The Domino Effect

It’s not like my brother’s never thrown parties before.

Believe me, I’ve had my share of helping my twin sibling Penn clean up the house after a massive bash, but I was never one of the people humping myself against a stranger while the music blasted full-volume. No, I was one of those bookworms, who would stay cramped in her room doing homework while Cole, my brother’s best friend, shouted, “Beer Pong!”

So as I go downstairs and come face-to-face with a party I can’t say I’m surprised. But what I am surprised at is that everyone in the party seems to be total foreigners. I have never seen these people in my life and I sure as hell know that Penn, even though his popularity rating is through the roof, doesn’t either.

Here I am, dorky Adelaide Faulkner (Addie for short), clad in my Mickey Mouse pajamas and reading glasses, going downstairs to find my Blaze Domino notebook.

Blaze Domino. Now that’s a man.

Not only is he the hottest 17 year old actor on this planet, his gorgeous role in Blood Sucker made me burst into hysterics. He has his own foundation promoting abused animals, his home is extremely eco-friendly, and, most importantly, he’s single and ready for the taking! Not that I live anywhere near him nor does he know I exist but I SWEAR TO YOU that my new name will be Addie Domino.

“No! Put that down!” I shout, spying a tall buff guy reach into the living room drawer and pull out my Blaze Domino notebook.

“That is mine!” I yell, snatching the notebook out of his hands and leaving a bewildered expression on his face. “Blaze Domino? Seriously? Wanna have sex?”

“WHO ARE YOU?” I respond. He just shrugs.

“I’ll take that as a no then.” He saunters off towards a girl with abnormally large boobs and with a little bit of chatting and whispering, he’s leading her upstairs. My room, presumably.

“Penn!” I shriek.

“Penn I’m going to kill you! Hypothetically speaking of course!” The last part of my sentence gets swallowed up by the loud music.

I weave through body masses making out and dancing before I reach my brother and his best friend Cole, sitting in a circle with other strangers with a bottle in between them.

“Spin the bottle? Really?” I mumble, kicking him in the back of his head. He rubs it slightly before turning around to face me, his green eyes matching mine. We actually look tremendously alike, down from our similar sharp cheekbones and hazel-green eyes. The only thing that’s different though is that Penn’s hair is extremely light brown, while mine’s extremely dark.

Cole winks at me but I ignore him, sitting down next to my brother. “Penn what the hell is this party? Exams are tomorrow! And I thought spin the bottle was only for 13 year olds.”

Penn offers a sly smile and shrugs. “All the more reason to. Addie, come on, loosen up. Play a little. It’s 7 minutes in heaven combined too, so it should be entertaining.”

“What? No! Penn, I’ve got to-”

“Pff. You’re already too smart. I bet you Blaze Domino would love to see you join in.” Cole states, interrupting me while smirking at my notebook. The whole circle looks at me and smirks, staring as if I’m a second grader crushing on some celebrity.

One, I’m shocked that Cole actually complimented me, much less talked to me. Two, I need to gain my dignity back, so I step into the circle while the boys holler.

“OK sis. Why don’t you go first? And it can’t land on me.” Another round of laughter by the group. It’s unusual how Penn can charm people so easily while I have the charisma of a biology textbook.

I take the bottle, turn it, and watch it spin, and spin, and spin…

And land on Cole.

Oh Lordie.

Whistles erupt from the crowd and pretty soon Cole lifts his eyes from the ground, sees the bottle, and slowly smiles. “Go on then.” Penn suggests.

Well, not really “suggests.” He pushes us into the coat closet and locks the door from outside. “7 minutes!” I hear him call.

I kind of stand against the far wall, not taking my eye off the new carpet my mom recently bought. I don’t hear anything from Cole. I guess we’re just going to stand here.

Suddenly, I hear footsteps and see Cole’s red shoes coming towards me. I look up and watch Cole come en route for me with his blond hair flopping and brown eyes sparkling under the Home Depot lighting.

