I'm baaaacckkk! :D Okay so I just wanted to say (with all respect to John Steinbeck) that the book The Pearl was and IS the death of me xD ! It's not his fault its my English teacher's (right, the reason i'm saying this is...well, just read the chapt.) And also this the LONGEST chapt. i've written so far (to make up for the sucky chapt. 3)! REVIEW & enjoy!

Chapter 4
Truths, Dares, and Rooftops

"I'm going to read for awhile before I go to sleep," I said, while pretending to yawn, "m'kay?"

"Sure sweetie just don't stay up too late," said mom while embracing me in a goodnight hug.

"I'll try not to get too caught up in 'The Pearl' because all 89 pages are very embracing," I sarcastically replied while my dad kissed my forehead.

"Night kiddo," dad said as I went up the stairs and headed into my room. As soon and that door closed I let out a huge breath of air. Oops, silly me. I forgot to breathe again.

How could I breathe? I had Kevin coming over in 8 minutes to pay up the stupid, stupid fake alien ransom I made up. What if he finds out I made it up? What if my parents catch me? What if my hair looks bad when Kevin comes over?

And on that note, in self-conscious state I was in, I ran to my mirror to check myself out. As I brushed my hair back into a neat ponytail I examined my pajamas. I was wearing my favorite pair — the one with the light blue tank top and soft pajama pants with little blue hearts all over them.

Tap tap! I yelped and jumped as I heard two light tapping sounds coming from my window.

Is that Kevin? Duh, of course it's him. Oh wait, maybe it's the other guy I invited to come through my bedroom window!

Tap tap!

After mentally fighting with myself for a minute I finally drew back my curtains. And sure enough it was him (surprise, surprise!). Opening up the window was the hardest part — it meant I was actually going to go through with my psychotic plan.

"About time you opened up your window! I mean, I was the one who had to climb up a freakin' tree to get on the roof, but all you had to do is open a window—" he began.

"Why hello to you too stranger! Are you lost sir?" I cut him off, being the extra cute person I was.

"Tsk, tsk, Gwendolyn, hasn't your parents ever told you not to talk to strange men?" he remarked back.

"Why, yes, on several occasions, one of them being the first time my dad met you."

"Cute," he smirked.

"Yeah, I'm adorable. So, do you want to tell me what alien tech you brought with you?" I said anxious to change the subject. I slid out of my window and onto the roof where Kevin was sitting.

"Well, it's just your basic Level 2 alien tech," he said pointing to three fairly small devices, "This one's a miniature tractor beam, this one's a ray gun that can temporarily paralyze something, and this one is a busted hologram projector."

"Uhuh. That's all very interesting stuff. Stuff that cannot help these aliens take over earth or anything, right?"

"Oh no, Gwen you've caught me. Secretly, I'm supplying these aliens with tech so they can take over Earth. Truly, I am," the black-haired boy snorted.

"Which is a lot more likely then you think," I shot back, thinking about all the past times he had sold high-level alien tech to very bad people.

Kevin stopped laughing, which made me realize what a bitchy thing I just said to him.

"Oh my god, Kevin, I'm so sorry. I just went from my normal annoying self to a total ass in about 10 seconds," I stuttered.

"No, it's alright, I had that coming," he said not looking at me.

"No, it's not alright," I put my hand on his shoulder, "I know that your not that person anymore. I trust you, Kevin. I trust you, more than you can possibly ever know."

Butterflies were doing the rumba or cha-cha or something in my stomach when Kevin gently put his warm hand on top of the hand I had on his shoulder.

"Thanks," he softly smiled at me, "That…that means a lot to me."

We sat there in total silence. Just having our hands touching felt great. I don't know for how long we sat there — it could have been 5 minutes or even 15 minutes, I wouldn't have known. It just felt so good feeling each other's warmth.

"So am I officially off the total ass radar?" I asked finally fazing out of lala land.

"Yeah, so now you can go back to just being 'adorable'," Kevin smirked.

"Hm… we'll just have to see about that. And as for those aliens… do you think they stood us up?"

"Nah, if there's one thing I know about aliens they don't go back on there word… well, as long as the word is revenge, money, or weapons."

Dammit! I mentally smashed my head against the wall, Now I'm still going to have to continue on my so-called "plan".

"Well, it's getting colder out here so… do want to come inside?" The last part came out more awkward than I had hoped. I mean how can it not come out awkward? Hey, do you want to come into my bedroom late at night so we can get warm? Ahhh! I sound like a sexual harasser!

"Okay… I'll just leave the stuff out here… in case the aliens come…" he said waiting for me to slip through my window and into my room. When we were both inside I took the opportunity to check the time on my alarm clock.

