Dedicated to OzBritxx for the lovely banner on the side of the chapter.

As promised, a new chapter. Warning: this one's about to get crazy.

Oh, by the way -- I left Freya out of this chapter entirely. I'm going to cut her out of the rest of the story in editing, but it makes my life a lot easier if I didn't include her in this in the first place. That's why she's missing.

--------------------------------------------

            There was a reason I didn’t drink.

            Maybe it was because the burning taste of alcohol always made me mildly nauseous. Maybe it was the loss of dignity associated with staggering around, drunk out of your head. Maybe it was that I didn’t like the thought of lending part of my conscious brain to the drink, succumbing to only partial control of my actions.

            There was definitely a reason. But on that particular night, I couldn’t remember what it was no matter how hard I tried.

            I hadn’t intended to go overboard. When the first can of beer had been passed over, I’d already consciously decided to limit myself to just a couple. But somewhere over the course of the evening, Jay had presented the bottles of vodka he’d stashed away in the cooler, and my previous resolve had been washed down with the shots.

            It was a bad choice, but I wasn’t thinking about that. All I was aware of was that each dose of alcohol made the situation with Daniel just that little bit easier to bear, and for that reason, I found myself continuing.

            However, drinking only formed part of the mistake. Getting involved with the game of Truth or Dare Jay was adamant we had to play made up the rest of it.

            “Collette!” he declared, as the empty vodka bottle came to a halt with its lid facing the brunette. Sitting with her legs pulled beneath her, she held a plastic cup in one hand. The other five of us made up the rest of the circle, the bonfire still blazing healthily somewhere behind us. “Pick your victim.”

            Now, we were getting into the swing of the game; the questions had begun to progress from the tame – “What’s the most embarrassing thing you’ve ever done?” – toward more explicit varieties. I watched as Collette’s dainty fingers flicked the bottle into its second spin, it later coming to a stop in front of the game’s most eager participant.

            “Oh, look at that,” she drawled, shooting a smirk in Jay’s direction. “Come on then, big boy: truth or dare?”

            “Truth.”

            She groaned. “Come on, man up. I thought you were a shoe-in for a dare.”

            “All in good time,” he shot back, confidence reaching new heights with its alcohol fuel. “This is just a warm-up.”

            “Okay, okay. Fine.” I looked on as she paused, evidently wishing to take time over concocting a suitable question. It was a difficult decision; it had to be something that’d induce just the right amount of embarrassment and squirming. “Tell us, then, Jay. If you’re such a big ladies’ man, how many girls have you slept with?”

            This, for some reason, shut him up. Unnerved by the bluntness of Collette’s question, he seemed to be struggling to settle upon any response from his usual stockpile of witty comebacks. Instead, his mouth began opening and closing in what could only be described as pure goldfish fashion. “Well, I mean… there was just… you know—”

            “Come on,” Collette taunted, “you’re not feeling shy, are you?”

            “Yeah, come on,” Daniel coaxed. Though still under the influence of a couple of beers, Daniel had to be the most sober of all of us. The small dose of alcohol had alleviated a fraction of his depressive mood, acting as a solvent for not only that, but also the underlying tension between us. “We all want to know.”

            “I—”

            “Unless…” Collette said, smirking. “Unless you’re a… virgin?”

            The rest of us were attempting – rather unsuccessfully – to hold back our laughter; his bumbling reaction had already made the answer pretty clear.

            “Fine, I am!” he burst out eventually. “I’m a virgin! I’ve never had sex with a girl! There! Are you happy?”

            The few seconds that ensued were weighted by silence, but also short-lived; moments later we all simultaneously burst into laughter. Maybe it was the alcohol talking, but my bubbling giggles refused to subside, leaving me in hysterics alongside the rest of them.

            “You can all stop laughing right now! It doesn’t mean I’m not a ladies’ man!” he protested vehemently. “Just because a girl hasn’t wanted to sleep with me yet doesn’t mean I’m not a player!”

            “The biggest flirt in Walden is a virgin,” Collette repeated, the words forced out between bouts of fresh laughter. “That’s gold.”

            “Come on, guys. It’s not that funny.”

            “No, it’s not.” Erin’s composed, level tone attracted collective attention for a heartbeat; she found herself on the receiving end of five questioning looks. Then, straight afterward, she came to her senses, bursting into her original  uproarious laughter once more. “It’s hilarious!”

            Had any one of us been sober, we probably wouldn’t have found ourselves laughing so uncontrollably. But unfortunately for Jay, this was far from the case.

            “Alright, alright,” he muttered, ducking his head in an attempt to keep his darkening cheeks from view. “Moving on.”

