Chapter 1: Introduction
Everything was blurry and spinning so fast that Emily wondered if the room around her would become completely unfamiliar by the time she squinted at the next face in her direction. The voices buzzed by her head like a hive of restless bees, and she knew she should be concentrating on the conversation, but it was so hard to focus when her gaze kept dropping to the white-and-red spiral-topped straws scattered on the table.
"Emily." Alex's voice cut through the hive-noise, sharp and clear.
"Come on, Em, don't tell me you're getting cold feet already."
Emily squinted at her friend, trying to sharpen her features in her mind. "I'm not wearing any, like you wanted," she called back hotly, jutting out her chin. God, the room was tipping again. Why was the floor becoming so uneven?
"Because you agreed to do it without any!" Alex laughed, leaning on her elbows on the table.
"Oh, come on, Em. Live a little!"
Alex, Emily thought. Just enough sense managed to push its way to the front of the spinning room to allow her to remember her friend's name. "You're the one making me do this," she said, almost-but-not-quite whining, wondering if she actually had the courage to go through with this.
Alex laughed again, an exuberant scoff that seemed to echo off the walls of the house they were crammed into. "Oh, please, Em. Don't be such a chicken." She scratched at the silly golden polka-dot tie that was encircling her neck, loosening it a bit in between teasing words.
Emily glanced away from her friend, her eyes darting around the room in search of an escape.
She saw a group of her fellow students, all clustered together and giggling around the casket-shaped cooler in the center of the room. The keg, that monster that had robbed her of her inhibitions. If it weren’t for that, she likely would have never agreed to such a ridiculous dare.
She focused on the keg again, trying to decide if she should slip away from the table to get some water, when suddenly, she was struck by a new determination. Yes! She would go through with the dare, but she’d do it on her own terms.
With a firm, determined glance, Emily slid off her barstool, her eyes never wavering from Alex’s.
“Come on, Em,” Alex urged, her sleepy brown eyes meeting Emily’s.
“You may regret this after I do it,” Emily replied, adjusting her crop top before sliding her arms into the sleeves of her black cardigan.
“I’ll believe you when I see it,” Alex smirked playfully, reached behind her chair and picked up Emily’s floral dress, a dress that Emily hadn’t even worn since prom last year.
A dress that felt strange against Emily's naked skin.
Emily’s grip tightened on the neckline of the cardigan, and as she raised an eyebrow at Alex, she couldn’t help thinking how silly her friend was. All of this would be an empty spectacle if she didn’t follow through with her end of the dare.
“Watch closely,” Emily said, trying to sound as confident as she could. She slowly released her grip on the cardigan and let it slip down her shoulders, her body momentarily frozen. She was doing this.
A rush of panic flooded Emily’s senses as she stood, heart thudding like an overeager bass drum. Her eyes shifted between the crowd and Alex, as if they might both disappear. But as she faced the crowd, her resolve solidified, and her fingers trembled as she slowly undid the buttons of her cardigan, exposing her skin little by little.
The music thumped in tune with Emily’s drumming pulse, but none of her classmates noticed; the keg had worked in more ways than one. She unveiled bare shoulders, then arms.