A/N: This chapter in time for Valentine's Day! I'm glad you all like that last chapter. Thanks for the reviews. They have all be excellent. Don't forget to review again! Enjoy the new chapter!

"What'd you have in mind?" Nadia interrupted.

"Well, this may sound a little seventh grader-ish..." Fran said.

Everyone elsewas still hanging on for her to finish speaking.

"Proceed Francie," Weiss laughed. I think he's the seventh grader. But you have to give him props for trying.

She looked at Vaughn, and then winked at me. "Spin the bottle."

Well this certainly will be an interesting night.

I looked at Vaughn, the ghost of a smile was on his face. If it wasokay with him, then it was totally fine with me. Screw the fact that I had a boyfriend. Kevin was even there, and it wasjust a game. I mean whatwere the chances that anything was going to happen?

"So what do you say?" asked Fran.

Francie looked at me, and then looked away, "Spin the bottle."

Spin the bottle. Ha! She's kidding right? She's not? Oh. Hey! That is seventh grader-ish. Was this planned? Did Weiss tell Francie to say that? I mean, this would be kind of awkward for Syd. And besides, she had a boyfriend. I didn't want her to feel uncomofortable. That wasthe last thing I wanted her to feel.

"So what do you say?" Francie asked. She looked at Sydney before me, expecting an answer. Gee Vaughn, such a hard decision. Did I just talk to myself? Quit stalling and say yes already. I guess I did.

"Why not?" I said, everyone else seemed excited. At my reply, we all walked into Will's living room. Sydney pulled me aside. She looked confused.

"Vaughn, are you sure you're okay about this?" Syd asked, her eyes beautiful and innocent. I could be lost in them forever.

"Yeah," I replied quietly. "That's only if you're okay with it too." I didn't want her to have any regrets if anything happened.

"No problem here," she said, as the corners of her lips lifted up into a smile.

"No problem here," I said, trying to hide the smile on my face, but I couldn't win. The corners of my lips lifted up into a smile. I couldn't resist. Damn him.

"Syd. Vaughn. Come on," Will yelped, sitting on the floor with everyone else. That's right. Yelped. He seemed uneasy. Weiss had pushed the coffee table against the couch, so that all of us could gather in a circle on the floor. Everyone else was sitting down, but Francie was nowhere in sight.

I walked over to sit between Nadia and Will, when Francie came back into the room with an empty one liter plastic Coke bottle and shook her head.

"This seating arrangement isn't going to work," she said. "Syd, you sit between Will and Eric. Nadia next to Will, and Vaughn next to her. And I'll sit between Vaughn and Eric." I notice that she changed out of her red dress, and into jeans and a tee shirt. That's good that she changed, because when she wore that dress, the song, Lady in Red, was stuck in my head. "Who wants to go first?"

"I will," Nadia volunteered. By the look on her face, I could tell she wasanxious. She's my sister, I know these things. She spun the bottle, and it landed on Will. She quickly gave him a kiss on the cheek.

"Awww, where is the love?" Will said throwing his hands up in the air. Francie shot him a glare. He placed his hand on the bottle, and twisted it with the flick of his wrist. The plastic bottle slowed and finally pointd it's way to Weiss. This should be interesting. "Wait, Fran, is this in the rules?" She nodded her head, and gave him a sympathetic smile. He scooted over to Weiss, and quickly pecked him on the cheek. Weiss had his eyes closed and his mouth puckered, and then realized that nothing wascoming that way. The look on his face was priceless. Will sat back down in his spot.

"Man Will, I thought we were better friends than that," Weiss scolded him. "Alright, bottle spinning time," he said rubbing his hands together. What do you know? It landed on me. "Hey Sydney," he said, turning sideways so that he wasfacing me. He kissed me on the cheek real fast, when he realized that Nadiawas staring him down. Dude, you're going out with my sister. I guess the evil death glare does run in the family. He moved back to his spot, and it wasmy turn the spin the bottle. I spun it hard. As the bottle spun, and spun, I thought of the possibilities. Hopefully it didn't land on Fran or Nadia, I didn't want to end up like Will. I waited for it to stop. And it did, but in empty space. As far as I could remember from the seventh grade, if it pointed toward empty space, then you didn't have to kiss anyone, or go again. Lucky me. "Awww, Syd you got lucky there. Vaughn's turn," Weiss cheered.

