I awkwardly gave a wave, lips pressed together in a pained smile. In the movies, you can reinvent yourself when you start high school. But in a town as small as Wells Canyon, the reputation you earn as a little kid tends to follow you for life, unless you do somethingreallygossip-worthy later on. Though I preferred being a generic “weird girl” over being Garrison the nose picker.
Cass grabbed my hand, tugging me through the sea of teenagers to the bar fridge. Cans of root beer acquired, we cracked open the tops and each took a long sip while surveying the land. For the next hour, she and I took up residence on a hot pink sofa close to the candy bar, making up pretend conversations for other party guests and consuming a concerning amount of gummy bears. Cassidy chatted with people as they perused the candy selection, and I became well acquainted with the Barlows’ corgi, Gordon, through a shared love for Cheez-Its. I was doing a fantastic job of avoidingDenny, maintaining my loser status, and giving myself a stomachache, when Megan popped up out of nowhere.
“A bunch of us are going to play a game in the next room, if you guys want to join.” She slipped her straw between her lips and took a long swig of fruit punch.
“We should probably participate insomethinghere.” Cass grabbed my hand, yanking me to my feet.
With a groan and a longing glance back at Gordon snoozing on the couch, I followed my bestie across the room and through a wide archway. The Barlows’ basement was likely bigger than my entire house, with doors and hallways heading off in every direction. Based on the yoga mats propped up against the wall, I assumed the room we’d been summoned to was their very own yoga studio.
Who has a yoga studio in their house?
The other participants were already seated in a perfect circle, which suddenly gained an awkward lump when Cassidy and I forced our way in.
“What are we playing?” Cassidy asked, shifting on the floor to get comfortable.
The circle shrugged in a wave, rocking into Megan.
“Well, my suggestion was charades, but some people think that’s too boring.” Megan rolled her eyes. “So, if you have any suggestions.”
Cassidy’s squinted gaze moved around the circle and she opened her mouth slowly. “Well, we could play…” Her tongue darted out to lick her bottom lip, leaving space for the last words to tumble out. “We could play Seven Minutes in Heaven.”
I spun so hard to look at her, my neck cracked. Eyes wide, I mouthed, “What the hell are you thinking?”
Neither of us had kissed anybody yet. I’d thought about it a lot over the summer while hanging out alone with Denny, but it never happened. And I was absolutelynotabout to letthe first time be in a musty closet at Megan Barlow’s party, with some random boy I didn’t like.
Apparently, that didn’t matter anymore. I was outnumbered. The boys were all eager to participate. The girls were meeker about it, but they clearly wanted to play, too. An older girl—Jessica, I think—explained the rules while Megan left in search of paper to write our names on.
Sitting in uncomfortable silence, breathing in the noxious mingling of Victoria’s Secret perfume and Axe body spray in the air, I waited as pairs of names were drawn from two metal mixing bowls. With the number of tiny, crumpled strips of printer paper dwindling, my heart rate was exponentially increasing. And in the midst of drying my clammy hands on the tops of my jeans, I heard Megan announce that Denny would be heading into the hallway closet.
I refused to look across the circle at him. If I watched him walk into a closet with a girl, I’d probably throw up gummy bears and Cheez-Its all over this nice hardwood. Simply thinking about it made it impossible to focus on anything beyond the rushing blood behind my eardrums, and the hazy vignette around my field of vision.
Was I about to pass out?
“Blair,” Megan shrieked.
After a beat, Cass tapped my foot with hers. “It’s your turn. You okay to go?”
I blinked away the blurry vision, swallowing the hard lump in my throat when I realized why everyone was staring in my direction. Denny was standing by the closet, eyes trained to the floor, white knuckles gripping the door frame.
The only thing worse than Denny being in a closet making out with a random girl was him being in that closet with me.
I shakily scrambled to my feet, my entire body on fire as I moved across the room. Although not a single cell in my body wanted to be in a closet with Denver Wells, it would be more embarrassing to be the one person who refused to participate.So I stepped into the small space, which was humid with sweat and hardly large enough for two people, and Denny slid in after.
When the door shut, Megan’s voice permeated the air. “Seven minutes starts now!”
I don’t know how long we stood face-to-face, in perfect darkness, with only the sounds of our breathing. But finally, Denny lightly cleared his throat. “It smells really bad in here. Like fried egg and bologna sandwiches left in a hot car for two days.”
“That’s very specif—”
“Don’t ask me how I know what that smells like,” he interrupted.
Scrunching my nose, I held back the smile threatening to blow the lid off my sour mood. I missed him, and I hated how difficult that made it to hate him.
His hot, peppermint-laced breath hit my cheek with a long exhale. “Are you mad at me or something?”
“Yeah, I’m mad at you or something. You’ve been a real…piece of moldy cheese lately.” I bit my lip to stop from tearing a strip off him.
“Moldy cheese? How have I been the moldy cheese when you’re the one avoiding me every day? The only time I seem to exist is when you glare at me in math class.”
