Truth or Dare (And a Whole Bunch of Other Stuff Mixed in Between)

It was half-passed eleven on a prefect, hot-yet-breezy summer night in Northern California.

Everyone gathered around in a circle, sitting on the floor in the middle of the furnished basement. The windows were open, so a perfect breeze was circulating from outside and into the room in the back where everyone was waiting. Frogs and crickets emphasized the beauty of this particular night with their tranquil song. The group of people situated themselves on the fuzzy gray carpet, either sitting Indian-style, crossing one leg over the other in front of them, or sitting on their knees. In all, there were ten people, those people including Jason, Seth, Veronica, Robbie, Terra, Heather, Amanda, Wane, Kathy, and Jason. Jason was sat in between Amanda and Seth, both of them looking entirely too excited to be playing this game. Everyone knew that they each had a crush on the other but were too shy to admit it. Honestly, Jason thought that if all of them knew it--one of the two lovebirds would have figured it out by now. But never mind, someone was bound to take the bait of the game and dare them to kiss or something. The two cupids would be chosen for the game at some point, and then their feelings would be known to each other, and they would pour out all their deep secrets to each other and end up being crowded in the other's face 24/7. Jason just hoped that nobody would do something they regretted. And he hoped even more that he wouldn't be pushed into saying something stupid and/or embarrassing. Robbie started the game, reaching into the middle and spinning the bottle. The empty root beer bottle (no one was old enough to drink yet) was resting atop of a wide, hard-back book. It twirled around and around, the smooth glass reflecting a bit of the light that was coming from a bulb on the ceiling. Finally, the opening of the bottle landed on Terra.

"Truth or dare, Terra?" Robbie smiled, and Terra seemed to relax, probably thinking that he would go easy on her because she was a girl and he was a respectable boy. Jason almost snorted out loud. Respectable and Robbie couldn't be used in the same sentence without lying.

"Dare." She replied quietly. Terra had always been the quiet one and Jason didn't think that would change. Robbie's grin widened and his eyes lit up with mirth.

"I dare you to......" Robbie seemed to be teasing her, and everyone including Terra we waiting with wide, curious eyes in dead silence. He cleared his throat, and dragged out his next two words with as much mockery as possible. "Kiss Jay." Terra's eyes widened just to the point where it was noticeable, and she stole a half-glance at Jay, who appeared just as shocked as she did. Then, with a sound that was a sigh and a groan mixed together, Terra crawled across the circle of people to the unsuspecting boy on the other side and kissed him square on the mouth. There were several gasps of surprise, as well as multiple catcalls and whistles. Terra pulled away from Jay, her cherry-red-and-smitten expression reflecting Jay's bewildered-yet-delighted face. Before she could move back to her spot, Jay caught her left wrist and gently pulled her toward him, letting her sit to his right.

Well, this game escalated quickly, Jason thought to himself.

Terra's face didn't lose it's bright shade of crimson as she buried her face into Jay's shoulder. He smirked lightly and leaned forward to spin the bottle, careful to not disturb the peaceful Terra on his shoulder.

It landed on Veronica. The dark haired girl shrugged and said with only-slight amusement, "Dare, I guess." By that time, Terra had calmed down enough to think up a dare.

"You can't talk for the rest of the night. Well, except when you're giving a truth or dare, but other than that you can't. Like, at all."

"What, so be you?"

"Exactly." Veronica glared at Terra, who just gave a thumbs up and a cheeky grin. Veronica rolled her eyes and spun the bottle. It went on like that for a while.