~~~~~
It was late evening and the sun was now fully set, when the older kids of Erickson's gathered around a small fire for their daily game of cards. The group consisted of Clementine, Louis, Violet, Marlon, Ruby and Aasim.
"So, what game is it tonight then?" Marlon asked, removing a small pack of cards from his back pocket, proceeding to remove them from the packet to shuffle them.
"War?" Aasim suggested, eyebrows raised in question.
"We played war last night" Ruby states.
"Yeah, come on, can't we play something different for once" Marlon adds.
"Truth or dare?" Violet suggests with a small smirk.
"Now that's more like it! Louis shouts enthusiastically. "Highest card asks, lowest card has to do or answer what they say" He explains. The teens all nod in understanding.
Marlon, now having successfully shuffled the cards, takes the top one of the pile before handing it to his right. This process repeats until the cards are then handed back to Marlon. They all flip over their cards, Clem having the highest and Violet having the lowest.
"Violet...truth or dare" Clem asks, a hint of mischief in her voice.
"Truth"
"Aww come on that's boring!" Louis groans, receiving a harsh glare from the blonde.
"I'm sticking with truth".
The circle goes silent as Clementine tries to think of a decent question.
"um...anyone here you like like?" Clem asks, a few mumbles of approval due to the good question coming from the others
"Like like? What are you six?" Violet shakes her head.
"Just answer the question"
"Well...um...maybe, I d-don't know" She stutters over her words, making it extremely obvious to the others that there was someone.
"Ooooo, who is it?" Louis pushes, leaning forward.
"Saying who wasn't part of the question dumbass"
"Well next time, I'll make sure it is".
"Well next time, I'll make sure to pick dare!"
"Enough! She answered the question so lets just go again" Marlon says, beginning to hand the cards around the circle once more.
Everyone flips their card over, Louis having the lowest, Ruby having the highest.
"Well Louis, truth or dare?" Ruby asks.
"Dare! I'm not boring unlike some..." Louis responds, smirking cheekily at Violet. She chuckles under her breath, giving him the finger as he makes a fake hurt face.
"I dare you..." Ruby stops, having not thought of a good dare yet.
"You better give him a good one" Aasim adds.
"I know! I dare you to kiss Clem!"
His eyes widen as well as Clem's, a nervous flush taking over both of their faces.
"For five seconds! I dare you to kiss Clem for five seconds!" Ruby adds, getting more and more excited. All the other kids start cheering except from Louis, who was currently regretting everything, and Clem, who was nervously messing with her fingers with her eyes down.
All the kids knew of Louis' secret crush on Clem, except for Clem herself. The teens would constantly tease him for how obvious he made it, and they would often catch him out when he is staring.
"This should be good" Marlon chuckles, leaning backwards to make himself more comfortable.
"Don't act like you don't want this Louis" Violet adds, all the kids laugh at the brutal teasing towards a now blushing Louis.
The two meet eyes, a nervous smile on both their faces. Louis takes a deep breath before leaning over the circle since she was opposite him. The circle goes silent as they lock eyes, their faces only inches apart. Louis takes a second to pull back a bit. "Are you...okay with this?" He asks, not wanting to do anything she wasn't okay with.
"Well...a dare's a dare, right?" She answers with a small smile, indicating to him that she was okay with it. He smiles back, eyes quickly darting to her lips, taking on final breath before leaning in fully.
Their lips meet gently, tingles radiating through them both at the connection. The feel of Clem's lips on his creating an unfamiliar feeling to spread through out him. He knew he had wanted this for a while, but now that it was actually happening, he felt more at peace than he had in a long time. Their lips part and close against the soft flesh of each others, her hand coming up to cup his jaw as the kiss got more intense with each move.
They knew they had been kissing for way more than five seconds, but neither of them could bring themselves to pull away. That is until, someone decided to do it for them.
"Guys, Jesus! I said five seconds not five minutes!"
The couple are ripped away from each other, a sense of loss drifting through them both. Their lips are swollen and their cheeks are flushed, the both of them breathing heavily.
"Wow, I know you guys like each other and everything but come on, I can feel my dinner rising" Aasim says in disgust.
"Are you guys gonna date now or what?" Violet says, not looking all too happy. (RIP Violentine)
Louis climbs back to his original sitting spot, trying and failing to keep the giddy grin off his face. He jumps as Ruby leans over. "You'll thank me for that later" She whispers with a smirk.
They play multiple more rounds, but both Louis and Clem remained distracted the entire time, not being able to forget the past events from tonight.
This was definitely a card game to remember
~~~~~
