No Guidelines

Chapter 15-8

Audrey could feel Natalie stiffen at that. She did too. 7 minutes in heaven? There's no way. She'll just watch, she decided. Emma was skipping back to them and grabbed Audrey's wrist in one hand and Chris's in the other. She gave Audrey a huge smile and said, "Singles only."

That didn't leave a lot of players. Aside from Chris and herself. Only three other single people were at the party. 2 guys and another girl. None of whom Audrey knew.

They gathered around the table and placed an empty bowl. "Alright! Now write your names and place them into the bowl! Once that's done I'll draw a name and whoever gets picked gets to choose who to be in a closet with them for 7 minutes," Emma said.

"Wouldn't it be better to just spin a bottle?" one of the boys asked.

"House rules," Emma said. The singles finished writing their names and handed the bowl over to Emma. She stirred the names with her hands and everyone was chanting. Everyone except Natalie, who instead looked worried for Audrey's sake. It bothered Audrey that Jacob didn't seem to mind her being in such a game as this.

Audrey turned her gaze to Chris, who sat across from her. He seemed to be having fun, not at all flustered like she was.

"And our first pick is..." Emma announced with a pause for dramatic flair. "Chris!"

The lacrosse boys and Jacob all started hollering and cheering for him. That seemed to embarrass him a little.

"Who are you picking Chris?" Emma asked. He looked at Audrey and she froze. It was obvious he wasn't going to pick a guy, Audrey was aware he wasn't gay. But between her and the other girl, she couldn't believe it.

The other girl was beautiful. She had curly black hair and had a soft tan that matched Chris's. She wore make-up and an outfit that didn't hide her curves. It honestly shocked Audrey she was even single. Shocked her even more so that between the two of them, Chris didn't pick her. He picked Audrey.

This surprised some of the crowd too, as confused what's and gasps could be heard. It stung Audrey a little but she thought the same as them. Chris got up and reached out to her, pulling her up. This was really happening.

Emma smiled at the two and led them to Micah's walk-in pantry. On the way, Audrey glanced over at Jacob and Natalie for help. But Jacob was cheering along with everyone else but Natalie—Natalie looked hurt.

At least Audrey thought so. Natalie turned her head as soon as they made eye contact but the image of Natalie's face stuck in her mind. It ultimately meant that Audrey would have to go through those Seven minutes. But from what she knew About Chris it couldn't be so bad.

They stood in the pantry, there was enough space to move around, so it wasn't too tight. Emma winked at the two suggestively before she closed the door. A light shined from above, illuminating the colorful packaging of food. Audrey looked around at the finer details of it all but she noticed Chris just looking at her. He was only interested in seeing her.

"Not so bad huh?" he asked.

She gulped, and got embarrassed that he might have heard that. "No..." she said, her eyes stuck on his as if she were in a trance. "Not so bad."

An awkward silence fell between the two. Something felt so wrong about this but Audrey couldn't help but feel a sense of attraction to it. To him. His mouth curled into a smile when Audrey realized she was staring at him this whole time. She looked back at a package of cup noodles.

"You like cup of noodles?" She asked. the fact that it was an absurd question—cringe even—was not lost on her.  but he just laughed at that.

"Do I like cups of noodles?" he repeated, as if it was a silly question. It was. "Is that seriously what you want to talk about for the seven minutes we have together?"