Adele

I hated her so much. Chanel had dragged me to one of those parties that the popular girls and boys went to on the last Friday of every month. It was some kind of crazy ritual that every kid in school dreamed about being invited to.

Not me.

I had a dream, and it was to get an education and get out of town. Don’t get me wrong; there’s nothing wrong with the town of Small Borne, but there’s more to life than one place and I want to experience it.

And that’s why my body, mind, and soul were focused on college.

Not like Chanel; she only had her body, mind and soul focused on Dwayne, the all-star quarterback that was going places. Just like me.

“Adele, can you walk faster? We’re late!” Chanel half-whispered and half-screeched at me.

“I would if I didn’t have this stupid skirt on, and make-up that’s a second skin on my face.”

Okay, so it was a bit of an exaggeration. The make-up wasn’t stopping me from seeing, but I was only keeping her company and I didn’t want to be anywhere near Dwayne’s best friend, Liam.

“Oh, don’t be silly. If we get there too late then they may hook up with some other girls.”

She’d said the wrong thing. But we’d had already taken our bikes and were already almost at the secret spot. I never understood why they called it that, when everyone knew how to get there. Then we changed out of our jeans into skirts and she touched up our make-up in the dark, using our cell phones as lights.

I didn’t even want to know what I really looked like.

I doubt I looked sexy. More scary. But I did it just to make her happy.

“Isn’t hanging around your dad’s barber shop and waiting for Dwayne to come in every week enough for you?”

I put my hands on my hips thinking that maybe she’d get the message and just stick to her usual routine of trying to get the guys’ attention.

“No!”

She sighed, that long exaggerated thing that she did whenever she wanted to make a point. One that I didn’t want to hear.

“You know that it’s nearly Prom don’t you?”

I couldn’t see her, but the sarcasm in her voice was enough to put me off going any further.

“Besides you don’t want to stay at home and listen to Henry and your mom making out do you?”

I shook my head, “No way. Why did she have to date him, out of all the men in town?”

“And we know that ever though since your dad died, you’ve still not got over it. I’m sure your mom dating has been hard on you.”

“It was at first, but it’s been five years. I know that Mom has to move on eventually. She had to work for the first time in her life since he died and she’s managed to pick herself up. It’s just why she had to date him. Henry’s fine. It’s his son, Liam, that has issues. Big issues. I don’t even understand why any girl would even hook up with him. The guy’s a mental case.”

I didn’t know if I was trying to convince her or myself.

“Is that why whenever he walks in the room, you go bright red and you can’t get keep your eyes off him?” She took my hand, “I told you, your secret’s safe with me. I know you have a crush on him.”

“Now, you make me sound about five. I don’t have a crush. The guy’s a jerk.”

“I know he took your homework, handed it in and said you copied him.”

“Like that was likely? As if I would ever copy him.”

“And then Liam turned up at your date saying that you asked him to come and save you from Pete.”

“And I really liked Pete. I couldn’t even explain to him that Liam’s a jerk and how could I ask two men out at the same time?”

“I don’t even know why you asked Pete out in the first place?”

I sighed, because we’d had this conversation so many times. I’d always left out the part when we were in the cafeteria and Liam came up to me and said that we should go to his place and get it out of our systems. He accused me of having a thing for him. I went out of my way to prove that I had nothing for him, by asking Boring Pete out. He was the safe option. Until Liam turned up, I was kind of bored. Everyone is whenever Pete starts to talk, but he’s such a nice guy.  It’s just that no one wants to talk about Star Trek all night, apart from Trekkies, and no one wants to look at his collection of monuments via photos or the stash that he keeps in his backpack, again apart from Trekkies. After that night, he went and asked a Trekkie fan out and they’re happy in love and I’m just…

“Anyway, let’s just get it over and done with.”

I picked up my speed thinking about that night with Liam. There was another part I always missed out. Once Pete was out of the way, Liam held me in his arms and kissed me, then he broke away saying, “Pete could never kiss you like that.”

He had a point, but he didn’t even ask for permission; then again I didn’t protest. I watched as he left me like a jilted bride on my doorstep after giving me the kiss of the year. Shit, it was my first kiss and it wasn’t just that it made my panties wet. It just made me want him even more. But, I’ll never confess it to Chanel, and certainly not him.

***

“There they are.”

I stood nervously seeing just Liam and Dwayne were sitting by the electric lanterns, which were in a circle.

“Where’s everyone else?” I whispered to her as she picked up her pace.

“Oh, I forgot to tell you. We’re the only ones coming.’”

“What?”

“Last week in the barber shop he asked me to come alone. Well not exactly alone,” she paused, but then continued, telling me a different story to the one that she’d been telling me ever since she told me about that night.

“He said that I should bring a friend.”

“A friend!”

“Yes, but that was code for just bringing you.”

“How did you work that one out?”

“Come on, it’s not like I’m going to bring anyone else.”

