Part 2 (1/2)

'Hey, are you OK?' Jason asked.

'Yeah. Sorry,' Belle said, wiping away her tears. 'It's just that Dominic gave me this.' She pointed to her belly ring.

'I didn't . . . Sorry, I didn't mean to remind you of . . .' Adam's voice trailed off. He looked miserable.

'It's OK,' Belle told him. 'Really. It's not your fault. I think about him all the time anyway.'

She's so torn up, Jason thought. He tried to imagine how he'd feel if anything ever happened to Sienna. But his brain refused to go there.

'Lemons!' Sienna called as she ran back up the stairs. 'I scored a whole bag!' She hesitated on the top step. 'What's up?' she asked, clearly sensing the change in mood.

'What's up is that we want our lemons,' Jason answered, his voice coming out a little too loud and jolly, like somebody on a low-budget TV commercial.

'Jason decided he needs some highlights,' Adam added. 'He's going to juice his hair too.'

Sienna laughed and tossed one of the lemon halves at Jason. 'You should. I think you could use some streaks, don't you, Belle?' She dropped onto the couch next to her friend and put a CD in the player.

'Absolutely,' Belle answered, managing a smile. She took one of the lemon halves and squeezed some juice onto her short blond hair, then used her fingers to comb it through.

'How about a game of ”I never” before lunch?' Sienna asked. 'Belle rules at that game.'

Jason and Adam exchanged a huh? look. 'Never heard of it,' Jason told her.

'I guess it's more of a slumber party thing,' Sienna said. 'We haven't played it in forever.'

'Ooooh, I'm in,' Adam said immediately. 'I've always wanted to know what goes on at a slumber party.'

'OK, here's how it works. We all start out with, like, ten Tic Tacs each.' Sienna pulled a plastic container of the mints from her bag and shook ten out into her palm, then handed the container to Belle. 'Then we go around in the circle, and-You know what, it's easier just to start. I'll go first. I never ate an artichoke. Now, if you have eaten an artichoke, you have to give me one of your Tic Tacs,' Sienna announced.

'Wait,' Adam said. 'Are you telling me you've never eaten an artichoke?'

'They smell like feet,' Sienna told him, wrinkling her nose. 'But if you've eaten them anyway, you owe me a mint. That's how it works.'

'Bor-ing,' Belle teased. Everyone gave Sienna a mint. 'My turn,' Belle said. She glanced from Sienna to Adam to Jason, an actual smile on her face now. 'I never made out on a first date.'

'You're not supposed to lie in this game, by the way,' Sienna pointed out.

'I'm not lying!' Belle protested. 'Although maybe it depends on how you define ”date”. Or ”making out”. By my definition, I haven't. Now give me a Tic Tac, wench.'

Sienna flicked one of the little mints at Belle. Jason handed one over too. We definitely made out on our first date, he thought. h.e.l.l, we made out when Sienna was still with Brad. But was she thinking of me when she gave Belle that Tic Tac, or somebody else?

Adam sighed loudly and hung onto all of his mints. Belle winked at him. 'Now we know who the hos are,' she joked. Then she turned to Jason. 'You're up.'

'I never went on Jerry Springer with my two girlfriends and my chimp,' Jason said.

Jason didn't get any Tic Tacs, but everybody laughed, which was all he was going for. Sienna still needed to up her daily laugh quota. And Belle needed a quota, period.

By the time lunch cajun chicken and a mesclun field greens salad with champagne dressing was served up, Adam was ahead by seven or eight mints.

'Time for you to go down,' Jason warned his friend, forking a bite of salad into his mouth. 'I never saw Citizen Kane.'

Adam threw a Tic Tac into Jason's salad. Belle and Sienna didn't have to pay up. They hadn't seen it, either.

'What's that movie even about?' Belle asked.

'It's about this man who is tortured by-' Adam began.

'No, don't even tell me,' Belle begged. 'I had to turn the DVD off in the middle of Saw 3. The torture scenes were too gross.'

'Not that kind of torture,' Adam told her. 'He was tortured by memories of his past you know, the choices he'd made.'

'Sounds kinda boring,' Belle commented.

Jason glanced at Adam's head, looking for signs of imminent explosion.

'I never saw Apocalypse Now,' Sienna challenged, before Adam could formulate a response to Belle.

Adam squeezed his eyes shut in pain, then handed over a Tic Tac. Jason and Belle didn't.

'I hate those movies about the end of the world. Everything looks so ugly. Especially the clothes. Who wants to watch that?' Belle asked. 'Like the one with the people who were hiding out from zombies in a mall Dawn of the Dead. I mean, they were in a mall, and they never bothered to change out of their grungy clothes! And did I say they were in a mall, as in lots of stores?'

'That actually isn't the kind of apocalypse in-' Adam stopped himself. 'You know what? Never mind. It's your turn,' he told Belle.

'I never saw . . .' Belle hesitated.

'Heathers,' Jason stage-whispered.

'I never saw Heathers!' Belle exclaimed. 'I really never did.'

'Unfair. I'm being ganged up on,' Adam complained, giving up another mint. 'And I can't believe none of you have seen Heathers.'

'What's it about?' Belle asked.

'This group of girls who torment the less popular-'

'So it's like Mean Girls,' Belle interrupted. 'Grool! You know ”I meant to say cool and then I started to say great”? I just love that!'

Adam groaned. 'No comparison. Heathers isn't a piece of teen fluff. It's a revolutionary mix of teen comedy, black comedy, absurd comedy, and social commentary on popularity. Plus, there's lots of violence. And croquet.'

'As usual, you've lost me,' Jason told him.

'You know, I think my sister left a copy of that movie in the cabinet in the stateroom. Not that it ever gets watched my father practically refuses to remove The G.o.dfather from the DVD player,' Sienna said.

'”Leave the gun . . .”' Adam began.

'”Take the cannoli,”' Jason finished for him.

Sienna and Belle looked at each other.

'Do you know what they're talking about?' Belle asked.