Chapter 2 Let's play a game

POPPY

“Look who finally decided to grace us with her presence,” a sharp, honey-coated voice drifted from the sunken living room couch the moment I stepped into Katie's living room.

I sighed, getting ready to face the rest of my friends. I don't think we're really friends but it doesn't matter because we've been hanging out since we learned how to walk, so we're close knit.

They're a handful and the girl glaring daggers at me from across the living room just confirmed that. Tinsley. If our school Oakridge High had a monarchy, Tinsley wore the crown, and she made sure everyone else felt the weight of it. She was lounging back, her perfect blow-out cascading over a silk top, her manicured fingers tapping impatiently on her phone.

“Oh, shut up, Tinsley,” Katie laughed, jogging over from the kitchen counter.

Katie on the other hand wasn't a bitch like Tinsley and we get along really well despite how different we were, while I'm the quiet girl that loves her peace, Katie's a tech genuis, but she isn't your typical tech geek. She was stunning, rocking a messy bun, oversized streetwear, and an sleeve of intricate tattoos snaking down her forearm. The moment she saw me, her face lit up.

“Poppy! Thank goodness you're here. If you hadn’t shown up, I was going to lose my mind.”

“Missed me that much?” I smiled, the soft fabric of my cream sweater catching on my pink skirt as I dropped my bag by the door.

Before Katie could answer, a pair of strong, familiar arms wrapped around my shoulders from behind, lifting me slightly off the ground. The scent of clean cedar and expensive cologne filled my senses.

“Always,” Kenny whispered into my hair, giving me a protective squeeze before setting me down.

Ladies and gents, meet my best friend Kenny. He was the calm, fiercely protective anchor of our friend group, the only one who truly looked out for me without any hidden motives. Right behind him was his boyfriend, Tristan, looking effortlessly cool with a soft smile.

“Don't let Jamie see you holding his girl like that, Ken,” Tristan teased, bumping Kenny’s shoulder affectionately. The dynamic between them was always so easy, a warm contrast to the heavy, complicated knots tying the rest of us together.

“Jamie knows I’d fight him for her,” Kenny snorted, his eyes lingered on my face for a second too long, checking in on me the way he always did.

Across the room, Grayson was leaning against the bar, his varsity jacket pulled tight across his broad shoulders. He and Jamie immediately locked hands in a complicated, brotherly handshake, laughing loudly about some play from yesterday’s football practice. Grayson was dating Katie, but his loyalty always belonged to Jamie first, they've been so close since childhood.

“Seriously though,” Katie groaned, rolling her eyes as she collapsed onto the floor cushion next to the low glass coffee table. “Grayson has been breathing down my neck for three days to get this damn app updated and working. You’d think his life depended on it.”

“Hey, it’s a tradition,” Grayson defended himself, flashing a charming smirk as he walked over and leaned in to kiss Katie before going seat beside her.

“We’ve been talking about The Devil’s Box since freshman year. We’re a month and few weeks from graduation. We have to do it right.” he smiled.

Devil's what? Absolutely not. I opened my mouth to protest but opening of the heavy oak doors from the kitchen pushed open. Martha, Katie’s graying nanny, shuffled out carrying a massive ceramic platter. The rich, intoxicating scent of warm chocolate chip cookies flooded the room.

“I brought some refreshments for you kids,” Martha smiled warmly, setting the plate in the dead center of the glass table.

“Thanks, Martha, you’re a lifesaver,” Katie called out as the elderly woman nodded and headed back toward the kitchen wing.

“Is it spiked?” Grayson asked eagerly.

“Yep, I mixed some drugs in the dough” Tinsley chimed not even sparing him a glace, her eyes still locked in the screen of her phone.

“No way” Jamie chuckled reaching for one of the cookies.

“Not cool” Katie groaned, the sound of her fingers typing filled the air.

“One time, I spiked the whole dinner at my house” Grayson said proudly popping a cookie in his mouth.

I'm starting to think this guy is always high as fuck but he's an athlete so I guess he has limits. I told you they were one fucked up friend group. And that's why they want to bring back devil's box after everything that happened last year.

