Chapter 2

I'd like to say a big thank you to AinsleyWright and OhSnap I'm Reckless for reviewing. They did wake me up in the middle of the night since I am in the UK and we have different time zones but that was okay and strangely peasant. I forgot to alter the settings on my ipod (which was smashed but is now fixed). I hope you like this story despite it not being well written. I don't know if i will go far with it or not, but it is a nice break from doing my own work.

Ian pov

Mid conversation, when our voices died down, I was proven wrong to expect that there were only three people housing the room. A fourth stepped out from a side door which I guessed was the bathroom, in nothing other than a towel wrapped around her.

I realized that somehow, I had missed the splashing of the water over the loud music and the booming TV. She had long golden untamed hair which hung down to her waist, dripping down her face. She was average height, but possibly slightly smaller, her face rounded perfectly.

She stumbled two steps backwards and caught herself on the door. All eyes swam over to her face. I looked down politely while the others stared.

I saw the moving of feet as Melanie rushed over to her. 'Oh my god, Wanda, I'm so sorry. We were going to tell you when you got out...'

To my surprise, she laughed it off. There was a faint stiffness to her laugh. It made me wonder…

'It's fine, I guess.' She looked around, taking in all the faces still pointed in her direction. 'I guess it's not girls night anymore...' She stage whispered.

'That's their fault, not ours', Lily pointed out, scrambling to her feet.

'Thats Wanda', Sunny offered up to us, smiling shyly.

Aaron held up his hand in a waving gesture. 'Aaron. Nice to meet you.'

We all offered up our names so she knew who was who.

'Kyle.'

'Jared.'

'Ian.'

She stood in the middle of the room, half smiling awkwardly. She motioned to her bed, the one with the lyrics across the walls and the curtain. 'I'll just get my clothes...'

She moved as she talked, grabbing a top and shorts from her bed and shuffled back into the bathroom, crossing her arms across her chest. She clicked the door shut behind her.

Mel breathed out a sigh of relief. Aaron chuckled. 'Nice.'

Lily hit him with a pillow. 'Shut up. You weren't supposed to see that.'

My eyes were still half on the ground.

'Ian, it's okay. You can look up now', Mel laughed.

'Embarrassed bro?' Kyle teased, punching my shoulder.

I dodged his punch easily, catching his fist in my hand. When I finally looked up from the floor, I stopped mid punch, pushing Kyle aside. Lily, Sunny and Mel were huddled together, whispering anxiously.

'What is it?' I asked.

They seemed to be hiding something, looks of worry plain on their faces.

'It's nothing', Sunny lied poorly.

Mel pulled her into a hug, Lily joining her. 'She'll be fine. It was nothing.'

'She didn't seem too bothered by it, did she?' Sunny asked.

I still wasn't giving up. 'Bothered by what?'

They half looked my way, not answering.

'Was she embarrassed or something? Walking in on us?'

I couldn't understand. If somebody was hurt or upset, I had always been one to do something about it.

'Something like that', Lily chimed in, looking more cheery for a change. 'Everything is fine.'

Mel clapped her hands together. 'C'mon guys! Let's lighten the mood. Wanna watch a movie?'

Eventually, we all settled down and the girls scanned through their huge box of DVD's. Since they didn't have a huge selection of non- romance movies, we ended up watching the first couple minutes of Harry Potter before moving onto The Hunger Games.

We threw in odd comments here and there, laughing at the wrong moments. They shushed us, debating on which boy was the hottest throughout the film.

The movie wasn't half bad, although it turned out that what I was really waiting for was the girl named Wanda to emerge from the bathroom.

Wanda POV

Taking a few deep breaths, now fully dressed in my shorts and tank top, I prepared to exit the bathroom. My cheeks were still flushed, but thinking about it, I wasn't really that embarrassed. I had been wearing a towel, hadn't I? It wasn't like I had been naked or anything.

Thinking about it, some girls did that kind of stuff every day for attention. Even if I wasn't the flirty kind, it somehow still managed to give me a slight buzz.

Melanie, Lily and Sunny were all very wellbeing, but they were wrong. They still thought that I was majorly affected by my past, but really, that wasn't the case. It happened and now it was over. I had learnt to deal and now I was going to live my life the way I should.

Bold and proud, proving them all wrong, I flung open the bathroom door, throwing my towel over the side of the bath.

Thankfully, the scene before me showed that all attention had not been drawn to me- everyone was sat around the TV, laughing hysterically at some joke. Sunny and Lily were clutching their stomachs, Melanie with tears of laughter rolling down her face.

One face among the rest looked up as I approached, surprise deep in his eyes. He looked like he was holding his breath.

