Chapter 2

"There they are."

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

"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 com-ing.'"

"What?"

"Last week in the barber shop he asked me to come alone. Well not exactly alone," she paused, but then con-tinued, 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, be-cause she chose me on purpose.

"Great!" Dwayne screamed out, and Liam muttered something to him. He whispered it in his ear and it an-noyed me even more as his eyes darted in my direction.

Why was I walking toward them, and not the op-posite way?

Number one, because I get lost trying to get out of Walmart. I have no sense of direction and I needed Cha-nel 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 be-tween 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 stand-ing 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 invita-tion. 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 espe-cially 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 an-nounced.

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 sympathetical-ly. 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 re-peated the word, "No."

As I moved away from Liam and smiled while tak-ing 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 hesita-tion 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 ex-pression on his face and then he opened his lips. I ex-pected 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 vir-ginity 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!"