DARE

Call Him

I swear, it was supposed to be just us hanging out, and by us I mean Ryan, Anna, Noah, Ginger - I mean Skyler, and me. How did it come to this?

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"I'll bring the drinks! " I read Noah's text aloud to Ryan, who is already at mine and Anna's place and is currently inspecting our dripping sink.

"Tell him not to forget to bring the beers," Ryan mumbles from under the sink. "So how bad is it?" I ask him,  referring to the sink.

Ryan slowly rises, careful not to hit his head on the counter, his infamous smirk on his face as he simply replies: " I have no idea, what am I a plumber?"

"Avocado!!!" I yell at him in frustration, smacking his arm. "So what the hell were you doing under there for the last twenty minutes?"

"Just successfully avoiding helping Anna take the perfect selfie?!" He cockily replies, not even flinching at my smack.

"Are you done checking the sink, 'cause I could really use your help getting the lighting right" Anna's voice calls from the back room, and the smirk immediately drops from Ryan's face as he noticeably pales.

"Yes, he's available and would love to help you" I answer her before Ryan has a chance to and push the pouting boy towards the living room entryway.  Ryan turns his head and looks at me with eyes full of betrayal mouthing You'll pay! before dragging his feet to the back room.

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"We're here! Now the party can start!" Ginger announces as He and Noah walk into the house placing the drinks on the table wooden coffee table. 

"Finally!" Ryan walks into the living room blinking rapidly as he announces, "Free from the nightmare!"  Anna runs past him to hug Noah, almost nocking the tour of cups I created.  I mean, hey, I needed to keep busy so that miss Anna wouldn't drag me into her Perfect Selfie torture too.  Don't judge.

Noah and Anna both quickly take a seat in the middle of the yellow couch, Anna turned slightly towards him.  I take the seat to Noah's left and Ryan takes a seat to Anna's right. Ginger sits down on the armrest, loudly mocking Ryan's red sunglasses.

"OK, since we gathered here today to celebrate the sixteenth anniversary of the awesome group of friends, let's play do you know your friend or pay!" Ginger suggests in his mock sophisticated tone, his chin held high. 

"Well, I've got a question for you" Anna glares at him. "How would I choose to punish the person who dares sit on the armrests of my couch!" Her voice rises.

"Come on guys!" Ginger waves off Anna's comment, as he gives us all his puppy eyes.

"Fine" I give in, I always give in first! "I ask someone a question about someone else in the group and if they get it wrong or refuse to answer, they need to do a dare, right?" I clarify and when he nods I offer to go first.

Before I can start, Ryan opens the package of cups, handing each of us one, and proceeds to fill them with the drinks they brought. I thank Ryan and turn to Noah. "Noah, Who would Anna want to be stranded with on a deserted island?"

"Uhh.." he thinks for a minute, tapping the table as he does. "Tom Hanks.... he did it once, he can do it again." 

"Why not, you?" Ginger questions, "wouldn't she want her BF with her? and wouldn't you get jealous?"

"I would never put Noah through the suffering of sleeping outdoors!" She fake gasps,  teasing and we all laugh as Noah leans down to whisper something in Anna's ear, causing her cheeks to tint red. There is a beat of silence, and then Ginger begins to snicker while I try to move on.

"So, is it Noah's turn now? Or Anna's?" 

"I'll go!" Anna volunteers and after taking a large sip from her cup she points at Ryan. "You, What two radio stations does Ginger listen to in the car the most?"

"Easy" He replies immediately, "No radio only Spotify and Spotify!" He leans forward and high fives Ginger.

"Well done! now my turn," Ginger turns to me "Taylor, what is Ryan's biggest complaint about his job?

"Not sure... Not being able to sleep", I guess.

"I'll let that pass. " I do a little victory dance in my spot but freeze at the devious smirk that appears on his face as he continues. "Well, we all know yours!" 

"What?" I ask, curious to see what he'll say.

"That you can't kiss Elsa." and he begins to make rudely loud kissing sounds, leaning down to me with his lips puckered out.

I shove him away and avoid the other's suggestive eyes as I down the rest of my drink and pour myself another. 

Rio, who is called Elsa by my annoying friends for his white-blond hair, is a coworker in the company I work in. The thing is he's still considered a coworker even though he's training to be the COO and is close friends with the CEO. Not to mention that he's hot, and when I say he's hot I mean drop-jaw-and-pic-it-up-next-month hot. So yeah, I'm not ugly, but I'm not dumb enough to set myself up for that humiliation scene. 

And, I do not want to have this conversation with Anna again. No! I'm not going over the You should ask him out, I'm sure he'd love to. No way!

"She didn't really answer the question right" Noah pipes up.

"What?" I quickly turn to face him, I totally did. Did he miss my awesome victory dance? 

"Yeah, her answer was very sloppy" Ginger agrees with Noah.

"Excuse me" I scream, when also Ryan declines my answer, but they ignore my protests.

"I think she's got to pay," Anna says in a schemey voice.

"Nay Nay" I whine at my best friend. "Aren't you supposed to be on my side?"

Well, apparently not as she turns to me and states "and your punishment is - "

"If you don't stop I'll tell Noah what you said about him in the seventh grade!" I cut her off before she could complete her sense of doom.

"What did you say abou-" Noah immediately jumps in but is cut off by Anna "Not now Babe, and nice trying to change the subject, Taylor, but you are doing this!"

"Ryan?" I look at him for help, but he is just watching in amusement his eyes saying 'I told you you'll pay!'

"Ginger?" I turn to Skyler as my last resort, yah I'm that desperate, but he just full-on belly laughs and I slump in my spot. There is no way out of this.

"So...Taylor! " Anna rubs her hands in excitement "you need to call Encantador and ask him out!"

"No" I groan as they all reply with a simultaneous "Yes!"

"It's a dare, Tylor" Ryan stares at me with very serious eyes.

"Chill the glaring!" I say as I roll my eyes and slowly reach for my phone, "I'll text him."

"No! you gotta call!" my evil friends shout out, laughing hysterically as I groan, again. 

And with stupidity I can only blame on the alcohol pumping in my body, I dial his number that I know by heart. Pathetic I know.

Please don't answer! please don't answer!

But of course, he answers after the third ring, his firm voice heard on the speaker: "Hello?"

"H-h-hey Rio" I stutter and I mentally regret all my life choices and all of my parent's choices - and basically anybody's choice that ever led me to this point. 

I consider saying it was a mistake and hanging up, but Noah is giving me the Don't you dare look. Man, Noah has a killer glare.

"Taylor?"