wrong all along
the 2nd spin the bottle novel
a series of prequels to Everything Happens for a Reason... by
Daisy Jordan
copyright 2011 Daisy Jordan
This book is available in print at most online retailers.
To any girl who’s been in love with that one perfect boy
previously,
in
spin
the
bottle...
“No matter what though, we have to stick together,” Hillary said to Jill, Lorylyn, and Sam as they stood in Jill’s pool. “Let’s all make a pact right now. Not just in cheerleading, but in high school.”
“Ooohh, good idea!” Lorylyn said with a grin. “Let’s do it!” She held out her hand, palm down, and the other girls piled their hands on top of hers.
“To forever friendship!” Hillary proclaimed, and they all lifted their hands in the air triumphantly, smiling at each other.
***
“Hey!” Hilton called back. “There’s a party Saturday night, at Landon Kessler’s lake cottage. We’re all going. You guys should come!”
“Sure, that’d be great!” Jill blurted, hardly able to believe it. “Thanks.”
“Oh my gosh!” Lorylyn cried. “Landon Kessler?! He’s, like, one of the hottest sophomore guys! Oh my gosh, I can’t wait!”
“I can’t believe they invited us!” Jill giggled. “This is gonna be so fun!”
***
“Hey!” Brooke cried jokingly as Brady took a big bite. “Did I say you could have a bite of that?”
“I didn’t bother asking, ‘cause we both know you’ll let me have whatever I want, Brookie.”
***
“Hey, we should play spin the bottle!” Cassidy exclaimed.
***
“I can’t believe you got to kiss Landon!” Hilton gushed later as she joined Jill and Hillary. “You’re so lucky! He’s so hot; I’ve had a crush on him since, like, elementary school!”
“Haven’t you ever kissed him?” Jill asked, surprised.
“No,” Hilton said, wrinkling up her face. “He always just plays around with me, like a friend or something. I think he sees me as, like, a little sister.”
***
Lorylyn thought she was in love. With Brady Cash. He was by far the hottest guy she’d seen at Landon’s party. As she lay in bed later, she couldn’t stop smiling when she thought of his eyes that were like deep pools of chocolate, or his cute curl that was always in front of them. And his smile....Lorylyn sighed contentedly to herself as she closed her eyes, picturing the way he flirted with Brooke and imagining what it would be like if she were the lucky girl he chose to flirt with...
***
Brooke and Brady had grown close last year in class, and over the summer Brooke had felt a new electricity between them. He flirted with her more than he ever had before, and she’d really started to like him. She decided right then and there that her goal was to make him hers...as soon as possible.
***
“Do you like one of them?” Hilton asked.
“Um,” Jill said, feeling a little shy about it. “The one with the kind of light brown hair? Todd? He’s in my English class.”
***
“Hey, where the hell were you guys Saturday?” Hilton exclaimed as Jill sat down at lunch the following Monday.
“Saturday?”
“Yeah, Landon’s! I can’t believe you guys didn’t come!”
“What?!” Jill cried, immediately upset. “Landon had a party?”
Hilton frowned suddenly. “Yeah, I can’t believe you guys didn’t know, ‘cause Sam was even there!”
“It’s okay,” Jill said, boiling with anger inside. So Sam had known and not even bothered to tell them?!
***
“Okay, okay,” Brooke said finally, drawing the words out with a sly, satisfied smile spreading across her face. “I may have made out with Brady just a little bit.”
***
“Yeah, well we’ll be at the next Landon party!” Hillary stated adamantly. “Screw Sam! She’s no longer part of the pact! It’s down to three of us now.”
***
“I’m Todd.” He held his hand out to her.
“Jill,” she replied.
***
Lorylyn talked about Brady all the time, and he always flirted with her at lunch on green days. But Jill knew he had gone on a date with Brooke a couple weeks after they made out at Landon’s.
