Chapter 6

We were in a circle playing truth or dare with vodka shots in front of us. The 7 of us had been partying for the past 4 hours, still no sign of Conrad. I wanted him to come back so we could talk, or even if we didn't talk so he could interact and have some fun. I wanted to see him this summer, not have him spend all his time in his room like some summers previously. Anyway, it was Hudson's turn,
'Okay, Anika, truth or dare?' He asked
'Truth' she responded, staring at him.
'Have you and Jere had sex?' Hudson asked, a faint smile playing at his lips
'No we have not' Anika responded, winking at me, Jere just laughed quietly before saying,
'Okay my turn'. We all looked at him expectantly as he turned to Flynn. Jere and Flynn had been getting on particularly well these past few hours, they were the same age and had a lot in common, he'd already told me he approved of them all. Not that I needed his approval of course, but it was nice anyway.
'Flynn, dare or dare?'
'I guess I'll have to pick dare' Flynn grinned, 'What do I have to do now?' We'd already made Flynn strip and run round the house, belly flop into the pool, chuck down 5 shots of vodka and sit for 10 minutes with his legs round his head. That was the funniest one, every time he tried to move he'd just roll over again and it would take him ages to get back up. He was the victim of all our dares, he didn't mind though- just took it in his stride.
'What you have to do' Jere started saying, looking evil, 'Is eat 3 bites of a sandwich that Belly and I make.'
'Oh shit' Flynn cussed, 'I'm going to die!' Turning to Dean he added, 'Tell mum and Dad I love them, and tell everyone at college I died from a shark or something cooler than sandwich poisoning please mate?'
'Sure thing bro, I feel for ya' Dean commented
'Hey! My cooking's not that bad' I exclaimed
'Yeah sure it is Belly' Ellie added, 'Jere's told us all about the barbeque incident' she continued giggling.
'What barbeque story?' Hudson asked
'Oh yeah they told it whilst you and Belly were outside talking' Ellie replied, 'Jere tell him?' she asked
'Anika can you do the honours?' Jere turned to her
'Sure' She replied, big grin on her face, 'so basically, one summer..'
I interrupted her, 'I'm going to make this sandwich while you tell the story, I don't need reminding, Jere, you coming?'
He hopped up and joined me, 'Sure Bells'. We went through to the kitchen.

Once inside the kitchen I asked him, 'Honestly, how are things with Anika?'
'Really good Bells, It doesn't feel like 2 days honestly, I do like her and actually there was something I wanted to talk to you about..' He rushed
'Slow down Jere' I said, 'I can see you like her, does she know that? What do you want to ask?' I said slowly
'Yeah she knows' he smiled, 'oh and she said if I want to I can go and spend a week with her in New York when she flies there, what do you think?' he asked apprehensively as if not knowing what to expect in response.
'Wow!' I replied in shock, 'that's amazing of course I don't mind!' I said honestly, 'as long as you come back so we can spend some time together'
'Of course Bells, thanks oh and I'll ask Con too to make sure it's okay'
It hit me, Conrad and I alone in the house, in two weeks for a week, hopefully everything would be good then and we could have a really good time. The thought made my knees shake and butterflies stir.

10 minutes later, Jere and I emerged from the kitchen with a huge sandwich on a plate. It had taken 14 ingredients and a lot of mess but I finally had made a sandwich worthy of Jere's dare. There was ham, mustard, pickle, sweet corn, jelly, sunflower seeds, banana, ladies fingers, chilli powder, chocolate cream, lime, cheese, avocado and finally bread of course all adding up to make a monster looking meal. We presented it too Flynn who looked half scared, half excited.
'I'm not sure about this' Flynn protested
'Eat it, Eat it, Eat it' the rest of us chanted
Flynn spluttered, 'But it's so..' before looking at me and Jere and taking one, then two and finally a third bite. As soon as he swallowed the third bite he rushed to the kitchen and all we could hear was gargling and retching. Yum.
'Once again Belly's cooking causes others physical pain' A voice said from behind us, the voice sounded as though the face was smirking, but it was gentle also, warm and humorous.
'Con mate, come join the party' Jere said eagerly, looking at me. Con walked into the living room , looking at Jere, then Hudson and finally his eyes settling on me.
'Hey everyone' he said, nodding at each person in turn, 'actually I think I'll go to bed, I'm really tired' he began to climb the stairs.
'Don't go Con' I called to him
'Yeah, we're playing truth or dare' Hudson added, 'It'd be nice to meet you man, I'm Hudson by the way'
I watched Conrad tense before he replied, 'Okay then' and came back and joined us.
As he sat Ellie piped up, 'I'm Ellie, Hudson's sister' and Dean said, 'yeah man I'm Dean, my twin Flynn is in the kitchen as you saw'
'Nice too meet you both' Conrad replied politely. 'So who's turn is it?'
'Flynn's, but as he's out of action I'll take his go' Dean said, winking at me. I let it slide. I didn't need them all ganging up on me again. Looking around the room at us he started, 'Conrad, truth or dare?'
'Dare' Conrad said confidently.
'Kiss Belly' Dave said smugly. My heart skipped a beat and time seemed to stop.

I looked at Conrad, who was staring at me, searching for approval, I gave him a look, a look saying 'your call' and before I knew it there we were. Surrounded by all my friends kissing. We stated off slowly but before we knew it things were getting intense. Very intense. Till Jere cleared his throat.
'Get a room' Anika and Ellie called in sync, but all I could do was turn bright red, my heart was pounding as I looked up at him, he just smiled and commented,
'My go then? - Ellie, truth or dare?' and the game continued, except I was too zoned out to pay attention until I saw Conrad and Hudson stand up then leave, walking out onto the beach.

I stood up and started to follow them but it was too dark to see outside. I shouted, 'Conrad!, Hudson!' but heard no reply until..
'BOO!' They both shouted behind my ear, scaring my senseless for a few seconds.
When I had recovered I criticised, 'What was that for?' as they both laughed their heads off.
'Go back inside Iz, we'll talk later' Hudson said
'Yeah, this is just two people chatting' Conrad added and with that they had ganged up on me. I was powerless, so I trooped inside wondering what on earth they were talking about, till it hit me. Me.

sorry it's not so good, I did this late at night because I couldn't sleep, review with ideas as I'm getting stuck and whether or not I should carry on, thanks x