Chapter 6: The First Guy to Walk in

I stared at the house in front of me, slightly confused. Isn’t this a house party? Why doesn’t it look like the ones in the movies? You know, with the red solo cups everywhere and the drunken girls giggling as they ran around. I turned to the girls who just smirked at each other before getting out of the car. They grabbed my hand and yanked me out as I stared at the house in confusion. What did I get myself into?

I stumbled out of the car even though I don’t have heels on nor am I drunk. I looked around and saw only two cars. I frowned. What kind of party is this? Don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t looking forward to watching teenagers make out or people dancing on each other- it’s just what I expected. The two girls giggled as they watched me while I struggled to put two and two together, whatever those twos were.

As we reached the large house’s porch, I looked back towards the cars and noticed a large black motorcycle beside them, it was hidden from my view a few meters ago but now that I’m noticing it, I’m putting the pieces together. Before I could speak, the door was opened and Shane was standing there with a smile on his face. “Glad you could make it.”

I turned around, flabbergasted; as I watched my friends walk around me and enter the house. I slowly entered the house as Shane held open the door patiently. “What’s going on?”

He smiled at me as he walked beside me. “Well...in the lunch line on Friday, Grayson thought that it’d be a great idea to have a party and your friends were smiling…a bit creepily, might I add. They offered to help set it up if they could come, not that they wouldn’t be able to come, but it’d be nice to have some extra help. So after deciding that the party would be at my place, we agreed to meet here. I gave them the address earlier today, around 11 o’clock,” he replied casually.

“So that’s why they were acting so suspicious,” I muttered. I heard a familiar voice singing and I groaned. “Does he ever shut up?”

“Unfortunately not,” Shane laughed as we entered the kitchen, where Grayson stood unpacking the drinks. I caught a glimpse of beer and I wanted to protest but I realized that it wouldn’t have been cool; besides, it’s not my party to interfere.

“Don’t act like you don’t like my voice, Audrey, I sing like an angel,” he proceeded to harmonize in an angel like manner. I groaned again and covered my ears.

“The horror, the pain, the agony,” I complained and I saw Shane laughing. I uncovered my ears and listened to his laughter as it resounded throughout the room.

Grayson was glaring at me. “You know what, how about we tell my good old pal Sha-?” I immediately cut him off, punching his shoulder lightly, pretending to be playful.

“Oh, Grayson, you know I was only joking,” I punched his shoulder again and he let out a pained laugh. Shane smiled at me.

“Well, Audrey, since you’re here to help- why don’t you help Grayson unpack the drinks?” Shane asked and I nodded.

“Okay Shane,” I responded as he walked into the living room.

Grayson started to mock me. “Okay, Shane,” His voice was falsetto. I glared at him as I ripped a package of twelve nonalcoholic drinks from the cooler. “I totally love you, Shane, but you’re so oblivious.”

I glared at him and lowered my voice a few octaves. “I’m Grayson and I can sing. La-la-la-la-la. But I’m really bad at it,” this caused Grayson to glare at me. “I also like to dance,” I started spinning around like a ballerina with my eyes closed as I frolicked around, spinning around on the tiled floor. “Tee-hee-hee, I’m Grayson the ballerina and I like to dance and sing.”

I opened my eyes and realized I was standing a bit too close to two guys. I slowly dropped my leg from the ballerina pose and backed up a bit. I recognized them as Kyle and Carson. I blew out a breath of air from the corner of my mouth. “Sorry about that.”

Instead of beating me to a bloody pulp, which they looked like they were going to do, they bent over in fits of laughter. Kyle looked up and pointed at Grayson. “That’s… so true.”

Grayson was fuming now as he glared at me. Carson was red faced and breathless. “’Tee-hee-hee’… priceless.”

I slowly found myself laughing at Grayson’s expense as he glared at the three of us. His hands were crossed across his chest, his muscles were bulging but I ignored them because the look on his face was completely hilarious. His mouth was formed into a scowl and his blue eyes were narrowed.

“You’re stupid,” he snapped angrily and I smirked at him as I recovered from my laughter.

Instead of having some cruel retort like he was expecting, I decided to say the first thing that came to mind. “Tee-hee-hee.”

His angry facade deteriorated quickly as the corners of his mouth quirked upwards. He bit the inside of his mouth to stop from laughing and he quickly exited the room. I couldn’t help but smile at the fact that I made him laugh. “You’re funny, Audrey.”

I turned to look at the two boys who were still chuckling lightly. “How do you know my name?”

