A/N: Before you guys start to read this chapter, I just want to dedicate this chapter to this particular person who has inspired me to write this chapter! You know who you are! :D
Ariella's POV
As the sky darkens, the soothing sounds of the crashing waves felt as though they were music to my ears.
"A penny in your thoughts?" One of my best friends since senior high, Lucinda asked as she sits beside me on a wooden bench.
"Nope. Just enjoying the sea breeze."
"Are you sure about that though? You looked quite deep in your own thoughts." Another of my best friends since senior high, Josiah followed.
"You guys are thinking too much, give Ariella a break man." Ashton said, giving us a head shake as he looked at us being our usual self: overthinkers.
"That's right. Both of you girls have been bombarding Ariella since the start of our gathering. Give this poor lady who is sort of troubled by love a breather." Nick follows as he sits beside Ashton.
"But on a serious note, Ariella, just give yourself some time to ponder over and give yourself a break. Especially when we, aka your senior high best friends, are here with you after 2 years!" Aren't you touched that you finally got to see us?" Chantelle said, looking excited as she used her hand to describe how excited she was in meeting all of us, like finally.
It seriously took us really long to plan for a simple gathering like this since all of us are basically scattered around ever since senior high.
Especially when our schedules kept clashing with one another, where some would be on a holiday while some would be having their final examinations during a specific point in time.
Like, ugh.
Nevertheless, I am still glad that despite us who may be busy chasing our dreams, we still managed to find / block out some time for such a meaningful gathering to have a little catch up with each other's lives.
"Earth to Ariella? Is anybody there?" Lucinda said, noticing that I was staring into blank space again.
To be completely honest, I have seriously lost count of the number of times that I have been staring into blank space.
Just because of one person's action that kind of sent butterflies of hope in my stomach. Something I used to think that it was long gone.
"Well yes, Ariella is back on earth." I said, looking down to admire the floor since I have been caught staring into blank space by Lucinda again.
Needless to say, I definitely can sense Lucinda has been trying to hold her laughter since it took her a while to respond back to me.
"Welcome back to earth, Ariella." Lucinda said, looking at me as I proceed on to give myself a little stretch, just to make myself look less suspicious in front of the others who are not aware of my conversation with Lucinda.
"So what shall we do now? I mean, we have like an hour to go before the arrival of our food deliveries." Ashton said, putting down his phone once he has helped us to order our food from the food delivery app on his phone.
"I guess we'll wait." Chantelle responded, which definitely earns a 'are you seriously kidding me' look from Ashton.
"No doubt that we have to wait since it is our food deliveries. But what I meant was what are we going to do to make time pass a little bit faster?" Ashton continued the conversation as he seriously tried not to facepalm himself in front of Chantelle.
"So, any ideas? Anyone?" Ashton said as he looked at all of us in anticipation.
"How about we play mobile games, like League of Legends (LOL)?" Nick said, which immediately got shot down by the ladies since we do not really like to play that, for now.
Needless to say, there was a heated bickering and debate between the guys and girls as the guys attempted to persuade us to play LOL by explaining to us the perks of playing it, which they failed terribly.
"How about we play Truth or Dare for several rounds?" I finally suggested in the midst of the heated debate between us, which thankfully brought the heated debate to an end.
"And followed by several rounds of Minecraft?" Josiah followed, which finally earned approval from all of us.
~~~~~~~~~~
"Aw come on! Is it that hard to tell us who all of your crushes are?!" Ashton said, looking at me who has been refusing to tell the group all of my crushes.
Seems like I am one of those people who has crushes whose names cannot be spoken of out loud, or at least I should say, even in front of our closest group of best friends.
"Damn it Ashton! Fine! I shall say it, but only to you only since you are the one who asked me that question." I finally spoke out, leaving the remaining few of us to protest at my decision.
"Come on, Elise! We have our girls' code! You can't do this to us!" Lucinda whined, looking at me with pleading eyes in hopes of getting me to spill the beans out to the ladies of course.
I mean, that is why it is called girls' code for a reason.
"How about I just say 1 of my crushes, for now? If not, it isn't fun if I spill all my crushes out right now." I said, attempting to negotiate with all of us in hopes of luring them to my so-called bait.
"Fine." All of them said in unison while Ashton continued, "Only for you since this is only our first round of Truth or Dare. There would not be any more exceptions."
"So, who is your crush, like right now?" Ashton said, wriggling his eyebrows in anticipation as he asked me that burning question he has since I was rather infamous for having many crushes during our senior high days.
"No one." All of their jaws, except for both Chantelle and I drop, looking at me in disbelief.
"What do you mean, no one? Explain yourself, Ariella Elise Hudson." Lucinda said, still looking rather shocked by my answer.