“Maybe,” Brooke said with a wink when Hilton asked her at lunch on a gold day if they had done more than make out this time. Jill didn’t tell Lorylyn because she didn’t want to ruin Lorylyn’s harmless flirting time at lunch.
***
“Hey, so would you be interested in going to the Homecoming dance with Bennett?”
Jill’s heart raced and then when Todd said the last word she was caught completely off guard. She’d been thinking he was going to say “with me.” She stared for a moment, feeling the shock and disappointment sink in.
***
“Dirk asked me to the Homecoming dance!” Hillary gushed in an ecstatic whisper.
***
Hilton usually thought it was really easy to tell when guys their age liked girls. Which was why her gut instinct that Landon didn’t like her that way was so upsetting…
***
“What about you, Brady?” Hilton asked, a teasing challenge in her voice.
“Oh, I think I know who I’m gonna ask,” Brady said with a secretive grin, and Jill and Hilton exchanged a small smile. They were both sure it would be Brooke.
***
“So...would you wanna go with me?” Brady asked.
Lorylyn’s mouth dropped open. “What? Me? You want me to go with you?”
***
They played spin the bottle with the empty whiskey bottle Lindy had brought along....
Brady pushed himself to his feet and walked toward Brooke. He walked right into her and kissed her all in one motion, and their bodies were pressed together for a brief second before Brady pulled away.
Jill stared after him, her mouth practically watering, then looked at Brooke. Their kiss had been so sexy it almost took her breath away.
***
“So...thanks for going out with me tonight. Do you wanna do something maybe some night this week? Like come over to my house or something?” Brady asked.
“Sure!” Lorylyn agreed, psyched.
“Awesome.” Then all of a sudden he leaned over and kissed her.
***
Jill and Todd were becoming known to everyone as “really good friends.” They often sat a little apart from the group, laughing and talking quietly together. Jill really didn’t know that much about Todd at all, but she felt a bond between them that thrilled her.
***
“Well, I was supposed to be Rachel from Friends, and Lorylyn was Monica and Hillary was Phoebe, but Hillary ditched us.” Jill’s eyes hardened. “And I had a cute outfit, too. A waitress outfit.”
“Hey, can I be Ross?” Todd asked suddenly.
***
Jill looked into the bathroom. Hilton and Brooke were standing by one of the sinks, huddled over a plastic keg cup.
“We’re gonna try to drink beer through our noses,” Hilton giggled. “We heard if you do it, it comes out your ears.”
***
“Hey, Jill,” Bennett said as he pulled his face back from hers. “Um, would you go out with me?”
“Hell yeah, man!” somebody yelled. Jill glanced toward the voice and froze, staring. It had been Todd. He was grinning and clapping. Something inside her died.
She ripped her gaze away from Todd and turned back to Bennett. “Yeah,” she said in an empty voice. “I’ll go out with
you.”
***
“I thought there was something going on between us!” Brooke exploded. “And then just out of nowhere you asked her to the dance and now she’s your girlfriend?!”
Brady shrugged again. “Well, I’ve liked her for a while, and I had to make a choice of who to ask to the dance.” His tone was calm and indifferent.
“You liked her?! You chose her over me?! How could you do that, Brady? We had sex like, a month ago!”
“Okay, fine, Brooke, do you want an explanation? You were just for fun, okay? I wouldn’t wanna date you ‘cause you were way too easy.”
***
“Dirk invited me to eat with his family, and I really, really want to. I would feel so bad turning him down,” Hillary said in explanation. Jill was upset and angry, because not only was Hillary backing out on Thanksgiving, but also on Jill’s birthday, which was the Saturday of Thanksgiving break.
***
In one swift motion, Brady’s hand ran back up her stomach and cupped her breast. Lorylyn gasped and pulled away, staring at him with wide eyes.
“What, don’t you wanna do that?”
“No. I mean, I don’t know. I just don’t wanna go that far yet.”
“I’ll try to control myself,” Brady whispered sexily, then brought his lips back to hers. He kept his hands to himself for the rest of their make-out session, and although Lorylyn was relieved, she missed the exhilarating sensation of his hand on her bare skin.
