Never Have I Ever

"Have you ever played 'Never Have I Ever', Jack?" Melody asked as she poured out a shot's worth of Bourbon into her glass.

"I've heard of it." You reply, watching her do the same to your glass. "I don't know if I could tell you the exact rules, though." Melody lets out a light laugh as she pushes the glass to you.

"It's not rocket science, don't worry." She smiles, swirling her bourbon around in her glass. "We each take turns saying things we have never done before. If the other person has done it, they take a drink." She puts the drink down on the table. "Like I might say 'never have I ever gone skydiving' and if you had, you would drink. Easy huh? Why don't you start?"

"Okay, I get it. So I might want to say some thing like..." You look up at her with a sneaky grin. "Never have I ever gone to school in Europe."

Melody purses her lips and she shoots you a look. "Yeah. Exactly like that." She wants to look annoyed, but you can see the grin pulling at the corners of her lips. "Okay, wiseguy. I see how this is going to be." She picks up her glass and down the bourbon. She swallows it all, then lets out a cough. "Wooo, that's the good stuff." She immediately pours more for herself, then looks you in the eye. "Never have I ever ridden a mountain bike into a river."

"Oh, good." You say. "I think this game has a few flaws." Obediently, you take the shot. It burns going down, but it tastes pretty good. Melody was right; this was the good stuff.

"What ever do you mean, flaws?" She smiles sweetly.

"I can see this being a good ice breaker game for new people, but we know each other way to well for this to work." You explain, pouring a new shot for yourself. "We are just going to snipe at the obvious things we know about each other. It will get us drunk fast, sure, but we could just be drinking heavily and drop the pretense."

"Ah, it may seem that way now." Melody grins. "Just wait until we get a few more rounds in. Once the **** starts kicking in, we will start running out of the obvious targets, and then this game will get good." She leans forward and rests her elbows on the table and her head on her hands. "Are you trying to tell me there is NOTHING I don't know about you, Jack? Because I doubt that. I think you have a few secrets up in that noggin of yours and I am to figure them out." You gulp involuntarily and blush at her words. She seems to like this reaction. "Your turn, sucka."

"O-okay." You stutter. You can't help but fear what secrets this game might weasel out of you. You try to maintain composure. "Never have I ever...gotten changed in a women's locker room."

"All right, I will let that slide, but no more obvious gender differences." She takes the drink. "I don't want you to cop-out with 'never have I ever used a tampon' or 'never have I ever had a mammogram' or whatever stupid shit you have planned."

"Fair enough." You put your arms up in defeat. She grins and refills her glass. The next few rounds pass as you expected. She gets you with never having been thrown into a lake in a sleeping bag and never having a cavity. You get her with never getting into a fistfight with cheerleader and never getting bit by a raccoon. The **** keeps flowing and you become aware how strong the booze really is. You are not a lightweight, but five drinks in and you are starting to get really tipsy. For her part, Melody is too.

"Ooookay." She slurs. She waveringly points a finger at you. "Never have I ever been stung by a wasp."

"Dammit." You say and reach for the glass. You stop as it touches your lips. "W-wait. What about that time when we were kids? In the neighbor's above-ground pool?"

"The Hitchens' pool?" She asked quizzically. You nod. "Oh, shoot. You're right." She shrugs. "Welp! Penalty drink!" She raises her glass. "Cheers!" You both clatter your drinks together and down the liquid. You both start giggling afterwards.

"My turn, my turn." You say, calming down. You are sober enough to know you are acting foolish, but not enough to stop yourself. You watch Melody pour the refills; she spills some on the table, then proceeding to cuss out the bottle. You feel a streak of mischief run through your mind. Maybe it's the ****, but you are ready to turn this game up a notch.