Truth or Dare
"Is everything ready?" Emma's voice came from downstairs.
"Yes." Bella shouted back.
It was a full moon time again and the girls were staying at Emma's house.
She had come back with her parents a month ago and had quickly befriended Bella. Cleo and Rikki told her with the smallest details about everything that happened while she was gone and now the four girls were inseparable.
Bella looked around the room with a grin on her face, happy from the result of her work.
"Finally we're done." Rikki groaned, after covering up the last window. "I don't understand why we had to do all this when the moon is not affecting us anymore."
Bella only smirked.
"Let's go downstairs to see if Cleo and Emma need help."
Rikki nodded and the two went out of the room.
Emma was preparing the food while Cleo was finishing the last window.
"Done." She said and dropped down on the couch exhaustedly.
Rikki made herself a bowl of popcorn, because she hated Emma's healthy foods and sat next to Cleo holding a couple of DVDs in her hand trying to pick one of them.
"Which one do you want to watch first?" She asked the three girls.
"Can't we just do something else for a change?" Emma said. "We always watch movies."
"Do you have something on your mind?" Bella asked her.
Emma shook her head. Rikki's eyes lit up.
"I do. Let's play "Truth or dare"!" She said a bit too enthusiastically.
"No way." Bella cut her off. "I hate that game."
"Oh, come on, it'll be fun!" Rikki said.
Cleo bit her lip, Emma was playing with a piece of her hair and Bella hesitated.
"Fine." Emma said eventually. "But if everything ends bad it will be your fault!"
"Deal." Rikki smirked and the girls sat on the floor in a circle.
Rikki was the first to spin the empty bottle of wine they decided to use. It stopped pointing at Emma.
"Ok, Emma, truth or dare?"
Emma hesitated, but knowing Rikki a bit too well, she chose what she thought was the safer one.
"Truth."
"Ok. I dare you to answer the following question. Have you ever had a crush on a girl?"
"Rikki! I'm not going to answer that!"
"You have to, Em." Cleo said despite herself. "Those are the rules."
Emma sighed.
"Fine." She took a deep breath and too much red rushed to her cheeks. "I've had a crush on a girl. Happy?!" She said to Rikki sarcastically.
"Very." The curly blond smirked.
"Ok, my turn." Emma spun the bottle and it stopped pointing at Cleo. "Truth or dare?"
"Dare." Cleo said.
"Ok, I dare you to tell Lewis how jealous you were when he was dating Charlotte!"
"Emma, I can't do that!" Cleo protested.
"Well, you're gonna have to."
Cleo groaned and nodded.
"Ok, I'll do it when I see him."
And she spun the bottle. It pointed at Bella.
"Truth or dare, Bella?"
Bella thought for a second.
"Truth."
"Ok. Before Will how many boyfriends have you had?"
Bella's cheeks turn bright red.
"Only one."
Rikki almost dropped her drink.
"Are you serious?" She asked Bella shocked, trying to keep herself from bursting in laughter.
Bella only nodded, becoming redder if that was even possible. Rikki took a deep breath in an attempt to stop the laughter that threatened to burst out and she actually succeeded.
It was Bella's turn to spin the bottle and it pointed at Rikki. Before Bella could even say something Rikki spoke.
"Dare."
Bella grinned.
"I dare you to", She thought for a second. "To tell us what you're truly feeling for Zane."
Rikki gave her a death glare.
"Nope, not going to happen." The curly blond stated.
"Rikki, you know the rules." Bella reminded her.
"Fine. I hate him and I don't want to see him ever again. Are you happy now?!"
"Come on, Rikki, the truth. You obviously don't hate him since you're dating him again."
"You wanted the truth. This is the truth."
"Yeah, right." Bella rolled her eyes sarcastically but didn't push the issue further.
Rikki spun the bottle. It pointed at Cleo.
"Truth or dare?"
"Truth." The brunette answered.
"Fine. Lee think about a proper question. Ah, yes. Did you and Lewis have sex?"