Vaughn took his spin, and the bottle, after four circles, finally landed on Francie. He kissed her on the cheek. Wow, kissing on the cheek thingwas sure a trend. When we were sevies (short for seventh graders) we'd just go for the kiss on the lips. That's only because we had the luck of the bottle landing on the person we had the hugest crush on. But it's evident that when we all spin the bottle now, it doesn't land on the person we want. But come on people, this is spin the bottle. You actually have to kiss the person on the lips. That's the point of the game. I mean, anyone could kiss anyone on the cheek, and it wouldn't be weird. Well except for Will and Eric. Kissing someone on the lips, is the excitement in the game. You're supposed to be embarrassed. That's what's fun about the game. Anything could happen, especially when you least expect it. Wow. I just gave a whole speech about spin the bottle. If I used that as a speech topic in English, I wonder what kind of grade I would get. I wonder if I could turn it into some kind of debate topic. Now that'd be interesting. Francie rolled her eyes. It washer turn. She spun the bottle and it stopped in front of Will. Instead of getting up to kiss him, she just blew him a kiss. She was harsh, but we all knew Will get some kind of action when we're done playing. Guaranteed.

"Damnit," Will murmured. Fran just shrugged. Man, he's got it bad. Will spun the bottle for his second time. It stopped spinning in front of Vaughn. Ha! He murmured damnit again under his breath, but stopped. He looked at Francie, and winked at her, then just blew Vaughn a kiss. That's real original Will. Francie just snickered.

"Alright, my turn again," Vaughn laughed, spinning the bottle. I just stared at it as itwent and spun in the same circle over, and over. As it started to slow down, my eyes followed all of the bottle's movement. I ccould see just a little bit of left over Coke in it, swishing back and forth, in time with each spin the bottle took. It reminded me of the ocean, and it's random movements. The bottle halted in front of me. Vaughn had to kiss me. He started to move towards me, when Francie coughed.

"Hey! I almost forgot," she interrupted. Vaughn stopped dead in tracks. We just exchanged confused glances. He was so close to me, I thought he was actually going to kiss me on the lips. I could feel my insides get warmer. I used to always get that feeling before Vaughn kissed me.

"What?" I asked nervously.

"Uh, all dateless players must, on their second spin, if it uh, lands on another dateless player, have to go into, uh a closet. That's right, a closet. For 'Seven Minutes of Heaven'," bullshit. She just made that up on the top of her head. She's been my bestfriend since forever, and I can tell when she lies. She's not good at it. "It's the rules guys, and it's Vaughn's second turn."

"Oh yeah. I read about that somewhere on the internet, uh one time," Weiss said, covering for Fran. "So I guess you have to, it's pretty much the rules. And you guys always follow the rules," he finished, clapping both of his hands together. "I can tell that the website was telling the correct rules, because it was all official and stuff. They had a photo gallery. The pictures were intriguing." Oh, yes. You can totally tell something is official when it has a photo gallery. Nadia giggled quietly. Somethingwas definitely up. My only question was, why would Weiss go online to check rules for spin the bottle? I doubt there are even official rules.

"But that's so seventh grade!" I blurted out. I quickly covered my mouth as soon as I realized how loud I said that. Well it is so seventh grade. And come on, we're all juniors in highschool. We only played this game in middle school, and only because that was when we all hit puberty. None of us has admitted it, and I don't think any of us will. The point is, that it wasa bullshit rule. It was. How could there be that many rules to spin the bottle? Whatever. Was this planned?

"I think the linen closet is the traditional place. My mom restocked it with fresh towels just yesterday," Will said, pointing towards a door. That was the biggest linen closet I'd ever seen. It could fit at least five people in there, not that you would want to. I'm just saying. I remember that closet. When we first played spin the bottle, Vaughn and I had to go in there. We didn't kiss or anything. We just talked. What about, I do not remember. I think we spent a half an hour in there, just talking. Nothing else.

Vaughn hesitated. "Come on Syd," he mumbled. He wasokay with this? Wait, what? He turned and made his way toward the closet, opened it, and closed it behind him.

