El grabbed her cup from the table, taking a sip of punch and laughing as her best friend Max mimicked some of the boys' horrid dancing. Lucas, a quarterback for Hawkins High, was throwing a party for his 16th birthday and had invited what seemed to be literally everybody into his giant house. Seriously, this place is gigantic.
Anyways, since Max is his girlfriend, and El hadn't been to a party in a long, long time, they decided that going to this party was a must! It had been about an hour and a half since they've been there, and honestly, this party was really fun so far. The music was great, the drinks were good, and all-in-all the party was just well organized.
After the song ended, Max stumbled back to El and put her arm around her shoulders, the two of them laughing to the point where they were about to fall over.
"Pfft- damn Max, you really showed them!" She yelled, straining her voice so that Max could hear her over the booming music.
"Hell yeah I did!" she yelled back, giving her a short laugh and gasping when something caught her eye. Before El could even ask, she was dragged by Max over to a corner of the room, where a circle of teens had just gotten up from their places. There was a bunch of cushions laid in a circle, and a glass coke bottle was settling itself into a stop from when it was spun. Ah… Spin the bottle…
"C'mon, El, let's play!"
El had never played before, but she knew enough from shows and movies to figure it out. There was a tinge of excitement in the air as the group of teens gathered in a circle, some dragging their friends along with them. She sat crossed-legged on a cushion next to Max, watching as Lucas pulled another boy over to the circle by the arm.
She recognized the boy from her fifth period English class. His name was Mike, a tall, lanky boy with dark eyes, wild curly black hair, wearing a gray sweatshirt and jeans. He looked embarrassed and miserable, staring down at the ground and twiddling with his thumbs once he sat down.
El didn't know him very well. He didn't participate too much in class (and when he did, all of his inputs were incredibly thoughtful), but he seemed to have a nice personality. Sometimes they would have quick, friendly conversations, usually asking each other about homework or assignments. Both of their best friends were dating, so she found it convenient to have someone she at least sort-of knew in the class with her.
El found her gaze lingering on Mike for longer than it should have, for Max raised an eyebrow at her.
"Checking out Wheeler, huh?" she said to her in a low, snarky voice. "He's a good kid. Didn't like it too much when I started hanging out with Lucas, though. He was pretty bitchy about it. Really protective of his friends, like jeez."
El's gaze quickly snapped away from Mike when Max started talking, only letting out a small "Hmm," at her remarks. Before the conversation could progress any further, Max smiled at the group assembled before her.
"You guys up for some seven minutes in heaven?" there was a murmur of approval from the teenagers, and Max grinned mischievously. She reached over and spun the Coke bottle, the glass making a hollow ringing as it rotated on the tile floor. El held her breath as the open end of the bottle came to a slow on her. Great, guess I'm the first victim. It wasn't an ideal situation, but she'd manage.
"Wow, El, let's see who the lucky person is. Care to spin?" Max still had that hilarious smirk on her face as El reached to spin the bottle. Her heart was racing in anticipation. The ringing of the bottle drowned out the music until it was all she could hear, the sound consuming her brain, taunting her as the bottle came to a slow. It stopped. She looked up from where it was pointing and saw a quite flustered Mike, sitting up from his slouched position, eyes widening in panic.
Mike's eyes immediately shot up to Lucas for guidance. "Uhm, I don't…"
Lucas gave him a shrug. "Sorry, dude, it's the rules."
El stood up, concealing her internalized fear well. There was a hum of whispers from the rest of the group, excited, mischievous muttering, their words muddled out by the sound of her own heartbeat in her ears. She didn't know why she was freaking out so bad about this. She knew for a fact that nothing was going to happen. She and Mike would simply stand in the dark coat closet in silence.
She waited for Mike to stand up as well. Most of the others had stood too, eager to wait by the closet door and listen in on her and Mike. He finally got up, reluctantly walking over to the coat closet after being shoved in its direction by Lucas.
"Hey! Lucas what the hell-!" he let out a quick shout when Lucas shoved him in the closet, Max coming in close and nudging El inside too.
"Sorry man, you looked like you were about to have second thoughts!" Lucas grabbed the handle before Mike could, letting out one of his toothy smiles and winking at Mike before he closed the door. They both cringed as they heard the telltale rattle and click of the lock being turned, still frozen in the positions that they were when the door was open.
After a few seconds of silence, Mike sighed and hung his head low, running a hand through his hair as he contemplated the bizarre predicament he was in. He didn't wanna play a game like this, he hated these dumb game, and to make it worse, he was still healing from when his girlfriend at the time had cheated on him with one of his good friends. It sucked major balls.
He glanced in her direction, his eyes opened with curiosity and he soon raised a brow when he saw that she was nervous… not very nervous but, still. Her gaze was darting from him to the ground and wherever else possible, chewing her lip slightly as she fidgeted with the end of her skirt. At the notion that she too, felt as nervous and discomforted as him, he nodded and straightened up, his hands in his sweater pocket as he cleared his throat.
