hey everyone! i'm SO sorry that this is such a late update! but my family and I went on vacation for two and a half weeks, and then i had to catch up on my summer work, so unfortunately I couldn't update sooner :(

thank you all SO much for the reviews and the alerts! 32 reviews, 22 favorites, and 14 alerts? i love you guys! they truly make my day :D and thank you for those you watched the trailer too!

enough of my rambling, enjoy! :)

"If you must play, decide upon three things at the start: the rules of the game, the stakes, and the quitting time."
~Chinese Proverb

Emily and Sam brought the food while everyone started laughing at us for what they called a "stupid bet."

"Sorry Hayley, but there is no way that you're going to win this!" Paul said. I punched him in the arm, lightly of course, especially after what happened before with Jake, and stuck my tongue at him.

"Says you. Don't underestimate me." I didn't get it. Sam told me that Paul had this huge anger management problem, but he really didn't seem like a bad guy.

I got up from the table and headed towards the kitchen. Before I walked out of the room, I turned back to the group. "Anyone else want to join in on the bet?"

I didn't expect anyone to join in, and I was right. It was just me and Embry.

"Embry's an eating machine!" Jared called out. "No one here eats or drinks faster than him! Be prepared Hale!"

"I'm not worried," I said, smirking. "You don't have any allergies, right Embry?"

Embry shook his head no.

"Good," I said right before I walked into the kitchen. I took the blender that was lying on the counter and looked in the fridge. Oh, I was gonna make him throw up on this one. Living next to the Juice Net Cafe and having Emma work there really was beneficial for me now. I made up the perfect combination. I was pretty sure that I could take it, but could he?

After putting in pickles, ketchup, mustard, strawberries, and a few other things that I highly doubt anyone would want to know, I turned the blender on and waited for it to become liquid enough for us to drink.

I almost puked as I was pouring it into two cups. It was this disgusting yellow color with a few spots of brown and red. I made sure that the drinks were equal so that I wouldn't be called out on cheating.

Ah, what the heck. I decided to have a little fun with it. I froze the middle of both drinks. He would never be able to get it thawed in time for him to win. I could always show him that mine was frozen too, proving that neither of us had an unfair advantage, and then I could melt mine again, which would guarantee me the win.

I probably would actually never do that - I was too much of a goody-goody to cheat - but it would be fun to mess with Embry.

I took both of the drinks and headed out towards the table. When I walked in, there was pretty much no food left on the table.

"Hey! I don't get any food?" I complained.

"Nah," Jake said as he was finishing up his plate. "We all saved some for you."

"Sure you did. The scraps. Thanks a lot," I mumbled. Everyone laughed. "Thanks for showing some sensitivity, guys!" They only laughed harder.

I sat down in my chair and gave the cup to Embry. "There you go, hun," I said with an overly happy smile on my face.

"Did you do something to this?" he asked warily.

"Nah. Why would you think that?"

He stared at me long and hard, before he finally believed me.

"Okay," I said. "So the first one to finish their drink is the winner. Got it?"

He nodded his head.

"Ready, set, go!"

I gulped down my first sip and I almost wanted to throw up. It was disgusting! I mean, me and Rikki used to do this all of the time, but nothing ever tasted this bad!

I guess Embry thought that it was disgusting too, because he literally spit the stuff onto his plate.

"What the hell did you put into this Hale?"

I stopped drinking and coughed. "I don't know. Stuff?"

"It's disgusting!"

"I know," I laughed. "That's the point!"

"How are you even drinking that!"

I shrugged. "I guess I just have a strong stomach."

"Strong stomach, my ass," he mumbled.

"Would you like to try it to make sure that its the same?"

He nodded his head and grabbed the drink out of my hand. Sucker!

He took a big gulp and almost spit the thing out onto me. Ew! He nodded his scrunched up face, indicating that he thought it was the same.

"Thanks Embry," I said as I continued to drink it.

"For what?" he asked, confused.

"For drinking part of my drink," I smirked.

His jaw dropped down and the guys around me started laughing.

"Oh, she got you good Em!" Jared teased.

We continued drinking our drinks with the boys and Emily cheering for us. Emily, Jake, and Jared were rooting for me, while Quil, Paul and Sam were rooting for Embry.

"Come on Embry, go!"

"Drink faster Hale!"

"Drink Embry! Drink!"

"Go! Go! Go!"

By this point we each got to the frozen part of our drink. I just stopped drinking while Embry was trying to make his drink come out.

"It's not coming out! What the heck is wrong with this?" he said.

I started laughing in my hand, and Jacob looked over at me with a knowing look. I innocently shrugged my shoulders, and went back to watching Embry. Jake would never figure out how I really did it. Embry had his eyes closed and he was bumping the bottom of the cup, trying to get the drink out.

A smirk formed on my face, and I decided that I would help Embry out.

In my own way of course.

I melted the top layer of the frozen drink, and when he hit the bottom one more time, part of his drink came tumbling out and onto his face. Now he didn't have to drink some of his either! Told you I would help him.

The whole group started laughing at him, and Embry put his drink down in shock. I melted both of our drinks now, and while he was in his daze, I started to finish my drink.

Embry noticed, and started gulping down his drink, but I still finished before him.

I slammed my drink down and Embry shot his head up. His eyes widened with shock and fear. I won and he would have to do his part of the bet!

"Looks like I won, Em," I said with a smirk. "We'll set a date, and I'll give you clothes and do your makeup, and you'll look just like a girl!" I grinned at him.

"No, no, no, no," he mumbled into his hands. Everyone around him was laughing and slapping him on the back.

"Here, I'll help you and take this back," I said. I grabbed both of the drinks and walked into the kitchen. I set the drinks down in the sink and was about to walk back to the table when I saw Jake leaning against the doorway between the kitchen and the dining room.

"I can't believe that you beat Embry. Nobody has ever lost an eating bet with him. He's like our own personal trashcan," he laughed.

"What can I say?" I shrugged. "I've just had tons of practice."

"Practice?"

"Me and my friend Rikki would do this all of the time back at the Juice Net Cafe. Amazing bets, if I do say so myself."

"If you say so," he said. "But then what happened with Embry's drink?"

"What do you mean?" I asked as innocently as I could.

"You're a horrible liar, Hale." Huh? I thought I was a pretty good liar. I mean, it's already been a year and no one has ever found out our secret by thinking that we lied.

"I'm not lying."

"You're lying right now," he said smugly.

"How would you know?" I asked, my eyebrow raised.

"You always bite your lip when you lie."

My eyes widened. Ah, shit. Not even my friends or family noticed that, except for Cleo. How did he notice that? I guess I have lied to the guys a few times - okay, maybe more than a few times - but how did he know that I bit my lip when I lied? Then again, I did say that I hated swimming to him one time, and I did bite my lip when I told him that, and then I went swimming earlier today. And then there was like one more time when he caught me on my lie.

Although, it was kinda cute that he was paying that much attention to me. I knew that I was starting to have a huge crush on him. But did I really want a boyfriend right now? All the relationships that Emma and Cleo had failed because of our secret. Would this one fail too?

"But I don't mind, Hale. I actually think it's cute."

I could feel my face heat up and I looked away before he could notice my blush. He chuckled though, so I guess he did notice.

My whole body warmed up when he came over. "I think it's really cute when you blush too, Hale," he whispered in my ear.

I smiled slightly. When I noticed that he left, my small smile turned into a full out grin.