Page 87 of Hard Rock Desires
I forced myself to keep my expression smooth. I knew he was making fun of me, but I didn’t want to cause a scene by getting upset. Besides, he was sort of right. It wasn’t my place to tell them how to live their life.
“I have an idea,” Finn continued. “Why don’t we play a drinking game? The drinking part is optional,” he added with a nod of his head toward me. “We haven’t done Never Have I Ever in a while.”
“That’s because we know each other too well,” Micah said. “It doesn’t work if you know everything about one another.”
“Then it’s a good thing we have a brand new player to take part in our game.” Finn threw me a look that practically dared me to decline. “What do you say? You in?”
Zain put his lips to my ear. “You don’t have to.”
“It’s really fun,” Kaylee piped up. “And it’s a good way for you to get to know everyone here.”
I disliked the idea of playing right into Finn’s hands, but it did sound kind of fun, playing a game with all of Zain’s friends and getting to know them better, just like Kaylee said.
“I’m in,” I said. “Although you’ll have to explain to me how to play.”
“It’s easy!” Kaylee hooked her elbow with mine and led me to the sofa. “If someone says something you’ve done, you take a drink.” Her forehead creased. “Although if you’re not doing shots, I guess you’ll have to do something else.”
“Play for points,” Micah suggested. “You start with ten points, and you lose a point for every action you’ve done.”
“Ten?” Did these people regularly do ten shots each in one night without passing out? Or maybe Micah was being nice and giving me lots of points to start with so I didn’t lose too early on.
Either way, I didn’t have long to think about it, because everyone gathered around the coffee table and I found myself on the sofa wedged between Kaylee and Zain.
“I’ll start.” Finn rubbed his hands together with evil glee. “Never have I ever gotten food poisoning from eating bad burritos on the back of a tour bus.”
The entire room filled with groans and annoyed grumbles as everyone took a shot. Finn shrugged carelessly.
“Not my fault I have higher standards than one-dollar truck stop burritos,” he said.
“That’s only because you bought the egg and mayo sandwich,” Kaylee pointed out. “I still think it’s unfair that we’re the ones who got sick.”
“I’ve got guts of steel,” he announced, patting his stomach and making his shirt ride up a bit, showing off some of his abs. My eyebrows lifted. Dang. Zain had mentioned they had a home gym, so he must have spent his fair share of time in there.
“I’ll go next,” Kaylee said. “Never have I ever taken a turn at driving the tour bus.”
“That’s because you refuse to get your license,” Micah said as he tossed a lime wedge at her. She caught it easily with one hand.
“Why would I bother, when you’re all so willing to chauffeur me?” she said with a cheeky grin. “Grace, your turn.”
I blinked, taken off guard. “Um.” I was positive any outlandish things I’d done must have been routine procedure for them. Maybe I could take it in another direction.
“Never have I ever stood up to pee,” I said.
All the men in the room took their shots without complaint.
“When in doubt, always play the girl card,” Kaylee said approvingly.
“Is this okay?” Zain murmured in my ear. “I know this wasn’t how you probably thought we’d spend the night.”
“I’m having fun,” I told him, and it was the truth, too. Zain’s friends were fun, even if Finn was really just too much, sometimes. “But my turns are probably going to be boring. I haven’t done any crazy stuff like you guys have probably done.”
“Sometimes the boring, normal stuff are the best ones. Check this out.” Zain raised his voice so all the others could hear. “Never have I ever eaten chicken nuggets.”
“Wait, really?” I asked as everyone drank.
“They played us this video in school, once,” Zain explained. “It showed the pink goop from pulverized chickens that goes into making nuggets. I haven’t been able to get it out of my head since.”
I wrinkled my nose. “I think I would have been happier not knowing how chicken nuggets were made.”
