Ryans Basement

The basement in Ryan's house. About half of it is finished, furnished with a couch and various chairs. The other half -- where the washing machine is located -- is unfinished.

Andrew Gaidry

Red allows Cece to lead the way to the room she had seen in the hallway and waits for Cece to open the door.

Maya Rice

Cecily opens the door to a flight of stairs descending to a lower level. "Hm. It looks like a basement?" She takes a step down, wondering if it's actually finished and furnished. "You want to check it out?" She turns back to look at Red.

Andrew Gaidry

He raises his eyebrows and gives her a shrug. "Uh- sure! Why not?" He peers over her a bit down at the basement.

Maya Rice

Cecily nods and begins to head down the stairs, peeking around the corner as she does. She's a bit surprised to see the basement finished with actual carpeting and a few various pieces of furniture. "I wonder if anyone else has been down here yet."

Andrew Gaidry

He slips in after her, shutting the door after him and following her down. "Huh.... doesnt look like it. Maybe we're the first? I guess most people are still upstairs?"

Maya Rice

"It seems like it," Cecily notes, hopping off of the stairs. "I bet this place will be flooded once people realize it's down here," she comments, looking around. The area was fairly small -- at least in comparison to her own home -- but it could certainly hold a decent amount of guests.

Andrew Gaidry

He nodded and chuckled softly as he examined it. "... it certainly does look like a stereotypical high school party location."

Maya Rice

"The only thing missing is a bunch of red solo cups scattered around on the floor," Cecily replies with a laugh. "I always feel so bad for the hosts of these, you know..." she wrinkles her nose. "Having to clean up afterwards and all."

Andrew Gaidry

"Ooff, yeah..." Red grimaces slightly. "... I was gonna say I could stay behind and help clean up, but... I have a feeling the party's gonna be /far/ from over when we leave." He chuckled softly, looking over the room again. He could just see the oncoming mess. "... maybe I could clean up as we go along..." He murmered to himself thoughtfully.

Maya Rice

"You're definitely right," Cecily confirms with a nod. "There'll probably be people here who stay all night long..." For a few moments she wishes she could as well, but she knows she would never be able to without serious consequences.

Andrew Gaidry

Red nods and walks over to the couch, sitting down on it. The house was actually pretty nice. It was cozy, in a way.

He was grateful for Cece. Although he wasnt /glad/ her situation was so similar to his..... he certainly was glad for someone who understood.

Maya Rice

Cecily walks around the basement a bit more, exploring before eventually heading over toward the couch too. She flops down onto it, leaning back with a soft sigh, her head coming to rest against Red's arm. She shifts around a bit to get comfortable, pausing when the distinct sound of something falling and hitting the ground is heard from upstairs.

Cecily winces at the noise. "What do you think that was?"

Andrew Gaidry

He shifts a bit so she can easily and comfortably rest against him. He blinks with surprise up at the sound and chuckles softly. "... I have /no/ idea. Hopefully not a person....?"

Maya Rice

Cecily considers, eventually laughing. "What if it /was/ a person?" She tilts her head back to look at Red. "Do you think Eli would be blackout drunk already? Has he had enough time?"

Andrew Gaidry

Red cant help but laugh. "God, I /hope/ not. What are we, ten minutes into the party? Has it even officially /started/ yet? You'd think he'd want to remember /some/ of the party."

Maya Rice

"I don't know..." Cecily says dubiously. "Didn't he end up sleeping through the majority of a party once?" She chuckles lightly at the vague memory.

Andrew Gaidry

He thinks carefully. "....... That certainly sounds like Eli." He concluded with a laugh. He sits there for a moment. "...................... should we check? What if that /was/ Eli?"

Maya Rice

"Mmm..." Cecily mutters, not /really/ wanting to get up...still, they probably /should/ go to make sure that their friend was still alive, or at the very least not passed out somewhere on the ground. "I /guess/ we should," she finishes with a sigh, sitting up reluctantly.

Andrew Gaidry

Red laughed softly. "I mean.... I'm sure he's fine... he's got Dean with him, right? But.... still. It's /Eli/...." He pulls himself up too, stretching a bit before standing.

Maya Rice

Cecily's starting to climb up the stairs just as she hears footsteps approaching. She's about halfway up the steps when the door opens, voices flooding in. She hesitates, turning back to look at Red with a vaguely concerned expression on her face.

Andrew Gaidry

Red follows and-

He raises his eyebrows. "What should we...??" He whispered over to her, brow furrowing with concern.

Maya Rice

"Just --" Cecily starts as people begin to hurry down the staircase, shoving past her, " -- move to the side for now," she finishes.

Nova steps down the stairs with Shanelle, trying to avoid bumping into too many people.

Andrew Gaidry

Red tried, pressing as close to the wall as possible.

Jerith Walker

My characters filter down. Woooo.

(Skylar, Chase, Stuart, Gale, Shanelle)

Maya Rice

Cecily moves to the side, pressing herself up against the wall as well, wincing when she's elbowed or shoved by arriving guests.

Lydia heads downstairs with Fiona. Roz is following a short distance behind.

Dean's making his way slowly down the steps, keeping a close eye on Eli. He's starting to stumble around a bit, although he's still capable of walking.

Gail hurries down the steps and into the basement.

Ryan walks down, presumably with Mason.

Andrew Gaidry

Red tries to be inconspicuous, hoping to wait out the crowd to get back upstairs. Well... looks like Eli is..... well, not /fine/ hes clearly already wasted, but hes alive, so.

Mason walks down with Ryan, looking around at house as he follows.

Nicholas and Michael have joined the crowd.

Marlene excitedly follows as well.

Alex joined in the group as well. Basically, all of my characters who are at the party.

Maya Rice

As Eli is making his way down the stairs, he notices Red and Cecily near the wall. His eyes brighten and he waves them back down the stairs. "Hey, guys! C'mon down!"

Dean guides Eli down the steps, pausing when Eli turns back to call after Red and Cecily.

Nova makes it down into the basement with Shanelle. She glances around, wondering what exactly to do next.

Jerith Walker

Skylar and Chase are goofing around.

Stuart is continuing to be a sleaze, Gale is continuing to giggle and busy herself with her drink whenever she feels awkward. Which is a lot.

Shanelle seems happy to be with Nova.

Andrew Gaidry

Red glances over at Cecily immediately. "Uh-" He hesitates, seeing what Cecily thinks.

Maya Rice

Cecily also immediately looks to Red. She hesitates for a few moments.

Eli raises his eyebrows. "Were you two --"

"Come on, Red," Cecily says suddenly, interrupting Eli. She begins to head back down the stairs, hoping that she hasn't just made a huge mistake.

Once a decent amount of people have made it down into the basement, Ryan claps his hands together. "Alright, everyone! Find a place to sit, settle down."

Jerith Walker

"So what are we doing?" Skylar calls to Ryan.

Stuart sits next to Gale. Gale looks vaguely uncomfortable but doesn't move away.

"Wanna bet it's some dumb party game?" Shanelle whispers to Nova.

Andrew Gaidry

Reds gaze snapped back to Eli at his started comment, eyes widening. Cecily cuts him off before Red could even think of saying anything. He nods and joins her as she heads down.

"Yeah, Ryan, what're we doing?" Mason adds, sticking by Ryans side. Marlene joins them, taking her brothers side.

Nicholas joins up with Eli and Dean, giving Nova a smile from his place in the room when he gts the chance.

Maya Rice

"Of course it's some dumb party game," Nova replies, leaning closer to Shanelle. She finds them a spot to sit and settles down, waiting for more information.

Nova glances around the room as she waits, curiously searching for Nic. She smiles in return when she spots him, hoping that Shanelle won't notice.

Gail, while searching for somewhere to sit, notices Gale with Stuart at her side. She smiles brightly, heading over and taking up a spot on her other side, nudging her gently with her elbow. "Hey!" She says to Gale, waving as a greeting to Stuart. "I didn't know you were going to be here."

"We're doing a high school party tradition," Ryan explains. "Truth or dare."

Dean rolls his eyes but is smiling despite this.

Cecily finds a spot for herself and Red just as Ryan explains their activity. She fidgets a bit, knowing that this is going to end up getting out of control rather quickly.

Jerith Walker

Skylar nudges Chase, they exchange a few words and laugh.

Gale, startled, stares at Gail for several seconds before recognizing her as her classmate from theatre. "...Oh! Hi!" She looks back at Stuart, ready to introduce her, but realizes she doesn't remember her name. Looks at Gail, ready to introduce Stuart, realizes she doesn't remember his name either.

She sits there in a sort of weird silence. Stares down into her cup.

"Friend of yours?" Stuart asks with a small frown on his face.

Gale nods. "From theatre class."

Shanelle stares down at her lap.

Andrew Gaidry

Mason raises an eyebrow with a grin. "Truth or dare?" He laughed softly. "Its been a while since I've played /that/." He grinned. It sounds pretty fun actually.

Marlene smiles too, but looks a bit nervous. Well... it'll be fun! Hopefully things don't get too out of control though.

Red follows Cecily, sticking to her side and gratefully taking the spot next to her. God bless Cecily. Hes genuinely so glad he has her. He looked around the crowd of other kids. Truth or dare... admittedly, he was kind of intrigued- he /did/ want to do these kinds of fun high schooler things but... he felt like this could be pretty risky too.

Nicholas grinned. This would be fun.

Michael is sticking to Nic's side, grateful to be a part of the party, but still seeming nervous.

Maya Rice

"My name's Gail!" Gail pipes up when Stuart asks about her. She glances over to Gale with an amused smile, still not quite over the fact that their names were nearly identical.

Nova breathes out a laugh. Of course. What else should she have expected? "This isn't going to end well," she mutters over to Shanelle.

Lydia raises her eyebrows when she hears Ryan's explanation. "What is this," she huffs, "middle school?"

Ryan grins over at her. "Sounds like someone's afraid to play," he taunts.

Lydia straightens up, expression indignant. "I am /not/ --"

"Great! I guess that means you won't mind going first."

Lydia glares at Ryan but eventually groans and gives in, nodding. "Fine."

"So," Ryan begins. "Truth or dare?"

Lydia seems to consider for a few moments, eventually settling on one option. "Truth," she responds.

Turning to look at the rest of the guests, Ryan asks, "Anyone have any questions for Lydia, hm?"

Jerith Walker

"Wait...isn't /your/ name Gale?" He points at Gale, wondering if he'd just been tricked.

"Oh!" Right, how could she have forgotten?

She giggles.

"Yeah. We share a name."

Shanelle rolls her eyes. "Considering the last time /I/ played, I got dared to go home..." she shrugs a shoulder.

Andrew Gaidry

Alex is there too, seeming pretty excited. A game sounds good! A game sounds fun. Truth or dare was fun.

Mason glanced over at his sister. His smile falters. he had a feeling.... this wouldn't go in a Marlene-safe direction. "Uh- Marlene?" He whispered over to her.

"Hm?"

"Do you think you could give me some, um..." He glanced over at Ryan and then back at her. Her eyes lit up. She winked.

"Yeah of course!" Mason and Marlene exchanged smiles, both feeling a bit relieved. Marlene slips away, giving Ryan a wink if he looks over. She heads back upstairs.

Maya Rice

Seeing that no one else seems to have any questions on their minds, Roz decides to take over. "How many people in this room have you slept with?"

Lydia turns, not having expected the question to come from one of her friends...although she wasn't entirely sure she would consider Rozlyn a friend most of the time. Eyes scanning throughout the room, Lydia responds with, "Two."

"Two?" Rozlyn's eyebrows go up and she looks puzzled. Her gaze flicks to Eli for a moment -- she was already almost certain he was one of the two, but...who else? Roz looks at each football player in the room, trying to figure out who the second person could possibly be.

"Well," Cecily says with a light laugh. "I hoped that it might take us a while to get to this point, but I guess we're diving straight in."

After Lydia has given her answer, Ryan speaks again. "Alright, then! You get to choose the next victim." He grins.

Lydia's immediate instinct is to go after Rozlyn, get revenge...however, she eventually decides against it. Spotting Cecily and her boyfriend across the room, Lydia glances between them. Not wanting to make her friend suffer, she says, "Carter? You're up."

Andrew Gaidry

Alex was willing to help brainstorm a question if no one could think of any- but someone did! Thats good. He couldn't think of any super good ones anyways.

Red jolts the faintest bit at his name, looking over in surprise. Well. He hadn't expected to go the whole game without getting picked but /damn/.

"Uh-" He thinks carefully, glancing over at Cecily then back at Lydia. Fuck. Which one was even safer here? He finally settled on- ".... truth."

Jerith Walker

Shanelle returns her attention to the game, with a glance over at Nova to check her reaction.

"Have you ever cheated?" Shanelle calls out at Red. "On your partner?"

Andrew Gaidry

He raised his eyebrows in surprise at that. "No, of course not!" He shakes his head. "I would never do that sort of thing." He relaxes a bit, looking over and giving Cecily a smile. That was a pretty easy one. "Oh- uh, my turn then?" He waits for confirmation before looking around the room. His gaze lands on Eli. The corner of his lips qrieks up with a half amused half concerned smile. "Eli."

Maya Rice

Cecily's eyebrows go up when Shanelle asks her question, a bit offended on Red's behalf that she would have even thought to ask such a thing. She smiles at Red in return after he answers, leaning a little bit closer.

Eli perks up when his name is said, taking a moment to find the source in the crowd. He grins when he spots Red, giving some sort of salute. "Dare," he says immediately.

Dean breathes out a sigh and prays that whoever gives him a dare is merciful.

Andrew Gaidry

Red speaks up before anyone else can.

"I dare you to avoid alcohol for the rest of the night- not a /single/ drop more. Your new drink of the night is /water./"

Maya Rice

Eli's grin falls quickly. "You can't be serious," he says, frowning over at Red.

Although Eli seems to deflate, Dean brightens, laughing and smiling. He tosses a grateful look in Red's direction, making a mental note to thank his teammate later for essentially saving Eli's life.

Cecily laughs in response to the "dare," rolling her eyes as well. Typically she would have expected a challenge to drink even /more,/ but...it seemed as if Red was looking out for his friends.

Jerith Walker

Shanelle leans closer to Nova and murmurs, "What do you wanna bet he's lying?"

"Looking out for your teammate, huh?" Skylar laughs. "You're a good man."

Andrew Gaidry

Red gives Eli a wide grin. "What? surely the challenge isn't too difficult for you? You arent gonna chicken on your first dare are you?"

Trashley Marie

Jax, Ari, and Sara all walked down the stairs into the basement and saw the circle. Jax ignores Shanelle and sits down with the his girls. "Sara-" Jax stopped himself "Or I don't remember to be honest. Anyway, don't chicken out okay?"

They rolled their eyes at Jax' comment "Yeah okay."

Maya Rice

“I don't know," Nova responds quietly. "His girlfriend seems to believe him."

Eli scowls, pouting at Red. "Why don't you want me to have any fun?" He whines, eventually sighing and crossing his arms. "I mean, I accept...but you're going to be the one I blame for ruining my night."

Jerith Walker

Shanelle laughs loudly and makes some sort of sympathetic comment about her that isn't actually sympathetic at all. Along the lines of "rip in fuck", but not that because she hasn't been exposed to that phrase.

Skylar rolls his eyes. "He'll be saving his life." he murmurs to Chase.

Andrew Gaidry

Red rolled his eyes. "I'm sure you'll fine /something/ to do." He said with a soft chuckle, settling back, satisfied. This was going much better than expected? Hopes that truh or dare /stays/ this nice and easy.

Nic pats Eli on the back sympathetically. "Good thing you had as much as you did before now, huh?" He laughed softly. It was smart to cut him off though. Wouldn't want him getting alcohol poisoning.

Trashley Marie

Are glances to Shanelle and stares for a short minute before looking to Jax. -No wonder they got into a fight. They are both so out there and open minded. It seems she may not have a filter as well. Sara has a similar issue~I mean Cameron... I called them that all summer and then they just told me to stop...inner to talk with them later-

(Will be referring to Sara as Cameron now)

Cam looked to Ari with begging eyes for help.

Ari reached for her hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze. Jax was already drunk. Ari would be driving them home later that night.

Jax looked around to the cute guys and smiled. -ugh they are all so perfect-

Maya Rice

Eli continues to pout, although deep down he knows that one more drink likely would have sent him over the edge. Sighing, he realizes it's his turn to pick someone. His gaze moves around the group and he eventually picks out Shanelle, remembering her question from just a bit earlier. "Shanelle?" He says, trying to get her attention. "Truth or dare?"

Jerith Walker

She's startled at being addressed. She turns her head to stare at him. If she picks dare, the same thing could happen as last time, but if she doesn't, she'll look like a wuss.

"...Dare." she flips her hair pointedly.

Andrew Gaidry

Alex crossed his legs and looked over across at Shanelle. A dare! Pretty brave. What would he choose if he was asked? Dare actually sounds pretty fun. Well... as long as they came up with a fun dare.

Mason nudged Ryan gently and motioned for him to move closer so he could whisper. If/when Ryan does so, he whispers "Who are these people."

Trashley Marie

Jax looks to Shanelle and rolls his eyes. He leans into Cameron and whispers."Did you see that. Trying to act brace. Pfft." Jax sips at what was still the same drink, though it was slowly fading.

Cameron rolled his eyes. "Jax shush. Don't get started in something else."

Ariel chuckled. Smiling at Cameron for not saying something back to Jax about Shanelle.

Maya Rice

Nova gives Shanelle a worried look, quickly trying to think of a mild dare to give so that she doesn't have to suffer through too much -- however, her chance is ruined when she hears someone else speak up first.

Cecily, recognizing Shanelle from the question she'd asked Red earlier, volunteers a dare. "Kiss whoever you think is the most attractive person in this room," she says, already trying to guess who Shanelle will pick out.

Ryan tilts his head but shifts closer to Mason, laughing a bit at his question. "I mean, there are a lot of people here...it would take me a while to explain who /everyone/ is." His gaze shifts to Shanelle, as she is currently the center of attention. "That's Shanelle." He lowers his voice even more. "She's a little..." he trails off, wincing a bit with an almost sympathetic smile. "...hard to get along with?"

Jerith Walker

Shanelle's eyes widen.

Well! This is actually a pretty fun dare.

She looks around the room.

Her eyes catch on Jax, and she curls her lip in disgust before continuing to look.

She sees Nicholas and snorts. Nah, she wouldn't do that to Nova.

Then her gaze drops to his little brother, and she smiles and walks up to him, leaning over so that she's face to face with Michael.

Andrew Gaidry

Mason chuckled softly, nodding understandingly. He paused as Ryan explained, giving the girl a bit of a sympathetic look as well. "Hard to get along with, huh...?" He looked to Ryan for elaboration.

Nicholas was interested to see who she'd choose as well. And then he saw her gaze land on- Michael? He raised his eyebrows.

Michael doesn't even realize until shes almost directly in front of him. It takes him a moment to put two and two together. Remembers the dare. Recognizes that shes there, looking at him. His eyes widened in surprise. "...... /huh???/"

Maya Rice

Nova relaxes a bit when she hears Cecily's dare. It wasn't too hard for Shanelle to handle. She watches closely as Shanelle searches for someone to pick, feeling her heartbeat speed up a bit when she realizes Shanelle is moving in the direction of where Nic is. Surely she wouldn't --

A sigh of relief escapes Nova when Shanelle grows closer to Michael rather than Nic, shaking her head at herself. She needed to stop getting so worked up over everything. Now that she knows Shanelle has picked Michael rather than Nic, Nova seems a little bit amused, assuming that Shanelle's choice hadn't been entirely truthful.

