N I N E
~The biggest adventure you can take is to live the life you dream~
a d e l i n
A few seconds of vigorous spinning and the mouth of the glass bottle comes to a stop, pointing straight at my cousin.
"Not ironic at all. What's it going to be, Yaretzi?" Tris asks using Noah's middle name, snickering follow and along with them, a highly unamused look from Noah.
One of Aunt Diana's biggest purposes was to be a mother and she had always wanted a baby girl, gushed about it ever since she was young, though unfortunately that hadn't ended up happening.
Noah's birth marked the arrival of her third son, it had consisted of a few tears and ended with an ode to Diana's unanswered wish for a daughter. That ode was the middle name Noah received.
Nolan, the oldest Hendrix son revels in the fact that both his younger brothers were subjected to the same fate while he had made it out unscathed.
Nixon Goldie Hendrix and Noah Yaretzi Hendrix had the exact opposite sentiments.
"Hardy, har, har." he mocks "I'll go with truth." he's still a little grumpy so I try my best to stifle any outright displays of amusment, the others aren't as cautious.
"Who would you choose between Mase and Cale for a make out session?" Tris fires back wiggling his eyebrows.
Candice chokes on the Cola she was sipping, Ash reaches over to pat a coughing Candi's back while I watch the scene with a mouth in the shape of an "O" in another attempt to stifle the chuckles trying to surface.
Mase is shaking his head as him and Caleb exchange wide eyed glances. Tris on the other hand, smirks in satisfaction of having robbed Noah of speech.
Robbing my cousin of speech is no small feat.
"Bullshit. No way in hell, am I answering!" Noah sputters, defiantly crossing his arms and resembling a child who is refused to be given candy.
"Rules are rules. The fact that you've never followed them in your entire existence does not override that." Candice tells him and Noah knows that nothing is going to get him out of this-unless he answers.
Ergo he lets out a shaky breath, pinching the bridge of his nose. The visual screaming defeat.
"First of all, I'm straighter than two parallel fucking lines an-" Noah starts and if Caleb and Mase were scared before, they're petrified now. Ash dosen't let Noah complete his sentence, stating.
"We've established that. You've slept with more girls than we can count with both our hands' fingers so just answer the damn question."
Noah mumbles "Why did I even agree to this." and then looks up to answer.
"I'd rather choose Mason. Sorry dude but I'm more into hazel eyes, I mean, have you seen them in the sun?" he explains the rocket science behind his choice, looking at Caleb apologetically.
Cale however, looks everything but disappointed by my cousin's answer. While on the other hand Mason quickly gets up from the floor before calling "I think i'm gonna be sick" and running towards the bathroom leaving most of us in a fit of laughter.
With Mase's recovery comes the second spin of the night and this time it lands before the Coca Cola addicted redhead.
"Truth or Dare, Miss Laurant?" Mase asks, his enthusiasm displayed in his dimpled smile. Candi only thinks for a heartbeat, answering confidently.
"Dare."
At this Noah dbaps his fingers, his face lighting up like a Christmas tree and completely replacing his former agitated look.
"Okay then, call up a random person to declare your fake but undying love for them." Noah smirks proudly when Candi glares at him.
I'm grinning now because I happen to have the perfect 'random person' in mind.
"I think Adelin has something to add, that, or she's just doing an impersonation of the Joker." Caleb gives me a wary stare, I shove him but before I can attack-he defends. By grabbing my hand.
My body does that stupid tingling thing it likes to do whenever Caleb's around and I pull my hand away with a mock warning glare directed at him.
"You can call the technician that came by today to change my locks. Use one of the guy's phones though, just in case everything back fires." I suggest and now everyone's grinning. I turn to Caleb smugly.
See. My face must've yelled.
Candi seems to have a silent debate in her head but eventually gives in, Mase volunteers his phone and I recite the number for him. Once done, he hands it over to her.
We get an answer on the fourth ring.
"Hello?"
"Hey, Bobby." Candi starts, her voice morphing into a slightly higher, slightly sweeter tone.
"Who is this? And my name's Beckam."
"Now now Bradley, don't say that you've forgotten me already?" Candi tsks, her expressions changing in accordance to the emotions, as if she's not on a call but having a face to face confrontation.
No wonder she's our drama coach's prized pupil.
"Again, it's Beckam..and are you a client?"
"I was, for that one special night. Brooke, I just wanted to confess my feelings to you. I can't get you out if my head ever since you so skillfully fixed my toilet." she continues, dramaticising the entire act perfectly and at this point, sputters of laughter escape from even over Ash covered mouth.
"Damn, how much did I drink that night. Listen, I'm sorry lady but I really don't remember you and I'm already in love with someone else...sorry?"
"Ohmygod Babak! I really thought we had chemistry. Now I find out that you're cheating on me. Oh the pain!" Candi exclaims and I quickly hide my face in Tris's shoulder to muffle my laughter.
