Pink Thongs

*Six's POV*

After a few rounds of flip cup, I get frustrated by it because, though I’ll never admit it out loud, I am an extremely competitive person so watching my own team drop the cup that many times was not a good time at all. As I’m making my way back to the keg for a refill, I see Axle holding a pitcher underneath it. 

I walk up and say, “What, the cups weren’t big enough for you?”

He looks up at me and says, “It’s actually for the beer pong table, but maybe I'll take that idea for future parties.”

“Oh, no that wasn’t a suggestion. It’s clearly a terrible idea.The already lack of carbonation from the shitty keg beer would disappear much too fast for you to be able to drink it and then the last half would just be warm, flat piss in a pitcher.”

“I guess that depends on how fast you drink it,” he says with a wink.

“Alright fine, but don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

“Deal.”

He stands up once the pitcher is full and moves out of the way. While I fill my cup, he says, “So do you play?”

“What? Beer pong?” He nods. I smile and say, “I’ve been known to dabble.”

“Alright then, come on. I need a partner.”

“What about your little toy from earlier?”

His face screws up in disgust and he says, “No, that girl was annoying as fuck and completely plastered so I couldn’t have slept with her even if I wanted to. I brought her back to her friends and told them to take her home.”

“Wow, that’s really good of you.”

“You know, at some point, you’re going to have to stop sounding surprised that I’m not a complete degenerate.”

“No, no. It wasn’t you, specifically. That was more of a general statement to men as a whole, based on my previous observations. Guys at WestSide would not have done what you did.”

He looks at me, and I can see the question and concern in his eyes, so I quickly add on, “Nothing like that ever happened to me, but I did have to save a few friends more than once.”

“I see. Well, I don’t do that shit. Now are you gonna play beer pong with me or not?”

I contemplate this for a second. This is his third time through senior year so he’s got to be good at this by now right? Maybe winning at that will make me feel better after that shitty flip cup game. I answer, “Sure, why not?” 

As we walk over to the table, I see Ethan and Jameson on one side and Cameron standing on the other. When Cameron sees me beside Axle, he says, “What the fuck dude? Did you replace me?”

I look up at him and say, “I thought you said you needed a partner? I’m not stealing someone else’s spot.” 

“It’s not stealing if I give it to you. Cam, you can play the next one. I think you’ll live if you sit out one game.” Cam grumbles something and then goes to stand at the side. 

“So obviously that’s Cam, and over there is Jameson and Ethan.” I wave at them and say, “Hello, I’m Six,” and Jameson says, “We know,” with a smile. Apparently my reputation precedes me.

Jameson then says, “The game still counts towards the scores, even if she plays, you know.”

“What?! No way, come on dude!” Cameron says.

“It’s fine Cameron. We’re already up by three,” Axle tells him.

“What are the scores for?” 

“We count how many games each team wins at the party, then losers have to do a task of some kind determined by the winners. For example, last week Ethan and Cam had to wash our cars for us while wearing pink thongs.”

I laugh and say, “I see why Cam might be concerned about me playing.”

“Yeah, but we’re up three games, so it’s not like it’s a big deal if we lose this one,” Axle assures me.

“I’m going to pretend not to be insulted that you guys all seem to be so sure I’m gonna make us lose,” I say placing a hand on my hip.

They all start mumbling excuses trying to say that’s not at all what they meant so I just roll my eyes and say, “Jesus, I’m kidding boys. Let’s get this started.” I hold my hand out and Axle places a ball in it and I don’t miss the little jump my heart makes when his hand touches mine. He tells me that he’ll go first and sinks it in the front cup. “Ball out,” I say and when Jameson removes the ball, I aim and shoot right for the same cup and sink it. 

“Oh fuck,” Ethan says. I look at Cam and say, “Still worried about me playing?” He shakes his head. I look up at Axle who is looking at me very amused and says, “you ‘dabble’ huh?”

“Mhm,” I say, still smirking, finding myself momentarily mesmerized by his emerald eyes. I quickly tear my eyes away from his and focus back on the game. Well, I attempt to anyway. His presence beside me is suddenly very distracting. Ethan and Jameson each sink one, but both in different cups. I down mine and put it off to the side.

“Rearrange?” I ask Axle.

“Sure. You pick.”

“Alright, play button,” I tell Jameson and he fixes the cups.

Axle goes first and hits the front cup again. “Ball out,” I say and then aim at the cup and sink it.

Cam claps his hand together once and shouts, “Fuck yes!” I look up at Axle and he’s smiling at me. I look back to the table. If they both miss, we win but that’s pretty unlikely considering they have 4 targets. 

They both make it, so they’re down to 3 cups. Axle goes first and hits the cup. Alright, if I make this we win. I take a deep breath and concentrate.

When it sinks into the cup, I sigh in relief. Jameson and Ethan swear and Cam cheers. I look up at Axle, smiling and I say, “Good game, partner,” and put my hand out for him to shake it, but instead he wraps his arms around my waist and picks me up in a hug.

It only lasts for a second before he puts me back down and says, “Good game,” with a grin. It takes all of my self-control to stomp down the sudden urge to jump back into his arms. 

Cam comes over, breaking the tension and says, “You know, I wouldn’t mind if you wanted to play again.”

“Um, actually I should really go check on my friends. They were pretty wasted and I’m a bit concerned they might forget me here. Thank you, though, for letting me play.”

I turn around and walk back towards the house. I scan the backyard and don’t see any of them, which probably means they’re not out here considering Nate and Cleo’s hair should be pretty easy to spot. 

I head back into the house and head into the living room where all the furniture has been pushed to the sides, there are party lights going, loud music and a big group of people dancing in the middle. I catch Cleo’s hair in the crowd and work my way towards her to find all 5 of them grinding and dancing on each other. I walk up and I get pulled into the group. We dance for a few songs and then I tell them I’m going to go find a bathroom.

I ask some random kid in one of the hallways if he knows where it is and he points at a door. When I walk in, I feel someone come in behind me and without even looking, I know it’s Axle and in less than a second, I’m being pushed up against the door and his lips are on mine.