Forging Bonds

Part Four

At the party for over an hour when Sock and Jonathan finally ran into a breathless Lil. "There you two are I've been looking everywhere. The game's about to start. Let's go."

Both boys look at each other and followed Lil to the back of the house where many teenagers were gathered around in a makeshift circle writing things down on bits of papers and putting them into two plastic hats.

Finding somewhere to sit Lil gave them scraps of papers and pencils to write. "What are these for?" Sock asked.

"For ideas to put for the game," she answered a bit distracted making sure everything was running smoothly.

"What game?" Jonathan asked.

"Truth or Dare," Joane replied behind him. Sock grew ridged in his seat, "Hello again Napoleon."

A soft gasp escaped past his lips. Jonathan watched Sock then returned his attention to Jojo. There was something going on here. He's never seen Sock react this way to a stranger before. But they weren't strangers. She was chasing him a few days ago. And Sock was clearly running away from her. Jonathan reminded himself.

"H-hey, Jojo." He greeted her seeing that he had no way of escaping this time. She smiled glad he seemed to realize that too.

"So the game is obvious but instead of having to come up with something on the spot to ask people they have to grab it out of the hats. Blue for truth, red for dare," Jojo explained letting Sock sweat. "The only chicken you can do is if you don't wanna answer a truth you do a dare and vice versa. Simple as that."

"And if you don't want to do the either?" Jonathan asked.

"Then it's too bad because you have to do it." Jojo smirked, her eyes going to the nervous teen. "It was nice seeing you again Napoleon. We should really catch up, it's been too long."

He stayed rooted in his seat not giving her an answer. Sock didn't even glance at the teen next to him who looked between curious and confused. All Sock wanted to do was bolt from his seat and run off as far away as he could get. Though he should've known that Jojo wouldn't rest until she found him.

Another five minutes passed before the game actually started. And it was fun for the most part Sock even managed to relax knowing Jojo couldn't do anything to him here. She was just here to make him uncomfortable. Taking off his shoes he started mindlessly rubbing his feet on the carpet.

He passed the hats to Jonathan who always managed to look at them with suspicion. After a moment of hesitation he grabbed a slip for the blue hat. "Truth: what do you plan to do after you graduate?"

He paused, "leave as far away as possible when I turn eighteen." He shrugged and passed the hats over to his right. Sock gave him a surprised look. He didn't know Jonathan planned to hit the road which was in a little under eight months.

The game continued going a few more rounds around the circle until it reached Jonathan who read his truth silently and crumpled it up grabbing a slip from the red hat. The truth stuffed into his pocket. "Dare: Kiss the person to your immediate left."

And then the group grew quiet, entirely interested in the dare. For as luck would have it, Sock was sitting on his left. "But he's a guy," Jonathan protested.

Jojo choked back laughing. "So? We made Britney and Gina kissed. This is a democratic group. If a girl can kiss a girl than why can't a guy kiss a guy?"

Many people in the group agreed. Some just did it to see the kiss. All of them eager, sitting up straighter and leaning forward. Jonathan sulked in his seat glaring at them all before turning to Sock. Sock didn't seem to mind what was at play shrugging at the teen which was basically giving him permission to the dare.