Jerith Walker

Shanelle kisses Michael on the lips without hesitation, then pulls back and grins. "Michael~! Truth or dare?"

Stuart, Gale, and maybe Gail are probably still chatting.

Andrew Gaidry

Michael didn't have enough time to properly respond to the kiss. In fact, as she was pulling away, he was /still/ processing what just happened. He blinks blankly at her question, no sign of it registering. He blinks a couple more times before stammering out, "... w-whu.... what???" It doesnt seem particularly in response to the question, more the everything.

Nic laughed softly and patted him on the back. "Truth or dare, Mikey."

Michael shook his head, still clearly thrown. "Uh- I, um...??" Truth or...??? "Uh.... tr-uh, d- um. T.... ruth?"

Maya Rice

"Was that your first kiss?" Eli asks quickly, a lopsided smile on his face. He glances between Michael and Shanelle, laughing softly at how stunned Michael seemed.

Andrew Gaidry

"..... w-well, um..." Michael thought carefully, gaze dropping and looking nervously to the side. ".... I-i dunno if I would, uh.... it was a truth or dare kiss, I don't think those /count./" He said with a tiny nervous chuckle.

Jerith Walker

"It counts." Shanelle says, taking her seat next to Nova again. "Now answer." Haha oh god was she really this poor boy's first kiss?

Maya Rice

Eli raises his eyebrows at Michael's rather shaky response, laughing once again. He nods when Shanelle presses him for a real answer. "Kinda sounds like you're avoiding the question," he comments.

Dean elbows Eli, rolling his eyes. "Leave the poor kid alone," he mutters, casting a sympathetic glance over at Michael.

"She's just really...moody," Ryan responds. "You say one wrong thing and suddenly you have to fear for your life."

Nova smiles a bit as Shanelle returns to her side.

Andrew Gaidry

Michael fell silent, fidgeting a bit when they call him out on avoiding the question. ".... y-yes." He finally said.

Nicholas gently patted Michael on the back.

Mason nodded.

Jerith Walker

Shanelle cackles.

Maya Rice

"Aww," Eli laughs, ignoring Dean's nudge and protest. "How sweet."

Returning his attention to the game for a moment, Ryan says, "Your turn to pick someone, kid."

Andrew Gaidry

"... huh? O-oh, uh..." Michael looked around, hesitated, then.... let his gaze fall on Nova. ".... um. Nova."

Maya Rice

Nova perks up when her name is said. It takes her a moment to realize that it's her turn to pick between truth or a dare. She hesitates for a few moments, considering. If she goes for truth...well, she'll be forced to answer whatever question comes her way honestly. The thought makes her feel nervous...still, a dare could turn into a disaster...but none of them have been /too/ bad...

"...Dare," she eventually mutters, hoping she won't regret it.

Jerith Walker

Shanelle leans over, nudging her softly with an elbow. "Good luck, boo."

Andrew Gaidry

"Um-" Michael halts, frowning. He... hadnt thought this far ahead. "I... dare you to....... um, jump in the pool with all your clothes on right now?"

Trashley Marie

Ariel scoffs and en begins to giggle slightly at nova's date. She looks to Cameron and smirks. "I hope you get picked first. You always do the craziest things."

Cam looked to his sister and smiled. "I know. I love the crazy dares..." she looked to Jax who was tiredly looking at his now empty cup. He could tell he was bored. "Jax, go get more of you are so bored."

Jax nodded and sighed, he stood up and headed up the stairs.

Cameron looked to Ari and frowned. "I don't know what to do Ari." Cam look into his lap and twiddled with his fingers. "I don't know how to tell him..."

Ari chuckled. "He is part of the community, I doubt he will judge you for your choice of gender Cam.." she rubbed his back and smiled sadly at their lost and confused face.

Maya Rice

Nova's eyes widen at Michael's dare. She hadn't expected him to come up with something even remotely challenging. Trying to put on a brave face, Nova laughs nervously and says, "Were you inspired by what happened to Sydney?"

"You know, it's almost /boring/ the second time..." Ryan comments.

Leaning over to Dean, Eli mutters, "How many people do you think will end up in the pool tonight?"

Dean shrugs. "I don't know. You're the one who started this," he says with a shake of his head.

Jerith Walker

Shanelle gasps, then narrows her eyes at Michael. "/Little bitch!/" she says in an offended tone. As usual, she doesn't bother regulating her volume control.

Andrew Gaidry

Michael shrunk back a bit, feeling sick almost immediately. Maybe that was a bad idea. It was probably a bad idea. Why did he do that? Why did he say that? He shouldn't have done that. God, he shouldve kept his mouth shut.

He shrugs slightly, gaze fixed on the ground, not certain what exactly hes responding to.

"... so who are they?" Mason whispered to Ryan.

Maya Rice

Nova gives Shanelle a concerned glance, hoping that she doesn't say anything too harsh to Michael...they were playing a game, after all.

"So, uh." She shuffles her feet as she stands. "I'm just going to go..." Nova trails off, making a vague gesture back toward the stairs that will lead up to the first floor and to the pool.

"That's Nova," Ryan responds with a quick gesture toward her. "She's Shanelle's best friend. Classic high school nerd...honestly, I'm surprised she's here. She usually skips out on parties."

Jerith Walker

When Michael shrinks back, Shanelle feels bad for a moment. But she fluffs out her hair to brush off the feeling and stands, following Nova. "I'll help you dry off, okay?"

Skylar leans over to Chase. "I wonder if their whole group is going to wind up dripping tonight."

Andrew Gaidry

Mason nodded.

Nic stood up, giving a slightly concerned and almost disappointed look down at his brother before looking to Nova. "I'll grab you a towel, alright?" He said with a sympathetic smile.

Red decides hes not going to be choosing dare at all tonight.

Alex thinks the dare sounds fun.

Maya Rice

A bit of tension is relieved from Nova when Shanelle stands and joins her. She gives her a nod just as Nic speaks up, offering help as well. Nova freezes for a moment before eventually recovering and responding with, "I think Shanelle has it covered." She leans over in Shanelle's direction, probably brushing her shoulder up against her friends.

"Thanks, though," she adds in a softer voice to Nic before returning her attention to Shanelle and starting to head upstairs. She's hoping that no one else will follow...she doesn't exactly want anyone to see her as a soaking wet mess.

Ryan, probably too distracted by how cute Mason is, doesn't notice that Nova leaving means she won't be able to pick someone to go next. He briefly considers running after her, but... "Well, since Nova is gone," he speaks up, "does anyone want to volunteer to go next?"

Jerith Walker

Gale, apparently pretty fucking tipsy by now, shoots her hand in the air. "PICK ME!" she seems to realize what she'd just done a second or two later and her face flushes even redder. She covers her mouth and giggles too loudly.

Sky's attention is drawn over to her and Stuart. He cocks an eyebrow at his friend, who doesn't notice.

Chase just laughs.

Andrew Gaidry

Alex, only a moment behind Gale, also calls out, "I ca-" Cuts himself off quickly because he had accidentally cut into her volunteering. He giggles softly a bit as well, sitting back. She's got it!

Nic nods, glancing over at Shanelle and then hesitantly sitting back down.

Maya Rice

Ryan raises his eyebrows at Gale's outburst, looking both amused and alarmed. "Fine with me," he says, leaning back. "Truth or dare, then?"

Jerith Walker

"Um.."

Stuart leans close to her ear. "Pick the dares; they're more fun.”

!!! Ear whispering omg.

"Dare, then!"

Stuart's about to suggest something, but he meets Skylar's gaze and decides against it.

Skylar shakes his head in disgust. "I dare you to do a handstand!" he calls out before someone can suggest anything worse.

Gale looks over at Skylar. "Oh..." this is gonna be tough.

She sets her drink to the side and begins trying to work out her position, trying feebly to find a way to do that.

Andrew Gaidry

"You can do it!" Alex cheered, cupping his face with his hands.

Red smiled pityingly at the clearly drunk girl. Someone should spot her. Should he....? He does a quick glance to see if anyone moves to help her. Gets up if nobody else does to just stand by and make sure she doesnt fall and get hurt, after whispering to Cecily, "I'm just going to make sure she doesn't hurt herself."

"Whos that?" Mason whispered.

Maya Rice

"You know, you /could/ try introducing yourself to people and getting to know them rather than asking me everything..." Ryan laughs, shaking his head at Mason. "That's, uh. I don't remember her name, actually --" he frowns " -- but isn't she in first period with us?"

Lydia watches Gale with a look somewhere between amused and disgusted. She's almost tempted to intervene and correct Gale's sloppy form, but she remains seated.

Cecily nods to Red as he gets up, glad that /someone/ had decided to help Gale. The potential of an injury happening was too great to just ignore.

Jerith Walker

Shanelle enters.

"The best friend, though." She grins back at Nova, winking.

Stuart's a bit irritated at Skylar, but returns his gaze to Gale. He claps supportively, deciding to keep it safe and friendly while Sky's attention is on him. "You can do it, girl!"

Gale gives herself another push upwards and she gets closer to managing it, but tumbles back down with a little 'ahh!'

Although she's wearing a skirt, it doesn't flip up due to the nature of the fabric.

Andrew Gaidry

Red hovers close, moving forward quickly and grabbing her gently to break her fall, lowering her carefully to the ground and giving her a soft smile. "You did it! Good job."

Nic gave a supportive cheer and then looked over at the entering Nova. He raises his eyebrows, a bit in amusement and a bit in concern. She still seems pretty, uh, wet. Wasn't Shanelle gonna help dry her off?

Maya Rice

Nova hesitates by the stairs, pouting over in Shanelle's direction. "You promised you were going to help me dry off," she whines.

Jerith Walker

Shanelle rolls her eyes. "What, only best friend if I help you dry off?" She makes a move to hug her, but... "Let me find a towel." She heads back out.

Whoa, someone had caught her. "..." She's upright. She had won? "..." She giggles again. "Now I pick someone, right?"

Andrew Gaidry

Red nods. "Now you pick someone." He confirmed.

Nic looks over at Nova still, making sure the situation is actually getting handled.

Maya Rice

Nova grins when Shanelle goes to fetch a towel, nudging her on her way out. She waits by the stairs, not wanting to leave a trail of water all throughout the basement.

Jerith Walker

"Hmm..." she looks around, and sees Nicholas. "You?"

Andrew Gaidry

Nicholas raises an eyebrow and smiles. "Me?" He thinks. ".... dare." He gives her a grin.

Maya Rice

Eli's interest seems to be piqued when one of his friends selects a dare as an option. Grinning, he speaks up. "I dare you to..." he trails off, gaze moving toward Ryan. "You have whipped cream, don't you?"

Ryan smiles a bit, having a feeling he knows where this is going. He nods in response to Eli.

Grin widening proudly, Eli repeats, "I dare you to eat whipped cream off of someone's stomach."

Lydia perks up from her spot beside her friends. Ooh. Things were actually starting to get interesting.

Nova, hearing the dare, instinctively shrinks back a bit, trying to make herself appear less visible. She was hoping that she would avoid being noticed.

"Someone?" Ryan speaks up, looking to Eli. "That's...well, pretty vague." He laughs.

Eli shrugs. "Well I don't know who...can't you just like, pick a name at random?" He looks to Nic. "We could have him close his eyes and --"

Ryan interrupts, shaking his head. "I'll just pick a name," he replies, fetching his phone from his pocket. He glances around at each person in the room as he taps away at his phone, inserting everyone's names.

Eventually, the sound of a soft laugh comes from Ryan. He lifts his gaze from the phone and announces, "Nova."

Nova straightens from her spot over by the stairs, looking alarmed. Of all names, how had it ended up being /her?/ She casts a helpless look over at Nic, eyebrows furrowing together as she feels anxiety and concern begin to rise up within her. For a moment she wonders if Ryan was lying about the results, but...it wasn't as if he had any reason to.

Jerith Walker

Gale, tired, leans back against the nearest person.

Stuart gives a quick glance back at Skylar when she does so.

His attention is directed at the other stuff going on now. Nice.

He taps Gale on the shoulder and murmurs something by her ear.

She nods. "Okay!"

The two of them get up and head out of the room.

Stuart gives a last glance back at Sky, and their eyes meet. He gives a sheepish grin.

Skylar glares at him and pulls out his phone.

Andrew Gaidry

Nic raises his eyebrows when Nova is selected. "Wait- /seriously/? Okay, theres no /way/ that was randomized." He gives Ryan a playfully suspicious look, chuckling softly. He looks back at Nova with a bit concerned and amused look. ".... you dont have to agree to this if you aren't up for it- its my dare not yours." He said gently, giving her a reassuring smile.

Michael tenses at the dare, especially when hearing with who. His gaze darts over to her and he frowns a bit.

Alex thinks that dare sounds fun too- a little weird to eat off of someones stomach, but the whipped cream part certainly sounds fun.

Maya Rice

"It /was/!" Ryan protests, placing his hands up in mock surrender after he returns his phone to his pocket. He watches for a moment when Gale leaves with Stuart, but doesn't seem too concerned. They were probably just getting bored.

Nova slowly moves away from the stairs, arms wrapped around herself. She tries to keep from fidgeting with her hair. Her face is probably bright red, and she's avoiding all eye contact. "I..." she trails off, risking a glance up for a moment. She didn't /want/ to do this, but she knew that if she refused she would have to deal with everyone else complaining, calling her names for ruining the fun...

"I can do it," she forces out, nodding just a bit. She's still avoiding making steady eye contact with Nic -- with anyone, really.

After Nova agrees to the dare, Eli begins to get up. "I'll go get the --" he stumbles as he stands. Dean reaches over and grabs a hold of him, pulling him back down.

"No," Dean says, shaking his head as he gets up instead. "I'll go get it. I don't trust you around stairs right now."

Jerith Walker

Chase shouts "GET SOME"

Andrew Gaidry

Mason scrunches up his nose at Ryans suggestion. "/Introduce myself/ to people?" He said quietly with mock offense. He grins a bit at Ryan not knowing her name. "Maybe you should introduce yourself to her." He looked over and then nodded slowly. "Yeah, I think so...?"

Mason rests back a bit and falls quiet as Ryan engages more in the game, grinning a bit at the dare.

Nic nods gently. He nudges Michael a bit, looking over at him. Michael scoots back to make room for Nova. Nicholas casts Nova a sympathtic smile. Casts a slight grin and eyeroll over at Chase.

Maya Rice

Nova slowly makes her way over to Nic's side, wincing when Chase shouts. She wishes she could just leave, walk out now, but she's already gotten herself in too deep.

She begins to look around instinctively for Shanelle before realizing that she had left to grab a towel. Nova frowns. She had been gone for a while...was she alright? Would she be coming back?

Mitzi descends down the basement steps with Courtney nearby, peeking her head around to see what's going on. The sound of voices makes her curiosity increase, and she hurries to the bottom of the steps.

"Oh," Mitzi says when she sees the gathered group. She turns to glance at Court. "I guess this is where everyone disappeared to."

Dean eventually returns to the basement, whipped cream in hand. He tosses it over toward Nic, giving him and Nova a sympathetic look.

Jerith Walker

“I wonder what they're doing..." Courtney's eyes fix on Nova, and she raises her eyebrows. Glances at Mitzi.

Andrew Gaidry

Nic catches the whipped cream and looked over at Nova. Gives her a soft half smile. He leans over a bit and whispers to her, dropping the smile to examine her face with concern. "He didn't specify how much- I'll just do a bit, it'll be over in a flash... okay?" He said gently, reassuringly. ".... its not too late to back out... you dont have to do anything you arent comfortable with."

Michael pulls back a bit more, scooting backwards and frowning, looking off to the side.

Maya Rice

Zee shrugs, noticing Nova as well. "We could ask..." she suggests, although she feels reluctant about doing so. Lowering her voice a bit, Mitzi questions, "Why does it look like she got the same treatment as Syd?"

Nova winces when Nic catches the whipped cream, further realizing that this is a real thing that is currently happening. When Nic mentions backing out, she briefly considers it...still, the thought of having to face everyone else mocking her for backing down is more humiliating than actually having to go through with the dare. Nic was right, it would be over soon...

"Alright," Nova responds finally, forcing a shaky smile. She hesitates for a few moments longer before slowly beginning to lift up her shirt and expose her torso, feeling her face grow more and more hot as she does so. This was a mistake, parties are a mistake. Nova leans back a bit and waits, resisting the urge to squeeze her eyes shut. It was just a dare.

Eli watches the pair eagerly, glad to see his dare being carried out. When Dean returns to his side, he shoves him a little /too/ hard, grins, and says, "This is perfect. I'm a genius."

Jerith Walker

"I guess we'll ask her later." Courtney continues to watch the events unfold. "....Uuhhh...."

Shanelle walks down the steps, looks up, and--

Her jaw fucking drops.

Andrew Gaidry

Nicholas uncaps the whipped cream and leans over, moving to spray some on. Then pauses. He pulls it away a bit, looking up at Nova. He looks at the whipped cream and then offers the can to her. "... would you like to be in control of the whipped cream placement?" He gives her a faint smile.

Michael isnt watching. He feels a bit sick.

Maya Rice

Nova considers for a few moments before eventually nervously shaking her head. "You can just...do it," she murmurs, biting down onto her lip. She swears she can feel everyone in the room watching her...she starts to feel a bit grateful that Shanelle or any of her other friends /aren't/ around.

Mitzi's eyes widen as she watches Nic and Nova. She looks both startled and entertained. /Was/ that even Nova? Maybe she was seeing things. "Who's that?" She asks Courtney, gesturing toward Nic.

Dean snorts. "Nova looks like she's about ready to pass out," he says to Eli. "I'd hardly call that a genius move."

Eli pouts. "You're just mad 'cause /you/ didn't come up with it."

Jerith Walker

"Nicholas. Football player. What the HELL is Nova doing?" Courtney is absolutely astounded.

Shanelle is taking a large breath. She'll probably scream very soon.

Andrew Gaidry

He nods. "Alright. I'm going to do it now." He warned her, watching for any sort of affirming response- a nod, anythig- before spraying some whipped cream on her stomach just abover her belly button. He piled it upward so only a bit was on her skin, but there still being a good amount.

He leans over and closes his mouth around the whipped cream, his lips barely brushing her stomach, and then pops back up, swallowing. Gives her a gentle smile. "See? Over in a flash." He offers her the whipped cream.

Jerith Walker

Shanelle

Fucking

SSSSSSHHHHHRRRRRIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEKKKKSSSSSS

Maya Rice

"Football player?" Mitzi immediately begins to frown. "With Nova?"

Nova tries to subdue her flinch when the whipped cream touches her stomach, a shiver going up her spine at the chill of it. When Nic leans down, Nova feels herself instinctively tense up. She tries her best to relax, forcing her mind toward other thoughts, anything that can distract her from what's going on.

Nova lets out a small, startled laugh when Nic licks the whipped cream off, nose scrunching up. God, that tickles. Whenever he moves away, she begins to rise as well, and then --

Shanelle's shriek makes Nova jump, sitting up abruptly. She scoots closer to Nic, shrinking down, eyes wide with fear. She glances around, trying to find the source of the scream, and finally notices Shanelle.

Mitzi jumps as well when Shanelle screams, moving a bit closer to Courtney. She glances nervously between Nova and Shanelle, praying that this won't end in a bloodbath.

Andrew Gaidry

Nic flinches as well, looking sharply over at the sourc- Shanelle. Of course. Why wouldn't it be? He moves a bit closer to Nova, noticing how she shrunk back towards him. Perhaps she felt safer.

Michael jumped a bit at the scream in bafflement, and then struggled to bite back a laugh.

