Summer: Undefined

Our basement was perfect for this situation. It had three different areas. The first: A large room with a pool table and bar and a mini-fridge. (The alcohol was in a locked cabinet that our parents kept on them at all time so we didn’t need to worry about anyone messing with that.) The second: a medium sized room with an “L” shaped couch and love seat. A giant screen TV sat in the corner of the room with a giant shelf of DVDs to one side. A small closest with my and Jude’s old toys was attached to this part of the basement. The third: the unfinished part of the basement that had the stereo system in it. (This part was more of a storage area then anything else.) It was amazing because attached to the stereo system there were speakers that went through the entire rest of the basement, which made it perfect for parties.

“This place is bitchin’,” I heard one of the girl’s I haven’t met utter under her breath as she stepped into the basement.

I had to stop and admire my work. I did do a pretty damn good job of cleaning that sucker up. It looked brand-new. The carpet was finally clean. The wood was dusted. And you could easily walk on the floor without dying!

“Awesome job on the basement, De,” Jude told me as he passed and collapsed on the couch.

I proudly smiled and sat on the loveseat just across from him.

Everyone seemed to split up into the same groups. The group I’d spent most of the time with had come into the sitting area of the basement, while most of the people I didn’t know gathered around for a billiards tournament.

“Jude, could we have some music?” One of the boys called over the crowd of people.

“Yeah, sure!”

Jude went off and before long the music came blasting at us from every direction.

When he reemerged he was carrying the three empty root beer bottles from the hours of preparation. Judging from the smirk on his face I could tell exactly what he was thinking.

“Who wants to play spin the bottle?”

Everyone in the room stopped at looked up. Only the music was causing it to avoid being an awkward silence.

“FUCK YEAH!” Someone screamed and before I knew it everyone was trying to sit in a circle.

Without being seen I snuck upstairs to check on Elle. She was probably in my room, or on a couch passed out. I found her in my room and sat by her side.

Elle seemed to be looking a lot better, the color in her face almost completely restored. She had a wet washcloth on her forehead and was slightly curled up in ball.

I moved a piece of hair away from her eyes when she stirred.

“Good morning,” I whispered. “How are you feeling?”

“What happened?” She groaned and took the cloth off her head. “Why am I in your room?

What happened to the party?”

“Matt gave you drugs, you’re in my room because we thought you needed to be alone and sleep. The party has migrated downstairs because it’s past eleven.”

“So that’s what that was…” She groaned rubbing her temples. “I’m such an idiot…”

“No,” I said grabbing her shoulder and pulling her close into me. “Your judgment was just clouded. You got caught up in the moment of the party, that’s all.” I could feel her eyes rolling. Elle always wanted straightforward responses. She never wanted me to sugar coat anything when it came to such serious matters as drugs. “Yeah, it was dumb. But you’ve learned your lesson, and hopefully your not addicted.”

We laughed. I couldn’t imagine Elle getting addicted to anything other than soap operas and any type of junk food. And I’m sure she felt the exact same way.

For the next couple of minutes she complained about the massive headache she had and the explained exactly how it all happened.

“Maybe I wanted to look cool for Jude… Or I wanted to feel grown up… Who really knows…?”

We stared at the ceiling together. It’s something we did. We would lie on my bed and stare at the ceiling. Most of our deepest conversations were had late at night in this exact same position. Elle on the left side and me on the right side, if it were reversed our conversations probably wouldn’t be as in depth as they tend to be.

“Why does anyone know why they do drugs?” I asked.

“There are plenty of reasons,” Elle went on. “Peer pressure. For fun. To experiment. To escape. To act like others. Seriously, the list goes on.”

“No, what I mean is, why would a person like you do drugs? You, a person who doesn’t really care about peer pressure, a person who knows where they’ll go and where they won’t.”

“Stupidity.”

Simple enough of an answer, I guess. But the subject was still open for debate and ideas. That’s how Elle and I discussed things, each of us chose a side and then we’d defend it (Even if we weren’t all for it.) Jude once said we should join the debate team, but Elle and I were positive that no one else would get our strange ideas other than each other. So the effort would be fruitless. I liked the idea of debate team, though. The only thing I really didn’t like was speaking in front of all those people.

Before any more points could be made my bedroom door burst open and my brother came bounding in. His step was light and his eyes were sparkling with excitement.

“You guys are really missing the best game ever!” He exclaimed and tried to get us off of my bed. “Come down and join us! You’ll have so much fun!”

“What’re you playing?” Elle asked. She squinted at the loud noises she heard from Jude’s mouth. He was laughing and jumped, she would definitely have to get used to all that noise if she was going to go down stairs.

“Spin the bottle,” I groaned and rolled off the bed.

“Fun!” She said and jumped up with half as much energy as Jude.

The three of us went downstairs to find two people I didn’t know sucking each other’s faces off. They stopped almost instantly when they heard us enter the room, but I could tell that they wanted to keep going.

“Glad you could finally join us!” Frank said standing up. I could tell he had just finished making out with someone as well, seeing as there was lipstick smudged all over his face. I looked to Aimee to see if she had any lipstick on. There was nothing. From the look on her face she was a little disappointed. What did she expect? It was spin the bottle. But then again… Frank wouldn’t have to go into a full out make-out session would he?

