Spinning
Bottles
The bright yellow flyer dropped out
of Valerie Lanier's locker as she opened it. Picking it up, she read the black
block lettering:
Party Time. 8:00 Friday night, the
27th of March, Hugh Anders's house. Be there!
"Are you going?" Tyler Connell's
voice interrupted. Val looked up.
"Sure, why not? I think we have that
night off, and I don't want to get stuck babysitting the terrible Miller
twins." Val grimaced at the thought.
"Are they the ones who put peanut
butter in your hair and spray-painted your black shoes light blue?" Tyler
inquired with a smile. Val grimaced again.
"Yes. They were new sandals, too.
Thank God Mrs. Miller reimbursed me." Val looked down at her feet and wiggled
her lavender-coated toes in the light blue sandals—the same ones the Millers
had spray-painted. "And that they didn't take the mustard spray paint."
Tyler grinned and looked at her feet
as well. "Well, maybe if you go back they can use the lavender paint and your
shoes will match your nails."
Val elbowed him as she got out her
Spanish book. "Be quiet."
"Oh, Valerie, my heart is breaking."
He clutched his chest.
"Are you trying out for the school
play or something?" she asked.
"Hey, I think I can probably get the
role of Tommy or something—if you help me practice." Tyler smiled.
"Aw, how sweet," Val sobbed, overly
fake in her acting. "I think I'm just going to die…" She closed her locker.
"You're not helping," complained
Tyler, tagging along as she started walking to Spanish class.
"Are there any sideburns involved?"
Val questioned with a teasing smile.
"I've learned my lesson," he said.
"No more sideburn glue."
"Good. Look, I'll help you practice
later, at the station, all right?" Val stopped and turned to him. "But you have
to help me with math."
Tyler was about to answer when the
warning bell rang. "Uh oh. Bye." He dashed off. Val shrugged and turned left
into her Spanish class.
*
"I'm getting a drink," Val said to
Tyler, edging off through the crowd in her short, white linen tank dress. Tyler
nodded to nobody and looked around, listening to the music blaring from the
speakers (which was currently Macy Gray, but he assumed they were listening to
the radio).
"Hey, Val, wait up, I think I'm
thirsty, too." She hadn't heard him, but he followed her to the refreshments
table anyway. However before he reached the drinks a hand latched onto his arm.
"Are you two going to play the game
with us?" asked Jessica Robinson, a junior with long, light brown hair bleached
blond at the ends and brown eyes.
"What game?" Val inquired, coming up
behind Tyler with a glass of punch.
"Spin the bottle. Come on." Jessica
pulled the two of them over to a circle of about thirty people sitting on a
rug. Val handed her glass off to another girl as she was dragged.
"No, come on, this is way too
juvenile," Val argued. "This is like, ninth grade."
"Don't chicken out, Val," Jessica
laughed. Val raised her eyebrows meaningfully to Tyler, who returned the look.
"Fine," Val grumbled, sitting down
in the circle, Tyler next to her.
"Okay, Val, you can go first,"
Jessica said cheerfully. "Whoever the bottle points to you have to go into that
closet for seven minutes." She pointed at a wooden door.
"I thought we were playing Spin the
Bottle, not Seven Minutes in Heaven," said Val. Jessica shrugged.
"Different people call it different
things. Spin."
Val groaned and reached out,
spinning the bottle. One time around… two… three… four… five… six… the bottle
slowed and made a seventh rotation, pointing at her.
Well, not quite her. More like
Tyler.
"The closet, you two," directed a
gleeful Jessica. Val and Tyler exchanged looks.
"No way."
"Not possible."
"In your dreams."
"Nope."
"Uh-uh."
"Excuse me?"
"As if."
"Dream on."
Finally the two were pushed into the
closet and a key turned in the lock.
"This is just great," huffed Val,
crossing her arms. "You know they're not going to let us out of here until
we've kissed."
"Or seven minutes are up," pointed
out Tyler.
"I have a feeling that Jessica isn't
going to care if we're in here until the party is over, so long as we kiss."
Val started pounding on the door.
"You have a bobby pin?" Tyler
inquired, looking at the lock.
"Nope."
"They're intelligent, you know?"
