Truth or Dare

11.

I hold on tight to his hand and drag him down the hallway to the next room of exhibits. I stop in front of a painting of a woman who is sitting on a large wooden swing, her head thrown back as if she is laughing, her long Victorian style skirts flowing about her kicked out legs. I smile as Rudy stands behind me, his arms wrapped around my waist. He leans froward and rests his chin on my shoulder. For some reason, the last hour is anything but awkward, not like it had been before. Somehow, kissing him in the middle of a flooding street broke the ice between us and confirmed my feelings for him in the process. I don't know what the hell is going to happen after today, but right now, all I can think about is how good his arms feel around me. I smile, craning my neck to look up at him as he looks down at me with his ocean blue eyes that hold so much feeling, so much that I can't take mine from his. I think if I lean up a little further, I might simply plunge into a pool of adoratuon because the way he's looking at me right now says it all.

"Wanna get out of here?" He whispers in my ear.

A smile even wider than the previous one breaks out across my face, which is pointless trying to hide. I nod.

He takes my hand, spinning me around one last time before he takes off in a run. We run out the doors, all the way back to the apartment complex, which is a good few blocks from the Art Gallery. Never stopping to catch our breaths or bother to look when crossing roads which I will admit is careless but in that moment we are so focused on this newly discovered feeling for one another that I'm not thinking about anything else other than how much I want to see his shirt on my bedroom floor. I pull him up the stairs behind me, still running until we reach my door, I stick the keys in the lock with shaking hands. The minute the door lock clicks, Rudy spins me by my hips so I'm against the door as he presses himself against me, claiming my lips once more. I struggle with the door handle behind me, but eventually manage to push it open, and we practically fall into my apartment. Stumbling in the vague direction of my bedroom. My hands are in his hair, his on my hips though one moves to the back of my head and other cradles the small of my back so I dont hit it on the wall as we go crashing that way. I pull away for a moment just to drag him to my room. As soon as I get that door open, he picks me up and throws me down onto my bed, climbing on top of me and beginning to kiss his way down my neck. He makes his way back up until he's kissing my mouth again. I tug at the neck of his shirt, pulling it over his head and tossing it onto the floor, he then does the same to me, looking down at me with a expression of pure joy when he throws my shirt over his head. I kick my legs around him and flip us around, so I'm on top of him. I lean down to kiss him again when the door flies open.

"EMILY!" I scream as my sister stands gawping in the doorway.

She seems frozen for a second when her brain seemingly unfreezes she shuts the door with such force that a gust of wind is wafted across the room, causing goosebumps to form along my bare arms.

"I'm so sorry! I heard you come in and - I'm so sorry! I had no idea you had a guy over! I'm SO sorry!" She continues from outside the door.

My cheeks are now a deep shade of red as I climb off of Rudy and pick my shirt up from the foot of the bed, handing Rudy his own who's sat with a very confused and slightly embarrassed expression.

"My sister." I gesture to the door.

"Right." He nods.

Once my shirt over my head to the door, Rudy followed slowly in pursuit. I opened the door to see Emily, an even darker shade of red than me stood a little way down the hall.

"Im so sorry! I had NO idea!" She rambles.

"It's fine, I didn't know you were coming?" I frown.

"I wasn't, but I'm flying out to see Connor tomorrow, so I thought I'd stop by while I was in town. Guess I should have knocked..." she smiles awkwardly at Rudy, who, once agian, is looking extremely confused.

Emily puts two and two together, "Oh shit, he doesn't know!" She slaps a hand over her mouth.

I shook my head, wishing like anything she'd kept her mouth shut. I hadn't told my friends out here much about my family, all they knew was I had a little sister (Emily) and my mum was a single mum, I didn't tell them about the attachments that came of my mother's  relationships prior to my father.

"I have three brothers, Connor being one ofthem." I say eventually after what seems to be a very long silence.

"You never said." Rudy frowns.

"It's complicated..." I sigh, walking through to the living room and flopping down on the sofa.

My sister follows and does the same, though Rudy sits softly on the floor at my feet, cross-legged and staring up at me like a child would when expecting a story. I shake my head.

"Not today, Rude, maybe tomorrow." This shit just got heavy.

He smiles as if he understands, but it's clear that he doesn't. My mothers past relationships had been complicated and difficult, leaving behind children that either wanted everything or nothing at all to do with us, or should I say her... My brothers had always made the effort with me and Emily, though I guess they felt some sort of disdain towards my mother as they probably felt as if she abandoned them when she split with their fathers. I feel bad about that if I'm totally honest because she loved my father until his dying breath though granted she didn't have to love him for long, dad died when I was four, Emily was two so she never really knew him and i don't really think I can claim I did either. I only have one real memory of my father, I had just turned four and my dad took us all to the fair, I rember I'd begged him for weeks beforehand to take us and when it finally came around he suppried me with a pink fluffy cloud of candyfloss and said "get your big girl sneakers on, we're riding the ferris wheel!" It was the best fair groud experience of my life...

I pull myself from the pit of thoughts I seem to have fallen into and get up from the sofa.

"Let me walk you home?"  I suggest to Rudy who nods, getting up and walking toward me.

"It was nice meeting you, Emily." He says politely, smiling down at my sister.

"You too. I hope to see you again soon." She replies, retuning the smile.

I begin to walk to the door, leaving behind any resonating feelings of whatever the hell just happened as I shut the apartment door.

We walk up the stairs in silence. When we reach his floor, we exchanged simple goodbyes, which makes the whole situation worse, but as of right now, I am in no mood to continue with previous projects.

I turn to leave though as I do, I feel a hand grab a hold of me and spin me around. My hand lands with a light thud against his chest, he leans down and plants a soft kiss on my lips, making my eyelids flutter closed, I didn't even realise that was possible but really is an eye lid-fluttering closed kind of kiss, so tender and heartfelt. Then he lets go and turns toward his apartment as if nothing happened, leaving me alone in the hallway. I smile quietly to myself as I make my way back to my own apartment when it hits me like a tidal wave. What the hell happens now?