A chorus of laughter mixed with noises of disgust were faintly audible in the hallway outside the closed door. Inside the room, four teenage girls sat cross-legged on the bed, around a spinner they'd confiscated from a Twister game.

"Ewwwww!"
"You're sick."
"I can't believe you did that!"

Emma's hands lowered from her bright red face. "It wasn't that bad," she insisted bravely before she, too, chuckled. "But never again!"

"Okay, my turn." Madison pulled the spinner toward her. "Truth," she announced and then sent the lever flying with a flick of one red-tipped finger. When the arrow landed on green, Petra clapped.

"Yay, it's me!" She sat up straight and considered for a moment. "Oh!" Her eyes brightened. "I've got one." She leaned in toward the blonde. "Have you ever had sex, I mean, all the way?"

Madison shrugged in an attempt at worldliness. "Well, of course." She made a show of examining her nails while peeping up beneath her lashes to judge her friends' reactions.

Emma and Petra gasped and squealed dramatically. Christine watched Madison with narrowed eyes.

"Liar."

"What?" She was outraged. "How do you know I haven't -"

"If you'd really done it," Christine pointed out, "you'd have been on the phone bragging about it five minutes later."

"Fine." Madison gave in immediately. "But I did let Hao Lin get to third base," she insisted. "Twice."

"Define third base." Christine wasn't letting her off the hook just yet.

"French kissing," Petra piped up helpfully.

The other three looked at her in surprise. "What are you, a nun?" Madison asked scathingly, before she turned back to Christine. "Naked from the waist up, both of us. And," her voice lowered to a secretive whisper, "I let him touch me . . . down there." When she was satisfied with the titillated reactions, she sent a smug look to her left. "I bet you haven't gone that far, have you?"

Christine rolled her eyes. "I don't know, do you see bodies of dead boys lining the streets?" She stretched for the spinner as she grumbled, "Thanks to my dad, I'm the one who's on her way to becoming a nun. Okay, my turn -"

"Uh uh!" Madison laid her hand over the piece of plastic. "Pick first - truth or dare."

Christine scanned the group, stopping on Emma's still pink face. "Truth," she announced firmly.

"Chicken." Madison lifted her hand from the spinner.

Christine made a face and gave it a whirl. When it landed on red, she closed her eyes with a groan.

"I think that's me." Madison's smile showed all of her teeth.

"I'm not answering anything about Parker," Christine quickly asserted. "He's off-limits."

"Fine." Obviously disgruntled, her friend was silent for thirty seconds before her expression turned sly. "Alright . . ." One eyebrow rose; Christine steeled herself with a lift of her chin. "Have you ever caught your parents having sex?"

There were gasps from the other two girls. Christine flushed bright red, her hands balled into fists against her knees. "That's disgusting," she bit out. "Ask me something else."

"No," Madison retorted. "That's my question." Emma and Petra glanced nervously at each other as the tension built between their friends.

Lips pursed, Christine's jaw clamped shut as she remained obstinately silent.

Madison's eyes rounded, her smile widened in triumph. "You have! Oh my God, that's why you don't want to answer!" She leaned in avariciously. "How old were you? Do you remember it? Did you see anything? What were they doing?"

Christine shook her head and remained mute.

"You have to answer," Madison insisted hotly. "You picked Truth and that's my question."

"Fine." The word came out between clenched teeth. "Yes." She picked up the spinner and tossed it to the tiny brunette on her left. "Petra, your turn."

"Wait!" Madison threw out a hand before the other girl could play. "You're not done! What about the rest of it?"

"No." It was Christine's turn to smile in triumph. "You asked a question I could answer with a yes or a no. I answered. My turn is over. Petra," she looked to her left, "your turn."

"That's not fair!" Madison was furious.

Christine was smug. "Then perhaps you should have phrased your question differently."

The icy blue eyes narrowed to slits. "You sound just like your mother."

Christine crossed her arms and glared back. "Thank you."

"Um . . ." Petra's hand hovered over the spinner. "Should . . . I . . . go now?"

"YES!" The response shot from both Christine and Madison, who were now fiercely avoiding looking at each other.

"Okay!" Petra said brightly, before glancing at Emma, who shrugged helplessly. "Well, uh . . . dare!"

The black arrow flew around the brightly colored plastic square - and landed on red.

Emma's shoulders slumped with fatalistic acceptance.
Petra swallowed nervously.
Christine rolled her eyes in resignation.

Madison smiled.

"You . . ." Long red fingernails drummed against her calf. "You have to kiss Zach." Before the shocked reactions had faded, she had added a caveat. "With tongue."

That was too much for Christine. "He's ten, Madison!"

"Fine." She gave in grudgingly and sneered at the embarrassed girl across from her. "You don't have to go to third base." The blush under Petra's golden skin deepened. "But you have to kiss him on the lips."

"Okay. I'm not scared!" Petra insisted, despite an expression that suggested otherwise. "Now?" At Madison's nod, she unfolded slowly from her seated position on the bed.

Christine gave Madison a shove before getting to her feet. "You can be a real bitch sometimes."

She stood up and brushed at her jeans. "Takes one to know one!"

The four of them filed quietly out into the hallway. Petra descended the stairs slowly, stopping on every third step to glance back at her friends.

Christine bumped Madison none-too-gently into the bannister. "I can't believe you're making her do this," she muttered.

"Oh, unbunch your panties." Staying several risers above Petra, Madison crept down the stairs until she could see into the family room. "It's probably the only kiss either one of them will get until they're 30."

Seated on the sofa, one arm stretched behind Brennan, feet propped up on the coffee table, Booth became aware of movement in his peripheral vision. He turned his head as the waifish teen, whose eyes always seemed too large for her face, took halting steps into the room.

"You girls need something?"

She shook her head. "mmmm."

Another slow step forward drew Booth's attention again.

"You sure?"

Petra nodded. "mmmm."

One more step brought her alongside the chair where Zach sat, his attention on the movie that filled the TV screen.

"Everybody else asleep?" Booth's voice was hopeful. From his place on the sofa, he couldn't see the three girls lined up on the stairs, watching in fascinated horror as the scene played out.

She shook her head again. "mmmm."

A half-step more and the teenager was standing at Zach's elbow. By now, Brennan's attention was caught, and she looked up from the tablet on which she'd been reading. "Is something -"

Without warning Petra leaned over and pressed a quick, smacking kiss on Zach's mouth, then raced screaming back to the stairs. Her outburst joined the loud, squealing laughter from the other girls, and mixed with the drumming thud of four sets of feet as they ran back up to Christine's room. The slamming of her door cut off all but a faint echo of the noise.

Downstairs, Zach immediately scrambled up from the chair and sped across the room to take refuge behind the sofa where his parents sat.

In one movement, Booth and Brennan leaned forward and looked toward the stairs and then at each other.

"What was that?"

Booth shrugged. "I don't know but," amusement glinted in his eyes as he looked back over his shoulder at his son, "I think Zach just got his first kiss."

Zach immediately raised one hand and scrubbed at his mouth. Keeping a wary eye on the staircase, he stepped out from behind the sofa and wedged himself between his father and the arm of the sofa.

"Can I take a sleeping bag in your room tonight?"

Booth followed his gaze, then laughed and draped an arm over the narrow shoulders. "Maybe that's a good idea."

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Thanks for reading!