“Cole, what the-”

And he kisses me.

He cups the sides of my face delicately and circles his thumb around my cheeks. I’ve never kissed a boy, and before this I was almost certain it was never going to be Cole. I mean, come on. He’s popular, athletic, and hell! Don’t even get me started on his bone structure. As he continues, I notice that the kiss isn’t lust-filled, like how I imagine most coat closet make outs are. It’s like he’s holding me.

And I’m not sure why.

He finally pushes away and looks at me. I look at him. The silence is unbearable.

“Um, I know this is 7 minutes in heaven, but-”

“I know, I know.” He says, flopping down on the floor and running a hand through his hair.

“It was totally out of line, and I’m sorry that I surprised you, but I don’t regret it.”

WHOA! Now that’s what I call an Earth shattering revelation!

“Um…what?” I ask. Wow. You’re witty.

With that, Cole stands up and locks his eye with mine. He confusedly smiles. “Addie, are you blind or something?”

My jaw drops open. He laughs and runs his hand through his hair again, something I’ve always thought adorable. Oh my God, did I really just say that?

“Addie, I’ve like you ever since 3rd grade when I went over to your house and you punched me in the gut because I called you Penn’s doppelganger.”

A piece of hair falls to my face and I push it back behind my ear. I look at him, perplexed. “What? But you barely even talk to me!”

Cole laughs. “I know. Penn isn’t the most strategic matchmaker.”

I cross my arms over my chest. “You’ve-you’ve liked me?”

He nods.

“And Penn knew?”

Another nod. This time, I crouch down on the floor burying my face into my hands for a while. I stand back up. “How come you never told me?”

Cole shrugs and scratches his neck. “I never really knew how to approach you. I mean, here you were, this insanely beautiful, perfect girl who had guys crawling over you, but Penn always flicked them off so that I could be with you. And Penn on being Cupid? Holy shit- er, I mean crap. I know you don’t like boys who curse.”

These goes that feeling. My stomach seems like it’s going to collapse and my heart’s thumping. Fast. “How do you know I don’t like boys who curse?”

“20 Questions much?”

I huff a breath out of my nose and fold my arms across my chest. The nerve of this guy. “Are you kidding me Cole? You’re the one who kept your feeling from me since the third grade and suddenly kiss me when we’re stuck in a closet together! I think I have a right to ask questions!”

A chuckle escapes from his lips. I clutch my Blaze Domino notebook even tighter. This is all just too nerve-wrecking.

“Well, you never cuss when you stub your toe, you always yell out random stuff, and when Penn says ‘fuck’ you cringe mostly.” I cringe at “fuck.”

Another laugh escapes from Cole. “You’ve really paid attention to me, haven’t you?” I ask, biting my lip. He hangs his head but pops back up and nods.

For some reason, this makes me smile and I stare up into his light (extremely light) brown eyes and trail his perfectly sculpted Roman nose and his lips…the lips that recently just gave me my first kiss. I step closer. “Creepy. But cute.” I counter.

He laughs-that irresistible laugh-and steps closer too. He takes a deep breath.

“Addie, to me you are strong-willed, independent and smart. You’ve got the coolest pajamas, your reading glasses are adorable, and your smile lights up the whole room. I don’t think you realize how beautiful you are, OK? I can get lost in your green/hazel eyes, whichever color it is, forever and your dark brown hair just has the prettiest highlights under the light. And I know that you’re probably going to Blaze Domino in the future, but until he proposes, could you do with me instead?”

I stand there for a few seconds. I mean, here’s Cole Napier, who I didn’t even know knew my name, who just poured his heart out to me.

But I take a deep breath. I do a little neck stretch. I take more breaths. “What are you doing?” He asks.

I let go of my notebook and rest my hands on his shoulders. “This.”