"I am serious Lucinda! I seriously do not have any crush at the moment. It was a prank you guys." I said, trying to hold in my forced laughter as I look at the remaining 4 of them, who are seriously looking at me with a skeptical expression written all over their faces.
Well, except for Chantelle though since she already knew who my crush was.
Sometimes, oblivion is a blessing, especially when you do not want to expose yourself or someone close to you to something unpleasant, that could seriously drag the whole mood down like a waterfall cascading down the pit of water beneath it and only God knows where this leads.
"Then what about your past crush? Any past crush?" Lucinda probes further but only to be interrupted by Chantelle saying that my turn was over and that it was Ashton's turn to choose after spinning the bottle in the middle.
"So truth or dare Ashton?" I said as quickly to change the topic and to divert everyone's attention onto Ashton.
"I shall be going with the truth option, to be safe, since I somehow got this feeling that you guys may give me some crazy dare to do right now." Ashton said, after giving it some thoughts.
"So behold, your mission is to tell us what scares you the most." I said, after pondering over it for a while.
Surely everyone has their deepest fear, that is to be not spoken of or about.
"Nothing." He said, causing us to literally pause and process his response.
"Nothing? Like seriously nothing in this world?" Nick said, to confirm his answer once more.
"Well.... yes?" Ashton said, sounding unsure of his answer momentarily.
"Are you sure about that Ash?" Josiah said, still looking unconvinced.
"How about you tell me instead since I was the one who asked you about it?" I suggested, causing everyone to look at me. Surprisingly, no one protested at my suggestion though.
"Promise you will not tell anyone?" Ashton said, looking at me before he leans in closer to my ear.
"You shall have my word."
"Deal. My greatest fear is losing you, Ariella Elise Hudson." Ashton whispered seductively in my ear and it immediately caused my stomach to flip over for a moment.
Uh... is this some sort of love confession to me right now?
"Just kidding, I am scared of losing our friendship, like our group of best friends here in front of us... Relax..." Ashton continued, looking at me with a glint of mischief glistening through his eyes under the sunset.
"Ha-ha, I am not relaxed at all." I said, rolling my eyes at him while the rest looked at us, as if they did not know or recognize us anymore.
"Next person!" Ashton said, giving the bottle a spin.
After several rounds of spinning on the spot, the bottle finally landed in Nick's direction.
"So truth or dare older brother?" Ashton asked as he looked at Nick who was clearly gulping nervously, unsure of what to expect in this first round of Truth or Dare.
"Hm... How about a Dare? Since Ashton has chosen a Truth earlier."
"Very well there Nick. Your dare is... Would you dare to kiss one of the ladies' cheeks, to indirectly tell her that she is the one you hate / like the most?" Ashton said, giving Nick his most signature evil smirk while Josiah's pair of ocean blue eyes widened in disbelief.
And let's just say that Nick was still processing the information he had heard from Ashton.
"You gotta be kidding me right, Ashton?" Nick said, gripping Ashton's by his shoulder, followed by a slight shake after he had processed the information.
"Now my boy, be like a man and do your dare because I ain't kidding you for real this time. Good luck with that by the way." Ashton said, giving Nick's shoulder a slight squeeze, followed by an evil laughter echoing through the beach.
"Good luck with that Nick," Josiah said, not wanting to think how and where Nick will end up after doing that dare to either one of the ladies.
Clearly Nick is in a dilemma right now since he knew that this move could either so-called foster or break our friendship with him right now.
But seriously though, I think it is more of a break. Oops.
"To this person, I am very sorry but you know and I know that you are, in fact, a likeable person..." Nick said out loud before heaving a sigh of defeat.
I am a hundred percent sure that he is regretting his every life decisions on living this planet earth right now.
Just as Nick was about to go to the person to kiss on her cheek, Ashton suddenly spoke up.
"Alright! I think this is too much for you, so let's change the question shall we?"
"But.. but- I was about to..."
"It's alright, I feel your dilemma older brother... And let's say that I felt bad after asking you to do that dare..."
"Oh yeah? How about you replace me instead?" Nick said, challenging Ashton to do the dare for him instead.
"That would be easy." With that said, Ashton crashed his lips onto my cheek and stayed there for a while before removing his lips from mine.
With that, screams and more squeals were heard and I was there holding onto my right cheek in shock.
What did I just receive from Ashton?
~~~~~~~~~~
A/N: Woah! Woah! Woah! Now hold up and let me sip my coffee. That's right! You guys have just made it to this chapter and now you guys must be wondering where this friendship leads and the list goes on... But I ain't be spilling anything for now so stay tune!!
And yes, I would like to apologize for the super long-awaited update!! Thank you for your patience, everybody HEHE! :D
Have a blessed day everyone!
Love, J.