"ottie, truth or dare?" Sophie asks her.

The girls came back a couple of days ago and in those past two days we have been taking every chance to hang out with each other before school starts again since our school gave us a week-long winter vacation for Christmas and New Year's.

Today is New Year's Eve and we decided to have a sleepover at Lottie's house, because her father is still in Scotland and he trusts Colette with the house. I'm pretty sure he wouldn't mind if we do a party or trash down the house, just as long as we clean up everything after we're done.

"Uh, truth because I'm too lazy to do anything," Lottie replies, before popping a chip in her mouth.

"Okay," Sophie says. "Percy Jackson or Harry Potter?"

"No," Colette whines. "That's way too hard."

"Just pick one, Lottie," Riley tells her.

She groans frustratingly, "Fine. Percy Jackson."

"See? That wasn't too hard," Sophie says.

"You guys don't understand the struggle," Lottie claims.

"Don't worry, Lottie. I understand it," I comfort her and she gives me a smile.

It really is hard to choose between a demi-god and a wizard.

"Anna," Riley says. "Truth or dare?"

"Dare?" I answer, questioning myself more.

"I dare you to..." Riley trails off, tapping her chin like she's thinking.

"I got one!" Sophie says excitedly.

"What is it?" I ask.

"I dare you to call a Chinese restaurant and order a pizza," Sophie grins.

I know it's such a ten-year-old dare, but frankly we are too lazy to do anything more exciting.

"Yes!" Riley shouts enthusiastically.

"Okay," I shrug.

Sophie gives me her phone and I dial the only Chinese restaurant I know in this city, M.Y China, then I put it on speaker. There's a huge chance they might recognize my voice because I eat a lot there.

"Hello. Welcome to M.Y China. May I take your order?" A girl with monotonic voice says.

"Hi. Can I please have one large vegetarian pizza?" I ask in a bit of a high-pitched voice.

Riley slaps her hands over her mouth to muffle her laughs, while Sophie nibbles on her bottom lips to contain hers and Colette stuffs her mouth with more chips.

"Ma'am, this is a Chinese restaurant. If you want pizza, call Pizza Hut," she states, before the line goes dead.

Riley, Sophie and I burst out laughing and Colette tries to hold her laughter in because of the chips in her mouth, but she ends up laughing too and the chips splatter out of her mouth, sending crumbs everywhere.

"That was amazing," Sophie chuckles, taking deep breaths.

"Yup," Riley snickers.

That's when three phones go off and Riley and Lottie grab their phones from on top of the bed and I hand Sophie hers.

"Wow, people are really having fun at that New Year's party," Riley stares down at her phone, scrolling through it.

"Huh?" I muffle out in confusion from the piece of cupcake in my mouth.

Huge chance we might all need to cleanse our stomachs at the hospital, by the time we're done.

"Some jock at our school is having a party at his house and everyone from school is there–well, except us," Riley explains.

Colette tosses her phone behind her and it bounces on the bed once, "High school parties suck anyways," she grabs a Ben & Jerry's ice cream tub and opens it, then she digs her spoon inside and shoves a spoonful of the chocolate fudge in her mouth. "They're all about drama," she continues.

"True that," I agree.

"Yeah, you guys are right," Sophie nods, turning off her phone and placing it on the bed.

"I mean, parties are stupid," Riley adds, placing her phone on the bed too.

They both look down and bite their lips, looking upset. That's the thing about our friendship. Sometimes two can agree on something, while the other two don't. Sometimes the four of us just have four different opinions, but that what makes our friendship kind of special.

Sophie and Riley are the party type, the sociable type. Colette and I prefer hanging out with each other, the without-other-people-sticking-their-noses-in-our-business type. In other words, the anti-sociable type.

I look at Colette and she looks at me in return. I raise my eyebrow and tilt my head as if in 'What should we do?' and she shrugs in response. I look down and furrow my eyebrows in deep thinking, then I switch my gaze back to Colette. She takes one look at my facial expression and she lets out a puff of air from between her lips.

Her head falls back in frustration, "Fine," she shouts and I smile.

Soph and Riles glance up from the ground and send her a look of confusion.

"We can go to the stupid party, but we're only staying there for a couple of hours and that's it," Colette tells them.

