AllFreeNovel
Share Us
CHAPTER 1
New Hope, Pennsylvania
Maci Williams
“I triple dog dare you.”
I met Ryan’s gaze and smirked in his direction. The music pumped over the speakers, and I leaned back in my chair, appraising him with a cold, defiant look. The fire crackled, each snap and pop of the burning wood loud to my ears. The flickering flames danced with a warm, amber glow, casting playful shadows on the ground as his dare hung in the air between us.
I could never turn away from a dare… Never.
“Do it. You won’t,” he pushed, and I shook my head, looking down at the very full shot glass right in front of me.
It was honey whiskey.
I wasn’t usually a party girl. In fact, this was the first party I’d ever been invited to, and it was at my own house. The cool kids didn’t usually like hanging out with the nerdy kids, and I was definitely one of the latter. I’d always been a straight A student in all my AP classes and the first one to volunteer for extra credit. Most of my nights, at least before our graduation, had been spent doing mountains of homework, instead of smoking weed and drinking until all hours of the night, and that definitely didn’t make a girl a part of the ‘in’ crowd.
Right now, though, all of the smart kids were off starting their freshman year of college, and here I was, finally invited into the cool kid fold because they thought it was awesome that I already had my own place, and that I was taking a gap year. That decision had earned me somewhat of a rebel reputation, and with that came cool status.
Honestly, I wasn’t really sure what it was. I was still trying to figure that out.
Tonight wasn’t the time for that though.
Tonight, I was making a whole new group of friends.
I wrapped my fingers around the shot glass, threw it back like it definitely wasn’t the first shot I’d ever taken, and tried my best to hide the face I made as the whiskey burned its way down the back of my throat, all the way down to the pit of my stomach.
Gross.
Why did people like this stuff?
Instead of showing just how much of a noob I was though, I smiled, swallowed back my look of disgust, and held the empty glass up like I’d just won an Olympic medal.
“Won’t I though?” I grinned.
All at once, the rest of the group roared in support, which made me feel like a badass despite the horrible taste still burning my tongue.
“Fuck, Maci. I didn’t think you could do it,” Ryan grinned. Our eyes met for a moment, his bold and mine shy before I finally looked away.
“Give her another,” Kendra barked. Her own eyes were glassy as she stared back at me. She’s always been the most popular girl at school. Head of the cheerleading squad. Homecoming queen. First picked at every school dance and in every group project, except she’d gotten caught with a shit ton of weed in her locker a month before graduation and that had literally fucked up her whole life.
Turns out, her boyfriend Tucker had been dealing and he’d used her locker to store it, only the jackass let her go down for it without even saying a word. The school had expelled her, she’d gotten arrested, and her parents had made her get her GED, just so she could go to the local community college instead of some ritzy school out in California.
Honestly, I felt a little bad for her. I wasn’t sure I wanted to go to college yet, but at least I still had the choice, unlike her.
“Not so straight laced then, huh?” Carmen smirked, and Ryan winked in my direction.
“Seems not,” he declared, and he quickly poured me another shot of honey whiskey. I took it down like a champ, the burn still sizzling just as much on the way down as the first.
Was whiskey always this bad?
I shook it off with a huff and the group laughed.
“Fuck, this place is nice, Maci. No parents. No rules. Just us,” Kendra murmured, and the rest of the group agreed, nods circling all around the fire.
I smiled, feeling seen for the first time in my life.
My house was out in the boonies, but it was home to me. A two-story colonial with a ton of acreage all around it gave us enough privacy to have a campfire out in the backyard without worry of being disturbed. Even if we made a ton of noise, the nearest neighbor was half a mile away, so the chances of anyone knowing we were back here drinking was slim to none.
