"You don't have to drink if you don't want to," I told Jack. "I know that you don't have the best history with parties." 

He grabbed my face between both his hands and then put his own close to mine. Our noses almost touched. He looked into my eyes like he could communicate all his thoughts only through staring at me.

"I'm leaving in less than two months," he said. "I should probably do whatever I can to make that easier."

I put my hands over his and slowly pulled them away. I didn't want to think about him leaving right now. I didn't want to think about anything. So I grabbed the drinks and cups. I went back out on the patio, setting the bottles down in front of Eli and Seth. Jack followed, carrying the case of beer.

Once he set it down, I reached for one of the bottles, but someone stopped me.

Eli. I turned and glared at him, but it was hard with the way his black curls fell over his forehead, making him look almost cute, completely undeserving of such a glare.

"What's with that look?" he asked. "I was just going to ask you if you wanted me to make you a drink. I know you don't really like beer."

"How do you remember that?"

He looked down. "What do you want?"

"Anything, I guess."

"Make me one too," Jack said.

I didn't think twice until Seth and Eli went completely quiet. Then I figured I'd plaster a fake surprise expression on my face so they wouldn't question why I wasn't totally shocked at hearing Jack speak. Not that it mattered. No one was watching for my reaction—they were staring at him. 

Eli blinked a few times. "You're..."

"Talking, I know," Jack said. "Does it matter?" 

"Dude, holy shit. I did not expect your voice to sound like that."

"Like what?" 

"All, you know. And you have an accent. Where are you from?"

"Hell," Jack replied.

I smirked. Hölle was the German word for hell—that I remembered.

Seth's let out a fit of laughter. "Nah, you're from Germany, right? Bro, my country completely demolished your ass in World War II. You and Romy were the axis powers!"

"Very funny," I said. "We'd only be missing Italy."

"The Italians invaded my grandmother's country," Anika said. "Maybe that would be sufficient for me to be your missing Italian link."

Seth threw back another shot. "What country was that?"

"Ethiopia," she said.

"Damn, good thing the Italians lost World War II, then."

Anika smiled—in the way she usually did when talking about her favorite subjects like history or religion. "Yes, their occupation didn't last too long at all."

Eli poured vodka and Dr. Pepper into a cup, then handed it to Jack. How did Eli know Jack liked Dr. Pepper? Just like he remembered I wasn't the biggest fan of beer. Someone needed to bottle up Eli's memory skills and sell it for a profit. The boy was observant as hölle.

"I remember the last time you got Jack drunk, Seth," Eli said, breaking the brief silence that'd settled over us. He then poured vodka and cranberry juice into a cup—my cliche favorite drink. "At that party you threw at my house. And then you got your friends to record him? Remind me of how shitty that was again?"

"Yeah, I apologized for that," Seth huffed.

Eli looked at Jack, his gaze serious. "None of that will happen anymore. You're okay."

"He has his alpha wolf girlfriend to protect him," Seth muttered.

Eli handed me the cranberry vodka, and I resisted the urge to dump it over Seth's head. "Nice for you to establish that I'm the alpha of this group," I told him.

He grinned. "Nah, bro, you're the alpha female. I'm the alpha male."

Jack cracked his knuckles, staring Seth down. "I disagree."

Seth's eyebrows raised. "Oh, yeah?"

Eli's eyes ran over the length of Jack's form, like he was seeing him for the first time. "Don't tell me you two are going to fight again." Then he looked away—probably noticing that he'd been staring too long. "We really don't need broken bones when the nearest hospital is half an hour away." 

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Out of all the activities we could've planned for the next hour, an arm-wrestling match between Jack and Seth for the title of "alpha male of the group"... would definitely not have been a part of the list.

Seth won, hooting in victory. Eli poured him a celebratory drink. The following activities consisted of dancing to Eli's music and more drinking. Even Anika had a beer, but she didn't act any different for it—unlike Seth who was already stumbling and laughing his head off.

And after a while, it was like we forgot about the alcohol, distracted with the jokes and banter and music. Jack found the game Uno in a shelf inside the Airbnb, and we killed a lot of time playing.

Jack and Anika were the sneaky players, never revealing their next moves. Seth took the game way too seriously—but half the time didn't realize he was accidentally flashing his whole deck for everyone to see. Eli was the obnoxious one who actually read the guide book and complained about any minor exception to the "official rules".

And me? I won three times in a row, and I was intending to make that a fourth. I got down to my last three cards—and then Jack pulled out the "draw four" and sent me back to square one.

He ended up winning without saying a single word. But the little he did say before had done enough to change the atmosphere of the group, lightening it a little.