I plant my lips firmly on his. He seems a little shocked at first, but then he wraps his arms around me and kisses me eagerly, sliding his tongue around and burying his hands into my hair.

Then the door bursts open. Perfect timing.

“Penn! Dude, what the fuck? I-I mean, what the heck?” Cole retorts. I peek around and see Penn staring at us in the most disgusted look I’ve ever seen on his face.

“Look, you have to help me clean this house or my parents will stone all of us.” I walk out the door and find the house completely empty.

“What happened to the party?” I ask.

Penn scoffs and goes into the living room, yelling, “You explain my mad matchmaking skills!”

I turn to Cole and see him smiling. “This party was an act. We went around the corner to every freaking store and told everyone there was going to be a party here. Then Penn and I would trap you into playing Spin the Bottle and then…you know…”

I rest my hands on my hips and scoff. “Why did you just invite random people?”

“Ryan Kramer likes you. If he heard about the party here I’m pretty sure he would’ve come here and ruined our plans.” My mouth gapes open once again.

“Ryan Kramer likes me? As in the Ryan Kramer? The same Ryan Kramer who is swim team captain, valedictorian and has had tons of sex?” I look at Cole and see him looking at the ground in disappointment. He nods.

I laugh and step closer to him, propping his head back up with my finger on his chin, and stare into his eyes. “Well how did the bottle land on you?”

Cole reaches into his pocket. “Paper clip. Don’t you just love magnetism?” We both laugh together, and before long, we’re just looking each other. Cole snakes his hands around my waist.

“I’m so glad that you’re attention is finally on me for once and not on that stupid actor on Blood Suck-”

“CLEAN!” Penn shouts, interrupting Cole. I pull away from him and start picking up trash, cleaning rugs and recycling bottle of beer.

In around 30 minutes, the house looks spotless. Sure, our garbage cans are overflowing with red party cups and girl panties, but unless you really looked, you’d think that we spent the whole night playing some sort of board game.

Cole picks up his jacket, glancing at me through the corner of his eye. “Walk me to the door?” He asks.

I lean against the door frame while Cole looks at me from outside, just staring at me as if I’m some magnificent creature or something along those lines. “Don’t make me see a used condom on the steps tomorrow, OK buddy?” Penn shouts from the stairs.

I blush from embarrassment, but Cole just offers a shy smile. Slowly, he pulls out something from his pocket: my Blaze Domino notebook.

“You forgot this in the closet.” Is it just me or did his cheeks go red?

I hastily grab it out of his hands and fling it into the house, not caring where it goes. For all I care, Blaze can sniff my-

“So I heard that Blood Sucker 2: Revenge of the Coven is coming out soon. Are you going to go see it with anybody?” He remarks. I smile.

“I don’t think I am.” Cole’s face drains of all happiness, and now he just looks sad and humiliated, all the while still managing to be adorable. I laugh.

“I just think the storyline is way too cliché.” I contort, crossing my arms in front of me.

“Well, what’s a love story that’s not cliché?” Cole asks.

I tap my head slightly with my index finger. “A love story that’s not cliché? It’s hard to come by those, you know. Well, there’s this one story. I think it’s pretty cool. So, there’s this guy who’s best friends with this guy, who has a twin sister. It turns out that the guy has had a crush on his best friend’s twin sister for a long time, and so to get them together, the twin brother created this fake party and shoved them in a closet together, where he professed his feelings and they kind of lived happily ever after.”

The look on Cole’s face is priceless. His joy seems to be overflowing. “You’re right. That story’s out of the ordinary.”

We laugh together, and before I know it, Cole is looking at the ground, breathing in and out. He finally pops his head back up.

“I was wondering, Addie. Movies-You and I-Us? Sometime in the future? W-Would you like to?” He says, scratching the back of his neck. It doesn’t really register in my mind that Cole Napier, the great Cole Napier, is actually nervous on asking me out on a date!

I smile and cup his face in my hands. “I’d love to.”