I shrugged it off. If I missed it, I wouldn’t get involved in it.

I sat down next to her and Halle while Elle went down next to Jude and Bob.

The game continued on. Every once in a while I’d get a little scare when the bottle would slow down when it passed me by, but that’s all they ever were; just scares. Whenever it was Gerard or Vince’s turn I’d get extra antsy. I knew exactly why, but I just didn’t like feeling so nervous all the time.

Eventually the circle of people dwindled down to Jude, Elle, Ray, Bob, Halle, Jules, Mikey, Frank, Aimee, Gerard, Will, Vince and myself. A random person would pop in and out sometimes, just to feel like they were apart of the group even though they really weren’t.
“My turn!” Halle cried eagerly. Her hand reached out from the circle and jerked the bottle round in a circle.

All eyes watched the tip of the bottle as it rotated around and around. Friction caught up with it and it started slowing down…

A gasp escaped from my right as I turned and saw Will (who I’d forgotten was even there because he was always so quiet…) drop his jaw and turn towards where the bottle was pointing.

Sure enough, there it was, pointing to Ray. He was sitting (also with a dropped jaw) looking at Halle (who was smiling).

I loved Halle, I really did. But she got really playful sometimes. Like right now.

Halle crawled over to Ray and pulled him close to her, letting the suspense of the moment build up for as long as she could. She hovered just over his lips. Her eyes were focused on him, while his were closed; he just wanted it to be over. I guess he didn’t like everyone looking at him.

Then, just when everyone thought she’d let it linger there forever Ray closed the one-centimeter gap between the two of them.

It felt like eternities that they were locked together. I’m sure it felt like more for Will. I couldn’t even begin to imagine what was running through his mind. Betrayal? Relief? Remorse? Grief? Rage? It could be everything or nothing. Maybe he could just be dating Halle for lustful desires? But by looking upon his face I could tell that that was hardly the case. He was heartbroken.

Apparently he couldn’t stand watching anymore of this betrayal. He stormed upstairs slamming the door on his way out. The noise of the slam caused everyone to look up from what they were doing, except for Halle and Ray, who were still going.

That’s when Bob got up from his seat and whapped Halle on the back of the head.

“What’re you doing?” Bob asked when Halle finally broke away from Ray and looked up at him. “You have a boyfriend!”

“Not now,” I spoke up. “Will looked pretty upset.”

Halle scanned the room. Her expression looked almost just as Will’s had before he left. She looked back at Ray and he nodded.

She fumbled up to her feet and began to walk away. I wondered whether she would need some help, but concluded that this was something she’d have to do on her own. Even though I was quite nervous, from what I’ve heard Will has some violet tendencies (surprisingly enough) and when he gets mad, he really gets out of control.

Bob moved back into the circle. We all sat in circle, silent as death. The atmosphere was one like witnessing a fight between parents. Like someone wanted to say something, but no one had the strength to speak, or even an idea on what to say.

A few times I opened my eyes to speak. Until I realized that right now we didn’t need words, we needed actions.

I bravely, but ever so cautiously, reached into the center of the circle and shifted the bottle into a spinning action.

Slowly everyone’s attention focused back onto the bottle. I don’t think anyone realized who spun it, but the focus was one it nonetheless, and that’s all I wanted to achieve.

I’d spun it too fast. So it just kept going. It felt like hours before it finally started to slow down; weeks before it started stopping; months before it finally stopped.

It stopped. It stopped on someone that I didn’t want it to stop on. My heart was leaping inside my chest, but my mind was thinking far too logically to appreciate the great opportunity that spread out before me.

Everyone’s eyes were on the two of us as I moved over to him. He was just as nervous as I was, I could tell. He avoided eye contact with me and tried not to smile.
In all honesty I didn’t want to kiss him. Not right now anyway. Not with all these people watching us.

I looked around at each face; every single one had a small smile. Except Frank who had a big smile, and Vince who wasn’t even looking our way.

Finally his hazel eyes made contact with mine. The look in them had no longer contained nerves. He was determined and ready for what was about to happen. This look he gave me was slightly comforting, but I still felt the looks of the others over-powering his.

Yet, the longer I looked into those eyes of his, the more at ease I felt. The more comfort I felt. The more at home I felt. The more I actually wanted to go through with this.

Slowly, I leaned in, leaving a few inches between us. Just as I was about to close it there came a giant thump from upstairs.

My head jerked upwards, along with just about everyone else’s in the entire basement.
Everyone got quiet.

There were more loud crashes from upstairs. Someone quickly went to turn off the music so we could hear exactly what was going on…

“Why don’t you love me? Tell me that you love me! You have to love me!”

Everyone looked at each other, and without saying a word we all ran upstairs. The crowd on the stairs got a little hard to deal with but eventually we got through the door.

We split up the first floor; it wouldn’t take that long to find where it was coming from…

Luckily for me I had to be the one to find it. And when I did I felt like everything moving in slow motion. I couldn’t believe it…