Chapter Two
Thayer
“Okay, ladies,” I announce, standing up next to the coffee table. For a moment, I sway, the ground moving dangerously underneath my feet.
The floors have been super weird tonight , I think to myself as I bring the bottle of tequila to my lips and take a swig. Not sure what’s up with them .
All three of my friends’ faces are upturned, listening intently to what I’m about to say, and I’m just so happy we were able to do this.
One last night, all together.
“We’re going to play using the typical Truth or Dare rules, but with an added ‘mercy’ option. If you don’t want to do the dare or tell the truth, you can take a shot of tequila instead.” I brandish the bottle between us. “It’s not actually a merciful option, you’ll definitely pay for it in the morning, but it’s a fun excuse to get a little drunker,” I add with a grin.
“We’re all in, it’s our last night,” Nera says. “But don’t sit back down just yet, Thayer, you’re up next.”
I spread my arms to each side. “Hit me.”
“Truth or dare?”
“Dare,” I say, tipping my chin up.
As if I would pick anything else.
She nods at the bottle. “Take a shot.”
I pout. “That’s it?”
“Let’s ease our way into it. Did you forget that we’re moving tomorrow?”
“Ugh,” I say with a groan, pouring an actual shot this time and throwing it back. My throat burns as the liquid shoots down my throat and I wince. I bite into a nearby lime wedge and enjoy the acidic kick on my tongue. “Don’t remind me.”
I didn’t think our last night would make me so emotional.
It crept up on me over the last couple of days as we’d put the common areas into boxes. We’d reminisced about the pieces we’d each brought into the apartment as we packed them.
My tone makes Six reach out and squeeze my hand.
“No being sad tonight,” she says, her kind voice firm. “Your turn to ask a question.”
“B,” I say with a sly smile. “Truth or dare.”
“Truth.”
“Hmm,” I answer, thinking up something. “Are you excited to move back to Chicago?”
“Yes and no,” she says. “I can’t wait to live with Rogue and see my mom and go to college. I’m literally counting down the days until I can eat a hot dog and wear pajama pants outside without feeling like the entire world is judging me. But,” she pauses, looking around at us. “I’m going to miss you guys. I’m going to miss the whole group hanging out together and my FOMO is going to be violent when I'll see you all hanging out without us.”
“Maybe I’ll come back to Chicago soon, you never know.”
“Babe,” she says, patting my hand. “Your man just signed a huge contract with one of the top clubs in the world. You’re going to be speaking with a British accent before you ever come back to live in the US.”
The familiar rush of delight swells through me when I think of the contract Rhys just signed with Arsenal. It’s been his lifelong dream to play for the club his parents were diehard fans of and I couldn’t be more that he made it come true.
“Don’t worry, just tell Rogue,” Nera offers. “He’ll buy you a jet and bring you to London every weekend if it means you’ll be happy. I’m sure he’d figure out a way to fly it himself too if that’s what it took.”
“You’re not getting rid of us that easily, B,” Six says.
“Good,” Bellamy answers. “Come on, you’re up Six. Truth or dare?”
“Truth,” she puts her hands up when I groan at her choice. “I am who I am,” she says with a laugh.
“Fine,” I tell her, “but then you have to give us a dirty truth.”
Bellamy nods in vigorous agreement. “Where’s the kinkiest place you and Phoenix have ever had sex?”
She clears her throat and then blushes a violent color of red. “Um, do you mean…physical place or like…orifice?”
Nera bursts out laughing.
“Oh my god,” Bellamy says with a shriek, covering her ears but also grinning like a fool.
“ Excuse me?” I exclaim.
Nera wipes a tear from the corner of her eye and says, still laughing, “I guess it’s a valid clarifying question.”
“I just didn’t know she was that kinky,” I say. “I feel like I need to step up my game.”
“To be clear, I was asking about the physical place,” Bellamy answers, still giggling.
Six plays with a napkin on the coffee table, spreading it with her fingers to occupy her hands. Her cheeks are flamed pink.
“Six, you’re scaring me, babe. What the hell are you about to say?” I ask, wide eyed. All three of us lean forward, the silence growing still as we wait for her to fess up.
“It’s not that crazy and it’s not like we planned it, it just happened.”
“Where?” Nera nudges.
“I just,” she says, pausing, before whispering the rest of her sentence so softly, I almost miss it. “I just…well, I finally convinced Phoenix to come horseback riding with me.”
There’s two seconds of heavy, thick silence.
“ What ?” I shriek.
“Did you just say…” Bellamy rolls back onto the ground in peals of laughter.
“I’m sorry, you two fucked on top of a horse ?” Nera asks, incredulously.
Six slaps a hand over her mouth to muffle the laughter bursting from her lips at our shocked expressions.
