An hour later and somehow I found myself next to Wyatt in Britta's kitchen, both of us on 60's restaurant style bar stools and spinning around more than any two respectable high school seniors should. But I was there, and honestly, the somehow in the equation wasn't much of a mystery. The fact that I'd already chugged two Palm Bays out of nervous habit when Reese, being the asshole that he was, had disappeared and the relief when I saw Wyatt stumble in with a bottle of vodka probably had a lot to do with it.

     And now, we were spinning.

     "Do you think I could ride a cow? Would it let me ride it? They're basically like fat, spotted horses right? But way more chill than a bull, so... I should be able to ride a cow..." Wyatt mused with a significant slur rushing his words, propelling himself off the counter to spin his seat faster, his face a thoughtful blur as I quickly passed by him.

     I was more focused on trying to keep all my insides in and not collapsing on the ground in a dizzy mess than to answer his life questions, though. And really, by the third time he'd done this, I'd caught on to his little game. I was not going to get distracted and lose again, mostly because I was already beginning to feel the buzz of intoxication in my bloodstream, and I wasn't sure what two more shots would do to me.

     "Would I have to train it at birth? Would I have to rear this baby cow as my own?" Wyatt continued, and I felt my jaw clench. 

     I was not going to lose, I told myself. I just needed to hold out a bit longer, but then, I felt my stomach lurch. 

     Oh no. Defeat was coming.

      Just as I was about to throw up the white flag (and other things), Wyatt caught the counter and brought himself to a startling halt. I stopped just as fast with a crashing wave of relief, pushing out a steady breath to calm the nausea.  When I was no longer in danger of throwing up my intenstines, I looked over to the boy.

    I was surprised to find that when I studied Wyatt's face- it betrayed nothing.

      Whatever.

    "Ha!" I cheered, throwing my hands up in the air. "I won!"

    Triumph swelled within me- or that could have just been the vodka coming back for round two, but winning was too sweet not to relish in.

     And then Wyatt collapsed on the ground.

     I jumped, a quick gasp winding me as his limp body thudded against the tiled floor. A shocked and confused frown found my face.

      Pausing with my arms still uncomfortably held in the air, I peered down at my drinking partner. Wyatt was still, his body showing no signs of life, and for a moment I wondered if I could legally be charged for murder. Orange was, unfortunately, not my colour. I grimaced. I was much too cool-toned for that.

     "Uh, Wyatt?" I asked, slowly.

     His body twitched, calming my nightmares of plastic shanks and lumpy mattresses, and he rolled over. A couple people were now sniggering and pointing at him, probably keeping a watchful eye on him to pass out first, but Wyatt only grinned.

     As quick as he was down, he jumped on his feet and threw his hands in the air. "Time for shots!"

      I blinked. "You're... you know you don't have to. I mean, really."

     Wyatt shot me an incredulous look. "Those are the rules, Stella. We can't just abandon rules. Then there would be anarchy."

     I paused again but then opted to just shrug innocently in response. I'd come to find that trying to understand Wyatt was a lost cause, and he took this as his opportunity to throw back the two shots one after another. Still, I couldn't keep my eyes from widening as I stared at him in awe, wondering how he managed to still be even kind of alive, let alone shooting back vodka like it was water.

     Wyatt noticed my stare and caught my eye, a grin still plastered across his face, and wiped his mouth the back of his hand.

     "Let's do it again!"

     I reeled back, sucking my teeth. "I don't know Wyatt, I feel like maybe we should take a little break."

      Wyatt's brows knitted as he blinked, confused, as if he didn't know the meaning of my words. "What are you talking about? I can still feel my legs, Stella, what do you think we are? Quitters?"

     I bristled at his words, feeling my competitive spark ignite in my stomach, which I was always told would be the death of me. "Psht, I know not the meaning of the word quit, game fucking on Wyatt. I'll be using your lifeless corpse as a stepping stone to victory!"

      Wyatt grinned, clearly unfazed by my threats. "All right, let's do it!" he cheered, pouring two more generous shots before slamming the bottle down. "One, two, three, go!"

     And then we were spinning again, and I was wondering how I always managed to get myself in these situations. My stomach lurched again, probably out of spite at this point, and I pushed myself faster. For a moment I felt myself losing balance as the world seemed to spin faster than my vision, and I felt my sense of gravity completely drop.

     "Shit!"

      Just as I felt my body tipping off the chair, the air racing out of my lungs to escape impact, a pair of hands pushed me back up again. Blinking, my hands darted to pad down my body, making sure it was all there and generally okay.

     I was still in one piece, at least.

     "That was a close one," I heard a familiar voice chuckle behind me, and I slowly turned to see Tyler smiling down at me.

      I wanted to blame the flush that crept up my neck on the alcohol, or to the almost dying, but when his eyes caught mine I couldn't even find the consonants to lie to myself.

     "Um, uh, thank you," I breathed out, a hand pressed against my chest as I tried to regulate my breathing again, not that Tyler was helping. He brushed off my gratitude with a wave of his hand and a sweet smile.

      "Victory!" Wyatt cried, throwing his arms in the air, still spinning.

In that moment, I was almost positive that Wyatt wasn't human. If there were androids on earth, he was the first person whose door I was going to be knocking on.