My stomach twisted into a tight, uncomfortable knot. I looked at the platter of cookies, then at the empty glass bottle sitting right next to it on the table. “Guys… maybe we shouldn’t. What happened last year… it was too much. Why can’t we just have a normal party? Why does it have to be this game? We can try beer pong”

Tinsley let out a loud, dramatic sigh, rolling her eyes so hard I thought they’d fall. “Oh my god, Poppy, are we really doing this again? The past is the past. You made us swear never to mention this. Don’t be a buzzkill just because you’re a fragile little doll. We’re going to college, not entering a convent. Grow up.”

I pushed back the series of words I wanted to throw at her down my throat.

“Tinsley, back off,” Kenny intercepted smoothly, his voice dropping into a deep, protective tone that warned her to step down. He glanced at me gently. “If Poppy doesn’t want to play, she doesn’t have to.”

“No, it’s fine,” Jamie chimed in, tossing his car keys onto the table and pulling me down to sit beside him. He wrapped an arm around my waist, pulling me tightly against his side. “Poppy’s just nervous. Right, babe? It’s just a game. To spend time together before graduation.”

I forced a nod, but underneath my sweater, my skin felt hot. My mind wasn’t in this room. It was trapped in the woods, smelling the damp earth from twelve months ago.

“Alright, let’s log in,” Katie said, her fingers flying over her laptop screen before she pushed it away and tapped her phone. “I hooked the coding into my dad’s prototype biometric software. The camera and the screen pulse-track your vitals. No one can lie to the Box.”

Katie explained as if we weren't familiar with the game. It was our idea to create it last year after we were almost falling apart from the secrets and other complicated stuff we had going on so we used this app to create a fun version of truth or dare and since Katie's dad is into the tech world and he programs lies detectors machine so she was able to make this app.

We all pulled out our phones. One by one, the screen interfaces lit up with a sleek, minimalist graphic of a locked iron box. I felt Jamie’s hand heavy on my hip as we all tapped Accept.

Katie placed her phone flat on the glass table, right next to the empty glass bottle.

“I’ll go first to show you guys how it works,” Grayson said, reaching out and giving the bottle a hard spin.

The green glass whirled across the surface, catching the glint of the overhead chandelier. It slowed down, scraping against the glass before the neck of the bottle snapped to a direct stop. Pointing right at Katie.

“Ooh, the creator goes first,” Tinsley snickered, leaning forward with a malicious gleam in her eyes. “This should be good.”

“Truth or dare?” Grayson asked.

Katie grinned, totally unbothered. She reached out, pressing her thumb firmly onto her phone screen to activate the biometric scanner. A soft blue ring lit up around her finger, tracking her pulse. “I choose Truth. Hit me.”

A sudden, sharp chime echoed from everyone’s phones simultaneously. The sleek interface of the app violently glitched, the digital iron box cracking open as a line of text scrolled across the screen in bold letters.

[WHICH OF YOUR FRIENDS' BOYFRIENDS DID YOU SLEEP WITH LAST YEAR?]

The entire room went dead silent. We weren't expecting that. The easy, laughing atmosphere vanished in a fraction of a second. Jamie’s arm stiffened against my waist. Kenny looked over at me sharply, his eyes widening. Tinsley froze, her smirk completely fading as everyone’s gazes slowly locked onto Katie.

Katie laughed, but it was a high, nervous giggle that rattled against the quiet room. Her thumb was still pressed hard against the glass screen.

“Obviously none” Katie shrugged, looking around the circle, her eyes darting past Grayson, past Jamie. “Pfttt. What sort of question is that?”

For two agonizing seconds, nothing happened. Then, every phone in the room exploded into a deafening, high-pitched screech. The blue rings on our screens violently fractured, bleeding into a blinding, flashing crimson.

A single, metallic voice blared out from the speakers, shattering the silence of the house.

[TRUTH CORRUPTED. LIAR DETECTED. PENALTY UNLOCKED.]

What the hell?