"Oh come on! You must have played it once in your life!"
"No!" Claudine protested, her eyes twinkling in the dim light from the lamp in the corner of the room. "So tell me the rules, and then we can start."
"Okay," Danny began, standing in front of his peers, a large grin smack bang in the middle of his face. "Rule one: You ask to your left at all times. Rule two-"
"Why's it not to the right?" Lola interrupted, head tipped quizzically towards Danny
"It's just not Lola," Jez smiled, patting her knee softly. BB stifled a laugh as Lauren stared towards the ceiling, biting her lip and avoiding BB's eyes at all times.
"But wh-" Lola began, but Jez was quick to act upon it, and clamped his hand over her mouth. Instead of resisting, Lola folded her arms sharply and furrowed her brow, rendering BB unable to contain his laughter. His attempt to turn it into a cough failed miserably, but Lola's attempt to reprimand him failed even more. All that was heard was a distorted mumble, followed shortly by a groan of disgust from Jez and quick removal of his hand.
"Lola! You spat on my hand. You actually spat," Jez pointed at said hand with his other hand, "on my hand!"
"Sorry," Lola blushed and Jez sent a wink in her direction, before applying Claudine's gel disinfectant generously upon his hands. He chucked it back at Claudine who ducked with a scream, and reappeared with mock outrage. Jez just laughed until Danny rapped his fingers and brought the attention back to him. (He was, of course, 'the man' and decided it would be bad for his ever-growing ego not be noticed when it was his game they were about to play. Well not his game exactly, but since none of the others had previously played it, it was his for the night.)
"Anyway," Danny steered the group back to the game, "Rule two: you have to give an answer, no matter what. Rule three-"
"But what if-" Lola interjected again, but quickly silence under the glare she received from Danny, Jez and BB. Claudine and Lauren couldn't help but grin. "Sorry," Lola added sheepishly, and resolved to keep quiet until the game began.
"As I was saying, rule three: what is said in this room, goes no further than these four walls." Danny flitted from face to face until he reached Lola's. "And yes Lola, I am aware that there are indeed more than four walls in the flat, as well as several doors, windows and of course the staircase, but it was a figure of speech, so basically, don't repeat anything any of us say. Understood?"
"I'm not, like, a total an idiot Danny." Lola nodded to prove her understanding and so the game began.
*
"Lola," Danny grinned, turning his attention to Lola, who was situated on his left, currently residing atop a pink exercise ball. "Our very own Jez Tyler, Wayne Rooney and Simon Cowell."
Lola looked thoughtful - almost too thoughtful, which caused her concentration to lapse and she promptly slipped off of the ball. Recovering quickly, she grinned and came to an answer. "I'd kiss Jez, marry Simon and push Wayne off a cliff. What?" she added innocently as BB stared.
"You'd push Rooney off a cliff and kiss Jez Tyler? Mate, you are disturbed!" BB laughed and Jez, copying Claudine's earlier mock outrage, stood up and demanded to know why he wasn't good enough to marry. Lola faltered until she realised he was joking with her, and relaxed, chucking a nearby skittle towards Jez's head, instead missing Jez and hitting BB on the knee.
"Sorry!" Lola crowed, quickly cowering behind the sofa. She knew what this meant: war. BB aimed for Lola with a handful of popcorn, scattering it across Lauren and Danny in the movement. Lauren cried out as it entangled into her hair and resulted to get her own back by chucking her nearby glass of water in BB's direction. Danny too embarked on revenge, firing marshmallow after marshmallow in everyone's direction.
Claudine and Lola teamed up after both receiving marshmallow attacks and ganged up against the boys, Lauren quickly showing her alliance to the girls. Forty five minutes later, and the six of them lay exhausted in a pile in the centre of the lounge.
"We should probably tidy up," Lauren muttered, stuck underneath Lola and BB. "It's a tip."
"Yeah," Jez agreed, quickly eyeing BB. Together they made a dash for the stairs, Lauren and Lola shortly following suite. Claudine exhaled loudly whilst Danny rolled his eyes.
"Looks like we've got 'Muggins' tattooed across our foreheads," he grinned, offering Claudine his hand and pulling her to her feet. She managed a smile before smoothing down her mussed up hair and began picking up remnants of their food fight. Danny watched her for a moment, before realising he was staring and quickly busied himself by finding a bin liner in which they could place all the rubbish.
"Finished?" Claudine asked, half an hour later.
"Finished," Danny agreed, slumping onto the sofa beside Claudine. She stifled a giggle as she spotted a stray piece of popcron lodged in Danny's mop of hair.
"Hold still," she instructed him as she leant over and plucked it from his hair. He grinned, took it from her hands and promptly ate it. "Danny! That was disgusting! Only you would pull a stunt like that!"
Danny shrugged, then grinned, then licked his lips. Claudine shook her head in disbelief before closing her eyes and letting her head relax against the back of the sofa.
"Tonight was fun," Claudine thought aloud, feeling Danny's nod of approval. "Except the cleaning," she added, with Danny once again voicing his approval through a nod. After several minutes of silence, Claudine reluctantly got to her feet and made for the stairs.
"Night Claudine," Danny called from the sofa, his eyes drifting shut as he spread his body along the seat.
"Night Danny," Claudine replied softly, climbing the stairs to her bedroom with a small smile on her face. Tonight, all in all, had been a good night all round.