𝐠𝐫𝐨𝐰𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐩𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐬 . . . 𝐛𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐫𝐞𝐰𝐬

•nine•

after school had ended that day, all the students had gathered in a room to play spin the bottle, all josie's idea of course. little did the school children know that josie's innocent game had something more sinister growing in the roots of her mind. with the simple party game, she hoped to pull gilbert and marissa's relationship to shreds and hopefully show marissa that billy and and her had something serious that she could not even come close to.
as all the kids circled around each other josie realized that marissa and gilbert were nowhere to be seen. she stepped out of the tiny side room to see the two in the coat room laughing with one another as gilbert wrapped his signature scarf around the small girl's frame. they were about to head out of the school building to walk to their spot, the cliff, when josie yelled out a simple "leaving so soon?"
this made both teens turn to look at the blond haired girl wearing a purple dress with questioning looks on their faces. "what are you talking about?" gilbert spoke.
"we're playing a game of spin the bottle in the back and i thought you guys should play." josie returned with a smirk toying her lips. marissa knew what was happening and was growing rather impatient.
"actually gilbert and i were headed home so if you'll excuse us," marissa spoke up for the first time.
josie then walked over to the pair and grabbed both of their arms dragging them towards the other room while spitting out a "nonsense, you'll play with us."
when josie pulled the two into the room, billy had a bored expression on his face. his eyes found marissa's in a split second and now he was perking up to the fact that he might go home with a kiss from marissa. all the boys were thinking the same thing as billy but marissa wasn't interested in anyone except for her gilbert.
josie pushed them down to sit on opposite sides of the circle and started explaining the rules. marissa really didn't want to play so she spoke up against josie saying "i really don't want to play josie.
i just want to go home"
right as she said this gilbert was ready to leave but before he could stand and rush over to an uncomfortable marissa, billy spoke up. "what are you scared that it's not gonna land on gilbert and you might have to kiss one of us real men?" at this all the boys except cole and gilbert made kissing noises and mocked the two. there was no more room for words when josie said enough and gave diana the first spin.
the game was is full motion and several people had gone when it was marissa's turn. she slowly grabbed the bottle looking over to gilbert for some sort of life line and when he shook his head she felt a queasy feeling rise up in her stomach and she knew, this was going to be bad.
her hand gripped the bottle and as she let it go it spun and all boys simultaneously crossed their fingers hoping it would be them. when the bottle came to a stop, the top of the bottle landed on no other than charlie sloan.
he smirked across the circle looking at a nervous marissa and before he could stand and make his way to the center of the circle, two boys had already stood up ready to take marissa out of the bizarre situation she had gotten herself into. gilbert and billy both looked at each other while they stood up and at the same time they looked at her and said "let's go marissa."
the whole circle stopped and turned to look at the fiasco in their midst. marissa slowly stood up hating the attention of all the other school kids, and in the slightest hope that she would choose him, billy took a step forward with his hand extended. marissa completely ignored his actions and took her hand into gilbert's and the two students walked out of the room, hand in hand, and made their way to their initial destination. when the two of them retreated, billy felt defeated and walked out of the school grabbing his belongings and not saying a word. the rest of the students watched as he walked away and started gathering their things as well knowing that the game had ended and it was time to go home.

//

i finally updated! it has been wayyyyyy too long. i really hope you guys enjoy this chapter! it got a little spicy! also i've been doing online school because of corona so i haven't updated while i was at home but i'll try to keep this book updating if i can! i love you all for your support on this book! truly, thank you.
xoxo — angie!