And Jack wasn't even that drunk. The other day, he almost broke down over not being able to talk to people. Maybe spending a few days around the others lessened his anxiety or something. Or maybe he'd really taken the cliche New Year, New Me thing to heart.

❀     ❀     ❀ 

An hour before midnight, we began our voyage to the beach in hopes of catching the North Shore fireworks show. I squinted at the blurry map on my phone, the alcohol in my bloodstream muting my usual sharp navigating instincts.

"Uh, which way is west?" Seth asked. 

"We should be able to know from the stars," Eli said. In the dark, he was nothing but a hazy shadow stumbling forwards. "If explorers thousands of years ago did it, why can't we?"

"The beach is close," Anika said. "I can hear it."

And then the path in front of us lit up—courtesy of Seth's phone flash light.

Its bright white glare, the trees looming over us, the surreal energy of it all—each detail reminded me of that night Jack and I made it down that mountain. After fearing we'd be stuck for days, we found the parking lot and sat huddled up for two hours until Eli came to our rescue.

Now here we were, all together under the clear sky. And a rush came over me, similar to the adrenaline I'd been weaning myself off of. But this moment right now wasn't exactly dangerous, reckless, or questionable—what I used to think I needed in order to feel anything at all.

There had always been a sense of freedom and grandiosity here on the island, but never like this. Was it just the alcohol? The reminder of my birthday with Jack? The anticipation of the new year? Or was there something more profound about this feeling, this rush, this moment: Seth chattering to Anika while Eli and Jack and I lingered behind and stared up at the stars, trying to figure out which way was west. Just for the hell of it.

After crossing the main road, we found the beach. Miraculously, it wasn't as crowded as I expected for New Year's Eve. Growing up, all I knew were the crowded Waikiki beach fireworks shows. But here, there were only a few groups spread out. Some sat around bonfires, the flames casting orange light.  

We found an empty spot and sat down in a circle. And only a second later, as he finished off his beer, Seth declared, "Guys, I know what we should do until midnight." He rubbed a flat circle into the sand and set his empty beer bottle down. "Let's play spin the bottle."

"Is that a game?" Anika asked. "Like Uno?"

"You never played? So you just you spin the bottle, and once it stops, you kiss whoever it's pointing to."

Anika's hands tensed slightly over her knees. "I don't have interest in swapping saliva with any of you."

"Fine, for you it can be a kiss on the cheek."

"Really?" Eli asked, leaning back on his elbows. "You're bending the rules only for her? That defeats the purpose of the game."

Seth gave him a look. "If you're not down with it, you don't need to play."

Eli rolled his eyes. "I'm only playing if everyone else is. Romy, Jack—are you in?" He gave us a sarcastic smirk. "Unless you two are already exclusive with each other, of course."

"We're not," I said, and then turned to Jack. "Do you wanna play?"

Jack took a few swigs of his beer. His eyes flickered from Eli to me, then back to Eli. Then he glanced at the other people on the beach, half of them probably too drunk or high to pay attention to us. After a long pause, with a nod of his head, Jack agreed to play.

Anika went first. She spun, and the bottle pointed at me.

Getting a kiss on the cheek from Anika Clark shouldn't have made me blush. Maybe I could blame that on the alcohol, but still. Affection from her was so alien that I didn't know how to process it. There was something genuine about it, almost sweet—unlike her usual robotic movements. Wow. Did she care about me or something?

Eli's turn. The bottle spun, reflecting the flames from a nearby fire, and landed on none other than Seth.

Seth laughed. "You gonna let it be a cheek kiss, bro? Or—"

Eli leaned over the circle, took Seth's face in his hands, and placed a tipsy kiss on his mouth. And Seth didn't pull away—even when Eli lost balance and fell on top of him. Seth kissed him again, mid-laughter, in a way that made it very obvious wasn't the first time.

The true intention for the game was clear—these two were itching for an excuse to plant one on each other while everyone watched.

Jack let out a whistle. Eli shot up, alarmed until he realized that yes, Jack, in addition to speaking, was capable of whistling as well.

"Seth the hypocrite has been unmasked," Jack muttered.

"That happened long before this game," Eli drawled as he pulled away, wiped the sand off his shirt, and sat back down.

Seth cleared his throat. "All I'm doing is playing by the rules." He looked at Eli. "What you always tell me I should do."

Eli quickly averted his gaze, going from cocky to embarrassed in a matter of seconds. "Um, yeah. Moving on... Romy, it's your turn." 

Someone's radio further up on the beach blasted Hawaiian reggae. I spun the bottle.

Imagine my disappointment when it landed on Seth.