            His hand moved to spin the bottle again, the rest of us calming down enough to turn our attention to its haphazard rotation across the uneven shingle. This time, it rolled to a stop in front of the gangly figure sandwiched between Collette and Jay.

            Scott let out a triumphant victory cry before leaning in to select his prey with a second spin of the bottle.

            Collette.

            I half-expected him to get flustered, seeing as this was usually achievable for him with a mere look in her direction, but the alcohol seemed to have significantly diluted his crush-related nerves. I guessed it had that effect. “Truth or dare?” he asked.

            She considered it for a moment, before bringing her cup to her lips and taking another swig. “Oh, fuck it. Dare.”

            At this point, I watched Jay nudge his friend, leaning over to whisper something in his ear with an unnervingly knowing smirk. When he drew back, Scott paused for a moment before laughing out loud. “Yeah, okay, I’ve got one,” he announced.

            “Oh, God,” Collette murmured. “I’m not sure I even want to hear this one, judging by the look on Jay’s face.”

            “I dare you to kiss Flo.”

            “Wait, what?” Predictably, my surprise was poorly contained. Incredulity had my eyes darting rapidly back and forth, pausing not long enough to focus on either one of them.

            “Oh, right – nothing like a bit of girl-on-girl action for your amusement, eh, Jay?” she joked, the sarcasm dripping from her tone. Receiving only a self-satisfied smirk from him in return, smugness oozing from his very demeanour, her attention swivelled towards me. “Come on, then, Flo, let’s give him a good show.”

            “Why do I have to be dragged into this?” I complained. “The bottle didn’t even land on me.”

            Scott shrugged offhandedly. “No rules against it.”

            Despite my objections, the alcohol coursing through my bloodstream was making the prospect slightly less ridiculous than it was likely to have felt in sobriety. It was only a stupid game of Truth or Dare. It wasn’t like any of this was serious, anyway. What was the worst that could happen? The likelihood was that everyone around us would be embarrassing themselves one way or another this evening.

            “Screw it,” I said, though I wasn’t entirely sure the voice belonged to myself. “I’m not a chicken.”

            It was funny; I’d always thought I was. The alcohol seemed to disagree.

            I found myself angling towards Collette anyway, the action coordinated by a less conscious part of my brain. Looking over her smirking expression, at the features I’d come to recognise easily over my summer in Walden, I could only think of how weird this was going to be. The only person I’d ever kissed was Daniel, and there were no prizes for guessing this was about to be totally different.

            Even from this distance, I could smell Collette’s overpoweringly sweet fragrance, and it occurred to me that I’d never thought I’d be kissing someone wearing just as much perfume as me.

            Daniel’s raised-eyebrow expression was the last thing I noticed before we started leaning in.

            It couldn’t have lasted more than two seconds, but that was more than enough time for me to establish it was one of the weirdest things I’d ever experienced. It was much too crazy to feel anything but incredibly awkward.

            And altogether there was a bit too much lip gloss.

            At any rate, the short-lived spectacle was enough to satisfy Jay and the others, whose hoots of laughter started up the moment we broke apart. “Is it hot in here or what?” he yelled.

            “Did that satisfy your little fantasy?” Collette asked sweetly. “Don’t go having too many wet dreams about it.”

            “Can’t make any promises, I’m afraid.”

            “Oh, and before you ask: no, there were no sparks, and no, Flo and I will not be entering a lesbian relationship any time soon. Right, Flo?”

            “Yeah,” I chipped in, “sorry to disappoint.”

            “You know, I’m just glad I didn’t roped into that one,” Erin commented. “I mean, you’re nice and everything, Col, but I don’t want to snog you.”

            “Don’t speak too soon, Erin,” Jay told her. His warning was punctuated by a mischievous wink, at which she rolled her eyes. “The game’s just getting started.”

            His words were true, but I’d almost allowed myself to get a little too settled into the situation. Listening to the crazy anecdotes and watching the outlandish antics unfold was nothing short of hilarious from the sidelines, especially with the buzz of alcohol in my system. Nevertheless, I still experienced a beat of shock once the bottle was spun again, coming to an unanticipated half with its open top pointing directly at me.

            But even so, holding the responsibility for dishing out the next dare was a largely better position than the receiving end.

            I forced a smile as I took the bottle in my hand for another spin, but as it circled wildly amongst the group, all I could think with every pound of my heart was not Daniel, not Daniel, not Daniel. I might’ve been drunk to the delicate point bordering on the edge of sense, but I’d been left with enough to know that having him on the other end of the next round was not a desirable scenario.

            Thankfully, the laws of physics seemed to have been compassionate towards my silent prayer, selecting my victim as Jay instead.

            “This is rigged!” he exclaimed, frowning.

