Disclaimer: I own nothing.
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"Truth or dare, Ellie!" Jennifer Hayes said over a Carpenters Christmas recording, smiling at the other girl.
"Truth," El Hopper-Byers said hesitantly. "No. . . dare!"
"This ought to be good," Max muttered, licking her candy cane and rolling her eyes. She wanted to be anywhere but there. The only reason they had all gotten invited to the most popular girl in school's Christmas party was because she had a crush on Will.
Jennifer adjusted the hunter green ribbon in her braid and looked between Mike Wheeler and El. "Okay, I dare you to kiss Mike under the mistletoe!"
Both El and Mike blushed bright red.
Max stuck the candy cane in her mouth and rolled her eyes again. What kind of teenage party had mistletoe anyways? It was kind of ridiculous. She knew the unofficial couple would take the dare and that even if they didn't, Jennifer would be too sweet to even give El a forfeit.
"Well!?" Lucas asked loudly, smirking. "Are you going to do it or not?"
Mike cleared his throat. "You don't have to if you don't want to, El."
There were loud protests from all the party-goers, save for Max and Will.
"You really don't have to do it!" Jennifer said quickly when she saw the unease in the other girl's face. "I can think of something else—"
El stood, her red velvet skirt falling around her knees. "No! I'll do it!"
Jennifer clapped her hands together and got up too. "I'll go and get the mistletoe! Be right back everybody!"
Max leaned over to Dustin. "This is so stupid!" she whispered.
Dustin smiled at her. "Ah, you're just upset because you had to eat a package of Swiss Miss." he patted her hand kindly. "Don't worry, Mike and Eleven like kissing each other."
Jennifer came back with a sprig of mistletoe. "This is left over from my dad and mom's party the other weekend," she said. "Will, could you please help me hang it up over the door?"
"Sure!" Will answered, dragging a chair over and helping Jennifer up onto it.
He held it steady while she tacked the plant over the threshold then took her hand while she jumped down. She smiled at him, "Thank you! Okay Mike, go and stand under the mistletoe! El, are you ready?"
El nodded and followed Mike.
They stood in the doorway for a couple of seconds Mike shuffled his feet and then stuck his hands in his pockets. They could feel everybody's eyes on them and it made it ten times more awkward than all the times they stole kisses in private.
Finally, El decided to stop prolonging it and just to go for it. She grabbed him by the sweater and put her mouth on his before he had a chance to react. Dustin had told her once you didn't always have to wait for the boy to make a move first because it was the 80s after all.
After a few seconds, she pulled away and beamed at him. Mike smiled back and pulled his collar away from his neck. Max narrowed her eyes and cleared her throat, trying to bring them both back to reality while Jennifer broke into peals of delighted laughter.
"Okay Ellie, it's your turn to go!" Jennifer's closest friend, Veronica, said as El and Mike rejoined the circle near the Christmas tree. "Go on and pick your victim!"
"Dustin!" El said. "Truth or dare?"
"Dare!" Dustin answered bravely.
El looked at Dustin and then Max mischievously. "I dare you to kiss Max underneath the mistletoe!"
Max almost choked on her leftover candy cane. "Isn't there a rule about doing repeat dares? Like you can't do a dare the person before you did or something?"
Jennifer shook her head and grinned. "Nooooo! I don't think so!"
"You don't want Dustin to pay the forfeit, do you?" Lucas said, knowing her only weak spot was the curly-haired boy. She liked everybody in their group but she was only nice to Dustin.
Max sighed and got up, she never imagined her first kiss would be in front of her peers. But she really didn't want Dustin to pay a forfeit. Or worse, think she was repulsed by the thought of kissing him. Just in case he ever wanted to do it when they were alone.
"Fine. I guess I'll do it, are you ready Henderson?"
This time Dustin was the boy blushing as he was dragged underneath the mistletoe.
End
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Author's Note:
A little short but I didn't want to drag it out too much. I hope you enjoyed it, I had fun writing it. I have an alternate story that's the same idea (sort of) but wouldn't end at all and it would take away from the cute snippet I wanted to write. I hope you'll tell me what you thought! (Also, in no way are Will & Jennifer Hayes a couple. Because I know popular opinion is that Will is gay. You can decide for yourself what's going on there!)
I'll update "Changing My Past" on Saturday.
Until Next Time!
Lots of love,
Holly, 12/15/2016
