A Daring Game of Secrets

Chapter 9

“Can I speak to you?” He whispered. Aria was completely unaware of Ryder being here, she was so engrossed by her hair story. I knew the story all too well. Right now she would be around the part where she informs him of the reason behind the colour, soon shed be at the point of why it was just streaks instead of dying her full head of hair. Realizing that I was just eating for the sake of eating and no longer had any hunger I nodded to him and stood from my seat. We both made for the exit without a word to the others. Ryder led the way upstairs and although I wanted so bad to do the opposite I kept my mouth shut. There was no one remotely interested in us, despite how popular Ryder was and how I was still a circulating story after declaring that I was not a zombie. In hindsight it wasn’t one of my finer moments.

As we progressed up the stairs I realized we were on route to Ryder’s room. I wasn’t about to start a fuss over that, it was genuinely no big deal, not to me anyway. We closed the door behind us and I could no longer keep my question to myself.

“Did you sleep with Valentina?” It was blunt, probably a little stupid but I was wondering what the answer was ever since Aria mentioned it this afternoon.

“What?” Ryder almost choked on air. I could see the shock in his eyes as it spread across the remainder of his face. So, that clearly wasn’t what he was expecting. Maybe I should have started with a ‘hey’ or ‘what’s up’, maybe even ‘where you been, teenage chameleon’- actually, probably not the last one. Instead on repeating myself because it sounded bad enough the first time around I gave my eyebrows a quick rise and fall. He stuttered over words clearly stuck for choice, not that there was much to pick from- Yes or no. “What brought this on?” He inquired.

“Valentina didn’t come back last night, Kevin said she stopped by your room and she drools over you all the time.” I rambled. Ryder just watched me from his distance. “Aria was the one who came to that conclusion but no one knew and Kevin said he would ask but I thought that because I was here I had the opportunity to get it over with so I’d just tear off the Band-Aid myself.”

“Last night Valentina just came to talk, that was it. She stayed in a friend’s room and I came back here when we were done discussing things- end of story. Why do you care?” Ryder went from defensive to neutral awfully fast. Maybe it was just mild curiosity, I couldn’t tell. Ryder always was pretty good at covering things up- for someone who was well accustomed to the lime light of centre stage.

“I hate that girl.” I heard Ryder breathe a quiet oh. “Has she ever heard of manners or does she just choose to ignore them? I know I’m not exactly queen of England but come one, some people need to clean up their freaking act.”

“Maybe you shouldn’t judge some people so much.” Ryder shrugged. His voice was quiet with barely any confidence. It didn't fit his character  to even 

“It’s not like I don’t have a reason.”

“You don’t know her.”

“I tried, she doesn’t want to know me. It’s hardly my fault.” Before Ryder was given the chance to say anything back there was a knock at the door. Ryder stepped around me. My eyes followed him as he opened the door. Speak of the devil and he shall appear- or rather she shall appear. Valentina stood at the door looking as made over as ever. 

"Hey." she smiled at Ryder. He gave her a smile back but i didn't want to be around whatever the hell they were going to do. Ryder may have told me there was nothing going on but seeing her show up like that after they apparently had a long conversation last night gave me the impression there wasn't much talking going on between them. I didn't want to be there when Valentina got to her point.

"I'll leave you two alone."

"Terra, I'm not done talking to you." Ryder reached for my wrist. God, Ryder was unbelievable. I wasn't going to hang around, Valentina certainly didn't want me there. Her smile dropped and i could hear her growling at me. I presumed it wasn't that important for Ryder to tell me what he planned to tell me considering he hadn't done so yet, nor had he sent Valentina away when she showed up at the door. 

"Later." I told him as I left, allowing Valentina to walk on in. When Ryder made no attempt to close the door i did it myself. I made my way back to the dining hall. It had grown quieter in my absence- more to a petting zoo standard of excitement. Aria, Kevin and Phoenix were about to get up from the table. Upon noticing me they moved faster.

"Where did you go?" Aria asked me. "I turned around and you were gone."

"Sorry, I had to use the bathroom." I lied. And so it begins.... I didn't want to tell Aria about me going to visit her brother without her knowledge or her being withing 10 feet of the conversation. She always struggled with Ryder being close the her friends. He was a hopeless flirt and she assumed his popular spanned from him sleeping around with girls which is why that was her first guess when Valentina and Ryder were both out of sight for a rather lengthy period of time. "What did i miss?"

"Nothing." Phoenix informed me. "We still have a few hours to kill before the fire."

"Fire?" I asked. It sounded dangerous at best but it struck my curiosity, why would we have a fire? Its insane! Lack of authority and now hot open flames- Is anyone else seeing the problem with this?"

"Yeah, there was a note on the board. The dares, we need to burn them." Phoenix said it as though it should have been obvious. I didn't see it. I was a little busy today panicking several times and doing stupid stuff as I've been doing for most of my life. 

"And anyone who finished their dare burns their envelope." Kevin added. Aria nodded. I thought if this would have been news to anyone it would have been Aria along with me.

"Their 'secret'?" I asked confused. 

"Exactly, does anyone remember what they wrote? I might have been a little over the limit." Kevin laughed. 

"Nope and i don't want to know. I'm an overly truthful drunk." Aria laughed with him. When all four us us began laughing and the sound merged together it sounded unbearably nervous. 

"Well i don't know about you guys," Kevin announced, "but I'm going to look for something better than water to drink."

Now that sounded like a plan. And just like that we all got over the awkwardness that followed us with the right of passage and made our way like mystery inc to go find something with a little more flavour than water. Too bad this week wasn't going to be quite as simple as unmasking the villain. If you ask me, we were all wearing masks.