Page 15 of Landon & Shay: Part One

Sometimes, my screw-ups were enough to bring Mom back to town. She worried about me and my well-being. Dad claimed I was merely seeking attention.

Both were right.

“Let’s play spin seven,” someone shouted from the living room. A few people groaned while a few others applauded the idea.

I thought the game was a bit childish, but it seemed to be popular at all the parties lately. Spin seven was a mix of spin the bottle and seven minutes in heaven. A group of people sat in a circle, and one person spun the bottle. Whoever it landed on was the person who would be led to the closet for seven minutes.

The infamous chant started each time a couple was chosen and led to the closet. “Touch a tit, suck a dick, suck a tit, touch a dick.” It was wild how mature us high schoolers were. It was great knowing, someday, we’d be the world’s leaders. Though, based on the current politicians, a lot ofsuck a dick, touch a titwas still being played on the regular.

I never really engaged in the game, but when I saw Reggie ask Shay if she was playing, and she shook her head, I took it as a chance to get her to look my way.

“Why aren’t you playing, Chick? Too scared?” I asked. Every time she looked at me, she seemed a bit shocked that I had enough nerve to speak to her.

Then she puffed her chest out. “Trust me, I’m not scared. I just don’t want to,” she argued, shrugging her shoulders.

“Cluck…cluck…cluck…” I whispered for only her to hear, and I knew it was getting under her skin. It always got under her skin when I made the noises.

“I don’t see you sitting down in the circle,” she said, running her hands through her hair before grabbing the elastic from her wrist and making a messy bun.

Sounded like a dare.

I sat right down and gestured toward the circle.

She rolled her eyes at me. “Whatever, Landon. I don’t have anything to prove to you.”

My blue eyes stayed attached to her browns as I parted my lips, and mouthed, “Cluck, cluck, cluck.”

She wanted to resist. She wanted to shrug it off again and walk away, but that wasn’t how things worked between us. When one pushed, the other pushed back harder.

She sat, gave me a wicked “screw you” grin and joined the game.

A few people crashed into the closet for the seven-minute timeslot, and when they came out, they always looked dazed and confused, giggling like the idiotic teenagers they were.

When it was my turn, I reached out to the bottle with no concern about whether or not it would land exactly where I wanted it to go. At fourteen years old, I’d learned how to perfect my spin-seven skills in order to kiss the girl I wanted.

Though, this time, I knew there wasn’t going to be a lot of kissing going on. More like yelling.

The bottle spun and spun, around and around. Shay’s eyes stayed glued to the glass beer bottle. The moment it started to slow down, I watched her lips part as she quietly muttered, “No, no, no,” before it stopped directly in front of her.

The circle began oohing and aahing at the idea that the two sworn enemies were on their way to the closet together for seven minutes straight. They were all here for that show, and I knew the moment we stepped into that closet, the door would be surrounded with people whispering and pressing their ear against it from the outside, trying to catch a snippet of what was going on behind closed doors.

I stood from the circle and gestured toward Shay. “Please,” I offered. “Chickens first.”

She grimaced, her thick, full eyebrows lowering a hair before she pushed herself up from the floor and headed toward the closet in haste. We both stepped inside and stood nose to nose.

“Okay, friends, you know the rules,” Eric said, grabbing the handle of the door. “Seven minutes in heaven—or, in your case, hell. Have fun!” He slammed the door shut, and the moment it happened, Shay whined with irritation.

“I can’t believe I’m locked in here with you for seven minutes. I could think of a million things I’d rather be doing,” she grumbled, probably with a pout.

“Like what?”

“Oh, I don’t know…watching paint dry.”

“Well, since we’re here, we should probably spend our time wisely,” I joked, moving to unbuckle my jeans, knowing it would bother her. I wished I could see the annoyance on her face. I loved when I got under her skin enough to make her nostrils flare.

“Oh my gosh, remove that idea from your mind, Landon, and stop messing with your belt, because there’s no way in hell I’m touching you.”

“I’ve thought about it before,” I said, my voice low and tame.

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