was the one slurring his words.

“Yeah, super,” I lied, hoping that that would get them off my back.

“Well, that’s no excuse! Come on, we’re gonna play a game!” Maria excitedly said, grabbing my hand.

“But I don’t know your games—”

Jonathan grabbed my other hand, and together, they pulled me off my chair. “Trust me,” he winked, “you know this one.”

I didn’t know what he meant when he said that, and honestly I didn’t want to know, but with their joint forces, I found myself being dragged out to the pool area where a bunch of other kids sat on the grass to form a circle. There was Baron, Fin, Lara, Daniel, another girl I didn’t know, and Gareth.

“Heeey,” Gareth cheered as he saw the three of us approach. He, too, had obviously drunk.

“What took you guys so long?” Fin complained. His sweater was gone now, revealing his brown silk shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows. He really did look like he was “one of the guys" when he’s not wearing his turtlenecks or sweaters, and when he’s acting more carefree. And since he wasn’t lacking in the height and looks department, he could be a heartbreaker if he wanted to. Thankfully, he’s too good for that.

“This little lady here,” Maria said, as she pushed me down to sit on the grass in between Daniel and this other girl. “She was a tough one to find.”

Maria and Jonathan sat between the other girl and Gareth.

“You’ve been hiding, D? That’s unlike you!” Daniel said, linking our arms together. With a fake smile, I tugged my arm away and said, “I wasn’t hiding. I was just a bit drunk. What are we all doing in a circle, anyway? Are we… praying?”

Baron and the other girl laughed. “No, dum-dum,” he teased, placing an empty wine bottle in the middle. I figured I’d just get him when he’s sober for calling me a dum-dum. “We're playing spin-the-bottle, of course.”

“Oh,” I perked up. “Really?”

We had the same game at home, where the person that the bottle lands on was given an animal they had to change into, and a trick they had to perform. Classic party game.

But, like most things that I had seen all day, their spin-the-bottle game was a lot different than my version; and I found out about it a little too late.

“Okay, let’s see who goes first!” Baron announced dramatically as he spun the bottle. After a few turns, it landed on the other girl.

“Carey!” Baron exclaimed, then spun it again. This time, it landed on Jonathan. Everyone in the circle, except for me, cheered. I curiously watched what they were about to do, just in case the bottle landed on me next.

Carey and Jonathan moved to the center of the circle and, much to my surprise, kissed. And not just one innocent peck on lips, but with full-on tongue.

Oh. My. God. I knew that their games here were a bit different, but I wouldn’t have expected “that.” I stared at them with wide eyes as the others counted to five. Then, they pulled away and laughed. From the corner of my eye, I noticed Gareth looking a bit surprised as well, but that just might be because of a number of things.

“Alright, next!” Jonathan cheered as he wiped at his lips.

Again, oh. My. God. There was a “next” to this?

The mouth of the bottle stopped to point at Daniel, then he turned to me and winked.

I knew it wasn’t a prayer circle, but boy did I pray so hard that it wouldn’t be me. When Daniel spun, he looked crazy excited as it slowed down. He had obviously deliberately tried to spin it towards me, but thanks to a little thing called “listening to Miss Dunston during Elemental Class,” I put my hand on the ground and quickly channeled my energy towards the grass making contact with the bottle, and managed to move it away from me. I did it a bit stronger than I had expected, and it landed on Fin.

“What?” Daniel exclaimed, totally disappointed. Everyone laughed, and I could see Gareth chuckling as well.

“Come on, Daniel,” Jonathan teased, then made a weird motion with his tongue. I felt a bit guilty that Fin had to go through this, but then I saw how he was laughing as well as he moved to the center. Fin 2.0 didn’t have any qualms exchanging kisses in public with a guy—even if that person was Daniel—and it showed. When their five seconds were up, Daniel furiously wiped at his lips while Fin shrugged and said, “You suck at this, man,” which made everyone burst out in laughter. Maria gave him a high five and he sat back down.

The next was Maria and Jonathan, then Lara and Baron—much to Baron's glee. At that point, I was getting really tired using my abilities, and so by the time Baron was spinning the bottle, all I could do was think of an excuse to get out of there.

The bottle landed on Gareth, who wasn’t looking as he was stretching out his arms. “Gareth, my man!” Baron exclaimed, making Gareth snap his attention towards him.

“Me?” he asked with disbelief.

“Wonder who’s the lucky lady or man,” Jonathan winked at me.

Suddenly panicked, I started to stand up. “Um, guys I think I need to go to the ladies' for—”

“No, no,” Daniel said, pulling me back down. “Fun's just beginning, Dana!”

“Stay, D. This is the last one,” Baron urged.

“What? This is the last one? But I—” Daniel glanced at me then back at Baron. “But it just started!”

“Nah, man, we’re gonna play pool next,” Baron informed him, as he spun the bottle one last time.

Chill out, Dana, I thought to myself. There was only one spin left, and there was a seven out of eight of a chance that it would land on me. The universe would never do me dirty like that.

But the universe did, in fact, do me dirty as the bottle landed on me. As I was faced with the worst case scenario, the rest howled and whistled. I wanted to turn into any animal and just run off into the night.

“Dana! Dana! Dana!” they chanted.

I didn’t know whom to look to for help. Even Maria and Fin were cheering me on, and Daniel looked too sour to help.

“Guys, you know, I think I’m feeling a little tired,” Gareth said unexpectedly. He glanced at me with a worried look, and for the first time in my life, I actually felt thankful for him.

“Come on, Gareth! Don’t be such a party pooper,” Carey groaned.

“If I could kiss Daniel’s filthy mouth, then you two should have no problem,” Fin said, which made Daniel go “Hey!” at him with an offended expression.

Gareth looked at me, unsure and shrugged. He was right, there was no way these monkeys would let us go without doing anything. It was just a kiss—not even my first. And it’s not like this was the Gareth I knew and disliked. This one seemed to be a bit more…okay, I guess. So, reluctantly and nervously, I slightly moved to the center of the circle, and everyone cheered.

I swear to God, the games in this reality is effed up.

Gareth also made his way towards me, and just as we were kneeling in front of each other, I closed my eyes and braced myself. As soon as I felt his hand on my cheek, I began to search my head for good memories to get me through the five seconds. But before I could even settle on a happy memory, I felt something soft momentarily touch my lips then heard Gareth say, “Okay, show’s over, guys.”

I opened my eyes. That was it. Gareth had given me a small peck on the lips and it was done. The rest of the group moaned in complaint as Gareth stood and proceeded to help me up.

“It’s not like you two haven’t kissed before,” Baron said, but he and the others were also getting up from the grass.

To my surprise, Gareth pulled me close to his side by my waist. “We’d prefer to do more in private, so beat it,” he smirked at Baron, and I could only look up at him, horrified at what he’d just said.

“Oooh,” Baron exclaimed, and the others blushed and whistled.

“Well, then, don’t let us stop you,” Jonathan winked at us.

“Come on, guys,” Fin laughed as he ushered the others, “let’s give the love birds some privacy.”

With that, they all rushed back into the house laughing and giggling, leaving me flustered and alone with Gareth once again. Once they were out of sight, he let go of me and began picking up the cups and bottles on the ground.

“You okay?” he asked, glancing at me.

I stood there, with my heart still racing, but I nodded. “Yeah, um, thanks for that.”

He looked at me, confused. “Don’t you need to go to the restroom?”

I didn’t know what exactly I was waiting for. He said we’d “do more in private" but I was unsure if I had to play along or not. Feeling more embarrassed, I sheepishly said, “Right, um, okay,” and walked as fast as I could back into the house.