This chapter has been really tough. I've really considered just skipping that game. But I thought some of you might be disappointed so I wrote it (even though I never played truth or dare myself)
Chapter 7:
It was well past nine when Kate finally awoke. She was feeling really comfortable and warm and her pillow smelled different. A good kind of different. When she opened her eyes she saw that this was definitely no pillow. She was lying on top of someone. Her eyes wandered up and she was met with two bright blue eyes staring back at her. How did she end up like this? In his arms.
"Morning" he broke her thoughts.
"Uhm, ... morning. When did I ... ?" she started to ask him.
"End up in bed with me?" he finished for her and couldn't help the laugh that escaped him at the way he had phrased it.
"Yeah, if you wanna call it that."
"Simple. I woke up at night and saw that Maddie had stolen the blanket and you were left without any. So I thought to keep you warm and cozy I would share with you." he summed it up in two short sentences.
"Oh. Well, than thanks." she smiled back at him but still didn't move from his chest or to stand up. Not until somewhere behind them someone cleared her throat. They suddenly jump apart.
"I hate to break that sweet little moment you two are having" Lanie begun "but how about breakfast?"
"Sure. Sure. What would you guys like? Cereals? Pancakes? Eggs and bacon?"
"I guess cereals are the safest option" Javier remarked smirking while feeding the birds with Kevin.
"Why?" Rick just asked puzzled.
"You're a man bro. I doubt your cooking skills are worth one's salt. I don't wanna die on food poisoning."
"Hey, that is insulting. I can assure you that I can very well cook. Since my mother isn't, let's just say, the greatest cook I had to learn how to do it."
"Well I would love to try it." Kate stated courageous.
"Hah! At least one fan." he smiled proudly "How about an omelette? Or would you like to try my newest creation? The smorelette." He beamed.
"What's a smorelette?" Kate was curious.
"That's an omelette with chocolate and marshmallows." He hadn't even finished his sentence and everyone grimaced.
"Uhm, no thanks Rick. I think the simple one without extras will do just fine for me." she sat down at the counter and watched as he got started on their eggs. A simple omelette for her and a smorlette for himself. The others had decided to go for some cereals. Just to be safe. Maybe the next time.
A few minutes later Rick was finished and put both of their plates on the counter. "There you are."
She took a few bites, still eying his food all the time. Despite how awful it sounded, she was curious how it really tasted. So when he wasn't paying attention she snatched a niblet away from him. To her surprised she had to admit that it tasted pretty good. Maybe it was just due to her pregnancy. Who knew. She would try it again afterwards. But know she had a little problem. She really wanted to eat the rest of it, but she already had a plan.
"Hey Rick!" He immediately looked up at her "Wasn't there a knock?"
"A knock? I didn't hear anything."
"Maybe you should check it. See if someone is at the door." She hoped it would work.
"Okay." And it worked. He wasn't even gone for a minute, but it was enough for Kate to switch their plates, earn skeptical looks from her friends and start eating again. "There wasn't anybody. You must have misheard."
"Oh, sorry." She just said trying to look innocent, but of course he figured everything out as soon as he took his first bite.
"Kate?"
"Yeah?"
"Something you wanna tell me?" he said grinning.
"Nope." He could only laugh and shake his head. He could make himself another one any time. No harm done.
(...)
After breakfast they all settled down in the living room to play truth or dare. They had pulled some questions from the Internet and decided they would go in circle and everyone had the opportunity to refuse once.
"Okay everyone, let's get started." Lanie was asking the first question, to the person sitting on her left side. It was Jenny. "So Jenny, truth or dare?"
"I think I will start with truth."
"Okay, lets see. 'Whom would you love to date amongst the people in this room?'" Lanie grimaced This one was too easy.
But Jenny just smiled. She had been lucky. "If you guys really must know. I would choose Kevin." They both smiled at each other lovingly and Lanie gave Jenny the stack of papers with the questions on it so they could continue before they got lost in each other too much.
"Okay the next one goes to my lovely boyfriend." Jenny announced. "Truth or dare?"
"Okay I'll try truth too."
"When was the first time you fell in love and with whom? "Jenny read aloud.