Alex jolts at the scream, looking over at the source in confusion. What was /that/ about?

Jerith Walker

Courtney had been shocked at first when the whipped cream was applied, then begun an "Oohhhhhh" when she realizes what's likely taking place--

She startles violently, and whips around to see her friend screaming on the staircase.

Courtney is wide-eyed, her heart pounding in her throat and mouth.

Shanelle screams until she can't scream anymore.

Then she swivels on a heel and stalks back up the stairs, stomping with each step.

She throws the towels down vaguely in Nova and Nicholas's direction. "TAKE THE TOWELS, YOU WHORE!"

She leaves the basement, slamming the door on her way out

Maya Rice

Mitzi watches as Shanelle storms away, wincing at her shouting. She casts a worried look over at Nova, knowing that she's not going to take this very well. She then returns her attention to Court, moving closer and gently bumping her shoulder up against Courtney's in some small attempt to comfort her.

The more Shanelle screams, the closer Nova moves to Nic. Eventually she's basically pressed up against him, gaze focused on Shanelle the entire time. She flinches backward when Shanelle tosses the towels down, too shocked to do anything but continue staring as she storms away.

Everyone is essentially staring, shocked, at Shanelle.

Andrew Gaidry

Nic's jaw practically drops at his, eyes wide. Holy. Fucking. /Shit./ He loosely wraps his arms around Nova protectively, watching Shanelle storm off. After the door slammed he shifted his gaze down at Nova, brow furrowed with concern. ".... Nova?" He spoke softly, gently.

Alex flinches back, curling into himself a bit more, recoiling at the screaming. By the time shes stopped screaming he's extremely tense. He can feel his heartbeat pounding hard in his chest. He can practically hear it. He felt dizzy. Frozen. He didn't move even after she was gone, wincing back.

Michael is staring after Shanelle with a mix of amazement and shock.

Red is just shocked.

Masons eyes are wide. Well. He could tell this place wasn't going to be boring.

Jerith Walker

Courtney is just fucking gaping after her.

She feels comforted at Mitzi's contact, and reaches for her hand, finds it, and clutches it.

Maybe they could escape later just by themselves.

She resists the urge to start laughing nervously, but she can't hold back a wavering smile and soft chuckle.

Skylar had just stood up to head out after not receiving any answers from Stuart when Shanelle screamed.

"Holy fucking shit!" He stumbles back, and now just stares after her, in a state of shock for a moment or two.

"Um..." he breaks the silence. "Was that your girlfriend?"

Chase is having to cover his mouth to stifle laughter.

Maya Rice

As soon as Courtney gives an indication that she's alright with contact, Mitzi relaxes a bit. She gives Courtney's hand a gentle squeeze, leaning in a bit closer and lowering her voice to a whisper. "Do you wanna go? Or sit down? Or...?" She trails off.

Nova startles, breaking out of her trance-like state. She seems confused and out of it for a few moments, but eventually she regains a sense of where she is, what's happening. She slowly becomes aware of the fact that nearly everyone is focused on her and Nic, and when she glances around she spots Courtney and Mitzi nearby...god. Had they seen all of that?

Without responding verbally, Nova simply moves even closer to Nic, essentially curling up at his side. She leans against him, resting her head on his shoulder.

"Well," Cecily mutters, looking over at Red. Her eyebrows are furrowed. "That went well."

"Holy shit..." Eli whispers. "Holy shit," he repeats, this time a bit more loudly.

Dean has a frown on his face, looking at anyone who may be laughing disapprovingly. "Is anyone going to --"

"ANYWAYS!" Ryan speaks up, trying to redirect the attention. "That was a mess."

Andrew Gaidry

Nic squeezes her gently and holds her in his arms, supporting her gently. He looks over at Ryan, letting him take control of the situation.

Michael looks over at Nic and Nova. Immediately changes his mind about that decision. Looks away, pulls knees to his chest.

Alex stays like he is.

Red is staring over in concern. ".... /jeeze/...." He looked over at Cecily, grimacing slightly.

Jerith Walker

Courtney nods at Mitzi. "Let's get out of here." She whispers back.

"Are we going to continue, or..." Skylar is staring at Nic and Nova, but the question is directed mainly at Ryan.

Chase has the better sense to keep his mouth shut.

Maya Rice

Tugging lightly on Courtney's hand, Mitzi begins to lead them back up the stairs. "I wonder where Shanelle ran off to..." she comments as they begin to walk back up.

"Well," Ryan says, scanning the crowd. "Seeing as this ended so terribly...why don't we move on to a /different/ game?"

Nova remains quiet.

Andrew Gaidry

Nic gently rubbed Novas arm comfortingly. "What did you have in mind?" He asked.

Michael fidgeted, staring down at the ground.

Alex tried to calm himself. Tried to focus on being okay.

Jerith Walker

Courtney shrugs a shoulder and leaves with her.

Skylar plops back down on the floor with a contented sigh. "Any in mind?"

Chase lets out an 'awwww'

Maya Rice

Ryan looks over to where Nic and Nova are, smiling when he realizes the whipped cream bottle is still over by them. "You guys up for spin the bottle?"

Sydney opens the door to the basement, strolling down the stairs. She smiles when she finds that, yes, this is where everyone had gone to.

Ryan raises his eyebrows when Sydney enters. "You're a little late," he comments.

"Aww, you noticed! Did you miss me?" She grins as she finds a place to sit down.

Andrew Gaidry

Nic raises an eyebrow and grins. He looks over at the bottle and then slides it across the floor, over to Ryan.

"Spin the bottle?" Mason grins slightly. Now, thats one he /hasn't/ played. He actually isn't sure he fully knows the rules.

Jerith Walker

Skylar smiles and reminds himself to regulate because he isn't in a room full of his friends.

Just a shallow, simple game of spin the bottle.

Chase elbows him softly and smirks.

Sky rolls his eyes. "Play it cool." He mutters at him, still smiling.

Maya Rice

Ryan seems to brighten when he notices Mason's grin, completely forgetting about responding to Sydney. Fetching the bottle, Ryan says, "Alright, everyone come a little closer, get in a circle..."

A few people who were scattered on couches and chairs move to the floor, joining in on the ring of guests.

Ryan sits down as well, making sure to leave some room nearby for Mason. "We all know how this works, right?" He slides the bottle into the center of the circle, glancing around and waiting for confirmation.

Sydney joins the circle, a little upset that Ryan hadn't responded to her...still, she isn't going to let that ruin her night. She moves closer to where Nic and Nova are, flashing a smile to them when she sees that they're practically cuddled up together. It was surprising to see Nova actually initiating contact with someone who wasn't Shanelle.

Andrew Gaidry

Mason watched, tilting his head a bit. ".... I think so, but go over the rules real quick?" Nic looks over at Sydney, catching her smile and returning it. Gives a small wave before returning his attention to Nova and Ryan.

Trashley Marie

Jax, Ariel and Cameron school their way into the circle. Jax was sitting away from them simply because of where spaces were.

Cameron smirks at Mason as she overheard him, it was almost adorable how he might not know how to play.

Ariel looked around and she decided she really wouldn't mind kissing anyone in this circle. Some people seemed too douchey, and none of /her/ friends were here, but they didn't look like bad kissers necessarily. -I'll be a disappointment in the kiss department, that's for sure...-

Jerith Walker

Skylar and Chase do whatever Skylar and Chase do.

Maya Rice

Ryan can't help but smile at Mason requesting to go over the rules. "Basically, we go around and take turns, you know, spinning the bottle. You have to kiss whoever it lands on."

Andrew Gaidry

Mason nodded. Alright, not too bad. He knew that much already. "Okay- is there anything else? Any consequences for backing out or rules or whatever?"

Red glanced over at Cecily. Trying to see what she thought about all of this. Red..... wasn't too certain. It could be... potentially not good. He was already here, though..... hm.

Alex closed his eyes and breathed in, exhaling slowly. He still felt shakey. But it was over, she left, it was fine. It was fine. Its okay.

Trashley Marie

Cameron look around nervously. He wasn't super interesting in kissing anyone in particular. He did however notice a poor guy shaking, he slowly uncoiled and Cam kind of wanted to hug him. "H-" he stopped himself, immediately feeling uncomfortable with the confrontation and looked to Jax who was already scouting out possible good and bad kisses.

Ariel smirked to Cam as he spoke just slightly. She followed his eyes to the boy that looked frightened. He was about one or two away from Cam. To the right

Jerith Walker

Skylar suddenly remembers, and he frowns.

Pulls out his phone again.

To: Weed Hacker - 7:01 PM

'Stuart, fucking answer me.'

Maya Rice

"You aren't /allowed/ to back out," Ryan laughs, leaning back. "...Unless you use Shanelle's method, I guess."

Dean frowns over at Ryan, wishing he could have kept himself from making a joke about what had just happened.

Nova, hearing Shanelle's name, bites down onto her bottom lip.

Cecily, surprisingly, seems eager. She's not too focused on her boyfriend, but is instead meeting gazes with Lydia, who winks over at her and starts to laugh.

Andrew Gaidry

Mason snorted softly. Nodded. "Alright. And thats it? Theres no other rules?"

Red relaxes a bit seeing Cecily doesnt seem too concerned about it. Okay.... maybe this would be fine? If Cecily wasn't worried....

Alex took another long slow breath and exhaled before straightening up and fixing his position. He looked around at the circle and ran his fingers gently through his hair, half fixing it and half fiddling with it.

Nicholas smiles faintly at the joke before looking down at Nova with concern. "... are you up for this?" He asked quietly.

Michael glances over at his brother and Nova, frowning a bit.

Trashley Marie

Jax looked to Cameron and followed his eyes -Who is she~ohh- the boy right by him was Cam's target.

Cameron looked at Alex and he straightened, that gave Cam comfort. He played with his hair and Cam blushed for some reason. It was kind of adorable.

Ariel smirked to Cam and chuckled. She spoke up "Well, no rules. I guess we should start. Who first?"

Jerith Walker

Skylar waits for a response from his...friend,

Maya Rice

Nova simply gives a quick nod as a response.

Leaning forward into the circle, Syd pipes up. "I'll go," she offers, volunteering herself up. "Then we'll move around the circle clockwise."

Ryan can't help but smile at the fact that Sydney is already attempting a takeover. "Alright. Go ahead, Syd."

Sydney moves for the bottle, taking it in her hand and spinning it. She watches as it whirls around, keeping track of the people it passes by.

Eventually, the bottle stops and lands on Fiona.

Syd smiles. She didn't really know her, but...at least it wasn't a boy.

Fiona, realizing she's been chosen, sits up. She elbows Lydia. "Hey, look Lyd! First one picked!" She winks over at Sydney, waiting for her to approach.

Lydia watches Sydney with a vaguely disapproving look.

Syd scoots over toward Fiona. "Seems like it's your lucky day," she laughs before leaning forward and kissing her. She pulls away rather quickly, smiling and waving before returning to her spot.

Once Syd's turn is over, Dean is up next.

"I guess it's my turn, right?" Dean says, moving toward the bottle once he notices a few nods as a response. Placing it in the center of the circle, he spins and prays that it lands on anyone but Eli. He doesn't want to have to deal with practically tasting alcohol after just kissing him for a second.

The bottle twirls around, eventually lands on Red.

Cecily glances over at her boyfriend and then at Dean. Thinking immediately of Red's father, she wonders if Red is going to be the second person to flee the basement tonight. "Um..." she smiles sheepishly at Red. "Good luck?"

"Oooooooh," Eli coos, eyebrows wiggling up and down. "Dean and Reeeed..." he grins, earning a jab from Dean directly in the ribs. "Owww!" He whines.

Dean looks apologetically over to Red, hoping he wasn't too bothered by Eli's...teasing.

Andrew Gaidry

Reds heart practically stops when the bottle lands on him. Oh. Oh no. His gaze immediately darts over to his girlfriend, locking eyes with her, grimacing slightly at her good luck. He looks over to Dean, face flushing a bit at Eli's teasing.

"Uh- I dont, um-" God, what should he do? He scanned everyone else in the room. If anyone- no, but, they wouldn't, he- gah. His gaze stops back on Dean. Red gives him a rather worried look.

Maya Rice

Dean, clearly catching on to Red's discomfort, glances around at the rest of the group. "...He --"

"Nope," Ryan interrupts before Dean even has a chance to speak. "No stalling, no backing out."

Dean looks to Red again, feeling almost guilty. While he didn't have an issue with it, he knew that kissing a guy in a public place like this probably meant a lot more to Red. Dean grimaces as he remembers the one time he'd met Red's father...he'd tried his best to keep his mouth shut about all of his awful opinions, but that hadn't stopped him from hearing all of them.

Dean starts to move over toward Red. "No one here cares," he says in a rather quiet voice, hoping to offer a bit of comfort.

Trashley Marie

Jax stares between the two. -Aww- he thinks to himself. He's trying to be so comforting.

Jerith Walker

Skylar isn't focused on the group. He's still texting.

To: Weed Hacker - 7:03 PM

'She looks like she's 12. And she's drunk. Leave her be.'

Andrew Gaidry

Oh boy, no backing out. Although, that was almost kind of comforting. Because then its not really a choice, right? He's not /choosing/ to kiss Dean, and they all know that.

He watched Dean worridly as he moved over, biting his lip a bit. He hesitated before nodding. It... it was Ryans party. The resident gay. Of course not. And it was a game. Thats the sort of things that happened at these kinds of games. And it didn't look like anyone was recording or anything. ".... m-make it quick?" He said nervously with an awkward little chuckle. Dragging it out would be too...... it would raise too much attention anyways. He shouldn't put up too much of a fuss. Just. Quickly.

Maya Rice

Dean nods in response to Red's request. With only a few more seconds hesitation, Dean eventually just leans forward and gives Red a light, quick peck on the lips before distancing himself from his teammate again.

"Weak," Ryan mutters, rolling his eyes.

"What?" Dean turns to look at him.

"Nothing, nothing!" Ryan smiles innocently. "Onto the next player!"

As soon as Red and Dean are done, Cecily shifts a bit closer to Red, leaning her head up against his shoulder.

Eli gives Dean what he thinks is a friendly thump on the back when he returns to his spot.

It knocks the breath out of Dean. His eyes widen as he splutters out a cough. "Eli --"

" -- is up next, isn't he?" Sydney speaks again, gazing over at Eli. He was most definitely drunk. She smiles. Whoever he lands on...well, she wishes them good luck.

Andrew Gaidry

Reds breath catches in his throat and he closes his eyes when Dean kisses him. His heart was beating hard in his chest. His eyes open when Dean pulls away and he gives him an awkward smile. He relaxes a bit more when Cecily moves closer, gratefully putting an arm around her and resting his head against hers. What was he so worried about? Its fine. He has Cecily. Its spin the bottle and he has a girlfriend. It was fine. And he got to kiss a cute guy. It'd be forgotten pretty quickly, this was.... its okay.

Trashley Marie

Cameron smirked and the. His attention went to Eli. -Poor person to whoever gets picked for that.-

Maya Rice

Eli nods rapidly. "Yeah!" He doesn't seem to notice he just almost killed his friend. "My turn." He essentially crawls toward the bottle, messing up the first time he tries to spin it...and the second time.

"I think this thing might be rigged against me," he announces as he tries a third time, managing to get a half decent spin. He watches closely as the bottle moves from person to person, not really sure what to expect...

A laugh is startled out of Eli when Alex is picked as his victim. "Wait, dude, are you like. Actually in high school?" Eli asks. "Not trying to be rude but you sort of look like a baby. A little bit."

Cecily snuggles up to Red, similarly as to how Nova had pressed herself against Nic. When the bottle lands on Alex, she winces a bit. "Ooh. Poor kid."

Andrew Gaidry

Alex perked up when hes suddenly adressed. He blinks a couple times, processing. "Huh? Yeah, of course. I'm 15!" He sits up as straight as possible. "Almost 16." He added. Paused, thinking. "... well, in a few months. Uh, closer to 15 and a half I guess."

Red looked sympathetically over at the kid as well, wrapping his arms around Cecily. She was soft. He was glad the attention had shifted so easily though. Thank god.

Trashley Marie

Ariel glances to Cam. His jaw is so wide open she thinks it may have been unhinged.

Jax coughs laughing as he looks to Cam. "Shit." He says louder then expected.

Cameron immediately snaps his head to the person the bottle lands on and almost gaps,but controls it as to not draw attention to himself. He looks to Ariel who is currently stifling giggles,he smacks her. "Shush." Cam looks back to Alex. He's 15. -Same...though, I'm newly 15...hm-

Maya Rice

Eli laughs loudly. "Fifteen? God, you're tiny." He seems to consider something. "I could probably break you in half if I tried."

Dean, finally able to breathe again, groans. "You know, Eli, maybe you /shouldn't/ be threatening kids,"

"It's not a threat! Just the truth."

Nova is watching the exchange as it's happening rather close by. She's smiling just a bit, sort of amused by how ridiculous Eli is.

"Anyway," Eli says before quickly leaning over to Alex, giving him a sloppy but quick kiss. "There." He turns, looking at the gathered guests. "Wait, does that count as like...child assault?" He sounds terribly worried. His eyes start to widen. "Could I be arrested for that?"

Trashley Marie

Cameron clenches his jaw and looks away he smirked a bit at what Alex said about the kiss and rolls his eyes at Eli's idiotic remark. He pulls his legs into his chest. "No idiot." Cameron says rather loud and rude.

Ariel officially loses it and lets out a loud laugh, she slams her hand over her mouth. "Sorry..."

Jax chuckles slightly at the remark his friend made.

Andrew Gaidry

Alex raised his eyebrows at the comment. He wasn't going to /try/ break him in half, was he? Well, doesnt seem like it.

He scrunched up his nose a bit at the kiss, recoiling a bit. After he pulled away he coughed softly and wiped his mouth. He smelled like alcohol. Really really badly of alcohol. "You're not a very good kisser." He stated.

Maya Rice

"I'm /drunk,/" Eli whines, feeling hurt. "Give me a break." He retreats to his place beside Dean. "...You think I'm a good kisser, don't you?"

Dean holds back a laugh. "Eli."

"Yeah?"

"How would I possibly know?"

"...Shut up," Eli huffs.

"Anyway," Sydney speaks up once more. God does she love having control. "Who's next?" She looks beside Eli, smiling when she spots her friend. "Nova?"

Nova finally seems to break out of her distracted state when her name is spoken by Sydney. She sits up, tilting her head until she realizes. "Oh! Uh," she begins to move for the bottle, spinning it quickly before she has much of a chance to think about it. She probably shouldn't have agreed to doing this, either, but --

The bottle lands on Nic.

Nova stares at it in disbelief. There was no way. She looks up, watching different people in the circle. Was it possible to rig spin the bottle?

Ryan laughs when he sees what pair has been picked this time. "Seems like that whipped cream is your good luck charm," he says with a wink to Nic and Nova.

Nova's face goes red.

Andrew Gaidry

Alex smiled sympathetically over at Eli. "Well, I doubt you're a worse kisser when sober!" He added helpfully.

Nicholas stared in shock at the bottle before letting out a pretty loud laugh. He covered his mouth quickly and looked over at Nova with amazement. "What are the /chances/?" He shook his head with amazment, still laughing softly.

Michael stared in shock at the bottle. Was it rigged??? No, Nic wouldve told him if he rigged- there was no way! How would he even-????

Maya Rice

When Nic speaks up about just how improbable this seems, Nova makes a mental note to do a few quick calculations regarding the odds of the situation when she has a bit of spare time. While she knows it's illogical and impossible, she still feels as if someone is controlling all of this. Who knows. Maybe Sydney is behind it.

