Chapter 28 – TruthDare
Saturday
My foot slipped on the ladder and I started to fall. But a strong hand clamped around my wrist, holding me in place. I quickly regained my footing and stared up at...my past.
I cursed under my breath. “You scared the crap out of me, Axel.”
“What? Were you expecting someone else?”
Actually, when I’d heard the deep voice, I’d thought it might be my kiss thief, lurking in here waiting for me. But I didn’t dare say that out loud. “No, I was expecting no one.”
He stared down at me. “Well unfortunately I’m here. And like I said. No girls allowed.”
I laughed.
He smiled.
I didn’t think the no girls allowed sign was the sign I’d been asking for. But I was very aware of the fact that I’d felt the treehouse calling to me tonight. And that Axel had been sitting in here the whole time. I tried to shake away the thought, but it was impossible when I was staring up into his blue eyes. “Help me up.”
He pulled me up into the treehouse, abandoning his no girls allowed policy pretty quickly.
“What are you doing up here?” I asked.
He shrugged. “Thinking about our project.” He put his hands behind his head and leaned against one of the old wooden walls.
“You were up here thinking about our coding project? Instead of celebrating your victory?” It was very unlike him to be thinking about homework on a Saturday night.
He shrugged again.
“Dreaming of princesses and princes, huh?” I scooted forward to see the wall of pictures. I smiled at my dad, Uncle Rob, Uncle Matt, and Uncle Mason all looking young and ridiculous. The four of them had stayed friends their whole lives. I wanted that to be true for the four of us too. But our four was a lot more complicated than theirs.
“Something like that,” Axel said.
I turned to see him staring at me.
“I figured I’d also run into you,” he said. “You come here every time we throw this party.”
“Am I really so predictable?”
“Not recently.” He leaned forward, putting his elbows on his knees. And his gaze fell to the number 18 on the varsity jacket I was wearing. “Because I certainly didn’t expect you to be wearing Jacob’s jacket tonight when you showed up here.”
I felt the weight of it on my shoulders. What did Axel want from me? It just so happened that number 18 liked me and number 10 didn’t. I placed my hand over the number on my sleeve as I folded my arms across my chest. “I told you that I liked him.”
“Do you also like August Ward?”
I opened my mouth and closed it again.
“And Billy? And Ryan? And Henley...”
“I didn’t kiss Henley.”
“That doesn’t really answer my question. I asked you not to hook up with my best friend and now you’re hooking up with half my team.”
Three guys were hardly half the team. “It was for charity.”
“I didn’t realize you handed out kisses so easily.”
It felt like he’d slapped me. “I don’t.”
“Have you handed out any more than those three?”
“No.”
“What about Jacob? Have you kissed him too?”
“No, I haven’t kissed Jacob.” Not definitively anyway. So he could get any ideas of kissing Gigi out of his head.
Axel had a stupid smug smile on his face. “Interesting. So you went from never been kissed to kissing everyone...”
“And what about you?!” I said.
“What about me? I also haven’t kissed Jacob.”
I laughed. “That’s not what I meant.”
“Then what did you mean?”
“I bet you’ve kissed more than three people this week. So...whatever.”
“I actually haven’t kissed anyone this week.”
“Great,” I said.
“Great.”
We both just stared at each other as his words settled in my head. If he hadn’t kissed anyone this week...that meant he wasn’t my kiss thief. Or that he was a liar. And if there was one thing I knew for sure about my kiss thief was that he lied.
I forced my gaze not to drop to his lips. I’d already told him I’d saved my first kiss for him. I didn’t need him to have any more ammunition against me. Besides, I didn’t know what my kiss thief’s lips looked like. I only knew how they tasted. “So you haven’t been making out with Gigi nonstop?”
“I told you it was one time. She kissed me. You saw what happened. I pushed her right off. But our deal stands, Scarlett.”
God, him and his stupid deal. Why was he doing this to me? And I hadn’t seen his whole kiss with Gigi. I’d turned away because I couldn’t bear it. Just thinking about that kiss made it feel like there was a knife in my chest. Could Axel really not tell how much that had hurt me?
I pressed my lips together. Maybe he just didn’t care. For my whole life, I felt like I somehow belonged to him. That our fate was twisted together. At least, that’s how I’d seen it. I’d hoped that one day he’d wake up and see it too. But I was so sick of being his when he wasn’t mine. I glared at him. “Did you make the kissing booth explode on purpose with that shitty pass?”
He chuckled. “I definitely didn’t mean to make it explode.”