Ryan hesitated a moment before answering "Okay, I was in elementary school and there was this girl. Her name was Emma. She was so cute. I absolutely adored her, but then she had to moved due to her fathers job and I never saw her again. But I kissed her on the cheek when we said goodbye."
"You never told me that." Jenny wondered.
"Yeah, I know. I just remembered now." he smiled embarrassed. "I haven't thought about her in years." Jenny was relieved at that. She hated to admit it, but she got jealous pretty quickly. "Well hand me the questions, please."
"I take dare." Maddie told him before he could ask her.
"Okay, now it gets interesting. 'Pick your favorite song and dance to it on a table. '" That was a nice one. Especially the boys would have fun. Since Maddison didn't really have one favorite song she just choose one random song from Rick collection. Bosshouse – We all go down as one.
Maddison was dancing for a few minutes, swaying her hips to the music and making the boys almost drool if it wasn't for their girlfriends next to them. Only Rick was allowed to look all he wanted, but somehow he still felt guilty, although he was single.
After Maddie had finished she took the questions and turned to Kate. "So what do you take?"
"Uhm, I guess I'll try dare. Maybe I'm lucky."
"Oh!" Maddie was smiling at the task she was reading "' Kiss a member of the same or opposite sex in this room. '"
Kate hesitated for a moment. She could skip if she didn't want to do this, but then she decided to just go for it. "Well, in that case ... I think I take Lanie." Her best friend was the safest option and it wouldn't be the first time. They had practiced kissing when they were younger. But with a little glint in their eyes they looked at the boys before they started to kiss each other. It wasn't a kiss they would give their boyfriends and it only lasted a few seconds , but to the guys it still seemed like the temperature had increased a lot suddenly.
A moment of silence passed before Kate continued. It was her turn to ask Rick. "So Rick, truth or dare?"
"Truth, I don't wanna end up kissing Javier."
Everyone chuckled at that and Kate read him his question "' What has been the most embarrassing moment you've experienced so far? '"
"Oh, that one is tough. There have been quite a few..." he tipped his right forefinger against his chin while thinking "But if I had to choose it would be that one incident in kindergarten. We had to take a nap after lunch and I woke up and really needed to go to the toilet. Well I was a little shy back then, still am." A few grunts could be heard at that comment, but he just went on ignoring them"And I didn't ask if I could go until I couldn't hold it in anymore, well and yeah ... and so I had this big bulge in my pants, clearly showing what just happened while I was walking to the toilet. And I'm pretty sure the teacher saw it, but she never said anything. So yeah, that's the most embarrassing moment I can remember so far." When he had finished everyone was laughing really hard. Imagining little Rick like this was really too funny and bringing the tears to their eyes.
"Really guys, it's not that funny." He said, but couldn't keep the smile from his own face. "Okay Javi, now you are on. Choose."
"Dare, bro. I have more courage than you."
"Well let's see." He looked down to read what Javier had to do and smiled. "Well we won't have any fun with that, but I guess Lanie will. ' Give someone in this room a lap dance. '"
"Whoa, isn't that usually something girls are supposed to do for the boys?" Javi asked.
"Not necessarily." Rick told him "Remember all those male strippers. They do it all the time."
"Yeah, well I'm not a stripper."
"It was just an example bro." Ryan cut in, before Rick could say anything "And besides, if you wanna chicken out you can do so. You can refuse once, remember?"
"Yeah, if you wanna deny Lanie that little piece of fun ..."Maddie added, and had a hard time keeping that smile from her face.
"Okay, okay I got it. But I will pick a song first." He looked trough Ricks collection and found a suitable one. Warrant – Cherry Pie. Then he started to dance over Lanie. A little clumsy at first but getting better by the second. When the song finished they both stared at each other, probably ready to tear each others clothes off if it weren't for their friends sitting next to them. So they tried to calm down and Javier sat back down next to Lanie.
"Wow, I really had to look away for a moment. I thought you forgot about us and were going to have sex right here in front us." Kate teased them.
"I actually considered it." Lanie threw right back at her. "Well but now it's my turn. Javi, I'm taking dare as well."