I started to follow, when I noticed Nadia and Fran high-five each other. Eric and Will just gave me thumbs up with smiles. This was totally planned! I gently shook my head. I knew it. Before I turned the handle of the closet, I swivel my body, so thatI was facing everyone. I scowled at them and mouthed, 'Shit list'. That's right, they all made it on my shit list, along with the French. Damn them. Fran just blew me a kiss as I slipped into the closet, and slowly shut the door behind me.

"Where are you?" I whispered. I couldn't see anything. Oh yeah, that's because I wasin a closet.

"Down here," I heard a reply. I felt my way around, when finally my hand brushed against Vaughn's knee. He was sitting down against the wall of the closet. I fumbled around to feel the ground, so I could sit next to him.

"Hey," I whispered when I finally got myself situated.

"Hey," our voices remained quiet so that everyone else outside can't overhear us talking.

"You weren't going to kiss me out there, were you?"

"Yeah, actually I was planning on it. But if that's okay with you. I mean I don't want you to feel uncomfortable in any way."

"It's fine Vaughn," I said, secretly smiling to myself. He was going to kiss me.

"Do you guys usually play this game?"

"Not since the seventh grade," I tittered.

"Do you think they planned that?"

"Absolutely,"

This time, he laughed. I love his laugh.

"When I came home, I never expected you to have moved on,"

Whoa, I didn't see that one coming. "I'm sorry," I whispered back. "But you're the one who left. You never told me why, until just a couple of days ago."

"I know. I just couldn't bring myself to tell you. I didn't want to see you hurt."

"But I ended up more hurt in the end, because I didn't know what as going on. I didn't know why you were leaving."

"I'm sorry,"

"I didn't even know that you would ever be coming back. I always thought about the possibility, but it didn't seem like reality. Nothing felt real without you." He didn't say anything, so I continued. "Then I met Kevin, and I didn't know what to think. He was there, but you weren't."

"Syd, I'd never blame you for seeking comfort in someone else."

"But Vaughn, it's not like that. I wanted your comfort."

"Then why did you turn to him?"

"I don't know," I didn't know why, actually. I never expected things with Kevin to go that far. There was a long pause.

He sighed, "I'll always be here, and I want you to know that. Regardless of your feelings about us." How was he so cool about this? Was this what he really felt? That's it? That's all he feels about me, after all this time? He didn't even want me back? And I spilt all my feelings to him. Well I didn't tell him that I want him back. But it's probably best that I keep that to myself for the time being.

"Thanks Michael."

"You just called me Michael," he said, changing the awkward topic.

"I did," I said, shivering. It suddenly got really cold in the linen closet. Is that even possible? I mean come on, it's a linen closet. I almost forgot I was wearing just that dressy black tank top. I could feel the goose bumps rise on the surface of my skin.

"Are you cold?" Vaughn whispered. How did he know?

"No," I denied. I was such a liar. But he saw right through me. He had already taken off his jacket, and draped it across my shoulders. Just like in the movies. His presence still lingered in the warmth of his jacket. It felt so good against my chilly body.

"That better?"

"Affirmative," I joked. I tucked my hair behind my ear, my biggest habit.

"Want to know something?"

"Sure."

"There's no one else I'd rather be in here with, except you,"

"Vaughn, can I tell you a secret?"

"Of course."

"You're the only one I want to be here with," was that my outside voice?

I bet that hadcaught him off guard. I could hear him shuffle around on the floor.

"I think it's been more than seven minutes," he stated with a slight laugh.

"Yeah."

"I can just imagine what everyone out there is thinking," he said, standing up, offering his hand out to help me up too. He put his hand on the door knob.

"Vaughn, wait," I said pulling him back. What am I doing?

"What?"

And then I kissed him.

A/N: Like it? Yay or nay? Well I sorted a few things out between Syd and Vaughn. But the rest you will have to wait for. You could call me evil for that. Please review! I will love you guys forever if you do! Remember my reviewing policy, more reviews equals the next chapter. I hope you guys liked it! Please review! Happy Valentine's Day! Go ahead, you know you want to. You know you want to click that little purple box so you can review this chapter. It's calling your name. How could you possibly resist?