The Game of Seduction

St. Patrick’s day, Kia thought back, that’s when it all started, this game of seduction.

One of Kia's closest friends, Devin Mitchell, had planned a party. They usually didn’t celebrate St. Patrick‘s Day but it landed on a Friday this year and he had the house all to himself that weekend. Devin was a quite popular. He's good looking, captain of the soccer team and an all around nice guy. Word about his party spread throughout the school like wildfire through a drought-stricken grassland.

Kia and her friends, Jess, Rachel, Greg and Kyle, had been close friends with Devin since elementary school. They all went to Devin’s early, arriving at 7pm. It was an abnormally hot Californian night for spring and everyone wore as little clothing as comfortably possible, but at least something green.

“Guys, really?” Devin said, looking disappointedly at them in the foyer. “There are five of you and all you bring is a bottle of coke and a bag of chips?

“Hey now, we–” Kia started.

“No, actually this bag is all mine,” Greg cut in. Everyone glared at him and Jess called him a pig.

“What? It’s my favourite,” Greg stuck his tongue out and Jess returned that with a more of a disgusted look.

It was nothing new. Greg was a sweet guy, but acted like a silly kid sometimes. He would always bicker with Jess and everyone assumed that he just didn’t like the fact that she was taller than him. He was just 5’7”, which makes him the shortest guy in their group and them same height as Kia. Jess was 5’10”, making her the tallest girl in their group and the third tallest girl in the whole school. Jessica Newlands was the beautiful Amazon of the school, modelesque is every way. It's baffling that she was single.

“We decided,” Kia started again, “that instead of bringing goods, we would help you set up and then clean up in the morning.”

Devin’s expression softened, “Aww, guys...” The almost 6 foot tall boy went up and hugged Kia. She giggled under his bear hug. He always smelled nice, like fresh laundry.

“But we ain’t touching any puke. That’ll be all you, my friend.” Kyle patted Devin on the shoulder and walked into the foyer which opened up to the living room, kitchen and the stairwell to the second floor.

“Ok, that’s fine,” Devin agreed, running a hand through his messy, dirty blonde hair. “Hopefully no one throws up,” he said with a slanted smile. The house was very nice and quite large. It was good thing that there were no carpeted rooms in the house.

They helped Devin put away the expensive and delicate things. More and more friends arrived with food and drinks. Later on, the people that arrived were less like friends than they were acquaintances. By 10 PM, there were about 40-50 people in the house already. The kitchen island and the dining table were covered with bags and bowls of junk food and bottles of pop, juice and alcohol. The fridge was stuff with beer, that nobody knew who brought it. Practically everyone had a red plastic cup in their hands. Some people were walking around carrying their 6-packs or bottles of booze with them so that they wouldn’t have to share.

Kia walked by the basement stairway and heard loud music creeping up the steps. There was a bit of a dance floor developing down stairs, but mainly of slutty girls trying to grab the attention of boys that were playing video games and chatting. The main floor was a more quiet area where people gathered and chatted. In the living, besides the random mingling, there were some people playing with Devin’s Xbox and what looked like a game of strip poker, or the AC wasn’t cranked up high enough for them.

Kia went over to the kitchen island where Jess, Rachel and Chelsea were chatting. She joined them and for about an hour they hung out in the kitchen, chatting, gossiping and mixing weird drinks for each other. Kia and Jess both started to get the giggles: the first stage of drunkenness.

As Kia went off to the washroom, having to go upstairs since there was a line up at the main floor one, she started to feel tipsy. In the washroom, she saw the little grey litter box and thought about how Devin had to hide Tiger in his parent’s room.

Back into the hallway, Kia noticed a faint light through the bottom of the master bedroom door. Devin must have left some light on for Tiger. She slipped into the room, closing the door behind her. “Tiger, where are you? Maow,” she called in her weird way, looking around on the floor and by the chair next to the window.

“Meow,” she heard in a deep voice, definitely not from a cat. Quickly, she turned her head and saw someone sitting in the dim room. “Ah,” Kia jumped, “shit!” She panted, feeling her racing at 100 miles an hour. She spotted an orange blur jump onto the ground and run under the bed. Looking up again, she finally got a good look at who it was. It was Ian Foster. He was sitting on a bench in front of the vanity table in all his perfectly handsomeness. The dim lamps from the other side of the room highlighted his strong facial features. He was looking at her with amusement.

“What are you doing?” Kia asked, sounding breathless. Somehow she was panting a little.

“Nothing,” Ian shrugged, in his comfortable spot, leaning back against the table. His hair looked messy but purposely no doubt. He was wearing a dark green t-shirt and green and white plaid short, fitting of the day. “I walked by the room and heard some scratching on the door, so I opened the door and he came out, meowing at me. It turned out that he needed to use the little cat’s room.” He made it sound like it was something that people just did casually.

“Oh... ah, thanks,” Kia said, not looking at him. She walked over to the bed. “You shouldn’t be in here, you better go,” she said awkwardly as she looked under the bed and saw Tiger at the other side. She crawled over the bed and peered down at him. “Hey, kitty,” she said, petting Tiger on the head. “Did I scare ya?”

“Looked like I scared you more,” Ian said from behind her.

Kia had never realized how deep and smooth his voice was. She could almost hear the smirk let out those words. “Probably,” she said, simply. It was too awkward. She was crazy nervous. They hardly ever, like almost never, talked to each other in school even though they’ve been in a few of the same classes together throughout their three and a half year in high school.

“What are you doing here?” He asked.

“I came to do what you did,” Didn’t I tell him to leave already? Kia thought.

“Oh,” he trailed. “Are you and Devin together or something?”

Kia laughed internally. It wasn’t the first time someone had asked that. We were very close. Next to Jess and Rachel, Devin was her third closest friend. There was a time when Devin did like her: grade 10. They’ve know each other since grade 7 and she had never thought of him in a romantic way. Plus, she had a crush on someone else back then. They remained close friends and Devin had moved on since then, but he was single now. “No, we’re just really good friends. We and some other friend would hang out here a lot and we all just love his cat.”

“I see,” Ian said, sounding nonchalant about the reply to his question.

Kia ignored him and rubbed under the cat’s chin. “Aww, are you bored Tiger?” She asked in baby talk.

“I kept him company for a while,” Ian said and then suddenly, the bed creaked, dipping down to Kia’s left. She rolled over a little to her right and saw Ian crawling towards her.