“You know what I meant, Axel. I know you think of me like a sister. Jacob told me. And I know that you’re just trying to be protective. Or something. But you can’t go around blowing things up to prevent me from living my life.”
He opened his mouth to say something when there was a creak on the ladder beneath us.
Sophie popped her head in. “There you guys are. We’ve been looking all over for you.” She peered down. “Jacob, they’re up here!” She climbed into the treehouse and sat down.
Jacob climbed up next. He sat down next to me.
And for a second...everything felt wrong. Like the four of us were suddenly strangers.
“Why do you always come up here?” Sophie asked me.
I hadn’t realized I’d been so obvious every year. “It’s fun to look at our parents when they were our age.” Although, most of the pictures were of them younger. I hadn’t seen many of them together as teens now that I thought about it. But my dad had probably stopped coming up here.
I guess I was the only one stuck in the past. The only one having trouble moving on. After all, I was sitting in this treehouse like I did every year, apparently. I’d been trying to move on from the past, but now it felt like I was trying desperately to cling on to it. Just me. Not the three of them. It was a sobering thought.
“Yeah.” Sophie turned to stare at the pictures. “My dad was always so much cooler than yours.”
“Hey!”
She laughed and turned back around. “But really. Feeling nostalgic tonight?” She lightly tapped her shoe against mine.
I sighed. “Yeah, a little, I guess. It just feels like everything is about to change. I just want all of us to always be friends. No matter what. The four of us against the world, you know?”
“I don’t think anything will ever change that,” Jacob said as he put his arm around my shoulders.
Axel cleared his throat. “Us against the world,” he said as he stared into my eyes. “Always.”
“Always,” Soph agreed. “And speaking of the four of us...we need to figure out homecoming. Because there is no way in hell we’re not all sharing a limo this year.” She stared daggers at Axel. “It’s our senior year. You can’t ask some rando as your date and ditch us again.”
“Fine by me,” he said.
“Actually, I’ve been meaning to ask.” Jacob looked down at me. “What do you say, Scar? Be my date for homecoming?”
My heart pitter-pattered against my ribcage. I’d never been asked to a dance before. Ever. But I was very aware of the fact that the person I’d always hoped would ask never would. I could feel Axel’s eyes on the back of my head. But he’d just promised it would always be the four of us. This didn’t have to change anything. I took a deep breath. “Absolutely.”
Jacob smiled.
It was my senior year. I deserved to be asked to homecoming. I deserved to be happy. I knew going with Jacob meant Axel would ask Gigi. But I couldn’t let his threats break me. It was really starting to feel like the two of them were written in the stars.
“You two are so cute together,” Sophie said.
I felt my cheeks flushing.
“Well,” Axel said. “I guess that leaves the two of us, Soph. What do you say? Should we just go together? Then I can’t possibly ditch you guys for another limo.”
It felt like the world had stopped spinning. Had Axel just asked Soph to homecoming? Was he serious right now? The one year he decided to ask a friend and he asked Soph? It felt like he’d stabbed me in the heart. And then thrown sand in the wound. And I hated that he was smiling. Like his words hadn’t just killed me.
“Ugh,” Sophie said. “It feels so desperate to go as friends. But fine. Whatever. The man of my dreams has rubbed me all wrong tonight.
I cringed thinking of Mr. Halifax.
“Besides, he never says yes when I leave him notes asking him to the dances anyway. Let’s do this thing.”
“Great,” Axel said. But he wasn’t looking at Sophie. He was looking at me.
Yeah, he knew his words hurt. And I think he liked it. He liked hurting me.
And I didn’t care that my mom said my dad had hurt her heart. I didn’t think love was supposed to hurt like this.
I wish I’d never told Axel I’d saved my first kiss for him. It was better when he didn’t know I liked him. I used to be able to brush everything he did under the rug because he didn’t know how I felt. He hadn’t known he was hurting me. So it was easy to forgive. But now he knew. I used to think he was kind. But I knew the truth now. Axel Stevens was cruel. And I didn’t know how to forgive him for all this hurt. Not that he was asking for my forgiveness.
“This’ll be fun,” Sophie said. “All of us going together.”
It actually sounded like a nightmare.
Sophie lightly kicked my foot again. “Right?”
I cleared my throat. “Yeah. So much fun.”
Jacob squeezed my shoulder.
And that guilt wrapped around my chest again. Here I was, bitter that Axel was asking Sophie to the dance. When I should have been excited that Jacob had asked me. I looked up at him. I focused on his brown eyes and breathed easier than I had all night.
