It Sounded Better in My Head - Nina Kenwood Page 0,15

at each other, and Alex looks like he’s going to say something when Owen yells at us from outside.

‘Hey, Alex and Natalie!’

We look away from each other, and I jump down from the bench. My legs feel a little shaky.

‘Come outside,’ Owen says. And just like that, I’m part of the party.

We go outside and sit on crappy folding camping chairs. A bunch of people are arguing about the existence of aliens and the best way to way to eat a croissant. After a while, I feel myself unclenching. It seems almost strange that I was hiding in the bathroom at the beginning of the night. I feel nostalgically sad for my pathetic self of an hour ago—what a loser. Now I am a goddess on a rickety camping chair pretending to drink a beer.

5

Never Have I Ever

I’ve been outside for about twenty minutes, occasionally chiming in on the conversations around me, and watching Owen get louder and drunker. At one point, he turns to me and winks. I pretend not to notice, because there is nothing on Earth that makes me more uncomfortable than someone winking at me.

Alex checks in on me, asking if I want another drink, and then if I’m cold, and both times I smile and shake my head.

At some stage, I’m not sure how, it is decided that everyone will play a drinking game. I’ve never actually seen a drinking game played before, so I’m quite fascinated. I cross my legs on the chair, and settle in. It feels anthropological.

The chosen game is Never Have I Ever. One person says something they’ve never done and everyone who has done it must drink. (There’s a good five minutes of arguing and googling on how to play the game—do you drink if you have done it, or do you drink if you haven’t? Everyone is very, very sure their way is correct.)

‘Never have I ever…vomited on my parents’ front lawn.’

‘Never have I ever…kissed more than five people in one night.’

‘Never have I ever…watched porn with my friends.’

‘Never have I ever…passed out naked on someone else’s couch.’

Predictably, most questions are sex- or alcohol-focused, and there is a fuss after each one, yelling and laughing at the people who do and don’t drink. I sit my bottle on the ground, so it’s clear I am here to watch and not participate. In fact, I’m getting bored and not even paying attention (the game is much less fascinating than I thought it would be), wishing my phone battery wasn’t so low, when Owen taps my arm.

‘Your turn.’

‘My turn what?’

‘To say “Never have I ever…”’

‘Oh, crap.’

Everyone is looking at me. Vanessa arches an eyebrow (a perfect eyebrow, she has the kind of eyebrows that should be studied for how perfect they are). Alex gives me a small, commiserating smile that seems to say I know you’re going to stuff this up, but that’s okay.

I have no idea what to say. Think, think, think. Okay, stop thinking, just say anything.

‘I’ve never…played spin the bottle.’ I don’t know why, of all possible words in the English language, these are the ones that come out of my mouth. There’s a pause, and I contemplate standing up and leaving, just running into the night. Does anyone play spin the bottle anymore? Did anyone ever play it? Does it exist as a thing outside of 90s’ TV shows? Does it exist outside of my own head?

No one drinks.

‘What, has no one here ever played spin the bottle?’ Owen yells. He’s drunk enough that he says everything at volume.

Everyone looks at each other and they’re all shaking their heads.

‘Let’s play,’ says a girl. I think her name is Lana. Or maybe Petra.

And just like that Never Have I Ever is abandoned and an empty bottle is placed on the ground in the middle of us all.

‘Wait, do you have to kiss in front of everyone or do you go off into the dark?’ asks a guy called Raj.

‘You’re confusing it with Seven Minutes in Heaven, where you are locked in the cupboard for seven minutes together,’ Vanessa says.

‘Has anyone played that one, either?’ Owen yells.

‘Nope,’ says Raj.

‘Let’s combine them. Spin the bottle, and then the two people go around there for a one-minute countdown,’ Lana/Petra says, pointing to a narrow, dark walkway down the side of the house.

‘How much can you do in one minute?’ Benny asks.

There is a lot of laughter and teasing about what can happen in a minute. I am practically dizzy with how

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