I actually felt it first — that quiet, heavy weight that someone was watching.
I lifted the glass and took another sip — bitter, sharp, like it wanted to remind me it wasn't meant to go down easy. A sting ran down my throat. I set the glass carefully back on the table, eyes fixed on the way the liquid still shimmered, as though it was alive.
I looked up, scanning the faces.
Chosen was across the room, leaning too close to some girl, his grin wide enough to sell a secret. This boy, hmm. I shook my head and sighed.
Then my eyes found her.
Mina.
Standing near the doorway to her room like a sentry, round-eyed, quiet, unreadable. Her presence was magnetic — the kind that made you feel you had to explain yourself, even if she hadn't said a word.
Next to her was a face I didn't know.
A stranger — her laughter quick, easy, almost too free for this part of town. When she caught me staring, she leaned close to Mina and whispered something.
They both laughed.
This time Mina's gaze sharpened. She didn't smile. She didn't blink. Just one look, one sneer — and then she turned, disappearing into her room, maybe at the stranger's request.
I stayed there, glass still in hand, grin creeping across my face like it wasn't mine.
I couldn't tell if it was the alcohol working, or the weight of the news my mom had dropped on me earlier — either way, it felt like the night had just shifted under my feet.
I know what you're thinking — drinking? At my age?
But where I come from, there's no such thing as "the right age."
This side of town doesn't wait for you to grow up before it hands you your first temptation. By ten, life would have already offered you a menu — stealing, smoking, sex, drinking, gambling — and you were expected to pick one if you wanted to belong.
I chose what was easiest to find.
If it wasn't the closest drink, it was the closest girl I could charm.
Some kids get lucky. They outgrow their vices before their teenage years run out. Most don't. Most vanish — swallowed whole by the very streets that raised them.
I stared down at the bottle in my hand.
Half empty. No — half gone.
The bitter taste still clung to my throat, the room spinning just slightly as I tried to focus on the clock face through the blur.
8:01 p.m.
Too early to be this gone.
Too late to stop now.
Voices bled through the music — Chosen somewhere behind me, laughing about some "night game." His voice was too eager, too sure. He always thought the night would reward him for showing up.
I rose slowly, legs unsteady but determined, and made my way toward the stairs.
The lights from the stairway looked dimmer than before, like they knew something I didn't.
Milaj had said his room was the first door before the living room. I found it.
The moment I stepped inside, the air felt heavier, like the room had been waiting for me. The shadows stretched, reaching for me as I stood there.
A strange smile crept across my face — not joy, not comfort, something darker. My mind flickered to a scene from Fifty Shades Darker — uninvited — and I let it stay, like a dare.
Then, with the taste of wine still burning my tongue, I let myself fall onto the bed.
The darkness didn't just welcome me.
It swallowed me.
Or so I thought.
---
Sometimes getting high and sleeping alone takes you to an euphoria so strange that when you wake, the world feels brand-new.
I grabbed my phone and checked the time — 10:30.
Then I saw the p.m.
A shiver ran through me.
I hadn't slept through the night — I had barely slept at all.
The room I'd been in felt different, colder, as if something had been watching me the whole time.
I grabbed my phone, switched on the flashlight, and made my way downstairs, each step echoing louder than it should.
The living room was almost empty now — just five of them left. Milaj, Chosen, and three girls. Mina, their cousin, and the stranger.
Everyone sat in a circle, faces serious, like they were in the middle of some ritual, not a game.
Mina. Sitting cross-legged on the floor, her back straight like someone who had been waiting for me. She didn't smile. She didn't wave. She just looked — steady, calm — like she could see through me.
Beside her was the same stranger.
She looked nothing like this street. The way she laughed, light and careless, like she had no reason to watch her back. Even now, she sat with one leg tucked under the other, her face turned just slightly toward Mina, but her eyes — her eyes were already on me.
I froze at the bottom of the stairs.
For a second, nobody said anything. The music felt like it was coming from far away now, just a faint bass somewhere in the walls.
Then Mina spoke.
"Ben."
That was it. No smile, no "where have you been?" Just my name.
I nodded and walked in slowly, trying not to look like I'd just woken up from a nap that felt more like a blackout.
Chosen grinned when he saw me.
"Ah, Sleeping Beauty is back!"
A few people chuckled, but Mina didn't laugh. The stranger didn't either.
Mina shifted slightly and tapped the floor beside the girl.
"Sit."
I hesitated, glancing at Chosen, but he just raised his brows like, go on now.
So I sat.
The first thing I noticed was the smell of her perfume, "Baccarat Rouge" — not too strong, just enough to catch and stay. The kind of scent that makes you want to lean in without even thinking about it.
She didn't look at me at first, which somehow made me want her to.
When she finally did, it was like she was checking if I'd pass some invisible test. Her eyes didn't flinch.
"You're late," Mina said.
I blinked. "Late for what?"
She just tilted her head slightly, and the corner of her mouth moved — not a smile, just a small curve, like she found something funny that she wasn't going to explain.
Milaj reached forward and spun the bottle in the middle of the circle. Everyone's eyes followed it until it slowed, turned one last time, and stopped.
Pointing straight at me.
"Truth or dare?" Milaj said, his grin wide now.
I looked around the circle. Mina was unreadable. Chosen was already grinning like this was about to be good. The stranger — she was still watching me.
"Dare," I said.
The room reacted, half impressed, half amused.
Milaj leaned back, nodding.
"Take her upstairs. Five minutes. Just talk."
He pointed at the stranger.
I almost laughed.
"That's the dare?"
"That's the dare," Milaj said, still grinning.
I turned to the girl. She hadn't looked away once.
"You cool with that?" I asked.
She shrugged. "Why not?"
Chosen whistled under his breath.
"Guy, you go explain come back o!"
I got to my feet, my head still buzzing a little from the drink, and followed her toward the stairs.
As we climbed, the voices behind us melted back into the music. The house felt quieter now, almost too quiet.
At the top of the stairs, she stopped and turned to me.
"You could've said truth," she said softly.
"Truth is boring," I replied.
She studied me for a second, then nodded like she'd learned something.
"Careful," she said. "Boring is safer."
Before I could answer, Mina's voice floated up from downstairs.
"Four minutes left!"
The girl — Vivian, I would later learn — smirked, then brushed past me to head back down.
I stayed there a second longer, one hand on the wall, my chest tight.
Whatever game this was, it didn't feel like mine anymore.