I look down at the board Jenna just dropped onto the coffee table.
AFTER HOURS is printed across the center in obnoxious gold letters, surrounded by colored spaces, five decks of cards, six tokens, and a tiny plastic shot glass.
"No."
Jenna drops onto the rug. "You haven't even heard the rules."
"I don't need to. You bought it."
"Scared, Matthews?"
I stare at her.
"Give me the fucking dice."
Twenty minutes later, I care significantly more than I intended to.
"Marcus, you're up," Jenna says.
Marcus rolls.
"Five."
He moves his token and lands on Blue.
Jenna points at the blue deck. "Dare."
Marcus draws a card and immediately groans.
"Read it."
"Do your best seductive dance for thirty seconds. Group votes whether you commit hard enough. If they vote no, drink."
The room erupts.
"No fucking way."
"Rules are rules," I tell him.
"You shut the fuck up, Matthews."
Marcus gets to his feet.
Thirty deeply upsetting seconds later, Jenna is crying laughing, somebody throws a chip at him, and I vote no purely because he needs to suffer.
"Unanimous failure," Jenna announces. "Drink. Priya, roll."
Marcus flips us off and drinks while Priya takes the dice.
She rolls a three.
Red.
"Oh, shit," Jenna says.
Priya draws from the red deck.
"'Choose someone in the room you'd kiss if they were the only two options: the person to your left or the person to your right. Name them or drink.'"
Everyone immediately starts yelling.
Priya looks left. Then right.
"Nope."
She takes the drink.
"Coward," Marcus says.
"Alive coward."
Jenna points across the board. "Zack. Roll."
I take the dice.
"Finally."
"You've had three turns."
"And I've been excellent every time."
I roll.
Four.
I move my token and land on Gold.
Jenna's grin becomes concerning.
"Partner space."
"Oh, fuck off."
"Draw."
I take a card from the Gold deck.
"'Pair with the player sitting directly across from you until either partner lands on another Gold space.'"
I look across the board.
My eyebrows lift.
"Well."
Jenna snorts. "Don't."
"I didn't say anything."
"Your face did."
I look back across the board, a slow grin pulling at my mouth.
"Looks like we're partners."
"Keep going," Jenna says. "Gold gets a Duo card."
I draw again.
"'DUO: Partners must switch drinks for one sip. Then the turn ends.'"
I look at my glass.
Then across the board.
Then back at Jenna.
"This game is fucking stupid."
"You were keeping score ten minutes ago."
"That's unrelated."
I hold my drink out across the board.
"Come on, partner. One sip. Then apparently Jenna gets to continue her campaign of ruining everyone's night."
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