Hey everyone! First off, I know it's late, and I'm very sorry, I got a bit busy and distracted last night so by the time I had chance to upload, it was very late and all I wanted to do was go to sleep. Sorry!
Secondly, don't forget that The Kissing Booth is IN THE WATTY AWARDS, PLEASE VOTE!!!!!!!!!!
And third of all, I would like to tell you all thazt I have been part of a project that has been kept rather secret and over the next few days I'll be letting you know what it is... (teeheee, I'm very excited! Feeling very buzzed for it all!) so KEEP AN EYE OUT for any new messages, Tweets, Tumblr posts, Facebook thingamabobs from me telling you STUFF!
xx
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Chapter Thirteen
It must’ve been around eleven o’clock. The sky was clear, but it seemed almost pitch black, it was almost so dark. A couple of people had left, and a lot of people seemed to be lounging in the sand and drinking up the last of the alcohol.
By this time, I was feeling pretty buzzed. Not drunk; I still knew what I was doing, what I was saying. But I had that buzz in my system that comes with being tipsy; the stars seemed to twinkle that little bit brighter, jokes Damien told seemed that much funnier, and people seemed that little bit easier to talk to.
“Okay,” Kory announced, heaving himself up from where he lay in the sand. He shook the sand out of his hair with one hand. “This is starting to get boring.”
“Nah,” Maria (or Maya) disagreed. “It’s pretty nice just to sit out like this and do nothing. Peaceful. Like, you can almost feel the world spinning.”
A few of us laughed at that, Maria (or Maya) included. But Kory stood up and dusted off his pants.
“Come on,” he said.
So we did. We got up and followed him a little further away from the clusters of partygoers to a small dying campfire a little further off, where there were some logs set out around it like benches. I flopped down on one between Nathan and a ginger guy who I was pretty sure was Miles. Lee sat opposite with Kory and Damien, and Kathleen and Maria (or Maya) sat on another log with the jerk I now knew was Hunter.
After dumping a little more driftwood that was lying around near us onto the fire, Miles said, “Truth or dare?”
“Sure,” everyone said, nodding. I wriggled into a more comfortable spot on the log, and hooked my arms through Nathan and Miles’, feeling the chill of the night air now.
“I’ll go first!” Kathleen chirped. “Um… Kory! Truth or dare?”
“Truth.”
“If you were gay, which of these guys would you kiss?”
He pulled a thoughtful face. “Wait, what’s the forfeit?”
“In your case, I’m gonna say you have to kiss whichever guy you’d have picked. Your choice.”
A few of us laughed, and Nathan whispered in my ear, “Let’s hope he does the forfeit and picks me, then!” I pressed my lips tight together to stifle a laugh.
“Damien,” Kory answered eventually in a brusque tone, with a slight frown on his face as he nodded once. “My turn. Maria – truth or dare?”
“Truth.”
“Your most embarrassing moment. And don’t spare us any details.”
Maria’s olive cheeks turned pink. “Right. Okay. Ugh, I hate you for this, Kory. Right. So in my sophomore year of high school some kid tripped me up in the canteen and I, um, I spilt my lunch all over the head cheerleader.”
“It doesn’t stop there,” Kathleen giggled. “Go on.”
Maria shot her a glare, but smiled a little. “My pants ripped when I fell.”
There was a moment of silence. Then, we all burst out laughing.
“Oh my gosh,” I gasped. “Are you serious?”
Kathleen nodded, laughing. Maria elbowed her, but she was laughing too.
“My turn,” Maria said. “But Kory, I am going to get you back for that one.”
“You can try.” He winked at her, and I couldn’t have been the only one who noticed how her cheeks went even pinker than before.
“Right,” she said. I noticed she said ‘right’ a lot. “Miles.”
“Yep.”
“Truth or dare?”
“Dare.”
“Ooh, right then,” she said, laughing. “I dare you… to… Oh, gosh, I’m terrible at dares!”
“I’ve got one,” Hunter put in. “See those guys over there?” He pointed and we all looked around. Miles nodded. “Go pants one of them.”