Taking a breath, Nova doesn't allow herself any time to hesitate, knowing that if she does she'll end up sitting there awkwardly twirling her hair for the next minute or so. She simply leans up to Nic, lets her eyes flutter shut, and presses her lips to his. She prays that she isn't somehow doing this wrong -- she wouldn't know even if she was, but she can just imagine the laughter from all the other guests, the stares she would get.

Distracted by her thoughts, Nova lets the kiss linger for a bit longer than she had intended. Eventually she breaks away, immediately lowering her face and refusing to meet Nic's gaze. She didn't want him to have to stare at her face which she was certain was flushed from embarrasment.

Andrew Gaidry

Nicholas leans down a bit to meet her, letting his eyelids shut as well. He gently slipped a hand around the back of her head, supporting it, and kissed back gently. He lets the kiss linger until she pulls away, pulling back as well. He lets his hand slide down from her hair to rest on her back, gently rubbing it comfortingly. He gives her a soft smile.

".... so, my turn then?" He looks over, leaning a bit and taking the whipped cream in his hand. Pauses. ".......... if this lands on Nova...." He laughs softly before spinning it.

The bottle spins and spins and lands on....

Eli.

Nicholas instinctively grimaces, chuckling softly and almost pityingly at Eli. "I got the bad kisser, huh?"

Maya Rice

Nova's gone quiet again, afraid of saying something stupid if she dares to speak. She simply remains at Nic's side and tries to push down her anxiety.

Eli seems to cheer up a bit when the bottle lands on him -- he'll have another chance to prove his totally incredible kissing skills -- but he deflates when Nic speaks. "Don't be rude," he huffs, reaching over Nova to give Nic a shove.

Andrew Gaidry

Nic chuckled, taking the shove good naturedly. He removed his arm from around Nova in order to move over to Eli, leaning over and taking his face in his hand before pressing his lips to Eli's. He kisses his teammate for a couple seconds before breaking it and moving back to his spot, slipping his arm back around Nova.

Maya Rice

Eli gives it his all -- or what he thinks is his all -- but in the end the result is yet another rather sloppy kiss, perhaps a little bit better considering Nic was the one to initiate it.

"...How do people do things?" Eli says once Nic moves away. "Like. When they're drunk. How does this work?"

Sydney laughs at Eli's questions. God, being thrown in the pool may have actually been worth it to see him like this.

Andrew Gaidry

Nic laughs. Then looks over to his side. Looks like Michaels next.

Michael blinked in surprise, confused for a moment before realizing. "...... oh! My turn?"

Nic chuckled and nodded.

Michael scooted forward and spun the bottle. Spun it and held his breath as it spun and slowed. Part of him was hopeful. Part was nervous. And another part was /very/ nervous. He exhaled softly when the bottle landed pointing at the complete opposite of his side. He followed the point to..... the party's host, Ryan. He sat up straight, pausing.

Maya Rice

Ryan, quite honestly, is disappointed that his first kiss of the night won't be the cute boy sitting next to him...still, he's not going to be rude about it. Still, it feels a bit odd being paired up with a freshman.

Grinning over at Michael, Ryan says, "Promise you'll tell me if I'm a better kisser than Shanelle?" with a pleading tone to his voice.

Sydney leans forward, interested. What had she missed while she was up in the bathroom? Had something happened between Michael and Shanelle? And speaking of Shanelle, where /was/ she? Syd had assumed that she'd likely be hanging around Nova, but it seemed as if she was nowhere to be found.

Andrew Gaidry

Michael tries to return the grin with a soft nervous laugh but it honestly comes out looking more like a nervous grimace. He looked over at Nicholas anxiously before crawling over to where Ryan was sitting. He hesitated, not quite sure how to go about this. "Um-" He shifted up, placing a hand on Ryans shoulder to steady himself, and pressed his lips to Ryans. He lets Ryan lead, if Ryan does anything else kiss wise, otherwise he leaves it at a peck on the lips before pulling back.

Maya Rice

Ryan simply sits back and allows Michael to kiss him quickly, figuring that he'll do whatever he feels comfortable with. Although he's tempted to put on a show, Ryan doesn't want to fuck around with a nervous freshman.

Once Michael pulls back, Ryan winks at him and laughs lightly. "So? Best kiss you've ever had or what?" He says jokingly, knowing that it hardly even qualified as a kiss. Still...probably better than kissing Shanelle. Turning to look around the circle, Ryan nods over toward Alex. "Looks like you're up now," he says.

Andrew Gaidry

"Oh!" Alex clapped his hands together, looked around, found the bottle (he had gotten distracted) and scooted forward. He took the bottle in his hand and twisted it back as far as he could and then spun it as hard as he could.

When it finally stopped it had landed on Dean. Alex looked over to him, giving a slight smile and a wave.

Maya Rice

Dean seems a bit surprised to be up again already...and not to mention with the same kid who Eli had kissed. Offering his best friendly smile, Dean beckons Alex over.

"You know, I think I'm realizing a trend here..." he comments, taking a moment to glance around the room at his teammates. He wonders if Red's spin will somehow end up landing on Alex...now that would be interesting to see.

Andrew Gaidry

Alex grins at the friendly smile and crawls on over to Dean. Alex pauses at his words and glanced around, following Deans gaze. A trend...? Alex thinks. ".... me getting paired with senior boys?" He guessed. Then remembered the game. He placed his hands on Deans shoulders and leanded over, kissing him. He's certainly kissed people before, but his kiss isn't too much more than a peck. He pulls back, gives a smile, and then crawls back to his spot.

Maya Rice

Dean doesn't get a chance to answer before Alex quickly kisses him. Once he moves back, he laughs with a nod. "Senior football players, yeah. Now you just need to get Red."

Gail perks up when Alex moves back. "My turn!" She grabs a hold of the bottle, twirls it around and waits to see who it lands on.

The bottle points toward Fiona.

Lydia rolls her eyes, looking over at her friend. "Can't you just get a /boy/ for once?"

"Hey, it's not my spin!" Fiona defends herself, raising her hands in surrender. "You can't blame me."

Lydia gives her a look that implies that, yes, she can indeed blame Fiona.

"Aaaanyway," Fiona says, moving her gaze to Gail. "Come on over."

Gail casts a wary glance at Lydia but approaches anyway, trying to make her kiss with Fiona quick and innocent. If Lydia hadn't been sitting so close by, then maybe she would have actually given Fiona more than a quick peck on the lips, but...Gail moves back to her spot, bringing her knees up to her chest and resting her chin on top of them.

Ryan's likely been side-eyeing Lydia quite frequently. When Gail's turn is over, he speaks up. "Cecily? You next."

Cecily straightens, not having realized it was already her turn. Moving reluctantly away from Red, she reaches out to spin the bottle. "Hope I get someone decent," she mutters rather quietly.

The bottle lands on Skylar.

Cecily looks quite disappointed. Well, there went her chances of actually having a good outcome. She watches Skylar for a moment -- she knows a little bit about him, his friend group. They've always seemed...annoying, to say the least.

Jerith Walker

Skylar is staring at his phone. He seems irritated, distracted. He looks, up, and-- "Oh."

He glances over at Red and gives him a sheepish grin.

Then gets on all fours and crawls over to Cece, deciding to be the one to initiate it.

Andrew Gaidry

Red casts a wary look over at Skylar, frowning a bit. He glances over at Cecily, noticing her less than enthusiatic look. He reached over and gently took her hand in his, giving it a soft reassuring squeeze.

Maya Rice

Cecily moves her gaze from Skylar to Red when he takes her hand, smiling over at him. She honestly wishes the bottle had just ended up pointing in his direction...it would have been much easier that way.

Turning back to Skylar, Cece takes advantage of the fact that he's now much closer to lean forward and press her lips to his. She moves back rather quickly, hardly even bothering to close her eyes when she kisses him. As soon as she's finished she moves back to Red, leaning back against him. "Ugh," she mutters softly, under her breath.

Jerith Walker

Skylar lets out a laugh. "What; I'm not THAT bad, am I?" he crawls back to his space.

Andrew Gaidry

Red laughs softly, giving her a very sympathetic smile and wraps an arm around her, hugging her gently. Pauses. ".... oh, it's my turn now isnt it?" Red casts Cecily a worried glance. Hoo boy. What if it landed on a guy....? What if it landed on a girl? Ugh, there was no winning here. Even the wins are....... cant really /enjoy/ them. Maybe he'd get lucky and it would land on Cecily.....

He hesitates before reluctantly pulling away from Cecily to spin the bottle.

His eyes widen with a touch of fear when it slows down by the boy Cece had gotten stuck with. And then it stopped on.... the boy directly next to him. Oh boy..... why couldn't it have landed on Dean again? From what Red had seen of Chase so far this night..... god.

Maya Rice

Cecily simply wrinkles her nose in response to Skylar's question. Now that it's Red's turn, she focuses on where the bottle is spinning.

For a few moments she thinks that they'll both end up being fortunate, that it will land on her, but it spins a few spots over and points at one of Skylar's friends instead. Cecily glances up at Red to check on his reaction, frowning when she sees how concerned he looks.

"It'll be fine," she murmurs encouragingly to him.

Jerith Walker

Chase snorts and rolls his eyes, then beckons. "Come on, Red...Come touch these dirty lips. No homo, right?"

Andrew Gaidry

Red made a small concerned noise of protest at Cecilys words, then looked over to Chase.

Red recoiled a bit at Chases demeanor and words, frowing, a spark of irritation flashing in his eyes. He doesn't make any move to go over.

Jerith Walker

"....Oooor do you want me to come over there?"

Andrew Gaidry

Red scowled and rolled his eyes, not looking over at Chase. He shrugged. "Sure, whatever." He doesn't sound happy about this at all. A part of him kind of just wants to go upstairs.

Jerith Walker

Chase sighs and crawls over, giving Red the quickest peck on the lips before returning to his spot.

Andrew Gaidry

Red flinched back a bit but let him press his lips to his own. He doesn't look at Chase. He presses back close to Cecily, curling his fingers around her hand and squeezing softly. He rests his head against hers.

Trashley Marie

"Aww. No homo. That's cute." He says sarcastic. Jax stretches forward and grabs the bottle, literally smashing his face into the ground as he does so. "Oh yeah. By the way. I'm drunk. So," he shrugs. "sorry." He slurs every other word and spins the bottle. It slides a little, but in the end it lands on Lydia. Jax coughs out a hollering laugh. After straightening himself out he looks to her. "So, uhm, am I initiating this? Or are you coming over here?"

Cam chuckles slightly at Jax' straight forward words. "Oh my god." Is all he whispers to himself. -This one will be fun.-

Maya Rice

Lydia's already watching him with a disgusted look -- however, when the bottle points toward her, her expression changes to one of distress. "Are you kidding me?" She looks around the gathered circle, as if trying to find someone willing to rescue her. When no one seems to offer up any assistance, Lydia groans and reluctantly returns to looking at Jax.

She tries to repress a groan when he questions her. "Just.../ugh,/" she huffs as she scoots over to him, quickly grabbing a hold of his face and pressing her lips up against his for a few seconds. She pulls away wincing, quickly returning to her spot beside Fiona. "You literally reek of alcohol." Lydia huffs, speaking to Jax.

Trashley Marie

Jax winks and bows a little. "Thank you. I try." He nudges Cam. "Alright Sara. Your turn."

Cam winces at the name. "Ye. He spins the bottle and looks at it. Just wanting to get it over with. It stops and he looks up it lands on. -You have got to be shitting me- Alex.

Andrew Gaidry

Alex blinked. "I got chose again!" He said, sounding genuinely surprised and a bit amused. He looked over at Cam with a grin. "... I think the cycle is broken though! You don't look like a football senior boy."

Trashley Marie

Cam looked away. "I'm not." His face flushed a bright red. "Uhm you can call me Cam."

Jax scoffed.

"That's it. Cameron." Remembering the name he was told.

Cam looked up to Alex. "I'm a new freshman this year..." He could feel his face was a bright red, he hid it and looked down.

Andrew Gaidry

Alex giggled softly. Cameron.... that sounded sorta like a boyish name? Well, he couldn't tell. Didn't really matter. "I'm Alex! I'm a sophmore." He extended his hand to Cam. "I'm also not a footballer."

Trashley Marie

Cam stretched out of his fetus position and scooted through the circle. He grabbed Alex hand and shook it up and down slowly. "Uhm hi." One hand still resided over his face to hide the blush.

Andrew Gaidry

Alex took his hand and shook it! "Hi!" He smiled brightly. "Oh- and welcome to our school!"

Trashley Marie

From across the circle Ariel watched. She smiled at Cam.

Trashley Marie

Cameron looked into Alex' eyes. They were just so blue. "Uhh. Mhmm. Ye thanks."

Maya Rice

"Anyway," Lydia speaks up loudly, a frown on her face. "Are you two just going to keep sitting here and chatting or can you /stop/ wasting everybody's time and just get on with it?"

Ryan raises his eyebrows at her harshness...although he has to admit he agrees.

Trashley Marie

Cam's face immediately flushed even more at Lydia's words. Has it been long.

Andrew Gaidry

"Huh?" Alex looked genuinely surprised. "Oh! Whoops, sorry!" He squeezed Cams hand and pulled him closer, holding his face with his other hand and kissed him. He holds the kiss for a couple of seconds before pulling away and opening his eyes, giving him a smile. "Nice to meet you!" He rested back in his spot.

Trashley Marie

Cam sits shocked in his spot. "Uh. Ye. Uh."

Ariel scoots to the center and grabs Cam by the shoulder. "Come on baby bro."

Cam nods and scoots back. "Nice to meet you."

Ariel moves forward to the bottle. "Sorry about him guys. He's a shy boy." She finishes her statement with a smirk as she spins it.

Cam punches her shoulder lightly, his cheeks still a rose pink. "Whatevs."

It landed on quite an adorable girl who sat a few people from her. "Sorry if you are against kissing girls."

Maya Rice

Rozlyn had seemed to be mostly uninvolved with the game up to this point -- she was occasionally checking her phone, mostly just sitting to the side and watching. However, when the bottle finally ends up pointing in her direction, Roz seems to regain interest, perking up.

"You kidding me?" She responds to Ariel with a laugh, shaking her head. "It's the /boys/ I have a problem with." Roz moves over toward Ari but waits for her to initiate the kiss. She doesn't want to seem pushy.

Lydia is watching Rozlyn with narrowed eyes. She hates it when her friend feels the need to bring up her sexuality...she /could/ just stay quiet about it, couldn't she?

Trashley Marie

Ari looks to her. "Oh. Okay." Ariel giggles and stays where she is. She didn't like to push people into things.

Maya Rice

When Roz realizes that Ari isn't going to make the first move, she assumes it's alright for her to just go ahead and initiate the kiss. She leans toward Ariel, using a hand to cup the side of her face and bring their lips together. She allows the kiss to linger for a few moments before drawing away. She gives Ariel a wink and then returns to where she had been sitting before, reclining in a lounging position. "Who's next?"

Ryan straightens up, eyes brightening. Finally. "My turn," he says, moving into the circle to get a hold of the bottle. He hopes and prays that it lands on who he wants it to and then gives it a spin, watching intently.

Ryan has to resist the urge to cheer when the bottle does indeed end up pointing toward Mason.

"Well," he says, turning toward him. "It seems like the whipped cream gods have spoken." He grins.

Andrew Gaidry

Mason raised his eyebrows when the bottle /actually/ lands on him. He let out a laugh and looked over to Ryan, grinning back. Ryan seemed... genuinely interested in him. He ignored his sisters voice in the back of his hesd insisting that of COURSE he is theres no surprise THERE.

"So they have." Mason turned a bit so Ryan could more easily kiss him, smiling slightly. His heartbeat seemed to pick up pace when he realized that this was actually /happening/. Not that he would admit to that though.

Trashley Marie

Ariel looks in shock and glances to Cam.

Jax chuckled.

Cam leans to Jax. "Her first kiss with a girl."

Jax clamps his hand over his mouth to keep from bursting out laughing.

Maya Rice

Mason's grin convinces Ryan that all of the ridiculous drama and bullshit that's gone on so far has all been worth getting to this point. He leans a little closer to Mason, having to tilt his head downward due to their height difference. Ryan lets his eyes fall shut as he gently presses his lips to Mason's, still practically grinning as he does so.

After a moment he applies a bit more pressure, resisting the urge to reach out and pull Mason close against him. He's desperate and gay as hell, sure, but he doesn't want to scare Mason off already by coming off too strong.

Andrew Gaidry

Mason sits up as best he can to hopefully help the gap in their heights- at least the difference wasnt as drastic sitting down. He pressed a bit closer to help cut down the distance Ryan had to go to reach him, closing his eyes after Ryans lips made contact with his own.

He prays that Ryan can't hear how hard his heart is pounding- it sounds /far/ too loud to Mason. Mason lets Ryan lead the kiss, not entirely sure what to do, but does try to kiss back. Was he doing this right?

Well, whatever, it was just- it was a kissing game, it didn't matter that much, right? He shouldn't get so worked up, it was just. Just. Uh. Should he pull back? Should he- hes just gonna leave it to Ryan, it was his turn anyways, he probably knows what hes doing, just stop /thinking/.

Trashley Marie

Jax stands up and looks around. "Sorry to interrupt, my gay babies, as cute as this is, but I have an announcement."

Ariel's eyes go wide. "Jax don't you-"

Cam playfully tackles Ari, causing her to be quiet.

"Anyway. Can we just applaud and thank, Rose it think it is, for giving one of my closest friends her first ever gay kiss." Jax applauds drunk with a red cup in his hand, it spills a little. "Oh sorry..."

Maya Rice

Ryan probably would have kept on kissing Mason had it not been for Jax raising his voice and speaking up. He reluctantly, slowly draws away, probably fixing Jax with an incredibly bitter glare.

Rozlyn doesn't initially realize she's the person Jax is referring to -- however, when she sees both Lydia and Fiona staring at her... "Oh!" She laughs, surprised to hear Jax's announcement. "It's Rozlyn, but...close enough, I guess." She chuckles when he spills his drink, shaking her head a bit. She'd been there before, she could relate. Moving her gaze to Ari, Roz's lips curl up into a smile. She blows a kiss over in her direction, giggling as she does so.

Andrew Gaidry

Mason drew back a bit with the outburst of Jaxons and Ryan pulling away. He was a bit relieved at Jaxon drawing the attention from him, honestly, and kind of disappointed at the kissing ending. He glances over at Ryan, who seemed to be focused on giving Jaxon a dirty look. That was fine with Mason. He's pretty sure his face is red right now anyways, and he doesnt quite know what to say or do. He is perfectly fine with the distraction. Thanks.

He took a deep breath and pulled himself back, sitting up a bit and running his fingers through his hair, brushing his locks back a bit.

Alex smiled at the announcement. That was cute! He clapped as Jaxon requested.

Trashley Marie

Ariel groans and jumps up, she leaves the basement and goes to the nearest bathroom.

Cam looked around and saw Alex clapping. "Uhh. Maybe we shouldn't clap." Cam stood up and walked toward the stairs. "Jax stay. She will only be more upset to see you."

Jax nodded and sat down. "Whoops." He chugged the rest of his booze.

Andrew Gaidry

Alex stopped clapping immediately, his hands freezing, looking concerned and frowning a bit. Oh.

Maya Rice

When Ariel abruptly gets up and runs off, Roz freezes. Shit. Had she done something to upset her? She frowns as she watches Ari's sibling run after her.

"...Well, that's two more down," Ryan says after Cam and Ariel flee. "Anyone else feel like a dramatic exit is necessary?" He pauses for a moment. "No? Alright, then. Moving on."

