The Bet || l.h.

- 3 -

Lindsay pulls her car up in front of an enormous house, brightly colored lights flashing from inside. The bass from the music echoes in the night. She throws the car into park and checks her lipstick in the side view mirror before opening her door.

"A party?" I say incredulously.

Lindsay just grins over her shoulder at me as we all hop out of the car. "I told you I would find something fun for us to do."

Two boys run past us, completely naked, as we walk up the driveway, yelling something I don't understand as they stumble into the woods surrounding the house. Natalie jumps at their sudden presence and looks alarmed. Lindsay only smiles as she grandly opens the door.

As soon as we walk in, she's running off to someone else. Kayla looks around excitedly and yells in my ear that she's going to go talk to her cute lab partner from her biology class. That leaves just me and Natalie.

Nat smiles nervously at me and I loop my arm through hers. "Why don't we go get a drink?"

She nods and we make our way through the house. Finding the kitchen turns out to be a lot harder than I expected it to be with everyone crowding up the halls, but the people stumbling around a corner with fresh alcohol makes it easier. There's a couple making out on the dining table when we walk in, but we ignore them and walk toward where someone's left out a stack of cups.

"I'm going to go find the bathroom," I tell Natalie. She nods again as she starts to fill a cup with water.

I shove past a group of girls giggling drunkenly in the hallway, trying to go onto my tiptoes to see if there are any doors highlighted in the colored lights. It's too dark in here without any actual lights on and I can't see around the sea of people-

Not looking where I'm going, I run straight into someone.

"Careful there," a voice says as the person I ran into steadies me.

I open my mouth to thank them, the words dying in my throat when I look up and lock eyes with them. A tall tan boy is staring down at me, flashing me a quick smile when our eyes meet. Tattoos are inked over his arms, disappearing underneath the sleeve of his tight T-shirt.

"I don't think we've met," he says, his brown eyes giving me a quick once-over as he places a hand against the wall. "I'm Calum."

"E-Emmy," I stutter. Was he hitting on me?

"What's a beautiful girl like you doing alone at a party, Emmy?" Calum says, tilting his head to the side as his gaze travels up and down my body again, causing me to blush furiously. He pushes off from the wall and holds out a hand to me. "Why don't you come hang out with me and my friends?" Seeing my unease, he adds with a wink, "I promise we don't bite."

I glance back toward the kitchen where Natalie's waiting for me. She'll be fine, I tell myself as I slip my hand into Calum's. He leads me through the hallways, pulling me into a little study that's tucked away by the stairs.

Thick smoke clogs up the room and a chilly breeze enters through the window someone cracked open. Three boys are seated in the room, one of them with a girl straddling his lap. I hesitate in the doorway and Calum smiles over his shoulder at me as he pulls me after him into the room. He drags over a chair from a desk, placing it next to an empty armchair.

"C'mere," Calum says, patting the seat beside him as he sits down.

I nervously take a seat, glancing around the room at the boys.

A boy with colorfully dyed hair is seated on a weird-looking couch, the girl on his lap roughly sucking at his neck although he doesn't pay her much notice. Sitting on the floor in front of the couch, a curly haired boy with stunning hazel eyes takes a swig from a bottle of vodka.