Edgrl16: Too tired from killing my yami and Kaiba to talk. Review…read…thx for your support *snore*

"Hey, Emilee!" Yugi exclaimed happily as he opened the door to his game shop for me and Alec. "Who's your friend?"

"Yugi, this is Alec," I introduced as Alec tossed his bag by my makeshift bed which, amazingly, was still there behind the counter. "He's my friend from home. He works for Kaiba now and I thought it'd be okay if he stayed over, too."

"Sure," Yugi said, leading us upstairs to his room. "Tristan and Joey are trying to start a game of Truth or Dare with a twist but they wanted to wait to start until you got here."

"Oh, this'll be interesting," I whispered to Alec, making his stifle a laugh.

"Hey, Em!" Joey said as we walked into Yugi's room, closing the door behind us.

"Who's your friend?" Tristan asked.

"This is Alec," I replied. "He's my friend from home. He works for Kaiba now. Alec, this is Joey, Tristan, and you already know Yugi."

"Hey," Alec greeted, giving a slight wave.

"Hey, Em, wanna play our game of Truth or Dare?" Joey asked.

"Mind if I join?" a voice from the doorway asked.

Everyone's heads turned to see Duke Devlin standing at the doorway, a smug grin on his face. "What are you doing here, Duke?" Tristan asked.

"Yugi invited me," Duke replied, sitting in between me and Alec. "But I didn't realize he'd invited a girl to this."

"Actually, Emilee is more of a boy than a girl," Yugi admitted. "So she kind of fits right in."

"Considering that this girl kicked your butt at Duel Monsters and your little dice game," I smirked.

"Whatever," Duke said. "So what's with this Truth or Dare game? I heard it's got a bit of a twist."

"Yeah, everyone take 8 pieces of paper," Joey said, putting a stack of small papers and pencils in the middle of the circle we had made. "Now write 4 truth questions and 4 dares and put them in their correct bowls." He set 2 small bowls with either truth or dare on them, then took his papers and a pencil.

"This'll be really interesting," I thought as everyone else took their stuff and began writing.

After 10 minutes of silence and writing, everyone dropped their papers in the bowls. "I vote Alec should go first since he's new," I volunteered, smirking at Alec.

"You're gonna pay for that," Alec whispered to me. "I pick truth. I'm not sure I can trust you guys with dares yet." Reaching into the truth bowl, he looked at his paper and groaned at the question on it.

"Tell," I ordered, leaning back on my hands.

"Who was the first girl you've ever kissed?" Alec read, his face getting a light pink.

I shot up at this question. "Oh, I've got to find this out," I thought.

"So, who was the first girl you've ever kissed?" Tristan asked.

"I'm trying," Alec insisted. "I remember the second girl I kissed. Can that count?"

"Sorry, but no," Joey replied. "You could tell us though while you think of the first one."

"Got it," Alec said. "The first girl I kissed was a girl in my class named…Smiles! Her real name was Dawn, I think; her nickname came because she always smiled. The second girl I kissed was that little brat over there."

"You were Alec's second kiss?" Yugi asked in disbelief, staring at me.

"Yep," I replied, grinning. "And I gave him one hell of a kiss." I could see Joey get a little mad at this, so to make up for it, I whispered something to him about our next date and he cheered right up.

"Alright, Em, your turn," Alec dared. "Truth or Dare?"

"I pick dare," I said. "I don't trust any of you, but I'd rather not have a truth question." Digging around in the dare bowl, I grabbed a paper and as soon as I read it, my face became the color of Duke's bandana.

"What is it?" Yugi asked, noticing my embarrassment.

"You read it," I said, thrusting it at Joey.

"Kiss the person on your right for 10 seconds," he read. "That means…"

I looked over at the person sitting at my left and saw Duke grinning like a maniac. "Anyone but him," I muttered. "Please, I'd rather not do this."

"You picked it," Duke said, grinning smugly. "Now you have to go through with it." Taking a deep breath, I got up on my knees so I was tall as he was when he was sitting and leaned forward. Those 10 seconds were the longest seconds in my life. When it was finally over, I leaned back and sat back down.

"So?" Duke asked.

"I think I'll stick with Joey," I replied, grinning slightly. "It was a good kiss though."

Joey stuck out his tongue at Duke, grinning triumphantly. "Okay, Yugi, your turn," I said, pulling a knee up to my chest.

"I'll choose dare," Yugi replied, surprising us all. Reaching into the dare bowl, Yugi grinned at his choice. "Choose one person and they'll have to take a dare. Duke, you lose."

"Okay, who put that in there?" Tristan laughed. "It was genius."

