Chapter 4

Chapter 4

I tried to open the door but obviously Troy—and whoever else was responsible for us being in here—was also holding the door shut. There was giggling and shuffling outside as the door banged a few times against the frame.

It was very dark inside and very cramped. Not really a walk-in closet. Less than a foot of floor before the shelves, which were now digging into my back. Good thing I wasn't claustrophobic.

"I am the one who suggested this game," Jack said. "So it's only right that I ended up here, I guess."

I couldn't see him but our shoulders were smashed together in the tight space. "The alone part was the key to your suggestion."

I pressed my face to the crack of the door and yelled, "Save me a slice of pizza!"

"Your parents bought eight boxes for fourteen people," Jack said. "Pretty sure there will be plenty left. They're so proud of you for throwing a party. They never thought they'd see the day." There was a smile in his voice.

"It's pretty pathetic when your parents are cooler than you, isn't it?"

"Wouldn't know," he said. "Is it my brother?"

"What?" I asked, confused.

"The name on my forehead."

"No," I said. "Why would it be your brother?"

"Because you wish he was still single."

I gasped. One time. One! I had told Jack that his brother was hot. Because he was. And Jack was never going to let me forget it. "No, I don't. Your brother is kind of a jerk. No offense. Besides, I told you that your person was fictional and you established he's in a movie."

"Oh, right. Is my movie a current one?"

"No," I said. "Eighties? Nineties?"

He rocked back and forth on his feet. "But we've seen it?"

"Yes." On one of our many movie nights.

"Is the actor who played me still relevant?"

"I mean... yes? To adults. He's also in a Taylor Swift song."

"Jake Gyllenhaal? Who has he played?"

"No, not him."

"Am I Jack? From Titanic?"

I grabbed hold of his forearm, surprised he got it. "Yes! Good job. Even though you cheated and asked me a bunch of questions in a row."

"Pretty sure your mom told you yours."

I laughed. "She was confused."

"Wait... you don't think Jack and Rose were a good couple? You think they'd have been better off single."

"He died, Jack."

I felt him shrug, his shoulder moving against mine. "But before that... they were soul mates."

"Died," I repeated.

"Aside from your parents... and Micah and Cassidy, of course..."

"Of course," I said, playing along with the sarcasm of his second choice.

"Who is your gold standard?"

"Good question." I searched my brain. I'd watched a lot of movies and read a lot of books and seen a lot of plays. Who was the ultimate?

"Rapunzel and Flynn Rider?" I said it as a question because I wasn't sure that was actually my answer.

"You want to be trapped in a tower?"

"The after-tower stuff. I don't know. I might change my answer. That's just the first one I thought of."

"It's a good one," he said.

I sighed, looking at the only light I could see, the glowing yellow strip at the bottom of the door. I'd left my phone somewhere out in the room, by the speaker, or the couch. "You have your phone for light?"

"I think it's on top of the pinball machine."

"Do you think they're going to make us stay in here for a full seven minutes?"

"Troy's probably starting a game of spin the bottle as we languish."

"Is Troy your best friend?" I asked, curious.

"You're my best friend."

"Well obviously. I meant after me."

He shrugged again. "I don't know. I guess he's in the mix with Simon and Mario. After you, I have to go a long way down to find someone else."

"Same," I said. Simon and Mario were mutual friends and I'd put them on my list as well.

The back of my calves were pressed against the lowest shelf and another one was digging into the small of my back. "If we turn sideways and sit would that be more or less comfortable?" I asked.

"I don't know; we can try because the corner of a board game is stabbing me in the shoulder blade."

I grabbed hold of his arm so I could feel his movements while we both shifted toward one another. My chin brushed his shoulder, or at least what I assumed was his shoulder. And then we were chest to chest. I took his elbows in my hands and he laughed and cupped mine.

"Are we going to try to sit simultaneously?" he asked.

"Yes, on the count of three."

"One."

"Two."

"Three."

It was not a smooth motion, our weights disproportioned. I tipped back. He attempted to save me, jerking me forward. My hand flew up for balance and whacked him in the face. He let out a yelp. I spewed apologies. And then somehow we were on the ground. My knees were shoved against my chest and most likely his. His knees sandwiched mine.

"Is it possible this is even less comfortable?" he asked.

