Playing His Game

Chapter Sixteen | Feel On Baby

Sixteen:

"Drink up, princess."

I eyed the cup of beer with wide eyes. "Why can't you drink it?" I asked Trent.

He shrugged unapologetically. "Tyler's shots are mine, Lauren's are yours."

"B-but-"

"Just drink it!" Tyler hollered across the table.

I glared at Tyler, picking up the plastic cup. I cringed as I fished the ball out of the cup, dropping the stickily coated object on the table.

The golden liquid sloshed in the cup as I brought it near my lips. Resisting the urge to close my eyes, I took a small sip. I felt my face pucker as I took in the bitter liquid; it tasted like over-carbonated, flavorless soda.

I pulled the cup away, rubbing my tongue against the roof of my mouth in an effort to get rid of the taste.

"Gotta drink it all!" Lauren yelled with a laugh, noticing I still had a quarter of a cup left.

I sighed, bringing it back to my mouth and quickly gulping it down, trying not to focus on the flavor. Once I was finished, I tossed the cup into a small trash bin a few feet away.

"Your luck's about to run out!" Tyler taunted a minute later, as Trent prepared to take his shot.

Only pausing for a moment to give Tyler a smirk, showing that he was unfazed, Trent lobbed the ball directly into their center cup.

When he turned and looked at me expectantly, I had to bite my lip to force back the impressed smile spreading across my face.

Feeling a bit more confident now that I knew what to do, I grabbed the other ping-pong ball with renewed energy.

Since bouncing the ball didn't work out so well for me the first time, I tried to make it arch the same way Lauren did.

The ball flew across the table and rolled across the edges of a few cups, before finally falling into the same one Trent's ball had landed in.

Everyone, even the group of people surrounding us, went still. Tyler gaped at me from across the table. "No way. No fucking way!"

Even Trent seemed shocked; he was staring at me so intensely I started to get nervous. "What? What does that mean, is it good?" I ask, laughing uneasily.

Lauren was the first one to get over her shock, at least enough to speak. "It's over. Y-you just...your ball landed in the same cup as Trent's, you guys win."

My eyes widened. I opened my mouth to speak, but Tyler beat me to it. "What the fuck? Did you just hustle us, Audrey?"

"What? No! I didn't even know!" I exclaimed, still astonished that I had somehow won the game.

I glanced at Trent, who was still watching me with a look of wonder on his face. "So, what now?" I asked, toying with the sleeve of my sweater nervously.

My words seemed to break Trent from his thoughts, because he suddenly looked over at Tyler and Lauren with a devious smile. "Now, they drink the rest of the beer."

My jaw dropped. "All of it?" There were 18 cups of beer remaining on the table.

"Every single cup, so let's enjoy the show," Trent said cheerily.

Lauren and Tyler both looked stupefied as they surveyed all the beer in front of them. Tyler was already very drunk, so I didn't know how much more he could handle.

Lauren straightened her back, a stubborn expression taking hold of her as she grabbed a cup. "We'll both drink nine."

"No way, babe," Tyler interjected, "You have to drive us in the morning. I'll drink em."