“Umm, give me a minute.” Jared reclines, rubbing his chin. “I play guitar, I own a cat, and I’ve eaten a liver.”
A strange silence rolls over the group, and my heart rate spikes.
Ryan speaks up to end the silence and get back to the game. “The lie is that you play guitar; hasn’t everyone eaten an animal liver of some sort?”
I laugh a little nervously at that statement, because it was weird as fuck. Jared looks at me bizarrely, takes a sip, and passes the bottle over to Ryan.
Ryan takes it and, without hesitating, he announces, “I sent my boss a dick pic accidentally, I can quote the entire Dirty Dancing movie, and I still have a list of the women I’ve slept with.”
Gawking over at Ryan in disbelief, my mouth hangs open, because I really have no idea what the lie is. Georgia blurts out, “The list of women is the lie.”
Ryan dips his head in agreement, downing a hefty gulp of whiskey as I whack Ryan on his chest, and he chuckles as he slides out of my reach.
Georgia takes three big sips and looks at the bottle. “Looks like we need another.” Getting up abruptly, she saunters over to the cooler and opens a new one.
“Alright, my turn,” she declares, plopping back down in her seat. “I still sleep with my baby blanket, I love haunted locations, and I hear evil voices.”
My eyes widen at that unusual statement, and Cora turns her head, snickering.
AJ immediately declares with confidence, “You love haunted locations.”
The whiskey strums through me, and my vision wobbles. I take it as a joke, and so does everyone else, all of us laughing lightly.
Georgia lifts the bottle to her lips and drinks deeply, then hands over the whiskey bottle to AJ.
I squirm in my seat, wondering what he is going to come up with, knowing he’s the most likely to come up with something outlandish.
“Alright, alright, give me a second.” He sighs. “I can name every serial killer in the U.S., I love walking in complete darkness, and I’ve fucked someone without eyeballs.”
A devilish grin creeps across his face while he looks right at me, then at Ryan, daring us to be the ones to guess the lie.
Fair enough, that was creative in a deranged way.
The suspense around the fire thickens, and the silence returns. I steal a glance at Jared, and his face is completely stoic, then I peek at Georgia, and for a few moments, her eyes widen. Chances are, her startled expression went unnoticed by everyone.
The hairs on the back of my arms stand up. Honestly, I don’t know what the lie is; All of them are fucked up.
Jared pipes up. “The eyeballs one man; come on, that’s absolutely diabolical, and you’re scaring the girls.”
Disregarding AJ and his twisted mind, I let out a breath I’ve been holding, and Ryan squeezes my hand as if to bring me back down from my mind overanalyzing everything.
AJ gets up and stalks over to the grill, wobbling as he goes, which explains his fucked-up thoughts. He’s clearly drunk.
“Hope you guys are hungry for some hot dogs. I made them myself. Beef hot dogs only, none of that processed shit,” Jared informs us.
Ryan rubs his hands together with a look of appreciation. “I love beef hot dogs.”
“I brought some baked beans for a side this time. I’m beyond starving after lying in bed all day, nursing this hangover,” Georgia reports.
AJ flicks his hand, pointing toward the prepared table. “By all means, load up your plates, buffet style.”
Ryan rushes over and does just that, adding two hot dogs onto his plate. Stacking my plate as well, we all find a seat at the table.
“Can I get anyone a beer, more whiskey, or a seltzer?” Georgia asks.
Ryan throws his hand up. “I’ll take a cup of whiskey.”
Realizing I need to slow down, or I’ll be lying in bed all day tomorrow too, I answer, “I’ll grab a seltzer, are they in the cooler?”