Andrew Gaidry

"Ah- my turn, yeah?" Fuck. Mason gave a smile, trying to quickly pull himself together. /Fucking compose yourself, Jesus fuck./ His heart was still racing. He leaned over and spun the bottle. Wow. Two kisses in a row. God. Time for his Second Kiss then.

The bottle lands on Dean. Mason looked over at him.

Maya Rice

Ryan is honestly hoping that the bottle will, by some miracle, end up pointing towards him. He knows it's unrealistic, and isn't too surprised when it ends up on Dean. He does feel vaguely disappointed, though.

Dean smiles over at Mason. "Two kisses in a row, huh? Guess you're pretty lucky." His tone is light and teasing. He remains relaxed, assuming that Mason will come over and approach him first.

Andrew Gaidry

Mason laughed softly. "Two whole kisses! I keep getting paired with the big guys." He actually felt LESS nervous kissing this guy. Probably because he didn't care as much. Uh. Not that he cared about what Ryan- fuck. He's ignoring that. He crawls over to Dean and places his hands on his shoulders, pulling himself up and pressing a kiss to his lips. Not much more than a simple peck on the lips. "There you go." He gives a grin and then crawls back over, glancing at Ryan as he takes his spot.

Maya Rice

Ryan's totally not jealous of a few seconds long peck. Nope. Not at all. He seems to brighten a bit when Mason returns to his side, trying to casually move just a bit closer to him without being noticed.

Jerith Walker

Zach is sitting at the top of the stairs now. He wants to ask Sydney if she's doing okay, but the game makes him too anxious, so he's staying away from everyone.

Skylar takes the can of whipped cream and spins it boredly, holding his face in his hand. He smiles at Michael when he sees it lands on him. "You, again?"

He crawls forward, hesitates at remembering him mentioning that he's a freshman, and gives him a quick peck on the lips before retreating.

Andrew Gaidry

Michaels face flushed at the 'again'. He shrugged, glancing down. The kiss ends up being just a peck, so no big deal or anything. He sits back a bit, looking over at his brother and Nova again.

Jerith Walker

"Allll righty." Chase leans forward and gives it a spin. It lands on himself. He frowns. "Uhh..." looks around at everyone to see what he should do.

Maya Rice

Ryan laughs loudly at Chase's result. "Spin again," he suggests. "Unless you'd like to try to kiss yourself."

Jerith Walker

"What fun is that?" he mutters something under his breath before spinning it again, and--"ughhhh." just his luck.

Andrew Gaidry

Red was only half paying attention. And then he saw the bottle aimed in his direction. He lifted his gaze to the spinner and grimaced. ".... its your second spin. I vote kiss youself."

Maya Rice

Cecily frowns when Chase lands on her boyfriend. Really? A second time? "Should he spin a third time?" Cece asks. "I mean...it's sort of boring to have the same people paired up, right?"

Andrew Gaidry

Red nodded in agreement. God. Thank god for Cecily. Cecily is an angel, a blessing. Hes so thankful for her. SO thankful.

Jerith Walker

Chase kisses himself on the hand and passes the bottle onto Rozlyn.

Maya Rice

Ryan is almost tempted to protest against Chase's half assed "kiss," but...he honestly can't be bothered.

Roz takes the bottle from Chase, moves it to the center. She whirls it around, hoping that at the very least she doesn't end up being paired with a boy.

Roz's wish comes true when the bottle points to Fiona. She grins, elbowing her playfully. "Looks like you got stuck with me."

"Well," Fiona laughs, "you aren't the worst option here..." she trails off, leaning over to Roz and pressing a gentle kiss to her lips.

Lydia watches the two kiss with crossed arms and a shake of her head. Why were they letting it linger for so long?

Roz is the first to draw away. She notices Lydia glaring daggers at them. "You jealous, Lyd?" She teases.

Lydia snorts. "Hardly."

"Well," Fiona passes the bottle over to Lydia. "I guess it's your turn, Lyd."

Lydia takes the bottle from Fiona, placing it down and readying herself to spin it. She glances around the circle, trying to decide who the most ideal person would be. She certainly wouldn't mind kissing one of the football players.

Lydia spins the bottle. It lands on Fiona.

Lydia's face falls. "Really?" She whines. "Do I /have/ to?"

Fiona gives a nervous laugh. "You've gotta do it, Lyd. There are rules."

Lydia groans, shaking her head. She eyes Fiona warily for a bit before sighing and muttering, "At least you aren't Rozlyn."

"Hey!" Roz protests. "Rude!"

Lydia rolls her eyes before eventually leaning toward Fiona, closing her eyes as she kisses her. When she draws back, she quickly shoves the bottle off to the next person. Her face is a little bit red, and her eyebrows are furrowed angrily.

Fiona takes the bottle from Lydia when she hands it off, trying to brush off how she was acting after their kiss. Had it really upset her /that/ much? Shaking her head as if to clear her thoughts, Fiona focuses on the task in front of her.

Taking the bottle and spinning it, she watches as it moves and eventually lands on Cecily. Fiona hasn't talked to her too much -- she mostly knows her through Lydia -- but she certainly doesn't mind kissing her. Hopefully it won't be an issue with her boyfriend.

Fiona eyes Red as she approaches Cece. "He's, like...not going to beat me up for this, right?" Fiona jokes with a laugh.

Cecily giggles, immediately shaking her head. She glances back at Red for a moment, hoping that he doesn't mind. "Red's a good sport," she confirms. "Besides, this is all just a part of a game, right?"

Fiona nods in response. "Right. Just a game." She moves a little closer to Cecily, waiting until the other girl distances herself a bit from Red and then leaning in. She uses one hand to cup the side of Cecily's face as she brings their lips together, not letting the kiss last for /too/ long. She trusted Cecily's words about Red, but she still didn't want to push it too far.

Lydia watches as Cecily and Fiona kiss, still looking quite upset. Once they're finished, she comments, "Guess we have one more thing in common now," watching Fiona as she returns to her side.

Cecily responds with a small laugh and nod. "Yeah. Guess so."

Andrew Gaidry

Red blinked with surprise at the joke. He gives her a worried look. "No, no, of course not!" He said, sounding genuinely worried that she'd think that. "Its a game, its fine." He insisted.

He sinks back a bit, feeling a bit bad that /thats/ the vibe he gave off. He... supposed it was for the best, but he didn't want people thinking he would /beat them up/.

He gives Cecily a concerned smile after the kiss. She didn't seem concerned about it, so that was good.

Maya Rice

"So," Ryan says, interrupting the game for a moment. "We've been around the circle once, yeah?"

A few people nod in response.

"Why don't we make things a bit more interesting, then?" Ryan grins.

"Interesting?" Sydney tilts her head curiously.

"How many people do we have here?" Ryan begins to count the guests in the circle.

Sydney beats him to it. "Twenty," she answers.

Ryan's grin widens. "Perfect! We'll have a nice even number, then."

"So what /are/ we doing, then?" Lydia asks, eyebrows furrowed.

"Seven minutes in heaven," Ryan responds. "We can pair everyone up at random...see what happens." He winks.

Andrew Gaidry

Reds gaze almost immediately snapped to Cecily in concern. "Should we...??" He whispered, biting his lip. This..... seemed like a not so great idea. But what did Cece think?

Mason raised his eyebrows. Seven minutes in heaven. Intense. He wasn't too certain about this..... uh, thats usually like making out, right? He'd never even /kissed/ anyone before tonight... well.... he's not going to chicken out at this point.

Nicholas looks to Nova. "... you wanna stay for this game or...?"

Trashley Marie

Ari sighs loudly and looks to Cam, squeezing his hand. She releases and looks down afraid. She'll have to do more then just a lip peck tonight. She doesn't think she'll be able to handle much more of this.

Cam squeezes back before she lets go. Cam awkwardly looks up to Alex and smiles. He low key was hoping to be paired with him. It would be one of the most comfortable options.

Jax looks around, "I apologize in advance to who I get paired with."

Jerith Walker

Skylar snorts and Chase barks out a laugh. They begin chatting with each other.

Valerie walks down the stairs. "Hey! So, what did I miss?"

Maya Rice

Cecily's already looking at Red. She knows that he probably won't want to stay -- remaining here for truth or dare and spin the bottle was already a risk. She doesn't want to seem selfish, but she /is/ having fun... "If you want to leave, then..." she trails off, leaving the choice up to Red. She hopes that he'll choose to stay, but doesn't want to pressure him into doing so.

Nova, once again, considers backing out. She's already participated in two games -- one of which ended in an awful way -- which is more than she usually would do at a party. Maybe it's good for her to get the experience? "We...we can stay," she says finally with a small nod.

Lydia gives Jax a look full of disdain, praying she doesn't end up stuck with him.

"I'll start pairing everyone up," Ryan announces, pulling out his phone and beginning his work.

When Val enters, he looks up for a moment, simply answering with, "A lot. Like, a /lot./" He laughs. "We're doing seven minutes in heaven right now." He taps away at his phone.

Jerith Walker

Zach hears the name of the next game and draws a breath, forcing himself to stand up.

He descends the stairs and approaches Sydney, smiles at her. Realizes that this may come across as 'I'm joining now because I'm hoping to get paired with you ;))' quickly drops the smile.

"Are you....doing all right?" he checks.

He hopes he's doing this in the right way.

Maya Rice

Sydney takes a moment to notice Zach. When she does, she offers him a slight smile in return. "I'm fine," she confirms with a nod when he asks. "Perfectly fine." She looks to Ryan for a moment and then back to Zach. "...Are you going to join in on the fun, finally?" Her smile widens.

Andrew Gaidry

Cecily seemed to be pretty on board with all of this. Red hesitated, thinking carefully. There were certainly risks but.... well, if he got paired up with someone, they didnt necissarily have to do anything.... maybe he should? And it probably wouldnt look good, leaving his girlfriend to play a game like this. "I'll.... I'll stay." He nods. Then pauses. "...... probably." He squeezed her hand gently.

Nic smiled gently at her and nodded. "... as long as its alright with you." How funny would it be if they got paired up again?

Michael leans against the couch, frowning a bit. He wasnt sure how he felt about this..... but whatever.

Maya Rice

Cecily smiles softly at Red, grabbing his hand and squeezing it, grateful that he wasn't yet backing out. "You don't even have to do anything other than stand in there for seven minutes, really," she reminds him, hoping it will relieve a little bit of stress.

"...Do you think Ryan will end up putting us together again?" She still doesn't believe that them ending up as a pair has been completely up to chance.

Ryan, hearing the question, laughs. "Maybe I will," he calls over to Nova.

Nova startles, blushing.

Jerith Walker

"Damn it!" she places a hand on her hip. "Anyone care to fill me in?"

Zach is #worried. There's a chance she's lying about being all right, and he doesn't want to allow her to get hurt just because he wasn't doing his job well enough.

He tries to reason with himself that she's been able to handle herself just fine before.

And now she is asking him a question.

"Oh! Nah, um, I...prefer to stay out of party games."

Andrew Gaidry

Red nodded, laughing softly. "... I hope I dont ruin the fun for anyone." He gently rests his head against hers, holding gently onto her hand.

Nicholas snorts. "Don't worry." He whispered. "If we get paired up at least then it'll be whatever you want- we can just straight up chill in there."

Maya Rice

"You'll be fine," Cece replies, leaning against Red as well. "Maybe if we're lucky we'll end up trapped in there together." She laughs. "Although...I don't know if we'll both be able to fit together in a closet." She glances up at him. "You're too tall for your own good."

Ryan's too focused on his phone to help Val out.

Rozlyn, noticing she needs filled in, speaks up. "Well Ryan's working on pairs right now...we were playing spin the bottle just a few minutes ago. Truth or dare before that." She thinks of Shanelle. "We had some, uh...issues with that."

"Aww," Syd whines, nudging him a bit. "You're no fun."

Andrew Gaidry

Red laughs too, but his voice has a touch of hurt to it. Possibly a joking hurt, but its hard to tell. "Awh, c'mon, I can't help being tall." He hoped he got paired with Cece as well. Well..... no, its the safest. Safest with Cece.

Jerith Walker

Zach laughs quietly, awkwardly. "I mean...I guess I could, if you really wanted me to." Sense of self? Sense of preservation? What are those.

"Issues?" Valerie raises her eyebrows. "Those sounds interesting."

Jerith Walker

Stuart returns. Chase catches him up on what's going on. Skylar pointedly ignores him.

Maya Rice

Sydney brightens. "I mean, you might as well. You /are/ at a party, you know? Why not enjoy yourself?"

"I know, I know," Cecily laughs with a little shake of her head. "Still, though."

"It was...dramatic," Roz says with a half smile, half grimace. "Lots of screaming."

Trashley Marie

Cam smirks at the thought of the game and hides his face, sort of hoping to talk to Alex some more.

Ariel keeps quiet and to herself.

Jax looks around at his choices and groans. None he particularly liked.

Maya Rice

Ryan finally raises his head, looking up from his phone. "Alright! Pairs have been chosen! We have...Ariel and Fiona. Lydia, you're with Chase. Cecily and Rozlyn, Dean and Red," Ryan pauses for a moment, looking at the pair he'd just mentioned with a small smile, remembering their rather awkward kiss from earlier.

"Nicholas and Nova, Eli and Gail...the, uh, one freshman kid," he says with a look over at Cam, "with Alex. Michael is with Jax, I --" Ryan freezes, frowning. "...I'm with Sydney." He tries not to groan.

Sydney's gaze snaps over to him. "What?"

Ryan nods slowly. "Unfortunately," he says, "It seems like we're stuck together."

Sydney breathes out a very, very loud sigh.

"Mason, you're with Skylar." Ryan's voice displays clear disappointment. Checking over the rest of the people in the room, he realizes a few people still don't have partners. "Uh..." Shit. There isn't an even number, is there?

The sound of the basement door opening is heard, and Eden descends down the steps. "I'm here, bitches!" She announces, loudly.

Roz grins when she spots her little sister, waving her over. "Where the hell where you?"

"Drinking," Eden responds with a loud laugh.

"That's not a location," Roz smirks, shaking her head.

"You!" Ryan says, suddenly pointing toward Eden. "Seven minutes in heaven, yes or no?"

Eden brightens immediately. "Uh, hell yeah."

Ryan smiles, nodding in satisfaction. "Alright. You go with..." Ryan looks. "Stuart. Val, go with...him." He makes a vague gesture toward Zach.

Andrew Gaidry

Reds heart skips a beat. He cast a half concerned half amused look over at Dean. "Sorry." He said with a soft chuckle.

Alex looked over at Cam and gave a bright smile. Hey! Now they can actually get to know each other. Or whatever.

Michael frowned at the name. He didn't recognize it... who was Jax? And.... Nicholas and Nova. He felt his stomach tighten, looking warily over at Nova. He scooted closer to his brother and tugged at his sleeve.

"Nic?"

Nicholas frowned slightly and looked over, giving Michael a raised eyebrow. "Yeah?"

"What should I...?"

He glanced over at Ryan. Nicholas followed his gaze then looked back to Michael and shrugged, giving him a smile. He ruffled his hair. "Make...." He thinks carefully. "Good choices."

Nic looked over to Nova and smiled slightly, raising an eyebrow. "So, you think Ryan's rigged this or what?"

Mason blinked and looked over at Skylar, grinning slightly. The one singular other person at this party he actually sort of knew- or at least, had already reasonably spoken to.

Trashley Marie

Cameron looks to Ryan. "I legit said my name bro. It's Cameron."

Jax scoffs. "Sarah stop being weird."

With a gasp of pain Cam look away from Jax. The only good news is that he randomly was picked to be with Alex.

Ariel reassuringly goes to run Cam's back but he shoves her off to quick.

Jerith Walker

Zach is nervous.

When Ryan reads out the names, he relaxes a bit, figuring he came in too late to be added. But then--

He glances over at the girl he's paired with, someone he doesn't know, and gives an odd smile.

Valerie looks over at who she was paired with and beams at him. She wonders if he'll be up for actually making out.

"Tell me all about it later." she says to Roz before heading over to meet her partner.

"Hey there~" she wiggles her fingers in a greeting wave.

Zach waves hi and stares at the ground. Maybe this was a mistake.

Chase widens his eyes when he hears he'd been paired with the second homophobe. "Are you fucking kidding me?"

"Tough luck." Stuart says to him, then smiles and gives him a nudge when he sees who he himself has been paired with. He glances over at Eden.

Skylar gives Mason a grin. The two rich boys. Nice.

"Hey, no offence Ryan, but you're totally rigging those two--" he indicates Nic and Nova-- "to be together."

Maya Rice

"Sorry for what?" Dean asks with a laugh. "Honestly, I'm /glad/ you're the one I'm going to end up trapped with." He casts a sideways glance to Eli. "It could be worse. So much worse."

"He's rigged it for sure," she responds with a confident nod. While she feels vaguely nervous at the thought of being locked in rather close quarters with Nic, she supposes that he's the best option she has right now. She /could/ have ended up with Sydney instead...Nova shudders at the thought.

"Ehh," Ryan says, shrugging. "Fine, Cameron, whatever." He raises his eyebrows a bit at the rather odd interaction between Cam, Ari, and Jax, but doesn't say anything, simply moving on.

Lydia looks offended when Chase speaks up. "Do you have a problem?" She says with raised eyebrows as the approaches him, hands on her hips.

Eden honestly has no idea who the fuck she's been paired with. She manages to eventually figure it out when she notices Stuart looking over at her. Raising a hand, Eden gives an overly dramatic wave.

"You know what?" Ryan huffs indignantly. "If I really /was/ rigging this, do you think I would have paired myself with Sydney?" He looks to her for a moment. "I mean, no offense, Syd --"

She wrinkles her nose. "God. None taken. You /should/ have rigged it."

Seeing that Red seems to be occupied with Dean, Cecily slowly shifts away from him, gazing over at the girl she's been paired up with. She's met her once or twice, usually when around Lydia. She's always seemed like an odd friend choice for Lyd -- Cecily never understood why she'd keep someone like Rozlyn around.

Andrew Gaidry

Red gives a relieved smile. Maybe Dean wasn't super into the game either? That was a relief. "Heh... just, y'know.... Hoping I'm not stealing your shot at, like, getting a few minutes alone in a closet with, like, some girl you could have fun with." He shrugged a bit. He was honestly glad it was Dean too... it wouldn't be so bad. They could just hang out in there, probably. Nobody ever said they had to like.... do anything. Dean was his friend. So this would be fine.

Nic laughed softly. "Why on /earth/ would he be rigging us though?" He looked over at Ryan and whispered to Nova. "Whats his ulterior motive?"

Mason moves to stand by Skylar, looking at the two Skylar were talking about. Who are they?

Jerith Walker

Chase rolls his eyes. "Just that you're a major bitch."

Stuart steps away from his friends to approach Eden. "Hey, there...I guess we're partners."

Skylar snorts at the interactions between Ryan and Syd, and heads over to where Mason is standing.

Maya Rice

Dean shakes his head and chuckles. "No, really, don't worry about it." He turns to look around at the gathered group, lowering his voice a bit. "There's not really anyone here that I'm interested in anyway."

Nova pauses, considering. She honestly hadn't thought of /why/ Ryan would do it...maybe for a bit of amusement? Drama? She wasn't sure. "Who knows..." Nova mutters with a little shake of her head.

Lydia's eyes widen. "Excuse me?" She says with a huff, arms crossing over her chest.

"Guess we are!" Eden responds. "I'm Eden," she introduces herself, extending a hand with a grin.