My dad’s words swirled around in my head. How he knew he was in love with my mom because it had been easier to breathe when he was with her. And I had that with Jacob. Thinking back on it, I always had. The world had somehow turned Axel cruel. But Jacob was still Jacob. The only thing that had changed about him was that he’d finally told me the truth. That he liked me. And I liked him. I smiled up at him, letting everything else fade away. “Hey.”
“Hey,” he said with a smile.
“Does that offer for dinner still stand? I’m kind of jonesing for one of your mom’s cupcakes.”
“Yeah. How about Monday night?”
“It’s a date.”
“We should get back to the party,” Axel said.
Sophie scooted toward the door in the floor. “Yeah, Scar and I have some meetings we need to get to.”
“Meetings?” Jacob asked.
“Yup.” She winked at me.
Meetings? Really? Was that how we were referring to me kissing football players now? Why did this have to be so awkward?
I sighed and followed her out of the treehouse. But I did think I’d found what I was looking for.
The four of us would be friends.
Always.
They’d all promised.
And I knew where my head was. I leaned down to put my sneakers back on. But as I laced up the last one, Jacob picked me up in his arms.
I laughed the whole way back to the woods.
Yeah, my head was with Jacob.
Sophie squealed as we approached the closest bonfire. “Are guys playing spin the bottle?”
And just like that...my head was a mess again. I hated spin the bottle. Loathed it. I was pretty sure a game of spin the bottle had ruined my freaking life.
I forced myself not to look over at Axel as Jacob set me down in front of an empty log.
“Nah,” Billy O’Reilly said. “We’re playing Truth or Dare. You spin the bottle to see who you get to dare.”
Oh. Phew. That sounded loads better. The game was definitely already in full swing. Because there were a few people missing clothes and a couple making out on one of the logs.
“This is so much better than what I had planned,” Sophie whispered to me. She turned toward Billy. “Love it. Can I go?”
Billy shrugged.
Sophie spun the bottle. It went round and round and round.
I sat down on the empty log. Jacob sat down on one side of me and Axel sat down on the other.
The bottle slowed down until it finally landed on Ezra. One of the guys on my list that now, fortunately, only had ten guys left on it.
Sophie glanced at me and smiled before turning back to Ezra.
Oh no. What was she about to do?
“Truth or dare?” she asked.
He took a sip of his beer. “Truth.”
“Perfect,” Sophie said. “Have you ever received saucy photos via text from a redhead?”
My eyes grew round. That was way too specific!
“No?” he said.
“Why did you answer that like it was a question?” Sophie asked.
Ezra laughed. “Because it was weirdly specific. The answer is no.”
Okay, that had actually worked really well. My list was officially down to nine.
“Great, can I go again?” Sophie asked.
“That’s not really how it works...” Ezra started.
But Sophie had already spun the bottle. It landed on some girl I didn’t know. Sophie grabbed the bottle and tilted it a bit to the right.
The girl looked like she was about to protest.
But Sophie was already firing off her question for...Jack. Another guy on my list.
“Have you ever sent texts from an unknown number to a girl you had a crush on?”
I leaned forward, trying to see his reaction through the smoke coming from the bonfire.
Jack frowned. “No. Why would someone do that?”
“To keep their identity a secret,” Sophie said casually, like it happened all the time.
“You didn’t even ask me truth or dare,” Jack said.
“Oops.” Sophie spun the bottle again. “Let’s try this again.”
“What is Sophie doing?” Jacob whispered in my ear.
“No idea,” I said. But my voice came out squeaky and weird. Sophie had turned Truth or Dare into an interrogation of sorts. And it was kind of working. My list was down to eight now. If I could keep narrowing it down without kissing anyone else, that would be a major win.
The bottle landed on Noah.
“Truth or dare,” Sophie asked.
He pushed his shaggy hair off his forehead. “Dare.”
Sophie waggled her eyebrows at me and then turned back to him.
Soph, please, no.
“I dare you to kiss Scarlett and cop a feel.”
WHAT?! That last part didn’t need to be part of the dare. At all.
Noah set his cup down and stood up.
Jacob sighed next to me.
Seriously...why, Soph? Why cop a feel too? That was entirely unnecessary! I’d be able to tell from just the kiss!
I barely even had time to react.
Noah leaned down to kiss me.
But I was so very aware of Jacob and Axel staring from either side of me.
Noah’s lips pressed against mine.
And I knew right away that it was wrong. It probably felt wrong partially because of the guys next to me. But either way, I knew for sure that Noah wasn’t my kiss thief. There was zero passion.
But I just sat there awkwardly with his lips on mine as he put his hand on my left boob.
“Dude, seriously?” Jacob said. “She’s wearing my jacket, man. You know what that means.”
