Gregory Girls Gone Wild - Chapter 25: Chapter 25

"That's not fair," Danika said immediately. "You stopped the bottle before—"
Rainey hurtled the bottle through the air where it crashed on the concrete yards away. The glass broke, its shards scattering and landing in the grass.
Danika flinched. So did everyone else.
"Rainey, what the hell?" Jessica shouted.
She felt a warning grip on her arm. Mariah.
"Well?" Rainey demanded. "Truth or fucking dare, Danika?"
No more Dani. No more cute nicknames. Only the hard beat of the party music existed, strumming the air into discord. The group of girls seemed to hold their breath.
She knew what Danika wanted to pick. She wanted her to pick it.
Danika stared wide-eyed at her. "Truth."
"That's a cop-out," Rainey said savagely. "Pick dare."
"No, truth."
"Fuck you."
"I said truth!"
"Then, is it true that you said you liked drinking around me?" Rainey spat. "Is it true that you stopped texting your ex because of me?"
A flutter of 'ooh's' and gasps erupted from the hot tub.
Danika trembled. "I-I—"
"What? You can ask me to take my bikini top off but you can't answer simple questions?"
Sheba looked frozen in place as if she was watching a gory horror movie in its climax.
Danika's bravado seemed to have shrunk. "I change my mind. I choose dare."
Rainey clucked her tongue.
"I let you switch," Danika reminded her, her voice poisonous. "It's only fair. Dare—I choose dare."
Kiss me.
It was what Rainey wanted to say, desperately. But she was reminded that there were tens of observers gleefully watching, and she swallowed her words, feeling apprehensive. Danika too, after tonight's events, wouldn't be quite keen for a kiss. Rainey knew that if she were to hit on her, Danika, this mean, hurtful Danika, would laugh in her fucking face.
Rainey wanted to hurt her back. She didn't want to lose.
Staring at the water bubbling from the jets, Rainey thought deeply. She had to be cunning; she needed the million dollar question to be answered tonight without further humiliating herself. The bubbling water rushed quicker, scalding her skin and turning it bright red.
Her sister shifted uncomfortably besides her. A terrible idea formed in Rainey's head.
She turned to Danika grimly.
"I dare you to kiss Mariah."
The girls gasped and the spectating guys snickered. Rainey watched Danika's eyes turn small and confused.
"Now this is what I'm talking about," Jessica said, licking her lips. "Lucky bitch. Go do it, Danika."
"Excuse me," Mariah said, mouth open. "No way—"
Rainey turned around and begged her sister silently with every iota of her spirit. Green eyes matched green eyes, Georgina's only beautiful inherited trait. Mariah blinked, unsure.
"But Nakir..." Mariah said, faltering.
Rainey's heart sank as they looked at Nakir. But he looked more astonished than jealous, in her opinion. His arms were resting on the granite, his hoodie illuminated by the jacuzzi light.
"You're not into her, right?" Nakir mouthed. Mariah shook her head.
"As long as it's not Jessica," he said, shrugging. Jessica stuck his tongue out at him. He waggled his eyebrows at her.
Rainey turned to Danika, triumphant. Back down, will you? I'll show you who's boss.
"Go on," she sneered. "Do the dare. Unless you're too scared."
Danika's brown eyes bored into hers, and waves of heat crashed into Rainey's throat.
Danika stood up, water spilling down her stony face and the tips of her ponytail. She looked striking in the golden bikini, almost Amazonian. It was an outfit worthy of one of the worst ideas Rainey had ever concocted.
Stiff as a board, the sophomore strided towards Mariah, parting the steamy water like it was the Red Sea. Her large hand grabbed Mariah's chin. "You ready?"
Sheba looked flabbergasted at the turn of events. Jessica was watching like a dog hung on a bone. Mostly everyone else was giggling.
"Not a kiss on the cheek!" Rainey rang out, her voice hoarse. "A peck won't do either—"
Danika kissed Mariah then, softly. Mariah leaned back, her arms grazing the Jacuzzi wall. Rainey watched, stunned.
Hard whistles echoed in the air. People were going batshit crazy.
Rainey watched, entranced, as Danika kissed Mariah twice, not a peck exactly nor a make out session, but full on, focused kisses. Danika tilted her head back when done, her hand falling to the side. Mariah blinked up at her, face red.
Danika wasn't looking at her. She was staring at Rainey steadily, in a fighter position.
"Well?" Rainey demanded, her voice so high-pitched it sounded like screeching. "What did it feel like?"
Danika rolled her shoulders. The hand with which she grasped Mariah fell into the burning water.
"Kissing guys is better."
Water splashed everywhere as Rainey got out of the hot tub, shoving people aside blindly.
Tears flooding her eyes, she fumbled for her clothes strewed on the ground, ignoring the shouts and roars of laughter behind her. She tripped over the wet concrete, to the hollers of a couple of guys, before regaining her balance and escaping to the inside of the mansion.
She could barely see, this was all her fucking fault—
She let herself be pulled into the pull and mess of the drunken crowd, feeling utterly lost. Then, somebody grabbed her painfully. It was her sister, sopping wet in her swimsuit and burning with fury.
"Have you gone crazy?" Mariah bellowed. "Rainey, what the hell are you on?"
"Let go of me—"
Rainey stumbled as Mariah pushed her hard. Nakir was waiting warily behind their backs.
