Spending seven minutes in a closet with a stranger has to be the stupidest dare I’ve ever agreed to, until it becomes seven minutes in heaven.
I’m an idiot for agreeing to play a stupid game at a ‘Back to Highschool’ frat party. I don’t even like frat parties but it’s my best friend’s birthday so there’s no getting out of it. Wearing my little-black dress, I avoid the groping hands of the football team, and stick to sodas.
Then the games start, and I’m dared to join in.
I can never resist a dare.
As I step into the closet and the darkness envelops me, I have no idea what to expect. It certainly isn’t three bodies pressing against me. It definitely isn’t six hands roaming over places that haven’t seen action for months.
Seven minutes rush past, and when time is up, I stagger out of the closet a disheveled, satisfied, and intrigued mess.
Because I have no idea who the men in the closet are, and even less idea how they knew how to blow my mind when no one has ever managed it before.
Now I’m daring myself to find out!
*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************
1
ELLIE
“Tell me you’re gonna be at the party tomorrow night?” Dornan says as I emerge from my crowded lecture room into the hallway that’s teaming with people. I get pushed along by the tide of my classmates, but somehow, Dornan holds his ground. I guess his size is an advantage, and his years playing football. The man is a unit, and when he grabs my arm to stop me from getting swept away, I feel the power in his grip and the shelter of his body at my back.
Dornan’s been my best friend since kindergarten, and ever since Maddy-Lou pushed me over in the schoolyard and he came to my aid, I’ve loved him like a brother.
“A back-to-high-school party? Seriously, dude? You couldn’t come up with a better idea?”
“What?” he says, as I turn to face him. His face splits into a wide smile, and despite my disapproval at the theme for his birthday celebrations, I have to smile, too. “You didn’t love high school?”
“Not as much as you, obviously.”
“Best years of my life.”
We walk towards the campus coffee shop, emerging from the frenetic building into the warm sunshine outside. I inhale a lungful of fresh air, glance up at the blue sky, dusted with cotton puff clouds that fill me with happiness, and tug my bag more securely onto my shoulder.
“Aren’t these the best years of your life?” I ask. “No parents breathing down your neck all the time?”
Dornan shrugs. “My parents were mostly cool. I don’t know. I guess I just liked how everything was new. Now, I feel like I’ve done it all before.”
“Yeah, Dornan Walsh. You’re a pro at life these days.”
He punches my arm softly, nudging me off balance. “No need to be snarky because you’d rather be a hermit than socialize with your peers.”
“I don’t want to be a hermit,” I say. “I’m just not into parties where everyone is downing drinks like they’re going out of fashion and fooling around with the nearest warm body.”
“But that’s what college parties are all about. Seriously, Ellie, you need to act your age because there will come a time when you’re too old to act like an idiot and you’ll regret missing out.”
“You want me to act like an idiot?” I ask, quirking my eyebrow.
“I want you to let your pretty hair down and relax for a change. I know your mom is always breathing down your neck about your grades, but a few nights off to party won’t make any difference.”
“What would my mom think of you, Dornan, if she knew the truth? Her blue-eyed, blond-haired golden boy is encouraging her daughter into acts of disrepute.”
“Don’t tell her,” Dornan says seriously. “I couldn’t take it if your mom turned those disapproving eyes on me.”
I chuckle because he’s being serious. Mom is nice as pie if you’re on her good side, and that means molding yourself into the shape she wants you to be. My stepbrothers are experts at keeping mom happy. I swear, if she raves about their perfection over breakfast one more time, I’m going to toss my cereal at the wall. And Dornan’s no better. He sucks up to mom so much it’s nauseating. I forgive him for it, though, because he’s been a loyal friend to me for more years than I care to count. My stepbrothers don’t get the same break. They’ve only been around seven years, and I’m certain their simpering for approval is designed to make me look bad.
We enter the crowded coffee shop and Dornan shoulders his way into the queue, ordering my favorite caramel Frappuccino with extra whipped cream and a black coffee for himself. I scramble for the first available free table, almost faceplanting in the process.
Dornan thwarts my attempts to change the subject at every turn, and by the time I need to head to my next lecture, he has somehow achieved the unachievable. He’s gotten me to agree to attend his stupid frat house for a back-to-high-school party. Well, it is his birthday. Even though the idea makes my skin crawl, I’d do anything for my friend.
Dornan ordered me to wear something black and slinky so we can take cool selfies. His words, not mine. I’m sure his teammates have no idea that he comes out with things like that. When he’s around them, he amps up the butch, but with me, he’s a big softie.
The only black, slinky dress I have is short on me because mom shrunk it in the dryer, but I don’t want to disappoint Dornan. As I approach the front door of the frat house, I wriggle my hips and tug at the hem, lengthening it for a second before it rebounds.
The music is pumping, and the sound of laughter and people yelling conversation spills into the cool night like a tidal wave of everything that makes me uncomfortable.