No Way To Stop The Game

*All characters in this story are over 18.*

-

"Okay. When I park, you can go in first. I'll follow after like, three minutes."

I put on the sweetest smile I can muster. "Nothing would make me happier."

"Fuck off, Lauren. I didn't want you to come either."

"Wow." I say quietly. "Welcome to middle-of-nowhere, Texas, to you, too."

Davis's eyes flick towards me, but he looks back towards the road. He'd better, given he's still driving us out to bumfuck nowhere. "Don't be mopey. No one's going to care you're from the

East coast

."

"Yeah, well, I didn't ask for my mom to die so I can be shipped off to live with my deadbeat dad, his mistress, and their rude ass son, either."

He doesn't say anything to that, but his nostrils flare and he steps on the accelerator, so I know he heard me.

This is only my second week in this city, but already my dad's wife is trying to force her way into my life. When Davis said he would be going to a party held by some classmates on Friday night, Lindsay had perked right up and practically cooed at me, saying I should go. And then when dad agreed, that'd pretty much sealed the deal. Because apparently, my life is not my own and I'm not allowed to have my own opinion on what I'd like to do with my time.

It just sucks even more that I have to be here with Davis, of all people.

When I first saw a picture of him, I thought he was kind of cute. At least, he's cute enough, with brown curls that fall just short of deep-set eyes that make him look like he's always brooding. He's tall, too, and fairly well-built, which is probably from his spot on the swim and water polo team (which drives me absolutely nuts, because he somehow finds a way to mention that just about every other conversation).

But his physical looks aside, once I started living with them all I found out very quickly how everything about him pisses me off. He has the slightest country twang, he chews with his mouth open, and he wears his shoes through the house before taking them off IN his room.

And, he doesn't just look like he's always brooding. He absolutely is brooding. His default expression is a frown, which basically ruins any genetic blessing he's received in the face department.

Most of all, he decided he hated my guts from the first day I stepped foot in their house.

Before then, I was actually kind of hopeful.

"I don't even know why you have to hate me so much." I say aloud, crossing my arms around myself and looking out the window.

He doesn't answer, and I tell myself it's because he can't think of a good reason.

After all, I'm star half-sister material. I'm from somewhere interesting, I actually give a shit about life, and I'm pretty enough, which should validate him since half of us is related.

But I feel like I'm screaming into the void at this point, so I clamp my mouth shut and say nothing more.

I'm relieved when the car finally rolls to a stop. I open the door and step out, not even looking to see if Davis is watching me leave or not.

This isn't a neighborhood or anything, it's just one singular house surrounded by farmland. When I asked why we were going to the boonies for a party, Davis had only sighed and said that it was an Airbnb someone named James had rented. Either way, I walk up the path.

Do I knock? Do I just go in?

It's the thought that Davis might be looking, wondering why I'm lingering outside the door that makes me open it and step in. I'm immediately confronted by a sea of shoes.

It looks like there's a living room area if I go in, and to the right there are a set of stairs that lead down to the basement. I hear music playing and a roar of laughter rise from down there.

I steel myself and am about to walk down the stairs when someone emerges from the living room.

"Hey there! Lauren, right?"

"Oh, hi." I say brightly, putting on some fake confidence because this might be the cutest guy in all of Texas. He's wearing a letterman jacket over his tall frame, and has an easy smile on his full lips. "I'm so sorry, I don't think we've met before."

"James," he says, leaning against the wall. His light eyes sweep over me like they're taking their time getting to know my curves. "We haven't met. I just figured since I haven't seen you before that you're the new girl everyone's been talking about."

What I really want to ask is whether people are really talking about me, but I settle for something a little lighter. "Do you know everyone at school, then? It's crazy you just knew right away."

"I mean, Jackson's got a lot of students, but if you've grown up here then you basically get to know everyone's faces."

"Right. I get that." I lie. And because I haven't quite worked up the nerve to go downstairs yet, I stall. "So who all was invited here? This hardly seems like a big enough place for the whole senior class."

"Yeah, it's not. It was a little bit of an open invite, but only hard rule was no one under eighteen."

"Why's that?" Davis never said anything about that requirement.

