Chapter 12 sixpacks and fruit snacks #3
Everyone was hooting and laughing as Colt stood.
I swear his cheeks had gone a little pink, even though everyone knew that they’d end up together one day, just like Devlin and me.
Their families had designed it that way.
Preston was the only Darling who didn’t have a wife picked out for him, though my parents said his grandfather would find someone special for him, some blue blood from another town.
It made me feel funny every time they said it, but I knew I’d feel even more awkward if I had to hang out with the girl who would one day marry him.
“Turn on some music,” Colt said. “This lesson is for my ear’s only.”
The guys started giving him a hard time, but I went and turned on the stereo. It would be embarrassing enough to know we were all sitting out here, waiting for them to come out.
“Okay, we’ll sit on the lid for seven minutes,” Devlin said. “Just like always. Knock if you need to come out early.”
“Keep your elbows in, little lady,” Colt said, taking Destiny’s hand and helping her into the chest he’d lined with a couple red sleeping bags. “Wouldn’t want them opening it early and exposing us.”
Once they were in, we closed the lid and sat down on it.
I’d played this game before, but it had been a few years.
Back then, we’d paired off with whoever we liked.
It was always claustrophobic being in the dark with someone, and now that we’d grown, it would be a lot tighter.
But it was just as awkward sitting out here, thinking about what they were doing in the box just under us.
For a minute, we sat in silence, the only sound the crackling of a packet of gummies that Devlin was eating and “Tom’s Diner” playing on the radio.
Then Lacey started giggling randomly, saying she was already feeling the beer.
“I’m going to spin again,” she said. “Since I got Destiny.”
“I’m done,” I said quickly. “You already spun. Let me go first.”
Before she could argue, I bent and spun my bottle on the floor.
I could feel the slightest shifting in the box under us as the couple moved around in there.
I wondered what they were doing, if they were talking or making out.
Now that we were older, the possibilities had opened up more, and even though Colt was young, he’d filled out a lot already.
He and Destiny flirted and teased each other whenever we hung out. I guessed they were kissing.
I tried to think about that and not what would happen if my bottle didn’t land on Devlin.
It moved in a circle, then came to a stop when it hit a crack in the floor.
“That’s not fair,” I said. “Let me go again.”
I didn’t dare look at Preston, where it was pointing. He’d been quiet all evening. I didn’t want to hurt his feelings the way Lacey had hurt Colt’s when she insulted him, but I also wanted to make sure I ended up with Devlin.
“No way,” Lacey said. “I didn’t get to go again, and mine landed on a girl. If anyone gets a do-over, it’s me.”
“What about me?” Devlin asked. “I mean, I’m all for self-love, but it’s not my first choice.”
Lacey giggled and batted her eyes at him. “Well, it looks like Preston and Colt are already taken. I guess that leaves us.”
“And me,” Carmen said, looking annoyed.
“I’ll spin again,” Devlin said, picking up a bottle and giving it a good spin.
I clenched my teeth, glaring at the bottle and willing it to land anywhere but Lacey. I didn’t even care if it landed on Carmen at this point, even though somehow she was more of a threat, not being a virgin. I just didn’t want him kissing Lacey.
She gave a little squeal and clapped when the bottle slowed. I glared at her with all the fury and jealousy of a fifteen-year-old when her friend is hitting on her boyfriend—and said boyfriend is seemingly enjoying it instead of reminding her that he’s taken.
“Guess she’s right,” Devlin said with a shrug, snagging another beer from the box.
My gaze dropped to the bottle, which had landed on Lacey.
Damn it. Some dumb part of my mind was sure that if I’d kept watching, I could have somehow willed it to move just a little further.
Now I was going to have to watch them go into the trunk together, and how long was seven minutes, anyway?
It felt like we’d been sitting here for hours.
“What do you think they’re doing in there?” Carmen asked after a minute of silence.
“Either scratching each other’s eyes out or fucking each other’s brains out,” Preston said.
Lacey gasped.
Even though there were kids who said crude stuff like that at school, they usually only did it when they didn’t know we could hear them.
We weren’t the kind of girls that boys talked to—or even around—in that manner.
I didn’t know about public school, but most girls at Willow Heights weren’t into that kind of thing, and if they were, they kept it to themselves because they didn’t want it to be known.
“That is how they flirt,” Devlin acknowledged with a forced chuckle. He must be used to Preston, even if he didn’t talk that way, either.
Lacey giggled.
“We’ll find out soon enough,” I said as her timer went off.
We all climbed off the box and opened the lid.
Colt stood and held out a hand to Destiny, who took it and let him pull her up.
