Kiss the Sky (30 page)

“I hate this game,” Lily complains, the only other person
who lost this round. She looks down at her available clothes to remove.

“Really?”
Ryke
says. “You’re a sex
addict. I honestly didn’t think you’d need to fake an orgasm.” He must have
been trying to help her out.

“Not all guys are created like Loren Hale.”

“Jealous,” Daisy says.

Julian’s lips part in disbelief as he watches her.

“What, I never faked with you,” she lies easily and pecks
him lightly on the cheek. She whispers something in his ear that relaxes his
shoulders. She’s good at pleasing “people,” so I’m not surprised that skill has
translated over to pleasing “boyfriends.”

“Here,” Loren says, grabbing a plaid flannel blanket off the
large recliner he shares with Lily. He wraps it around her shoulders and cloaks
her body from view. “Take off your sweater.”

“That’s breaking the rules,” Scott informs him from a
rocking chair nearest the coffee table.

Loren glares. “Yeah, and maybe I’d abide by them if there
wasn’t a goddamn camera in our faces.” He doesn’t want the world to see Lily in
her underwear. None of us really do. There’s already enough sick fan mail sent
to the house. It’s easy to assume what men would do to a near-naked image of
her.

Lily skillfully pulls the sweater off from underneath the
blanket and tosses it to the floor. She looks more at ease.

“Rose, it’s your turn,” Scott says.

“Never have I ever…peed in a sink.” Easy.

All the guys take a shot, except
Ryke
and Lo who strip.
Ryke
removes his shirt, and Lo
pulls off an arrowhead necklace.

And then Daisy reaches for another shot.

Both
Ryke
and Julian freeze and
stare at her with raised brows while Connor and Lo try to contain their
laughter. The booze is making my lips upturn more often than usual too.

“What?” She shrugs and throws the shot back, coughing a
little as she sets the glass on the table.

“Explain,”
Ryke
says, handing her
a shot of orange juice to chase the alcohol with.

She mouths,
Thank you
,
before drinking that too. “I was at a party in New York,” she says, setting the
glass down, “and I had to go badly but my friend was using the toilet. So I
used the sink.” She touches her chest and hiccups. “I’m not weird.” She hiccups
again. “You all did it.”

“We have dicks,”
Ryke
says
bluntly.

“True.” She smiles.

I rest my head on Connor’s shoulder, the alcohol loosening
my inhibitions that stay locked tight in front of others. He smells so good—his
expensive cologne like citrus. “I love fruit,” I whisper to him. I imagine myself
placing a kiss on his neck, but moving to do so sounds like so much work.

He stares at me with a growing smile. “I’ll keep that in
mind, darling.”

“Never have I ever…been engaged,” Julian says, a cheap shot
at Lily and Loren.

Lo glares at him while he pulls off his black long-sleeve
shirt, and Lily wiggles off her pajama pants underneath the blanket.

Connor says, “Never have I ever…been cheated on.”

No one moves. And Scott blinks at Connor like he’s the devil
incarnate, drama-blocking him.

My boyfriend just smiles. “Perfect.”

Scott prods Ben to say one from the kitchen. With a mouthful
of chips, he says, “Never have I ever snorted coke.”

Lily sighs. “I hate this game.” Before she goes for her
panties, she touches her hair and smiles, revealing a hidden bobby pin.

Lo strips down to his boxer-briefs, and Lily’s eyes gleam in
excitement at seeing him
almost
naked.
He shakes his head at her, but he can’t stop smiling.

In a wave, everyone takes shots. Scott, then Julian, then
Daisy. And
Ryke
unclips his watch. Both Connor and I
stay seated. I’m not surprised that almost everyone has experimented with
drugs, but I’ve never had the urge to try out cocaine. And if someone peer
pressured me, I’d say
no, no. No.
I
really have no problem looking like the stuck-up prude in the room who refuses
to blow a line with her friends. Hate me all you want. I’m not the one running
around naked with dilated pupils.

Loren frowns at Connor. “You really haven’t snorted coke?
Not even once?”

“I have a rule about drugs.”

“And what’s that?”

“Don’t do them.” He grins. “My body is a temple.”