Miles’ eyebrows went up. “Those guys are huge.”
Hunter shrugged. “Probably drunk though.”
Miles sighed. “If I get a black eye, dude, you are so getting your ass kicked.”
We all watched as Miles walked over to the group of guys; he kept looking back over his shoulder like he was expecting one of us to tell him he didn’t have to go through with the dare. But the guys didn’t notice him as he got closer.
Then, in one hurried motion, he yanked the khaki pants of the closest guy down and spun round, sprinting for the safety of our little campfire so fast he fell face-first into the sand and did a forward roll. My eyes dropped in panic, wondering if he was alright, and I heard Maria say, “Oh my gosh! Is he okay?” but the boys just chuckled at Miles.
He was back on his feet in a second though, and his legs seemed to flail around madly as he made his way toward us. The guy whose pants were now around his ankles was either too stupid or simply too drunk to remember to pull up them back up before trying to run after Miles. At that point, I had to laugh. Lee fell off his seat on the log he was laughing so hard, and I wasn’t the only one clutching my sides as Miles collapsed next to me.
“My… turn,” he panted. “Nathan, truth or… dare?”
It went on for about half an hour; Lee was dared to fit as many marshmallows in his mouth as he could, after Kathleen had left to get supplies for s’mores. (For the record, it was fourteen marshmallows.) I had a truth, what was my first kiss? It was fun, though, and when it came to truths I didn’t have much problem with sharing stuff with these random people, however embarrassing; I would never really see them again, so why should I care what they thought of me?
Everything was going great, up until Hunter said, “Elle. Truth or dare?”
And I replied, “Dare. No! No, wait, truth!”
“Too late,” Kory said in that irritating sing-song voice. “You already said dare.”
“I dare you,” Hunter said, “to go skinny dipping.”
I blinked. Then I blinked again. Eventually I said, “Huh?”
“You know, skinny dipping,” he repeated. “In the sea.”
I looked around, over my shoulder, at the sea. It was as dark as the sky; the only way I could distinguish between them was the white foamy tips of waves.
“Um,” I said as I stood up. I fiddled with the zipper on my hoodie. It wasn’t such a good idea, I knew – plus, it was going to be absolutely freaking freezing in the sea.
“Shelly,” Lee said, “sit down.” To Hunter, he said, “There’s no way she’s doing that. What if she drowned? Are you as big an idiot as you look?”
Hunter scowled at Lee. “What the hell’s it got to do with you, huh? You’re not the boss of her.”
Lee shook his head. “Wow,” he scoffed. “You’re actually an even bigger idiot than I had you pinned for.”
Hunter shot to his feet.
Lee was stood in the next split second.
The two of them just stood there, glaring at each other.
“You don’t have to be a substitute Noah,” I muttered, but loud enough that Lee heard me, since the rest of our little circle was so hushed. “One is enough.”
I saw something flash across my best friend’s face. It was something between amusement and wanting to roll his eyes at me. But he fought hard to keep on glaring at Hunter.
“You’re not the boss of her,” he repeated. “And I dared her to skinny dip. Or she can do the forfeit.”
“I never said I was the boss of her,” Lee said, his voice deathly calm and cool. “But I am looking out for her. If you think I’m going to let my best friend risk her life doing a stupid dare just so you can get your kicks, you are sadly mistaken.”
“I’ll do the forfeit,” I said quickly, before Hunter exploded – his face was becoming angrier and the vein in his temple was throbbing more and more every word Lee spoke. “I’ll do the forfeit, already, jeez. Calm down.”
“You guys have to make out, that’s the forfeit,” Nathan said hastily, before Hunter had chance to open his mouth.
“What?” I exclaimed, my head whipping around to look at him. “You’re joking.”
“Not Hunter,” he clarified, smiling. “You and Lee.”
“What?” Lee and I both cried out that time. I added, “Now I know you’re joking.”
“Nuh-uh.” Nathan shook his head, his smile growing a little. “Your forfeit is to kiss Lee.”