"Yeah." Val leaned against the wall.
One minute ticked by, slowly, with
both of them trying very hard to avoid the other's eyes. Two minutes. Three
minutes. Four minutes.
"Two minutes," sighed Tyler.
"I never thought four hundred and
twenty seconds could seem so long," Val confessed. "Hey, Jess, we've kissed!"
"Yeah, right!" yelled Jessica in
response. Val sighed.
"You know, there's only one way to
get out of here," she told Tyler, stepping forward. He stared at her, looking
into her blue eyes. "And we might as well make the best of it."
She slowly reached her arms around
his neck.
"Val—I don't think—"
"Tyler. Please." Her eyes were
begging him now, and as the eyes watched his compliance, they closed. "I'm
sorry, though…"
Her voice faded as their lips
connected, sending shots of burning fire through her veins.
"Okay…okay, Val…Val…" He was trying
to return the kiss and speak to her at the same time, which was difficult.
"Val!" He drew his lips away. "Listen to me!"
Her eyes opened, confused. "What?"
"I don't think—I don't really
think—I don't think we should be doing this," he finished, pressing his finger
to her lips. "I think we need to stop it right now."
"Oh," said Val in a very small
voice, turning away from him. "Okay then."
With strange timing, the door swung
open forty-seven seconds before the time was up.
Val took advantage of the
interruption to stalk out of the closet, out of the party.
"Bug off," Tyler said bitterly to
the curious eyes looking at him as he ran after Val. "Wait up, Val! Come back
here!"
The night air was cold as he burst
out of the house in pursuit of her. The blond figure clad in white was running
down the sidewalk, black platform sandals clacking against the pavement.
"Val!" he yelled, chasing her,
cutting across the lawn to catch the dove before it flew.
"Tyler, I really don't want to deal
with you right now," she informed him.
"But Val—"
"I know it was wrong, okay, Tyler,"
she began loudly so that he could hear her as she speeded up and the wind blew
against her, "but you know, I couldn't really help it."
"Val—" But he was once again cut
off.
"This is totally going to destroy
our entire friendship, sure. And I may never be able to look you in the eyes
again, sure. But I'm going to have this little thing inside of me that wants to
do it again, and again, and again, and that little thing is going to be glad I
did it because I might never have gotten the chance otherwise." She was
speeding up.
"Val, I never—"
"That was my first kiss," she
admitted, stopping and turning to him. "It's my senior year, I'm graduating in
two months, other kids in our class have already gone way beyond kisses, but I
have never been kissed in my entire life because I had stupid dreams that if I
waited long enough it would make the first one more special. Well, now I get
stuck kissing someone who doesn't even want to kiss me." Her body was racking
with sobs and shivers.
"Val, I never said I didn't want to
kiss you," Tyler said slowly, glad to be finally able to get his sentence out.
Val's blue eyes stared at him with disbelief as he raked his fingers through
his hair with a long sigh. "I just—Val, I don't want to have to kiss you when
it's forced."
The air against her body made her
cheeks ruddy and her eyes large as random strands of golden hair whipped
against her face. "What?"
"I don't want to kiss you when
it's—I don't know, forced. Necessary."
"It wasn't forced back there," Val
said abruptly. "We could have just pretended we kissed."
"True." Tyler looked down at Val,
and then slid his hand around her neck. "Is it forced now?" he inquired. Val
blinked.
"No."
"Then am I allowed to kiss you now?"
"You have very strange ideals," Val
told him. "You keep changing your mind."
"Was that a yes?" Tyler looked into
her eyes questioningly.
"Yes," responded Val. Tyler slowly
leaned down and searched her lips with his own gently, pulling away eventually.
"Let me walk you home," he said,
wrapping an arm around her shoulders. Val smiled and the two of them set off
down the street together, disappearing into the darkness of the night.
Mwa
he ha. Aricraze, for once you didn't know about a fic…Well, THANKIES VERY MUCH
TO ARICRAZE, who is writing out Cinderella Story for me very kindly…and she
betas most of my stories. This was just written quickly on a whim in like half
an hour, so she was clueless. Anyways, thankies to her. REVIEW PLEASE
PEOPLES!!!
---Ivy