"This closet was only made for seven minutes alone," I said.

He chuckled. "Come here." He took my feet and pulled them up and toward him, my butt sliding along the carpet. Then he placed them on the ground behind him. I was glad for the dark because suddenly my cheeks were on fire.

We were best friends. The best of best friends. We'd laid next to each other on countless couches and beds and floors for years. But I had never—never!—straddled him before.

"Better?" he asked.

After the initial shock, I could honestly say, "Yes, actually." The fire in my cheeks was slower to accept this new position though. "What do you think of Sage, by the way?"

"Sage?" he asked.

"That cute Asian girl I introduced you to out there. She thinks you're hot."

"She does?" he said as if someone thinking he was attractive was an impossible occurrence.

"Yes," I said. She probably didn't want me to tell him that she thought he was hot but I was straddling my best friend. I needed to tell him something unrelated to our legs tangled together.

"You really think my brother is a jerk?" he asked, also a subject-evader.

Topher, his brother, was two years older. Probably at the other party happening tonight with his new girlfriend.

"I don't like the way he talks to you."

He treated Jack like he was a constant annoyance. Never wanted him around. And maybe Jack and I annoyed Topher when we were in elementary, but we grew up and he didn't seem to recognize that. Okay... maybe we could still be annoying sometimes, like a couple months ago, when we kept knocking on his bedroom door and running. I smiled at the memory. It was funny. Topher could have fun if he'd just relax. He took himself way too seriously.

"You think I should stand up for myself to him?"

Sometimes Jack knew what I thought before I'd even thought it myself. My mind flashed back to shoving Micah onto the cement after his mean words directed at Jack.

"You're not a kid anymore," I said.

He took several deep breaths.

"You smell like sugar," he said, instead of responding to my statement.

"The powdered sugar bomb I set off earlier. It's probably still in my hair."

"Yeah," he said. His hands were resting on his ankles and I could feel them there, inches from my waist, the heat making my skin buzz. I could hear him breathing. Feel his chest rise with each deep intake.

Suddenly light flooded the space and I squinted against the brightness.

I couldn't see anything with my eyes stinging but I heard Troy's voice say, "This is a singles party, guys, no coupling up." As if he wasn't the one who'd shoved us in the closet together.

"Her cheeks are red," someone else said followed by laughter, which only made my cheeks more red. Jack was busy trying to untangle himself from me and I rocked back to help with the process. There was more space behind me than I had realized.

"We're going to pin the crown on the princess now," Sage said. "Do you have a blindfold?"

I stood. "Yes, let me get it." I avoided looking back at Jack and I wasn't sure why.

Sage didn't avoid him. She grabbed onto his hand and said, "I want to be first. Will you blindfold me?"

"Sure," Jack said. I could hear the tightness in his voice. He was nervous. I shouldn't have told him that Sage thought he was cute. Now he was going to close off, be awkward. He just needed to be himself and she'd fall for him.

The blindfold was on the television stand and I grabbed it and handed it to Jack, finally meeting his stare. He gave me the you okay? look. I nodded. Why wouldn't I be?

"These are the crowns, everyone," I said, holding up a stack of paper crowns. "The person who places it most accurately, wins." I pointed to the outline of a person with an oversized head I'd drawn on the chalkboard wall where we normally kept game scores.

Jack was already tying the blindfold around Sage's eyes and then spinning her while she giggled. As I placed a paper crown in her hand and she stumbled her way forward, people shouted directions that weren't helpful at all. She ended up sticking the crown right where the crotch would've been had I drawn any details.

"Wow," Troy said. "Save that placement for the prince."

She took off her blindfold to inspect her handiwork. "I mean, they don't call them the crown jewels for nothing!" she said.

I smiled and got myself a slice of pizza that was now lukewarm. I threw a party and everyone was having fun.

"You proud of yourself?" Jack asked, wandering over and taking a slice of his own.

"I am."

"You should be."

"We should be," I said. "We have to throw one every year now, right? Make it bigger and better than its rival."

"I thought you said this wasn't a competition. You weren't trying to stick it to Micah. That it was just an alternate choice."

I thought about Micah's smug, annoying face as he told Jack that his interests weren't good enough for him, that Jack wasn't good enough for him. "Maybe it's just a little competition." And I wanted to win. Bad.