Bugsy crawled under the coffee table and poked her head through my hand of cards, oblivious to the fact that she was bending them outward and displaying them to the very competitive girls sitting on the floor in our approximation of a circle. Her wet nose pressed down on my forearm as she dragged her tongue across the length of it. Serena cracked up at the sight while Nicole and Aubrey pushed themselves up from the couches they had been resting their backs against. They became intently focused on memorizing the cards in my hands and noting any potential matches they could have. After a long whine of hers, there was little I could do other than relent to her demands and pet her. With the love and affection she so desperately desired being acquired, she closed her bulging eyes and snuggled into my lap. 

“Seriously, Bugsy?” I continued to run my hand over her head, softly flicking at her ear with my pinky finger. “You’re ruining any chance I have of winning.”

To be fair, with Dad going on a trip and me spending most of the day with Nicole and Aubrey, it made sense that she would end up rather lonely. Still, I knew that losing this game was going to cost me dearly with the stupid stipulation Serena put on it. The first one out has to agree to do whatever the winner says; she probably knew damn well that I was going to end up too distracted to pull out anything but a last-place finish. And why had I agreed to something so childish in the first place?

“She’s kind of a velcro dog,” Aubrey said. “Also, do you have any kings?”

I scowled and forked over the pair I had in my hand. “You know I do.”

“Hey, it’s not that bad.” Serena grinned widely, and I had a feeling that my feelings were about to be hurt. “It’s great that there’s a girl who wants something to do with you.”

“I’m not sure if you’re an idiot or if you’re purposefully going out of your way to shit-talk half of the room here,” Nicole muttered before looking directly at me. “Got any sevens?”

With great restraint, I nicely handed over the card instead of tossing it like a shuriken at her. I suppose I was simply a kind person.

“Nice.”

She laid down the four ‘seven’ cards she had on the tabletop in a neat pile next to the other two books of cards she had. It was a significant lead with Aubrey and Serena only having one book of cards to their name. As for me, I had zilch and a hand full of revealed cards that everyone was mercilessly taking advantage of.

The game carried on and sadly the tides did not turn in my favor. If anything, I was bullied out of the game almost immediately by the pair of Nicole and Aubrey. Yet, Serena was not to be counted out. She had been working on her own plan and slowly whittling down the other two, likely remembering what cards they were pulling from me. It wasn’t long until Aubrey joined me in irrelevancy, and we turned our focus to the main players remaining. They had tied at five stacks each, but it was clear who the winner was going to be since it was her turn and only one type of card remained in play.

Serena hopped to her feet, taking a small victory lap around the living room. She nearly stubbed her toe on one of the couches in the process, which would have served her right. Instead, she collapsed onto the couch to my right with a smug look. “Hah, I win!”

“Yes, yes, your majesty. We shall always remember the great and powerful Serena: master of Go Fish and other mostly luck-based games.”

“Damn straight! And don’t you forget it!”

I blanched. “I’ll mark it down in my diary. Now, what exactly can I do for you?” 

“Go get me a beer bottle please.”

I could only raise a single eyebrow at her bold request, and the other two reacted similarly. “Um, no? My dad would kill us.”

I knew at the very least that I would be a dead man walking, anyway. Not that I needed to convince myself of any reason to refuse her; I didn’t enjoy being around drunks.

“What?” She pouted at me like a kicked a stray puppy, which I totally hadn’t. In fact, I was nicely pampering Bugsy right now. “There’s not even an empty one lying around we can use?”

I blinked owlishly. “Serena, what exactly are you trying to accomplish?”

“I want to play spin the bottle, obviously.” She bit her bottom lip and scrunched up her face. “Like the truth or dare version, though. I don’t need to see any of you making out in from me unless you want me having nightmares for a week.”

“I was wondering if you were turning into a little rebel on us because that was quite a roundabout way of getting to that point,” Aubrey said, voicing what everybody else was thinking.

“Eh, I think Grant understood me.”

Aubrey and Nicole looked at me, and I just shook my head. Sometimes it was best to roll with the punches, as crazy as they may be.

“Right… but, aren’t we a little too old to be playing truth or dare?” Nicole asked.

“Aren’t we technically out of the age demographic for Go Fish too?” Serena replied.

“Fair enough. I’ll go grab a bottle.”

“There should be some hidden away in the garage somewhere,” I said, correcting her when she headed for the kitchen. “Dad likes to drink, but he… they might be pushed into a corner or something. Try looking behind some of his tools and crap.”

Nicole nodded and turned around walking out of the living room and into the short hallway before turning into the garage. Aubrey pattered Bugsy’s back, which she seemed to enjoy if her grunts were any indication. “You sure you’ll be ok with this?”

“With what?” I asked, gathering the cards together and putting them back in the box.

Serena kicked her feet, letting her heels tap on the legs of the couch. The leather creased and shifted under her as she shifted forward to barely manage to plant her feet on the ground. It was strange how I had never noticed how tall our couches were, yet that didn’t appear to be what she was thinking about. “Grant, why don’t you pick what we do instead?”

“Why? No, it doesn't matter actually. You won, so you got to pick what we were going to do. That was what we agreed on, right?”

“I don't want you to be uncomfortable. Won’t be any fun that way.”

“Let’s at least use a different bottle, yeah?” Aubrey said, going for what would be a good compromise had it honestly bothered me.

I sighed. “You both are too observant for your own good. While I appreciate the concern, I don’t need it. Seeing an empty beer bottle isn’t going to send me spiraling or anything.”

“But there must be a reason your dad–”

“Miss Halsey drinks around us all the time, and I never sweated it.”

“You did try to hide her flask from her on the trip,” Serena pointed out.

That was pretty astute of her, and I was surprised anybody had picked up on that. I hadn’t sat next to her for the sole purpose of blocking her line of sight from the flask, but it had been a large motivator. Glass clinking against wood shook me out of my thoughts, and I looked up to see Nicole clenching the beer bottle by its neck. “Any reason you didn't speak up if you hated it?”

Her firm glare demanded an answer, but I figured it was time for action. After all, it seemed like my words weren’t doing any good here. Snatching the bottle from her, I rolled it around my palm, marveling at how worn down the label had become. Then, I placed it on the table and gave it a good spin. It rotated quickly on the smooth surface, becoming nothing more than an amber blur. When it did finally settle, the base of the bottle pointed at Serena and the top was firmly in my direction.

“Great, this works out perfectly. I’m not sure how the rules exactly work, but you can go first since you’re our big winner.”

Exhaling loudly, she placed both her hands on the “Fine. Truth or dare?”

“Truth,” I replied easily. There was no chance in hell I would dare choose a dare from her with all the inane stuff her demented mind could come up with.

Her emerald eyes glanced away from mine and took in the still bottle. “Tell me something about yourself you’ve never told anybody else.”

LonMair399

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