A beam of happiness appear on their faces and they hop up in excitement.

"Let's get ready!" Sophie grabs my arm to pull me up, while Riley grabs Colette's.

| | | |

"Hello?" A feminine voice speaks up on the other end.

"Hey, mum," I say, holding on the passenger's seat door as Sophie takes a sharp turn.

"Hey, honey. How is everything going at Colette's?"

"Um, quite good. In fact, we're kind of maybe going to a New Year's party at some guy's house," I say slowly.

And all I hear is a series of coughs on the other side.

"Mum?" I panic, "Are you okay?"

"I-I'm...fine, h-honey," she wheezes.

She takes a deep breath, then lets it out before clearing her throat, "What was that?"

"I'm going to party," I repeat.

"You're socializing?" She asks in surprise.

"No, mum. I'm just going to a party. I'm not socializing with anybody," I reply.

"That's still a good thing," mum says with excitement. "Go have fun, sweetie."

"Wait, you're fine with this?"

"Of course, Anna. You're a teenage girl, you have every right to have fun and let loose for a bit. Just don't get pregnant and don't drink, please," she answers.

"Yeah, I'm not doing that," I mumble.

"Well, go and have fun, sweetheart and be safe," she beams.

"Thanks, mum. I love you," I tell her.

"I love you too. Bye." She hangs up.

I don't even notice that Sophie parked the car, until I hear the car windows closing. Sophie turns to look me and Colette, letting a grin pull on her shiny light beige lips.

"You guys look hot. Don't worry. Riley and I promise to stay by your sides and if you feel uncomfortable in any way, just tell us and we can head out," she reassurs us.

"Yup, yup." Riley agrees, adding a fresh coat of lip gloss on her pink plump lips and pops the cap back on before she turns to face us as well and smiles. "You guys seriously look hot as hell."

I grin. "And you guys look amazing!"

Sophie is wearing a black lacy bodysuit and a pair of jeans that are hugging her legs and showing her curves. Sophie is really confident in her body if it's not obvious enough and sometimes I wish I have her confidence.

Her hair is in soft waves and she actually had to rush home to get that wig. Her makeup is simple, with little highlight covering her nose and the side of her face to give her mocha-like skin a glow and her beige lips glimmering from the nude lip-gloss she put on.

While Riley has a black silk dress on, showing her light brown legs and the leaves of the flower tattoo that's on the outside of her leg that stretched from her hip bone to the middle of her thigh. Her jet black hair is curled and her makeup is the complete opposite of Sophie's, not simple, yet elegant.

The eyeliner on her lids make her blue eyes pop out, the contour and the blush give her face a lift and she has her septum piercing on her highlighter-covered nose.

Colette however is in a sleeved black top, a black skirt and a pair of fishnets underneath them with Riley's wedge boots on. Her ginger hair with the dyed purple streaks is straightened and her fair skin is makeup free, with only some pink lipgloss on her lips and winged eyeliner on her lids.

They seriously look gorgeous.

The little hype-up conversation manages to give Colette a boost a bit as she speaks up, "we all look hot and we always do."

"True," I sing.

"Agreed," Sophie says.

"No lies," Riley adds.

"Welp, let's go," Sophie takes the key out of the ignition, rolling them around her finger before getting out of Colette's car; she had to drive since she's the only one with a driver's license who knew the address to this place.

The three of us get out of the car too and we start walking down the street since Sophie had to park the car about six blocks away from the house. There are at least a hundred cars parked in front of the mansion.

"Suddenly I regret being a nice friend," I gulp as the four of us stand in front of the huge house.

There are a few people on the front lawn, some of them are drinking and smoking, others are doing-censored-things, that involves making out and stuff. Some people are just hanging out together, probably the only sane ones here. Suddenly one of the guys that looked sane, starts spinning around himself really fast and he crashes right into the mailbox.

Or maybe not.

The house is glowing with lights and I can hear the low beat of the music from inside. It looks fun on the outside, but I'm pretty sure it's crazy as heck on the inside.

"I just realized that I meant two seconds instead of two hours, okay bye," Colette nervously rambles and turns around to leave, but Sophie grabs her wrist and pulls her back.

"Two hours, that's it," Sophie reminds her.

"Suck it," Riley joins.