“One that only Rose can enter,” Loren banters.

“I’ll let you in sometime, darling. Don’t worry.”

Loren laughs.

I roll my eyes, but I’m actually smiling at their “
bromance
” that has been heavily praised on blogs. People
only
like Connor when he’s with Loren.
It’s weird. And I really don’t need another reason to be annoyed by Loren Hale,
so I’ve let it go. Brushed it off the shoulder. Like dust.

Okay, I think I’m getting drunk.

Lo’s
laugh fades quickly, and he
stares off in thought. Since the screening party, he does this often. Just
ending their quips with a silent, faraway gaze. As though remembering he’s
supposed to be in a fight with Connor.

Ten minutes later, I have gained a
serious
buzz and we’ve reached Scott one last time. I verge on my
limit, so I’m hoping he’s choosing a girl-friendly response. “Never have I
ever…” His gaze pings from each of my sisters to me. “…swallowed a guy’s cum.”

“Fuck you,” Lo says, defending the three of us who Scott has
been singling out the whole game.

Daisy’s eyelids droop a little as she reaches for her shot.
She knocks over two more.

Ryke
leans forward and cleans her
mess. “You can skip this one, Dais.”

“She can handle it,” Julian says, grabbing a shot for her.
“Here you go, baby.” He passes the glass to her. She downs it (messily) before
Ryke
can steal it from her hand.

Lily is now naked underneath the blanket, so the game is
over.

And I quickly do a shot, the liquor sliding down my throat
easily since I’m feeling good. But not
bad
yet. Anymore and it’d be a different story.

But Daisy has most definitely exceeded her limit. She’s
gone, but as Connor and I watch her, she does something really interesting.

Right as Julian nears her a little, Daisy stands, teetering,
and she sits on the other side of
Ryke
, away from her
“boyfriend.” She whispers something to him that sounds like a slurred mess. But
he nods like he understands.

And I realize, in this moment, how much she trusts
Ryke
to protect her—even from her own boyfriend.

Julian reddens in aggravation. But I have no verbal
hostility in my throat to chastise him. Alcohol has softened me into a gooey
state. I like it once in a while.

We try to ignore Julian’s silent rage, and a few minutes
later, we’re on our electronic tablets, scrolling through gossip blogs for
Princesses of Philly
and trying to find
the funniest comments.

Lily squirms on Loren’s lap, having trouble controlling her
urges while she’s naked underneath the flannel. Loren tightens his arms around
her waist and she stops moving.

Connor’s hand descends down my thigh of my long black cotton
dress. The fabric is thin, and I can feel his fingers near a spot that truly
begs for him. My lips touch his shoulder, and my eyes flit up to meet his, full
of intense desire.

His expression matches mine, and I feel the wetness soak my
panties.

He says under his breath, “I’m going to fuck you hard,
Rose.” He strokes my head and leans me to his chest. “So hard that you’re not
going to be able to walk in the morning.” Why does that sound so good?

I touch his microphone battery pack for a second, realizing
that the cameras caught that. But they probably won’t air it anyway. It’s too
dirty for network television.

I glance back to the group and notice that Daisy has passed
out, her head resting on
Ryke’s
lap. Julian watches
her, but he makes no move to grab her from
Ryke
yet.
I want her to stay with
Lo’s
brother. I trust Daisy’s
judgment, even drunk, and she just chose him.

Connor flips open his tablet, and he scrolls through long
lists. I read from his screen as he holds it up to us. The words keep blurring
together the longer the alcohol sets in.

“Here’s one,” Loren says. “
Ryke
Meadows is the biggest jackass.
”
 

“How is that funny?”
Ryke
asks
with narrowed eyes.

“Oh, I thought we were just reading comments.” Loren grins
while
Ryke
rolls his eyes.

“I’ve got one!” Lily clasps her hands together. “
Connor is a prick, but I’d bone him.
”
Lily’s eyes widen at the camera. “Just so we’re clear, I was reading a comment!”

Connor smiles beside me. Whoever that girl is, she can’t
have him. He’s all mine. Or maybe I’m his.

We own each other, I think.

