Total pages in book: 132
Estimated words: 125213 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 626(@200wpm)___ 501(@250wpm)___ 417(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 125213 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 626(@200wpm)___ 501(@250wpm)___ 417(@300wpm)
“Welcome to the world of getting things yourself.”
“No one recognizes me.”
“Told you.”
I smiled even though he couldn’t see it, finagling the straw of my cocktail into the mouth of my mask and taking a long pull.
I immediately grimaced, chills breaking out over my arms. “Ugh! This is disgusting!”
Aleks barked a laugh as he lifted the bottom of his mask to take a sip of his whiskey. “If you were wondering what you missed out on at college parties — here’s your taste of it.”
I was still grimacing even as I took another long pull. With a shiver, I shook my head and then held up the two shots of tequila. “I got these for us.”
“Wow. We really are going for the college experience.”
“I’ve never done shots at a bar before.”
“What?” He laughed. “How the hell is that possible?”
I shrugged. “I was focused on music when everyone else was focused on partying. And then I was going to parties where shots weren’t exactly a thing. It was more like… champagne fountains and expensive bottles of wine.”
“What kind of tequila is it?”
“I don’t know. I just said tequila.”
“Jesus,” he said, shaking his head as he picked up one of the shot glasses. He held it up to me as he lifted his mask and prepared to drink it. “Here’s to not puking on the spot.”
He didn’t give me time to voice my concern over that toast before he clinked his glass against mine and threw the shot back, giving me no choice but to follow suit.
I coughed as soon as I did, nearly gagging as the alcohol burned its way down my esophagus.
“Oh my God,” I hissed, chasing it with my cocktail — which was only marginally better. “That was awful. Why does anyone do that?”
“To get drunk as quickly as possible.”
“It was terrible,” I said.
But once the burn settled, I felt a swimmy smile on my face, the urge to dance taking over.
So, I grabbed Aleks and hauled him to the bar to do another.
• • •
“Catfish! Catfish! Catfish! Catfish!”
The chants rang out all through the bar as Aleks rubbed my shoulders, both of us eyeing our opponents across the green turf.
“This is it, Strings. One chance. One shot to win the game.”
“Okay, Eminem. Relax.”
“Do you hear that? The crowd going wild? That’s for you. Sink this, and they’ll go ballistic. Sink this — and we win.”
A laugh barreled through me. But then I nodded, over and over, rubbing my hands together and bouncing a little on my toes. I’d never been competitive in anything athletic — not a single day in my life.
But apparently, get me drunk, put me in a cat mask, and pair me up with a pro hockey player in a game of lawn pong, and I become a different person.
We had one trash can left to eliminate, and when I picked up the dodgeball, it felt weighted with expectation in my hands. Aleks had just barely missed it on his turn — the ball swirling around the rim before popping out, much to the dismay of our growing admirers and the relief of the two muscle heads we were playing against.
Those beefy guys taunted me now as I stepped up and braced myself to throw, but I tuned them out, focusing instead on the humming buzz flowing through me.
It was the same adrenaline I got before I ran out on stage to start a concert, that anticipation that something great was about to happen and I would be a part of it.
I let it fill me up, let myself sink into it like a warm, hidden oasis.
I took a breath. I let it out. I wound up with the ball in my hand… and I let it fly.
The chants went silent as soon as the ball was launched, and it seemed that ball flew in slow motion across the turf. Even the people playing games next to us had stopped to watch, to see if this was it, if we would take home the gold.
The red ball soared in a perfect arc, and when it hit the rim of the trash can, there was a collective oh that rang out from the crowd. I bounced up on my toes, clapping my hands together and screaming, “GET IN THERE!”
It bounced, teasing all of us.
And then it fell right into the trash can.
Everything happened at once: the crowd screaming, beer flying around us, someone running through the middle of the little yard pong court and tearing their shirt off.
And me jumping into Aleks’s arms.
He spun me as soon as I landed, my legs wrapped around his strong center and him holding me effortlessly with one hand as he thrust the other into the air in victory.
Just when I realized that the one hand he had holding me steady was firmly on my ass, just when I started to react to the way a very sensitive part of me was flush against his heat — we were being surrounded.