4

Parties gone wrong

On Cal's command, we all sat in a tight circle on the white rug. Jaspar sat on my left, Aurel on my right. Aurel rested her chin on her knees and wrapped her arms around her legs, as if trying to stop any form of contact with me. Jaspar, on the other hand, rested his knee on mine. It was bizarre to think someone so polite and charming had a twin so cold and reserved.
"So, we spin this  bottle," Cal held up a bottle of what I could only assume to be alcohol. "Okay, so say Jaspar spins it, and the neck points towards me, Jaspar would have the epic once in a lifetime opportunity to ask me a question. If I answer it honestly, I'm good. Failure to answer, or lying leads to a shot. And trust me, I can sniff out liars. Have the most shots - lose." He grinned at us all and passed the bottle to Daisy.
In the hours we played, I learnt a lot about the group. Jaspar's favourite colour was burgundy, his favourite music was Carter Burwell's pieces; these tame questions were obviously asked by me. A blushing Daisy admitted she loved Cal most in the world, she was rewarded by an unsurprised group and a kiss from the sleaze himself. However, Cal thought Aurel was the most attractive, leading to hastily swapped smirks and glares. I felt Jaspar shift uncomfortably next to me, he was obviously protective of his twin. Skye failed to answer multiple questions, be they tame or personal, questions ranging from her favourite person in the room (her eyes flitted to Jaspar as she blushed), her first kiss, and eventually how she truly felt about Jaspar. I was right to make my previous decision to not become involved with the ever charming Jaspar, after what felt like a hundred rounds, Jaspar and Skye were twirling around the room, clinging to each other drunkenly. Daisy was slouched against Cal, who was absent mindedly stroking her hair. But his real focus was on Aurel. The two seemed to have a strong rivalry. He seemed intent to catch her, to upset her. I clinged on to sobriety myself, ashamedly admitting that I thought Aurel was the prettiest I'd ever met by far, that my first crush was a girl, that I also dated guys. I'd answer anything to avoid the inevitable drunken stupor, I wanted to learn anything I could about Aurel, the mystery. But I learnt that Aurel had a high alcohol tolerance, she drank shot after shot, refusing to answer personal questions. Cal spun the bottle again, laughing gleefully as the neck pointed at Aurel. She picked up the bottle and poured herself a preparatory shot, already resigned to drinking.
"So, Aurel, I've changed the rules. No forfeits, no shots. Just the cold truth, we need to spice it up." He chuckled to himself, he was vile. Aurel just stared at him suspiciously, obviously not trusting the rule change.
"Go ahead," her voice was clear despite the high levels of alcohol she'd drank. Cal leaned forward grinning with anticipation, in his head he'd already won.
"Aurel, so are you still into girls? Still a dirty lesbian?"
Without a word, Aurel rose and ran out of the room. Cal, the desperate loser had managed to upset Aurel, so cool and collected. Nobody made an effort to go help her, they didn't even acknowledge her exit. I rose to my feet to stand over Cal. He grinned at me, obviously expecting me to be impressed.
"You jerk," I spat, turning on my heel and leaving the room.