Spin the Bottle

         First day of 10th grade, and Jade already was nervous. The only thing that kept her from running back to her mom’s car was the fact that she was surrounded by hundreds of people. But soon her nervousness was replaced by pure joy as she began to see all her friends from Junior High, especially Hayden. She had only know him a year but she had already developed a crush on him, but who could blame her, he had short brown spiky hair, blue eyes, and you could tell he work out a little, not to say she went giddy every time she saw him, but she could always count on butterflies in her stomach.
         And soon Jade heard his voice from down the halls.
         “Hi, Jade so how was your summer, didn’t see you much considering I’m your neighbor and all?”
         “Oh, my family took a road trip to North Carolina, and we only got back two weeks before school started, sorry,” she answered.
         “No worries, just curious, um…so I’ll see you when I see you,” he replied.
         With that he walked off towards his first class, and leaving Jade with a stomach full of butterflies.
         Suddenly everything went black, and then hearing a voice say,
         “Guess who?”
         “I would know that voice in my sleep, Summer,” Jade replied confidently.
         “Ugh, your good, any ways seen Hayden,” she said in a way that it sounded like Hhhhayden.
         “Cut it out and yes I saw him,” Jade replied annoyed. 
         “Ok just wondering, no need to get defensive,” she replied backing away.
         “Let’s just go to class,” she replied.
Jade managed though the first day of school, and on the bus she finally realized how much homework she already had.
         “How can they pile on homework on the first day of high school?” someone standing next her.
         This remark of course made the butterflies come right back.
         “Mind if I sit next to you?” Hayden asked.
         “No, of course not,” Jade replied moving her backpack off the seat.
         “Um…I was wondering, I’m having my sweet 16 on the 13th of November and I wanted to see if you might be able to come” Jade asked.
         “Is it going to be at your place, because if it is I’m sure I can come?” Hayden asked.
         “Yeah, but I planning on ending the party since it is a school night,” Jade answered.          
“I think that will be fine, but one more question, are you going to invite any other guys,” he asked curious.
         “Um…”thinking quickly she replied “Yeah, I was going to invite Kane and a few more boys to the party.”
         “Really, cool then I will defiantly be there,” he replied very happily. 
         Once the bus left them at the stop, they started to walk down the hill towards their houses.
         “Um…I’ve been meaning to ask you something, it’s just been hard to work up the courage. I’ve… started to hear rumors that you like me, is this true?” he asked looking at her.
         “I…” realizing that she could never lie to those eyes said, “do like you, the rumors are true.”
         He looked at her surprised and just replied “Oh”.  A minute later he finally said, “Look I like you too but school just started and I really need to concentrate on my grades.” Then in almost a whisper he said “I’m sorry, I really am.”
         Considerably upset by this news she quickly said goodbye and went home without looking back at Mr. Blue eyes. Over the next month she tried to concentrate on her party, but she could never forget him. While they still talked to each other, their conversations were considerably shorter.
         Finally the party day came, and of course Hayden showed up first, which made for a very uncomfortable thirty minutes until more party guests showed up.
         About 20 minutes into the party Hayden pulled Jade aside.
         “Look, I want us to be best friends, I’m sorry if I upset you, I never meant to, please Jade I don’t want this to continue any more, what do you want me to do, get on my hands and knees and start to beg?” he said.
         “No, Hayden it’s my fault I’m sorry too, I just can’t get my feelings in the way of our friendship,” she said
         He winced at her words but said “Good, to friendship” as he held up a glass of root beer. 
         One of the games that they decided to play was spin the bottle.
         “Ok, rules, the person spins the bottle and who ever it lands on they have to kiss, unless its someone of the same gender then they spin again,” said Summer.
         So then they all decided that Summer should go first because she was the only one that wanted to go. Reaching down Summer spun the bottle to, only to have it land on Kane. Immediately there was an uwwwwww from everybody. Jade knew that Summer had developed a slight crush on Kane, and heard from rumors that he liked her too. They looked at each other (they were sitting across from each other), leaned forward and they kissed, right on the lips. When they pulled away, both were bright red, realizing what they had just done.
