Mess To Be Made

8

Rachel and I walked up to a ping pong table with about eight guys standing around it. I recognized a few but made no effort to say hello. I simply said, loud enough to gather a few of the guys' attention, "Rachel and I are playing winners next game."

"Get in line," a guy across the table from us answered. I didn't recognize him and made the natural assumption he was a junior.

This should be easy.

I chugged my can of beer, turned to Rachel with a smirk and said, "Hold my beer."

"There's nothing left," Rachel replied dully as I walked away from her, slipping through the crowd of boys huddled around the ping pong table until I was the only thing in his line of sight.

"Hi," I said.

He was clearly shocked to see me standing in front of him. He remained still—eyes wide, arms frozen, lips sealed. Almost like if he moved a muscle, I'd devour him whole.

"You should probably breathe," I pointed out and he inhaled hard before his whole body crumpled and his face flushed.

God, I fucking loved this.

"What's your name," I asked sweetly, resting my hand on his shoulder for just a second. Just to give him a jolt.

"Dave," he replied, his quiet voice not at all matching the confident one that had basically told me to fuck off with a minute ago.

"Well, Dave," I said, putting my hand on his shoulder again after he broke eye contact, forcing him to look at me. "My friend and I would really love to play a game of beer pong. So how about we make a bet?"

Dave's eyes, which had been wide with fear, now showed a glimmer of excitement. "What do you mean?"

"We'll play against each other. If you and whoever your teammate is win, you get to dare us to do something. If we win, we get to dare you."

He looked over at the guy standing next to him, Caleb Rodgers, a senior. Clearly his teammate. Oh, we had this in the bag.

Dave nodded at me.

"You're next in line then," I leaned in, placing my lips near his ear, and whispered, "After Rachel and I kick these guys' asses."

When the last cup of the current game was made and I immediately stepped in place of the losing team. As I began resetting the cups, I called, "Rach, come help."

"Wait."

Nick Parker, another junior, was on the team that just won. He stood on the opposite end of the table with a frown on his face. I knew him mostly because it wasn't any secret him and Allegra had been hooking up.

"I thought we were playing Dave and Caleb."

"Change of plans," I said to him as Rachel began organizing the cups in a perfect pyramid.

"That's—"

"It's Nick, right?" I asked, batting my eyelashes at him. I didn't wait for him to confirm his name before continuing, "Well, Nick, we're up. Maybe you should worry about throwing the ball instead of who's throwing it at you."

His eyes went dark with rage and I looked over at Rachel. Loud enough for everyone to hear, I whistled. "Oof. He seems difficult, this one."

"Allie, right?" Nick sneered, stepping toward the table and making a perfect arc with the ping pong ball he was holding, directly into the center back cup.

I mean, they did play basketball after all.

I looked at Rachel and saw the determination pooling into her eyes as she stepped up and snatched a ping pong ball out of a cup.