"Hey, I've got a game to play," one girl around us says before I can say anything to Tay. She walks up to Parker and wraps an arm around him. "Got an empty bottle? I wanna play Truth or Dare."

"What are we, twelve?" Tay rolls his eyes. "Darcie, why do you want to bring that game back so bad?"

I balk at his sudden change in tone, staring wide-eyed at him as he scowls at nothing in particular.

Darcie shrugs, picking at her nails. "It's fun and I'm bored." She doesn't strike me as the type to get bored easily, but the look in her eyes concerns me. Truth or Dare is fun and all, but mix in a group of drunk teenagers, and things can escalate quickly.

"I'm down." I step forward reluctantly. As afraid as I was of how this will turn out, I'm interested. This is my first party. Might as well go all-in.

"Thank you, Emori." Darcie sticks her tongue out at Tay, even though he can't see her.

The other guys agree. "So, it's settled, then. Now we just need a bottle," Darcy says.

"Here." Tay hands her his bottle. "I'm finished with it, anyway."

I watch him out of the corner of my eye. I've only seen him take one drink of the beer, and that was when we first got here. There's no way he could have finished it. The way his lips turn down slightly at the corners gives away his anger, too, and I frown.

While Darcie gathers a few more people to play, I turn to Tay. "Hey, we don't have to stay here if you don't want to. Let's get away." As much as I want to experience a real party, I can't forgive myself if I ignore Tay like that.

"No, I'm fine. Let's stay for now."

"Emori, come here." Travis goes to sit in a circle with everyone, dragging me with him. Once Darcie gets a few more people to play, she goes first. The bottle lands on a blonde girl I don't know.

"Truth or Dare, Trina?" Darcie sends the other girl a sinister smile. I shrink a little in my seat.

From the look on Trina's face, I'm not the only one that's put off by Darcie's stare. "Dare."

"I dare you to..." Darcie brings a hand to her face and taps her index finger on her cheek. "Kiss Bain."

Trina's face turns bright red. Bain, however, stands up and strides over to her. Right as he's about to lean down and plant a quick kiss on her lips, Darcie holds up a hand. "Wait."

Bain stops and stares at Darcie, waiting to hear what she has to say. And, by the silence hanging in the air of our large circle, so is everyone else. A small smirk plays at the corner of Bain's lips.

She points a long finger at a distant patch of bushes. "Over there, actually. Y'all get five minutes."

Bain raises an eyebrow at her before chuckling and straightening back up. "Whatever you say, Darcie." He holds out a hand to Trina, who takes it with a hesitant smile. She follows him to the bushes and Darcie starts a timer.

This is already hitting borderline-preteen Truth or Dare, and I start to regret agreeing to this. I glance over at Tay to gauge his reaction, but he's still sitting on the tailgate of the truck, listening to the game.

Darcie twiddles her fingers in excitement as she watches the timer in her phone tick the time down. When it goes off, her eyes land on me. "Would you care to go get them?"

I care. A lot. If they're doing something... a little more than kissing, I don't want to be the person who stumbles upon them like that. But, instead of telling Darcie this, I nod. "I've got it."

When I reach the bushes, I push a branch away from my face, and though it's still more than I want to see, Bain and Trina are only kissing. Bain notices my appearance now and sends me a sideways glance as if daring me to interrupt him. The intensity of how he looks at me makes my stomach roil.

I take a quick breath in and turn my gaze away from Bain. "Time's up," I say, startling Trina. She jumps away from Bain and adjusts the strap of her sage tank top, which fell down and exposed part of her black laced bra.

I shudder as I return to the group of people. Bain sits down across from me, and from this angle, I can get a much better view of him. His hair is a little messy now, and the top of his shirt is wrinkled. Still, the only word to describe him is breathtaking. I can see why so many girls would go there. But there's also a dangerous element to his looks. Something that tells you that starting something with him will only end in heartbreak.

Darcie calls for the game to start up again, and I take a deep drink of my beer, watching Bain out of the corner of my eye. He seems completely unbothered and unembarrassed by what just happened. In fact, he doesn't seem to care at all.

The next few rounds are completely uneventful, but when the bottle lands on Travis and it's time for him to spin, the bottle turns quite a few times before landing on me. He turns to me, a cheeky smile on his face. "Truth or Dare?"

