Title: Truth or Dare Quinton Normal Quinton 2 371 2001-08-10T21:40:00Z 2001-11-05T21:18:00Z 2001-11-05T21:18:00Z 9 3069 17494 Packard Bell NEC 145 34 21483 9.2720

Title: Truth or Dare
Author: Miss Demeanour
Email: dayi_mai@hotmail.com
Rating: PG-13
Category: Slash
Disclaimer: I don't own these characters, someone else does
Summary: A game of spin the bottle causes unexpected feelings to come to light
Thanks: To everyone who's already liked and reviewed my story, and special thanks to Sue, a great help!

Finally my final chapter is up and running, sorry it took so long guys and hope you like it.

Thanks to all

Miss_Demeanour

Chapter 3

The winners

        We left Bella's at around ten that night; the four of us setting off back toward Rawley in the gathering summer dusk, our gentle footfalls the only sound on the deserted street.

"You did what!?" It was Jake -the moment we'd finished explaining about Ryder, she wasn't best pleased with our actions "What the hell were you two thinking?"

"We weren't thinking, that's the point, if we had been we wouldn't be in this mess" Will was doing all the talking; he seemed to be better at explaining. At times like this I was happy to take the backseat. Hamilton matched my attitude as well as my stride as we walked silently behind Will and Jake, allowing them to fight it out between themselves.

"But surely you'd realise it was risky!" Subtly she lowered her voice "I mean, making out in the middle of Rawley School's lawn, for gods sake!"

"It was 2 o'clock in the morning Jake! Who was likely to be there?"

"Ryder it seems"

 "How were we supposed to know that? Do you really think a nosey schoolmate would have been the top on our list of thoughts at that moment in time?"

I was beginning to become uncomfortable now. These were the most important and intimate moments of my life, and two of my best friends were arguing them out in front of me as if I weren't even present. Needless to say it wasn't the best of feelings.

"I realise you had a lot on your mind, but surely…"

"A lot on our minds, there's the under-statement of the century"

"There's no need to snap…"

I had to agree with Jake; Will was taking this far too much to heart. We'd all stopped walking now, the force of Will and Jake's argument having ground them to a halt, causing Hamilton and I to follow suit.

"I was only suggesting you could have been more subtle about it" Jakes turn again

"More subtle!" Will laughed, almost cruelly "You're telling me to be more subtle! I seem to recall that we aren't the only ones who've been caught by Ryder around here, and in the school library no less! During the day!"

Jake was gradually growing redder by the moment, finally I grew tired of Wills over-reaction to Jake's re-action and dropped a hand on his shoulder.

"Hey calm down mate, don't you think you're being a bit melodramatic?"

"What do you mean melodramatic?" He had turned to look me in the face when he questioned me, but immediately turned back to Jake "I just don't like a hypocrite"

For a moment we all just stared at each other, an astonished silence falling over us all. It wasn't that it was a particularly bad insult, or in fact any insult at all, it was just the way it was said, and the person who said it. It was a shock when someone like Will who barely ever had a negative thing to say about anyone, suddenly turned on one of his best friends, no matter what it was about.

"You didn't mean that" I said forcefully, grabbing hold of his shoulder tightly. I could tell Jake had been stung by his reaction, even if she wasn't the type to show it "Will, apologise, she didn't deserve that"

For a moment there was a thoughtful silence, before finally Will opened his mouth in preparation to reply. However he got no further, as a snide voice from behind us cut him off.

"Lovers tiff, eh?"

I unison all our heads turned to toward the speaker, shocked back into the reality of the street.

"Getting a bit cosy there, aren't we boys?" The guy behind the first speaker chipped in and for the first time I realised I still had my hand rested on Wills shoulder. Swallowing hard I let it fall back to my side, stepping away from him, turning to face our assailants.

There was four of them stood before us, all male, all of which I recognised from the halls of Rawley. I couldn't have told you their names, only that all of them hung out with Ryder, and the one who had spoken first (neatly positioned at the head of the group) seemed to be acting as their leader in his absence.

For a long time we all just stared at each other, unsure of what to do. The mischievous smiles on the faces of our four onlookers slowly faded as we stood there, becoming more and more uncomfortable. That was until Hamilton, who up until now had had very little role to play in our entire situation, finally broke the spell.

"Fuck off guys" With his who-gives-a-damn attitude wrenched up to full power and the plain distaste for them radiating from his voice, the line was delivered with such success that we didn't even have to be the first to walk away form the situation. Instead they turned and slunk off back toward town, the first one reclaiming some of their lost pride by yelling obnoxiously over his shoulder:

"We know what you two are! And we don't want your kind round here!"