"I don't wanna suck it, I wanna go back home," Colette tries to get out of Sophie's grip.

"You'll be alright, Lottie. We'll stick together and no matter what happens, we'll stay together," Sophie assures.

Colette lets out calm breaths. "Okay," she nods.

"Okay," Sophie confirms, letting go of her arm.

"Guys, I just remembered that my brother is inside," I blurt.

"Okay. Rule two, avoid Cameron and if he catches you, come up with a dumb reason," Sophie states.

"Got it," Riley, Colette and I say.

Sophie and Riley walk in front of us down the passage in between and I'm about to follow them, but Colette grips my arm tightly.

"Don't leave me," she squeaks.

"Come on, Lottie," I laugh slightly, then I hook my arm through hers and she keeps her hold on me.

We follow our two other friends until we make it to the front porch and Sophie pushes the slightly opened door and three things hit me: the loud music's beats that I can feel drumming inside my chest, my claustrophobia and the stench. The strong stench is an awful mix of alcohol, perfume and sweat and vomit. It's really that disgusting.

I feel my lungs squeezing and like I'm going to pass out and faint any second. The feeling of the numbness in my legs radiated in my whole body. My palms immediately start sweating and I rub them against my black pants. Practicing my breathing techniques, I inhale and exhale thoroughly.

It will be fine.

There are people on the dance floor, performing every type of dance and some of them look like witchcraft dancing. Others are sprawled on couches, drinking whatever is in their cups or just talking. Others are taking corners to let out their sexual frustration, not going to elaborate on that.

I feel Colette's grip on my arm tightens and I squeeze hers in return of comforting her.

"Come on, guys!" Riley shouts over the music.

The four of us push through the sea of humans and make our way to a safer room where the music is still audible, but quietened down a bit. There are people sitting on the couches and chatting. And I'm super glad that I didn't see Cameron yet or anything. I take notice of Zach, Alex and Luke sitting on one of the couches and Jennie and Seth on another one.

Seth's eyes wander to me and I lock my eyes with him for only two seconds, before looking away. I still feel his gaze, burning right into the side of my head, but I just ignore it.

"Hey, Soph," a guy suddenly approaches us. "Riley," he turns to my other best friend.

"Hey, Jase," they both say.

"Who are your friends?" He nods his head towards Colette and me.

"This is Anna and Colette," Riley introduces us, pointing at each one.

"Nice to meet you. I'm Jason," he says.

"Nice to meet you too," I reply, since Colette is too traumatized to say anything.

"So we'll be playing Spin The Bottle in a few minutes. You guys in?" Jason points at the four of us.

"Sure," Sophie pipes up.

"I'm in," Riley adds.

"I guess," I answer.

"Um...I think," Colette stumbles.

"Awesome," Jason says. "The drinks are over there if you guys want anything," he points at the table filled with glass bottles.

"Great. Thanks, Jase," Riley tells him.

"Enjoy!" He smiles, before walking away.

We walk to the drinks table and I grab the Coke bottle. I have this feeling it might be spiked, so I give the bottle to Sophie so she could make sure nothing is in it and she told me it's fine.

I grab a red plastic cup and pour some of the Coke in it. I take a sip from it and appreciate the frizziness of the soda at the back of my tongue.

Colette takes the Sprite bottle and after she checks it's okay–also by Sophie–she pours some of it in her cup. Sophie and Riley decided earlier that they're going to get drunk, so I'm not surprised when they each grab the vodka bottle. Colette is the designated driver anyways.

"Come on, guys! We are gonna play Spin The Bottle!" Jason announces.

Everyone in the room scrambles on the floor, forming a huge circle. The girls and I sit down on the floor and I cover my face with my hair while doing that and when I make sure Cameron isn't here, I push my hair curtain away. That's weird. Where is he?

"I'm sure everyone knows how the game works. Let's start this," Jason rubs his hands together, before spinning the green bottle in the middle.

It lands on one of the jocks and a cheerleader and they both kiss for exactly forty seconds. Okay, forty seconds, I can do that.

It goes on like that for half an hour, boys kissing girls or boys kissing boys or girls kissing girls. It landed on Sophie and Riley twice, but it never did on Colette nor me. I was really grateful, if you ask me.

