I Spun the Bottle

I Spun the Bottle: Chapter Seven

Song for this Chapter: “Turning Tables” by Adele

“No no no no no!” I shook my head side to side as fast as I could without giving myself whiplash. “Would you guys please stop asking me now? I already said that I’m not going to say yes.”

“Lyn!” The red-headed girl, who I now knew what her name was Penny, frowned at me. “The game isn’t that hard to play. All you have to do is spin the bottle and then when it lands on that person yo—“

“I know how to play. I just don’t want to play. Really, I don’t mind just watching you guys—and see, look you’re holding the game up already.” I interrupted her, gesturing to the formed circle behind her that was waiting impatiently to start the game.

She followed my gaze and sighed. The red head now realized that I wasn’t going to change my decision anytime soon.

“You’ve never been kissed before have you.” Penny said more than asked, lifting her gaze from the floor.

My face flushed red, and acted as an answer to her true accusation. I didn’t get a word out before she began giggling. I slapped my hands to my cheeks, trying to get the evidence away from my face, and tried to keep my face straight.

“It’s not like this’ll count as your first kiss Lyn, it’s just for fun. Why don’t you think of it just as practice?” Cam suggested. I noted that he was trying to keep a straight face, probably to keep me from feeling bad, but it was failing miserably because underneath his thin layer of deception laid a smirk.

“But it’s not practice.” I deadpanned.

“I said think of it as practice.”

“But it isn’t.”

“Just think of it that way.”

“But it still won’t be.”

“God, Lyn. Are you always like this?” Cam brought a hand up to his face, pinching the bridge of his nose.

“Like what? Thinking things through and showing that I’m the only one here that’s being responsible.” I demanded, shooting him a grim look.

“Yes! Exactly like that! You never let loose. You’re at a high school party for crying out loud. Mamma and Papa don’t even know you’re here, so why not let loose huh? Why not for the first time in your life enjoy a party? It’s probably the last time you’ll ever get out anyways.” Once last of his words came out of Cam’s mouth, he almost instantly looked guilty.

“Oh, shit, sorry Lyn. I-I didn’t mean tha—“

I brought a hand up to stop his apology dead in its tracks. “No, it’s fine.”

Cam’s almost harsh words seeped through the goodie two shoe barriers I always held up, and made their way to the irrational part of my brain, the part that I usually kept under lockdown day and night. He was absolutely right. My Mom and Dad didn’t know where I was. For all they knew, I was still at home sleeping the night away. And when was the next time I was going to sneak out of the house and go to another high school party?

It was time I, Carolyn Cindy Summers, let loose and enjoyed this party.

“Okay, I’ll play.” I mumbled, quietly.

At that moment, I received disbelieving looks. Even Taylor, who didn’t even seem like she was paying attention to us anymore, turned her head to me with a slightly ajar mouth.

“Really?” Cam and Jace inquired in a dubious tone, simultaneously.

I bit my lip, and before I could fully think about the situation I was getting into, I said. “Really.”

A little suspiciously, both of their faces lit up as they grinned at me.

“Yes! Okay, now let’s get this game g-g-g-going!” Penny exclaimed, adding some dramatic effect with the last word. Her skinny fingers clasped around my wrist and she pulled me towards the circle. “Here you can sit next to me.”

Penny dropped down onto the sand, and patted the empty spot next to her. Something in the far back of my mind warned me that what I was doing was foolish and completely reckless; however, I managed to push those thoughts out of my mind as best as I possibly could until they were just barely audible whispers.

Jace, Cam, and David sat adjacent to me, getting comfortable in their positions. I noted how the sand darkened and stuck to their wet shorts. It didn’t take me long to notice that there was a certain someone who was missing in the group. The bleach blonde, teenage girl that held something against me was one of the only people that didn’t join in the circle.

That person was Taylor.

Curiously, I looked around the area, trying to find the particular blonde. Why isn’t she here? This seemed like something she’d definitely want to do. My questioned was soon answered when I saw a limp body collapsed against one of the folding chairs to the far left of my peripheral vision.

She must have knocked out from all that drinking or something, but seeing her like that had a great effect on me. There were no words to explain how relaxed I felt when I apprehended that she wouldn’t be bothering me anymore—well at least for tonight anyway.

“Hellooo anybody home?” Penny’s voice snapped me out of my blissful moment.

“Huh? What?” I blinked.

“I said do you want to go first?” She repeated her question, cocking her head to the side.

“Me?” I pointed to myself, lamely.

Penny answered my look with a who-the-heck-do-you-think-I’m-talking-to look. “Yes you as in the girl with the long brown hair, wearing a way too big of a shirt.”

A frown found its way to my lips as I gripped the fabric of the shirt Jace gave me. Then I glanced over at the owner of the shirt, and he was watching me without his shirt on. I mouthed the words “thank you” and he nodded like it was no big deal. I figured he’d be shivering at least since he did just go for a swim.

“So is that a yes or no? Hello? Are you even listening to me?” Penny waved her hand in front of my face and I responded by turning my head towards her.

“I’m listening to you, and I think I’ll pass. I’ve never actually played anyway.” I shrugged, trying to seem indifferent, but I actually didn’t want to go first. I was letting loose, just not that loose.

“Really? You haven’t played before? Well, I guess you wouldn’t have cause this is like the first party you’ve been too.” She paused to refill her lungs with oxygen. “Well, I’ll explain the rules to you okay?”

I bobbed my head up and down and replied. “Okay.”