        We walked back to Rawley School swathed in a mixture of shock and confusion, which manifested itself in severe silence. It wasn't until Will and I were safely behind the locked door of our dormitory that the truth had finally sunk in.

"Shit Will!" I bashed my hand hard against the solid wood door, anger bubbling. Will's reaction, on the other hand, took the other extreme; he seemed numb, oblivious to the world around him, including me. Without a word he padded over towards his bed and sat down, staring down at the threadbare carpet. "Will, are you okay?"

Concern dissolved the anger as I crouched in front of him, ducking my head to meet his eyes and finding to my shock that tears hung there. Fat, painful tears that wound their way slowly down smooth cheeks, glittering in the harsh artificial light of the lamp beside his bed.

        "You were right" He said finally, his voice grating, shocked and wounded "You were right about everything" Avoiding my gaze he stared upwards at the ceiling failing miserably to blink back the tears that transformed the deep pools of his blue eyes into sparkling sapphires, set deep beneath golden eyelashes.

        Gently I took his hand, linking our fingers together, hoping he could find solace in the touch, as I had found strength in it when we were facing our friends.

        "Will, we both knew this was going to be hard…" I paused, reaching my hand up and cupping his cheek, forcing his face down to look into mine. For a long moment our eyes met and caught, the light dancing hypnotically in his precious irises, holding my gaze.

        Finally it was I who broke the moment, reaching up and brushing away a fallen tear with my thumb, his skin as smooth as silk beneath my fingers.

        "I didn't think that a few cruel words could hurt me so bad. Stick and stones… and all that"

        I smiled gently "Its never that easy…"

        It was from then on that things really began to get hard. Days passed slowly, intertwined with rude glares and snide comments. Ryder had done his job and done it well, the role of the villain suited him perfectly and he played up to it, casting us both a wide smiles and a blown kisses whenever he saw us in the halls, either together or apart. It took no longer than a day for the news to be passed throughout the school and we knew it would only be a matter of time before the teachers got wind of it. Rawley wasn't a place to keep secrets, as we were so cruelly finding out.

        "Why does Ryder hate us so much?" Will asked me one evening as we'd finished comparing notes on the new and ugly remarks people had thought up

        "He doesn't hate us, he's just a bored, stuck-up rich kid who feels he needs to cement his superiority by taunting others -we're easy targets" My anger flared

         "That's very philosophical of you Scout," He said with a smile, lightening the tone of the conversation. I smiled back, and leant across to kiss him gently

        "And you love me for it" I said against his lips, our kisses deepening as we took advantage of the moments we could have along together. It was a while before he drew away, and when he did he kept his face close.

        "I do you know" He said quietly, intimately.

        "Do what?"

        "Love you"

For a moment I was still, silent, before my I allowed my lips to gently form the smile that had been growing there.

        "I love you too, Will" And again my lips came down on his.

        "Guys!" Jake crashed through our doorway, excitement escalating as she screamed the word "I have an idea"

        Uninterested we both looked up form our separate tasks, Will was stretched out on his bed, casually reading his English text, while I attempted to put my English literature assignment down onto a word processing document. Somehow though, it didn't seem to be working, I welcomed the interruption.

        "You know, it would have been nice if you'd knocked" Will said quietly, without taking his eyes from his book, I didn't know how he did it, I suppose the world of William Blake was just more important than reality in his eyes.

        "Yeah, well this was important"

        "And you got at us for not being careful about our privacy" I said sarcastically, "For all you know we could have been making out furiously and confessing our undying love for one-another"

        "I suppose I never thought of that…" Slightly embarrassed she turned round to glance at the door that had swung to a close behind her, "I'll try and remember next time,"

"You mean the next time you practically break down our door with excitement?" Will's turn, delivered without so much as a glance up from the book

I smiled, giving up on my essay and looking up at Jake "So what *are* you so excited about?"

        "I have this idea…"

        "What kind of idea?" I asked tentatively

"The kind that should get the whole of Rawley off your backs for as long as you both shall live…" A wide smile crossed her lips as she got Wills attention, the book instantly being placed facedown on the bedspread beside him

"Okay, we're listening…"

"Suddenly I'm not so sure this is a good idea" I gulped slowly, settling myself beside Hamilton in our favourite booth at Friendly's eyes wandering over the crowded room "I mean, if this doesn't work…"

"Relax man, she knows what she's doing"

"How do you know?"

"Just trust him Scout" Wills voice cut into our conversation from the other side of the table. He seemed calm, that kind of feline serenity that separated him from the rest of us, his ability to step out of a situation when it got too heavy. I envied him for it.