***
When Hillary and Dirk had first started dating, Hillary had told Jill everything, every little detail of her time spent with Dirk, but lately she’d become more elusive, and Jill had a feeling it was because Hillary and Dirk had done things sexually that Hillary didn’t think Jill would understand since she hadn’t done them herself.
***
“Hey, Tyler? It’s Jill. I…um…I think we should break up,” Jill said uncomfortably when he answered the phone.
“Oh,” he responded. “Um...okay.” There was a short awkward silence, then Jill heard him hang up.
How pathetic...not even a question as to why she was ending it. A junior high end to a junior high relationship.
***
The night before Landon’s New Year’s Eve party, Hilton spent the night at Jill’s house for the first time. Jill was excited. She felt like maybe Hilton was becoming her new best friend, since she didn’t really have Hillary anymore.
***
Hilton wore jeans and an oversized hooded sweatshirt with a pair of huge silver hoop earrings that almost touched her shoulders. Her honey-colored hair was in a loose, messy ponytail, and she didn’t even look like she was wearing any makeup.
And she looks ten times sexier than me! Jill thought. Jill wished she had her own sense of style like Hilton. Every time Jill was dressed differently, she felt stupid and embarrassed, but when Hilton dressed differently, it was on purpose…because she liked to be unique and knew she looked hot anyway.
***
“So we’re like, pretty good friends, right?” Todd asked.
“Yeah, why?” Jill was thrilled he considered her a good friend.
Todd turned away from Jill and faced the lake again. “So don’t tell anyone I told you this, but my parents just started counseling.”
***
“Okay,” Brooke said. “We’re gonna play a little bit different version of spin the bottle. Truth or dare spin the bottle.” She grinned in Lindy’s direction and Lindy gave her what could only be described as a grimace. She definitely didn’t share Brooke’s excitement. Jill felt uneasy...
Blake’s grin was practically evil. She waited a moment before asking loudly and clearly, “Who was the last person you had sex with?”
Finally Brooke stopped laughing and raised her head long enough to share a quick look with Blake and gasp out, “It...was...Brady.”
Lorylyn’s dark eyes went wide, her gaze frozen on Brooke.
***
“Okay, I admit I should’ve told you when we first started dating. I made a mistake. But you’re not gonna let that break us up, are you? Come on, you know what we have is so good.”
Lorylyn was sobbing. “What we had. We don’t have it anymore. I can’t be with you now, Brady.”
“So we’re breaking up?”
Lorylyn stared at the wall, sobbing silently.
“Come on, Lorylyn, please don’t do this!” He almost sounded like he might cry too, and Lorylyn’s heart twisted.
“No, Brady! Don’t do this! I can’t be with you right now! I just can’t!”
***
“Reed and I are definitely going out again next weekend...and, yeah, he’s my boyfriend!” Hilton burst into giddy laughter. She was so glad she’d finally decided to quit obsessing over Landon. He was her dream guy. But she really liked Reed too. And, she thought now, where would I have left to go if I got my dream guy now?
***
After looking around for a couple minutes, Jill, Hillary, and Lorylyn found a vacant end of a long table. At the other end was Kara Darson, from Jill’s biology class, along with two other girls they had gone to junior high with but never talked to much.
“Hey, do you guys mind if we sit here?” Hillary asked.
Kara and her friends gave them a dubious look. “Sure, I guess so,” one of them finally said, not sounding overly thrilled.
***
“Hey!” Brady said, jogging across the hall to join her. “You ran out of there so fast I almost missed you!”
Lorylyn was silent, praying for her insides to calm down and let her think straight. She knew she should still be pissed, and she was; just looking at him made all the hurt come back. But it also brought another feeling...the possibility of everything being right again.
***
“If I could take it back I would,” Brady said. “ ‘Cause if you ever decided some day down the road that you wanted to have sex with me, I’d want our first time...to be my first time.”