"Um..i think you have the wrong guy. You don't even seem to know or remember my name, lady"
"Whatever Bennedetto I am never talking to you again! Good riddance!" and with that she hangs up and all of us including Candi burst out laughing.
"How the hell did you come up with so many names that start with B?" Caleb asks in bewilderment, a smile still lingering on his handsome face.
"What can I say, I'm an actress. Improvise, adapt, conquer." She shrugs nonchalantly but lets the bravado drop only seconds after.
"I'm only joking. Coach makes us practice simultaneous conversational acts every other week and up until this very moment I never believed I'd actually need to thank him for them." she informs.
Another half an hour in and I finally spin the bottle for the very last time, to my surprise it stops right infront of the French boy.
"Truth or dare, Caleb Carter?" I lean forward, knowing that whatever is to follow will be entertaining, in the least.
"Dare." Comes his smooth, confident reply. A challenge clear in those pools of honey and lucky for him, I have just the dare to meet him head on.
Caleb narrows his eyes playfully at me, picking up on my glee "What have I gotten myself into, Alderige?" he inquires sceptically, raising an eyebrow in question.
"Nothing you can back out of." I tell him with a grin.
"This will be interesting." Tris comments lowly.
I go on "It's simple, really, all you have to do is go out and 'propose' to the first person who walks by the house."
A round of 'ooh's goes around the circle making Caleb roll his eyes.
"Lesson number one, I don't back out of challenges." He stands up, saying it loud for everyone to hear. My eyes follow the effortless movement while the others giddily follow his actions.
Noah and Tris already at the front door.
He bends to give me his hand, I silently accept, ignoring the warm tingling sensation the contact leaves in its wake "Lesson number two" he pulls me up.
Our faces inches away "What goes around, comes around. I'm going to get you back for this." dismissing the havoc that promise laced low tone awakens in me.
"I'm petrified, you'll keep me up at night." Is my monotonous reply as I pull away. Caleb only continues smiling to himself as we walk out side by side "You're not the first to tell me that."
The remark and the innuendo irk me, I rest a light hand on his arm, my eyes innocent "The sooner you get over yourself, the better. Your ego won't get brutally injured that way."
He chuckles. The goosebumps that rise on my legs don't have anything to do with the chilly weather and cold breezes.
Together, we join the group and wait behind the wrought iron gates, keeping an eye out for anyone who passes by. It remains that way for a few minutes but then, spotting a shadow each of us perk up.
"There's your victim." Ash whisper-yells "Now all that's left is the easy part."
Caleb gives the blonde a look "The loyalty system here is beyond faulty, nice to know you have my back." he gives her a not-at-all genuine smile.
"My loyalties lie with having a good time." She tells him and with that he makes his way to the road.
I join the others, all of us peeping from behind a pillar, eager to watch the scene unfold.
Caleb's back is towards us as he walks to a man who looks like a hobo given his matted hair, filthy attire and lack of shoes. Either that, or this poor man just had a rough night.
Didn't see that coming did you Carter?
He stands infront of the now surprised hobo and starts singing. Bloody singing. His version of Celine Dion's my heart will go on is a softer more dulcet one and I find myself liking this version considerably more.
His voice is mesmerising.
Is there anything this man isn't good at?
I glance at a grinning Mase who records the shocked hobo and singing devil, Noah's mouth is wide open and Tris is shaking his head in amazement "Unb-fucking-believable."
Caleb finishes singing, leaving the hobo stupefied and even the girls gasp when he starts to get on his knee.
"Oh charming man! I am baffled by your...manliness and wish to spend the rest of my life with you! Do me the honour of becoming my mate." he chants dramatically and at this point most of us are fanning our faces to stop the tears from flowing onto our faces.
Within seconds from the speech ending, the hobo faints.
All the laughter comes to an abrupt halt.
Shocked, we run over to the fainted man and huddle over him. Our previous amusment has drained and in its place, dread has settled because we may or may not have made a poor hobo faint in the middle of a road at almost midnight.
"Oh my God, what the hell do we do now?" Ash asks, her blue eyes flying from the unconscious man to us, wide with worry.
"Let's start by not hyperventilating, yeah?" Tris tells her in agitation just as Noah gags "Fuck, he stinks even worse than Mase's soccer clothes." pinching his nose soon after.
"In case you've failed to notice, the man's unconscious. You can talk to him about personal hygiene later, right now let's focus on waking him up." Candi's looking at Noah as if he's out of his mind, even as she has Mase's beloved sweatshirt covering her nose.
"Well Caleb got us into this mess, let him be the one to fix it." I point out in a moment of desperation, knowing damn well who assigned him the dare in the first place.
Still, he didn't have to go over the top with his stupid speech and song.