"Woah, it's 11:45 already," I said, surprised that almost two hours has gone by (how long were we sitting on the roof?), "Time sure goes by when you're having so much fun."

"Are you having fun Gwendolyn?" Kevin asked giving me his fake innocent face.

"Ignoring that," I turned away so he couldn't see me blush.

"You and your selective hearing," he said, then turned his attention to my pajamas, "Oh, I'm so embarrassed — if you had told me it was a slumber party I would have worn my pajamas too!"

"Hey! I had to wear my pajamas so my parents wouldn't get suspicious," I said, "And since you want it to be a sleepover so bad, how about we play Truth or Dare — until the aliens come anyway."

"What are we, ten years old again?" Kevin smugly asked.

"Maybe. And it's just to pass the time anyway," I shot back, "Look, I'll go first. Truth or dare?"

"I can't believe we're really doing this… uh, truth?"

"Hmmm, I think I'm going to make the first one personal…um, have you ever gone a whole day without wearing underwear?" I asked grinning evilly.

"No way! I'm not going to tell you that!" he protested.

"You have to! It's called Truth or Dare for a reason."

"Fine… yeah. I mean, only because I didn't do a load of wash, kay?" Kevin grumbled as I giggled at his answer, "Okay, now you, truth or dare?"

"Uh, truth."

"Okay… when did you stop bathing with a sibling or relative — that means Ken or Ben?" He asked, this time also evilly grinning.

"Eww! I try not to remember. Uh, Ken I think when I was like five and Ben when I just learned the words to say 'No! No bath with Ben! He put the soap up my nose!'" I answered and earned a loud laugh from the dark-haired boy.

"Shut up! You'll wake up my parents!" I hissed at him, "Anyway, truth or dare?"

"I'll try a dare. I trust you won't be too harsh on me right Gwen?"

"Fine, for the first dare I'll be nice. Tomorrow kiss the first person you see," I said giggling.

"I'm not kissing a boy."

"Only if you see a girl first, that is."

"Whatever, I have a good one to do to you anyway! Dare or dare," he said, not leaving me much choice.

"Truth," I said, not wanting to do his dare.

"Gwen, I didn't think you'd fall into my trap that easily. It's called reverse psychology, luv," Kevin smirked as I gritted my teeth, "What's your favorite physical feature of the opposite sex?"

"First off, don't call me luv. And I'd have to say… their abs."

"Oh you mean these?" he asked lifting up his shirt — only to reveal his chiseled, perfect abs. I hope I wasn't drooling too much.

"Okay, you just earned the right to call me luv," I said after ogling his abs. Satisfied, he put his shirt down. "Revenge is called for now. Truth or dare?"

"Ooh, what are you going to do Gwendolyn? Dare," he challenged me.

"I was so hoping you'd say that," I snidely said, "I'll be right back. Stay here and don't make noise." I snuck all the way down to the kitchen. I hope mom made a fresh batch of— I opened the freezer and there it was. Perfect. I grabbed it and snuck back upstairs. I opened the door only to find Kevin looking under my bed.

"What are you doing?" I asked him a little alarmed. He obviously didn't know I came into the room yet and I think I startled him — startled enough for him to hit his head underneath my bed (and swear his head off too).

"Uh, nothing. I just know what I'm going to dare you next," he said nonchalantly.

"Allrighhtt, well, me first. See this? This is very, very cold ice," I began, already seeing the slight panic on his face, "I dare you to stick two ice cubes down your pants and keep it there until they melt."

"That. Is. Evil." he breathed.

"A dare's a dare," I said passing him the ice.

Hesitantly he grabbed the tray and stuck two ice cubes down the front of his pants. As if that wasn't funny enough the wide-eyed, painful expression followed by "Ahhhh"s and "Oooh"s was so worth it! It wasn't long before I was rolling on the floor with silent laughter.

"That was too good! Oh, look — it's starting to melt!" I howled with laughter the wet spot on his pants started to form.

"I think this was more painful than being punched several times by a DNAlien. Seriously, I think I'm numb," he glared at me.

"Too much information! And by the way, I choose dare. So why exactly were you looking under my bed?" I gathered myself together from my laughing fit.

"I was looking for something every teenage girl has under her bed — a ex-boyfriend box," he began, this time he was seeing the look of horror on my face, "Gwen, I dare you to let me look through your ex-boyfriend box."

"N-no! Um, I mean, can't you think of something eviler? I'll uh, take off my shirt!," At this he raised an eyebrow, "Okay, no I won't, but still!" I panicked.

"Nope, 'a dare's a dare'," he mocked me as he grabbed the box from under my bed. I bite my lip in nervousness.

"Hmmm lets see what dirty little secrets you have, Gwen," he grabbed the first thing on top — a picture of a teenage boy teaching a karate class, "What's his story?"