I look down at Connor’s screen, and the words don’t make
sense to me. That never happens. “What does this mean?” I ask Connor, almost
rolling my eyes when I utter the phrase. I can already feel his ego inflate. “
Lo and Lily are so my OTP forever.”

Lily lets out a delighted squeal, her hands shooting to her
mouth. She bounces giddily on Loren’s lap, and he holds the blanket around her
body to keep her covered. “Are you serious?” she asks excitedly. “They called
us OTP? Lo, did you hear that?”

“I heard, love,” he says with a smile. “But I didn’t need
anyone to say it for me to believe it.”

Her entire face glows at his words.

I’m still stuck on OTP. I turn to Connor and he shakes his
head like
don’t look at me for this
.

“What does OTP stand for?” I ask my sister.

“One True Pairing. Like couples that fans think are meant
for each other,” Lily says quickly. “It’s used for fandoms. I guess, since
we’re on a reality show, now we qualify.” Weird. But she would know that
information, seeing as how they’re both into comic books and general pop
culture things.

“Neither of you knew that?” Loren asks with a grin.

“It’s slang,” Connor says like that explains it all. It
doesn’t matter. The fact that my sister and her boyfriend stumped us, the
smartest people in the room, literally makes them beam in pure glee.

“Okay, what about this:
I ship
Ryke
and Daisy so hard it hurts
. What the
hell does that mean?” I end up slurring the end of the sentence.
Oh my God. Get your shit together, Rose.
He’s going to fuck you so hard. He can’t fuck you if you’re passed out!
I
swallow, but my throat feels like cotton and clouds…which is one of the
stupidest thoughts I’ve ever produced. I really am drunk. Dear God.

Connor runs his fingers across my arm, so light that I
shiver. He tucks me closer to him.
Please
don’t pass out, Rose.

Lo groans as Connor rereads what I said aloud, only more
coherent than me.

“What?”
Ryke
frowns.

Lily is all too excited to explain. “Ship is like
relationship.
When you ship someone you
want them to hook up. Like I ship Magneto and Mystique in
X-Men: First Class.
”

“But they’re not canon yet,” Lo interjects, adding another
term that makes little sense to me.

Lily clarifies, “They’re not really together. We just want
them to be, but once it happens, they’re canon. I’m still holding out hope.”

Connor looks between Lo and Lily. “So let me get this
straight. People are rooting for
Ryke
and Daisy to be
together, but they’re not canon because it’s never happened.”

Lily claps and smiles brightly. “I’m a great tutor.”

Connor laughs.

“And it will
never
happen,”
Lo adds, nodding to his brother to make sure he understands. I think Lo just fears
abandonment again. That if
Ryke
dates Daisy in the
faraway future, he’ll lose his brother and that sense of family. It’s not true,
but you know, people believe what’s in their heart. You can’t change that so
easily.
 

Julian stays quiet, digesting all of this information even
though we’re talking like he’s no longer her boyfriend or even in the room. As
far as I’m concerned, she just broke up with him tonight. I’m beginning to
think Daisy stays with these losers because she doesn’t have the heart to reject
them.

“Hey,”
Ryke
says, purposefully
locking eyes with Julian. “I have fucking fans.” He raises his glass of water,
and it’s hard to overlook my sister’s head in his lap.

Julian stands and nears him. “I’m going to take her to bed.”

I open my mouth to refute, my eyes narrowing, despite the
booze softening me. But
Ryke
(sober) is way faster.

“She’s
not
fucking
sleeping with you. Sorry,
man
.”

“Okay, just hand her over, dude. This shit is getting old.”

“Is it not processing in your fucking head?”
Ryke
asks with one of the worst glares I’ve seen him use.
“You’re not fucking taking her. You’re not sleeping with her. She’s staying
here.”

“With you, right? That’s not happening. I don’t fucking
trust
you
with
her
.”

Lily perks up on
Lo’s
lap. “She
can sleep in my bed, and Lo can go in
Ryke’s
room.
Right, Lo?” she asks.

He nods. “Yeah, sure.” But he looks worried about leaving
Lily
alone. Not only for her own safety
against Scott, but she’ll also be tasked to protect Daisy from her boyfriend.
What if Julian crawls into their bed? We don’t know him that well.