Chapter 5: Truth or Dare

[muffin-tacos]

Chapter Five: Truth or Dare



Three kids sat cooped up inside a small tree house high up in the trees. They were in a circle and they were playing truth or dare with an empty, green wine bottle they had found standing next to the rubbish bin outside.

“It's there for recycling purposes only,” Darren had told them firmly when they'd asked him if they could play with it. “You are not allowed to play with it, you hear me? Goddess knows what would happen if that glass smashed...”

They took it anyway. It was all Lissa's idea. Tia just went along with it. It sounded like fun, so why not?

“OK, I get to ask the first question!” Lissa declared as soon as they got seated in the circle.

“Why should you be first? I think I should ask first.” Lucas said, leaning back on his hands.

“Ever heard of ladies first?”

“Who cares. I want to ask the first question. Why shouldn't I ask first?”

“Because I'm holding the bottle which means I get to ask first. Plus, I was the one who stole it.”

“That doesn't even make sense! I was the one who asked Dad if we could get the bottle!”

Lissa raised an eyebrow and pursed her lips, like she always did when she disagreed with something. “And what did he say to that?”

Lucas opened his mouth to retort, but he couldn't come up with a worthy comeback. He shut his mouth again.

Tia laughed. “You are so owned, Lucas. Just let her ask first.”

Lucas backed down reluctantly, muttering swearwords under his breath and watched sulkily as Lissa spun the green wine bottle. It spun wildly for a few moments, then slowed to a stop at Tia's knee.

“Oh great,” Tia said unenthusiastically. She was always the one who came first in these games -- probably just because didn't want to. Tia had given up on crossing her fingers every time they played this game a long time ago.

“Truth or dare?”

Truth wasn't really an option. It was like the cowards way out. But you had to give that option, because how would it sound if the game was called truth or dare with no truth?

So it was no surprise to anybody when Tia said, “Dare.”

Lissa thought for a moment and smiled devilishly. “I dare you to...”

“Uh-oh. I'm not going to like this am I?”

“Probably not.” Lissa smiled at her innocently. “I dare you to kiss Lucas.”

There was a short silence in which Lucas and Tia stared at Lissa in shock. Then a loud, “What???” came from both Tia's and Lucas's mouths.

Tia's eyes flickered to Lucas. Their eyes met and Tia saw the terrified look on his face. As quickly as their eyes had met, they darted away from each other again. Tia couldn't help blushing. She could of sworn that Lucas was blushing, too, but he hid his bashfulness with protests.

“I'm not going to kiss Tia!” he shouted, recoiling from her as if she was something venomous. “That's like really gross. What if someone sees? I would rather die than--”

“I didn't realise kissing me was that bad,” Tia snapped, throwing Lucas a filthy look. “For your information, I don't want to kiss you either.”

“Good, then we're agreed on something.”

Tia scowled.

“Aw, c'mon, Lucas!” Lissa whined as if she was seven and not twelve. “Are you chicken? It's a dare. You gotta do it.”

“I don't wonna. You can't make me.” Lucas folded his arms across his chest, looking stubborn.

Lissa laughed. “Oh yes I can and you know it!”

“Whatever,” Lucas muttered grumpily.

He glared at Tia, who glared right back at him. It was so evil -- yet so very typical -- of Lissa to come up with a dare like this one.

Ever since both Tia and Lissa's parents had joked about how cute it would be if Tia and Lucas became a couple and tried to pair them together at Easter before they were going on the Easter egg hunt, Lissa had seized every moment she could get to tease them about it. This was one of those moments.

“C'mon, guys, kiss for crying out loud! We haven't got all day, ya know, and I want a turn as well.” When she saw the sceptical looks on both their faces, she added, “It's a dare. You've got ta do it. You know the rules.”

Tia and Lucas looked at each other for a long, uncomfortable moment. Tia focused mostly on giving Lucas the evils as best as she could to make it clear how much she was disgusted by the matter. She didn't want Lucas to get any ideas -- as if he ever would. She was pretty sure that he disapproved of this quite as much as she did -- maybe even more.

An over-exaggerated and impatient sigh was heard from where Lissa sat. Tia was getting more and more stressed by the minute.

“Let's just get this over with!” she said, cringing at the thought of it.

Lucas agreed reluctantly.

They leaned closer to each other -- Lissa doing so to get a better look. Lucas had his eyes closed and was pouting in a comical fashion. Tia thought he looked a little like a gold fish. Normally she would of laughed, but this wasn't one of those normal times.

Their lips pressed against each other briefly and then a head appeared in the tree house entrance. Tia and Lucas broke apart, quick as lighting, in the hopes that Max hadn't seen them kissing.

But it was too late.

“So what's going on in here, then?” he asked. He couldn't keep the laughter out of his voice. Max's eyes flew from them to the green bottle in the middle of the circle. “Playing a little game of truth or dare, are we?”

Tia blushed ferociously; Lucas was spitting on the floor of the tree house, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand; and Lissa spun around to give Max an annoyed look.

“Yeah, we were and you ruined it all,” she said, eyes narrowed.

“Well, pardon me,” Max said sarcastically. “I came to check on you for Dad. He didn't trust you guys when you promised not to use the wine bottle for anything. It looks like he was right.” He indicated the bottle on the floor between them with a big hand. “I came in the nick of time, I should say.”

He winked at Tia, who smiled back weakly. “Now get out of here and take the bottle with you. Dad wants you to put it back where you found it.”

“Well, fine,” Lissa snapped, snatching the bottle and getting up. “It wouldn't be any fun to carry on playing now that you've ruined it all, anyway.”

Tia got up to follow Lissa to the entrance. Lucas was still spitting on the floor, making disgusted sounds.

It was a relief to get out of the tree house. She didn't think she would have survived another second in that place with Lucas there. It was all too embarrassing for her likings.

When the two girls had climbed down from the tree, Tia grabbed her best friend's arm and hissed in her ear, “I'm gonna get you back for this, Liss. You just wait.”

Lissa laughed.

“Oh yeah,” she said challengingly. “Bring it on, sister.”

Even though Tia was still a little annoyed with her friend, they walked arm in arm to the bin by the mail box to put the empty wine bottle back to where it belonged.

>> Next Chapter

[Surprised_by_Witches]

Ah, yes, twelve. Could not pay me enough to go there again.

Very funny and true to life scene, Muffin.

(Sorry I've taken so long to read it! I wanted to wait until I had a little time.)

[muffin-tacos]

No that's allright. I have to catch up on your story today, too, and Lynet's and Roux's.

[Sacharissa]

Finally - got one chapter in tonight! (I'm afraid the rest will have to wait until tomorrow!) Good chapter, though! As SBW said, very true to life! I suspect that Tia and Lucas really, secretly like each other...but heaven forbid that they let anyone know that! THAT would be Social Suicide!!!!