"Rikki!" Cleo groaned angrily. "What kind of a question is that?!"
"Come on, just answer."
"No, we didn't have."
Cleo impatiently spun the bottle.
"Em, truth or dare?"
Emma chose truth again.
"Ok, well...tell us more about that girl you had had a crush on. What's she like?"
The brunette really didn't want to mess around with her friend's feelings, she was just curious and she just couldn't think of anything else to ask her.
"Cleo, not you too." Emma groaned. "But ok, I'll tell you about her."
Her cheeks went bright read.
"She's beautiful." Emma said becoming redder if it was even possible. "And she...her eyes remind me of the ocean."
Rikki tried not to laugh and turned around to hide her smirk, not wanting to hurt Emma's feelings.
"She's..amazing." Emma concluded. "But she's a girl and I'm a girl, so I had to forget about her."
"I need to go to the bathroom." Bella excused herself. "Carry on without me, I'll be right back."
"Are you sure you want to go alone?" Cleo asked her concerned.
"Cleo we've covered every window in the house, besides it's the bathroom. I think I'll be fine." Bella rolled her eyes standing up.
She walked upstairs to the bathroom and the others continued with the game.
It had passed almost half an hour before Emma notice Bella hadn't returned.
"Hey, is Bella still upstairs?" She asked Cleo and Rikki.
Rikki looked around.
"Well she certainly isn't here. We should go and check on her."
"She might've fallen asleep." Cleo shrugged.
"In the bathroom?!" Rikki rolled her eyes.
"I'll go check on her." Emma sighed and went upstairs.
She knocked on the bathroom door.
"Bella? Bella are you in there?"
There was no response so Emma pushed the door open. The bathroom was empty, but one of the windows was slightly opened.
"Oh, no." Emma whispered and ran to close it, but her eyes caught a glimpse of the moon and she suddenly stood dead in her tracks.
A wild smile rose up on her face as she slowly walked back downstairs.
"Did you find her?" Rikki asked her, while Cleo was searching for the orange juice in the fridge to pour herself another glass.
Emma didn't respond only continued grinning walking slowly towards the curly blond.
"Oh, great." Rikki murmured. "Cleo, Emma's moonstruck."
"What? How? I thought the moon wasn't affecting us anymore?!" Cleo shot her head up from the fridge.
"Don't ask me." Rikki shrugged and turned to look at Emma again.
The curly blond jumped back realizing they were inches apart from each other.
"For goodness' sake, Em." Rikki groaned backing up from her.
Emma made a few steps closing the space between them again. Then she reached and without any premonition whatsoever she pulled Rikki's hair out of the messy bun it was in, causing her soft curls to fall heavily on her shoulders.
"Hey!" Rikki spat angrily.
"Your hair looks better when it's down." Emma shrugged innocently and looked at Rikki with big puppy eyes, smirking at her.
"Look, I know you're moonstruck", Rikki began frustratedly, "but -"
"You look beautiful." Emma grinned at her.
"What?!" Rikki's eyes shot wide open.
"You look beautiful." Emma repeated.
"This is crazy. You're moonstruck and you're talking absolute nonsense. In fact you know what?! This conversation is over!"
And Rikki turned to walk away, but Emma caught her hand, pulling her back. Rikki turned around to look at her and that caused the curly blond to triple over and fall down on the floor on her back, pulling Emma with herself.
Emma grinned at her, while Rikki was trying to push her off.
"Emma, get off me!"
But Emma didn't do so.
"You're beautiful." She repeated again. "And your eyes are so blue that they remind me of the ocean itself."
Rikki's eyes widened and realization hit her.
"Have you guys seen Charlie?"
Rikki and Emma both turned their heads to see Bella had returned to the living room.
"Bella? Where were you?! We were so worried about you!" Cleo said walking up to her.
Noticing Emma's distracted, Rikki managed to push her off herself and stood up. Emma quickly stood up too.
"Where's Charlie?!" Bella asked again with strange shine in her eyes.
"Who's Charlie?" Cleo asked her confused.