"Hold up, my fault? Who was the one who came up with the weird ass dare?" Caleb retorts making me glare at him "I didn't tell you serenade him, Celine Dion." I fire back.
"Shut the fuck up! Both of you!" Mase yells, successfully silencing us.
Caleb and I are still glaring at each other when Mase bends to slap the bearded man.
"Do we need to give him mouth to mouth? Because if we do then, no thank you. Count me out. This guy is in dire need of some axe and-" Noah begins a long rant but 6 people glaring at him stops him midway.
"Jesus, Noah. Neither did he drown nor did Caleb's charm take his breath away, so no, we won't be giving him CPR." Mase grinds out, his stormy eyes on Noah.
"I think he's waking up." Tris alerts and we watch with held breaths as the hobos eyes open slowly.
One moment he's looking at us, the next he's running barefoot down the road, arms flying as he yells on top of his lungs "Help! Help!"
I let out a sigh, hanging my head and closing me eyes in relief.
"Come on, let's get inside, I think that's enough fun for tonight." Mase beckons us back into the premise of my house "We should head out now, It's getting late." Candi says, receiving nods and murmurs of agreement.
"You spending the night here, right?" Tris asks Noah who answers in affirmative with a nod. Noah staying over was not something new, he has his own guest room and a few of his essentials there as well.
Caleb walks over to me "Um..where's Bloom?" he asks stifly, rubbing the back of his neck and for the first time there's this awkward tension between us. I absolutely hate it.
Both of us still haven't fully recovered from the outburst moments ago and as a result seem to be acting a little too formally.
"She's upstairs, fell asleep earlier." I tell him, the fatigue hitting me now that the adrenaline has worn off. Gesturing for him follow me, we bid the rest goodbye and head upstairs.
Noah parts ways shortly, heading to his room with a wave and leaving Caleb and I alone to walk in deafening silence to my sister's room.
I cautiously open the door, both of us tiptoeing inside the darkened room. I smile at the sight of the two friends cuddling, looking over my shoulder to see Caleb doing the same.
He moves towards the bed, gently grabbing his sister who stirs a little but stays in a deep slumber nonetheless.
We make our way downstairs and outside as he places bloom carefully in the car which I just now notice is the breathtaking black Lamborghini Veneno Roadster and my eyes practically bulge out and my mouth drops to the floor admiring the beast in a mask of beauty that is infront of me.
This very car has been a thing of my undying admiration for the longest time. Seeing it now ignites that burning love I hold for racing and cars. The same yearning to race awakening in me.
"You like?" Caleb watches me carefully.
"I fucking love." I tell him, earning a chuckle. Moving closer to the black beauty, I continue to admire and praise it from every angle.
"Your lambo isn't so bad itself." he compliments and my eyes shoot up to his.
"Is that a trading prospect I hear, Caleb Carter?" I wiggle my brows and this time I get a hearty laugh in response. God, his voice.
"I love your car, Adelin Alderige. Truly, but this baby is my pride and joy." we both stare at the sleek black sports car "Took most of my savings and an additional three years of cash saving."
"Besides, judging by your mansion and cars, daddy can probably give his princess anything she wants with a snap of her fingers, right?" he jokes, amusement lining his eyes.
I stiffen, the easy atmosphere morphing as anger courses through me. And disappointment.
He doesn't know you yet. He's simply assuming what everyone else always has.
Then why does it hurt more?
Hasn't he spent time and gotten a glimpse of the real me today?
"That's what you think about me?" my voice is quiet but the anger is evident "This mansion you see was bought and with my own money" Well, Aaron and mine.
"I never asked my father for a penny, despite knowing that he wouldn't have blinked twice in writing up a cheque and throwing it at me." I see regret instantly take over his features but continue on.
"I inherited those cars from my grandfather. I never asked for them, never even expressed my love for them to him, all in fear of being accused of the very things you did." I still don't raise my voice above that hushed tone.
"You never know what goes on in people's lives so refrain from judging them when you've only spent a day with them. " I finally meet his eyes "Isn't it the french who say, L'habit ne fait pas le moine (The vestment does not make the monk)"
The words basically meaning 'don't judge a book by its cover.'
And by the time I finish, the guilt on his face has only grown. He opens his mouth to speak but I cut him off.
Part of me knows I'm being irrational and that I can deal with this civilly but the other bone tired part of me dosen't seem to care.
"Goodbye Caleb" I deadpan and make my way inside slamming the door behind me as I march up stairs, tears already burning my eyes.
☼ 𝘼𝙐𝙏𝙃𝙊𝙍'𝙎 𝙉𝙊𝙏𝙀 ☼
Hey guys!
I'm convinced this chapter is cursed or something, it took me two bloody week to edit the thing.
Who's your favourite character so far?
Shipping anyone?
Let me know by commenting and voting for the story if you're enjoying it.
Hope you liked the chapter
Until next time
Xoxo
💙