“Does it take a long time to dry?” I asked, scanning the nail polish bottles.
“Around ten minutes.”
“I have no interest in waiting. And you don’t have a black one,” I grumbled, pulling out a vape pen.
Jackson picked a red one.
“Come on, James,” Taylor cooed.
Taylor put her blond head on my chest. I felt a jump. She’d never been this affectionate with me. She was just wasted. Maybe she’d forgot to hate me.
“My hands are full, remember?” I grumbled, then turned on the vape pen and showed it to her between my fingers.
She grabbed my left hand.
“Your hands are so beautiful. Right, Jax?”
Taylor stared at him as Tiffany painted his nails.
“They don’t look like they’re painted right.” Jackson downplayed the compliment.
“You have to put the blindfold on for the game, Jamie.” Taylor’s usually biting and hostile voice was now as sweet as honey.
She went from treating me like shit to worrying about me like she really cared. But did anything she did surprise me? Everyone around me wanted something from me. Always.
“Don’t give me a hard time. Are we done talking about fucking hands?”
“What kind of game is it?” Jackson asked with his usual skepticism. The girls giggled.
“Don’t worry about it. We’ll blindfold you now. All you have to do is guess.”
Tiffany finished painting Jackson’s nails then pulled out the sleep masks Taylor used. They were pink and had the wordPrincesson them.
Jackson stayed still as Tiffany blindfolded him. Then she waved her index finger in front of him to make sure he couldn’t see anything.
I put the vape between his lips and pushed a lock of soft hair back.
“Don’t touch my hair, Tiff,” Jackson spat, shaking his head in frustration. The girls giggled as I looked from the mask to my friend’s mouth, stopping to gaze at his lip piercing.
“Let’s start with Jackson,” cawed Taylor excitingly, motioning for her friend to kiss him first.
Tiffany put the nail polish on the table and approached the couch. Boring.
I stopped her with my arm before she could get next to Jackson’s face, and whispered in Taylor’s ear, “You kiss him.”
Her eyes went wide and her lips curled into a disappointed grimace.
It was good to remind Taylor every once in a while that even though she thought she was my girlfriend, we weren’t together. And I certainly wouldn’t feel even the least amount of jealousy watching her kiss my best friend. It was almost more titillating than me kissing her myself.
She was still perched on my knee when she flung herself toward Jackson and pecked him on the lips.
“Who was it?” she asked after.
“Uh, Tiff?” he guessed unwillingly.
“Wrong. It was Taylor. You can’t take off the blindfold until you guess right,” explained Tiffany solemnly.
I saw Jackson puff up his chest then exhale. It was Tiffany’s turn, but to my surprise she didn’t move. She turned around to stare at me. For a moment her eyes lit up, and she exchanged an electrified look with Taylor.