            “It’s your bottle,” I pointed out with a shrug. “We’re just going by what it says. Truth or dare?”

            “You know what? I think I’m warmed up enough.” His statement sent a mild ripple of suppressed giggles pooling out across the circle. “Dare.”

            This moment here was my chance. I knew that after what had happened earlier, Jay would be willing to redeem himself from previous embarrassment with any crazy dare I put forth. Whatever I chose, it had to be something good. I wasn’t about to let an opportunity such as this one slip through my fingers.

            I took another sip from my cup for inspiration, wincing as the sting of the drink burned its way down my throat. I was beginning to gain accustom to the sensation by now, but the acrid bitterness preceded its numbing mental effects. Tonight I was already past sensible; there was no going back.

            Glancing around the circle, I came face-to-face with five expectant expressions, all eagerly waiting to hear what I would come up with.

            And when my eyes locked onto the violet vibrance of one person in particular, I realised exactly what power lay in my hands.

            “Okay, Jay. I dare you to kiss the prettiest girl here.”

            His surprise was evident in the way his head snapped towards me; clearly, this hadn’t been what he was expecting. I could almost see the feigned confusion about to tumble from his lips; I cut him off before he got the chance.

            “You heard me,” I said, smirking. “Go on, Jay, take your pick.”

            “I…” He caught sight of my raised eyebrows, which seemed to shut him up. “Okay. Fine. I’ll do it.”

            But he didn’t make any attempt to move. It was difficult to keep the amusement from leaking into my tone. “Go on, then.”

            He paused a moment longer than necessary, rising to his feet with exaggerated – yet seemingly false – confidence. It took no more than a few steps to approach where the three of us sat, forming a huddled line along one of the logs. To an outsider, it might’ve looked like Jay was mulling carefully over his decision, but even with my increasingly fuzzy head, I knew there was no doubt about who he’d choose.

            “What are you doing, dumb arse?” Erin said. “Collette’s sitting over there.”

            Jay looked confused. “What?”

            “Were you not listening? Flo dared you to kiss the prettiest girl here… and Collette’s over there.”

            “I know,” he said. “I wasn’t aiming for Collette. I might be drunk, but I’m not that drunk.”

            “Are you sure?”

            But their conversation had been deemed over at this point; Jay’s answer was instead conveyed by his subsequent action. Leaning forward, and allowing Erin only the tiniest slither of time to comprehend what was going on, he pressed his lips against hers.

            It looked like he’d intended to go in for a simple peck, but somewhere in the midst of those few seconds, the plan seemed to change. At first, Erin was frozen with surprise, her cold rigidity evident even to us. But then something kicked in, the release of a shot of adrenalin from somewhere inside her brain, and she leaned inward, lending herself into the kiss.

            When she reached up to cup his cheeks with her hands, holding him in his exact position, the swelling astonishment throughout the rest of us became almost tangible.

            I felt like an intruder on the moment when they finally broke apart, their lips leaving each other with reluctant speed. Staring back at each other, eyes widened with surprise, Erin suddenly realised her position, letting her arms drop back to her sides with a sense of startling urgency. Jay cleared his throat, moving to retreat back to his seat with a slightly dazed grin. His typical self-assurance had almost completely evaporated; he, along with everybody else who’d unintentionally played witness, could tell he’d just strode into stark new territory.

            None of us were quite sure what to make of it.

            The stunned silence was eventually shattered by none other than Erin herself, moments later. “Is it my turn?” she asked, avoiding anybody’s gaze but the floor’s. The dancing light of the bonfire cast enough illumination across her face to mean her reddening cheeks were visible, and I was sure I wasn’t the only one who could detect the note of squeakiness in her voice.

            The following few rounds of the game passed relatively uneventfully; that was, compared to the earlier happenings of the evening. Still, there was no denying that Scott and Jay’s shirtless rendition of The Ketchup Song provided thorough entertainment, and then there was the fact that Collette almost talked Jay into kissing Daniel. They both chickened out at the last minute.

            I’d lost track of how many drinks I’d downed by that point, but my mind was beginning to feel unnervingly foggy, and the beach had developed a tendency to tip alarmingly if I moved my head too quickly.

            Somehow, I’d managed to avoid the receiving end of a dare through ten whole rounds, though my escapade with Collette had to count as paying my dues. But I should’ve known that my luck was running thin, and sooner or later I would be faced with the prospect of being asked the infamous question.

            In the next round, I was right.

            “Truth or dare?”

            “Uh…” My gaze trailed around the group, as quickly as my reeling head would allow. Half of me ached to pick truth, to wriggle easily away from the insanity of another dare, but the obvious stopped me. The moment permission slipped from my lips, I’d become fresh meat for a plague of Daniel-centric questions. Even in my far-from-sober state, where the awkwardness had been pleasantly numbed, I wasn’t in a place to handle that. “Dare.”