"Dare." A chorus of oohs erupts, and Travis silences them with a raise of his hand. He smiles mischievously, and I can tell he doesn't need to think about his next dare.

"I dare you to take a shot of some genuine Tennessee Whiskey."

Oh. Well, that's not so bad. I nod and watch him as he walks over to the drink cooler and grabs a bottle of brown liquid. He hands it to me, and I stare at it. It's almost empty and only has a large gulp or so left. I don't want to think about whether someone else's mouth touched it or not.

I pull the lid off and inhale the scent of the liquor. It's pungent as it assaults my nose, and I'm sure it tastes just as bad.

"Be careful, Emori. Whiskey is naturally strong, and -" I cut Travis off by tossing my head back and drinking as much of it as I can.

Involuntarily, my eyes squeeze shut at the horrible taste and I pull the bottle away from my lips. My throat burns. As soon as the golden liquid hits my stomach, it convulses, and I feel sick. The taste lingers in my mouth, making it increasingly more difficult not to vomit in front of everyone. How can anyone find this enjoyable?

It's the worst thing I've ever tasted, but my boldness earns me a few cheers. I wonder if Tay knows what's going on, so I look over to find his spot to find it empty. I glance up at the hill that leads to where my car is parked and saw him stomping his way up there. He's stumbling, so instead of continuing the game, I get up and go after him.

"Hey," I say when I catch up, grabbing his arm. "Let me help you."

He shrugs my hand away. "I don't need help." He sounds angry, and I back up a little. His voice is heavy with alcohol. I can't remember how many drinks he had, but it's probably a lot. He wasted his first bottle, but he was holding something stronger earlier. "I can do this myself."

"I have no doubt about that, but right now, you're drunk. Probably even wasted. You need help."

"No, I don't, Emori!" he shouts, drawing the attention of partygoers still at the bottom of the hill. "I don't need anyone's help. I'm alone now, so I gotta get used to it." He paused, his shoulders falling. "I'm so tired of the pitiful apologies. Very few people treat me the same as before. I hate it."

"But I still treat you like always. And I know what it's like to not fit in." I stare down at my hands. He's drunk, and maybe I should have left him alone, but I can't. All I want is to show him that things are still the same, even though everything doesn't feel like it. If that's even possible to show that while he's also emotionally blinded.

"Then tell me something, Emori." He turns to face me. Unshed tears in his eyes glimmer against the lights in the field below. Eyes that once twinkled with so much excitement are now impossibly depressed. All chatter is no longer existent, and I hate that people can't pass up the chance for gossip. "Have you ever been able to feel the sun on your skin but unable to see it? Have you ever been haunted by the memory of something you could have prevented but didn't? No? Then you have no fucking clue what it's like. And in your perfect world, where the only thing you have to worry about is whether you fit in or not, you don't think about the possibility of someone else being in pain."

For a moment, I stare at him. My whole high school career, I thought Tay was the nicest person you could ever meet. He was so impossibly, genuinely kind. But right now, I don't see that Tay. He's gone, and in his place stands a perfect stranger. I thought he was still the same, but I was wrong. This Tay is bitter and the pain in his eyes is as clear as day.

"Nope." I grab my keys and phone out of my pocket. I call Asa, hoping his number is the same as last year's.

"What?" Tay blinks.

"I said no," I repeat, listening to the phone ring. "You're not pushing me away. Let's go. We're getting out of here." When Asa picks up, I tell him to meet me at his car. "You're driving us to the nearest Wafflehouse. Please."

"Wafflehouse?" Tay asks when I hang up on Asa. The corner of his mouth lifts, and I'm sure he knows where I'm going with this.

"Wafflehouse."

When Asa gets to his car, he furrows his eyebrows at us but doesn't comment. When we get to the Wafflehouse, Tay gets out, but Asa stops me.

"Why a Wafflehouse?" he asks.

"It's a thing we promised when we were little," I explain, smiling a little to myself. "We promised ourselves that if we were ever mad at each other, if we ever got in a fight, we'd go to a Wafflehouse."

"Still, why a Wafflehouse?"

I laugh. "Our dads were best friends. They used to tell us about business trips they went on where they'd come home at three in the morning and stop at the first Wafflehouse they saw." I frown. "When my dad died, we didn't talk much about it anymore."

Asa gives me a small smile. "Well, at least you kept your promise."

"Yeah." I take a deep breath through my nose. "I'd better get inside. I doubt Tay has any money with him."