         “Ok…um Jade, go next,” Summer said in a far away tone, still looking at Kane.
         With a slight frown on her face, Jade each down and spun the bottle. Everyone watched the bottle spin and as it stopped everyone sucked in their breath. It had landed on Hayden.
         “Look I know it’s probably not allowed but could I talk to Hayden first?” Jade quickly asked looking at Summer.
         “Sure, but make it quick,” Summer replied knowing what this meant.
         Jade quickly grab Hayden’s arm and pulled him to another part of the room.
         “So…what do you want to do about this?” she asked.
         “I…, look I do like you, a lot, and my parents say that I need to get a life after school, so why don’t we go out there and kiss then we will see what happens,” Hayden replied.
         Slightly nervous they entered back into the room, both of them took their sets (they’re sitting next to each other), sitting there she could feel her heart in her throat. Hayden slowly turned towards her and kissed her right on the lips, and what felt like an eternity, they parted; there wasn’t a sound in the room, until
         “Ok…who wants to go next?” Summer asked.
         Soon after Hayden and Jade pulled away from the group to talk about what had just happened.
         “I…I don’t know what to say except wow,” Jade said in amazement.
         “Do you think this means anything?” Hayden asked her, all the while looking into her eyes.
         “You know I like you a lot and not just as a friend so its all about what you felt,” she replied staring right back into his eyes.
         “You know, I can’t remember what I felt?” he said, with a playful look in his eyes.
         She immediately knew what he meant and leaned forward, and soon they were in a deep kiss, Jade put her arms around his neck and Hayden put his hands on her sides. Then after a while they finally broke apart.
         “Wow, I guess this means we’re going out” Jade said in complete amazement.
         “I guess this birthday turned out to be pretty good after all,” Hayden replied smiling.
         But soon it turned 10 o’clock and everybody had to leave, Kane was the first to leave and Summer escorted him to the door, there they said goodbye, which included a quick kiss, making Summer turn bright red. Hayden was the last to leave since he only had to walk 50 yards to his house. Jade followed Hayden to the front door.
         “So…I’ll see you at school tomorrow,” Hayden asked as he opened the door.
         “Defiantly, wouldn’t miss it for the world,” Jade replied.
          As soon as she said that, Hayden leaned over to her and kissed her again. 
         As soon as she closed the door Summer and Jade started to giggle which turned into full blown laughter.
         “You should have parties more often, can you believe we’re going out with our crushes?” Summer asked in between laughs.
         But all Jade could think about was how great the next day was going to be.
         The next day she got ready for school as quickly as she could, then bolted out the door only to find Hayden standing in her driveway, smiling up at her.  She ran down the stairs and ran right into his awaiting arms.
         “How long have you been waiting here?” Jade asked curious, finally pulling away.
         “Oh…just about ten minutes,” he replied.
         So then they started up the hill to the bus stop in silence until Jade couldn’t stand it any longer.
         “I have a question for you,” Jade replied breaking the silence.
         “Sure, whatever you want to ask I’ll answer,” he replied cheerfully.
         “Why did you decide to kiss me, and I mean not just that one time but two more times?” Jade asked curiously.
         “Because that one time was enough to tell me that I really liked you, and I saw what I had been missing out on. Look the real reason that I didn’t want a girlfriend was because I was scared,” Hayden replied ashamed.
         “Why were you scared?” she said astonished.
         “Because I had never had a girlfriend before, and I thought you deserved someone better,” he replied.
         “Ok, first off never think that again, remember I told you first that I really liked you, and secondly you agreed to kiss without a hesitation in your voice, what made you change your mind?”
         “For the first time I truly saw you, and I realized how much you really liked me, and how much I liked you,” he replied starring right at Jade now.
         “That was really sweet, thank you for telling me,” she replied with a huge smile on her face.