"Doesn't matter," Duke said, looking at his dare paper. "I think I like my dare."

"Really?" I asked, looking over his shoulder at it. "What's it say?"

"Make one person take off one article of clothing," Duke replied. "And guess who I'm gonna pick. Girl, shirt off."

"Whoever put that in there is dead when this is done," I growled, standing up.

"Em, you sure you can do this?" Alec asked.

"Yeah," I replied.

"What are you talking about?" Joey asked.

"Okay, you guys have to promise not to ask questions until after the game is done," I said. "Promise?"

"Sure, now what's wrong?" all the guys beside Alec asked.

Taking in a deep breath, I pulled my shirt over my head, grimacing in pain as it scraped against my bandages. Everyone's eyes widened when they saw the criss-crossing bandages on my back. "You guys wanna know what happened?" I asked when they wouldn't stop staring. "I just fell out of a tree and cut myself up. It's no big deal. I'm fine." Everyone seemed to buy my excuse, but when I saw Joey, I could see that he knew I wasn't telling the truth.

Leaning over to Joey, I whispered, "I'll explain later. Just not with everyone around. Alec's fine since he already knows, but not anyone else, kay?"

Nodding slightly, Joey looked once more at my back before turning back to the game.

"How a guy like you could come up with a game like that, I'll never know," Duke muttered as we put the papers back in the bowls. "But it was fun, I'll have to admit."

"Yeah, for you," I said, setting the bowls against the wall.

"Come on, baby, it wasn't that bad," Duke grinned. Throughout the course of the game, I'd realized that I could trust none of the guys, especially Duke. I'd already had to take off my shirt because of his dare and kiss him because of mine. But it that weren't enough, I'd had to sit in his lap and kiss him yet again.

"Whatever," I muttered, moving to grab my shirt. "I'll be downstairs if anyone needs me. Joey, I'd like to talk to you alone please."

"Sure thing," Joey said, walking behind me as I headed down to my "bed."

"Joey, do you want to know the truth about what happened to me?" I asked, glad that Alec was already downstairs, ready to change my bandages before I went to sleep.

"Of course I do," Joey replied as Alec removed the bandages from my back.

"Wait just a sec, Alec," I said before he could replace them. "He deserves to know." I turned around so Joey could see the full extent of the damage done to my back.

"Em, what happened?" Joey asked in concern. "Did that rich boy do this to you?"

"No, Kaiba didn't do this to me," I replied, flinching as Joey's hand ghosted over my scars. "Joey, is your dad an alcoholic?"

"Of course, I've gotten beaten because of it," Joey told me. "Why, is your dad one?"

"Not exactly," I explained. "He drinks rarely but he gets extremely drunk when he does, so my mom leaves me alone with him every time he's drunk. If I can't hide well enough or get out in time, he takes a knife to my back until I get away. Alec's been helping me take care of it since it started."

"Doesn't your mom or your dad know what's going on?" Joey asked in concern.

"No, because every time dad wakes up, I've been all patched up and he can't remember a thing. Until my cuts heal into scars, I've always kept my back covered. My parents don't know anything. Even now, I always keep my back covered so I won't have to explain."

"Who knows?"

"Now…you, Alec, and Kaiba."

"Kaiba knows? How?"

"He just saw them and ordered an explanation." Alec moved over to re-bandage my back as Joey took a step back.

"Wow, and he does this every time he's drunk?" Joey asked.

"Uh-huh," I replied. "Alec's gotten to be kind of a pro when it comes to doing this stuff."

"Well, that's encouraging," Alec said as he finished bandaging my cuts.

"Oh, you know I love you," I teased.

"I'll see you tomorrow, then," Joey said, turning for the stairs.

"Hey, Joey, wait!" I called after him, running up to him. "Don't I get a goodnight kiss?"

Joey grinned and pulled me into a kiss, pulling away when we needed to breathe. "So how did that compare to Duke's kiss?" he asked, still grinning.

"You're by far the winner," I assured him, kissing him again before I turned back to Alec. "Tell him that and see what he says." As soon as Joey was out of sight and earshot, I turned to Alec and grabbed my white tanktop from him.

"Are you ever gonna tell him that Kaiba might be liking you?" Alec asked as I slipped under the blankets on my bed.

"No, and I'm sure what's going on with Kaiba, he's not gonna find out," I replied, patting the empty side of my bed. "Come on, you're not gonna sleep on the floor. I only take up half the bed."

Shrugging, Alec shed his shirt and wiggled under the blankets, quickly falling asleep.

"I hope I find out just what's going on with Kaiba," I thought before I fell asleep.