A Daring Game of Secrets

Chapter 9

The seniors cooked dinner. Is it crazy that I thought there would be room service and a guy in uniform brought us food when we called? Apparently I was the only one. We showed up late because I was dead set on that idea. No one spared a glance at the four of us strolling in. It was a zoo in that place. I thought the school canteen was bad but this was worse. Here had a louder, more obnoxious atmosphere. There's something about the lack of any authority figures that appeals to high-schoolers the same way victory appealed to warriors in history long ago. Everyone had this wild drive. They all seemed hyped up on adrenaline. Guys and girls alike shovelled food into their mouths and chugged down their drinks before hurrying away. Looking at them all I couldn't help wondering about the challenge. Who had finished their task, who was sitting right next to theirs, or watching them from across the table or maybe even across the room trying to find an excuse to walk up to them and say 'hello'. Who was in my position right now? They might not even need to do anything like mine, maybe some dares don't involve one of the others here. Maybe they have got to go skinny dipping in the lake or Sharpie something not too pleasant on their foreheads that their parents wouldn't approve of.

I made my way to an empty seat walking behind Aria with Phoenix behind me and Kevin leading our small group. I'm surprised we hadn't seen Ryder. His friend were in the dining hall but he was nowhere in sight. Maybe he was one of the early bunch that stuffed their face and scurried off. We sat in the order we had walked, lucky enough to have gotten four seats that were all together and none of us were split up. Aria instantly leaped into conversation with Kevin about how the coloured streak in her hair was making a statement about how being different is better and smiling like Jack Nicholson to prove her point. She was blatantly interested in Kevin, making zero effort to make her flirting remotely covert. It was clear as day that he was equally if not more interested in her, despite the fact that she was his best friends’ sister. Isn't there a rule against that in the bro code? That's a real thing, right?

The table was set like a buffet. Large bowls of food spanned up and down the table. Seniors who had been standing at the side came forward to place a plate for each of us in front of us along with a glass. A few of them came to replace the empty jugs with fresh ones, filled to the brim with water. I began taking what I could reach- potatoes and some vegetables were about it for me. I'm not Mr Fantastic you know. The only meat on the table that I could see was chicken breast but it was beyond my reach. I tried to stretch further but it began to strain my arm. I grew close to the point of giving up on the chicken and being a vegetarian for the next few hours when Phoenix took hold of my plate and loaded a piece of chicken onto it. He gave me a sweet smile that looked almost cute. Going upon looks I can admit that by popular definition Phoenix is hot, but not cute. He looks too mature to be called cute anymore but there was something about the look he gave me that undoubtedly belonged in the cute category.

"Thanks." I muttered giving him a tight lipped smile as he placed my food in front of me. I poured some gravy over my food because let’s face it, gravy is an important part of life. I felt bad for his hospitality being wasted on me, he had no idea what was really going on. My true intentions were not pure. My mother would butcher me if she knew what I was doing right now. She doesn't even believe in dating before your twenties.  To even hold hands with two guys in one week was a crime to her. To peck them on the cheek was a prison sentence. I remember one time we were channel surfing, flashed past 16 and pregnant and upon hearing the title she nearly had a heart attack. I didn't interrupt Arias riveting conversation with Kevin even after the silence shared between Phoenix and I began to feel uncomfortable. The only sound we made was that of our cutlery scraping our plates. I almost finished my meal when I noticed out of the corner of my eye Ryder coming towards us. He was fully dressed rather than in a pair of swimming trunks. Suddenly he had decided to no longer be M.I.A and make an appearance. When Ryder reached us he stopped between Phoenix and I, placing a subtle hand on my shoulder. Phoenix was indifferent to the gesture, paying no attention to Ryder’s presence as he kept eating.