Meanwhile, I feel like I’m doing math trying to figure out how that would even work.
Bellamy echoes my thoughts, grabbing her stomach and grimacing from the pain of laughing so hard.
“What are the mechanics of that, Six? How do you…get on?” she scrunches her nose. “Is it even hot or like, really fumbly?”
“It was back home, right before the wedding–”
“I can’t wait to see how the horse comes into play here,” Nera cuts in.
“—and I was at the stables, brushing one of the stallions when Phoenix came up behind me and started kissing my neck.”
“I love when they do that,” Bellamy says with a lovestruck sigh.
“Right? Well anyway, I told him I was going for a ride and again I asked him to come along,” she continues. “You don’t understand how many times I’ve asked him to come horseback riding with me. He’s never said yes, so when he said he’d come but only if we rode the same horse, bien sur I said yes.”
“Naturally,” Nera quips, nodding encouragingly.
“So he took me on a walk—”
“‘He took you on a walk’,” Bellamy deadpans.
“It started out totally innocent!” Six promises. “At first we were both sitting facing the same direction and I was showing him the path I like to take in the forest and then,” she pauses. “Well, and then…”
She trails off, seemingly unable to finish her sentence.
“Then you traumatized a horse,” I cut in helpfully.
Bellamy and Nera burst out laughing again while Six’s face pales.
“ Oh putain , do you really think he’s traumatized?”
“Who are you?” I ask, in wonder.
“An icon, that’s who,” Nera answers.
“Did the horse stay in place or did it move?” Bellamy asks.
I whip around and point at her. “ Excellent question.”
Six grimaces. “Not at first,” she says. “But, you know, the rhythm of us… doing it …made him think we were telling him to walk, so he did.”
“You have to stop,” I beg. “I think I’m going to pee my pants.” I have sharp pains stabbing at my stomach from how hard I’m laughing.
I couldn’t ask for a more perfect last night as roommates than this; laughing at each other’s obscene stories together.
“And to answer your question, yes,” Six finishes with a final blush. “As disturbing as it sounds to admit out loud, it was so hot.”
“Really?” Bellamy asks, leaning forward.
“Oh, yeah. I had my legs wrapped around Nix’s waist and he used his hands on my ass to guide me,” she shivers as she relives the memory and I add trying to have sex on top of a horse with Rhys to my list. “Then he flipped me around.”
“Gosh, I thought I had a good answer — the forest,” Nera adds in response to Bellamy’s raised brow, “but I think you put us all to shame.”
“ Avec plaisir ,” Six does a small bow, flourishing her hand mockingly in the process. “Your turn, Nerita.”
“Truth.”
“Hmm, let me think,” Sixtine says, tapping her chin pensively with her finger. “Do you think you and Tristan would still have fallen in love if you hadn’t met at that hotel first?”
Nera smiles softly, cheekily almost, like she knows something we don’t.
“No question. It might have taken us longer to get together, but I know we would have in the end. That pull was there from the first moment; whether it happened in a bar or a classroom wouldn’t have mattered.”
“I completely agree with you,” I say.
It’s hard to disagree. The connection between them crackles to life with unstoppable force when they’re in the same room, like two magnets hurtling towards each other at speed without care of what might be in the way.
“Do you think the boys are being nice to him?” she asks, worry flashing across her face. “You know how those three can be.”
“Oh he’ll be totally fine,” Bellamy answers, waving her concern away. “They kept Tristan’s secrets from us for months. Rogue only just told me what he did to Coach Krav.”
“He was never heard from again, right?” Six asks.
“He is alive,” Nera answers, swallowing nervously. “I didn’t ask for specifics and he didn’t feel the need to tell me the gruesome details of what happened, thank god, but he’s alive.”
“I would not shed a tear should he find himself unalive one day,” I say with a disgusted sniff.
He hurt our friend and physically scarred her, so I have less than zero empathy for that abusive animal. Whatever Tristan did to him that night, I hope it hurt.
I hope it continues to hurt every single day.
“I’m glad Rogue helped Tristan when he called him,” Bellamy adds, warmth coloring her tone when she mentions her boyfriend. “I love that loyal side of him.”
One of the best parts of the last year has been the real Rogue slowly revealing himself to the rest of us.
Turns out, he’s a good friend.
If you’d asked me a year ago, I’d have said that I’d rather eat an entire piece of chalk without a drop of water than say those words out loud.
Today, I see he has the best heart and is fiercely protective of his new family. What won me over to him once and for all was seeing the things he did for our friends, the lengths he went to to look after us.
He’s become like a brother to me and it’s because we’re that close that I tease him incessantly.
And there’s no better way to tease Rogue than to mess with what he cares about the most.
Bellamy.
It’s time to make this game more interesting.