Andrew Gaidry

Red smiled, shoulders relaxing with relief. God, he really was lucky getting paired with Dean. His gaze shifted to the rest of the group when Dean commented on his lack of interest. "Really...? No one?" He looked back to Dean. "... is there anyone you /are/ interested in?" He asked curiously.

Nic nodded in agreement. Weird.

"Hey, closet buddy." Mason greeted Skylar.

Maya Rice

"The only thing I'm interested in right now is passing calc," Dean responds with a pained smile. He thinks for a moment, trying to remember whether or not he has a test on Monday...oh well. It doesn't matter now.

"Anyway," Ryan says, drawing the attention of the pairs. "The first pair that we'll be sending in is...Nic and Nova." His gaze moves to them, and a smirk forms on his face. "Wanna complain about how this is rigged some more first, or...?"

Nova looks away, feeling embarrassed. She shifts toward Nic, heartbeat starting to speed up. This was real. This was a thing she was actually doing.

Andrew Gaidry

Red gives him a sympathetic smile. He leaned over and whispered. "Maybe we can sneak some study supplies into the closet."

Nic snorted. "Nah- I think you're just /messing/ with us at this point." He gave a soft smile over to Nova. "... might as well get it over with?" He said gently.

Jerith Walker

Chase crosses his arms, electing to ignore her and focus on everyone else.

"Heey~" Skylar greets Mason, then swivels on a heel to watch the others. "I wonder what we're going to be doing in the meantime.

Maya Rice

"Maybe I am, maybe I'm not," Ryan responds with a nonchalant shrug, watching the two.

Nova is quiet for a few moments, but she eventually nods, lifting her head.

Ryan perks up. "Great! In you go, then." He gestures over toward where the basement storage closet is located, on the other side of the room. He ushers Nic and Nova over, winking at them as they go.

Lydia lets out an exasperated sigh and begins to ignore Chase as well. God, it's going to be a long seven minutes.

Andrew Gaidry

Nic gives her a soft reassuring pat on the back and lets himself be herded to the closet. He holds the door open for Nova and then slips in after her after the door closes.

Michael stares after them, frowning slightly.

Mason shrugged. "Another party game, maybe? Or just.... socializing?"

Jerith Walker

"Probably another party game..." Skylar grins lopsidedly. "Honestly, I'm just waiting for everyone to get drunk as shit."

Maya Rice

Eli, from his place in the room, laughs and calls out, "Meeee," in response to Skylar.

Andrew Gaidry

Mason laughed. "You not gonna drink then? Just gonna enjoy the show?"

Jerith Walker

Skylar laughs loudly when Eli joins in. "Oh, I'M enjoying the SHOW."

Maya Rice

"God," Dean grins. "Can you imagine?" He laughs with a shake of his head. "Clearly that would make for a /great/ round of this game."

When another party game is suggested, Ryan interrupts. "We always /could/ play never have I ever while we wait." He glances between Mason and Skylar, trying not to feel jealous. Why were they getting along well? Did they know each other?

Andrew Gaidry

Red laughed. "Seven minutes in heaven... quiz show style."

Mason looked over at Ryan and smiled. "Sounds good to me." He felt like he had a pretty good chance of winning that one. He hadn't done much. Or... wait. was it getting the most stuff and you win....?

-Jerith Walker

Skylar turns to stare at Mason. He considers making a comment a bout him having said the exact words he was about to, but decides against it and just flashes Ryan a thumbs up.

Trashley Marie

Cam smirks, that sounded like something Ari would be good at, him not so much.

Jax groans, can they just make out with some people and let that be done with.

Maya Rice

Eden brightens at the mention of the game. "Hell yeah, I'm down!" She announces.

Ryan nods and smiles as more various guests agree. "Alright...in order to keep everyone from dying, I think we're going to have to play the version of this that /doesn't/ involve drinking..." he trails off, glancing around for a moment. "Everybody knows how it works, right?"

Trashley Marie

Jax groans and sets his already empt cup aside. "It was empty anyway."

Cam chuckles at Jax' words. "I think we are all good." Cam glances to Alex for a quick second before pulling his knees up to his chest once again.

Ariel looks to Alex and then to Cam. She gives a soft smile and nods to Ryan's question. "I think so, and I agree. No drinking."

Andrew Gaidry

Alex smiles at Cam and sits by him. Should probably stick close to his closet buddy- that would make things easier when it's their turn.

Mason hesitated. He really hated to be the one person who didn't know... he already spoke up for spin the bottle. ".... go over how it works?" He asked after a moment. He didn't even know that drinking was usually a part of the game.

Trashley Marie

Cam immediately hugs his legs tighter and gives Alex a quick smile before burying his face into his knees again. -He's right next you. Just chill. Breathe.- He feels a hand on his back and jumps to find Ariel's hand on his back, he re-buries his head and hugs his knees. He feels his good fall over his head.

Ariel notices Cam's discomfort and rubs his back. He jumps at the sudden contact at first but then hides his face again, she places his hood over his head, knowing he always found comfort in that for some reason.

Jax scoffs as Alex sits between him and Cam, but ignores it. He nods to Michael, was that the cute gay one he noticed earlier?

Maya Rice

Ryan is just about ready to explain when...

"It's super simple," Eden pipes up. "Everyone sits together, holds all their fingers up." She shakes her head a bit. "Which is totally boring compared to preparing shots, but since we're not drinking..."

Ryan takes over the explanation. "You hold up your fingers, and every time that someone says something that you /have/ done, you lower one. Last person standing wins."

Jerith Walker

"Were you homeschooled before this?" Skylar teases Mason.

Andrew Gaidry

Mason snorted. Opened his mouth to object. Hesitated. "Not /entirely/." He crossed his arms.

Alex tilted his head, frowning slightly. "Is-" he hesitated. "... Cameron okay?" He asked Ariel.

Michael missed the nod at him. But he did see the stare. He looked over at the boy and gave a slightly confused look. Oh... was /that/ Jaxon?

Trashley Marie

Ariel chuckled at Alex. She heard the hesitation in his voice. "Ye, /he/ is fine. He just, is nervous."

Cam freezes at the words he hears, they were talking about him, he didn't appreciate it totally. He popped his head up and looked to Alex ready to say his usual snarky comment. "Loo-" what was gonna be the word 'look' became dragged out as Cam saw Alex' blue eyes closer. He gulped, ducking his head again, his face immediately flushed, he could feel the redness spread across his skin and goosebumps formed on his neck.

Jax look around away from Michael. -Don't seem excited.-

Maya Rice

Ryan, overhearing the conversation between Mason and Skylar, has to hold in laughter. God, /had/ Mason been homeschooled before? That would certainly explain the lack of knowledge in terms of party games.

"Sooo," Eden says, eyes moving around the group. "We gonna do this, or...?" She pauses for a moment. "Who'll go first?"

Jerith Walker

"Online school, or...?" Skylar looks around the group, wishing they--or at least, some people--were taking the shots. It would be amusing to watch everyone getting increasingly drunk playing this game. Buuuut, he has the good sense to hold his mouth shut.

Sky finds a cushy spot on the ground and sits back down dramatically.

Andrew Gaidry

Mason shrugged, glancing over at him and then following to take a seat beside him. "Partially... some tutors. And I did go to actual school when I was younger."

Michael frowns slightly when he looks away. Maybe.... not Jaxon? Who knows. He looks over at the closet, frowning still. They weren't.... /doing/ anything in there, were they?

He! Alex nodded. "Oh, because the game? Don't worry, it'll be fun! Nothing to worry about." He gives Cam a reassuring smile.

Trashley Marie

Cam looks up toAlex. He sees the smile and his face flushes again. "Uh. Well. Uhm."

Ari giggles "He is just always nervous when it comes to new people. The situation doesn't help but you know, he's weird.

Cam scoffs. "I'm not that weird." He hides his face again.

Maya Rice

Seeing as no one else was responding to Eden's question...

"Never have I ever been blackout drunk," Ryan speaks up, raising the fingers on his hands, waiting for everyone else to join in and do the same.

Hearing Ryan speak up, Eli starts to join in and raise his fingers -- however, he immediately pouts when Ryan comes up with a statement. He reluctantly lowers a finger. "This is rigged," he determines. "You're rigged."

Eden gives Ryan a grateful nod when he starts things up. She joins in immediately, lowering a finger when he gives the first condition. She starts to laugh when Eli comments on the fairness of the game, rolling her eyes.

Fiona puts a finger down and then turns to give Lydia an expectant look.

Lydia raises her eyebrows. "What?"

Fiona smiles, winking at her.

Lydia glares back in return before eventually groaning in and joining in as well. She puts one finger down.

Jerith Walker

Valerie tilts her head in thought, then lowers a finger.

Chase smiles and lowers a finger.

Stuart proudly keeps all ten up.

Zach glances around himself, unsure he'd really fit in at all. His fingers remain up.

Skylar thinks carefully. He calls out, "What if you're been drugged, but like...you weren't technically drunk."

Andrew Gaidry

"Its not weird!" Alex agreed. "That totally makes sense. But I promise I'm not scary, okay Cam? New people are sometimes just new friends you dont know very well yet!" He shifted his attention to the rest of the group when Ryan spoke. Oh! He lifted up his hands, fingers spread. Frowns at the question. No, of course not. Um... well.... he doesn't.... /think/ so? No, no, he doesnt think so. He keeps all his fingers up after a moment of hesitation.

Red thinks for a moment and kept all fingers up. Nope. God no. Blackout drunk is an /awful/ idea.

Michael thinks carefully. He doesn't think hes gotten to blackout point quite yet.... no, thats a no from him.

Mason looks over and raises an eyebrow. His fingers stay up. He pauses. "Wait, no, I dont think that counts. Being drugged is entirely different than drinking until you blackout." Mason looked to Ryan for confirmation.

Maya Rice

Ryan's eyes widen at Skylar's question. Damn. What kind of situations was he getting himself into? Ryan's tempted to question him further about it out of curiosity, but... "You weren't blackout /drunk,/ then," he says, confirming Mason's statement. "It doesn't count."

Once everyone has finished either lowering their fingers or keeping them raised, Eden asks, "Ooh, can I go next?" Without waiting for an answer, she quickly says, "Never have I ever..." she trails off, considering. Eventually she smiles and says, "had sex with a guy."

Ryan pouts as he lowers a finger. "Stop being homophobic," he grumbles.

Eden grins over at him. "Just trying to win."

Lydia lowers another finger, frowning. Things weren't looking good for her so far.

Fiona puts a finger down as well, laughing as she does so. "Worst mistake of my life, honestly."

"Thank god I'm straight," Eli sighs with a relieved smile. He glances over toward Cecily and Red, watching Cece almost expectantly.

"Thank god I'm /not,/" Sydney laughs in response to Eli's comment, sitting up a little bit straighter. She still had all of her fingers raised, although she knew it was only a matter of time before she'd have to lower a few.

Andrew Gaidry

Mason looked over at Ryan with surprise. Well, not that he was surprised because he didn't think that Ryan could- well, it's just, wow. Not that..... not that it was like there was a lack of people in the room putting a finger down. But.... Ryan was pretty experienced, huh? He had.... yeah this was certainly the sort of game where you win by losing. God. All of his fingers remain up.

Alex hums softly, not even needing to think about this one. All fingers stayed up.

Michael hesitated. He knew the answer but.... he wasn't certain if he should..... no, it would draw attention to him, absolutely. He glanced around to see if anyone was watching him. No.... he shouldn't put his finger down. He didn't want that sort of attention. He curled an arm around himself, keeping his hand up and trying to fade into the background as much as possible.

Red keeps all fingers up, looking around to see who lowered theirs curiously.

Trashley Marie

Jax had already had one finger down, from the previous blackout drunk question. Now he had to place another one down.

Cam glanced over to Alex with a smile. "Thanks." He kept all his fingers up as well. He looked to Jax and chuckled. "I haven't blacked out right?" Cam making sure he was playing fair.

Jax nodded. "Please, you barely hit drunk before."

Ariel smirked and had all her fingers up, but so did quite a few people. So did Cam, which comforted her, and with hearing what Jax said relieved her quite some. He wasn't as bad as Ariel has thought.

Jerith Walker

Zach blushes at the suggestion, and keeps his fingers up.

Chase, Stuart, and Skylar all lower one, probably uttering various complaints as they do.

Valerie purses her lips in thought. Keeps hers up.

Andrew Gaidry

Mason thinks before calling out. "Never have I ever kissed a girl." He figured that one would get out a good amount of people.

Alex smiled and lowered a finger.

Michael kept all fingers up. Then paused. Oh right. That girl in truth or dare. What was her name again...? Shanelle, right? The one who called Nova a whore. He resisted the urge to smile remembering that. He lowered a finger.

Red lowered a finger.

Trashley Marie

Jax groaned. "This is so rigged." He grumpily lowered a finger.

Cam did as well. "Who isn't gonnA have a finger down for this one?" He said glancing to Alex and admiring his smile for a few seconds before going back to examining his scrawny knuckles.

Ari had all 10 fingers up but then she saw a glimpse of Roz. Her face flushed a bright red. "Oh right." She muttered to herself.

Cam looked up toward his older sister for a second and smirked.

Maya Rice

Eden is the first to put a finger down. She lets out a rather smug laugh. "I've done a /lot/ more than kissing," she states.

Roz elbows her sister in the ribs as she lowers a finger as well, rolling her eyes. "No need to brag," she says in a teasing tone.

Eden snickers in response to Roz, giving her a light shove as well.

Ryan, with a sigh, lowers a finger. "Middle school was a mistake," he grumbles, shaking his head at the memories.

Eli puts a finger down, winking over at Lydia. He grins when he gets a disgusted look and an eyeroll in response.

Lydia waits until Eli's stopped staring over at her to very subtly lower a finger, praying that no one in the circle catches onto it.

Dean puts his first finger down. At least this wasn't something that would be embarrassing to admit to.

Cecily glances over at Red to make sure he isn't watching her before cautiously putting one of her fingers down, ready with an explanation if it was needed.

Quite a few more fingers go down in the group -- Fiona, Sydney, Gail.

Jerith Walker

Zach finally lowers one. He casts a glance over at Sydney, feeling the urge to check up on her, but quickly glances away again. Not wanting to seem weird or like he's coming onto her or anything.

Chase smiles and sighs as he's left with only seven up.

Stuart rolls his eyes, and he's down to eight. "Rude,"

Skylar lowers one and leans back, putting an arm up behind his head but still showing his hand.

Valerie lowers a finger. Spin the bottle, 5th grade. Also that girl in 8th grade who randomly kissed her, but would that even be counted as a kiss?

Andrew Gaidry

"Are you /fucking/ kidding me? I mean, I knew it would be a good one, but-!" Mason groaned and leaned back against the couch. Well. At least hes winning at the game.

Alex giggled softly.

Red glances over the room, seeing whos putting down a finger. Surprisingly, pretty much all the girls? Huh. He didn't see if Cecily had put one down or not... might have? He swears she had one more finger up before... he doesn't question it.

Maya Rice

Ryan gives Mason an amused look, tempted to comment on the fact that he was the only one remaining after that round...he decides to let it go, however, not wanting to embarrass him.

Moving onto the next round, Rozlyn decides to speak up. "Never have I ever been out of the country." She knows it's not the most interesting topic, but there really isn't much that she hasn't done or tried at least once.

Sydney is one of the first to lower a finger. "It barely even counts..." she complains with a shake of her head.

Dean lowers a finger, earning a suspicious look from Eli.

"Wait, have you really?"

"I took a week long trip to Canada," Dean says with a little sigh. "You don't have any memory of that?"

Eli shakes his head. "Nope."

Lydia puts yet another finger down, starting to think that she'll end up being one of the first ones out.

Jerith Walker

Zach thinks on this. It's odd; he hadn't been out of America. He really ought to do that sometime.

His head is tilted to one side as he daydreams of possibilities.

Chase, Stuart, Skylar, and Valerie all lower a finger.

Valerie nudges her friend and makes a comment to her about it, chats a bit.

Andrew Gaidry

Masons eyes light up and he sits back up. "Thank /god/." He lowers a finger.

Michael keeps his fingers up.

Alex thinks, squinting. He doesn't.... think so? Not as far as he can recall, anyways.

Red scrunches up his nose, thinking. No... he thinks all his travels have all been well within the states.

Trashley Marie

Jax scoffs. "Seriously rigged. My dad took me on a trip ONCE ugh, whatever." He quickly and frustratedly lowers a finger.

Ari chuckles and keeps hers all up. "I'm still winning. Only one down."

Cameron thinks, if Ari didn't then neither had he. Cam also notices Alex hasn't either. Hmm. He seemed like the spontaneous type tho the "lets go to Mexico for the weekend" type. He shrugged his thoughts away and look to the others in the group

Andrew Gaidry

Red figured he should go ahead and go. The earlier he does his turn, the less likely his safer ones would be taken. More in the early middle is the safest. "Never have I ever.... gotten into a fist fight."

Mason thinks. Hmm... no.

Alex frowns. It was possible......? He didn't remember anything like that though...... he keeps his fingers up.

Michael thinks carefully. Not...... /really/.

Maya Rice

Eden puts a finger down. "Stupid asshole ended up with a black eye," she chuckles, remembering one of the many fights she'd been a part of.

Smiling at Ari's comment, Roz calls, "You're not the /only/ one," wiggling her fingers to prove that she still had yet to lower more than one. She felt as if she was being beaten by her sister, but maybe that was a good thing.

Eli cautiously lowers a finger, muttering, "I...think?"

Dean has to keep himself from rolling his eyes. "You know, it's pretty concerning that you're forgetting things like me being gone for a week and apparently getting into fist fights."

"You're not my mom," Eli huffs at him in response, crossing his arms.

Dean inhales loudly, casting a weary glance to his nearest teammate -- Red. He mouths, 'help me.'

Gail puts a finger down with a small frown on her face.

Trashley Marie

Jax puts a finger down. He was down to just one hand. "Imma be out real quick."

Cam looks down and places a finger down. He looks away from Alex and to Ariel.

Ari rubs Cam's back and smiles. She had not. She still had 9 remaining.

Cam looks around as other talk. "Never have I ever....uhm, done anything worse then cigarettes and weed. So like maybe you have smoked cigarettes or weed but you haven't done like worse drugs." He kept his fingers up.

Jax smirked. "Finally. Something I haven't done." He admired his nails on his left hand, which were the only five fingers he had left up.

Ariel smiled her brothers 'Never Have I Ever' she kept all her fingers up. "I'm guessing like prescribed stuff doesn't count?"

Cam nods. "Ye anything prescribed by a doctor for like a medical reason or like that doesn't count."

Ari nods.

Andrew Gaidry

Alex thinks carefully. Nnnope! Not as far as he knows. Only one finger down so far!

Aaaand back to stuff that Mason hasn't done. Well... at least one was down for him?? God, how awful would it be to go through the entire game and not get anything. Sure he'd /win/, but at what /cost/?

God no. Red grimaced at the thought. If he got caught doing any drugs..... god, no. Seems like the only thing hes done so far is kiss a girl.

Michael keeps his fingers up.

Maya Rice

Eden lowers a finger again, curiously glancing around to see who else would put a finger down this round. She knew that the crowd here generally tended to be less extreme than the people she typically spent time with, but maybe some of them actually liked to have /real/ fun.

Roz also lowers a finger, although she seems a bit hesitant.

Lydia smiles and leans back when finally she doesn't have to put a finger down. Maybe she won't be the first one out after all.

Ryan initially doesn't lower a finger, but after a few moments of considering he eventually, slowly, does. He looks almost distant, lost in memories.

Jerith Walker

Zach had warily lowered his second finger when Red had brought up the fist fight.

