Chapter 28 Chapter Twenty Eight
I wasn't playing.
I'd made that clear from the jump, planting myself against the bleachers with my phone and a cup of God knew what in my hands.
Instead, I resorted to doing a quiet sweep of the room every few minutes to make sure nobody was doing anything weird or getting too drunk.
“Hey, you! Get away from there! Do you have a fucking death wish or something?” I yelled at a particularly drunk teammate leaning outside the high windows, rushing to shove him out of the way.
He raised his hand in surrender, backing away slowly with terror in his eyes, “Sorry, dude. Geez.”
I sighed with annoyance, pinching the bridge of my nose with my right hand.
It was bad enough that we were doing this here, if anyone managed to destroy school property because they were out of it, I’d be even more fucked than I was now.
So the game had started without me.
Alison had the bottle and Tyler was already leaning forward his full attention on her face, he had always developed a complete and total loss of all higher brain function whenever he was anywhere near her.
"Truth or dare, Ty."
"Dare." Didn't even wait for the full sentence.
Alison looked at him, grinning playfully, "Do you have a girlfriend, Ty?” she asked, blinking her eyelashes at him.
Tyler blushed a dark red, “I mean… Yeah, she’s right outside on her way here, but—”
“—Break up with your girlfriend,” Allison interrupted, “I’m bored. And do it here too, in front of all of us.”
The circle went quiet, watching to see if he would really do it.
Marcus turned to look at Tyler with genuine concern. "Tyler. Look at me. Do not do that, she’s a good—"
But no, the fucking idiot was already dialling her number.
"I will pay you," Marcus said. "Actual money not to do that, man."
It rang twice. Then Kayla's unsuspecting voice came through, completely unaware that her Sunday evening was about to change significantly.
"Hey babe, I’m almost at the gym, I can’t wait to see you--"
"Hey, so I've been thinking." Tyler cut in. "I think we should break up."
There was silence on the phone, and the whole circle held its breath.
"I'm sorry," Kayla said. "You think we should what?”
"Break up. Like end things. I think we want different stuff, you know? Like as people. You don't really do it for me anymore, and I really like Allison so…”
Somewhere through the phone came the distinct sound of a door opening, then footsteps approaching.
Then the gym doors on the far side of the room crashed wide open and Kayla stomped inside, her phone still pressed to her ear, her wild eyes scanning the room until they found Tyler sitting in the middle of the circle looking like a boy who had only just begun to understand the consequences of his actions.
“Holy shit, she’s here.” One girl said, raiding her phone to record the confrontation.
Tyler turned to look at her and their eyes met.
"You like Allison?" she said very quietly, her phone dropping from her ear.
"Kayla, hey, I didn't think you were actually…"
She crossed the room in six steps and slapped him so clean across the face that the sound rang off every wall in the gym. “You wasted my time for two years of high school, pretending to like me when you were into that slut instead?”
“Excuse me?” Allison gasped, offended.
“Save it!” Kayla glared at Allison, then to her now ex-boyfriend she said, “We are done, you absolute asshole. And don’t you ever call me again!”
Kayla turned and walked back out the same doors she'd come through, hurriedly wiping hot, heartbroken tears off her eyes on her way out, before slamming the doors shut.
Some students laughed at the scene, a few girls looked disgusted with Tyler while the rest just typed away at their phones, posting what had just happened on their social media.
Meanwhile, Tyler sat there with his hand pressed to his cheek, blinking like an idiot.
“So…” Marcus said, “That went well…”
One of Alison's cheerleaders turned to her, scandalised. "Oh my God, Ally. Why would you tell him to do that?"
Alison smiled, "I didn't tell him to do anything. He chose dare. And as for that Kayla girl, she’ll get what’s coming to her.”
Tyler watched Allison with her eyes, “So um… now that I’ve broken up with my girlfriend, can I ask you out on a date?”
Allison scoffed, “A date? With you? Not on your life.”
I checked my watch. I’d been planning to end this shitshow at 9, but it was only 8:17. That means there were 43 whole minutes left of this to endure. I groaned with annoyance.
Marcus dropped down next to me. "Hey, man. You should play."
"I'm fine here."
"You've been standing in the same spot for an hour."
"Someone has to make sure none of you idiots gets too fucked up tonight, especially that idiot.
We both looked at Devon, who was currently attempting to convince two girls from Westfield to climb up the bleachers with him, using hand gestures that suggested the negotiation was not going well.
"Devon is… drunk, but he has the alcohol tolerance of a grown man, he'll be—"
“Does he really?”
Devon's foot slipped on the first bleacher step and he grabbed the railing with both hands to catch his fall, laughing so hard he nearly went down anyway.
Marcus watched this happen. "Okay. But still. You're being weird."
"I'm fine."
He looked at me sideways, clearly not taking my word for it. "Is this about the girl?"
"There is no girl, forget I told you about that.”
"Right." He stood up. "Well, non-existent girl or not, you look like someone who needs a dare to take their mind off things, just saying."
He went back to the circle and I went back to watching the room and checking my watch, counting down to nine o’clock.
The bottle spun again, this time it landed on a girl I half recognised, a junior, Emma, who sat across the circle and said dare immediately.
Maybe she was trying to impress the older seniors. What a waste of time, Jace thought to himself, they don’t give a shit about you.
Alison looked at her with an approving smile, "I know! Send a message to your crush telling him everything you actually feel. No deleting, no editing, nothing. You show us the screen before you send it and then you send it."
Emma grimaced nervously and then picked up her phone.
She typed for a long time, and a group of girls hovered around her to watch her do it, giggling and repeating the words in the text,
“I’ve liked you since I first saw you, oh my God, how corny is that? One of Allison’s favourite henchwomen snorted, her friends laughing along with her.
“Hey, I think it’s a little sweet,” another one responded.
“Okay, I sent it,” Emma said, burying her face shyly in her hands while everyone whooped and cheered around her.
I heard a ping and looked down at my phone. It had just lit up with a message from an unknown number.
I opened the message and it was from Emma. Goddamn it.
It was a really long text message. It used the word feelings three times and the word connection twice and ended with an apology for sending it which kind of ruined the overall effect.
I looked up at her, and her face was still completely buried in both hands while she made a strangled sound, "Oh no, this is so embarrassing," she whispered.
The circle was looking between her and me as if it was the front row to a fucking concert, laughing and waiting to see what would happen.