Brushing off the thought that just moments ago, he had seen me in nothing other than a towel, I smiled in his direction. Thankfully, he smiled back, letting go of the breath that he had been holding. His smile was not like the other fake smiles- his smile was warm, welcoming almost. He seemed like he was actually pleased to see me.

I turned in the direction of the TV screen and frowned at the girls' poor film choice. We had seen this film several times over, at least.

I sighed and walked over to the monitor, clicking the button and ejecting the DVD. My face lit up triumphantly when the screen went black.

'Hey, Wanda!' Melanie moaned.

'What?' I asked innocently.

She rolled her eyes. 'I hate to disturb whatever you're plotting but we were watching that.'

'Too bad', I mused.

'Ack. It wasn't too good anyway', the guy next to Sunny named Kyle commented.

Sunny nudged him. 'I like that film. Don't diss!'

Lily just looked at me, her eyes narrowed. She was the ultimate Hunger Games Fan. I held my hands up in surrender.

'Hey, I'm not saying it's a bad film. We've just watched it so many times!' I protested.

Raising from my crouch next to the TV screen, I walked over to my bed, opening the curtain and climbing onto the mattress. I gazed at the rack hooked to the wall and browsed through the DVD's.

'Let's try something new...' I poked my head out from the curtain. 'Any suggestions?'

'Romance.'

'Action.'

'Comedy.'

'Something thrilling- lives need to be lost here!'

'Yeah, what happened to the element of sacrifice!'

My head bobbed backwards and forwards as I attempted to follow the argument half-heartedly. I looked towards the only person who hadn't said anything, pleadingly.

'Help', I mouthed to Ian.

He looked as though he was in deep thought. 'Something with romance, action, comedy and with lives being lost…?' He was lost for a moment before he caught on. 'That settles it. Something sad then.'

I grinned and plucked out a disk at the far end. It wasn't something new to me, but at least none of the others had watched it. I climbed off the bed and inserted the disk into the DVD player and skipped through the trailers before reaching the title page.

'What is it?' Melanie asked, craning her neck round to glance at the box.

I clicked play without any hesitation. 'It's called 'Now is good.' It's something I've had for a while.'

She looked intrigued.

'The guys will like the beginning, at least.' I smirked.

At this point, they all perked up, suddenly very aware.

Jared got the final say. 'Okay. Let's do it.'

I settled on a chair next to Ian, who I whispered a word of thanks to. We whizzed through the beginning of the film and I was right to think that they would enjoy the opening scene the best. Jared whooped all the way through while Aaron threw in another wolf whistle.

I was glad to be next to Ian who didn't interrupt throughout the film. Since I had seen the film already, I nipped out occasionally to retrieve more beers and wine, and was speechless when Ian declined his.

I sat down next to him after storing away the remaining drinks.

'I'm not being rude', he whispered to me apologetically. 'I just don't really fancy getting drunk tonight, especially with these guys.'

I shook my head. 'Don't worry about it. I'm not having any either.'

His eyes were still on the screen when he continued, his voice so low that only I could hear him. 'Just so you know, honestly, I feel really bad about earlier. I'm really sorry.'

I smiled, my eyes too, still trained on the screen. I could briefly see him smile back nervously out of the corner of my eye. 'It's fine. I guess I should have checked before walking in, but it was supposed to be a girls night in. And well...' I paused. 'You definitely aren't girls.'

He chuckled quietly. 'I'd hope not.'

When it got near the end of the film, everyone was too drunk to really take in how sad the scenes were becoming. The girl named Tess who had given up her leukemia treatment was coming to the end of her life, her family preparing to say goodbye. The only other person who was actually watching and taking it in was Ian.

When the credits rolled, I quickly brushed my hand across my cheeks and under my eyes, erasing any tears that had escaped whilst I had been overwhelmed. Even though I'd thought that they had gone by unnoticed by the rest, I felt a pair of eyes on my face.

Before I knew what he was doing, Ian leaned forwards and wiped his finger across my cheekbone, riding of one final tear that had trickled away, stranded away from the rest. He looked into my eyes, his being a pretty shade of deep blue, before sitting back down on his chair.

When Melanie stumbled over to the lights, illuminating the room, I was pleased to find that nobody had spotted us. I was going to have to find time to thank Ian later.

'Now', Mel announced.

Lily and Sunny clapped their hands together in delight.

'I think it's time to play 'spin the bottle.''

XxxxX

We were all sitting in a circle around two bottles surrounded by their very own circle of people. Kyle, Ian, Aaron and Jared were wearing blindfolds which Lily had miraculously produced out from the blue.

This was a very different game to the original 'spin the bottle.''

