Nine

Gideon to the rescue.

The air smelled like weed. Emma and her friends had been smoking for about an hour. 

“You should’ve brought your f*****g bong,” Dani groaned to Jed. He agreed and asked me once more if I wanted to smoke. 

Sometime later, Emma burst out, “Oh my god! Guys!!” 

“What?” Holly groaned. 

“You know what we should do?” 

“Just tell us.” 

“We should play... spin the bottle!” 

Dani and Jed got excited. “Yess, let’s play spin the bottle!” Dani squealed. “I haven’t played that since last year!” 

Dani and Emma looked at Chris and Holly, who were sitting next to each other.  

Finally, Holly shrugged. “Fine. Be right back.” She returned moments later with a glass beer bottle. She motioned us to the open floor, where we all sat down. Then, she placed the bottle on the ground. 

“Okay. Does Riley know how to play?” she asked. 

“Oh, I-…,” I started to say I just wanted to watch, but Emma interrupted me. 

“Yes, of course he knows how to play, Holly.” I did. But I didn’t want to play. No one in the circle was anyone I particularly wanted to kiss. 

Holly spun the bottle, which rotated about ten times before it slowed down, and pointed at Dani. Jed and Emma immaturely ‘oooh’ed and laughed. Dani crawled over to Holly, and then their lips were planted against each other’s. 

They made out for about twenty seconds before Chris pulled Holly away. 

“Alright, that’s enough,” he said.  

Then, it was Dani’s turn to spin. She spun the bottle, which landed on Jed. She and Jed only made out for about seven seconds before they pulled away. 

“You taste like weed,” Dani commented. 

“Yea,” Jed replied. “Here.” He handed the joint to Dani, who then proceeded to blow smoke from her mouth.  

“I’ll go next,” Emma offered. She spun the bottle.  

It spun around and around, to the point where I would’ve gotten dizzy if I watched it any longer. I looked away, but soon after, everyone started looking at me. I looked back at the bottle. It was facing me. Great. 

“Oh, this is a piece of cake,” Emma grinned. “C’mon babe, let’s show them how it’s done.” 

She then tried to push her body onto mine and wrap her legs around me. She started kissing me, if that’s even what you would call it. Before, even though I didn’t particularly enjoy it, our kiss felt like she at least knew how to kiss. But now, it was different. I don’t know what it felt like to her, but all I could feel was her cold, slimy tongue moving around awkwardly in my mouth. 

I started to feel a bit nauseous, so I tried to gently push her off me. She wouldn’t let me, though. She pulled herself harder against me and started kissing my jawline.  

I then pushed harder, and she fell back onto the ground. 

“Chill dude,” Chris warned. 

“Sshh, it’s okay Chris,” Emma said. Then she looked at me. “Babe, what’s wrong?” 

“Riley,” I muttered. 

“What’s wrong Riley?” she repeated in a high-pitched voice. It was odd. Emma seemed to be acting different. She then took a drink from her water bottle, which she’d been drinking for the past hour.  

Then it hit me. “Wait, Emma. What is that?” 

She turned to Holly and grinned coyly. “Just a little vodka,” she laughed. 

Of course. “Vodka??” I repeated. 

She shrugged. “Yea, what’s the big deal.” 

The big deal? The big deal was that not only was Emma high, but she was also drunk. That’s when I realized that Emma wasn’t the girl I met in Revive. She was probably acting kind and responsible because she was working, but when she wasn’t, Emma and her friends were just bad influences. They weren’t the type of people I should be hanging out with. 

“I need to go,” I said. 

Emma frowned. “Did I do something wrong?”  

Yes. But I didn’t tell her. Instead, I said, “Nope. I just have to... do something. I’ll text you later.” 

I could’ve ended our so-called ‘relationship’ right there, but I still wanted to introduce my parents to a girl. After that, it didn’t matter if we stayed together or not. I could break up with her tomorrow. 

When I got out onto the curb of Holly’s driveway, I called Gideon. 

 

 

~ 

 

 

Not long after, Gideon arrived in his silver Acura. I opened the passenger seat and slid in next to him before closing the door. I could feel Gideon staring at me. 

“What happened?” he asked. I told him. “Well…," he continued. “Do you want to hang out?” 

I hesitated. Then, “Let’s work on the project.” 

Gideon nodded. “Okay.” 

So, when we got to my house, we started working on the project. We sat in silence though, barely speaking other than to fill each other in on the research we’d discovered. Eventually, Gideon spoke up. 

“You know- you look like art,” he said, in his familiar British accent. 

I looked up at him with what I assume was a puzzled expression. “What?” Then, “Art’s supposed to be nice to look at.” 

Gideon shook his head. “No, it’s not. It’s supposed to...” His voice trailed off. Then he grinned, looked at his feet, and chuckled. “Art’s not supposed to look nice. It’s supposed to make you feel things.” 

I could feel the heat rising to my cheeks. “Eleanor and Park,” I added. Eleanor and Park was a book I’d read back in middle school. Gideon nodded. 

I began to study his face. My eyes gazed from his icy blonde hair, his sky-blue eyes, and down to his pink, naturally upturned lips. That’s when I realized... Gideon was attractive. I looked up at his eyes, which smiled at me with what looked to be some sort of longing. I could feel my lips part, but I didn’t stop them. I’d never really looked at Gideon to this extent. 

Then Gideon said something, that would’ve been the next logical question for anyone else. But not me.  

“Can I kiss you?” he asked. 

My eyes widened and I leaned back a bit. “What?” 

“Can I kiss you?” he repeated. 

“No.” My voice came out harsher than I meant for it to. “I mean... I have a girlfriend.” 

“Okay,” he replied. His voice sounded sad, but I didn’t know if he was. 

“And I’m not-…,” I hesitated. I didn’t know what to say. Gideon nodded. 

“I’m not gay...,” I continued. Gideon continued nodding. But again, I couldn’t get the sentence out of my mouth. I didn’t want to hurt Emma, but I didn’t want to hurt Gideon either in the way it seemed I was. 

“It’s not that-…,” I didn’t know what I was going to say. I just wanted to ease the tension between us. Awkward or otherwise. But Gideon interrupted my sentence by grabbing my neck and pressing his lips against mine.  

Without any hesitation, I quickly pulled away. I looked at Gideon with a startled expression. His eyes looked scared and regretful. Then, warmth flooded throughout my body. 

I don’t know what it was, but suddenly, I had the urge to kiss Gideon again. My mind flooded with thoughts, to the point where I started to feel dizzy. ‘No. Don’t kiss him again. You have a girlfriend.’ I tried to push the thoughts away. ‘This is wrong,’ they insisted. But I didn’t care. I wanted more. 

My eyebrows relaxed. Then I grabbed Gideon’s neck and pulled him closer to me, kissing his soft lips once again. I felt alive. I didn’t know what this meant, but I did know I didn’t want to stop. Time seemed to slow as I closed my eyes. 

 

After a while, we had torn away from each other and were now working quietly on opposite sides of the couch. 

“Hey, we don’t need to tell anybody about this,” I spoke up.  

Gideon looked up at me, and then nodded. “Yea, you’re right. We’ll keep it between us.” 

“Oh, by the way, can we do the project at your house on Sunday? I’m not going to be available the next two days and Sunday my mom’s friends are coming over.” 

He hesitated. “I’m not sure that’s such a good idea.” 

“Why not?” I asked. “It’s not like there’s anywhere else we can work.” 

He was silent for a few moments, and then, “Sure. Yea, it’ll probably be fine.”