Rachel and I walked up to a ping pong table with about eight guys standing around it. I recognized a few but made no effort to say hello. I simply said, loud enough to gather a few of the guys' attention, "Rachel and I are playing winners next game."

"Get in line," a guy across the table from us answered. I didn't recognize him and made the natural assumption he was a junior.

This should be easy.

I chugged my can of beer, turned to Rachel with a smirk and said, "Hold my beer."

"There's nothing left," Rachel replied dully as I walked away from her, slipping through the crowd of boys huddled around the ping pong table until I was the only thing in his line of sight.

"Hi," I said.

He was clearly shocked to see me standing in front of him. He remained still—eyes wide, arms frozen, lips sealed. Almost like if he moved a muscle, I'd devour him whole.

"You should probably breathe," I pointed out and he inhaled hard before his whole body crumpled and his face flushed.

God, I fucking loved this.

"What's your name," I asked sweetly, resting my hand on his shoulder for just a second. Just to give him a jolt.

"Dave," he replied, his quiet voice not at all matching the confident one that had basically told me to fuck off with a minute ago.

"Well, Dave," I said, putting my hand on his shoulder again after he broke eye contact, forcing him to look at me. "My friend and I would really love to play a game of beer pong. So how about we make a bet?"

Dave's eyes, which had been wide with fear, now showed a glimmer of excitement. "What do you mean?"

"We'll play against each other. If you and whoever your teammate is win, you get to dare us to do something. If we win, we get to dare you."

He looked over at the guy standing next to him, Caleb Rodgers, a senior. Clearly his teammate. Oh, we had this in the bag.

Dave nodded at me.

"You're next in line then," I leaned in, placing my lips near his ear, and whispered, "After Rachel and I kick these guys' asses."

When the last cup of the current game was made and I immediately stepped in place of the losing team. As I began resetting the cups, I called, "Rach, come help."

"Wait."

Nick Parker, another junior, was on the team that just won. He stood on the opposite end of the table with a frown on his face. I knew him mostly because it wasn't any secret him and Allegra had been hooking up.

"I thought we were playing Dave and Caleb."

"Change of plans," I said to him as Rachel began organizing the cups in a perfect pyramid.

"That's—"

"It's Nick, right?" I asked, batting my eyelashes at him. I didn't wait for him to confirm his name before continuing, "Well, Nick, we're up. Maybe you should worry about throwing the ball instead of who's throwing it at you."

His eyes went dark with rage and I looked over at Rachel. Loud enough for everyone to hear, I whistled. "Oof. He seems difficult, this one."

"Allie, right?" Nick sneered, stepping toward the table and making a perfect arc with the ping pong ball he was holding, directly into the center back cup.

I mean, they did play basketball after all.

I looked at Rachel and saw the determination pooling into her eyes as she stepped up and snatched a ping pong ball out of a cup.

"And you are?" She nodded her head at Nick's partner. I knew him. He was Nick's best friend—an outgoing, very attractive blonde named Liam Johnson.

"Liam," he replied with a lopsided smile and wide eyes.

"Liam," Rachel repeated, rolling his name off her tongue like melted butter. "You have a cute smile. Too bad it's not going to be around long."

She launched the ball. It landed perfectly in the same exact spot Nick had hit ours—back center cup.

"God I love you," I whispered to her.

"Love you too, bitch. Let's fuck these guys up."

We won. Barely. Their throws were good. But I had my secret weapon—Rachel.

Now Dave and Caleb stepped up.

"Are you ready to get fucked, Caleb?" Rachel said as she aimed and made in perfectly in the middle cup.

"Fucked by you?" Caleb retorted as he withdrew the ping pong ball from the cup Rachel had just made. "Anytime, sweetheart."

There was chatter among the crowd of guys, but Rachel simply chuckled as Caleb took his shot. When he missed, she laughed harder. "In your dreams, sweetheart."

We were clearly causing a commotion as quite a few of the senior guys had walked over from the couches and playing video games to stand around, watching the game unfold.

Sean came over to my side of the table as I brought my arm up, beginning to aim for a specific cup meticulously.

"I thought I said no trouble, Allie," he muttered to me although there was no doubt the people around us could hear.

I quickly glanced at him, but my attention focused mostly on the very front cup, the one I was going for, on the other side of the table. My signature smile—lustful and innocent—played on my lips. "No trouble here, Sean."

