It Started With a Dare

Chapter 16

"I feel like a third wheel," Josh noted.

I tore my eyes away from the sky and looked at him in question. As Sara mentioned earlier, we left my condo, bought stuff from the convenience store, and headed to the park. Since we got here, Drake and Sara were in their own bubble as usual and ran around chasing each other. Alex, on the other hand, was miraculously playing with Puppy Alex, and by playing, I mean running around with a piece of ham with the canine chasing after him.

Josh and I were just lying on the picnic blanket staring at the clear, blue sky.

"Why do you say that?" I asked.

"Drake has Sara, and you have Alex," Josh mumbled, his eyes locked on the sky.

"I don't have Alex," I said distastefully, looking back at the sky. "In fact, he's head over heels on some girl."

"I doubt he stays overnight at her place too," Josh said. Then he pointed at the sky, "Oh, look. That one looks like a butt."

"Nothing happened," I said for the nth time. "And that cloud looks more like breasts."

"Say that one more time while looking straight at me in the eyes."

"Which one? The cloud looking like breasts?"

"No," Josh laughed. "You not sleeping with Alex. It's pretty clear you guys have something going on."

"Oh, for the love of pasta, can we just drop this?"

"I'm not dropping it," Josh grinned mischievously. "I'm having way too much fun seeing you all... less mean."

I gasped dramatically as I sat up and elbowed him in the gut. "Since when was I mean?" I scowled at him.

"Umm~ like most of the time," Alex interrupted. He carried Puppy Alex at arms' length, clearing avoiding the snapping jaws of the canine.

"Right, gang up on me," I huffed. I got up and patted off the grass from my clothes. I turned to Alex and glared. "After I let you stay at my place, you ought to back me up."

"Pfft~ after you shoved me in a closet? I ought not to," Alex retorted. He shoved Puppy Alex to my face. "Now, take this rabid dog before he eats my hand."

I stuck my tongue out at him before taking Puppy Alex and cradling him in my arms like a baby. The spoiled brat liked it too.

"Stop treating it like a baby because it's not," Alex frowned, ruining the moment.

"I don't really get why you guys don't like each other," I said, letting Puppy Alex lick my finger. I placed his paws back on the ground, and he left off chasing after a butterfly that passed over his head.

"Because he knows I'm into you, and he doesn't like that," Alex shrugged.

I blushed and resisted the urge to have Puppy Alex sic the idiot. I ignored him and sat beside Josh, who had been eating a ham and cheese sandwich while watching Alex and I bicker like two gays in a comedy bar.

No insult to gays who love to make people laugh for a living.

"Shut up, baka," I snapped and stuck my tongue out at him. "Usotsuki."

"What does that even mean?" Josh and Alex asked at the same time.

"It means 'liar,'" I said, pulling out a sandwich and taking a massive bite. I choked as I tasted the lettuce. I forcibly swallowed it with tears of disgust welling up in my eyes.

I do not like lettuce. It makes me feel like a goat. No offense to goats, vegetarians, and people who happens to love lettuce.

"Lettuce?" Alex chuckled, forgetting our slight conflict. Then he knelt in front of me, facing me right in the eyes. Aaaand we're back to the topic. "Now," he began, "you can't go on calling me a liar. Either you accept the truth or keep calling it a lie."