“Why am I being involved in this?” Lee demanded.
“You were fine with getting involved a minute ago,” Hunter muttered at him.
“Yeah, but –” I started.
Lee said, “I have a girlfriend, though. I can’t…”
“And I have a boyfriend.”
“So what?” Kory shrugged. “Neither of them are here, right? And it’s just one harmless dare. Nobody even has to know, right?”
“But –”
I could feel my heard thumping sickeningly, practically in my throat. Surely, this was just some weird dream and I was going to wake up any second. I’d… I’d drunk too much and passed out and now I was having some freaky dream. That’s all it was.
I pinched myself.
Nope.
It was real, alright.
I couldn’t do this, though! This was Lee. My best buddy, the guy who I grew up with and who I would grow old with. I couldn’t kiss him! That was just… just ridiculous!
Plus, it was so weird on a totally different level – he was my boyfriend’s brother! There had to be some kind of relationship ruling that you didn’t kiss your boyfriend’s brother.
I knew it was just some silly game of truth or dare, and I could’ve walked away. But there was just something that rooted me to the spot and something that stopped me from really realizing that I could just walk away.
It was a dare. I’d never backed down from a dare – unless it was phenomenally stupid. Like skinny dipping in the sea at midnight after drinking. I might still have been kind of tipsy, but I was sure that even if I’d been completely and utterly drunk, I’d still know that was a terrible idea.
“Would you have preferred Hunter to give you a forfeit?” Nathan muttered in my ear as he stood up next to me.
“I guess not,” I mumbled back. “But did you have to –?”
“Honey,” he said, “you two are just about the cutest couple ever. Have you ever even tried it?”
“No, because –”
“Well, then, you’ll never know. If it is true love, you can thank me later.” Then, loud enough that the others could hear him, he said, “Come on, you two, don’t chicken out on us now. Suspense is building. Tension is high. All that jazz.”
He gave me a little shove and I stumbled forward a few steps before dropping down on the log beside Lee.
“Um,” he said.
“Um,” I replied.
I searched his face, and I knew he was thinking the exact same thing as me: This is way too weird.
It wasn’t that Lee wasn’t attractive, even. In fact, he did look an awful lot like Noah, with his blue eyes and dark hair that was so untamable. He had strong features, too, just like Noah; but there was something softer, something friendlier in Lee’s face, scattered amongst his freckles. I was close enough that I could smell him: it was the scent I’d be able to recognize anywhere, having known it my whole life. He smelled of the aftershave he’d used for years, and the soapy-scented shampoo he used, and he smelled of sand and beer and sea, too.
I couldn’t kiss him. It was way too –
“There.”
I blinked, and I missed it. I don’t think he even really put his lips on mine long enough for it to constitute as a kiss.
“No, that doesn’t count!” Damien told us teasingly. “That was barely the kind of kiss you give your grandma. Man up.”
Lee scrunched up his face a little at me, and I bit back a giggle.
They were all egging us on, though. And, in hindsight, no, one little kiss between friends wouldn’t destroy either of our relationships, and it wouldn’t even matter. But still. It was just so weird. So not right. So scary.
Because what if it made things permanently weird between us? What if it wrecked everything?
I heard Lee sigh, and because he was sat so close to me I felt his breath wash over my face and neck; it sent a shiver down my spine. Then he pulled a face at me – his mouth twisted up to one side, his eyes looking a little helpless. My expression was just the same though, and I shrugged.
“Well,” he mumbled, low enough for only me to hear. “They can never tell us we didn’t try it.”
And I just thought: He’s going to kiss me.
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Dundunduuuuun.
^dramatic music, that was supposed to be!
Oh dear, do you think they'll actually go through with it? Chicken out? Heehee, I bet you're all annoyed now with the cliffhanger. This is the big shock I was talking about. And NO ONE guessed this, so I'm feeling rather proud of that!
So, predictions for the next chapter? Which will probably be up... Tuesday/Wednesday :) xx