"That's your second!" Eli exclaimed, taking a sip from his strawberry lemonade. "You're fucking rigging it, I swear!"

"I'm not," Seth defended. "I'm just lucky."

"Not about to be so lucky when Romy bites your face off," Anika said, earning a laugh from Eli.

Jack smiled. I waited for him to challenge me. To grab the bottle and point it toward himself instead. But he didn't do anything, didn't even react.

"Let's go, Romy!" Seth called out. "Let's relive seventh grade."

"Right," I said. "Seventh grade is the last year I want to relive with my lips getting caught in your braces and your peanut butter cookie breath."

Eli just about died of laughter. 

Seth's cheeks started turning pink. "I don't know what's your problem. Eeelliiii didn't mind."

Eli, still laughing, threw a seashell at him. "Shut up." 

To get it over with, I leaned over and quickly pecked Seth's lips. Definitely felt grossed out as I did so, but the moment was so dumb and funny that I didn't care.

When I sat back, an unexpected jolt went up my spine as Jack wrapped his arm around my waist. I barely heard his words, mumbled under his breath: "Nie wieder."

His turn. He picked up the bottle and turned it over in his hand, inspecting all sides. Then he looked at Seth in suspicion.

"I swear it's not rigged, bro," Seth said. "Everyone saw me drinking out of it!"

So Jack spun the bottle. And, for better or for worse, it didn't land on Seth.

It landed on Eli.

Seth's jaw dropped as if the possibility hadn't even occurred to him. And this... uneasy feeling came over me. Jealousy?  

"Um, w-we can have it be a cheek kiss," Eli suggested.

"That rule is only for Anika," Seth reminded him.

"Oh, so you actually want to see me kiss Jack? Fine."

Eli was sitting on my left. Jack on my right. Instead of going in for the kill like he did with Seth, Eli hesitated. Jack's arm slid from my waist, and my stomach dropped. My possessive alpha female side was definitely wanting to come out and throw the bottle into the ocean, but I reminded myself to chill. Seth, on the other hand, had this curious look on his face, his jaw tensed like he was holding himself back from saying all the stupid comments surely going through his head. 

"Are you sure this is okay?" Eli asked. 

Jack shrugged. "I don't see why not."

"Okay. Sorry. I'll, um, it doesn't need to be—"

Eli was cut off by Jack's hands on his shoulders.

"Wha... what are you doing?" Eli stammered. 

And that was when Jack did something I never thought I'd see him do—he leaned in to kiss Eli. 

Eli blinked, started saying something, but lost his words in a nervous stutter. His wide eyes went to Jack's lips, slowly inching closer. Eli took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and it looked like they were about to kiss for real until he turned his head. "Wait, no. I can't... I can't do this." 

Jack pulled away, smirking as if he knew that would happen all along. "Don't want to relive ninth grade?"

"Wait, what?" I asked. 

Everyone felt silent. Anika watched the spectacle unfold, quietly finishing off Eli's strawberry lemonade. 

"Bro, you could've just done it on the cheek," Seth said.

"But what's this about reliving ninth grade?" I asked.

Eli's chest moved up and down with his panicked breaths. "I... I don't really... I don't know what he's even talking about."

"No," Jack said, his voice low and steady. "Tell them."

"It's an odd coincidence, really," Eli stammered. "But, um, like Seth and Romy, um, we also, um." He gave up and looked at Jack. "Why are you making me say it?!"

Jack sighed, all calm and confident while Eli looked like he was on the verge of cardiac arrest. 

"Eli and I dated from eighth to ninth grade," Jack deadpanned. "If you could call it that."

Okay, how did I not know about this? He did mention that he and Eli were friends in middle school. And he also revealed that he'd dated three people before. But I didn't realize one of them was Eli! 

"Is that true?" I asked. 

"Yeah," Eli muttered. "It is."

❀     ❀     ❀

A/N: Sooo I lied. I thought it would be enough to split the New Year's segment in two chapters, but once again, it ended up getting way too long. Consider this part 2 of 3, then! 

This chapter in the first draft of this book was soooo polarizing. In that version, Seth refused to kiss Eli during spin the bottle, and Jack and Eli ended up making out. And then Eli and Romy kissed. It was all one big polyamorous drama fest, and some readers were living for it while others were very disappointed and upset. I'm really liking what I did with this version, though. 

Did anyone expect that reveal at the end?? A few readers have speculated that there may be something deeper to Eli and Jack's history together, and I have to say... you were right 🤭  Any more theories? 

For ship names... we have #Rock #Jomy (Jack + Romy). And we also have #Seli (Seth + Eli). Now we need to come up with one for Jack and Eli. #Jeli??