"My boyfriend." Bella stated.
"No, Will is your boyfriend, Bella." Rikki said walking up to her too and standing next to Cleo.
"Charlie's my boyfriend." Bella insisted. "Now where is he?"
Rikki waved her hand in front of Bella's eyes.
"Oh, great. She's moonstruck too." The curly blond moaned to Cleo.
At that moment someone knocked on the door.
Cleo and Rikki shared a look. Bella and Emma were already moonstruck, but they weren't and if they were to open the door..
"Girls, cover your eyes, we're coming in." They heard Lewis' voice coming from the other side of the door.
Rikki and Cleo quickly obeyed and covered their eyes. Lewis and Zane quickly walked in.
The girls heard the clicking of the door and uncovered their eyes.
"How's it going?" Lewis asked walking to Cleo.
"Not good. Bella and Emma are moonstruck." The brunette announced.
Zane walked to Rikki.
"Are you ok?"
"Do I look like I'm moonstruck?!" She said sarcastically. "I'm fine, Zane."
He put his hand on her cheek and pulled her in for a quick kiss, only to be pushed back by Emma.
"What the-" He stared at her. "What's wrong with you, Emma?!"
"Stay away from her." Emma spat.
"What?!" Zane's eyes widened.
Rikki quickly put her hand on his shoulder and said, "Long story."
"The full moon?" Zane lifted his eyebrows.
"You could say that, yeah." Rikki nodded.
The two walked to the couch and sat down. Emma was looking angrily at Zane who had his hand wrapped around the curly blonde's shoulders.
Rikki looked at Emma and suddenly her eyes widened.
"Ash!" She gasped. "We have to call Ash!"
And she pulled out her phone dialing his number, just when someone knocked on the door.
"I'll get this." Cleo said and before Lewis or anyone else could stop her she ran to the door and opened it.
"I'm sorry I'm late." A familiar voice said and Will pushed Cleo back in, closing the door behind himself, but it was too late; her eyes had caught glimpse of the moon.
She whipped around on her feet and marched towards Lewis.
"I'm sorry for that." Will said to Cleo's back and to Lewis, before looking around. "Where's Bella?"
"Over there." Rikki nodded towards the window at the other end of the room.
Bella was standing by the covered window, deep in her thoughts. Will walked over to her and placed his hand on her shoulder.
"Bella?" He called her name. "Are you ok?"
She turned around to look at him.
"You're not Charlie."
It was not a question but a statement.
Will furrowed his eyebrows.
"Charlie? Who the hell is Charlie?"
"It's the moon, Will." Rikki announced from the couch. "Don't mind her."
Suddenly Cleo started to shout at Lewis' face, coming closer and closer, causing him to frantically pull back shocked.
She was yelling at him about how hurt and jealous she was when he started dating Charlotte and how much pain it had caused her to look at them back then. She was now dangerously close, making him to back away. This however lead to him tripling and at his attempt to grab something to stabilize himself he pulled one of the windows' covers with him on his way falling down.
Before Zane could do anything, Rikki was looking outside straight into the big, beautiful full moon.
"Lewis!" Zane yelled desperately and quickly grabbed the curly blond to prevent her from doing something she'd regret later.
That, it turned out, was not necessary.
Rikki stood frozen just staring at the moon, before she slowly turned to look at Zane; his eyes were looking at hers full of love and concern. Before he could say or do anything, her lips were pressed hard against his. His grip lightened, but she buried her own hands into his hair and neck, pulling him closer.
To his utter astonishment, Zane was the one to reluctantly pull away first.
"Rikki? Are you sure you want this? I mean you're moonstruck after all, and when you wake up tomorrow you might regret it."
"I've never been more sure in my life."
"I know you think you want this, but seriously just stop for a minute and think it through."
"I told you I'm sure."
Zane shook his head, but finally gave in and stood up, pulling her with him.
"Fine, but in that case let's go upstairs. Here is a bit..overcrowded."