"Because," James brings his arms out in a stretch. "One of the main activities we have planned are some

adult party games.

"

He raises his eyebrows at me, like I'm supposed to be impressed with that. But I have no idea what that really means, nor do I think I want to.

But my goal tonight is to be polite and maybe walk out with my social life still intact.

"Ooh, sounds fun." I inject as much enthusiasm into my voice as I can.

Just then, the door opens. Davis walks in, looking between me and James with the slightest frown on his face.

"Hey, D-man!" James says, stepping forward to dap him up. "Nice seeing you, bro. This is Lauren. Have you met her yet?"

"Yeah," Davis says stiffly. "Like, a couple times."

I want to roll my eyes at him. But really, I already want to escape from being in a conversation with Davis, so I hurriedly slip off my shoes. "I'm going to go downstairs. Thanks for chatting, James!"

And before either of the boys can say anything to me I walk down the stairs.

There are a lot more people here than I thought there would be. There are some small pockets of conversation, a bigger circle in the middle of the room, and then a group of people gathered in front of the TV playing video games.

I probably only recognize half of everyone here from classes or the lunchroom, but disappointingly there's no one here that I actually know. Even worse, a few of them are outright staring at me like I should know how much I don't belong.

"Hey." I'm absolutely relieved when a tall girl with short brown hair and a nose piercing walks up to me. "You can get yourself something to drink over there if you want."

Almost everyone has a red solo cup in hand.

I've never been one for alcohol, but something tells me I'll need the social lubrication.

"James made jungle juice," the girl winks at me, following me as I pour myself a cup. "I'm Becky, by the way. You're Lauren, right?"

"I am." I say, taking a swig of the drink and struggling to swallow down the alcohol. Ugh. "I didn't realize people have been talking about me."

"I'm actually in your English class." She laughs, and I'm immediately embarrassed. "But yeah, people tend to talk. Small towns, and stuff like that."

"I wouldn't know. I've lived in the city all my life."

"Oh, no way! How did you end up coming here, then?"

"I, uh..." Davis made it very clear he didn't want anyone knowing anything about us being related, so I settle for something close to the truth. "My mom died recently. So I kind of had to move. Real sudden."

"I'm so sorry," Becky says, and I feel bad for bringing the mood down. She puts a hand on her chest. "For what it's worth, I know that God has a plan, and that He brought you here for a reason."

"Yeah, thanks," I say, a little put off by her sudden mention of God.

"But hey, do you want me to introduce you to some people? Or have you met a lot of the people here already?"

"I actually don't know anyone at all." I admit. "I just met James for the first time upstairs."

"No! Let's go fix that."

I down half of my drink and then follow Becky as I'm subject to a whirlwind of introductions. I keep sipping on my drink to offset my nerves, and by the time she gets pulled into another conversation, the room is starting to spin just a little bit.

I hate to be sexist, but I swear a lot of the girls look the same. They have the same bleach blonde hair and white tops and tight denim. One girl named Selena stands out to me in particular, and it's only because she has an intense smattering of freckles all across her face.

Out of some of the boys that Becky introduces me to, I only remember Bradley and Raul, and that's because they're so into their video game that they barely look at me.

I jump as an arm wraps around my shoulder.

It's James. He lifts his own cup in the air and calls out. "Alright, y'all! It's time for some games!"

There's a small whoop from my classmates, while I'm wondering why he's leaning on me like I'm a prop.

"If you want to just hang out down here, you can. But we'll be starting some of the adult games upstairs in like, five minutes." And with that, the party returned to normal, conversation starting to flow as if James had ever interrupted at all.

He turns to me, his arm still around my shoulders. That means that when I turn to look at him, our faces are super close.

"You're going to come play, right, Lauren?"

"I don't know." I say, feeling a little lightheaded. I look across the room and get distracted by Davis. He's talking to some guys that I've already forgotten the names of, but then he looks straight up at me. I turn away, back to James, whose face somehow feels even closer than it was before. "Actually, sure! Sounds like fun."

"Great." He smiles at me, half of a dimple appearing on his cheek. "Want to come help me set up?"

I cast another glance around the room, but don't see any reason why I should stay. Becky's deep in conversation with a couple other girls, Davis is still looking at me, and I don't know anyone else. So I follow James up the stairs.

