by Emma Quinn
“I will pick you up at seven then,” Brandon declared with glee. “Dress nice because tonight will be the night.”
Oh God, tonight was going to be the night for me and him, wasn’t it? The night that we finally kissed and turned this chemistry from something sizzling in the air at all times, to something real. It would be good as well, wouldn’t it? It would be awesome. There was no way that my feelings couldn’t transform into something incredible.
“Okay, sounds good,” I replied weakly. “I look forward to it… I think.”
Brandon practically hopped away from me because his head was all over the place, and to be honest I felt the same way although I was frozen to the spot with terror and anxiety as well as anticipation. I wasn’t even thinking about Jake in all of this, Jake and his obnoxious determination to get me at his party even though I clearly didn’t want to go, just because of his intense need to have a lot of friends around him.
I didn’t want to fulfill his dream, but I did want to make my own come true, and that was going to take a sacrifice. It seemed like I was going to be one of those tragic people at Jake’s sweet sixteenth birthday party, but it was for my own good…
3
Jake
“ S
o, what’s with you and Little Miss Stuck Up Mila?” I demanded with maybe one or two drinks too many in my system. My house was buzzing, loud, and crazy, just as I wanted it to be. But since I wasn’t in the mood for sneaking off with Kelly and whichever other cheer leader she was friends with at the moment, I was keen on having fun with my friends instead. Maybe even having friends with someone that I didn’t usually hang out with.
“She’s just my friend.” Brandon grinned. “I’m more interested in Jessica at the moment. She is hot.”
I didn’t dare tell him that Jessica was way out of his league. Not that the guy is ugly or anything, but he’s geeky and unpopular. Jessica would only go for the sort of guy who could show her the fucking world like me.
“Ah, right, so Mila is up for grabs then.” I watched her over the other side of the room, standing awkwardly in the corner with the same drink that she had been cradling all night long by herself. Brandon was taking the opposite end of the scale and drinking way too much, but it was fun. He was acting like me. “I might try and strip her down…”
“Good luck with that,” Brandon scoffed. “She is much too up tight for that. I mean, I like the girl a lot and she’s very nice, but I had to practically force her here tonight and she doesn’t look like she’s having fun.”
I mentally stepped up to the challenge. “Maybe I can be the one to change that. I might go and chat to her.”
The crowd parted like the red sea as I walked towards Mila but she didn’t seem to notice that I was coming for her. Either that or she was pointedly ignoring me. It didn’t matter, I would have her focus on me soon enough and then the real fun would begin. The night of dares had been going well so far, Instagram was on fire like I predicted. Videos of the wildness that was my party were on the verge of going viral which was perfect. Then I would get some real love. But I was taking a time out. My friends were still hard core at it, probably trashing parts of my house along the way, but I needed something else to amuse me for the time being. And that amusement would come from Mila.
“Well, hello there.” I sidled very close to her, getting right into her personal space. “How are you?”
“Jake?” Mila seemed disappointed to see me. “Good, thanks. Happy birthday. You look like you’re enjoying yourself.” She eyed my nearly empty bottle of beer. “Maybe a little too much, but then you are only sixteen once.”
“Exactly. I am. And you should enjoy yourself as well. It will be your birthday soon, right?”
She rolled her eyes angrily. “Right sure. But this isn’t the way that I will enjoy myself.”
“No?” I cocked an eyebrow playfully. “You have other plans? Freakier plans? Because I have to admit that I have been offered a threesome tonight, but I will turn that down if I could have a night with you…”
I meant it as a compliment, I actually did, but of course Mila was stuck up and screwed up her nose in disgust.
“Is that supposed to be a joke? I don’t think that’s going to happen, thank you very much. You should go for your threesome, that sounds… well, just delightful. I’m sure you will love it.”
Her tart tone of voice made me toss my head back and laugh. There really wasn’t anyone like her in the world. She was so uptight it had me utterly crazy. I just wanted to corrupt her, to steal her virginity, because let’s be honest, she was definitely a virgin if Brandon hadn't unleashed that side of her yet, but I couldn’t. She wouldn’t let that happen.
“Okay, well maybe I will. But for now, we’re doing dares. You interested?”
She shook her head no. “Of course not. I think… well, I think that I might actually go back home…”
“For real?” I couldn’t help but be disappointed. “You’re leaving? But it’s so early.”
She took a giant glug of her drink, finishing off the rest of her liquid in one heartbeat, showing that she really did want to get out of here. As she lowered her cup I noticed a strange sadness in her eyes. One that I wasn’t expecting. I wanted to grab her in a hug but I had a feeling that might make things worse for her. Whatever was going on inside of her mind, I didn’t need to make it any harder. I knew what it was like to have struggles.
“I thought that I was here on a date, but I’m not. Clearly, I mean look at him…”
I followed her eye line and saw Brandon making a pathetic attempt at trying to flirt with Kelly. Realization hit me hard because it was all of a sudden obvious what was going on. She was hopelessly in love with Brandon but he didn’t give a shit about her. That was probably why she was so uptight all the time. I hadn't ever experienced unrequited love before, but it had to be a bitch. Knowing what it was like not having my parents’ attention was bad enough, but having a crush on a best friend who didn’t care had to be a mess.