"Oh, him. That was my old student-in-training karate teacher."

"Gwen, this guy is like seven years older than you!"

"No, he was only four years older than me! And, he was nice and really talented in karate. He was always my partner, because we were equally good in karate. So, after awhile we started going out. It was great until the karate studio found out and fired him. So there went his chance to become a real instructor at the studio, all because of me. I didn't last much longer after that."

"Sad. But, come'on, this guy is like way too old for you."

"Think what you like."

"Whatever," he shuffled some more until he found a note addressed to me, "It says, 'Dear Gwen, I just wanted to tell you that you are really cute and I really, really like you. Do you want to go out with me? Love, Nick M.'"

"Woah, I forgot I had that in there! That's like from the sixth grade! 'Nick M.' a.k.a. Nick Miller, as serious as any relationship in the sixth grade can get — it lasted a week. Now, he's just interested in ogling girls butts."

"Sounds like a jerk," he said and then pulled out a picture of me kissing a brunette boy on the cheek.

"That's Derek. He went to a prep school I was looking to apply for. He was my guide for the tour and he slipped me his number at the end. We went out for two months but he was cheating on me… with a boy."

"What?! You serious? Good judgment there Gwen! What's this?" he said as he pulled out a scarf. I went pale white. I did not want his to find that.

"What?" Kevin asked, seeing my ghostly face.

"Oh, that's just a scarf that someone gave me, that's all. It's nothing…" I said quietly.

"Hey, this looks…kinda familiar… is this who's I think it is?" the dark-haired boy asked slowly.

"Depends who you think it belongs to…" I peeped.

"That scum Mike Morningstar?! I can't believe you Gwen! He took advantage of you and drained all your energy from you and other girls! And you kept his scarf?" Kevin hissed at me obviously mad.

"Why do you care so much? It's in the past now, end of story. Okay?!" I snapped back.

"Well, this was a great history lesson and all but I think I'm done," he snapped me and shoved the box back under my bed. I didn't look at him and he didn't look at me. I checked out the time — 1:02 am! I didn't realize how tired I was until I saw the time. Time to put the plan into effect. I cleared my throat.

"Truth or dare?" I asked weakly.

"Are you serious?" Kevin asked giving me a look of disbelief, "Uh, dare, I guess."

"I'm going to create a mystery drink and you at least have to take four swallows of it," I dared him. As he nodded his head in acceptance I once again snuck downstairs and into the kitchen.

A cup of milk and a few drops of green food dye — and the final ingredient, an extra-strength sleeping pill.

I felt so evil-scientist like that I thought I was going to start laughing all like "muhahaha". I hope this puts him to sleep and fast — I have a Math exam tomorrow (or really today considering it was well into one o' clock). I headed upstairs with the "mystery drink" and opened up the door (Kevin wasn't looking under my bed, believe it or not).

"One mystery drink, sir" I said waitress-like as I passed the drink to him.

"It's green. If I throw up from this you know it's gonna be on your floor, right?" He said.

"Yeah, yeah. Drink up big boy," I said impatiently. He drank four big swallows and handed the cup back to me. I checked it out — the pill wasn't in there anymore.

"That wasn't gross. It was milk with food dye wasn't it?" Kevin said, sounding a little disappointed it didn't make him want to hurl.

"Oh, yeah. Sorry I didn't want puke on me or my rug."

Well, it's my turn I guess, Truth or Dare?"

---

1:30 am.

1:59 am.

2:10 am.

"I'm…getting…kinds…tired…" yawned Kevin.

"Really? But, I thought we were having so much fun. I'm pretty sure you know about everything about me now," I said sarcastically.

No response from Kevin. His eyes were fluttering shut. I threw a pillow at him.

"Hey!" he protested weakly.

"Put it under your head, smart one," I told him.

"I can't sleep here… you're parents…they'd blow a fit…" he said yawning in between every two words.

"Relax Kevin. You're on the floor, hidden by the side of my bed, and I'll wake you after ten minutes," I told him soothingly.

"Okay… just for… ten minutes…"

"Wait, Kevin before you sleep, I just have one last truth question to ask you…" I said, moving up really close to his face.

He looks so handsome when he's sleeping. Well, almost sleeping.

"What..?" He fluttered his eyes open.

"Do you like me? Not 'friends only' like but 'more than friends' like?" I asked, embarrassed that the only time I have ever had the courage to ask him this question was when he's almost completely asleep.

He laughed gently and answered, "Gwen…I've always…liked you…you're the best thing…that's ever happened to me…" And just like that he fell asleep.

I smiled and gently kissed his cheek.

I wasn't sure if I was floating on a cloud but when I slid out my window to grab the tech and dump it into my garage, it sure did feel like I was.