It's a lot quieter up here, and despite the alcohol running through my system I feel like I can finally take a breath.

"Parties not your thing?" He says, leaning over the kitchen counter. He sounds a little sympathetic, but I can't imagine that this guy is anything other than the life of the party. He's the one hosting, for fuck's sake.

I just shrug. "I'm just a little shy about people I don't know, I s'pose."

"You came out, though. That takes guts. Besides, now you know me."

"Yeah." I give him a grateful smile. "That does make me feel better."

"Yeah?" He stands up. "I was actually thinking that maybe after this, or like, during the games, we could--"

"Sorry, are we not starting yet?" I look over at the familiar voice to see Davis and another guy, standing in the hall.

"Nah, right on time." James says, waving them in. He walks by me, and I swear through my tipsy haze that his hand brushes my ass. It's not until Davis and his friend sit that I realize James never needed any help setting things up.

A few more people join and we all sit down in a circle on the floor. There are less people than I thought, maybe twenty or so people? I slide down from my seat on the bar stool and sit next to Becky, who I'm relieved to see. She flashes me a smile and pats my knee.

James walks around the perimeter of the circle, clapping his hands together.

"Welcome, party people! We're going to start with something a little... boring." He sticks out a thumbs down, and a couple of the rowdier boys boo like they're some sitcom audience. "But we don't want to be rude to guests who might not know everyone's names."

No one overtly looks over, but it's obviously about me.

"So what we're gonna do," he says, jogging over to a box in the corner. He rummages around for a second before lifting up a huge bottle of vodka and a pack of plastic shot glasses. "Is go around, share names and a fun fact. Your fun fact, though, has to be an answer to the question: what is the freakiest thing you've ever done?"

His audience oohs for him, and James grins as he starts handing out the shot glasses.

"Don't lose 'em, or you'll have to chug straight from the bottle." He chuckles as he makes his rounds. After he's done, he takes a seat at the circle. "If you don't want to answer, then you drink. But you might need to pace yourself, because I've got plenty games for us to play."

There's scattered laughter around the circle, and then we begin.

For the most part there's nothing entirely wild. The most common one is having sex in cars. One girl says she gave head to a guy who wasn't circumcised, which oddly enough, gets a big reaction of disgust from the guys. Davis shrugs and says he ate a girl out with a clit piercing. James grins and tells some elaborate story about how he made a girl cum three times in one session.

When it's Becky's turn, she raises her glass and cheers, "Fill 'er up!"

Some of the boys complain as James complies, pouring her a shot. Becky throws it back, blowing out the alcohol vapors towards them. "I'm not staying quiet 'cuz I'm chicken, I'm just saving y'all from hearing more than you can handle."

That causes snickers to spread through the group.

I'm the last one left. I'm so glad that Becky went before me and decided to take a shot.

"I'm Lauren. No fun fact for me." I raise my glass.

"Boring!" One of the boys jeers as James gets up to fill my glass too.

I stick my tongue out at him, which gets a couple laughs. I throw back my own shot and then set the glass down, coughing out the alcohol.

I thought about making something up just to fit in, but the truth was that I had nothing to share. The best thing I could share was that I had my first kiss, but that felt like nothing compared to what everyone else said. I didn't think everyone would have been so experienced. I was starting to feel like joining for these games was a very bad idea.

James doesn't get up this time, but he grins as he starts the next game. It doesn't take that much introduction, it seems, because all he says is, "We're playing spoons."

There's a chorus of groans from around the circle, which he ignores as he passes out cards and counts out spoons, placing them in the middle.

"If you've never played spoons before, you always hold four cards. You can switch out any of them as we all pass around the rest of them. Your goal is to get four of the same kind, and once you get your four, you can grab your spoon. Thing is, once one person grabs a spoon, everyone else can grab it. There's one less than the number of people we have, so one person's gonna be the slowest, and they're gonna be the one to have to take something off." He grins when he says it, and it has the desired effect, because there's a bit of uproar around the circle.

At last, once everyone's calmed down, he looks around the group seriously. "Socks and stuff don't count! Any questions?"

I'm glad I've played spoons before, because I'm not sure I would've understood otherwise.