“Oh, well that really sucks.” I stared at Mila to see her crumbling just a little bit. “I mean, I would offer you a kiss from me to make you feel better, but you have already rejected me too many times today. On my birthday as well.” Hope bloomed in my chest as I spotted a small smile spreading across her face. “So, how about we get some revenge on Brandon? I could embarrass him just the way that he has embarrassed you?”
“Oh God no.” Like the good person that she was, she shook her head hard. “Not a chance. I just want to go.”
“Well, we are playing dares. You just know that Brandon will do whatever he can to join in with me. I could give him a couple of challenges to do which may or may not find their way online… that might cheer you up…”
She laughed lightly but still shook her head and refused. “No, Brandon is my best friend. I don’t want anything to happen to him. Even if he is an idiot for the cheer leader girls and he would love to be friends with you.” She shot me a sly glance. “He would do anything to be friends with you, and you know that. But we shouldn’t take advantage of that. In fact, I might well need to get another drink and some fresh air before I get out of here.”
I watched her walk away with a sadness in every step. I knew what she had just said to me, but I didn’t believe that she didn’t want me to take revenge on Brandon. She was just too good a person to say it out loud.
But I could do that for her, I could take that step and take all of the blame, letting her off the hook. That would certainly amuse me tonight as well. If Brandon wanted to humiliate himself because he wanted to be friends with me then so be it. I wasn’t the bad person for taking advantage of that.
“Kelly,” I called out loudly, grabbing her attention in a second. For a moment she looked at me like me and her were about to slink off into some bedroom somewhere. Not now. Maybe some other time. “I dare you to kiss Brandon. And not some pissy-ass kiss to get out of it. This is the night of dares, my sixteenth birthday, so it has to be
a real kiss.” I shot her a wink as she rolled her eyes. “Come on, you can’t refuse a dare from me.”
Brandon looked like all of his dreams had come true. I might have been hurting Mila further with this, but this was just the first step in what was coming next. This was just to disarm Brandon, to make him see that the dares were a good thing. Then once we got deeper in to the night, this would all become something else.
I hadn't decided what yet, but it was going to be awesome.
“Someone film this,” I cried out as the kiss began. “Someone get this online. This is going to be another memorable moment that we all want to keep in our heads forever. Especially little Brandon over there.”
Brandon stuck his thumb up at me and I started making my way over to him. As soon as the kiss ended, I took him under my wing, sliding him across the room to the other guys so that the fun could really begin.
“Oh my God, thank you,” Brandon muttered. “Thank you so much. Thank you. That was amazing. I just kissed Kelly. I can’t believe it. I have always wanted to kiss Kelly and you made it happen…”
“That’s okay, buddy.” I gave him my shit eating grin. “You are my friend, aren’t you?”
This time he looked even more like his dreams had come true, it was crazy. He was so desperate to be my friend. But my friends weren’t the sort of guys who promised a girl a date and then left her on her own to pursue something hotter… or maybe they were, I suppose I couldn’t have been totally convinced they wouldn’t do that, but Brandon was my new fixation for the time being. Taking him down was my mission and I didn’t care about anything else.
4
Mila
W
hat the fuck? I was in shock as I watched Brandon kissing Kelly and everyone recording it like it was something that wanted to remember forever. As if they didn’t know that it was shattering my heart like crazy. Could no one see me falling apart here? Did no one give a shit? I suppose not since I wasn’t friends with any of them.
I needed to go. I really had to get out of here but this house was so busy and like a fucking maze. I couldn’t find a way to escape the excitable crowd. All I could do was stand like an idiot and watch. My jaw nearly hit the floor as I watched Jake take Brandon under his arm and walk away. Was this somehow orchestrated by him while I was grabbing myself one last drink before I figured out a way home? And what the hell was he playing at if it was him? This wasn’t humiliating Brandon, which was good because I did ask him not to do that, but I also didn’t want to boost him up either. I didn’t want him to push Brandon further into the popular crowd and away from me.
I blinked away tears, hating the black dress that I had spent such a long time picking out for my date just to watch Brandon leave me as a potential love interest and as a friend as well. He did say that this party was going to be life changing, that nothing would be the same after it, I just didn’t realize that it would be like this.
“Fuck.” I ran off in the opposite direction to Brandon and Jake and finally found a giant staircase to sit at the bottom of. There were a few people around, but they were all very involved in one another, no one was looking at me, so I could finally let the tears flow freely down my face and cave to the disappointment that tonight had become.
“Are you okay?” The spot beside me was suddenly filled with a girl named Ashley, one of the theater girls who I couldn’t imagine being inside of Jake’s house either. “Have you had too much to drink or something?”
“No, I…” I tried to wipe my eyes quickly. I didn’t know this girl well enough to weep on her shoulder. We had barely spoken before this moment. But I suppose that was the magic of parties. “I just had a boy related nightmare…”
“Urgh, guys.” She rolled her eyes. “They are assholes, aren’t they? Teenage boys are the worst. You shouldn’t let them get to you. I know that’s easier said than done but they just aren’t worth it.”
