Now a party of seven.

“So you turned them down?” Ben asked.

“Yep,” Grace answered. “Nice guys, but… Sorry, not interested.”

“Brutal as always,” Thomas laughed.

“Hey, I tried to be gentle,” Grace said.

“Tried, yeah,” Mila snorted. “It was kind of unrelated, but she started laughing in their faces.”

I raised an eyebrow and my jaw half-dropped. Grace noticed and started the panic, her cheeks reddening.

“I did not! O-Okay, a little, but I was holding it back! And I didn’t laugh because they asked us out, and not even to their faces. I was laughing at something else!”

“What were you laughing at?” Kevin asked.

“Secret.”

You know, at first I felt a mix of fright and jealousy that someone asked my girlfriends out, but hearing this, now I just felt bad for them. When I asked them out, the thing I was most afraid of was that they’d laugh in my face. Grace had done just that to these guys. Though… it was also oddly flattering, in a twisted way? God, what a hotpot of emotions.

Grace was blushing madly by now. “Thanks Mila, now I’m a cruel bitch.”

“Oh, relax,” Sarah said, drinking just a bit of beer watered down on a lot of orange soda. “You were more gentle than I would’ve been.”

“What’s with the cruelty?” Kevin asked. “Why do girls need to turn us down so harshly?”

“You get the entitled asshole who thinks you’ll say yes just because he exists more often than you think,” Sarah explained. “At some point, you start losing patience.”

Even Mila agreed. “You try to be gentle and tell him that you’re not interested, but he keeps insisting and you have to plainly tell him to fuck off. Happens way too often.”

“...” I suppose I knew that. The girls were extremely attractive, so it wasn’t a surprise that they’d get hit on constantly. Hell, Mila was getting hit on by that door to the house just last week and she was bothered by it.

“I don’t know, you may have turned them down too quickly,” Ben said, also hiding a smirk behind his drink. “You could have given them a single chance at least. Or maybe you had another reason to reject them?” His eyes moved to me, and I think he was mostly trying to see my own reaction.

“Oh, we had a pretty good reason,” Mila said and left it at that.

“You guys are killing me!” Kevin groaned.

Silently, Thomas shot me an apologetic look. I had stayed even quieter than before since the girls got here, and I think he got that to mean I was feeling uncomfortable. Not all that untrue, admittedly. I didn’t enjoy this line of questions. But it was mostly that these people were all used to this type of social situation and could easily carry a conversation. It was difficult for me to get in or add anything of value.

“I mean, it’s not fair that you guys are asking all the hard questions, is it?” Thomas said. “You should reveal a few dirty secrets if you want your answers in return.”

“I have no dirty secrets, though,” Kevin said and Ben agreed with a nod.

“Don’t you?” Thomas’ grin was scary. “Then I have a proposal. Let’s play a little game. One in which we don’t have to answer anything explicitly if we don’t want to.”

“What are you plotting, Thomas?” Sarah asked.

“Never have I ever. What do you guys say?” Thomas finished.

We all shared curious looks.

“Okay, fine,” Kevin said. “I’ll play.”

“You know what? Sure,” Grace said.

“Are you sure?” Mila asked, now looking a little worried.

“Yeah, why not?” Sarah said. “I trust everyone here a little more than I do others.” She then pointed a finger at Kevin and Ben in particular. “If anything leaves this house, though, I’ll strangle you both.”

“That goes double for you Kevin,” Thomas agreed with a glare. “No telling anyone. This doesn’t leave my house.”

“Okay, I promise! Geez!”

“Um…” My voice suddenly drew all eyes to me, and I almost flinched under the pressure. Six sets of eyes on me was far more than I was used to. “H-How do you play this?”

“Never played? Well, I guess you wouldn’t have…” Thomas said and winced at his own words. “It’s kind of like truth or dare. Someone says something they’ve never ever done in their life. If any other around the table has done that thing, they drink. If not, they don’t drink. Simple, right?”

It was simple, but the implications weren’t lost on me. This was a more roundabout way to get the truth out of someone. Of course, nothing stopped anyone from lying, but… I suppose that was missing the point of the game, right?

“No shots, okay?” Ben said. “Just a sip of your drink.”

“Of course.”

Everyone agreed.

I swallowed. I was getting nervous.

“Do you mind if I start?” Thomas asked. “Then we’ll go to my left.” No one had a problem with that. “Okay. Mmm. Never have I ever… stood someone up on a date.”

So if I got this right, you drink if you’ve done the thing. That meant I didn’t have to drink because I’ve never stood someone up on a date. To my shock, though, I saw Ben and Sarah drink.

“Want to explain yourselves?” Grace asked teasingly.

“It was an emergency,” Ben said wryly. “My dad had a car accident and I forgot to call my date to cancel.”

Everyone nodded. “Understandable,” Thomas said. “Sarah?”

“Intentional. I was dating this guy and things were already bad between us. He told me -not asked- that we’d go on a date that weekend. I was so pissed that I didn’t go and broke up with him the next day.”

“Ouch,” Kevin winced.

“Ah. That guy…” Grace muttered.

Sarah had a deep scowl on her face. I thought I had an idea of what she was thinking about, remembering she had told me she had a really bad experience with someone before.

“Anyway,” Grace said. “My turn, huh?”