In the middle of the game, Alex kissed a girl, but the weird thing is that I didn't feel jealous about the whole thing. It felt...normal. I have to admit, I felt a small tug on my heart, but that was it.

The bottle keeps spinning around like it's a whirlwind, it's green color forming a circle until it starts slowing down it's pace when the spout comes closer to me.

No no no no.

I start freaking out, but it passes me and lands on Colette. Her eyes widen and she looks up to see who she's going to kiss. Zach Thompson.

"Shit," she mumbles, before taking a deep breath, handing me her cup and standing up.

She walks over to Zach and crouches down in front of him, then she gets down on the floor kneeling.

"Eager already, are we?" He teases her.

"Shut up, Thompson," she rolls her eyes.

He chuckles, then he cups her face and I can hear Sophie and Riley's squeals, while I stare at them wide eyes.

He leans in close to her, "Save it, Ginger," he tells her in a low voice that I almost miss it.

He kisses Colette and she kisses him back, placing her hands on his shoulders. My jaw drops open and so do the girls'. We look at each other before we look back at our friend. The forty seconds pass and they both pull away.

"I think you're the one who should save it," Colette says, grinning at him.

She stands back up and takes a seat beside me. She grabs the cup from my hand and sips from it casually, like she wasn't just kissing Zach a second ago and was about to faint five minutes ago. If I was in her place, I would have been freaking out by now.

Time passes by and thankfully, the bottle never once lands on me and the girls get bored after awhile so we decided to go dance.

Low by Flo Rida blaring on the speakers, the beat drums louder in my chest as we get closer to the crowd on the dance floor. My friends and I start dancing, moving our bodies to the rhythm. I'm more stepping and stopping than dancing; I hate dancing in public, the only time I really get comfortable with dancing is when I'm in my room.

However, the girls don't mind dancing in public. In fact, if someone told Sophie to go twerk in the middle of Wal-Mart, she'd do it. She has a lot of confidence and she has done it before. Colette is the kind that would just dance lightly while Riley is a full on belly dancer. Her Brazilian origin comes out in dancing.

I'm boring as heck, I know, but my shyness doesn't really let me display any form of fun in front of anybody.

My feet start getting tired from all of the stepping and stopping I'm doing and I inform the girls that I'll go get a drink.

"I'll come with too," Riley shouts over the music.

"Same. I'm too tired," Colette adds too.

"Sophie?" I ask, turning to her.

"I'll be fine. Don't worry. You go ahead," she waves us off and I nod.

The three of us head to the kitchen, pushing through people and Riley turns around the corner when she suddenly shrieks.

"Cameron!"

Colette and I freeze in our places, pushing our backs against the wall.

"Hey, Riley," I hear my brother saying and I hold my breath. "I thought you were with the girls and Anna at Colette's house?"

"Oh...yeah-um-I was just getting something from Jason. I'm actually leaving now," she lies, as Colette and I peak from around the corner to see what's going on.

"In a dress and your hair curled?" He asks with a raised eyebrow. We're so busted.

She looks down at her clothes, then she looks up again and nods, smiling, "Mhm."

"I see," he nods back, looking up for a moment and as soon as he locks eyes with me, he frowns. "Hey, isn't that-" He steps forward.

"Uh..." Riley trails off, before grabbing Cameron's face and pressing her lips against his.

"Oh my, God," I squeak.

"Interesting," Colette nods slowly.

"That's seriously a lot of kissing for one night," I hiss.

"Hey, guys. What's-" Sophie stops midway when she sees Cameron and Riley.

"Wow," her eyes widen.

"Tell me when they stop," I grimace, turning back around and pressing my back against the wall. I don't really need to see my brother and my best friend kissing.

"They're done," Sophie announces and I peek from the door once again.

"I-I'm sorry about that," Riley stammers. "I think the alcohol got in my mind a bit."

"Uh-it's fine," Cameron rubs the back of his neck. "I gotta go. I'll see you later, Riley."

"See you," she flicks her palm to the right in a small wave.

Cameron turns around still in daze, judging by the look on his face. He walks out of the other door and I let out a huge sigh of relief. I honestly have no idea why I came. Parties are not my thing and they never will. This is the last time I'm going to attend a party. Ever.

Riley turns her body to us and smiles sheepishly, "That happened."