He casts a glance over at Sydney, per usual, but remembers that considering they'd officially met when he fought Caleb...she clearly wouldn't mind.

He hasn't taken any drugs, so he's good for this round.

The fist fight question gets Chase, Stuart, and Skylar, but the drugs one only gets Chase and Stuart.

They discuss this loudly.

Valerie lowers two fingers, then calls out, "Never have I ever had sex for money."

Trashley Marie

Jax rolls his eyes and lowered a finger. "I wasn’t selling myself. He just paid me." (4)

Cam coughs out a laugh but slaps his hand over his mouth, a smile very wide. "Uhh, I think I'm good." (8)

Ariel chuckled to Jax and and rolled her eyes. She nodded. "Same here, I'm safe." (9)

Cam looked to Alex for a second. And the. His face flushed at a thought. He looked over to Ariel and she smiled. He clenched his jaw and tried thinking of some other stuff.

Andrew Gaidry

Alex giggled softly and shook his head, keeping his fingers up. No, never for money.(9)

God. Mason had a feeling the majority of suggestions for this game would be........ not fitting with his life. (9)

Red bites back a laugh. No. (9)

Michael thinks carefully. Nah, he hadn't. (9)

Maya Rice

Eden raises her eyebrows, almost upset that she wasn't going to have to lower a finger."Huh. Something I actually /haven't/ done." She pauses for a moment, looking as if she's considering something.

Noticing her sister's thoughtful look, Roz gives Eden a little shove. "Don't you even think about it," she scolds.

Eden gives her best impression of an innocent smile.

No one else in the group lowers a finger. Ryan looks around the circle, laughing a bit when he spots Jax. "Looks like you're the only one." Moving his gaze around the circle, he then asks, "Who's next?"

"Never have I ever held a gun," Cecily says, taking the open oppurtunity to go ahead with her statement. She cautiously watches the rest of the group, a bit concerned to see who would put their fingers down.

Eden frowns. "Damn it. Again?" She doesn't lower a finger.

Roz keeps all of hers up as well.

Dean lowers a finger.

Eli looks at him with wide eyes.

"...What?" Dean frowns a bit. "It's...not that uncommon...?"

Eli grins, bursting out laughing. "I'm just --" he has to pause for a moment. "Just trying to picture /you/ holding a gun."

Dean crosses his arms defensively, pouting as Eli's laughter continues.

Fiona puts one of her fingers down with a sigh. "My dad is like...the ultimate redneck. Our garage is full of them."

Lydia also puts a finger down, nodding to Fiona's words. She would have made it through the round had it not been for the sudden hunting and camping trip Fiona's father had dragged them along on.

Sydney keeps her fingers raised. She looks a little intrigued by the results of the round.

Trashley Marie

Jax sighs. "If taking a gun off of someone else counts as holding it." He glances over to Cam. His emotion completely changes to sincere. He would reach over, but Alex would question. He puts his finger down, he was done to three fingers. (3)

Cam look at his hand and almost refuses to put the finger down. He gulps and holds back tears. He puts is down. He looks over to Ariel. (7)

Ari puts her hand on his back and rubs it. She smiles sadly but she still has 9 fingers up. (9)

Cam hugs his knees again, awaiting the next question.

Andrew Gaidry

Oh! Theres one that Red had /certainly/ done. Red lowered a finger, looking over at Cecily- he felt a bit obliged to explain. "Hunting." He clarified. "With my dad." He added, giving her a slight smile. He turned his attention to his teammates, grinning slightly at Elis reaction. "Its not /that/ weird, is it?" He laughed softly. "I got a gun for my fourteenth birthday." He paused, thinking. "... then again, my dad is..... well, super into that stuff, but still.... is it really that.... uncommon?" He asked, sticking to Deans wording. (8)

Alex bit his lip, nose scrunching up as he thought. He doesn't.... remember ever holding a gun. He doesn't think he ever did, from what he knows. He doesnt think so? (9)

Alex looks over to Cam, surprise lighting up his eyes. He'd held a gun before...? He didn't seem happy about it..... it was probably a really bad bad experience. His gaze softened with sympathy.

Michael speaks up. "Does a BB gun count...? Probably not, right?"

Mason kept his fingers up. (9)

Trashley Marie

Cam felt eyes on him and looked to his right, he saw Alex' eye and his breathing hitched. He looked over to Ari. "A-Ariel. Can we switch spots."

Ari looked at her brother. "I-I don't know." She decided. "No, you are fine Cam. Just try to push through this."

Cam gulped and looked down. He nodded.

Jerith Walker

Zach hesitates for quite a bit before lowering his finger at the gun suggestion.

He doesn't seem to happy about it, either. (7)

"FINALLY, one that I HAVEN'T done." Chase exclaims at Valerie's suggestion, but easily lowers a finger at the next. He looks over at Dean, Eli, and Red. "No, not that uncommon." (3)

Skylar lowers his fingers with a smile at the first, then things for several long moments about the second. Had he? Yeah, he supposes, technically.

Down to four.

With the gun topic, Stuart's left with four fingers.

Valerie lowers a finger, too. (4)

Maya Rice

"See?" Dean says rather smugly when multiple people side with him. "I'm surprised you /haven't./" He says to Eli.

Eli gives a little shrug. "I don't need a gun when I have /these/ guns," he says as he starts to roll up the sleeves on his shirt. Dean reaches over and puts a hand on his arm, stopping him short.

Cecily is a bit startled to see that so many of her friends /had/ held a gun at some point -- however, she seems to relax a little bit when the hunting explanation is given. She hadn't really thought of it, but it did make sense. Pulling her knees up to her chest, Cece shakes her head and says, "I just can't even imagine having one around..." When Michael asks his question, she shakes her head a second time.

Sydney watches Zach with a curious half-smile. Interesting.

Andrew Gaidry

Alex watches Cam for a bit more before noticing Cam's not so happy reaction about that. Oop! "Its okay!" He piped up. He gave Cam a slight smile and then returned his gaze to the circle.

Red laughed softly. "You've really never been hunting before? I mean, if you want you could-" He thinks. "... probably come with, uh, me and my dad- hm. Or we could just, uh, organize a hunting trip? I dunno, just, if you're interested." He shrugged. He glanced back at Cecily to guage her reaction. He smiled softly and sympathetically at her comment. "... well... they aren't so bad. I dunno.... I think having a gun feels... a bit reassuring, to me." He added, thoughtfully. "... safer. Like.... knowing I could get to it if I needed it?"

Michael nodded and kept his fingers up.

Maya Rice

Eli perks up at the offer Red proposes, but is quickly shut down when Dean intervenes.

"He'd probably shoot himself in the foot," Dean laughs with a shake of his head.

Cecily responds with a small shrug and smile in response to Red. "Yeah. I guess that makes sense." She still doesn't quite understand, but she doesn't want to comment any further on it. Trying to shift the topic, she starts to say, "Who's going --" but is abruptly cut off by the sound of vibrating and Ryan's voice.

Ryan fetches his phone, checking it and swiping away a notification to stop it from vibrating. "Seven minutes are up," he announces with a grin. "Time to check on our first couple."

Getting to his feet, Ryan heads over to the closet. He knocks on the door and announces, "Time's up!" loudly so that Nic and Nova will be able to hear. "Go ahead, come on out."

There's a few moments of nothing, and then the door swings open. Nova stumbles just a bit as she exits. The sweater she's wearing is slightly askew on her shoulders. She smooths down her hair as she walks out, keeping her gaze on the ground rather than on the expectant crowd that she knows must be watching her and Nic.

Andrew Gaidry

Red laughed softly, giving a little aww. "We'll just have to keep an extra close eye on him- oh, and prohibit alcohol of course. No drinking and shooting." He looks back to Cecily, smile fading a bit. She doesn't seem quite as enthusiastic about it. Probably wouldn't want to join them on the hunting trip.

Nic walked out after Nova, moving quickly to help her as she stumbled out, offering her support with a soft chuckle. "Careful." He said gently, lifting his gaze to everyone else. "So, whos next?"

Michael stared in shock at Novas stumble, her disheveled hair, her sweater- No, no, there was no way- they had /just/- she /wouldn't/- but she- she-! "You /wh-!/" He managed to catch himself and quickly downed the rest of his cup and stood up sharply. "I, um, I'm out of- drink." He turned and bolted up the stairs.

Nic stared in shock, jaw dropped just sligtly.

Jerith Walker

Zach doesn't care much about the couple who'd just exited, as he doesn't really know them. It doesn't even register that Nova is a part of Sydney's friend group.

He just casts a nervous glance over at the person he was paired up with, not anticipating his turn.

Skylar snorts at Michael's swift departure. "Hell couple hell couple hell couple." he mutters, loud enough to be heard, casting a glance up at Nic and Nova.

Chase starts snickering into his knees.

Stuart leans over. In a decently quiet voice, "Was that the girl who...?"

Chase nods.

Stuart snorts, and then laughs loudly.

"SO ANYWAYS," Valerie speaks up loudly, giving a friendly but /very firm/ look about the room, "Next turn?"

Maya Rice

"Well now you're just ruining all the fun," Eli pouts with a shake of his head. Doing anything without alcohol was always significantly less entertaining than it was /with/ it.

Nova goes to reach for Nic's arm for support for a moment, but stops just before she's able to grab onto him. Although Michael's comment is faint, she's still able to catch it. Glancing up, she finds Michael in the circle. Her eyebrows furrow together, and for a moment it looks almost as if she's about to cry.

Blinking a few times, Nova remains still as she watches him rush away. The other comments from the rest of the group seem faint and far away. Swallowing, Nova turns to look at Nic and mutters, "I'm...I'm going to go get another drink too." Before he has much of a chance to say anything, Nova separates herself from his side and heads up the stairs, cheeks flushed a bright red.

Sydney's attention has shifted from Zach to Nova. She watches with a slight tilt to her head as Michael leaves, and then Nova follows soon after. She remains sitting for a moment before sighing and standing up. "Save our turn for later, alright?" She says to Ryan.

Ryan raises his eyebrows but nods.

Looking to Nic now, Syd mutters, "Don't worry, I'll go take care of her." She gives him an almost sympathetic smile before leaving up the stairs as well.

Dean is looking between Nic and where Michael had been sitting, very obviously concerned. His mouth is turned downward into a frown.

Ryan, sensing the tense atmosphere, clears his throat. "Like Val said -- anyway," he claps once to draw attention. "Our next couple is up. Hopefully it won't end as badly this time." He chuckles a bit, using his phone to generate the next pair to go. After a moment he looks up from his phone and announces, "Dean and Red." Glancing over at them, Ryan laughs. "You two might want to keep your heads down when you go in."

Andrew Gaidry

Red rolled his eyes slightly, giving a faintly amused smile.

Nic looked worridly over at Nova. "Nova, I am /so/ sorry, I-" He trails off and lets her speak. He nods and reluctantly lets her go. He looks over to Sydney and sighs softly, giving her a soft smile and a nod. "Thank you. I should.... go check on my brother." His brows furrowed slightly and he sighed then headed up after Sydney.

Red looked over when theyre mentioned. Oh. He had almost forgotten. He got a bit distracted by the gun talk. He frowns. "What do you-" And then he gets it. He rolls his eyes and scoffs slightly, giving a slight smile. "Ha ha." He climbs to his feet. "Uh.... time for us to go.... stand in a closet together then." He looks to Dean.

Maya Rice

Dean's attention shifts when his name is called. The concerned expression on his face gradually begins to fade, although he still looks a little bit distracted. Looking over to Red, Dean stands with a nod and a faint chuckle. "I guess so."

Ryan ushers them off into the closet.

Trashley Marie

Cam watches as the drama unrolls and bends toward Alex a bit. "Uhm, is ours gonna end like that?" He said not even glancing to Alex, he was just hugging his knees and leaning a bit toward him. (7)

Ariel rolls her eyes, it was unreal how dramatic some people were, then again. It seemed like Nova was genuinely embarrassed and upset. (9)

Jax chuckles slightly. "I wonder what they did in there. God, imagine. I'm too drunk for this tbh." He watched Michael run out. "Well he's no fun." (3)

Jerith Walker

"Pfft. I guess Dean and Red get to drop out of the game...cheaters," Valerie teases.

"Never have I ever won a game of Never have I ever." Chase says. Then pauses and thinks. "Nevermind, there was that one time. I retract."

Skylar scoffs. "Only because everyone playing was crazier than you."

Andrew Gaidry

Alex's eyes widen. "God, I /hope/ not!" He whispered back. "I hope that girls okay..." He mumbled.

"Holy shit." Mason mumbled to himself with.... literally all of that. He rested back a bit, looking over at Chase with his attempt at a never have I ever.

Trashley Marie

Cameron chuckled at Alex' reaction. "Yeah. I do too. What do you think they did in there?" Cam said still reaching over. (7)

Jax smirked. "Ok, I'll give one. Never have /I/ ever won a game of never have I ever."

He smiled and kept his 3 fingers up. (3)

Cam smiled. "Well, I've never played so." He places a finger down. He smirks to Alex and sits straight again. He was growing a little more comfortable around him. (6)

Ariel frowns. "I have... but I gues that means I'm good." She keeps her fingers up. (9)

Andrew Gaidry

Alex frowns and thinks. ".... kissed, probably." He paused. "... maybe more?? Or maybe they just talked?"

Alex looked over at Jax when he spoke. Okay, so, never won a game of never have i ever... so, thatnwould be, put down a finger if you'd won? He thinks carefully. Not as far as he knows! He keeps his fingers up. (9)

Mason had never played before, so... that was a no. Although he ceetainly thinks he has a pretty damn good chance to win here. (9)

Maya Rice

Gail considers this for a moment before eventually putting one of her fingers down. It had been all the way back in middle school, but she /had/ been the winner...probably due to the fact that all of the statements had something to do with kissing boys or wanting to date them. Her nose wrinkles at the memory.

Ryan keeps all his fingers up as he returns to the group, leaning back when he sits down. He'd honestly thought that he'd be doing a lot worse than he currently was...maybe he'd win /this/ game. Glancing over at Mason, Ryan starts to reconsider. Maybe not.

Eden shakes her head, laughing a bit. God. Imagine how embarrassing it would be to "win" at this game.

Jerith Walker

Ironically enough, Chase is the only one in my group of characters down there who /has/ won.

He lowers a finger and is down to 2.

Andrew Gaidry

Nicholas returns from upstairs with Michael. Michael doesnt look up as he trails closely behind his brother. Nicholas takes his seat and Michael sits close to him, avoiding all eye contact and trying to be... as unnoticable as possible. Trying not to attract attention.

"What'd we miss?" Nic asks.

Maya Rice

Ryan looks up when Nic and Michael return, a small, amused smile on his face as he watches how Michael nearly tries to use his brother to hide himself. "/You/ missed a bunch of rounds of never have I ever," he says to Nic, and then, "your brother only missed one round or so." Looking to Michael, Ryan asks, "Have you ever won a game of never have I ever, kid?"

Eden, waiting for things to pick back up again, starts to survey the group. She counts how many fingers each player has up, impressed by a few people. However, when she notices Mason, a laugh is startled out of her. Wow. Only /one/ finger down? That was sort of sad.

Andrew Gaidry

"Um..." Michael grimaces slightly. "Uh, no." Michael dropped his gaze to his drink and took a long sip before setting it down and raising his fingers again. How many did he have up again? Uh... nine? Yeah, nine. (9)

Nic raised an eyebrow. "Oh, never have I ever huh?" He chuckled softly. "I guess its a little too late to join?"

Maya Rice

Ryan nods to Michael and then shrugs in response to Nic. "You could join in now if you want. It's not like we're playing for a reward."

Eden glances over to the new player -- Nic -- and then to Mason. "Wanna bet he'll have all his fingers down before you even hit eight?" She calls over to him in a rather smug tone, laughing as she does so.

Andrew Gaidry

Nic nodded, chuckling. "Sure."

Mason looked over to Eden with a frown when she spoke, feeling a spark of indignance. "Its not like I've had much of a chance to do most of these things. I'm sure theres plenty I've done that very few people here have done, but all the never have I evers seem to be a very /particular/ niche that I haven't had much access to, so. " He shrugs, trying to ever sound and seem nonchalant about it.

Maya Rice

Ryan gives Nic a little smile and nod. "Nice." He looks around, realizing that they'll need another person to take a turn so they can move on. Glancing once more at Nic's younger brother, Ryan suggests, "Why don't you go?"

Eden listens to Mason's rambling with raised eyebrows, eventually laughing, shaking her head, and saying, "That sounds like a bullshit excuse for being a shut-in who has never done anything fun in their entire life."

Andrew Gaidry

Mason feels a very sharp flash of irritation and smiles over at her. "Sorry, I didn't realize it was such a huge difficult accomplishment to slut around and take drugs and get drunk. The more you know, huh?" He smiles cheerily at her. "I could probably finish off most of these never have I evers at this /party./"

Michael jolted a bit at Ryans voice. Was he speaking to- ah. Uh. Michael grimaced slightly. What /hasn't/ he done? "Um.... never have I ever, uh..... had... um.... called....... a partner..... Daddy?" He feels like he just rolled dice to come up with something but it works. He certainly hasn't done that. "Or uh, vice versa. Like, been called Daddy?" He added, to hopefully make it more fair.

Maya Rice

"Ooh," Eden says, her eyes widening a bit. "Did I hit a nerve?" Despite his rather aggressive comment, she seems to be quite unaffected. After all, it wasn't as if she hadn't heard worse comments thrown her way. She's about to say something further when Michael speaks. She seems quite surprised to hear his statement -- it wasn't something she would have expected someone like /him/ to say. She keeps her fingers up, feeling maybe a little annoyed that she hadn't been able to lower one just to spite Mason. Turning back to him with a smile, she asks, "You sure you could handle all of the things you've missed in /one/ night?"

Ryan sputters out a loud laugh when Michael speaks. He lowers a finger while shaking his head. "I don't think I've ever broken up with somebody so quickly," he comments. He can vaguely catch a bit of Mason's discussion with Eden, but doesn't seem too concerned or interested just yet.

Nova and Sydney descend back down the basement stairs just as Michael takes his turn. Nova's eyes widen a bit, and she wonders what the hell she's just walked into.

Standing at the bottom few steps, Nova glances over at where Michael sits with Nic, a frown on her face as she watches him. Was he trying to take the spot she'd had at Nic's side earlier? Feeling a small flare of something similar to jealousy, Nova readies herself to head over and simply sit near him despite their conflict -- however, she's stopped short by Sydney, whose eyes are alight.

"Put a finger down," Syd encourages in a hushed tone. For a moment Nova is puzzled, but she eventually manages to work out what is going on.

"Come on," Syd pleads. "He'll --"

Leaving Syd behind and taking a step toward where Nic and Michael are sitting, Nova puts a finger down on the hand that isn't holding onto her drink, making brief eye contact with Michael as she settles down on Nic's other side.

Ryan, gaze following Nova and Sydney, starts to speak. "Oh! Look who else is..." he trails off when he notices her lowered finger. He glances to Nic, then back to Nova, and then once at Michael before breaking into a grin. "Ohhh."

Sydney returns to the group as well, selecting a spot fairly close to Ryan, praying that he'd be distracted enough to not comment on it. She practically beams over at Nova, feeling immensely proud.

Andrew Gaidry

Mason snorted. "Sure. They certainly don't seem particularly /difficult/ to accomplish." He thinks. "... the gun one might be a bit difficult, unless someone happened to bring one tonight."

