I love this chapter. It's really long, 1.7k words, so enjoy it!💕

My mom has always tried to keep me away from alcohol. She and dad will have a glass of wine or two every once in a while, but it's usually during dinner parties or while I'm in my room. She doesn't keep the stuff in the house, and I never understand why until now.

That being said, when I walked into the Emma Johanson's house for a party that I snuck out for the day before I was done being grounded -and walked to, so I didn't break too many rules- I was immediately handed a red plastic cup filled with a putrid smelling brown liquid, and I was ecstatic. Faith slowly sipped hers, which surprised me, and she didn't even tell me to put mine down. I took advantage of it while I could. Bracing myself, I took a big long sip. And then gagged. It was awful, tasting of grass and something else that I can't describe, but for some reason I took another sip. And another, and another until the cup was empty. And then I wanted more.

Faith has drank about half of hers, from what I could tell, wasn't planning on drinking anymore. She looked pale, and I could tell she didn't like the way it made her feel. She'd be fine, though, I decided, and we could leave if she said something. But she didn't, so I went to grab another drink.

"Spin the bottle time, guys!" We heard Emma scream from the living room. The furniture was pushed out of the way so people could sit in a circle. I grabbed Faith's wrist and ran over there excitedly. She sighed, but went with me.

"I'm not kissing anyone," she whispered to me as we sat down.

"That's part of the game, Faith," I told her, irritated with her, but still laughing at the thought that I would let her watch.

"Fine." She said. She obviously didn't want to fight. I looked around the room, trying to figure out who I'd want to kiss, and I only saw one person of interest. Elliot C., that beautiful chocolate eyed boy that gave me his number. Faith flashed me a smile as I nudged her to look in his direction.

"God, he is cute!" She said. I nodded, head over heels, and before I could say anything, Emma yelled "Me first!" and crawled to the middle of our big circle. There were about 20 people, and tons of others spread out around us, not playing, but still watching as they socialized.

Emma spun it towards some guy, handsome and tall, and they walked off, hand in hand into the closet. We could hear them laughing and purring drunkenly, and it was kind of creepy. In the meantime, we decided to keep going, and just not do 7 minutes in Heaven. We went in a circle, passing the bottle along, until it got to Faith. Almost everyone but four or five people had gotten picked so far, some luckier ones even twice or three times for their quick peck.

"Do I have to?" She asked, quietly. Nervously, really. She'd been asked out on countless numbers of them, but had never gone on a date, let alone kissed anyone before, thanks to an overprotective father and uncaring step-mother.

"You can do it," I said, squeezing her hand. She nodded, spinning the bottle. It spun around around, back and forth. I stared at it until I got dizzy, and watched Faith as her cheeks got red. She looked up, making eye contact with someone. Elliot. It would have looked bad if I had argued, especially since the bottle had landed on neither of them yet, and I didn't want to hurt my cousin's feelings, so I didn't. She gave me an apologetic look, and I nodded. Both of them crawled to the middle of the circle slowly. Their lips pressed together long enough for less than a moment to pass, and in a second they were back in their seats. I took a long sip of my drink.

It was now my turn, and my heart beat heavily in my chest. I was narrowly holding back tears, and I wasn't sure why. I wasn't mad at Faith for kissing him. It wasn't her fault, but I wasn't ready to kiss someone.

"Their seven minutes is up!" Someone yelled, getting up from the floor. They knocked on the closet door, but there was no answer. I watched, this was my chance to pass the bottle to someone else without anyone noticing. But of course, Faith did. She grabbed it and put it in front of me, as we both listened to the pounding on the closet door.

"Nice try, Hope, but since you made me do it, now you gotta too," she protested. I glared at her, and she hugged me.

"I'm sorry," she said, probably because of what her spin brought. I nodded, finally able to breathe normally again. I took a sip of the alcohol, and wondered why I craved something that tasted so bad.

"Do you hate me?" She asked. I thought about it for a second, then realized we had more important things to discuss.

"Is he a good kisser?" I responded. She laughed, but I have her a serious look. She shrugged. People whooped in the background, and although I didn't look, I knew it wasn't about my question.