When no one answers, James counts us down to start the first round.

It's kind of funny, how quiet the room gets. Everyone's so focused on getting their four that the only sounds are cards being slapped down and slid against each other.

Becky's the first one to get her spoon. I feel lucky that I sit next to her and can nab one just as quickly. Chaos erupts as people scramble to get their spoons. There's a bit of a battle over the last spoon between James and some other girl, but after a second James lets go, putting his hands up in the air.

"Alright, I'll be a gentleman," he says good-naturedly, and without any fanfare he pulls off his shirt. I try not to stare, because underneath his simple tee, he is built. He has a bit of chest hair, and a happy trail that extends downwards below his belly button.

One of the boys wolf whistles, which earns laughter around the whole circle. As we're about to start the next round, I sneak another glance at James. He's staring right back at me and winks. I swear I start the round with bright red cheeks.

I don't even know how many rounds we play, but after the sixth or seventh one the shot I took is starting to take effect. I'm a little too slow and end up being the last one.

Taking off my pants is out of the question, so I'm relieved that I chose to wear a longline bra underneath my shirt, and nothing super lacy or push up. My cheeks warm slightly as I pull my shirt over my head and toss it behind me.

"Alright, next round!" James yells, but his eyes linger on me.

I'm relieved that that's the only time I lose. By the time we end, one poor girl is sitting in her bra and underwear, and almost all of the guys have lost their shirts. Davis is one of them, and I'm ashamed to say I can't stop looking at his shoulders. If James is built, Davis is...

It's funny to think that I live with this boy now. If I really wanted to take a peek I could just look at him shirtless at home. For some reason, though, after seeing Davis shirtless here in front of everyone, that thought makes my stomach twist.

I can't dwell on it, though, because James is moving us onto our next game.

"It's the one we've all been waiting for." James grins. "Truth or dare!"

That earns some cheers.

"As for rules," he says. "There are none!"

More cheers.

I almost have to roll my eyes, because they're so excited for some reason. I always thought truth or dare was an exceptionally un-fun game. I'm also relieved, though, that I'm an outside of this group. People never pull out the worst questions or dares for someone who's not really 'in'.

"Except," James says, and everyone quiets almost immediately when he raises his finger. "There's no chickening out allowed. You have to do what you're told. But, if the crowd thinks your prompt isn't spicy enough, you take a shot."

I look around the circle, suddenly nervous. I've never played truth or dare with

stakes

before, and now I don't want to play. Davis is looking at me, his eyebrows raised slightly like he's checking in with me.

I'm not given the chance to not play, anyways, because James is already starting us off.

"Since Selena is the most naked, we'll let her go first."

The group laughs as Selena flicks one of her braids behind her shoulder. "Alright, Haydyn. Truth or dare?"

One of the blonde-white-tee-blue-jeans girls leans forward. "Truth."

"Who was a better boyfriend, Aiden Jeffers or Tommy?"

I have no idea who these people are.

"Tommy was a better boyfriend," Haydyn answers, but goes on. "But Aiden is a better lay."

There's a mix of laughter and 'ooh damn's from around the circle, but they quickly let up as everyone's eager for Haydyn's turn.

"Becky, truth or dare?"

"Dare!"

"I dare you to make out with Evan."

After what Becky said about God earlier, I didn't think I'd see an excited smile on her face as she stands up and saunters over to Evan, the guy walked in with Davis. She straddles him and presses her lips to his. They get really into it, to the point that I feel embarrassed looking at them--at some point Becky places one of his hands on her butt, and I'm fairly certain I see him squeeze it.

"Alright, alright," James pokes at them after some time, and they break apart

Evan releases Becky, who stands up dramatically and then walks back to her seat. He noticeably shifts in where he's sitting, a bulge at the crotch of his pants.

"My turn," says Becky. I'm terrified when she turns to me. "Lauren, truth or dare?"

I hate feeling everyone's eyes on me. "Truth."

"If you had to choose to sleep with any of the girls here, who would you choose?"

Even I know it's a little weak, but no one says anything about it, but it still makes heat rise on my face. No one protests, though. I guess everyone is willing to overlook the favor that Becky's doing me.