Page 112 of Honeysuckle
“This is insane,” Cael scoffed, his arms slung around Clementine’s shoulders and his chin resting on the top of her head.
“No one has ever beaten her,” Jensen said, and Ella practically lunged at him.
“Games not over, shit for brains.” Zoey pointed at him, her body swaying a little. Van laughed and pushed her hand down.
“How many Jensens' do you see right now?” He asked her, and she narrowed her eyes at him.
“At least three.” She giggled and hiccupped all at once.
“End this game so I can bring my girl home, Miele,” Van said, standing behind Zoey to keep her steady.
I threw first, the ball soaring through the air but I could tell the second it left my fingers that I had pushed too hard and the ball missed the cup by an inch. Ella smiled, whether or not she thought I threw the game she didn’t care. She didn’t wait to throw hers the second Dean missed his and her ball dropped into the cup with a satisfying pop.
“Record stands,” Ella smiled at Cael, who just sighed. “It was a valiant effort,” she wandered over to him and slapped his cheek before he could move away. He clipped his teeth at her as she passed and let go of Clementine. “Now…”
“No!” Van, Jensen, Cael and Dean all chimed up in protest.
“A bet was made!” She hollered with a bright smile on her face, raising her arms to hush them. "A bet must be fulfilled!”
“I’m not doing it, he didn’t even know what he was betting!” Van argued, leaving Zoey’s side but linking his hand into hers and pulling her through the rowdy crowd.
“The people want blood,” Ella laughed as everyone around them cheered and screamed. It was like they had been possessed.
“What the hell is going on?” I asked, but Dean was glaring at Ella, his ears bright red.
“Over the summer ,we spent a lot of time up at the cabin,” Ella said, she was speaking to me but staring at Dean with mischief twisted up in all her features. “One night the boys gotrealdrunk and went full ‘Magic Mike’,” Ella started to laugh as she turned to me. “It’s hilarious the things they’ll do with a little whiskey andQueen.”
“I’m starting to think I won this bet,” I said, still a little confused, but her enjoyment of their embarrassment was enough to spark a lifetime of intrigue.
Ella pushed everyone back as Dean, Van, Cael, Jensen, and a few other guys huddled in a circle, bickering back and forth. What they were fighting over was a mystery as Ella patted the grass beside her. "Sit,” she said.
I sat, leaving a good distance between us, and watched on as the rest of the crowd parted for them to line up in the grass.Somebody to Love by Queenflowed out of the speakers into the backyard and everyone started to cheer.
They were standing there like a really badly staged boy band, each of them either drunk or embarrassed beyond belief. All at once, they started to move in unison, dancing like they had rehearsed the movements for weeks. I watched on in horror as they sang the lyrics out of tune and took turns one-upping each other with ridiculous dance moves.
Cael dropped to the ground, and in a surprising turn of events, was insanely good at the worm as he ground his body into the grass, his hips surging forward slowly enough to make Clementine dog whistle at him from behind us.
“Wait, you said they were drunk?” I turned to Ella who was beaming with pride and laughing so hard her cheeks were red. “Cael hasn't had a drop of alcohol since the accident,” I said.
“Oh he did it stone cold sober the first time, it was his idea!” Ella said, stopping mid sentence to scream as they fell into line again, shuffling their feet and swaying their hips.
“What the fuck?” I couldn’t help but smile as the chorus dropped into the thrumming beat of the bridge and they all spun to put their backs to us. “How long did it take them to come up with this?” I asked her over the music.
“Nevermind that, this is the best part!” She hollered back and pointed. "Watch!”
“Find me somebody to love,”the music echoed over the grass, and Jensen turned around on his heel, smoothly tearing his shirt over his head and throwing it into the crowd.
“Find me somebody to love,”it swelled as the words repeated, each time one of the boys turning around and stripping from their shirts as if they weren’t being watched by the entire baseball team and then some.
“Find me somebody to love,”Cael dropped to his knees, tearing his shirt in half like an animal and chucking it at Clementine.
“Can anybody find me…”Dean was the last to turn, his eyes darting over to mine. At first it had looked like none of them wanted to be there, but it was clear that they were having way too much fun with the attention.“Somebody to love…”
The black shirt stretched over his shoulders, exposing every muscle in his body and the soft expanse of his stomach. Dean was big—but not all sharp lines and six-pack abs like some of the others. He was strong, sure, but soft in places too. Like someone who lifted heavy but still ate what he wanted and actually enjoyed life.. He was quite simply just large. His pants were dangerously low on his hips and my eyes were drawn down for a split second before he decided he was going to make the show of affection I never asked for and he chucked the shirt in my direction.
Ella looked down at the fabric in my lap and smirked.
“Welcome to the family,” she said, smirking, before turning back to watch the chaos.
