I Spun the Bottle

I Spun the Bottle: Chapter Five

Song for this chapter: “Teenage Dream” by Katy Perry

I wandered away from the group and headed towards the beach shore. My head was spinning from the bottle I had chugged down earlier. My vision was blurry, and I felt light as a feather. I grinned to myself, stupidly. I bounced along the shoreline of the sandy beach. I felt the chilling cold water hit against my feet, and I shivered, backing up a few feet away from the water.

“Hey, why’d you leave?”

I turned my head around and saw two people. My eyes widened when I realized that both of the people were Jace. I tilted my head to the side and giggled uncontrollably.

“You have a twin?” I slurred, stumbling forward a few steps. I nearly fell flat on the floor, but Jace’s arms grabbed me before I could do a complete face-plant.

When I looked up I gave him a cheeky grin. The sides of his lips turned downward into a frown. I checked to the left and right, trying to find where his twin was, but I he was nowhere in sight. Why didn’t he want to meet me?

“Where...did he go?” I asked, looking back up into his eyes. His eyes were a beautiful brown color; they were like the color of milk chocolate.

“I don’t have a twin. You’re seeing things cause of the beer.” A grin slipped onto his lips this time. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone with such a low tolerance before.”

I pushed myself up from Jace and tried to stand upward without toppling over. The task was proving harder than it sounded. The freezing water lapped against my ankles, causing me to shiver. The coldness of the water seemed to sober me up a tiny bit, but not much at all.

“So, what brings you out on such a lovely day?” I inquired in a sing-song voice. I twirled in a circle, letting my arms spread out and slice through the cool fall air before nearly falling over again.

A chuckle left Jace’s lips, and I paused to look at him. “It’s nighttime, Lyn.”

“Hmm?” I paused to stare up into the sky. The cloudless night exposed beautiful twinkling stars that shined down on us. “Oh.”

“You’re cute, Lyn.”

Despite my muggy mind, I blushed. I still wasn’t used to the feeling of being complimented out of the blue. “Thanks, you’re cute too.”

I grinned, not sure why I wasn’t embarrassed to say that, like I normally would. A small smile appeared on his lips, and his used one of his hands to twirl a lock of his dark brown curl around his fingers.

“Why thank you, Lyn.”

I returned the smile and used my right hand to grab one of his. I slipped my hand in his and pulled him me. We walked along the beach shore hand in hand, and I felt the breeze caress my hair and face as we came to the end of the cove. I didn’t want to go back just yet, I didn’t want to go back and probably get hazed even more by Taylor. So, instead I plopped my bottom on the sandy floor. I yanked lightly on Jace’s hand that was still around mine, urging him to sit with me. He sat down next to me and stretched his long legs out in front of him, the small waves barely touching the bottom of his flip-flops.

“It’s pretty out tonight.” I whispered, looking up once again at the starry night.

“Yeah, I guess so. I don’t pay much attention to the sky.” He shrugged, glancing up at the sky too.

“Mm, I guess guys don’t care about pretty things.” I murmured, feeling the buzz starting to die down. I could feel a forming headache taking over the light as a feather feeling.

“Sure we do. I care about pretty girls.” He smirked, causing me to give him a slight eye roll.

“That so does not count. I care about pretty guys too.” I answered, thinking about all the cute celebrities I’ve had a crush on since I was about a six-year-old girl.

“Ahh, well I’m glad you care about me.”

It took me a moment to realize what he meant by that, but I lightly shoved him to the side when it dawned to me. “Ha ha, very funny,”

I used my hands to rub my temples, my head was starting to kill me, and I doubted that Jace carried around aspirin on him.

“Are you sobering up?”

“Yeah, I think so. My head is pounding like….like someone banging on drums.” I said, trying to think of something to compare to my pulsing head.

“Darn too bad, I was starting to like the mellower Lyn,” he teased, muffling my dark hair.