"I'm still not sure about this…" I was prepared to go on, but was cut off as two figures strode confidently in through the glass door of the diner, the high-pitched bell signalling their entrance.

Every pair of eyes joined mine in watching them, witnessing with awe the grace and perfection of these two strangers.

It took a double and triple take for me to recognise them.

The first was taller than the other, her short dark hair elegantly sculpted around her face to emphasise her bold features. The large dark glasses that shielded her eyes gave her a sense of mystery, and when teamed with the lightly lip-sticked mouth, it was obvious the look she wore was of amusement, seen only on those safe in the knowledge that they would not be recognised.

Her companion heralded exactly the same amount of self-assurance, her long white blonde hair swept up into an intricate bundle on the top of her head. Her face, like her companion was also covered with a pair of large sunglasses making her seem like she would be more at home in a Hollywood magazine rather than a small-town diner.

The two paused on the threshold of the diner, enjoying the atmosphere of bewilderment in the room before slowly winding their way through the crowded tables toward our booth.

It was only when they stopped before our table that I realised my mouth was hanging open in amazement. I shut it fast.

"Hi boys" It was Jake, pure and simple. Clad in a glamorously low cut top, hipster trousers and high-heeled boots, she looked every inch the well-dressed American teenage-girl, but beneath that mask of femininity, Jake was still there.

Bella came up beside her and offered us a shy wave. With her the look had had to be more complete, for no townie would have even thought to think that this dark haired beauty beside her would be Jake, the guy from Rawley boys, while Bella was in her own territory, she could not reinvent herself as a different gender, only a different person. Therefore it took me longer to find the real Bella Banks behind the charade.

She wore a short blue dress that revealed, as much leg as there was to reveal, her outfit complete with a pair of knee-high brown leather boots. The stick of a lollipop stuck out of her mouth and she twirled it absent-mindedly as we faced each other.

It was Hamilton that finally broke the silence that my own observations had filled.

"Well, you two took you're time" Thankfully Hamilton was still acting the same way he always did.

"What can we say? We stopped for gas?" The American drawl that came from Bella's lips was not the one we were used to, but even that didn't prepare me for what she was about to do next. Delicately slipping herself into the booth beside Will she tugged the lollipop out of her mouth, and holding it a little way out in front of them, kissed him deeply on the lips.

I swallowed hard, instantly aware of the attention the other occupants of the room were giving us. And who could blame them? Two exquisitely beautiful strangers arrive in a small town diner unannounced and one starts making out with a guy who's known to be, not quite into that thing, if you know what I mean. Reality seemed to be crumbling around me.

Jake picked up on my unease immediately.

Slipping into the booth beside me, she said simply, in an accent that wasn't her own "Long time no see, stranger" And offered me her cheek. I kissed it gingerly, casting a small glance at Hamilton who merely stood before us, smiling proudly.

"So," Said Will slowly, fitting into his role with a little too much ease, I thought, as I watched his arm snake gently around his companion. "What do you two ladies want to eat?"

"Nothing for me thanks" Jake said delicately, reacting to the question in the totally opposite way as she would have done as Jake "Perhaps just a mineral water"

"Same for me thanks," Bella had finished kissing Will some time ago and was now contented with sitting with his arm around her shoulders, lips playing over her lollipop.

"Right then" Hamilton turned and walked over to the counter, settling himself on a stool after he had ordered, making a great play of leaving us alone. Together.

A full ten seconds of silence passed on Hamilton's exit until I finally plucked up the courage to lean closer to "Jake".

"What next?" I asked, my voice a harsh whisper, and so quiet not even Will and Bella should have been able to hear our exchange. "I'm half expecting Sean to stroll through that door any minute wearing a dress and sandals and start making out with Hamilton as if their lives depended on it!"

She laughed, shaking her head

"No! Of course not" Wickedly she raised her eyebrow "He wouldn't agree" In a perfect moment of bad timing I'd taken a sip of my drink after my outburst and with this comment proceeded to not only choke but to spray half the contents of my mouth over myself and the table in front of me. Will, Bella and Jake, collapsed in giggles.

"I wanted to go all out" She whispered finally, more serious now, leaning close to help wipe the table "This isn't just benefiting you two you know, I'm just enjoying being female again, if only for a few hours"

For a few moments there was silence, as I sought hard to find Jakes eyes behind the dark glasses, before dropping my eyes once again

"Well, I think at the moment you're the only one getting *anything* out of this, all I'm doing is making a total ass out of myself!"