"Then why have I heard from multiple people there's a dare involved?"

My smile grew. I'd set up my aim. I knew where to throw—how far, how hard. I didn't have to look.

Time to play.

My face completely turned towards Sean, locked on him instead of the cups. Yet, my arm extended, releasing the ball as I said, "Just a little fun over a friendly game of beer pong, right boys?"

I didn't have to look to know my ball went in. The soft sound of the plastic hitting liquid filled my ears. There was howling and laughter from the crowd of guys.

Sean closed his eyes and shook his head at me. I reached out and pushed his chest lightly while laughter overflowed from my lungs. Its contagion was too strong for him to not smile too.

Liam and Nick were standing behind us now. Nick was making snide comments—sore loser. Liam on the other hand, was actually being quite sweet. He was particularly close to Rachel.

"Steady your elbow more," he murmured to my best friend, but she had already taken her shot. It went right in.

Rachel smiled wildly at him. "Good thing I don't need your advice."

The game continued, and it was finally down to two cups on each side. The pressure was palpable.

Dave and Caleb were tense as they stood on the opposite side, waiting for my shot with arms crossed. They were clearly not happy at how close this game had been.

"Don't fuck this up, Allie," Nick said behind me.

"Like you fucked up last game?" I replied easily and turned to look at him. I shot him a quick wink. "I don't choke."

At my suggestive comment, the crowd went into murmurs again. I made the cup.

"Hey Caleb," Dave said loudly as he stepped up. "What should their dare be?"

Caleb's eyes looked on fire as he stared at me and Rachel from across the table. Dave made his shot. It went in.

Damn.

Rachel shook her head and made a clicking noise with her tongue as she retrieved the ball. "Don't stress over it too much, boys. It's not going to matter."

Cup made.

I screeched and wrapped my arms around my best friend's neck.

We'd made all our cups. They had one left. Now it was their redemption. If Caleb made this, we'd have to reset a few cups again. If he missed, we won.

"Pressure's on, Caleb," I taunted.

Everyone was watching the match now in complete silence. Lindsay was leaning against Sean on the sidelines and had been cheering us on the last few rounds.

Caleb couldn't even form words. His clenched jaw, lowered eyebrows, white knuckles—he was pissed.

He took his shot.

It looked like it was going in. Until I heard the sound of plastic on plastic as the ping pong ball collided with the edge of the red solo cup, before bouncing onto the table.

The room roared and I jumped into Rachel's arms, wrapping my legs around her waist as we both shouted in victory.

Lindsay quickly joined us as Rachel set me back down. Now it was time for the dare.

"Help us, Linds," I said to her as I grabbed both of their hands, pulling them a little off to the side so we could speak in private. "What should we do?"

Lindsay hesitated and then a wide smile appeared on her lips.

We had it.

"Okay, children, listen up!" I yelled, gathering the attention of the 15 guys in the room, who had been chatting about the outcome of the game and teasing the four losers. "We have our dare."

"Courtesy of the great Lindsay Arnold," Rachel continued, "Our dare is that Dave, Caleb, you have to switch clothes with me and Allie and post a picture on your Instagram and Snapchat stories."

This was a good one. We knew it because of the reaction of the boys. I looked over at Sean. He was smiling right at me, but shook his head, like I was an entertaining toddler he couldn't control.

I lightly shrugged my shoulders at him.

Rachel was wearing trendy, baggy jeans and a crop top. I was wearing a casual, flowy romper. Both Dave and Caleb were fairly slim. Our outfits might be stretched a little, but it was definitely doable.

Seeing Caleb in a romper and Dave in jeans and a crop top had me sunken into the couch, wasted with a beer in hand, laughing so hard I cried. The looks on their faces were priceless. Lindsay did the honors of taking their picture for social media and I was pleasantly surprised when the two boys actually had fun with it, posing and joking.

After the pictures were posted, we switched back. I was kind of sad to change back—Caleb's basketball shorts and t-shirt were much more comfortable than my romper.

"Who wants to continue this?" Dave asked, now back in his own clothes.

"What?" Rachel questioned as she grabbed three new beers from the fridge—for Lindsay, myself, and herself.

"Truth or dare," Dave responded like this was obvious.

Rachel, Lindsay, and I looked at each other, taking sips of our fresh beers. Without saying words, we all agreed to play.

"We're in," Rachel said and we made our way to the couches.

