Stay dressed

You decide to just stay as you are.

To your relief, Colby doesn’t drag her feet showing up. You were half afraid that she’d wimp out and not come. She knocks on the door with her backpack on one shoulder, wearing the same clothes from earlier. She isn’t trying to impress anyone, and it’s impressive how good a job she doesn’t not acting nervous.

She looks only slightly taken aback by the half-clothed CCL morons who are already on their second drink when she arrives. You get to feel a bit more relief when the girls don’t swarm her in a particularly humiliating way, although Nancy’s a little pushy about shoving a Crown and Coke into her hands.

“No stripper?” Colby asks as she puts her backpack on the bed. “I’m disappointed. I thought this was a CCL party.”

“No, there’s a distinction between CCL girls partying and a CCL party. The latter has to be at the house,” Athena tells her with a little smile over the lip of her wine glass. What? What is that look she’s giving Colby? You control your jealousy.

“Is this the rematch?” Yuki asks as you and Colby set up your laptops on the bed. “What is that?” she asks.

“It’s a cooling pad,” you say, sliding it under your computer and hooking it up. “And no, we aren’t going to fight each other. We’re going to work together.”

“You can do that?” Nancy asks.

“Were you all cheerleaders?” Colby asks dryly. She’s being a bit of a dick, but you don’t blame her. The girls are all looking cute and there are five of you on this bed. Colby is actually doing well. In her place, you’d have steam coming out of your ears. You already do as you see Athena crawl across the bed to get a spot with a good view. Her nightie doesn’t really hide her lingerie. Your heart pounds as you watch her brush back some hair with her fingers and take a sip.

“We doing this?” Colby prompts you.

“Yeah,” you say, coming to your senses.

“How do you make this game a drinking game?” Nancy asks as you start up DBD.

“Do we have to?” you ask.

“Um, of course,” Yuki says, crowding in on your side as you join Colby’s lobby.

You look at Colby. “Do we drink every time we get hit?”

“We’ll be wasted.”

“Every time we go down?”

“Let’s do it every time we get hooked,” she says.

“Hooked?” Athena says, looking surprised.

“You’ll see,” you tell her.

You quickly load into a game, and if the CCL girls are buzzed and entertained enough not to notice that you and Colby communicate like a well-oiled machine. Playing with Colby is fun anytime, but trying to concentrate on a bed with these ridiculous girls on it is on another level. They all tense up when you hear the terror radius and shriek whenever the killer is on the screen. Yuki shakes you and they shout terrible advice as you and Colby try to stay alive.

“Main building,” you say. “He’s chasing Dwight.”

“I have a gen in shack at seventy,” Colby replies.

You try, but it’s impossible to maintain a high level of play under these circumstances. Getting hooked is unavoidable, and every gulp of liquor makes it that much harder to play well.

But… it’s still an insanely good time. Getting chainsawed down isn’t annoying when you’re half-drunk, it’s hilarious. The CCL girls quickly see that the game isn’t a horror game, it’s a comedy.

After just three games, it’s obvious that drinking and playing well don’t go well together, but now everyone’s in the mood for slashers. You put the computers away and get comfy, turning on the TV and finding the best thing you can: one of the Friday the 13th movies.

You can tell how tense Colby is because the bed is big, but it’s not big enough for five. She’s pressed up against you in the dark hotel room, lit by the flickering screen while the girls keep drinking and laughing at the movie.

The experience is weird, but it’s probably the most fun you have ever had. You know she’s enjoying herself too. You catch her looking at you. Your faces are close, and you can smell her boozy breath.

“What’s wrong?” you ask.

She shakes her head, blushing a little. A girl in the movie shrieks as Jason stabs her through a wall. Yuki laughs so hard that she chokes on her drink.

The movie ends and Athena stretches, then stands up.

“You bailing?” Yuki asks, popping another can open.

“I’m taking my bath,” Athena replies, as though that should be obvious. As casually as she might set her phone down somewhere, she pulls off her nightie and drops it, walking toward the bathroom. Your eyes are glued to her back. Her pale body is lit by the TV. Her cheeky, lacy panties are to die for. You are dying. You are dead.

“Like hell,” Yuki grumbles, rolling off the be and putting her can aside. You watch her struggle out of her clothes and follow Athena. The bed bounces slightly as Nancy hops off too.

Wait… they’re all going?

You and Colby watch them disappear into the bathroom. Right. It’s a huge jet tub.

You turn to Colby, and you just look at each other. You’re both a little drunk. She looks cute in the light of the credits scrolling across the huge TV.

Join the others in the tub?

Or kiss Colby?