She nodded and the two turned to walk to the stairs, when suddenly Zane felt he couldn't move his legs and looked down; wrapped around his legs there was a fair layer of ice.
"Hey!" He looked up at Emma. "Get that off me!"
"You're not going anywhere with her." Emma spat coldly.
Rikki curled her hand into a fist and the ice quickly melt away.
"I think you've forgotten who you're messing with." She hissed at Emma's face.
"Oh, really?!" The other girl lifted her eyebrows fiercely.
She lifted her hand and suddenly out of nowhere there was an ice wall in front of her, separating her from Rikki and Zane.
The curly blond started to curl her fingers again, when suddenly her fist was entangled in flames, but her hand didn't appear to be burned or hurt at all for that matter. The ice wall was replaced by one of red flames.
Zane was staring at the two girls in pure shock; he couldn't believe his eyes, though he knew it was all because of the full moon.
Just then Ash walked through the door only to stop dead in his tracks because of the scene before him; Cleo was yelling at Lewis and was hitting him with her hands, Will was arguing loudly with Bella in an unsuccessful attempt to convince her he was her boyfriend and Zane was standing between Emma and Rikki who had killing looks on their faces and looked like they were ready to kill each other.
"What the hell is going on here?" Ash asked stunned, closing the door behind himself.
"Long story, mate." Zane answered him. "It's because of the full moon."
Ash nodded and walked over to Emma.
"Em? Is everything alright?"
"No, it's not." And she pointed at Zane and Rikki. "He wants to go upstairs with her."
Ash looked at her confused.
"Uh..so?"
"He can't." Emma stated coldly.
"Why not?"
" 'Cause he'll hurt her."
Ash tried not to laugh at that, and put his hand on Emma's shoulder.
"Em, he's her boyfriend and they can do whatever they want. And he loves her a bit too much to do something to hurt her if you ask me."
"You don't understand." Emma said bitterly, voice sharp and cold. "I should be the one to go up there with her."
The information was a bit too much for Ash to register.
"I'm sorry..what?!"
"I love her." Emma stated confidently. "I'm in love with Rikki."
Even Zane was stunned from that statement, but quickly shook himself.
"It's the moon." He reassured Ash. "Don't listen to her. The moon is making her say and do crazy stuff."
Ash wasn't sure.
"You think so?"
"I know so."
And Zane made a step towards Rikki.
"I'm going with Rikki upstairs, and you do us all a favour and try to keep your girlfriend down here with you."
Ash nodded and led Emma with him to the couch, while Zane and Rikki disappeared upstairs, the blond following them with her look.
"If he does anything to her, I'll kill him."
"Don't worry." Ash wrapped his fingers around her hand. "I promise everything will be ok."
The rest of the night the boys were trying to pursue the girls that the fool moon was messing with their brains, but they wouldn't listen.
Zane spent the night upstairs with Rikki, but whatever happened there was left to the imagination.
Ash was on the couch and had his hands wrapped around Emma, her head resting on his chest; she had finally fallen asleep after Ash had been reassuring her for an hour that Zane wouldn't hurt Rikki.
Will was in the other end of the room with Bella, both sitting down on the floor, her head in his lap. He tried to pursue her that he was her boyfriend not Charlie, but eventually after some time he gave up and instead managed to pursue her to get some rest, promising they'd go look for that Charlie guy in the morning.
Lewie had let Cleo shout at him for about an hour, before he finally wrapped her in his arms and told her how sorry he was that he had dated Charlotte.
The morning came slowly and found all of them sound asleep in their places and positions from the previous evening.
Surprisingly the first to wake up was Rikki. The sun was bathing her face with its rays and the curly blond moaned quietly before she opened her eyes. At first she had put her hand in front of her eyes, because the outburst of light from the window blinded her, but when her eyes adjusted she jumped on her place and looked around. This wasn't her room, nor her bed.
Suddenly something moved next to her and she whipped her head around. Her heart skipped a beat; in the bed next to her was Zane and he was naked.
