My fingers sting from the impact against Evan’s face. I look over at Zach. He’s grinning stupidly at Evan. I sigh.
Lindsay leans over and whispers to me. “I’m bored. Sadly your bitch slapping has brought me no joy.”
I laugh as she stands up.
“Let’s play Seventh Spin!” Everyone comes running over to us. “Okay so does everyone know how to play Seventh Spin?” There’s a mixture of ‘yes’ and ‘no’. “Okay so it’s spin the bottle normal yeah yeah yeah BUT on the seventh spin, you will not only kiss but go in that closet with the other person. So it’s a mixture of Spin the Bottle and Seven Minutes in Heaven. Everyone who wants to play, stay here. If not, go to the, well, anywhere else.” A couple of dudes laugh.
Some people start walking away. The football dudes move the furniture away. Then we all sit in a circle, girls next to boys and boys next to girls. Boyfriends and girlfriends across from each other.
We go around the circle, laughing and screaming for the first six. Then the seventh spin. And it’s Zach’s turn. He spins and the next person is Lexi Manchester, who’s a complete jerk and completely wasted so that’ll be fun. She attempts to get up but immediately topples over.
“Just have Ari go in there with him.” Duke Bernadasci says. He’s on the football team with Zach.
I get up and Zach escorts me to the closet. He closes the door and sits on a stool. “So, seven minutes all to ourselves.”
“Yeah.” I lean into him. He cuddles me gently and combs his fingers through my hair. His head is resting on my shoulder.
“I love you, Arianna.”
“I love you too, Zachary.” We both hate our full names but whenever the other says it it’s cute.
“Babe, Posie stole that Starbucks gift card you accidentally left in my room, by the way.” He says randomly. Zach is like that. He always has something to say, whether it’s important or not. It’s not cocky, I just wished he would talk about me more.
“Shut up. You're ruining the moment, Zach.” He laughs and his strong arms pull me in closer. Most people love talking about how he is so strong. Most people say his muscles are his best feature, although others spread rumors about what they think is really fueling them. My favorite Zach feature is his eyes.
If you really look at them, you’ll see the insecurity. I just want to find it. It’s like I barely know Zach, by all the secrets he keeps. Like, his dad is kinda rich and always going on business trips. His sister, Posie, is kind of dark and moody and probably already lost her V-card. I can barely remember his mom. She was super sweet and would pick Zach and Posie up from school every day throughout elementary school. But then she disappeared. I mean, when I go to Zach’s house, I see signs that two women lived there. Fluffy pillows on the couch, Netflix had a Mother profile. I clicked on it once while Zach was taking a shower and it said she was in the middle of The Good Place which is a pretty recent show. Zach has a cool room that has those mom features and Posie too. But I heard she has awful migraines and stuff so she stays inside most of the time.
“One more minute!” Someone calls through the door. I pull away from him.
“Thanks.”
“For what?” He asks with a playful grin.
“For always being there for me. I love you.”
“Of course. I love you, too.” He says, pulling me in for another hug and kissing the top of my head.
“Ten, nine” Zach pulls away. He runs his fingers through his hair and sighs.
“Eight, seven”
“I wish I could pause this moment forever.” He looks at me. “Us. That’s all I need.”
“Six, Five”
I decide to take a dive. “What about your family? Like your mom?” He stares at me with a worried expression.
“Four”
“What do you”
“Three”
“Know about”
“Two”
“My mother?”
“One.” And the closet door swung open.
“Nothing, I know nothing, which is why I’m asking.” I snap. His eyes flick over to the group of teenage onlookers.
“She’s sick.” He mumbles.
“Oh, I’m sorry. That’s what I heard as a rumor. That she gets, like, bad migraines.”
“Yup.” He stalks off and grabs a beer. I count that one out to be his fourth or fifth beer tonight.
By now some people have left, some are asleep or passed out of sofas and the floor. I excuse myself to go to Lindsay.
“I think we’re gonna do it soon.”
She hands me a piece of gum. Then we go to the bathroom and reapply our makeup. I put on my signature red lipstick.
“I have birth control at my house so come there in the morning. Technically it’s my mom’s but she hasn’t noticed when I use it.”
“Ok. Thanks.” Zach is slapping a couple of guys’ hands. Then he makes eye contact with me and starts walking over to us. I walk over to Zach.
“You wanna go in there?” He nods his head towards a bedroom.
“Sure. It’s pretty hectic out here…” He grabs my hand and leads me to the room. Once inside, Zach closes the door.
“For privacy.” He explains. I sit down on the bed with my legs crossed. On his way over, Zach takes off his shoes so I follow in his example. He sits down on the bed next to me. I slide my feet onto the bed, leaning forward as to let him get a peek down my shirt. I take one hand and put it on his shoulder as I lean towards him. Then our faces are together and I’m on top of him.
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