The Game

After a few hours everyone was feeling good and loose from the ****. Still, it seemed things were winding down a bit until Cassandra yelled “C’mon everybody, let’s play a game!”

Everybody gathers in the living room, a wide open space with couches all around.

“What game are we going to play?” asks Jason.

“I’m open to suggestions!” Cassandra says.

“How about strip poker?” says Tom, laughing.

“That’s too lame!” Jillian says. “Oh, I know a game! MUCH better than strip poker! Get me a deck of cards!” she says to Tom. He leaves for a moment and returns, handing the pack to Jillian.

“So what’s this game then?” asks Marcus.

“It’s a game I made up!” responds Jillian.

“How do we play?” asked Stephanie.

“OK, so we all sit, boy girl, boy girl. Then we draw a card from the top of the deck. If you draw an odd numbered card, ace through 10, you have to remove a piece of clothing.” There are a few initial groans, but everyone seems onboard. “If you draw an even card, you can either put a piece of clothing back on, or - if you have all your clothes on - make someone else remove a piece of THEIR clothing.”

“Hell yeah, I like this game so far!” says Steve.

Jillian smiles widely with her full pouty lips and says, “Oh yeah? Well just wait. So, the face cards. Face cards ‘face’ - or look - a specific direction, either left or right. For example, if you draw the jack of clubs, as you’re looking at it the jack is looking to the right. So what that means is that whatever direction the face card is ‘looking,’ you will have to do something to the person in the direction the card is looking at.”

“What the fuck does that mean? asks Tom.

“OK, so if I draw the jack of clubs, and he is looking to the right, than I have to do something to the person on my right. If I draw the queen of diamonds, I have to do something to the person on my left, because as I look at the card she is ‘looking’ to the left.”

“Ah, OK, got it,” replies Tom.