            “Looks like we’ve got a daredevil on our hands,” Scott taunted, grinning. “Well, let’s see how well you can live up to that title. I dare you… to go swimming.”

            “What?”

            “Swimming,” he repeated, hooking his thumb behind him, as if the threatening crash of the waves wasn’t obvious enough in itself. “In there.”

            “Are you crazy?”

            The interruption originated from a voice opposite me. Daniel was looking over at his friend, brow creased in an expression of pure disbelief. “She’s pissed out of her mind, and you want her to go swimming? Do you have any idea how stupid that is?”

            “She doesn’t have to swim,” Jay pointed out. “It doesn’t get deep out there for ages. She could stay near the shore.”

            “She is not swimming.” Daniel’s tone was adamant; the severity of it surprised us all. Though he was easily classed as the sober one of the group, no one had elected him decision-maker. “Just quit being stupid and pick another dare. One that’s not about to get someone killed.”

            Scott seemed to have shrunk under the weight of Daniel’s fierce warning. “Alright, man, calm down…”

            Yet the conversation had sparked a sudden anger in me: an inner fire in me that was fuelled by something more volatile than alcohol. Maybe it was the sky-high emotions of the past few days all being thrown into one, spontaneously combusting upon impact. “Who made you the boss of me?” I shot at Daniel, my tongue lashing. “You certainly don’t get to make my decisions for me.”

            “Look, Flo, just calm down,” Erin started. “It was a stupid dare, anyway…”

            “I’m fine,” I insisted. Scrambling clumsily to my feet, I did my best to ignore the way the ground wobbled beneath me, the sloping gradient of the beach seeming much steeper than usual. “You want me to go swimming? Fine. I’m not a chicken. I’m going swimming.”

            “Flo, don’t be an idiot,” I heard someone cut in, but I was past listening. Wriggling out of my shorts, I was drunk past the point of caring about stripping in front of my friends. I pulled my shirt over my head, feeling much less exposed than I should’ve in nothing but my underwear, I set off at a marching pace towards the shore.

            Multiple people stumbled to their feet somewhere behind me, but my gaze remained locked on my destination: the waves creeping harmlessly up the shingle bank on the foreshore. The darkening sky made up their backdrop, the first few hints of glittering stars already scattered across the deep blue blanket. With each staggering step the echo of Daniel’s voice replayed over in my head: his stubborn tone, as if he had the right to determine what I could and couldn’t do. Even from here, I could see the waves weren’t that high. They looked calm, even. It wasn’t as if I was going to swim out of my depth. I was drunk, but not that stupid. I didn’t need to go any further than waist-deep, a point at which I could prove them wrong. Then I’d wade back, no harm done.

            There was no need for an overreaction.

            “Flo!”

            My name was being shouted from further up the bank, but it wasn’t anything that I hadn’t expected. Of course, they were scared I was going to do something stupid. But they didn’t need to be.

            The cutting chill of the water came as a shock when it first rushed over my bare feet; it was almost enough to stop me in my tracks. But the pressing urgency succeeded the surprise; if I could just get this over with, I’d prove I wasn’t a chicken. That a few shots weren’t going to put my life in danger. That Daniel didn’t have the power he’d like over me.

            There must’ve been some sort of dip in the sea bed, because the water got much deeper much quicker than I had anticipated. I continued against the resistance of the current against my legs, the feeling likened to the peculiar prospect of wading through treacle. I couldn’t have been more than ten metres in before I felt the water lapping above the waistline of my underwear, only my top half visible from above.

            I allowed myself to turn around: slow, controlled movements to ensure my balance didn’t falter. Back on the shore, there was a platoon of vaguely-outlined figures, all staring out to sea. I wasn’t close enough for their expressions of concern to be visible, but I didn’t need to be.

            The resultant rush of triumph was suddenly comical; I found myself laughing out loud with the absurdity of standing in the ocean in my undergarments at such a ridiculous hour. The others had been stupid to worry. There was absolutely nothing dangerous about this. In fact, it was kind of fun.

            As long as I stayed in my depth, everything would be fine.

            At least, it would’ve been if I hadn’t had my back turned to the approaching wave: the curved-top ridge of water that stood much, much taller than the others. The ghost of  a strangled scream escaped my lips before I was dragged backwards by its strong current, the water curling like arms around my waist, my entire sense of balance collapsing under the force of the moving water.

            There was no chance to yell. No chance to cry out for help.

            Not even a chance to gulp down a last lungful of air.

 ---------------------------------

I don't even really have anything else to say here other than this: Mariam, I expect great things from your comment. Love you guys.