The group split. Some boys went back to playing beer pong, some gathered around the couch with us to play Truth or Dare.

Me, Lindsay, and Rachel all sat on the couch. Chad squeezed on one side of me and I noticed that Liam had squeezed in on the other side of Rachel.

Spread out around us on the other couches and some stools were Caleb, Nick, Sean, Dave, Thomas Graze—a junior—and two other guys I didn't recognize. They seemed to be close with Dave though as I had noticed the three hanging around each other the whole night.

"Rules are, if you don't want to answer a truth, you have to take a shot. Dares have to be completed," I said. Then I nudged my best friend next to me. "Lindsay starts."

She smiled deviously and I couldn't help but mirror it. "Nick, truth or dare?"

Nick's frown deepened. I swear, he was always frowning. "Truth."

"Are you and Allegra dating?"

He groaned in the back of his throat and I could hear it even though he was sitting on the couch across from me, next to Sean. He leaned forward, grabbing the a bottle of tequila someone had brought. He took down a large sip.

I think all three of us girls stifled a laugh. They were definitely dating, he just didn't want to admit it. And Allegra sucked. Poor Nick.

"Chad, truth or dare?" Nick said.

"Truth," Chad replied after a moment's hesitation and I felt the way his knee pushed against mine, his hand brushing the side of my thigh as we were squished together.

"Is there someone in this room you'd hook up with."

It felt like everything in me stopped, even the blood coursing through my veins halted. I felt Chad's body do the same next to me before he replied, "Yeah."

I glanced at Sean. He was taking a large drink of his beer. He didn't look particularly happy and I felt my lungs tighten a little. I never wanted him to feel uncomfortable. I suddenly wished I was sitting next to him. Especially while inebriated, I always found myself wanting to be near him. I felt safe with him.

Chad leaned forward and looked past me and the girls to land his eyes on Liam. "Liam, truth or dare?"

"Truth."

I rolled my eyes. These people were boring.

"Would you hook up with Rachel?"

I leaned over quickly, wanting to see my best friend's reaction. She'd only had her first real conversation with Liam tonight. But I could tell while we were playing beer pong, there was something there.

Liam gave Chad an annoyed glance before fixing his eyes on the side of Rachel's face only inches from his. He then turned away. "Yeah. Of course."

Lindsay's eyes snapped to me and we both smiled at each other and took a drink. I felt the ripple effect of Lindsay nudging Rachel next to her. Our brunette friend leaned over to glare at both of us.

"Allie," Liam said smoothly, like nothing had happened. "Truth or dare?"

"Do you have to ask?" I smiled wickedly at him.

His light eyes brightened more than I thought possible. "Kiss Sean."

I couldn't help but let out a laugh.

Kiss one of my best friends.

A shiver traveled up my spine and I could feel my own hesitancy as I rolled my lips in on themselves, but I was quick to mask it. I looked across the room at Sean.

He was glaring at Liam—not angry, more just annoyed. Feeling my gaze on him, his eyes met mine and I smirked. Shrugged.

It was just a kiss after all.

And why not use this as an opportunity to mess with Sean a bit. This might actually be fun.

I stood, flipping my blonde hair behind my shoulders.

"A real kiss," Dave added.

I snorted and averted my gaze from Sean to Dave. "A real kiss. What are we, twelve?"

I walked the short distance across the couches to Sean. Within a matter of seconds, I was standing on one side of him so I could gracefully sit down in his lap. I placed both hands along his jaw, tilting his head slightly for leverage, before slanting my lips across his.

It happened so fast that Sean was completely still as I took full control. I could vaguely hear the hoots around us as my lips pressed against his, hard. I grasped the back of his jaw, my fingers slipping behind his ears. After a few seconds, he reacted, his arms wrapping around my waist as he met the rhythm of my lips.

I forced our lips apart only a few moments later, regaining complete control. My hands styaed firmly on his jaw as I steadied his face away from mine. With a smirk, I gently brought one of my hands up from his jaw to his cheek, giving it a light tap. "You're not too bad, Seany."

His eyes, which had been twinkling with natural arousal, returned to the playful brown I knew so well as I stood up from his lap. Back in my seat, we made eye contact again and both just burst out into genuine laughter at what had just happened.

As I drunkenly laid my head against Lindsay's shoulder next to me, I couldn't wipe the smile off my face. I was so lucky. So damn lucky.

Life was perfect. Everything was just perfect.

Nothing could ruin this year.