Minutes earlier, we had all posed for our own individual picture which Sunny sent to her laptop to print off. We all pulled our own funny faces. They were now placed around the bottles, the girls around one, the boys around the other.

'So, this is how it works. We spin the bottle on the right-'

'Hold up', Kyle said. 'Which bottle is that?'

Lily rolled her eyes. 'The bottle with your faces on it, Kyle. Duh.'

He nodded, his eyes still concealed by the black cloth. 'Right.'

'Like I was saying', Mel continued. 'We spin the bottle on the right, and it will land on one of you guys. Whoever it is, we will first ask for a truth- something that you wouldn't tell anyone.'

'Next', I continued, surprising both Mel and myself, 'whoever it is that it has landed on will have to spin the bottle on the right-'

'The ones with your faces on it, right?' Kyle joked.

Melanie hit him with a pillow. He grunted and Sunny continued.

'You will have to spin the bottle with our faces on. It will land on one of us. We're going to record a message from ourselves on voice changer. You will then have to guess who it is.'

Jared frowned. 'This is very confusing.'

'Deal with it.'

He reached out to tickle Melanie, messing up the bottles in their circles in the process.

'And that', Lily announced, 'will decide our bed arrangements.'

This time, Ian stiffened. 'What do you mean, bed arrangements? Can't we just take the top bunks?'

Melanie smirked. 'There broken', she said, stressing the word playfully.

Ian groaned.

'Looks like you're in for a fun night, bro', Kyle laughed.

He didn't answer.

XxxxX

Four recorded messages later, we were all set and ready to spin the bottle. Melanie waved me forwards.

'Wanna spin?'

I bit my lip and shook my head. 'Next time. You go first.'

She nodded. reaching out for the bottle, she spun it with force, all of us watching eagerly as it landed on Aaron.

'Aaron, you're up.'

His face lit up. 'Okay. What do I do?'

'You say something about yourself.'

'Okay…'

'Do the story from kindergarten.' Kyle suggested. 'That's embarrassing, and it will make them laugh.'

'Guaranteed', Jared agreed.

'Okay. Go for it', Sunny encouraged him.

He shuffled uncomfortably. 'Okay. Fine. I was in kindergarten and I was just finishing up...'

'In the bathroom', Ian joked.

'Yeah. In the bathroom. Then this inspector walks into the place. I could hear him from the hall. So I walked out, and he's like talking to everyone. But then, I kinda fell…' He paused. 'The other kids were baking and...'

Jared snorted. 'The whole frickin mixture flew into his face.'

We couldn't help it- We all burst out into a chorus of giggles, imagining this scene in our heads. Kyle was the one to stop us.

'Hold up- it's not over yet.'

'Seriously? How is it possible that there's more?' Lily giggled.

Aaron sighed. 'I was small and I couldn't quite do up the belt on my trousers...'

We all knew what was coming.

'Boom', Jared interrupted. 'Little kid running around screaming as the inspector tries to chase the little kid who threw cake mixture at his face, who just happened to be running around screaming in his underwear.'

Out went the last of my control. More laughs spilled out from the four of us, Kyle, Jared and Ian joining in. Aaron just smiled.

'There. I said it. Now can I spin the bottle?'

After two rounds, Melanie was paired with Jared and Sunny with Kyle. I spun the bottle and held my breath as it landed on Ian's name. I looked at Mel nervously. She nodded in encouragement.

'Ian. It's your turn.'

His shoulders raised either at the mention of his name or my voice which hadn't sounded out for a long while.

I listened to his story intently. I was slightly disappointed when he avoided detail, but it was satisfying anyway.

'It's nothing much. I was about eleven and I was playing in this concert. My dad promised that he would come.'

Kyle's mouth turned down, his blindfold now removed. Only Ian and Aaron wore them now.

'Anyway, in the end, he didn't. It was at the end when the lady comes up onto the stage and asks me to come up, saying that I have won the prize of first place for the best piece. She gives me the trophy and everyone claps...' He paused. 'But then my dad walks in. Even though he can see me, he just stands there and doesn't clap and doesn't smile. So, in the end, I smash the trophy along with the guitar on the floor of the stage, right there in front of everyone and walk away.' He smiled. 'I guess it was a way of showing him that I didn't like the school, music or him anymore.'

Melanie, Lily and Sunny laughed. Jared and Aaron chimed in. Kyle and I were the only ones not laughing.

The way Ian's mouth was set into a tight line reminded me of myself. Something told me that I wasn't the only one with a dark past.

Before I could let my thoughts could settle, Ian shuffled along and spun the bottle round…

My eyes widened as the bottle slowed. It landed on the picture of the girl with golden hair, rounded face and freckles.

Me.