Island Vibes

11. victory

We were both a few drinks deep when two of Noah's friends burst into the kitchen we'd made camp in, demanding that he step up to the beer pong table again. He groaned exaggeratedly for a moment, as if there would be nothing worse in the world than having to play another round of beer pong.

"I'm in," he said, before shooting me a wicked grin, "but only if Callie's my partner."

I began to protest, but before I knew it and in spite of saying "I've never even played before," and "I'm a lightweight," I found myself side-by-side with him at the table.

"We're gonna kick their asses," Noah told me, kissing the ping-pong ball he held before handing it to me, as if it were some kind of ritual for luck.

I looked up to see an unfamiliar face and a very familiar face. The familiar one belonged to Brie, Noah's sister and my accidental enemy. Brie hadn't struck me as the sort of person who'd take well to competition, considering how she'd spiralled out over a few poorly-chosen words of mine.

I wished I could start fresh with her, or at least tell her how the whole thing had been a misunderstanding of sorts – I'd been salty about being ditched at the airport by her brother, that was true, and I'd definitely had some colorful feelings about him as a result, but I wouldn't have said anything of the sort had I known she was his sister.

I was in mild shock, for sure, and I needed a distraction from Brie. I blinked around at the small crowd that had gathered in the room, waiting to be entertained. Most of them were keeping up conversations and drinking, but a few groups were doing their own thing. One seemed to be paying attention to a noisy video on somebody's phone, and another were gathered around the laptop that I guessed was streaming the music that was playing. Still, I felt the pressure. I didn't want to let anybody down, but I was also looking out for myself: beer wasn't my drink of choice, but that was what the cups before us had been loaded up with.

Brie's smile looked more like a smirk to me. "You guys don't stand a goddamn chance," she said, and I could've sworn I saw fangs glinting out from her mouth. Alright, maybe I was exaggerating – maybe – but she definitely wanted to win.

Both Brie and the girl next to her tied their hair up into ponytails, and that's when I knew this was serious.

Fifteen surprisingly fun minutes later, Noah was pretty firmly drunk, and my sobriety had taken a hit, but Brie and her friend – whose name might have been Alyssa, but I couldn't really catch what everyone kept yelling – were somehow worse off than the both of us. I say somehow, but really it was that Noah should've ditched the fixer-upper handyman island life to become a pro beer pong player years ago. He barely missed a cup, and while my success rate was a little lower, I'd surprised myself, too. I was starting to think if there was a sport out there for me, this was very likely it.

When Noah sank the last shot, the ball clipping the rim lightly and then plunging into the beer, the room around us erupted. I hadn't really clocked that everyone was so invested, but as Noah pulled me into a celebratory hug, I wondered if that was why I hadn't noticed: I'd been too busy having fun with him to pay attention to the rest of the party, or even Brie. Under any other circumstances, her presence alone would've made me uncomfortable, but with a few drinks and the good company of the guy I absolutely definitely was not crushing on, it'd been smooth sailing.

When Noah finally peeled back, he raised one of our remaining cups to the sky and cheered, "To victory!" before downing the thing to a mix of applause and laughter. Brie rolled her eyes, but her friend smiled and clapped along with everyone else, throwing in a cheer or two.

When people started to disperse now that the entertainment was over, Brie wiggled her way through the room to stand with us, friend in tow. A little kick of nerves shot through me, because I couldn't imagine she would let me forget what I'd said.

"Good game," she commented, even though it seemed like the words came from between gritted teeth. Or, you know, fangs, maybe. "We'll take you down next time though, that's for sure," she shrugged, as if it were a given, the smile on her face almost coming across as genuine.

"Oh, nuh-uh," Noah began, "you gotta go out on a high, B. No way am I playing you guys again. Why risk our flawless win record?"

He nudged into my side gently, and I laughed. "I'm pretty sure our flawless win record was 90% you," I said.

"Don't give him that kind of credit," Brie's friend chimed in. "He'll never let us hear the end of it," she chuckled, before reaching up to fish for her hair tie. She loosened the ponytail until her hair spilled down to her shoulders, and then put the thin band around her wrist.

Noah reached over to ruffle up her newly-freed hair, making a mess of it, but while I would've recoiled, the girl simply laughed and shook her head, letting it become a bird's nest.

"That's a look," Noah said, as if he were proud of his work.

The girl flipped all of her messy blonde hair back off her face, leaving it in a lion's mane of sorts, all stuck up at odd angles. "You played yourself," she said, shrugging and jabbing a finger at his chest. "You're the one who has to date me," she laughed.

I felt the smile fade from my face.

"Poor me," Noah chuckled.

I felt sick.

"How ever will I cope?" he dramatically continued, before reaching for one of her hands and lifting it up above her head to lead her away.

Brie looked at me, smirking, and I wondered if she knew – if I was that obvious. I figured I had to be, because I didn't just feel sick anymore, I was going to be sick, and I knew there was no way I looked well.

I pushed past her quickly, desperately trying to remember where the bathroom was. Left? Right? Wait, no, down the hall and-- left from here? That was the guest room, but I was sure he'd said there was a downstairs bathroom somewhere, and--

"Callie!"

I didn't turn around, but instead slammed the door to the guest room shut behind me. I spotted the en suite door right as a fresh wave of uncomfortable warmth rushed through me. Oh, yikes. I managed to find myself in the bathroom just in time to panic at the lid of the toilet being down and, instead, I violently threw up in the bath.

It would be underselling things to say that this was not what I had wanted out of the night.