“That’s what I would’ve wanted too.” Lorylyn burst into tears again.
***
“Hey, don’t tell anyone about this,” Brady whispered. “ ‘Cause I went over to Lorylyn’s last night, and we’re still trying to work stuff out, you know.”
Brooke stared and quickly suppressed the urge to slap him. She smiled. “Don’t worry, hon. Of course I won’t tell.” You can’t be upset! she told herself. You just offered him sex with no strings attached and told him you were over all the drama; you have to hold up to that.
***
Todd swung his arm around her and pulled her roughly to him, making her stumble a little. “Jilly, I love you.”
Jill’s stomach flipped. He was just joking around, but still, he’d said he loved her!
***
Todd doubled over in laughter. “Oh, holy shit, that was freaking hilarious. You were so freaked out ‘cause you thought I was gonna kiss you! You should’ve seen your face! You would’ve thought I was some hideous freakin’ monster or something!”
“Shut up!” Jill cried, practically sighing with relief that he hadn’t been able to tell how much she’d wanted him to kiss her.
***
“Todd so likes you!” Lorylyn exclaimed.
“Do you think so?” Jill asked, surprised.
“Um, YEAH! He called you out of SRT, out of allll his friends, ‘cause he wanted to hang out with you, and he bit your neck! Does it GET any more obvious?!”
***
Landon jumped into the middle of the circle and put his hand over the bottle, slowing Blake’s spin and stopping the bottle so it pointed directly at Lorylyn…
“Lorylyn, come here and maybe we can find a guy for you to kiss too.” He stood up and offered Lorylyn his hand...
Right in the middle of the driveway was a huge heart shaped out of red rose petals, and inside the heart was her name, written in what looked like chocolate icing. Beyond the heart, an arrow of rose petals pointed farther down the driveway...
As s
he neared the point of the arrow, she could now see a small box sitting in the driveway. She knelt and picked it up, removing the lid. When she saw what was inside, happy tears welled up in her eyes, and she pressed her hand to her heart as a slow grin spread across her face. It was Brady’s class ring, with green thread wrapped around it to make it smaller.
There was a piece of paper underneath the ring.
Will you be my Valentine?
Love, Brady
All of a sudden she felt a hand on hers and looked up to see Brady staring down at her, his dark passionate eyes pleading with hers.
Lorylyn’s grin widened into a big, silly smile. “Of course I’ll be your Valentine!” She giggled and reached up to throw her arms around him, hugging him as tightly as she could. “Thank you, Brady,” she whispered as she clung to him, feeling truly happy for the first time since Landon’s New Year’s party.
***
“So how far did you and Bennett go?” Hillary asked with a sly smile.
Jill shook her head and wrinkled her nose. “All I did was make out with him....So what all have you and Dirk done?”
“Well, not that much really. I’d say like halfway between second and third base.... We’ll probably do more soon.”
***
Jill and Hillary played volleyball two buildings down from their own; one day they’d been walking by on the beach and some cute guys had called them over and asked them to play. So they had, and now they went back every day. Jill really liked one of the guys, Jon...
“Hey,” Jon said. “My parents are going out tonight…so I think we’re gonna have a little party at our place, if you guys wanna come over.”
***
“Um, Dirk called, but he couldn’t talk...he’s gonna call back later, like around ten. So I don’t think I’m gonna go to Jon and Alec’s,” Hillary said later.
Jill stared, so mad she couldn’t find any words. She couldn’t believe Hillary was letting her down like this, when Hill knew how much she liked Jon. “Why can’t you just not talk to Dirk tonight? Come on, Hill, you know how much I wanna go!”
“I can’t miss Dirk’s phone call ‘cause I’m at a party with other guys! That’d go over real well! Plus, I don’t wanna miss his phone call! Maybe if you had a boyfriend you’d understand!”
She is so not even a good friend anymore! Jill thought sourly. So much for the pact to stick together during high school. Well, there were three of us left. And now it’s down to two.