“Well, step one is obviously grabbing the bottle in the middle, and then you spin it.” Penny reached towards the middle of the circle and grabbed the empty, clear beer bottle. “Looks like I’m going first, ready boys?”

The guys in the circle cheered happily. It wasn’t hard to tell that most of the guys were interested in Penny. She was extremely pretty, and her attitude seemed to brighten up anybody’s mood, even mine.

With a sly smile, Penny used her pale hand to twist the bottle in the middle. She didn’t seem like she spun it as hard as she could; actually, it appeared as though she was aiming for someone specifically.

The bottle spun only a total of five full rotations in total, each time the velocity decreased. On the sixth spin, it glided to a subtle stop, and the mouth of the bottle pointed to one person. That person was Cam. Cam raised his right eyebrow as he noticed that he would have to kiss Penny. A pleased grin was in pursuit after the slight eyebrow lift.

My curious eyes drifted from Cam to Penny, who wore an almost replicated expression of his. As the two moved the center of the circle, another wave of howls erupted from the boys; however, this one seemed more half-hearted then the others. David slapped his friend on the back, roughly, and Cam retaliated with a small shove, his eyes still trained on Penny.

“Oh, and Lyn?” Penny said, her back now faced to me.

“Yeah?”

“The kiss has to last at least ten seconds and it has to be on the lips, so there are no pecks on the cheeks or anything, ‘Kay?” I imagined her face frowning as she finished. “Those are for like first graders.”

Without thinking, I mumbled. “I didn’t get a kiss on the cheek when I was in first grade.”

It didn’t take long for me to realize that Penny was no longer listening to me, when I saw her lips pressing against Cam’s. I watched the circle, looking for their reaction. A few of the girls were blushing at the sight of the two lip-locking, while the others just grinned encouragingly at them. My cheeks flamed, joining me with the few that were blushing, and I felt awkward watching them kiss.

Each second ticked by and I was beginning to notice that they were going over the time limit. Penny and Cam finally parted, and my counting stopped at twenty-two seconds.

“Wow, I thought you guys would never stop.” Jace teased, shoving his elbow into Cam’s ribs.

Cam winced at the movement, but didn’t strike back; instead, his eyes were still trained on Penny. I knew that these two had just sparked something with their kiss.

“Penny?” I whispered, taking in her dazed expression.

“Mmm?” She smiled as if she wasn’t really listening to me.

“Are you okay?”

“Mm, yeah, fine, just fine.” She nodded, finally peeling her eyes away from Cam.

“It’s my turn!” The guy next to me exclaimed, already reaching towards the bottle in the middle.

He spun the bottle eagerly, and then sat back, waiting for it to stop on a girl. It didn’t take long for the spinning bottle to reduce to a delicate stop. It landed on a girl, to the left of Penny. Surprisingly, the girl let out a sigh of annoyance. In my opinion, I thought that the guy next to me was pretty good looking.

“Let’s get this over with.” The blonde girl said, flipping her hair over her shoulder arrogantly as she finished her sentence.

As they migrated towards the middle of the circle to start their kiss, I turned to Penny. “Does she hate him or something?”

She giggled in response and shook her head sideways. “It’s actually the opposite of that. Paige really likes Jeremy, but she thinks that if she acts the opposite of what she’s feeling then he’ll notice her. It’s been working for the most part, but she can sometimes go over the top.”

“Really? Why doesn’t she just tell him that she likes him instead of acting like a… mean person?” I finished hesitantly, not really wanting to say the bad word.

Penny shrugged indifferently. “Who knows? Maybe it’s cause she likes to play hard to get. Either way, she usually just does it for a one night stand.”

“A one night stand?”

“Yep, you know doing the deed?” She wiggled her eyebrows and I understood what she meant.

“Oh! That.” I scratched my head awkwardly, kind of regretting that I brought up the topic of the girl Paige.

“You’re so innocent Lyn!” Penny exclaimed, grinning at me. “Don’t worry though, I’ll teach you all that you need to know, ‘kay?”

“I’m not that innocent.” I muttered.

“Yeah you are. Very innocent, but hanging out with Taylor and her gang should help you fix that.” She winked.

“What if I don’t want to fix that?” I frowned, glancing back at Paige and Jeremy, who seemed to just be finishing up.

“Too bad—look it’s your turn. Spin the bottle Lyn, spin the bottle.” She chanted, nudging me.

A surprised noise escaped my mouth when Penny pushed me over. “Wha—how do you know it’s my turn to go?”

“You didn’t want to be the first girl, so I went. Now it’s your turn, so spin the dang bottle already Lyn, and stop trying to stall.” The redhead urged me, knowing what I was doing.

“Fine, I will.”

I reached for the bottle, my fingers gripping around the cool glass. Everyone’s eyes were on me, all of them were scrutinizing every moment I made. My now sweaty hands fogged up the bottle from the inside, and without dwelling on the situation any longer, I spun the bottle.

The bottle didn’t spin as fast as I thought it was going to, but it moved at a graceful speed. Maybe it was just my imagination, but I couldn’t a hundred percent sure. My heart accelerated with each slow rotation it did and I could feel it almost pounding out of my chest. I wouldn’t be surprised if Penny could hear it.

How long had it been spinning for? To me it felt like it was a million years, but I knew for a fact that couldn’t be true. Then everything stopped all at once before speeding up to normal speed. The bottle pointed to one person. For a moment, I didn’t want to see who it landed on, but that was childish thinking. So, I lifted my eyes from the still bottle, and it landed on the person who was going to take my first kiss.

He grinned at me his irritatingly handsome grin, his eyes twinkling with anticipation, while my heart skidded to an abrupt halt.