Chapter 37: 36 - I kissed him


    I found Olly half an hour after we arrived. She wasn’t replying any of my texts so Ian and I ended up


    wandering around, half-assedly searching for her until he got embroiled in a game of beer pong.


    Typical.


    He won. Even more typical.


    Anyway, we eventually ran into her on the way to the kitchen to get a fresh can of beer.


    “You came!” She beamed.


    “You called in a sister favor. I had to,” I said tly.


    “He’s so going to owe me for this.”


    Her grin was full of mischief.  A part of me almost felt bad for whoever she made a deal with.


    “So you did this for someone?” I asked. “I’m d our sister favors have a price.”


    “Plee-ease.” She rolled her eyes, waving my usation away. “You’d have done the same.”


    “I would gotten a better deal,” I objected.


    “Oh please,” she called over her shoulder, leading us to the basement. “If things work out, he’s going to


    owe me at least twenty favors in return. Tough ones.”


    “Huh.” Surprise colored my features. “You are shaping up to be quite despicable. Bargaining on me like


    I’m meat.”


    “Thank you.” She beamed with all the innocence of a saint.


    In my peripheral vision, I noticed Ian’s head rear back, surprise coating his face. I turned to him, a


    questioning look on mine.


    “I heard an insult,” he said. “That was an insult but she thanked you? Is everyone in your family


    abnormal?”


    Olly shook her head, shooting me a look that tranted to: where did you find him?


    “What she really meant,” she tranted, sporting an amused look, “is that I’m shaping up to be the best


    business woman the world has ever seen.”


    “Yeah, I don’t think that’s...” He trailed off, shaking his head.


    “That’s want I meant,” I informed him. “My way involves lots of insults, remember?”


    I threw a wink over my shoulder, then followed Olly down the stairs.


    “Madness.”


    I heard him give up behind me, then follow us down. I was sporting a smirk and even though I couldn’t


    see her face, I was sure Olly was sporting one as well.


    “Hey.” I shed Trevor a smile as our trio settled down.


    He was the only familiar face in the basement.


    “We’re ying truth or dare,” Olly said brightly, making me wonder just how many drinks she’d had.


    “Join us.”


    My eyes narrowed in suspicion. As far I knew she hated truth or dare and yet, here she was, nappily


    asking us to join. She hadn’t seemed drunk in the kitchen. Not even tipsy. That left only one option.


    “What’s in it for you?” I questioned.


    “You join and I get to sit out. That’s why I went upstairs. To find someone to take my ce.” Then, she


    leaned into me and whispered, a light shudder running down her back, “That guy has being giving me


    looks.”


    My gaze hardened as I looked the guy over. He was brawny, pierced, and, at the moment, leering at


    both of us in a way that made my skin crawl. Something about him just screamed predator.


    It was my turn to shudder.


    The words ‘no way in hell’ shed through my head in neon. Unfortunately, if he was making fearless


    bluffer extraordinaire Olly shudder then as her older sister, I had no choice but to take his attention off


    her and fix it on someone else.


    Unfortunately ‘someone else’ was also me.


    “We’ll y.” I forced a smile.


    “Great.” A girl with long pretty dreads smiled before taking a swig of her beer.


    She briskly rose to her feet, lifted her top up, shing all nine of us in the basement her scarlet bra,


    then pulled her top back down. It all took only a few seconds. By the time I blinked, she was already


    sitting down, her top back in its rightful position but I hadn’t been expecting it at all. It was like suddenly


    being thrown into the heat of things so it took me a little longer than everyone else to get past it.


    The two other guys in the circle did some catcalling and wolf whistling. The girl tried her best to not


    show how ufortable it made her but I could tell and I was sure Olly and the other two girls could


    tell too. The blonde sitting close to her shot her an encouraging smile and a covert thumbs up.


    My gaze drifted to Olly who shed me a look that could only be described as you see why I hate this


    game?


    “Okay, Mandy’s turn,” The girl on dreadlocks announced, shifting the attention to her blonde friend. “I


    dare you to kiss Jack.”


    Clearly, they hadn’t nned this beforehand because the blonde who had smiled guileless, taking a sip


    of her drink when her friend announced her name was now choking.


    Between coughs, she managed to spit out an aggrieved, “What?”


    “You heard me,” Dreadlocks replied, ncing between her friend and the guy next to her friend.


    I assumed that was Jack.


    Mandy made a point of not looking at Jack. Jack, on the other hand, was sporting a thin smile and


    stealing nces at Mandy. It was all I could do to not roll my eyes.