Michael glanced over when he hears Sydney and Nova come back down. He quickly averts his eyes ad stares down at his cup. He glances up and over at Nova just in time to see her lower a finger and make eye contact. He snapped upright, anger flashing in his eyes. His fingers curled against the carpet and squeezed. He glanced over at Nic, frowning. She was /lying/. She was just a lying /bitch/ there was /no/ way.

Alex thinks. Lets see.... he thinks ummm..... yeah, that one girl did once? He thinks she had been half joking, but that still sorta counts, right? He lowers a finger.

Jerith Walker

Skylar lowers a finger with a very long, loud, annoying sigh.

He's quickly distracted, however, when he hears snippets of the conversation going on between Eden and Mason.

"Whaaachu talking about?" he lies down and props himself up on his elbows and grins.

Valerie feels a blush spread across her cheeks.

N...no, she hasn't done that.

Chase and Stuart simultaneously lower a finger.

Chase stares at his one remaining finger, then looks around to see if anyone else is also down to one.

Maya Rice

"Well, yeah," Eden says, shifting a little closer toward Mason so that it's easier for them to talk. "Clearly /I/ couldn't make it out of the country tonight..." Seeming to have an idea brewing, Eden grins. "You think you could get more done tonight than I could?"

When Skylar slides closer, Ryan decides he's going to start paying attention. Glancing over at Mason and trying to be not incredibly obvious about the fact that he was listening in on his conversation, Ryan waits to hear more.

Once the round is finished, Nova takes a quick sip of her drink before clearing her throat and asking, "Can I go next?"

"Huh?" Ryan's attention is drawn away from Mason for a moment, brows furrowing together. Eventually he seems to realize what is being asked and gives Nova a nod of confirmation. "Go ahead."

Nodding, Nova begins. "Never have I ever been jealous of somebody else's relationship." She feels vaguely guilty as she says it, and even more guilty when she turns to give Michael a pointed look, but it doesn't stop her from doing so.

Sydney has a wide grin on her face. "Holy shit," she whispers.

Ryan, glancing between Skylar and Mason, slowly puts a finger down. He's too focused on the pair and Eden to notice the tension in the room, notice that no one else seems to be responding or even moving.

Andrew Gaidry

Mason glances over at Skylar before looking back to Eden. He responds to her first, lips curling into a grin. "/Think/ I can? I /know/ I can." He looks back to Skylar. "We're...." He looks back to her. "... making a bet?" He said, raising an eyebrow to see if his wording was accurate.

Michael stiffens at Novas statement. His fingernails dig into the carpet and he feels tears well up in his eyes. He hates her. He fucking hates her. Who does she fucking think she is?

Michael.... isn't putting up with this, he can't take any fucking more of this. He shoves himself off the ground, grabs his cup and shoots back upstairs, slamming the door behind him.

Trashley Marie

Jax smiled, 'Daddy is my middle name.' he proudly puts a finger down. He looked like a small child that just learned to count.

Ari rolled her eyes, her and Cam both kept their fingers up.

Jax, Ari, and Cam had all been jealous before.

J.1 C.6 A.7

Jerith Walker

"About...trying new things?" Skylar thinks he can piece together what's going on, but he wants to be sure.

Chase snorts and elbows Stuart, watching Michael ascend the stairs. "You seeing this?"

Stuart rolls his eyes. "Freshman bitches." he mutters back.

Zach lowers a finger without much thought, then scoots closer to Syd with a frown. Or gets up and walks over to her discretely. Whatever is relevant for everyone's current sitting positions. "Is everything okay...?"

Valerie makes the : I face. Leans back. Welp.

Trashley Marie

Cam leans to Alex a bit. "I wanna talk to you, but like should I wait for the closet time?"

Andrew Gaidry

Alex's eyes light up and he scoots closer. "We can talk!" He whispered over. "We can do whatever in the closet, we don't gotta wait to chat."

Trashley Marie

Cam smiles, sitting up straighter and stretching his legs out. "Hi." Cam placed his arms back and leans on them, smiling. He gives a small giggle and looks over to Alex.

Ariel looks to Cam, -Where did that come from?- she didn't ask him, he'd cower back into his hole like a rabbit who was frightened by something. She simply smiled and focused on the conversation.

Maya Rice

Eden nods in confirmation to Skylar. She's too focused on the potential bet with Mason to pay much attention to whatever drama is currently going on. "About doing things we've never done," she says with a sideways glance to Mason. "Which for you seems to be a /lot,/" she says with a chuckle.

As soon as Michael leaves, the vague traces of guilt Nova had been feeling start to become more intense as she realizes what she's done. Stomach churning, Nova begins to curl in upon herself, resting her chin on top of her knees and anxiously fidgeting with a few strands of her hair, curling and uncurling them around her fingers. She can't bring herself to look over at Nic. She can only imagine what he must think of her right now. /God./ Why had she /done/ that?

Sydney glances up when Zach approaches, scooting over just a bit so that he has room to sit beside her. "Everything is /great,/" she laughs lightly, still gazing over at Nova. Syd never would have thought that she had it in her.

Ryan is still fairly distracted by Mason, Skylar, and Eden. As he starts to understand what exactly it is they're planning, his concern for the two -- although mostly Mason -- rises.

Andrew Gaidry

Mason snorted. "I'd offer some things for you to do that I've done, but they arent really.... easy one nighters." He crossed his arms and leaned forward a bit. "We putting any stakes on this bet ooor...?"

Nicholas watched his brother go with concern before looking back over at Nova. he opened his mouth to speak, hesitated and bit his lip, looking back over at the stairs. He glanced back over at Nova. Sighed softly before speaking gently to Nova. "... I'm gonna to go after him. I'm... I'm sorry about all of this." He pulled himself up and went after his brother.

Alex giggled softly. "Hey." He tilted his head gently after a small pause. "... do you go to Kingswood? I don't think I've seen you around before."

Trashley Marie

Cam nods. "I just started. I did homeschooling and I'm a freshman. So not only do I not know any upper class man, but I also don't know anyone in my own grade." Cam says sort of sadly. "That's why I came here, in hopes to mingle, but I just didn't work great Ig."

Andrew Gaidry

Alex gazed curiously at Cam. "Wow! Have you always been homeschooled?" He smiled a bit at the second part. "... well, you made /one/ new friend at least!"

Trashley Marie

Cam smiled. "No, it's a long story. I started in the middle of 6th grade." He looked down shyly and looked back to Alex. "Thanks, I'm glad we are friends."

Cam diverted his attention to the drama that had just occurred. He watched as a testy eyed Michael ran out, he of course had just tuned in and had no idea what just happened. Alex had distracted him too much. "Wait, w-what the hell just happened?"

Jerith Walker

"A-alright..." Zach says uncertainly, taking a seat near to Syd. He has to remind himself that she's...like this.

Still doesn't seem to be a very pleasant situation, however.

Skylar snorts.

Kids.

"Don't go /too/ over the top."

Chase glances around at the other people in the room. "Are we continuing the game?"

Stuart shoots a glance up at the doorway Michael had disappeared through. "Never have I ever ran out of a room crying."

Skylar hears this and sits up again, scooting back. "Wait; what the fuck's going on?"

"Romance drama." Stuart replies.

Valerie shoots a glare over at Stuart when he takes his turn. "Oh, shut the fuck up!"

She's about to do or say something more, maybe go up after the kid, but...his brother seems to have that handled.

She can't think of anything else constructive to say so she just lets herself fade back in with the crowd.

Ryan will probably take control.

Maya Rice

Eden shrugs. "I don't really have anything to offer...the satisfaction of winning?" She laughs when Skylar comments. "Please. Over the top is my middle name."

Nova doesn't look up when Nic talks, still afraid to meet his gaze. She avoids meeting anyone's gaze, really, trying to tune out everything that's going on.

Turning to look at Zach, Syd asks, "Is this your first party?" She grins. God, what a great first party if so.

Ryan's attention is finally drawn away from Mason when Valerie shouts at Stuart. Eyebrows furrowing together, he tries to piece together exactly what is going on.

Andrew Gaidry

Alex looked at the situation with surprise, looking worridly over at Cam. "Do you think he's alright?" He whispered.

Mason shrugged slightly. "Alright." He smiled. "Thats fine with me." He looked over at Skylar and grinned, then followed his gaze and attention back to the situation. Oh. He'd gotten a bit distracted as well.

Trashley Marie

Cam was thinking of going up to talk to him, but him and Michael had actually left off on the wrong foot last he checked. He'd better stay out. He glanced to Alex and shook his head. "I don't think so. I probably can't go talk to him, I was a bit... forward last one we spoke..." Cam said nervously. He listened to the Never Have I Ever and shook his head. "Is that really necessary?" He said sort of offended. "Considering it just happened, maybe be a bit more sensitive."

Jerith Walker

Stuart snorts. "Boy, high school is a lot different from when I was a freshie." He mutters. Hanging out with the normal groups is weird.

Chase nudges him. "You kinda deserved that.

"You kinda did." Skylar has an amused smile on his face.

Valerie highkey waits for Ryan to move them along. She flops backwards onto her back.

Zach chips away at his nails anxiously.

Maya Rice

Although he isn't entirely sure what he missed, Ryan can tell from the tense feeling in the room and the general mood of those gathered that it was probably something intense. He frowns a bit with a glance over toward Mason. Had he /really/ been that distracted?

"...Well," Ryan says, clearing his throat. "I'm going to be honest, I have /no/ idea what the hell just happened, so..." He glances around with a sheepish smile. "Somebody want to continue so we don't all have to sit here in this awkward silence?"

Andrew Gaidry

"Oooh..." Alex looked sympathetically at Cam. Forward? He glanced over in the direction of the person who gave the Never Have I Ever. He starts to put a finger down before hearing the protests. Oh. Oh, that was probably a- oh. He hesitates. Should he put down a finger?? Or was he just... making a mean joke. Does he put down a finger anyways?

Mason raises an eyebrow at the stuff. He tries to piece together what happened. Someone ran out of the room crying.... those two guys are gone- ah, it was probably that one guy. Huh. What happened?

Mason looked over at Ryan. Glanced over at Eden. Hmm... he didn't really know enough about her to know what she has or hasn't done.... but he was rather tempted to try and get one that she really wouldn't want to do that he'd be okay doing.... He crosses his arms and thinks.

Trashley Marie

Cam rolls his eyes. "Never have I ever been a huge dick to someone else simply because they are different." (6)

Ariel smirks and keeps a finger up. She playfully shoves him very lightly and shakes her head. (7)

Jax groans. "Oh my god, whatever. I'm out." He puts down his last finger and slides out of the circle, grumpily." (0)

Jerith Walker

"I'll take that challenge." Skylar says, then clears his throat and raises his voice. "Can we all agree that the game is over? I mean, people are coming and going, and the game seems to have taken on a rather sour note, soooo........"

Maya Rice

Ryan's gaze shifts to Skylar as he speaks. He seems vaguely annoyed by the suggestion, although he is correct in noting that things seem to be going downhill. With a huff, Ryan crosses his arms and leans back. "Is there any party game that this group can manage /without/ someone having a breakdown?"

Eden looks to Mason once again. "Well, now that the game has been ruined...we /could/ start working on our little challenge." She grins. "...You think you can manage a few of yours while you're locked away in the closet?" Eden winks over at him.

Andrew Gaidry

Mason turns his attention to Eden when she speaks. He raises an eyebrow and thinks. "Lets see... what all was said? We should probably make a list before starting." Mason flips out his phone and unlocks it, pulling up a notepad.

Trashley Marie

Cam nods agreeing with Skylar, he looks to Alex and then around the group. "So what are we doing now?"

Ariel smirks. "You just don't want to be bored."

Cam rolls his eyes. "Yes because love being bored."

Ari giggled slightly and sat back. "I am a people watcher, I am always entertained."

Jax cuts in and coughs loudly. "All I know is that we need to do something." He stands up and leans against the wall. "And I need a water. I will be right back." He marches his way up the steps.

Jerith Walker

After observing everyone's reactions, Skylar goes on, "All right, what do you all think of Would You Rather?"

"Sounds fine to me." Valerie speaks up. "We'll see how /this/ one ends,"

Zach continues to sit there awkwardly.

He thinks about leaving the basement, but it's his responsibility to make sure Sydney doesn't get hurt--she had /requested/ that--and if she gets hurt while he's gone...

Also, what would he even do?

Parties definitely aren't his thing.

"Pfft..." Chase stares at his last remaining finger before reluctantly putting it down as the game ends. "Pussies."

Stuart rolls his eyes. "I feel like this is partially my fault." he mutters mostly to himself, not feeling bad about it.

Chase hears this and snorts quietly back at him. "High school drama; what do you expect?"

Gale enters the basement with Marlene.

Andrew Gaidry

Nic headed down the stairs shortly after Marlene and Gale entered, glancing over the room for Nova.

Marlene walks slowly down the stairs holding onto Gales hand to make sure she's steady.

Trashley Marie

Jax walks down with a bottle of water in hand and pops back into his original spot.

Maya Rice

"Fine," Ryan responds with a shrug and a sigh. Even something as tame as this would probably result in somebody else storming out of the basement while crying.

Eden watches curiously as Mason works on creating the list, already thinking of how she's going to complete some of her tasks.

Jerith Walker

Skylar's attention is drawn to Marlene and Gale as they enter. "Hey, Ryan, there are newbies. Should we add them to the 7 minutes in heaven game?"

Gale tenses when she sees Sky's gaze on her, wondering if she did something wrong.

Stuart glances up, feeling annoyed. Too late, he's already with Eden.

Andrew Gaidry

Nic sits down back at his spot next to Nova.

"... hey Nova." He said softly.

Maya Rice

Nova startles a bit as he sits beside her, quickly trying to play it off. She gives a nervous almost pained smile, muttering, "Hey," in response.

Andrew Gaidry

He gives a faint smile in return, his eyes still showing his worry. His smile faded. "I'm... I'm really sorry about tonight." He rubbed the back of his head, looking away. "I promise you he isn't usually like this. He's... he's a good kid."

Maya Rice

Nova's smile drops slowly as well. "It's..." she trails off. "Don't worry about it. I should have, um..." she trails off once more, starting to wrap a strand of hair around one of her fingers.

Andrew Gaidry

He shook his head gently. "No... the way he was acting was...." He sighed softly. "... I think he's been drinking, honestly. And I know that's not an excuse but... just, this isn't about you, I promise you. You haven't done anything wrong. I'm really sorry about... all of this."

Nic pauses when others entered the basement, his gaze landing with surprise on Michael. He hadn't expected Michael to return on his own... especially not this soon.

"Michael?" He calls over.

Michael hesitates at the bottom of the stairs, his eyes drifting over to his brother. And Nova. He drops his gaze, his stomach feeling like it dropped too. He felt a tiny spark of indignance, but mostly just felt sick. He stands there for a moment more before heading over.

Michael stops in front of them, pausing before sitting down. His gaze locked off to the side, downcast. Not looking over at Nova. ".... 'm sorry." He mumbles softly, his gaze flickering over at Nova for a second.

Mason glanced up from his list at the newcomers, pausing when he spots his sister. Oh. That could complicate things. He knows for a /fact/ she would not be down with this little bet they have going on.

Marlene blinks in surprise and stops at Skylars comment. Seven minutes in heaven? Seems the games have... intensified? She glances over worridly at Gale. "Um... no, it's alright. Uh... we should probably sit this one out, I think. Don't worry about it." She smiled over at Ryan.

Trashley Marie

Cam grins and sits to face Alex. "Do you have any clue what is even going on?" He holds his forehead with his index finger and thumb rubbing in circular formation. He closes his eyes lightly and sighs. "I am getting a head ache."

Ari looks to her left to see Ryan and sighs, she bites her lip nervously and sighs. She looks around watching people.

Jax took a sip of water and laid back covering his face. "Tell me when our lives are getting interesting. Thanks."

Maya Rice

Nova watches Michael with an uncertain, anxious expression. Although she had doubts that the apology was sincere, it would be for the best if she just accepted it. "Me too," she responds quietly, fiddling with a strand of hair as she speaks. She shifts a little closer to Nic subconsciously.

Ryan gives a little nod to Marlene. "As you wish," he responds, gesturing for her and whoever she had dragged along with her to take a place in the group. Clearing his throat, Ryan says, "Alright. Would you rather. Anyone want to go first?"

Jerith Walker

"N-no, it's okay!" Gale squeaks. She casts her gaze to the ground, thinking of all the many games she has yet to experience. "There's a lot I haven't tried out yet."

"Pretty sure the only person who would still be available as a partner is her." Skylar says with an amused smile, indicating Marlene.

Andrew Gaidry

Alex thinks. "Uh.... I think- um... Not sure really." He gave a slight apologetic shrug. "Uh, do you want to take anything for your headache? Ryan might have something around the house? An Advil or something."

Michael lifts his gaze to meet Novas, a touch of worry in his eyes. He drops his gaze quickly and nods gently. He quietly sits down close to his brother and looks out at the rest of the room.

"Are you sure?" Marlene still looked uncertain. She looked over at Skylar when he spoke, looking a bit surprised. Well... that actually could be a good idea. She could certainly make sure Gale was safe that way.... "Do you want to do that?" She asked Gale. "Partner with me for the game?"

Mason finishes writing the list and shows it to Eden to see if he missed anything. He glances over at his sister. He wonders if he can manage this without her finding out....?

Ash Marie

Cam groans. "Idk. I will be okay. I sometimes think I probably shouldn't have came." He sighs and lays back.

Jax rolls to his side.

Ariel sighs.

Maya Rice

Eden gives a nod after quickly looking over the list. "Seems like you've got everything," she confirms.

Ryan watches Marlene and Gale, fingers tapping impatiently on the ground. His phone buzzes a moment later. "You should figure it out quickly. We're onto the next pair." He gets up from his spot and approaches it, knocking loudly on the door.

Jerith Walker

Gale smiles and nods. "Sure!" she casts a quick glance over at Stuart, who is pretending not to pay attention to her.

Andrew Gaidry

"Aw... not having fun?" Alex asked, looking sympathetically at Cam.

Marlene gives Gale a bright smile. "Alright! We'll be closet buddies then. Where do you wanna sit?"

Mason glances over at Marlene again nervously before returning his gaze to Eden. "So, whoever does the most from this list by the end of the party wins then? Or should we say by midnight?"

The closet door opened and Red stepped out, sort of ducking his head a bit and not looking at anyone. He glances back at Dean after getting out. His eyes look a bit red and wet.

Maya Rice

Eden hums thoughtfully. "By the end of the party. That way we can maximize our fun." She grins.

Dean exits shortly after Red, his eyes fixed on him. He gives a small smile before heading back to the group, sitting down in the circle. "So...who's being sent in next?"

Ash Marie

Cam shrugged. "I don't know. I am not used to social events like these." Cam watched as Dean exited and frowned. Directing to Alex. "Are we-?"

Sarah smirked.

Jax groaned and shuffled around.

Andrew Gaidry

"Ooh..." Alex lifted his head. "Oh! Is it our turn?"

After a short pre-arranged exchange with Ryan, presumably with Ryan telling them to go ahead, Alex heads off to the closet with Cam.

Red returns to the circle as well, sitting down next to Cecily.

Mason returns Edens grin. "Sounds good. Any particular stakes for this bet, or is this just for fun?"

Jerith Walker

Valerie is occasionally casting concerned glances over at Nic. She'll check up on him later.

Skylar claps his hands loudly. "SOO, 'WOULD YOU RATHER', ANYBODY?" He calls with the intent of bringing everyone's attention back to the proposed game.

Zach continues to sit there anxiously, keeping an eye on Syd.

"I wonder what the fuck went on in there." Chase comments quietly to Stuart.

"Was Red crying?" Stuart snorts. "Never a dull moment in there."