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“Follow me,” Misa announced, and she called to the girls, instructing one of her friends, Joan, to bring the glass cordial bottle. Unlike the other girls, Joan hadn’t dressed up. She wore knee-length shorts and a t-shirt with the Ravenclaw logo on it. She had huge, seventies-style glasses and her hair was tied back in a sensible braid.
We followed Misa to the far side of her backyard, behind the tin shed. She instructed us to sit into a circle, and some of the boys tried to subtly sit next to the girls they liked (it wasn’t subtle at all). The cordial bottle was placed in the middle of the circle, on top of a flattened piece of cardboard.
“We’re going to play seven minutes in heaven,” Misa announced. “Does everyone know how to play?”
She explained it for the people who didn’t. We’d go around in a circle, and each person would take turns spinning the bottle. Whoever it landed on would be their partner, and the two of them would go into the shed for seven minutes.
One girl raised her hand, as if we were sitting in class. “Then what do you do in the shed?”
“What do you think?” Misa said.
“Kiss,” one boy said, then laughed far too loudly in an attempt to look confident.
Another girl raised her hand. “My mum said I’m not allowed to kiss any boys until I’m sixteen.”
Misa rolled her eyes. “You don’t have to kiss. You can just stand there. Jeez.”
One boy raised his hand. “What if my bottle lands on another boy? Or if a girl spins it and it lands on another girl?”
“Then you just go in the shed with them. What’s the problem?” Joan asked.
The boy’s nose crinkled. “I don’t want to kiss another boy.”
“You don’t have to kiss them, remember,” Misa said. “You can just talk. Who knows? Maybe you’ll make a new friend.”
“But it’s weird, just standing in the dark with someone,” a girl said.
“If you’re a scaredy cat, you don’t have to play,” Misa said. “Anyone who wants to go can go. I ain’t gonna force you.”
She watched over us, but no one moved. I was practically humming with excitement. Tonight would be the night I’d have my first kiss.
Misa began, since she was the birthday girl. She spun the bottle, and we all leaned in closer to watch as the bottle slowed…
And then it landed on Misa's best friend, Nadia. A girl. Everyone sighed in disappointment. Except for Nadia, who pressed her lips together to suppress a smile.
Misa dragged Nadia into the shed as if completing a chore, her strides purposeful. Nadia was practically skipping. Joan started the timer for 7 minutes on her phone, and then everyone turned to their friends beside them. I watched the others chatter, then glanced at Lucas, who sat beside me.
He was already watching me. He didn’t look happy — instead, he wore an expression of concentration, the same look he wore in maths class.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
He blinked. “Nothing.”
“Who do you want your bottle to land on?” I asked.
“Who do you want your bottle to land on?”
That was a typical Lucas answer. I hummed as I looked around the circle. “All the girls are pretty. I wouldn’t mind it landing on any of them but…maybe Eliza. Or Samantha. Or Joan. She’s really nice to me…” I turned back to him. “What about you?”
Something flashed across his face, an expression too quick for me to read. “It’s a secret,” he mumbled.
“Lucas,” I complained, grabbing his arm and shaking it. “No fair, you have to tell me!”
Despite my wheedling, he refused to tell me. Eventually, Misa and Nadia came out, and everyone cut off their conversations, eager to see what happened next.
We went around the circle. Nothing particularly eventful happened, except for the times a boy’s bottle would land on a girl, or vice versa, and the girls would giggle and the boys would whistle obnoxiously.
When it was Joan’s turn, I held my breath as the bottle slowed. For a moment, I thought it’d land on me, and my stomach lurched. But then it passed me and rattled to a stop in front of Lucas.