“Well, for one, we’ve been in the same school for all of these years and two, you work with Grayson, so we hear several stories about you, and we've been to the library before. Don't you remember?” Kyle explained as he smirked at the latter.

I internally panicked. “Stories? What kind of stories?” Okay, so maybe the panic wasn’t only internal.

Carson leaned forward onto the island, scooting closer with every word “Oh, only how you like-,” he was cut off by Shane’s voice. My eyes were the size of saucers.

“Kyle! Carson! Get in here,” Shane called from, what I presume to be, the living room. Carson stood up and smiled at me.

“No, no, continue what you were saying, please,” I pleaded, nearly crawling across the island. He smirked and thumped the tip of my nose, causing me to retract my head.

“No, I think you know what I was going to say," he smirked and followed after his brother who left the room.

Grayson walked into the room while I was sprawled out on the island, head hanging low from aggravation. He sucked his teeth a few times while shaking his head. “Audrey, the party didn’t even start yet and you’re already drunk.”

I sat up quickly and glared at him. “I’m not drunk, you imbecile.”

Grayson winced and placed his hand on his chest. “That hurts, Audrey, that really hurts.”

~~~

“Where’s the bathroom?” I asked Grayson after 30 minutes of working. We’ve been here for forty five minutes and I’ve been waiting to go to the bathroom for more than half of it.

Grayson turned to look at me. “Go down the hall, up the stairs, take a right; it’s the first door to your left.”

I replayed the instructions in my head as I walked down the hallway. I walked up the stairs, took the right and turned to the door on my left. I knocked lightly and I heard the sink turn on. I waited patiently outside of it, leaning against the wall.

When Sandra exited, she turned and saw me. A smile found its way onto her face. “Audrey, guess what happened?”

I could tell by her voice that it was something good. “What?”

I was expected her to say something Carson did that she found cute. “Shane said you were cute.”

“Cute?” I asked her, leaning in slightly. “As in, little sibling cute, or 'I'd date you' cute?”

She grinned even wider. “'I'd date you' cute!”

I entered the bathroom and smiled to myself. I don’t like him as much as I did back in sophomore year but I might start liking him a lot more, now. I held back a squeal as I walked down the stairs and entered the kitchen, a grin on my face.

“Why are you so happy?” Grayson asked me as he sat on the kitchen island, his eyes staring at my face. He narrowed his eyes. “Are you… are you wearing makeup?”

I felt my face warm up as I shrugged. “Yeah, so?”

Grayson’s lips curled into a smirk. “I never thought I’d see the day when Audrey Peters wears make up,” I wanted to scoff. I wore makeup to the game the other day. He was probably more focused on killing me than the decorations on my face.

I glared at him. ”Shut up.”

He just continued smirking. “Will do.”

~~~

“I’m so bored,” I complained as I sat beside Sandra and Lola. We have to wait thirty more minutes before people start arriving.

Grayson smirked from the opposite couch. “We could always play truth or dare.”

Carson and Kyle nodded their heads quickly and I scoffed. “No thank you.”

I felt Sandra pinch my back and I narrowed my eyes at her. “Or at least, I don’t want to play.”

“You’re no fun,” Grayson complained. Shane was in the kitchen, getting us drinks. “I bet you’d play if Sh-.”

I cut him off hastily. “You know what Grayson? I’ll play," I retorted, earning a satisfied smirk from him.

Shane entered the room and handed out the drinks. He gave me my drink last and sat down beside me. I held back the stupid grin that was threatening to reveal itself. Grayson rolled his eyes at me and pretended to choke himself. “So, Shane, we were going to play truth or dare, you in?”

Shane looked around at the six of us, eyebrows furrowed. “Sure, why not?” His lips pulled back to reveal his white, straight teeth. I internally swooned.

“Great, I’ll go get the stuff,” Carson dived out of his spot on the couch and quickly ran into the kitchen. We all sat on the floor in a circle and I noticed Shane sat next to me again. Is it a coincidence? Carson came back with a ketchup bottle and a bag of chips. Why does he have the chips? I furrowed my eyebrows and he insecurely hugged the chips. “I’m hungry.”

I just stayed seated. I’ll choose truth every time. Grayson smirked at me and shook his head slowly. Did I say that aloud? I don’t recall saying it aloud. “The rules are: you can only choose truth three times before you automatically have to do a dare. If you refuse to answer a question, you have to do a dare and if you don’t do a dare…there’ll be…consequences," the way he said it caused an involuntary shiver to run down my spine.

Everyone nodded while I stayed silent, my back pressed against the couch. “I’ll start.”