    The matchmaker in me sided with Dreadlocks. My matchmaking skill was one of the reasons I was so


    popr among girls at school. Most boys were blissfully unaware of it but among those in the know, I


    was somewhat of a matchmaker with a golden touch. I had matched some of my friends with the guys


    they liked and for those who proceeded to rtionship stage, only one had burned so far and in my


    defense that had more to do with the fact that the guy was moving away. t out leaving the country.


    “I can’t. We have... We have... We have... like a dynamic.” Mandy stuttered, nervousughter bubbling


    out of her as she nced at Jack with hopeful eyes that, of course,pletely went over his head.


    “We wouldn’t want to ruin that,” she continued, disappointment coloring her tone.


    I found myself talking before I even made the conscious decision to intervene. “And we can all see


    that’s code for too scared to take the next step.”


    Dreadlocks shot me a grateful smile. Ian and Trevor tried -and failed- to hide matching grins. The guy


    Olly warned me about however shed me a spective smirk that made me want to bare my teeth.


    “But...” Mandy protested half-heartedly.


    “No buts. The game is truth or dare. I shed everyone my bra. You and Jack can make it through one


    kiss,” Dreadlocks stated firmly.


    I smiled, looking away as Stuttering Princess and Shy Prince leaned into each other, nervous smiles on


    both their faces. Honestly, I had no idea who they thought they were fooling because it definitely wasn’t


    the rest of us.


    “My turn.” Mandy beamed a beat after the kiss was over.


    Her lips held a dreamy smile. I stifled the urge to scoff.


    “Truth or dare.” She faced me.


    I would normally have called truth since I didn’t know her. But given that I had just helped her get with


    her crush and based on her grateful smile that epassed Dreadlocks and myself, I felt rtively


    safe saying, “Dare.”


    Bottom line; she owed me. She wouldn’t dare me to do anything insane.


    “I dare you,” she pointed at me, “to kiss your friend.” She pointed at Ian.


    What. A. Backstabber.


    The shock of it had my mouth hanging open. I now understood what had her choking because I would


    have choked too had I been drinking anything. Fortunately, my beer was resting safely between my


    thighs.


    “Why...? We...” I shook my head vigorously, trying and failing to properly articte how ridiculous the


    dare was.


    I winced internally as soon as how much like her I sounded registered in my brain. It must have been


    why she dared me to kiss him. From her point of view, Ian and I probably looked like that. I heaved


    sigh, pping my palm across my face.


    “No. Just no,” I stated firmly.


    To worsen the situation, she started smiling at me sympathetically in a way that made it look like I was


    objecting for the same reasons she had. She actually thought she was doing me a favor. Was she blind


    or something? Where did she get the idea Ian and I were anything like that?


    “No,” I hissed, exchanging agitated nces with Ian who looked just as bothered by the development


    as I was.


    “We’re not like that.” I shook my head. “We’re barely even friends. I don’t like him. He doesn’t like me


    and he has a girlfriend he very happy with.”


    Mandy bit her lip, sporting a worried frown that revealed shepletely believed Ian and I were in the


    same boat as her and Jack. I was half tempted to jumpstart her senses with a p.


    “Seriously,” I pressed in a bid to convince her. “I’d kiss anybody else.” I added, wondering what to make


    of the relieved look on Trevor’s face.


    “Fine.” She slowly nodded, ncing at Dreadlocks who imperceptibly conveyed her approval. “Pick


    N?velDrama.Org: text ? owner.


    someone else.”


    I nodded slowly, ncing between my options. Ian and the leering guy Ollyined about were out


    of the question. Jack was too, which left me with Trevor.


    I pasted a smile on my face and met his gaze. “It’s your lucky day.”


    “It must be.” He smiled back in a way that instantly set me at ease.


    I kept the humorous atmosphere going. The morefortable we both were, the better.


    “I’d advise you to buy a lottery ticket but...”


    We slowly started leaning toward each other.


    “But you’re the prize?” He raised one eyebrow,pleting my sentence.


    I chuckled, ignoring the weight of Ian’s gaze on the side of my face and the leering guy’s, well, leer. He


    really was off in a deeply rooted way.


    “I was going to say a kiss from me is worth more than that.”


    “That too,” he agreed.


    We were now mere centimetres from each other.


    “You don’t have a girlfriend, do you?” I asked, to be sure.


    “Position’s open.”


    Our breaths intermingled.


    “Good.”


    Then I kissed him.