"Hey…" he started, quickly grabbing her attention, "we uh… we don't have to do this if you aren't comfortable, okay?" He said softly, and awkward reassurance in his eyes as she held his gaze.
She smiled, thank god he understood and was being respectful about it. "Oh, no it's okay! Don't worry, we can probably just sit in here and wait?" She prompted, but it was more of a question. He nodded in response, smiling back.
"Yeah, sounds goo-" The two of them jumped as a loud banging on the door cut him off.
"NUH UH- YOU GUYS AREN'T GETTING OUT UNTIL YOU SUCK FACE, IT'S THE RULES!" Max shouted from the other side, making the two of them groan. Knowing both Max's and Lucas's fierce stubbornness now put together, they were surely not getting out of there by asking nicely.
He turned back to El, rolling his eyes and smiling, eliciting a giggle from her. They both looked at the ground, Mike setting his weight on the other foot and El flattening her skirt out a bit as they awkwardly leaned towards each other.
"Sooo, uh… this is about to make English a bit more awkward…" He started, rubbing the back of his neck as she hid her mouth behind her palm, giggling softly.
"Yeah… but at least we'll get out of the coat closet- it smells like ass in here." They both chuckled at the statement, Mike's shoulders untensing without him even realizing they were tense in the first place. He placed his hand on the wall and leaned towards her, looking into her eyes with his eyebrows slightly raised.
"Are you sure? Y'know, so I'm not forcing you," He started, soft reassurance and patience in his voice. She nodded, smiling up at him before answering.
"Yes, it's okay."
And with that, he leaned down, a hand tilting her chin up as he slowly came in and captured her lips. The first kiss was like marble against steel, but when he tilted his head for the second kiss it had changed significantly. El shivered at the feeling, his lips were so warm and firm against her own, moving in such a way that made her gut warm.
Sure, it wasn't her first kiss, but it was electric. It was like the flame of a candle, shining warm yellow-orange in the darkness of the closet. She felt like her insides were burning, as if instead of blood in her veins it was lava, coursing quickly through her heart.
At last, they pulled away from each other, slowly, hesitantly. Their faces were still extremely close together, and when El's eyes fully opened again, she realized how beautiful Mike was. It was quite dark in the closet, the only source of light being the yellow band of light at the bottom of the door. But even with the darkness, she could still see the splatter of freckles splashed onto his pale skin, eyes so dark they were almost pitch-black.
She gave into his lidded eyes and chasing want, leaning forward to connect their lips again. She felt the need to come closer, to make the fire burning in her gut burn brighter. He felt her arms loop around his neck, pulling their bodies even closer than they were before. His hand brushed her arms and brushed themselves all the way down until they stopped at her waist.
God, he felt like he was on fire. He had goosebumps. It wasn't at all what he expected. Shit, it was so much better. He felt like he was hallucinating the whole time, taken aback by El's eagerness to continue the kiss. And when she put her arms around his neck, God, that set off a whole lot of emotions he was almost certain he wouldn't feel again for a long while.
He was sure the feeling of her soft lips on his would be permanently etched into his memory after this, the subtle taste of punch and strawberry lip gloss. It was surreal, dreamlike. His awareness of what was going on faded in and out periodically. His hands were on her hips, he would fade out, absorbed in the kiss. He would fade back in, his hands now mysteriously on her back.
Surprisingly enough, El didn't seem to mind that this was happening at all. The beautiful, friendly girl from his English class was kissing him, right now, letting out a content hum through the kiss every now and again as his fingertips brushed against her spine.
They were pressed against the wall now, and Mike couldn't tell whose back was to the wall and who was pressing the other into it. No sir, he hadn't the foggiest idea. Even though he hadn't drunk a bit of alcohol, making out with this fucking gorgeous girl had him feeling fuzzy and warm as if he had guzzled an entire ten bottles of vodka.
He didn't even hear Max loudly announcing 'Time's up, lovebirds,' as she unlocked the door. Both of them were way too absorbed in the kiss, only realizing that the door had opened when they heard Max's gasp, and then laughter. "Holy shit!" Max squealed.
Mike and El pulled away from each other in surprise, still clutching onto each other. Mike practically jumped away, bright red blush flooding onto his cheeks as he looked around, still dazed, at the assembly of shocked teenagers around the coat closet.
"Jesus, I knew you'd be kissing a little bit, not fucking rounding off second base!" Max's comment only made Mike blush even further, crossing his arms to his chest as he desperately looked down at the floor. Is El mad? God, she must be furious at me. What the hell, Wheeler?
Mike glanced over at El, who happened to be looking straight back at him, blushing just as furiously as him. There was something in her eyes at that moment, something that made him want to stare into her eyes forever and never look away. Love? Lust? Disappointment? Desire?
Whatever it was, Mike knew that he and El would need to talk about it in private at some point after the party. For now, they had a lot of explaining to do.