Lisa drew a piece of paper out of the hat, looked at it, then paused, looking at Matt.

“Who’d you get?” he asked.

“Gates,” Lisa said, trying not to blush.

Lisa watched as Brian grinned, then went and stood next to her. She lost the battle against blushing as his arm rested casually over her shoulder like he had known her his whole life. She gave him an awkward smile as Matt held the hat to Stephanie.

“The Rev,” she said, reading off her paper.

Jimmy stepped over next to the dark-haired girl. “Sup, roomie?” he asked, resulting in a giggle from Stephanie.

Matt then held the hat out towards Jenna, and she reached in, grabbing a piece of paper.

“Short shit?” she read it with a hint of uncertainty.

After giving Matt the middle finger, Johnny went and stood next to Jenna. Matt held the hat towards Korynn. She reached in and picked out one of the last two pieces of paper.

“Zacky,” she said, her voice cracking slightly.

“Well, I guess that leaves Emily with me,” Matt said with a grin. “All the rooms are the same, so let’s all go get settled in our rooms, get to know each other, then we’ll meet back here for lunch.

The group of ten went upstairs two-by-two, and split off into the rooms. Lisa followed Brian into one of them, getting a last second eye contact with her best friend who wiggled her eyebrows and gave the air a slight pelvic thrust. In the room, she set her suitcase down next to the bed that Brian hadn't already flopped down on then took a seat on her bed.

“So, Lisa right?”

She looked over at him, meeting his dark eyes with her own. She kept trying to tell herself that he was just a normal human, but was having trouble getting on the right train of thought. This man was even more attractive in person, and she was sitting less than five feet away from him with time to have a real conversation.

“Uhh…yeah.” She scratched the back of her head.

“You ok?” Brian let out a soft chuckle.

“Yeah,” she said, putting on her best reassuring smile.

“Don’t worry, it’ll be fine. I doubt there’s anything weird about this house. So, why’d you want to do this?” He asked, rolling onto his back and staring at the ceiling.

“I thought it would be cool. I mean, you guys are awesome as hell, my favorite band ever. I watch those ghost hunter shows, and I thought an opportunity to do something like this would be great.”

“Neat. I've been having a recent obsession with all things paranormal.” He laughed. “So, uhh, tell me more about yourself.”

“Well, I turn twenty-three next week. I live in a cheap apartment working for a company that does lighting for concerts and stuff. I hope to get to go on tour and build lighting for some big name band or musician. Hoping that I can actually have a career in the music industry.”

“Sounds pretty cool. Any heroes?”

“Erm…well, music is something I love, and a lot of my heroes are in the music business, and…umm…you’re one of them. Hell, the whole band is. Gives me a lot of motivation to do things and work towards what I want.”

“So that might slightly explain the blushing?”

Lisa went bug eyed, knowing she was busted. “Yeah, maybe,” she said, trying to cover it up with a laugh.

Lisa wasn’t the only one feeling extremely awkward. In the next room, Zacky and Korynn were getting acquainted. Zacky was asking her questions, trying to learn more, and she was doing the same as Lisa. Trying to stop the blushing. She busied herself with organizing the few things in the room while she talked to Zacky. Two more rooms down, Emily and Matt were getting to know each other as well. Again, same thing, Emily being slightly nervous, especially when her entry had ‘PS. I love M. Shadows!’ at the end of it. She was glad that he hadn't mentioned it.

The pairs stayed in their rooms for close to an hour before they started appearing downstairs. Steph nudged Lisa in the side, and gave her a wiggly eyebrow look. “Did you bang him yet?” she whispered.

Lisa's eyes went wide. “No!” she whispered back, playfully slapping her best friend.

Korynn volunteered to make lunch, and started grabbing boxed meals and cooking them for the group. After lunch, they settled to watch TV. There wasn’t much besides basic cable, so it was difficult. With some smart packing though, the guys set up an Xbox and were soon taking turns playing rounds in a first person shooter style game.

Soon enough, beer started to flow through the five men, and as the first evening progressed and dinner passed, it was getting a bit more wild. Not completely out of control, but enough to be quite entertaining. Brian had been pouring shots for people, begging for them to take shots with him. Lisa was dozing off on one of the chairs, nearly asleep when Brian just about crawled on top of her.

“What the hell?” she asked, snapping awake.

“Take the shot,” Brian said.

Lisa blinked, looking at the man hovered over her, holding a shot glass.

“No, I’m not thirsty,” she said.

“Take it. Please take this shot?”

“If you get off me.”

“I will, if you take the shot.”

Lisa sighed and grabbed the shot glass out of his hand. She downed the shot, and handed it back to Brian, who proceeded to just about fall off the chair onto the floor. Everyone began to laugh and Lisa got up.

“I’m going to bed,” she said as she headed for the stairs.

“Yeah, I think we should all hit the beds. It’s been quite a long first day, and tomorrow we will start exploring,” Matt said.

“Dude, who died and made you boss around here?” Jimmy asked.

“Umm, I did now,” Matt said, wearing a smile of accomplishment.

Lisa went to the bedroom, grabbed a pair of sweatpants and a tank top from her suitcase, then went into the bathroom to change and brush her teeth. She walked out of the bathroom to Brian clad only in basketball shorts that hung low on his hips. Lisa felt her cheeks burning again as she quickly turned away to hide them. Brian hadn't noticed since he was drunk and more focused on getting some sleep.

Lisa pulled the covers back and climbed into bed. She placed her glasses on the nightstand next to her cell phone before rolling over to get comfortable. “Goodnight,” she said to Brian, dozing off almost instantly, not even hearing a response from him.

Notes

Still nothing scary...yet. But I promise, it will get a LOT better. :) Comments are always love