They both looked disheveled, their clothes askew and their lips red from what had obviously been an intense make-out session.
The guys started giving Colt a hard time, but he just laughed it off with a boyish grin that was half embarrassment, half pride.
I joined the other girls who had clustered around Destiny.
“What happened?” Carmen hissed.
Destiny hid a smile. “I’ll tell you later.”
“We doing this or what?” Devlin asked, stepping into the chest.
Lacey gave us an excited, guilty little grin and then joined him. There was hooting and laughter from the others as the couple awkwardly tried to fit into the box before Colt and Carmen lowered the lid. I stood off to one side, feeling numb.
“Come on,” Destiny said, taking my hand pulling me over to sit on the lid with the others. I grabbed another beer and pried the lid off, watching the little green cap bounce across the raw wood floor. I tried not to feel the minor tremors that came every time the people in the box moved.
Preston sat down on my other side. He was still holding his beer, only half gone. I wondered if he’d been drinking slow on purpose, not wanting to have to spin. It was the kind of thing he’d do, sitting back and waiting to see how it all played out. It must have been the future lawyer in him.
“Hey,” he said quietly, bumping his bottle against my knee. “We don’t have to do anything if you don’t want.”
“No, it’s fine,” I said, my voice louder than I’d meant. “Obviously Devlin doesn’t have a problem with it, so why should I?”
“Maybe they’re just talking,” Destiny offered, giving me a sympathetic smile on her way back from retrieving the beer she’d never finished. She started pushing gummies through the mouth of the bottle, watching the beer fizz around them.
It was somehow fitting, like it represented the whole night.
Kid candy with adult beverages. We didn’t fit in either category yet, and there was no place for us, so we had to step back and forth between.
Stuck in the middle, we tried desperately to combine two opposing forces that pulled in opposite directions.
Even our parents couldn’t figure us out, and their advice was full of mixed messages.
Grow up… but not too fast.
Enjoy being a kid while you can… Don’t you look all grown up?
Here’s more freedom… You’re grounded for taking too much.
We were trying to hold onto kid games even when the meaning had changed to something more adult. Though we were too old for the games, we pretended because we weren’t quite ready to admit we’d changed, that we had new, deeper desires that we didn’t know how to express in words.
I could feel the trunk shifting under us, the vibrations going through the wood with their every movement, which I swore were getting more urgent.
We all fell silent. Each second that ticked by was an eternity of agony.
My heart was twisting inside me, tearing apart with every muffled sound from under us.
I finished my beer and got up to grab another.
“Where’s the opener?” I demanded, looking around in desperation. Everyone was looking at me with such pity, I knew they were all thinking the same thing I was.
“It’s here,” Preston said quietly, handing it over.
I wrenched off the lid with it and turned the bottle up. When I brought it down, I hiccupped, my stomach churning from drinking so fast. I wiped my mouth on the back of my hand. “Open the trunk.”
“We can’t do that,” Carmen said. “We only open it if they knock to get out. Otherwise, they get seven minutes.”
“I don’t care about the stupid game,” I snapped, taking another swig of beer. “I want her away from my boyfriend.”
“I don’t hear him complaining,” Colt said, laughter in his eyes.
I glared at him and finished the bottle. I was swaying on my feet now. I drank on occasion, but three beers was a lot for me, especially in such a short time.
“Come on, Doll,” Preston said, holding out a hand to me. “I think you’ve had enough to drink.”
“I think getting drunk is called for in this situation,” I said, my throat going tight. “Though if anyone else has suggestions for dealing with a boyfriend hooking up with a friend, I’d love to hear them.”
“We can open the box,” Destiny said, giving me a look of purest sympathy. “But do you really want to see?”
I swallowed hard, past the ache, and took a slow, deep breath.
“There you go,” Preston said quietly, taking my hand and pulling me down beside him again. “Just breathe. Count to ten. They’ll be out before you know it, and I’ll deck him for you. How’s that sound?”
I couldn’t help but laugh, even if it was a weak, halfhearted one. I pressed my face into his shoulder to absorb the single tear that had leaked out. “Thanks, Preston. You’re a good friend.”
“Ouch.”
Before I could ask what that was for, the timer went off. I jumped up, wanting to shove everyone else off the box. They seemed to take forever getting up, like they wanted to give the couple time to get dressed. I had to hold back from snapping at them to hurry up and end my torment.
I shouldn’t have bothered. It was worse to see Devlin and Lacey stand up and climb out, as disheveled and red-lipped as Destiny and Colt, with the same looks of embarrassment and giddiness about them.
I wanted to scream.
Preston handed me his beer, turned, and punched Devlin in the face.
Then I screamed.