I kind of wanted to know exactly what it meant...
Noah chuckled against my lips. “It was part of the dare,” he said as he pulled back. But his hand was still on my breast.
“You have one second to remove your hand before I shove it up your ass,” Axel said.
Noah laughed as his hand fell. “Chill, captain. It was just a dare. I know she’s off-limits.”
I knew my face was bright red. Not just because of the stupid kiss. But because of Noah’s words. Off-limits. It was proof that what Jacob had told me was true. That Axel had threatened the whole locker room. “Sorry,” I muttered under my breath. But I wasn’t even sure what I was apologizing for. It seemed like everyone around me was annoyed though. And I wished I could just melt into the leaves on the ground.
Jacob put his arm around my shoulders as Noah walked away. “Seriously, what has gotten into Sophie tonight?”
“I have no idea,” I lied. My list was down to seven. But I really preferred the truth portion of the evening more than the dare. Sophie wouldn’t ask someone else to kiss me...right? Because that would come off so desperate. And I really wasn’t desperate to make out with anyone else tonight. Unless it was Jacob. I scooted a little closer to him on the log.
“Okay, let’s see who’s next,” Sophie said.
“Sophie, isn’t it someone else’s turn?” Jacob asked.
She turned around to look at us.
I hoped she could read my face. No more kissing dares, Sophie! Please!
I wasn’t sure she understood. Because she just shrugged. “I don’t think that’s how it works, Jacob.” She spun the bottle again.
This time the bottle landed on Sean.
“Truth or dare?” Sophie asked. “Great, truth,” she said before he could respond.
I breathed a sigh of relief. Apparently she had read my face.
“Sean, have you ever made out with someone secretly in a dark closet?”
Sean spit out the sip of beer he’d taken. “What did you just say to me?”
“Have you ever secretly hooked up with someone in a dark closet?”
He took a long sip of his beer. And then he hiccupped. He looked really pissed. Or really sad? I couldn’t tell. But he certainly seemed really drunk.
“Who told you that?” he asked.
Sophie shrugged. “I’m just asking.”
“No, tell me. Did my sister tell you that?” he asked. “Did you talk to my sister?”
Yeah, he definitely seemed pissed.
“Um...yes?” Sophie said.
Sean burst out crying.
Oh my God, what is happening?
“I begged my uncle not to touch me.”
I cringed. Oh no.
“Sophie,” I hissed. “Sit down.” This had gone entirely too far.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered as she joined us on the log. “I didn’t know he’d been inappropriately touched by his pervy uncle. How was I supposed to know that?”
There had been no way to know. But that officially lowered my list to six.
Billy O’Reilly slapped Sean on the back and stood up. “On that note. Maybe someone else should go. Liam, how about you?”
Wait, what? I looked over to where Liam had just stood up. RJ and him had been sitting across the fire from us and I hadn’t noticed. Ah! No! My little brother and cousin couldn’t play Truth or Dare with us. That was too freaking weird!
But my brother had already spun the bottle.
I stared daggers at him. But I wasn’t sure he could see because his face was obscured in a cloud of smoke. Wait. That smoke wasn’t coming from the fire. Was Liam smoking a joint right now? I stood up and walked over to him as the bottle spun.
“Are you smoking?” I asked. Even though it was very clear that he was. A freaking joint was hanging out of the corner of his mouth.
He took a long pull from the joint instead of responding to me.
“Dad is going to kill you if he smells pot on you.” I pulled the joint from his lips and threw it in the fire.
Liam groaned. “What the hell, Scar?”
“Are you trying to get grounded next?”
“You probably shouldn’t have touched that,” he said. “Now you’ll smell like pot too. And you threw it in the fire. Everyone is gonna be high.”
Freaking gah! I wiped my hand off on my jean shorts, not that it would help at all. The smell of his drugs was all around me.
Liam cleared his throat and nodded down at the bottle.
It was pointed at my feet. Oh screw me. I stepped out of the way to see who it would land on behind me.
But Liam shook his head. “It landed on you. Truth or dare, Scar.”
“Don’t you and RJ have a hole in the floor to fix?” I hissed.
RJ laughed from the log he was sitting on. “It’ll be fixed by the time you get home,” he said. “I promise.”
“What does that mean? Did you hire someone to fix it? RJ...”
“It’s my question, Scar,” Liam said. “Truth or dare?”
“Fine.” I threw up my hands. “Dare.” But I was going to murder him if he dared me to smoke next. I was starting to think my little brother had a death wish.
“I dare you to tell everyone who your secret crush is.”
Yup, I was going to kill the little twerp.