A single bet. Two people. And one month of free ice-cream.
Unspoken promises, heated gazes, and an inexplicable lust for each other. Will Tyler and Brandon confess their true feelings? Or will their playful banter and awkward moments dissolve into n...
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The bus left the resort early the next morning. I watched the sea and the palm trees disappear out of the view with mixed emotions. The wind howled from the open window and whipped my hair over my face. There was a hushed silence as everyone was lulled away to sleep from the erratic rhythm of the bus. But Brandon and I were wide awake. Tensed and nervous. There was so much to talk about, yet both of us wanted to talk about it.
Brandon reached out and grasped my hand in his. I gave him a small smile and my eyes shifted to Liam. He sat on the other side of the bus. Leo slept with his head on Liam's shoulder. Any other day, Liam would have shaken him off or made fun of him. But today, he remained unblinking as he stared out of the window. It wasn't difficult to guess the turmoil he was in. He had pursued Kiara for months. Did she say yes because she had an ulterior motive? Did she date him to get close to us? We didn't know the truth yet, but it didn't matter. Kiara had betrayed him. And things had irrevocably changed between them.
My phone buzzed. I frowned as I opened the new email. Swimming pool. 10 pm. Come alone. Another email from Kiara? I glanced at Brandon. He hadn't read the message. My heartbeat picked up. I quickly pocketed the phone and swallowed. My first action should have been to tell Brandon about this...but what if it triggered Kiara? What if she released our intimate photos? If it was only humiliation or bullying, I might not have thought twice about discarding her rules and taking the pack along with me.
But she took the photos at the swimming pool. If worse came to worst, they would expel Brandon from the swimming team.
Making out on school premises was not a huge rule-breaker. Teachers turned a blind eye to most of these incidents. But rumors were a dangerous thing. If Kiara wanted, she could blow this thing up to ugly heights. And in that case, the principal would have to show he cared.
It was a small probability, but how could I leave Brandon's career to chance? He spent his youth being a swimmer. It was his life. If they expelled him from the team; he would have to sit out of college tryouts, miss a potential scholarship, and give up professional swimming. That would be a harsh punishment for a simple mistake. And there was no way to know what Kiara could do or not do.
I took a deep breath. So what if I went alone? There should be nothing to worry about. We were in school. Kiara couldn't pull a James Bond move on me. My dead body wouldn't be found floating in the pool tomorrow morning...right?
We reached the school in the afternoon. No one figured out that Kiara messaged me earlier in the morning. And I hesitated to tell them the truth. Each time I itched to tell Brandon, I stopped myself. Just for my safety, I couldn't ruin his career. Not like this. And stuck between this pendulum of thoughts, the day passed. Others continued to think that Kiara was biding her time, waiting for the rush of the summer trip to end, and then contact us again.
I maintained a straight face throughout the whole talk. Pretending to be sleepy, I disbanded the impromptu meeting and returned to the hostel room before eight. I switched off the lights, slipped under the sheets, and closed my eyes. The clock ticked at an excruciatingly slow pace, but I waited.
