Kate eyed the box incredulously, with something halfway between horror and bemusement on her face. "You want us to take random pills you bought at a gas station?" She held the box behind her as Jack reached to take them back. "Sorry, not just any random pills -- ones that are supposed to make us busty and horny, somehow. What were you thinking?"
Jack sighed. "Fine, whatever, it was stupid. But with claims like that, how could I not? Now give them back, if you're not gonna take them." Jack took another shot at grasping for the box, but Kate stood firmly in the way.
"Come on, it could be fun!" Bella chimed in from behind Kate, grabbing the box and quickly scanning over the ingredient list. "I don't see anything crazy in the ingredients. Besides, if they're selling it at 7-Eleven, it can't be that unsafe, right? That at least means they're FDA approved."
The three of them were standing in the middle of Bella's living room in her somewhat cramped apartment. Jack and Kate had been dating for a couple years, and Bella had just starting seeing someone, so they figured it was good timing for a double date and a fun night in.
Kate rolled her eyes at Bella. "How would you know if there's anything bad in there? It's a bunch of chemical names. Any of them could kill us, or make our livers fail, or turn our hair blue, or--"
"Yeah, or maybe it'll do what it says." Bella turned back over to the front of the box. "Love In a Box" was printed in capital white letters on an otherwise black background, along with an assortment of bold claims: "TURN YOUR EDGES INTO CURVES" and "YOU'LL BE IRRESISTIBLE AND READY TO GO".
Jack, no longer struggling to grab the box, put his hand on Kate's shoulder. "How about this -- let's all take one now. It's being sold publicly, so it's probably safe. Worst case, we all get a stomachache, but that would have happened regardless considering how much alcohol we plan on drinking tonight. Best case, it either does what it says, or maybe some other cool weird thing." Seeing uncertainty in the two women's eyes, Jack continued. "Come on, aren't you two at least curious what will happen? Those are pretty crazy claims."
Bella narrowed her eyes as she popped the box open, revealing a sheet of small pink pills. "Yeah...I do kinda want to see if I can get some weird high off of this."
Jack turned to Kate. Kate glanced back and forth between the two of them before throwing up her hands. "Fine, fine, you've convinced me. But if this sucks, you're sleeping on the couch tonight, got it?"
Jack smiled. "That's a risk I'm willing to take". He turned to Bella. "Should we wait for Matt to get here? I don't want him to feel left out."
Bella gave a small groan of disgust. "By the time he gets here, I'm sure whatever these pills do will already have worn off." She popped three pills out of the sheet and returned the rest to the box, handing one pill each to Jack and Kate.
Kate cradled her pill with apprehension. "Well, the sooner we start the better, in that case...right?" She turned to Jack for affirmation, who was already downing his pill and washing it down with beer. Kate turned to Bella, potentially thinking of stopping her before she did something she might regret, but Bella had already swallowed. Steeling her nerves, Kate tossed back the pill and took a deep drink of her beer.
All three of them stood alert, waiting to see if anything would happen, for five seconds, then ten seconds, then almost fifteen before Bella's laugh cut through the silence. "Well, I'm not sure what I was expecting, but of course it's not going to kick in for a while, right?"
Jack frowned. "Or maybe they're duds. Who knows."
Kate breathed a small sigh of relief. "Okay, enough drugs, at least for now. Who's down for some beer pong? I know Matt's not here yet--"
Bella shrugged. "He'd be dead weight anyways. Let's do it!"
The three wasted no time grabbing the folding table from the closet and laying out red plastic cups. Jack was just glad to have something to do to take his mind off the pills. Despite being the one to bring them, he was still a little worried that it would sour the night somehow, or worse, that the pills would do nothing, and he'd never live down the embarrassment. Instead of thinking about that, he focused as well as he could on pouring exactly the same amount of liquid into each of the cups.
As Kate lined up to take the first shot, Jack took a second to admire her figure. At 5'8", she was only a few inches shorter than him, and her strict exercise regiment meant she stayed slender and fit. Since she had come straight from work, she was still wearing a pencil skirt and a button-down. Now that she was off the clock, she had undone an extra button of her shirt, hinting at her modest B-cup breasts.
With an expert flick, Kate launched the ball across the table and right into the front cup on Bella's side. "Drink up!" she called, reveling in her minor victory.
Bella stuck her tongue out, plucked out the ball, quickly swallowed what was in the cup, and launched the ball directly into the center of Jack and Kate's cups with a satisfying splash. "Oh, so you think you're hot shit?"
Jack chuckled under his breath. Occasionally he forgot how competitive the two girls could be, but such spells were always broken the moment any form of competition started, or anything that could conceivably have a winner, for that matter.
Kate rolled her eyes as she grabbed the ping-pong ball and drank from the cup. She handed the ball to Jack, but not before leaning in so her mouth was barely an inch away from Jack's ear. "Don't mess this up for me, sweetheart," she teased in a raspy whisper, before delicately kissing his neck and giving a slight giggle.
Jack froze for a second, taken aback by the rare show of affection. Usually Kate was incredibly reserved, especially around other people.
"Aww, you broke him. No way he makes the shot now!" Bella taunted. Snapping out of his reverie, Jack lined up as well as he could, but the ball bounced against the side of the cups and fell rolling to the floor. Bella smiled. "See?"