“Huh, yeah. If only I could just switch my feelings off,” I snorted back angrily. “I’m not the girl who gets attached to guys like that, but with this one… well, I’m an idiot and I just can’t help myself.”
“That’s normal.” Ashley surprises me and pulls me in for a hug. I’m not used to this sort of physical contact from her but I suppose I’m not getting comfort from anyone else, so I might as well enjoy it. “We all do that. Fall for guys who aren’t worth it. We seem to forget that we all queens and we shouldn’t let them steal our crown.”
Huh. Perhaps it was the booze, not that I had drunk much but I wasn’t much used to it, but Ashley’s words made a lot of sense. I had to push my feelings down for years, I was so scared of freaking Brandon out that I never said anything, I was sensitive to his feelings, but he didn’t seem to give a shit about mine. I left everything in his court and he had been sliding my crown off of my head the entire time. I shouldn’t have let that happen.
“Maybe I should kick some ass,” I commented, more to myself than Ashley but she leapt on it.
“Yes, you definitely should, girlfriend. No way you should let someone make you feel like this. You go… go and kick some ass because no boy should make you cry. Any guy that’s worth your tears shouldn’t make you cry anyway.” Her gaze built me up, it made me self confidence even higher. I really did feel the need to say something tonight because Brandon had disrespected me. He needed to know that wasn’t right. “You go, do it. I will be here for you. I know that me and you haven’t exactly been the best of friends before now, but we can be…”
I didn’t want to let her down. I wanted to make my new friend proud and I also wanted to make the world see that just because I was quiet and more focused on my studies than partying, it didn’t mean that I was there like a door mat. I wasn’t going to let anyone walk all over me, even if it was my best friend, Brandon.
“Brandon!” I soon found him with Jake, obviously, and the other idiot popular guys. Without even a scrap of intimidation, I yanked him away and pulled him to my side. “I need to talk to you. Do you have a minute?”
“Yeah sure.” His eyes were glazed over, he was barely looking at me. “But only a minute because I have something that I need to do in a moment. Jake has given me a dare and I need to fulfill it.”
I snorted and rolled my eyes. What a fool. He was really getting involved with these stupid dares? Who the hell was he? He was barely the person that I used to know, I couldn’t stand it. I shot Jake a warning glance but he winked and laughed as if he was doing me the favor that I never wanted him to do. What a tosser.
“Brandon,” I growled, but quietly because I didn’t want anyone else to listen to me. “You have disrespected me. You brought me here as a date and you haven’t talked to me the whole time. What did you even mean a date? Was that some kind of friendship thing, or something else? Because you should be clear…”
“Me and you are friends.” I could tell that he hadn't taken in anything that I said as he grabbed on to my hands. “Yes, we are, best friends, aren’t we? Which means that you can come with me on my next dare.”
“I am not getting involved in dares, Brandon, you know what I think about that. I’m trying to have a heart-felt conversation with you right here and you are just ignoring me, continuing to treat me like shit…”
“I have to steal my dad’s car.”
Oh my God, what the fuck? Who was this person? This wasn’t the Brandon that I knew.
“Jake said that if I steal my father’s car I can be in his group of friends properly. How awesome is that?”
I was stunned to the core. I knew that he wanted to be in the inner popular circle, but it seemed that I was wrong. “You are joking, right? You aren’t actually going to steal your father’s car, are you? Not only are you under age with no license, you have been drinking, and on top of that a normal father would go mad about this… your dad is something else. You do know that he is the strictest guy in the world. He will kill you.”
“That won’t happen.” He shook his head hard, being naïve and completel
y dumb. “I won’t do anything stupid. I will just take it quickly, show Jake that I am worthy of his friendship, and then take it back. I just want you to come with me because you are my sensible friend. You are the one who can make sure nothing bad happens.”
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. “Brandon, this is dumb as fuck. You do understand that, right? Is friendship with Jake really that important to you? Because this doesn’t sound natural to me. People don’t make others jump through hoops to be friends with them. Not when it’s real. You need to get your head screwed on.”
But I might as well have been talking to a brick wall. It barely meant anything, my words were nothing. Brandon was focused only on what was directly in front of him, and I suppose for him it was the end goal that he had always been aiming towards, the shining light that would make his high school experience complete.
“Well, I am going whether you come with me or not,” he declared with shrugged shoulders. “I thought that you were a good friend, Mila, but I guess you aren’t because when it comes to ride or die things, you’re out.”
“What the fuck are you talking about?” I called after him as he walked away. “I came here to yell at you not to listen to you trying to say that I’m a bad friend… and now you’re walking away from me… seriously…”
I should let him go. He was the one walking away from me to do something stupid. He was the one who just blamed me when I hadn't done anything wrong, when he invited me on a date that he didn’t actually want to go on, so chasing after him was stupid. It wasn’t something that I needed to get involved in…
But then again, Brandon had been my friend for years, for far too long, and I suppose that was more important than some stupid spat. I had to stop him from doing this because it was ridiculous. Someone could get hurt, he could end up dead, and if his father found out about it, then he would be the one to destroy him.