I held on to her arm before she even thought about taking another step.

“Why didn’t you ask Hazel or Rebecca or someone else? We hang out as a group!”

“Oh, none of them would come. Besides you and Liam have history together.”

Before I could even say another word as quick as lightning she was away from me, heading to them and waving her arms in the air.

“We’re here!”

Fuck, damn right we were there and I didn’t want to be. She’d tricked me and she damn well knew it. If I’d known all of this then I wouldn’t have come. Hazel would have come if she’d asked her, but she didn’t, because she chose me on purpose.

“Great!” Dwayne screamed out, and Liam muttered something to him. He whispered it in his ear and it annoyed me even more as his eyes darted in my direction.

Why was I walking toward them, and not the opposite way?

Number one, because I get lost trying to get out of Walmart. I have no sense of direction and I needed Chanel to show me the way back to our bikes.

Number two, well there wasn’t one; I just felt like numbering them.

“Hey guys, you guys got the party started without us?”

Chanel was such a flirt. She was swinging her hips to the side and now everything was falling into place for her as Dwayne wrapped his hand around her waist.

As for Liam, he did that thing. It was a mix between a grunt and a smile. It should have had me running even if it was toward the damn trees, but it got me every time. I found it sexy. A guy that said nothing, but a lot more with his expressions when he felt like giving some away.

“Let’s have a drink.”

Did he just invite me to drink with him?

I turned to look and see if someone else was standing behind me.

“Yes, it’s me asking you for a drink,” he laughed as he put his arm around my waist. It was an open invitation. In my confusion I walked with him.

“We really shouldn’t be drinking at our age.”

I sounded like my mom, a natural thing I did whenever I was nervous.

“Well, we’re all over eighteen, and under the state of Minnesota it’s not illegal.”

He winked at me; I knew that it wasn’t illegal. But I just didn’t want to do it. One sip and I’d be laughing and embarrassing myself, which was cool when it was only the girls in the room but in front of others, and especially Liam, it wasn’t. He’d be the one running through the woods trying to get as far away from me as possible.

I smiled, thinking that I couldn’t do anything else seeing as I was speechless.

“I know what we should do…” Liam said, looking at Chanel. God, she may as well have had her tongue out. It was so obvious what she had in mind and none of it was good. She had it so bad for Dwayne that she could start a forest fire. She was like a cat in heat.

“What?”

She practically sat on top of Dwayne and took a quick swig of her beer. It was kind of clear “what” Liam was thinking, as his hand grabbed my waist even tighter, almost like a cobra! For a girl that didn’t want to drink, suddenly I didn’t hesitate in practically shoving the whole bottle down my throat. “Spin the bottle!” I announced.

Chanel clapped her hands, “Great idea.”

I nearly choked and I was coughing so badly that instead of Liam patting my back, he just rubbed his hand up and down so firmly that it made me choke even more.

“Adele, are you okay?” Chanel said sympathetically. Maybe for once she would feel guilty about tricking me into this sex pool. That’s what “let’s play a game” stands for; everyone ends up having sex and disguising it as being something which accidentally happened because they were playing a game.

I shake my head, gasping “No,” while trying to breathe.

“Maybe if you take your top off you’ll feel better.”

And all of a sudden, I stopped coughing and repeated the word, “No.”

As I moved away from Liam and smiled while taking the bottle, I had a question for him. One that involved making him feel the same way that he did with most of students.

Small.

Like insects.

“I have a question for you.” Then without hesitation I finished the rest of my beer. I should have eaten something beforehand, but I didn’t know that we weren’t going to a real party and I’ve been eating one too many pieces of candy while burning the midnight oil.

“Spin that bottle! Someone’s in a party mood now!” Dwayne said as he stroked Chanel’s face. The way the two of them were behaving was making me sick, and it wasn’t from drinking the beer too fast.

Liam’s emerald eyes were on me; there was no expression on his face and then he opened his lips. I expected him to tell me to slow down or that we should play another game. Instead he blurted out, “Spin it!”

And that was exactly what I did, hoping that it would land on me.

I realized I was pissed as I spun it and Chanel jumped up and clapped her hands, “Adele first!”

I slumped back down, thinking that this couldn’t get any worse. Until Dwayne asked the question, “Tell me Adele, who’s the boy that you want to give your virginity to when you leave high school?”

“Who says that I’m still a virgin?”

“Come on Adele!” said Chanel. “Don’t play games. Besides it’s called Truth or Dare for a reason. You’re not the one that’s supposed to be asking the question!”

Really, what does this woman know about truth!

She lied to me about coming here!

“Well it looks as if she doesn’t want to answer so you have to give her a dare, Liam.”

Then there was this moment of silence; the thing that boys do as if they have some secret code that only they know the answer to.

“Take off your clothes and throw them in the woods.”

“All of them?”

Both guys nodded and I look to Chanel. Instead of protesting, she whispered a bit too loudly, “You could have just told them the truth!”