I didn’t have any right to be jealous. Did this change my feelings? No, it didn’t. Not even the fires of Hell would be enough to erase the feelings I’d tried my best to extinguish.
I was a mess on many levels. Feeling jealousy, when I had no right to, was just one small part of the vast chaos inside me.
“Thanks for that asshole,” Di grumbled.
“Always.”
When Di ended the call, he started arguing with Bren about whether the challenge counted. In the end, Di drank his glass of gin. Of course, not before my brothers pestered him to reveal who the mysterious guy was. The banter, the lines they threw his way, and the advice on how to make that person notice him made it hard for me to breathe. By some miracle, I kept my emotions at bay. Luckily, they stopped when they saw how uncomfortable Di was.
We rotated three more times, doing all kinds of stupid things, and somehow, Di, Bren, and Andras ended up drunk as hell. They either chose not to make the challenge or tried and failed spectacularly. Luc was a bit tipsy. Wilder, on the other hand, hadn’t even taken a sip.
It was time for the second twenty minutes of the game. Seeing Andras, Bren, and Di stumbling they way to the center of theroom, I could bet all my money that they didn’t stand a chance of winning.
Bren pulled out another bowl. This one was smaller than the previous one, and we started all over again, this time answering truths while trying to walk in a straight line. Wild set up the improvised line on the floor. After all, he was the only sober one among us. No surprise.
Bren went first. He was probably the drunkest of us all, though, it was debatable. Andras was right there with him, neck and neck for the first place. We had chosen Wilder as the one who would pull a paper and read the challenge.
“Tell us one secret no one else in the room knows.”
I saw Bren glance at Di, something passing between the two.
“Fine, this is easy. Di, can you go outside for a second?”
“Yep.”
Andras grabbed Di, leaning on him. “Don’t go, the room is spinning.”
“It has to be something no one here knows, Bren,” Wild said.
He sighed and tried to walk from one side to the other. Somehow, he managed to do so. Ultimately, he still needed to drink half a glass of whiskey. Wilder watched him worriedly, but he was always like that.
“I’m next!” Di screamed and almost fell trying to peel Andras off him. “What’s my truth?”
I couldn't stop my smirk, watching him: the slight flush on his cheeks, the hooded green eyes, his messy brown waves.
“If you could change one choice you’ve made, what would it be, and what would you do instead?”
Di looked over at Wilder. I wasn’t sure he had heard him. Di shook his head and started walking or trying to, at least. Much like Bren, he didn’t answer and took his drink instead.
Andras went next and thank Hell his question was easy: how long had his last relationship lasted? He didn’t do relationships,so there was nothing to be said. Too bad he couldn’t walk in a straight line and ended up drinking anyway. Luc and Wilder managed both their truths and the straight line. When it was my turn, I tensed slightly. I wasn’t the kind of guy who openly talked about himself.
“Well, you’ve got some luck. This one is easy. When was the last time you were in love?”
Yeah, luck my ass. I fixed my gaze to the line on the floor and started walking, not answering the question and effortlessly walking in a straight line, but I stumbled on purpose at the end. I wanted to drink more than half a glass. We did this for the next 20 minutes. Some questions were funny, and others were borderline insane, like,Would you rather sleep with a pig or a duck, and why?Who comes up with these stuff?
Only the last twenty minutes remained, and we needed to divide into pairs. Wilder wrote our names on a scraps of paper. Bren pulled Luc’s name, and of course, with my luck, I pulled Di’s name.
We took a small break before continuing. We decided to eat a bit and drink some water to sober up a bit. I glanced at Di and he looked way more sober than half an hour ago. His gaze, though, was intense. It was like he was stripping me naked and enveloping my whole soul.
I walked over to him and pointed to the right corner of the room. “You wanna go over there and try to win this game?”
“Sure.”
When we reached the other side of the room, Di leaned against the wall and placed his hands in his jeans pockets. Wild and Andras were at the bar, and Bren and Luc were at the other end of the room, leaving us with enough space.
“What challenges haven’t you done?” I asked.
“I didn’t sit for 5 minutes like a dog, eating and drinking. I didn’t drink tomato juice with lemon and vodka.” He made adisgusted face at the thought alone, and I held back my chuckle. “And I didn’t write a poem to someone in red.”