"I mean... I have nothing to compare it to or anything, and it was so fast, but I guess so." I opened my mouth to speak, but people were chanting my name now. I looked up, and the closet door was now open.

"Guess I gotta do this," I whispered to Faith, taking the bottle in my hand. In the other, I took a sip of my drink.
Quickly, I spun it. Again, I stared as it went, and looked up at the person it was pointing to. And then laughed. Surprised, happy, and seriously confused, I couldn't believe it. It couldn't be right. I looked around the circle for confirmation, and they all nodded, so he and I got up.

"Seven minutes, Hope," Faith teased from behind me. I winked, a smile appearing on my face as I followed Elliot that I wouldn't be able to take off for a while. Walking into the coat closet, I closed the door. It was crowded, but we made it work.

"Hi," I said, quietly. Awkwardly. He smiled.

"Hey, Hope."

"So..." I said, nervously. "I think... I think we're supposed to kiss now." He laughed.

"I think so." He walked a bit closer to me, and I leaned against the door. He cupped my cheeks in his hands, and my skin felt like it was on fire in the best way possible. I closed my eyes as our lips touched. It lasted longer than Faith's, thank god, and I think I enjoyed it much more than any other kiss I'd ever had.

"Wow," I said, mesmerized as he took his hands off of my cheeks and backed up. He smiled at me. God, I loved that smile.

"So Hope," he said, giving it a minute before talking.

"Elliot?" I responded.

"Eli," he corrected. I blushed.

"Sorry." He grinned at me.

"It's cool. But, remember when I gave you my number last week?" He asked. I nodded, but didn't say anything. I hadn't done anything with it, it was still on my nightstand.

"You never called," he said. I nodded again.

"Sorry about that. I wanted to... But I got grounded," I admitted. He laughed softly, and I wished he would keep doing it. I wished he would keep laughing forever and ever, because the noise he made was so calm and soft and happy, I'd never heard prettier music.

"You don't have to apologize... when are you going to be ungrounded?" He asked. I smiled, hoping this would be going where I wanted it to.

"Tomorrow. Saturday," I said. He nodded.

"Well, if you're interested, can I take you out to dinner tomorrow night? I can pick you up at like 6 or 7 and we can go to dinner and then a drive in. Do you have a curfew?" He asked. I wanted to say no, I don't have a curfew, and all of that sounds perfect and I'm yours tomorrow, but I couldn't. I'd get in even more trouble. I sighed.

"I... I'm ungrounded tomorrow, but I can't get in a car with anyone for a while," I explained. He raised an eyebrow, just one, something I've always wondered how people do. He was probably wondering if that was something my parents decided, or I did, and probably if I was making that up or not, but I didn't offer the information.

"We could meet somewhere that I could walk to," I suggested, not wanting him to think that I didn't want to go out with him.

"There's another drive in, on the corner of Pickett and Sutton, I think it is, that might be a little closer if you want to go there, and we can go out to dinner somewhere after, if you want," he said. I nodded.

"I'd like that," I said. "Six o'clock?" I asked. He nodded, just as we heard the people outside the door yelling "THIRTY SECONDS!" I rolled my eyes, and then looked up at Eli again. Gosh, I loved his eyes. He inched closer to me, putting a finger below my chin and bringing it up to him for one last kiss before we left. It seemed to last forever before that knock on the door, where we opened it proudly and walked together. People whooped and hollered.

"Hey Hope?" He asked quietly over the cheers. I looked over at him.

"I really like you, but I don't like a girl that drinks." With that, he left me to find my seat, and I handed my beer to Faith.

A/N: DUN DUN DUN. So, Hope's not a very good bad girl, is she? 😂 I don't care, she's such a little cutie it shouldn't matter.

So there's a little bit of Eli... What do you think of him? I want him to be real so I can marry him.

ALSO, PREDICTIONS ON FAITH'S "UNCARING" STEP MOTHER THAT WE SHOULD BE MEETING IN THE NEXT CHAPTER? LET ME KNOW. -Katy