I grunted in agreement, but couldn’t find anything else to say. I pulled my knees up to my chest and rested my head on them, hoping it would calm my head down a little. It didn’t work, and I was starting to feel nauseous.

“Do you want to go back? I think one of the girls should have some Advil or something with them.” Jace suggested, nudging me with his shoulder.

“Mmm, no, I don’t want to go back.” I replied hastily, but my words sounded muffled against my knees.

“If you say so. I’m fine with just staying with you here.” He teased again, and a small laugh managed to escape my lips.

“Stop making me laugh, it hurts.”

“Sorry,” he apologized, “How about a massage?”

“No, I’m fine. I just need to rest for a bit—Hey!” I nearly jumped when I felt his hands touch the back of my neck. I pulled his hand off my neck and frowned. “I said its okay.”

“Nobody ever rejects someone like me when I offer a massage.” He returned my frown, feigning hurt in his eyes.

“I just did.”

“I realize that.” He rolled his eyes, grabbing one of his curls in his hand again.

The conversation died down after that. I concentrated on my aching head while Jace just sat there next to me, quietly. It was strange how he was staying near me, while the others were partying as if there was no tomorrow. I lifted my head ever so slightly so I could see how the party was doing. We were pretty far from the blazing bonfire, so the only thing I could make out was the shadowed figures dancing around it. On the other hand, I could hear the noise clearly. There was laughing, giggling, and shouting— definitely lots of shouting.

“Why aren’t you hanging out with Cam and them?” I inquired suddenly, causing Jace to glance at me.

He shrugged, nonchalantly. “Designated driver,”

I gave him a skeptical look; he did not peg me as one who would be a designated driver. “Really?”

“Really,” he gave me an amused smile. “Let me guess, you didn’t think I would be the designated driver.”

“Yeah, you know, I just thought that you’d be the first person going wild at something like this.” I gestured to the bonfire with the still screaming people around it.

“Not really, I don’t like to drink…for special reasons.”

“Oh,” I answered. I didn’t want to seem like I was prying, but I was curious to know his reasons. Jace’s eyes dimmed, almost as if he was going through some kind of flashback. I decided not to ask the question.

“I see love birds.” A low voice chimed, causing me to look at the source. My eyes landed on David, his eyes were watching Jace and I with amusement, and I could tell by just the way he stood that he was at least slightly drunk.

“Shut up, Davy.” Jace ordered, standing up from his spot and dusting off the tiny grains of sand off his body.

“Don’t call me Davy, Jacey.” David, responded, taking a step forward toward us.

“Don’t call me Jacey, idiot.” Jace answered, pushing David back, lightly.

“Don’t call me idiot, retard.” David said, pushing Jace back.

“Don’t call me retard, stupid.”

“You two just never shut-up.”

All three of our heads turned to the source of the voice and we found out quickly who it was. It was Cam, he was frowning at the other boys, but it was easy to tell that it was only half-hearted. Jace and David backed away from each other, David going behind Cam, while Jace stood right next to me. Unexpectedly, I felt Jace grab ahold onto my arm.

“I have something very important to tell you guys.” Jace harrumphed, gaining attention from Cam, David, and myself. “Lyn and I have decided to start dating.”

At first I nodded, until the words registered into my brain. I did a double-take feeling my eyes nearly bulge out of my eye sockets. When did we decide that?! I definitely was not there when this agreement happened.

“Wha—?” I said, clearly taken aback. “When did this happen! I don’t remember saying that I wanted to go out with you!”

Jace feigned hurt on his face as he pouted. “So, you don’t want to go out with me?”

“I—I never said that, but I—I mean. I-I—stop making me confused!” I finally yelled, feeling my brain hammer against my skull with much more ferocity then it had only a few moments before.

The three boys erupted into barks of laughter as I watched them, dazed. Jace let go of my arm and patted me on my back, harder than he probably intended to.

Between Jace’s gasps of laughter he said. “Man, Lyn. You should of seen your face! It—“ he paused to take another breath of air. “was hilarious!”