Rikki desperately tried to remember what has happened the previous night, but the last thing she remembered was Cleo, Bella and Emma were moonstruck and were talking absolute nonsense. Oh crap she must've been moonstruck as well.
The curly blond quickly shoved Zane to wake him up.
"Zane! Zane, wake up!"
And she snuck out of Cleo's bed and put her clothes back on.
"Zane, wake up!" She shoved him again, this time pulling the cover out of him.
He groaned, but eventually opened his eyes.
"What?" He murmured.
"You need to tell me what happened last night!"
"Can't it wait?"
"No! I want you to tell me everything right now!"
"What is there to tell? You guys were moonstruck."
"This doesn't explain how we ended up in Cleo's bed." Rikki's eyes suddenly widened. "Oh no, Cleo. If Cleo finds out we made it her bed she'll kill me!"
"Don't worry, we're not going to tell her or the others." Zane reassured her.
He got dressed while Rikki made up Cleo's bed and then both him and Rikki went downstairs.
"Thank god the others are still asleep." Rikki whispered, giving out a breath of relief.
She went to Cleo's kitchen to get herself something to drink.
"Thirsty?" She heard Zane's smirk behind her back.
"Yup." She nodded not bothering to turn around.
He wrapped his hands around her and placed a kiss on her neck.
"You were amazing last night." She could hear his smirk to her ear.
Rikki spun around in his hands and grinned before pressing her lips against his.
"I'm always amazing."
Just then they heard noise behind each other and turned around to see Bella lazily walking into the kitchen.
"You're up awful early."
"It seems you are too."
The blond nodded walking to the skink to pour herself a glass of water. She carefully took a sip and gulped it tiredly.
"What happened last night?"
"We were moonstruck." Rikki sighed.
"We?"
"Yeah, all of us, the girls."
"But why? I mean the moon wasn't supposed to be affecting us anymore..was it?"
"No, it wasn't but it happened and I have no idea why." Rikki shrugged.
"Let's go back to the living room, the others might have waken up as well." Zane suggested.
Rikki and Bella nodded and the three of them walked out of the kitchen.
When they walked into the living room the others started moving and waking up. First Will, then Lewis and Cleo and last Ash and Emma.
Cleo and Emma were also confused about all the events that had taken place, but the others explained them they had moonstruck along with Bella and Rikki.
"We didn't do anything..bad while we were moonstruck, did we?!" Emma asked cautiously.
The boys shared a look, but eventually decided that the girls didn't need to know.
"No, of course." Lewis said.
"That's a relief." Cleo gave out a sigh of relief not noticing Lewis tried to avoid her look.
Suddenly to everybody's astonishment Emma gave out a chuckle.
"I knew this wasn't going to end well." She was looking at Rikki when she said that.
The curly blond furrowed her eyebrows.
"What are you talking about?"
"Your idea."
"My idea? I'm sorry but I don't understand."
Suddenly Bella spun around to look at Emma.
"The game!" She exclaimed. "Rikki managed to pursue us to play that stupid "Truth or Dare" game and then.." She trailed off. "I have no idea what happened then."
"What? You've played "Truth or dare"?" Lewis asked stunned.
All of a sudden the girls' weird behaviour from the previous night had made sense.
"Yes. And it was Rikki's idea." Cleo said turning to look at Rikki.
"Don't point me with a finger. You said you wanted to do something else beside watching movies and I gave you an idea." The curly blond shrugged with a smirk.
"I knew it was a bad idea." Emma crossed her arms in front of her chest.
Rikki sighed and rolled her eyes again.
It was going to be a long day. After an even longer night.
Lewis and Zane easily forgot about what has happened during that night. Ash and Will however doubted that they'll ever be able to forget. They couldn't help but wonder what would happen with their relationships from that moment on.
It would be hard. But eventually they'd carry on. Like they always did.
Putting smiles on their faces they joined the others' conversation.
The girls made Rikki promise that she won't make them play "Truth or dare" with her ever again.
Reluctantly, she agreed.
- THE END -