Page 25 of Set Me On Fire

You as well, I thought, shooting him a steady look.

“My go!” Sally went to grab the coin but Jase pulled her back onto his lap. As the only other woman here, he knew what he had. A partner, love, but more than that. We all got on wellduring the week, but when alcohol was involved and inhibitions were down, he needed to keep her safe.

“No singing in your underwear,” he told her sternly before passing her the coin.

“This is something that happens so often you need to warn people not to do it?” Millie asked with a blink.

“Of course not, babe.”

Jase should’ve seen it coming. Sally flipped the coin and it landed on a blank space and sure enough, she wrote exactly that on the paper.

“OK, time to go home,” he said, rising up, ready to carry her out. “The only person you’re showing your undies to is me.”

“Might be one of us,” Brian snarked. “Scared she’ll see what a real man looks like?”

“I’ll let you know if I see one,” Sally shot back, right before falling back against Jase’s chest. They settled back down in their chair once Sally gave Jase the coin.

I hoped and feared I’d get hot seat, because I knew what I’d confess right then if the coin landed on it. That I wanted what they had with the fire of a thousand suns. To know there was someone to come home to, a friendly face, a soft kiss, a smile. Something to stop me from rattling around in my house alone. Instead, Jase flipped the coin onto his name and took a drink, staring into his partner’s eyes the entire time.

“OK, my turn.”

Charlie flipped the coin and got a blank spot and wrote down, ‘swap seats.’

“If you wanted to sit on my lap, pretty boy, all you had to do was ask,” Dave told him before sucking down more of his beer.

“Yeah, but then I’d need that rash cream you had to buy that girl you were seeing.”

Dave’s beer came out in a splutter and he shot Charlie a look, then Millie. She paid him little mind, chatting to Sally, soshe didn’t see the real reason why I didn’t like Dave. By modern parlance, he was a fuckboy, sticking his dick wherever he could. He had a ‘situationship’ with a very pretty girl who seemed far too sensible for his shit, though the fact Katie wanted to take things to the next level contradicted that. The idiot’s face grew thunderous, thinking he’d lost any chance he’d have with Millie, but he didn’t realise.

All of us had.

The rules of mateship meant you did not try and make moves on another guy’s girl, and while there seemed to be a whole lot of misogynist bullshit in that statement, it was still true. Noah stared Dave down until he was forced to hand the coin to Brian. He flipped it and then wrote ‘do a body shot’ on the paper.

“You wanna suck a shot off my dick, mate?” Dave asked.

“I think you want him to.” Noah grabbed the coin and handed it to Mick, who was next. The coin was flipped and landed on Millie’s name and that had me stiffening. She turned around when the other guys started crowing, the reason being clear. As she raised her glass in salute, I found myself speaking up.

“You don’t have to,” I told her. She was smiling, but that faded a little as I stared into her eyes. I was straight, so I couldn’t pass this off as drunk behaviour. “If you want a lift home, I can take you.”

“Trying to get Dazza to go home with ya, are ya mate?” Dave’s eyes glittered as he looked at me, then Noah. The prick had a sixth sense for conflict and was always there, fanning the flames.

“Don’t need to worry about me.” But I already was. Millie saluted me with her glass, then downed it in one, forcing Charlie to his feet. He retrieved what was left of the bottle of wine, but before he could pour, Dave snatched it from him. Little rumblesof disapproval went around the table as Dave filled the glass up almost to the brim. “Sure you couldn’t fit a little more in?”

Dave set the bottle back down with a grin.

“Maybe. I’m good at fitting big things into small spaces.”

“Is that what your mum told you?”

Millie’s snappy retort had the rest of us laughing, dissipating a little of the tension, but Dave couldn’t let that go as he grabbed the coin and flipped it. It’d land on a blank space, I just knew. Sure enough he grabbed the pen and as he wrote the words, my teeth started to grind. ‘Kiss the person next to you.’ I was pretty sure he didn’t have Mick in mind when he put that down. Millie’s smile faded for a sec, making me think she was rattled, but not for long. This girl was like one of those boxing toys they gave kids, rearing up the minute she was knocked down.

“You boys want an excuse to kiss each other?” She took a sip of her wine, then smiled. “I’m down. Boys kissing is so hot. Write ‘with tongue’ down.”

“What? No—” Mick spluttered.

“Rules are rules.” Charlie plucked the pen from his fingers and then added ‘with tongue’ to the sentence. “OK, you’re next, Noah.”

He flipped the coin with intent, staring at the spinning piece of metal as if willing it to go where he needed it to. Looks like luck was on his side. The minute it landed on a blank space the pen was out and he wrote down one word.

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