     "Drink! Drink! Drink!" the boy chanted, and I rolled my eyes, spinning back around to face the daunting, full to the brim shots. I scrunched my nose as my body remembered the familiar burn and sour taste on my tongue, but under Wyatt's cult-like chanting, felt my will power crumble.

      I didn't know what the meant if I ever actually encountered a cult in my future. But what a better way to drown that thought than in dizzying alcohol?

     "All right, all right," I surrendered, squaring my shoulders while eyeing the shots warily. With a deep breath, I felt the cool glass between my fingertips and threw one back, shivers igniting down my spine as Wyatt cheered.

     Wiping my mouth with the back of my hand, my lips pursed bitterly, and I inhaled deep. Wyatt watched me with expecting eyes, and sighing knowingly, I poured the last shot down my throat. As soon as I was done, I coughed and slammed the empty glass down.

     "Woah, you guys don't play around," Tyler said with a chuckle, scratching the back of his head as I turned to him with a frown.

"I don't know if I feel good," I mumbled, slapping a clammy hand across my forehead and groaning. When I peeked an eye open to see Wyatt next to me, wearing a giddy grin and swaying pleasantly to the thump of techno beats that permeated the air, well, I had to accept the truth. As much as I liked Wyatt, he was clearly a demon minion to Satan himself, or as he liked to be called as of late, Reese. And I had fallen victim to their game.

     "Hey, come outside, usually fresh air helps out a bit," Tyler suggested, an easy smile quirking his lips upward. I found no reason to argue as I stepped off the chair, the ground feeling almost foreign to me, and followed him out the door.

      I knew that Wyatt obviously had no idea what the entire workings of The Plan were, but the grin I left him with was surprisingly cheeky.

     When I stepped outside, soft kisses from the nightly breeze were there to greet me through the door, goosebumps prickling my arms. The beginnings of autumn were finally rolling in and with the night already hugging the horizon, the drop in temperature caused me to shiver.

     "Sorry, I feel like the cold usually sobers you up a bit," Tyler explained, stealing a spot on the little wooden bench that sat on Britta's porch. 

     "It's helping," I reassured him with a smile, stealing the spot next to him and hyperaware of the fact that no one else was outside. Cheers and screams could be heard from the backyard where music and speakers had been placed, but in the front where Tyler had led me, there wasn't another whisper of human presence.

     "Good, it's impossible to keep up with Wyatt, you really shouldn't try," he advised with a chuckle, his light eyes sparkling. A cute flush of red splayed across the constellation of freckles on his cheeks, and I sighed. I didn't know if it was the warmth of alcohol or the smile that made me feel all fuzzy inside, but it felt nice.

     I laughed, a smirk twitching on my face. "You should've been here twenty minutes ago when I wasn't ditched, alone, and searching desperately for some company," I complained, scrunching my nose at the thought.  "That advice would've been helpful then."

      A part of me knew I shouldn't have been surprised, it was Reese after all, but still. I was a little offended he'd broken from me not even ten minutes since we'd gotten there.

     Tyler raised his eyebrows, "Reese left you? I'm surprised-"

      "Are you, are you though?" I cut him off with a skeptical narrow of my eyes. "You're really surprised the dumbass ditched me?"

     Tyler snorted, a grin digging into his cheek. "Yeah, actually. I feel like you guys always end up next to each other. Fighting a lot, but still next to each other."

     I frowned, eyebrows furrowing in protest at what little truth hid between his words. "Please, don't remind me," I sighed, eyes falling into the infinity of the dark sky.

      I relished in the cool caress of the night air, enjoying the comfort that came with the distant chirp of crickets. It really was helping with the dizziness.

     It was weird though, I had the faint anticipation that Reese was going to pop up at any moment, and it felt strange that he hadn't yet. Although, really, it was even weirder that I was thinking about Reese at all when I was outside, talking to Tyler, alone. I creased my forehead and forced all those thoughts out of my mind.

     "Aw, come on, it's not all bad. I mean, I got to talk to you more, and Reese isn't really a bad guy," Tyler reasoned with me, and there was an earnest look in his eyes that told me he truly believed it. Poor soul.

     "That's true, the talking part. The Reese part is debatable." A smile touched my face

     "Of course." He returned the grin. "Either way, you guys always seem to look like you're having fun."

     I sighed, a sense of fatigue falling over my eyes, as I was about to argue. Maybe say something cute, mention how I wanted to have fun with him, finally take the opportunity that Reese had been so adamant I create for myself. And with the pale moonlight illuminating his face, the boldness of vodka streaming through my veins and my flushed cheeks, this was my moment.

     "Tyler, I-"

     "Stella?"

     The words paused and collected on the tip of my tongue as I turned my head, a sense of shock meeting me as I saw who was standing there.

     No, not now, go away! This is my time to finally get some!

      I coughed. "Uh... Melissa?"

***

Hey! I know what you might be thinking!
Um, didn't you say this was a super long chapter?

THAT IS TRUE. I did say that, because initially, this chapter was 4000+ words and then I was like well, okay, maybe I'll make this easier on everyone and make this two chapters.

What does this mean?

THE NEXT CHAPTER WILL BE COMING VERY SOON (sometime this week) since it's already written booyeah!!!

And of course thanks for everyone for being the best readers! Woot woot on 6K!