She laughed "Well no actually, I thought you were doing pretty well, all except for the drink incident," as she spoke she reached up and wiped my mouth gently with the tissues she still had wadded in her hand, a tender gesture that only cemented the fact in my mind that *she* was the better actor.

"What makes you think they don't all think I'm a total idiot?" I asked slowly, her eyes never leaving mine as she replied

"Take a look for yourself"

It wasn't until she said that that I came to realise exactly how this conversation would have looked to the other people in the room. We were sat close together, arms and legs touching, faces close so we could conduct our conversation in private, but this is not how it would have been interpreted by a common onlooker. What they would have seen is not a friend calming the nerves of a friend, but a couple, as close to one another as possible, laughing and flirting, and touching one another on every opportunity. Even now her hand rested on my leg, tissues still in hand, eyes on mine –exactly the kind of behaviour you expect of two people, maybe not in love, but certainly in lust.

Slowly I swivelled my head around to take in the other occupants of the room and was met by a hundred eyes all flickering back to their plates, a surer sign that we had been being watched than if they had all continued staring. I smiled slowly- this might work yet.

However, as I turned back to the table, I was made to swallow my newfound confidence, almost literally, as a soft pair of feminine lips came down on mine. My immediate reaction was to clamp my mouth shut, body tensing from head to toe, her kiss was a shock to my system, I who had become accustomed to the sweet, harder kiss of Will found in Jake a strange sense of nostalgia that brought a picture of Bella into my mind.

I pulled back.

And stared straight into the eyes of Ryder.

That's where things got interesting.

"Well, Calhoun, this is quite the surprise" I gaped, unable to reply; surely he wasn't supposed to be acting so self-assured right now?

"Go away Ryder" It was Will, at my rescue once again

"What could I possibly gain in going away when the two most beautiful ladies in Rawley seem to be sitting at your table?" He never took his eyes from Jake as he spoke, who simply stared back a bored look on her face, before turning to me.

"I take it this is the guy you've been telling us about?"

Silence for a second, before a voice in the back of my head screamed at me to play along.

"Yeah, yeah…" a bad start, but it got better "Girls I'd like you to meet Ryder, the guy that's been spreading all those rumours" I was trying to act as if his presence didn't faze me in the slightest, I wasn't sure if it was working.

"They've told us all about you" Somehow Jake managed to make her voice sound ominous

"All good I trust" He seemed to be a little less sure of himself now, although it could just have been my imagination. Ryder wasn't used to dealing with girls with strength, girls with minds of their own, girls that could make him feel small when they wanted to.

"You shouldn't put trust in things you know aren't true" Bella's turn.

There was silence for a moment while he regarded us all, before finally he spoke again.

"Well, Krudski, aren't you going to introduce me to your lovely lady friends" Somehow his self-assuredness seemed to be becoming more and more fake on every sentence.

"With pleasure…" And as Ryder was becoming less and less sure of himself, the rest of us were filling with confidence, "Ryder, this is Alison, and Josephine" He motioned to Bella first and then Jake, making up names off the top of his head.

Bella gave him a barely visible nod, settling further into Wills side, while Jake extended her hand, taking his and shaking it strongly.

"Its nice to meet the guy that has made our friends' lives hell, for the past few weeks" Somehow she managed to put just enough stress on the word "friends'" as to make it sound as if we were really a lot more, and for some reason this seemed to do the trick. If any one of us had said that same line to him he probably would have dismissed it, laughed in our faces at our weakness, used it against us sometime in the future. But when Jake said it he seemed genuinely ashamed. He was not used to being exposed for his true colours in front of beautiful women, and didn't like it one bit. Pathetically he tried to save himself:

"I, I try my best" The stutter was a shock, Ryder Forrest showing true fear and shame to be found out by a girl.

Jake rewarded him with a smug smile, before tugging at my hand and standing up.

"I think its time we got going guys" Will and Bella followed suit, and leaving Hamilton to settle up we pushed past Ryder and into the dusk beyond the doorway, leaving him stood, dumbfounded and beaten, at an empty table.

It wasn't until we reached the next block that we allowed ourselves to crumble into the giggles we knew were brewing. For a long time we simply stood on the corner, just out of sight of Friendly's laughing and talking and congratulating each other on a job well done, before finally we began to make our way back to Rawley school. I think I'll always remember that night as my last great defeat of Rawley School. Putting a person like Ryder in his place after the years he had victimised Jake and Hamilton as well as Will and I was a feeling you do not forget in a hurry. Neither was the feeling you get when you walk through the streets of a familiar town as the streetlights flicker on at dusk, your arms around the greatest friends you've ever known, and a warm feeling in your heart that comes from loving, and being loved in return.

Finis