“No it wasn’t.” I breathed, finally understanding their cause of laughter. “I thought I did something while I was drunk—and can you guys stop laughing!”

The three boys obeyed, well at least they attempted to. Cam bit his lips shut, but after only a few measly seconds he let out another chuckle through his lips. David and Jace covered their mouth with their hands, but after Cam blew his cover, they joined in too.

I huffed in annoyance at the three immature boys. It wasn’t even that funny, in fact, it wasn’t funny at all. All they did was make me look like an idiot. This is what I get for trying to think of them as my friends. I started my way back to the bonfire. I didn’t want to be around those guys right now, even if it meant that I had to be next to Taylor herself.

“H-Hey, Lyn! Where’re you going?” Someone called to me, probably Jace. “C’mon we were only messing around with you a bit.”

I continued to stomp towards the large fire, ignoring my protesting head. Finally, they gave up on me and decided, I wasn’t worth their time. But, after I walked another ten feet, I heard multiple silent footsteps behind me. I tilted my head to the side to see what was going on. They were coming near me, all three of them wearing the same mischievous smirks. My instincts automatically told me that whatever they had planned in mind wasn’t going to be good.

I started to take longer strides, and hurry my pace up a bit, but their footsteps sounded even closer than before. I took off on a complete sprint, hoping that I would make it to the bonfire before they got to me. Why were they doing this to me? All I wanted was some peace and quiet! By the time I had taken three full leaps they had already caught up to me and grabbed me by the arms and legs.

“Let go!” I yelled, glaring daggers at whoever was hold onto my right arm. I quickly recognized the redhead and shot him a pleaded look. “Please let go Cam.”

He shook his head sideways, a smile drawling on the corner of his lips. “Let loose a little Lyn. It’s fun.”

“N-No it isn’t.” I gritted my teeth.

“Nice polka-dotted undies, by the way.” David interrupted, causing me to look down at the guy holding my feet.

I felt my face turn ablaze as I tried to kick at David. “Why are you looking there! You’re such a pervert!”

He chuckled, easily dodging my aimed kicks. He’s the worst! I tried my best as I tried to cover up my undergarments. Only he would look down there. Being preoccupied by David, I didn’t realize that we had stopped moving.

“Davy, stop being a perv and hold onto her. She’s kicking too much.” Cam ordered, shooting David a look.

David shrugged. “It’s not my fault. She’s trying to aim for my face.”

“Who told you to look at her underwear?” Cam answered, giving him an eye roll.

“It’s kind of hard to miss when she’s wearing something so short.”

“Yeah, yeah,”

“Can you guys put me down now?” I asked in an annoyed tone, glancing at the three guys, giving a glare to David as he gave me a grin.

“Only if you promise not to run.” Jace explained.

I clenched my jaw in frustration. If they did put me down of course I’d take off, but since they were guys, I figured I wouldn’t get very far before they caught me again. From the corner of my eye I could see the orangey flames, where there were still a bunch of yelling and laughing emitting from it. How could they not notice three guys and one girl missing from the group? Maybe they did notice we were gone but were decided they didn’t care. I figured the latter.

“I promise.” I finally muttered, feeling uncomfortable in the current position I was in.

“How do we know you’re not lying?”

“Let me down! I said I would run already!” I spat, feeling my head reel from my sudden outburst.

“Okay, okay,” David answered, muttering a few things under his breath that I couldn’t quite understand.

He abruptly let go of my legs, making my feet collide with the sandy ground with a dull thud. Cam and Jace let go of my arms as soon as I got my bearings on the ground. I turned to see that we were back at the shore of the beach.

“Now what?” I inquired, curious to see what they had in mind.

All three of the boys smiled at me before they pushed me closer to the small waves of salty water lapping against the wet sand. I knew what we were going to do as all of them started to take their shirts off.

“We’re swimming.” We all said in unison, their voice more cheery than mine.