"Okay, ... "He read her task, looked at her and knew what she would do."Your task is: ' Pick a member in this room and lick his or her cheek. '"
"Well we all know who it's going to be." Lanie mused and leaned to her right so she could let her tongue slowly glide over Javier's cheek and a part of his ear, knowing exactly what she would do to him.
"Oh shit!" Javi uttered suddenly "Lanie I completely forgot my mom ask me to tell you she needed us to look after my little brother today so they can go to their spa trip. We better hurry." He stood up and pulled Lanie to her feet to. "I'm so sorry guys we have to drop out like this. We can repeat this another time, I promise." he already waved goodbye. Lanie quickly hugged all her friends confused goodbye before leaving with her boyfriend.
"That was weird." Rick just stated.
"Yeah, but I don't think he was leaving because he had to babysit his brother." Kate said with a smirk in her voice.
"You don't think they...?" Rick asked.
"Oh yeah, they will." Ryan answered for her. "He told me about this spa trip this week. And he also told me that his parents told him they would take his brother with them since he was at your birthday party and they didn't want him to be alone at home. And this way he could have a fun day."
"So he can be sure they won't be disturbed ..." Rick finished the thought.
"Yeah, you would probably use that opportunity too, if you had a girlfriend at the moment." Maddie told him."However let's get back to the game." And they did. Over the next couple of hours they learned that Rick had never cheated on his past girlfriend before and didn't intend on doing so to his next one. They laughed their asses off seeing Jenny trying to have a two-minute-long conversation with a chair. They had to listen to how Kevin , if he had only 24 hours to live, would spent his last day with Jenny, doing all the things they liked, just being with each other. Maybe even get married on that last day – with the consent of their parents of course. It was really cheesy. And they found out about Kate's secret fantasy. How she always wanted to try having sex in a public place. There was something about that thrill of being exposed and the danger of being discovered that turned her on. She earned a few curious looks from her friends. Probably nobody would have expected that, but if she landed in jail anytime soon, they could imagine why. Everyone used up the opportunity to refuse once, but as Rick refused everyone was the most curious. He was supposed to answer if he ever had a crush on someone in this room. Since he didn't want to answer, everyone was wondering – who could it be?
(...)
A week later Kate was waiting impatiently at the airport. Will was supposed to be coming back today. She was nervous. It had taken her an hour to decide what to wear. She was looking at her watch, 9pm. His plane should have been landed already. He would be here any minute. Just as she thought that, she saw him appearing in the crowd of people coming towards her. Smiling slightly she greeted him with a hug and kiss.
"Hey, welcome back. How was it?"
"It was great Kate. Stanford is such a great school. A complete different level then Columbia."
Kate eyed him suspicious. "That's great, I guess." She went more suspicious when she noticed his luggage was missing. "Where is your luggage, Will?"
"Oh, I didn't bring any, since I only wanted to grab a few things. I'm already flying back tomorrow ..."he suddenly stopped when he saw the hurt in her eyes. "Oh sweetie, don't start crying, will you?"
"You promised Will! Only three weeks, you said it yourself."
"I know what I said Kate. But this opportunity is just too good to let it pass by. They are offering me a full scholarship. How often do you think that happens at Stanford."
She knew he was right. It was a great opportunity, but that still left her here to deal alone with their children. "Then where does that leave us Will? And what about our children?"
"I will come back as often as possible, okay? On weekends or during vacations, whenever I can make time, because with my scholarship I will need to study a lot."
"Yeah, more excuses Will."
"Kate. That's not fair. That's not easy for me either, but I'm sure we can manage somehow. Just one more year and you're out of high school too. Than you can move to California with me."
"Can we talk about this later?" She wanted to avoid this subject, not telling him that she intended to stay here. New York felt like home and her parents would help her with the babies if she didn't know what to do. She just needed to find the right time to break the news to Will. He would understand and they would make this whole long-distance relationship work. They would figure it out somehow. She was sure of it.
1. Will isn't completely out of the picture. They are still together and he is the father after all. / 2. I'm still thinking about the gender of the babies. Any suggestions are welcome.