Kyle spun the ketchup bottle eagerly and waited for it to land on someone. When it landed on Grayson, he frowned. “Truth or dare, Grayson.”

“Truth,” Grayson casually stated. I scoffed. Did he just choose truth? The way he was talking made it seem like he was going to choose dare every time.

Kyle rubbed his chin. “Is it true you dated Kayla Romano for 4 minutes?”

Grayson smiled smugly and shook his head. “It was 3.”

I narrowed my eyes at him. Kayla was Grayson’s first and last girlfriend, and she only lasted 3 minutes. Rumor states that he felt tied down in those three minutes. I personally think he just wanted to embarrass the girl; she had a humongous crush on him. She has always annoyed me, not so much now though.

Grayson grinned as he spun the ketchup bottle. The bottle slowed to a stop at Lola. She looked at the bottle and then at Grayson. “Truth or dare?”

“Truth,” She quickly replied without hesitation.

Grayson smiled. “When did you get your first kiss?”

His question was so innocent. It definitely shocked me. I glanced around the circle and saw Shane with his eyebrows furrowed. Lola hesitated for a moment as she furrowed her eyebrows, too. “Ezekiel Manning in the 9th grade.”

“Your turn,” Grayson replied as he nudged the ketchup bottle towards a suspicious Lola.

She spun the bottle. The game went on for a few turns before it landed on me. I was scared because Grayson was being extremely nice about his questions and even his dares. He made Sandra sing a song; he knew she could sing because she sang in the 10th grade talent show. It also happened to be Carson’s favorite song. I didn’t realize he remembered the talent show, but I guess he did.

When he spun the bottle and it landed on me, the innocent smile he had on his face disappeared almost immediately and it was replaced with an evil smirk. I’m guessing I wasn’t the only one that was shocked. Carson moved over slightly, nudging Sandra, who had a huge grin on her face. “What the…”

“Audrey, truth or dare?” Grayson stated simply but his words held much more meaning to me. If you say truth, I’ll make you tell Shane you like him, if you say dare, I’ll make you kiss Shane. If you refuse, you’ll lose either way.

I thought about it. I might as well pick dare, I’ll get to kiss Shane, right? “Dare.”

His smirk widened and he didn’t hesitate to dish out my dare. “I dare you to kiss the first guy to walk in the door, on the lips.”

“Starting when?” I asked him and he ran his tongue over his lips.

“Starting now,” he replied and I nodded. My dare would have to wait. We continued the game. If I’m being honest, I gave out lame dares and lame truths, but they were amusing. I made Kyle belly dance to Shakira and I even made Grayson mouth the words to Justin Bieber. That had everyone laughing.

I was nervous for people to start arriving. What if a weird, creepy, old guy walks into the door? What would an eighty year old be doing at a party? I shivered at the thought. We heard a car horn and Grayson smirked at me. “I’ll get it; get ready to kiss someone Audrey.”

He exited the house and we all went to wait by the doorway. Please be Francisco Lachowski, please be Francisco Lachowski. I wished a male model would walk into the house first but I was sadly mistaken. Grayson walked into the house and smirked at me. He held open the door for a few people. Grayson watched my reaction as the first guy came into view. A guy with a thick mustache and a beard that looked like he was smuggling all types of diseases in it, walked in. I noticed that he had a tattoo on his arm and his eyes were beady as he took in his surroundings. He looks like he's twice my age!

I whimpered and turned to look at the people behind me. Kyle was giving me a pitiful look while Shane was pressing his hand against his mouth, which was obviously open with shock. Carson was hunched over laughing loudly. Of course he’d find this funny. My two friends had looks of disgust on their faces.

Must find a loophole, must find a loophole, must find a loophole. I approached the doorway, towards the guy with the beady eyes. Grayson was watching me intently and so was the guy. I didn’t like the look he had on his face, either. Kissing him would give him ideas and thoughts, most of them being that I liked him and would want...more. The mere thought of it brought a shiver to the top of my spine. I wanted to puke. I’d rather dive into a pool full of venomous snakes than do what I’m about to do.

I angled myself in the direction of Grayson and he furrowed his eyebrows while a confused look took over his face. I finally was a foot in front of him. I stood on the tips of my toes and placed my arms lightly around his neck. “If you think I’m kissing him, you’re insane," I muttered as I leaned forward, greeting his lips with my own. The urge to retract from him was strong but the urge to show him that I wasn’t weak was stronger.

His hands were already on my waist when I pulled away. He was breathing heavily while he stared at me with a smirk etched onto his face. What I just did hit me like a ton of bricks. And again, I ask myself, what did I get myself into?