"Are you happy?" Mariah demanded. "With these kind of mind games you're playing with Danika? She looks absolutely upset in the jacuzzi! Why did you make me kiss her?"
Rainey struggled to pull her shirt and shorts and on, a difficult task when one is wet. "She started it! Just leave me alone, Mariah!"
Mariah threw her arms in the air. "That doesn't explain the kiss! Is this some kind of Freudian twisted shit you're pulling?"
"Fucking go away—"
"Seeing your dream girl kiss your identical twin sister, that could get you off, I bet—"
Nakir placed his hand soothingly on her arm. "Okay, lets calm down here."
They were making quite a ruckus in the second living room, drunken people watching them in avid interest. A guy in a green hat was smoking weed and trying to blow it in their direction.
"I'm sorry I asked you to kiss her," Rainey closed her eyes, feeling unbearable pain radiate in her body. "But I'm glad in a way. I know now."
She opened her eyes to see Nakir gazing at her sadly. In a rush of understanding, she realized why Nakir was okay with the kiss.
Tears fell down her cheeks.
"She's straight," Rainey sobbed. "And I'm an idiot for falling for her."
"Oh, Rainey," Mariah said helplessly. The anger drained out of her body immediately.
"I'm so stupid." Rainey's knees almost buckled. "Why did I think she could ever like me?"
She recoiled from Mariah's hesitant touch. "I'm sorry for dragging you in this. T-truly. But you'll recover from a bad kiss, Mariah. You've got a boyfriend to help you out with that."
"Please, Rainey—"
"Meanwhile, I've got no one—"
"Rainey, where are you going?"
"Come back here!"
She turned around and fled, away from the sickeningly sympathetic faces of her sister and Nakir. Bulldozing through the crowd, she ran through the mansion towards the front yard.
The cold air licked her unpleasantly. Her skin was raw-red from spending so much time in the hot tub and her muscles were sore. She shivered uncontrollably.
Danika kissing her sister, Ryan with his whole ally spiel, Danika saying...Danika saying...kissing guys...
She vomited on a small corner of the world that contained a fire hydrant and a dead tree. This was the worst night of her life.
And it was her fault, wasn't it? Hadn't she fallen for a straight girl? Hadn't she allowed herself to get in so deep?
Now Danika is going to hate me, she thought miserably. She sank to her knees. Who cares? I hate her and I hate myself even more.
She shouldn't have taken the game as far as she did tonight. But Danika had kept pushing, pushing her over the edge with her relentless teasing so that she couldn't take it anymore.
It was freezing. Rainey wrapped her jacket and her stupid scarf tighter around her body. She sobbed loudly, unable to contain the intolerable pain rising in her chest. Golden hoops flashed in her mind.
Danika had been so beautiful tonight.
She ripped the scarf off her body and stamped on it, screaming without abandon. She wanted to sully it as much as she could, make it feel as dirty as she felt tonight. After a minute, with passerby staring quite morbidly at the scene, she picked up the scarf and wrapped it around her neck unabashedly. Rationality re-entered her mind. The weather was too fucking cold and the scarf way too expensive to leave behind.
She slowed to a trudge, tired after running so far. She had no car because Nakir had driven them tonight; her motorcycle was at home; Uber wasn't an answer because she needed to save money. She was broke and all alone in the world.
Shoving a fist in her mouth, she forced herself to stop crying.
"Won't do you any good," she whispered. "Stop being such a baby."
The sobbing reduced to dry heaving, tears leaving tracks on her face which she didn't bother to wipe away. The streets were mostly deserted. People who had better lives outside of school had already left Gregory College for winter break.
After walking for who knows how long, and ignoring all calls from Mariah and Nakir, Rainey felt a harder buzz attack her phone. She pulled it out, feeling like a zombie. Her head throbbed.
It was a Google Calendar notification. A meeting had been added for January 15th. Squinting at the bright light, Rainey scratched her head. She opened her email and saw that a new message was sent recently to her inbox.
Meeting for Sam Stabbing in the Billy King Jr. Building. Room 1101. Scheduled for January 15th, immediately after winter break.
Wear professional clothes. Bring a banana and a checkbook.
Best wishes,
Loralie
P.S.: You are relieved of your water delivery duties over break, unless you are planning on staying, which would be quite unfortunate considering that the holiday season is quite bleak in Gregory College. Happy Holidays!
Gregorium Avidante
My phone number when you get lonely over the holidays: I AM LORALIE
Rainey's feet were aching by the time her apartment was in sight. She had been walking for more than half an hour in the bitter cold. Her mind was racing from the email.
She figured the secretary was joking about her phone number, an unfortunate dig at Rainey's single status which was all the more painful after tonight.
And a banana? Was the whole email a joke?
She rubbed her hands in an attempt to regain some feeling.
January 15th. Well, she could fix at least one thing in her life, couldn't she?
The moon hung over her in lonely moping. Its bright shine was the only thing stopping Rainey from heading to the highway and jumping in front of a car. It was almost as beautiful as Danika.
As she climbed up her apartment steps, limping and hungover and heartbroken, a hint of clarity entered Rainey's broken spirit. She vowed never to be in this position again; at the mercy of a girl who had been playing with her and a spirit group who wouldn't stop.
She wasn't a loser. She would win.