A shiver danced up Emma’s spine. The Lying Game. Just the name turned her blood vessels to icicles. “Right,” she said after a pause.
Gabby made a face. “So it’s okay for us to be part of the club when the joke’s on us, but not the other way around?” She nudged Lili, and she nodded, too. Their eyes blazed.
There was a long pause. Madeline exchanged a look with Charlotte. “That was different.”
“Yeah, really different.” Charlotte turned and stared pointedly at Emma. Emma fiddled with the ankle strap on her shoe, wishing she knew what they meant.
Charlotte cleared her throat, breaking the awkward tension. “Well. There’s one game we can all play. . . .” She flung open the double doors of a large wooden wardrobe at the far end of the room. “Since we’re all here, we can start.” She unveiled a bottle of Absolut Citron from behind her back. “It’s not a new school season without a round of Never Have I Ever.”
She poured the clear liquid into round glasses and passed them around. “Just to review, you name something you’ve never done before. For instance, never have I ever French-kissed Mr. Howe.”
“Ew!” Lili squealed.
“And then anyone who has kissed Mr. Howe has to drink,” Charlotte concluded.
“Except they have to be real things,” Madeline said, rolling her eyes. “Not stuff none of us would do.”
“Sutton might kiss Mr. Howe.” Charlotte shot Emma a coy look. “You never know.”
Everyone giggled nervously. “I’ll go first,” Madeline volunteered. She looked around at all of them. “Never have I ever . . . skipped four days of school in a row.”
She sat back on her haunches, not drinking. Gabriella and Lilianna also held their glasses in their laps. Emma didn’t move either. Madeline flicked Emma’s knee with her thumb and forefinger. “Hello? What about that time you ran off to San Diego for the long weekend?”
“The really long weekend,” Charlotte giggled. “I thought you were dead!” Then she nudged her chin at Emma’s glass. “Bottoms up, buttercup!”
Emma didn’t know what else to do but take a sip. She nearly gagged. It tasted like sucking on the nozzle at the gas pump and eating a slightly rotten lemon at the same time.
Charlotte was next. She drummed her nails on the edge of the glass, thinking. “Let’s see. Never have I ever . . . stolen someone’s boyfriend.”
Everyone sat very still once more. Madeline glanced at Laurel. Charlotte turned and stared at Emma, making a little ahem under her breath. Emma suddenly realized what Charlotte was getting at. Tentatively she lifted her glass to her mouth again. “Good,” Charlotte said quietly. Emma bit down hard on the inside of her cheek. Who knew a drinking game would lead to such a gold mine of information about her sister?
Watching them, I was transfixed. Already I had learned two things about my past. I wanted them to play all night.
“Never have I ever gone skinny-dipping in the hot springs,” Laurel said next. Everyone drank except for Laurel and Charlotte. Figuring Sutton was probably ballsy enough to do something like that, Emma swallowed another sip.
“Never have I ever cheated on a test,” Charlotte announced. Madeline and Lili glanced at her and drank a shot. “What would we do without you, Char?” Madeline said. Emma supposed she should drink, too.
“Never have I ever written a fake love note to Principal Larson,” Gabriella said next. Charlotte and Madeline glanced at Emma and giggled, so again, down the hatch. Emma no longer gagged with each swallow; she was starting to get used to the taste. Her limbs relaxed. Her jaw softened from its clenched position.
Laurel volunteered next. “Never have I ever made out with a college guy.” She leaned back and surveyed the crowd.
Madeline pointed at Emma and grinned. “Remember that guy at Plush? You thought he was our age but he was actually twenty-two?”
“Whoa!” the Twitter Twins squealed in unison, impressed.
Charlotte raised an eyebrow. “When was this?”
Madeline frowned. “July?”
The tip of Charlotte’s nose turned red. “What did Garrett think about that?”
Madeline pressed her hand over her mouth. Gabriella coughed. Emma rolled the cup between her palms. Great, so Sutton’s a boyfriend-stealer and a boyfriend-cheater, too.
I groped for a memory to explain it, but my mind was static fuzz. I’d cheated on Garrett? Why would I do that?
“Maybe I have my dates mixed up,” Madeline blurted. “It was before Sutton started dating Garrett.”
“Yeah, it was,” Emma agreed, hoping it was true, but somehow doubting it. Charlotte fiddled with something on her iPhone and didn’t answer.
Then it was Emma’s turn. She looked around at Sutton’s friends. All of them listed a little to the side. There was a goofy smile on Madeline’s face. The room had begun to smell strongly of booze. “Okay,” she said, taking a deep breath, trying to think how to phrase the question she most wanted to ask. “Never have I ever . . . pulled a prank for the Lying Game.”
The Twitter Twins exchanged a bitter glance, but Charlotte, Laurel, and Madeline rolled their eyes. “Duh,” Charlotte groaned, tilting the glass at her mouth. “Hello, Nisha? Today?”
“No, something other than Nisha,” Emma revised. “A really . . . awful prank. Something you felt terrible about when it was over.” Something that would prompt someone to get revenge, she wished she could add. Something that would drive someone to drag Sutton out into a field and choke her.