Forbidden Attraction (Book 1)✔

♤Chapter 41♤

♤ARIANA♤

The game went on for a good hour and I was actually having a nice time watching them have fun. I'd switched to curling up on the couch and not on the floor halfway through and I was warm and comfortable. The only difficult thing had been keeping my face at normal room temperature.

Every time I'd glanced at Chris, he was either already looking at me, or he immediately met my gaze as if he'd felt it somehow.

About forty-five minutes into the game, he'd quit and took a seat on a one-seater close to the group, which I appreciated. Even though the angle he was sitting would require him to turn his head a fraction to look at me, he made it work. They were just glances, but I found myself texting him to stop looking at me. To which he replied:

'You're just so beautiful'

And that brought on another blush and me not replying.

I didn't hate the guy obviously, what happened at school with me and him, and Jared... it just threw me all the way off and I've been rethinking everything. How I was with them and how I'm supposed to be. Obviously, I wasn't all touchy-feely with Jared, but...

Now, I kind of just don't want anyone to touch me, which is kind of contradicting because of what I was doing with Nate when I first came. That was purely playful, though, along with how I am with the rest of them. Well, maybe I was different with Chris, but what I... felt for Chris wasn't the same for the rest of them.

But the fact that he felt the way he did, out of everybody else, spoke volumes to me. Now I just needed time to get myself back on track with who I was. Or who I thought I was anyway. Right now, I didn't even know what I wanted.

I focused on the ongoing game again. The bottle had stopped on Nate for like the third time since the game started but this time, he chose a dare. Well, they coaxed him into it and he eventually gave in.

He lifted his beer to his lips the same time some guy dished out his dare. It had all of us doing a double-take and Nate, a spit take.

"Excuse me?" He stuttered, eyes wide.

"I said," the guy repeated tauntingly, "make out with Thion."

It sounded even worse the second time. I let out a delirious laugh, covering my mouth. My eyes immediately went to seek out Nathion and found him almost instantly. He stood against the wall across the room, talking to some girl with legs going on for miles.

"Out of everybody here," Nate exclaimed, and I couldn't not grin with everybody else, "you ask me to make out with Thion?" he said it like an insult.

"What's wrong with Thion?" I blurted out before I could even think. I couldn't help it.

Nate blinked at me, dumbfounded.

"Yeah, Nate?" Jess backed me up and so did Jules.

"Okay, shut up," he pointed when we kept going back and forth. We laughed and he said, "There's nothing wrong with him, but he's one of my best friends," he emphasized. "That and he's... Thion."

"You gonna do it or what?" the guy pushed, and Nate made a face.

"Nate get with the 21st century, love. You'd make out with Anna if you had to," another girl I didn't know, said, gesturing to me.

Did she just...

I was about to put her in her damn place, but Nate replied, making me rethink it. "Her name is Ariana. And no," he shook his head, "no, I wouldn't. Don't act like you know me."