Smells Like Winter

37: Truth or Dare?

Mia clapped her hands in excitement. "Okay, who wants to go first?"

"I do!" shouted Sia. "Logan, truth or dare?"

"Dare," answered the boy immediately.

"I dare you to take your shirt off!"

"What? No! It's cold!" protested Logan.

"It's a dare, you have to do it," shrugged Sia innocently.

Logan grunted, but eventually peeled his sweater off his head, revealing the corded muscles of his toned body.

Maddy noticed the way Sia looked like she had been struck by a cupid's bow, and laughed lowly.

"Mia," said Logan. "Truth or Dare?"

"Dare."

"Show us the tattoo you got on your ass."

"Ah, come on!" But Mia shamelessly stripped her pants down, revealing her basically invisible thong and a rose in full bloom on her left ass cheek, the petals blossoming and opening like they were personifying Spring. "Just admit you wanted to see my ass," said Mia to Logan, smiling self-righteously like a cat.

Then she turned towards Maddy. "Truth or Dare, Maddy?" she asked, provoking as ever.

Maddy read the challenge in Mia's tone, but didn't accept it, even if it made her feel like a coward. "Truth," she replied.

Mia tilted her head to the side, as if examining her. "Are you a virgin?"

Maddy blinked. "Yes," she answered slowly. She'd made so much clear back at the lake.

"But you've done foreplay and stuff, right?"

Maddy lowered her chin a bit, but her spine stiffened as she straightened it. "No."

Mia looked so shocked that Maddy had to admit she felt a twist of satisfaction somewhere deep inside her, amidst all the unjustified shame.

"Have you at least kissed anyone?" she insisted.

The answer was simple once again. "No."

Everyone seemed to tense. Even the freaking air.

"Oh. Turns out we have an innocent little lamb in our company," noted Mia, undoubtedly to humiliate her.

Maddy didn't let the strawberry-blond girl get under her skin. "Innocence has nothing to do with this," she said quietly, picking her words carefully.

Honestly, Maddy knew too much about sex, and from a very young age. Had read tons of smutty, spicy novels, had walked in on her older brother watching porn on his computer multiple times as a kid, and then she had found his sexy collection when she had taken his laptop after he had... passed away.

She swallowed down the sorrow, the empty hole his loss had opened in her chest.

The point was, she knew all about bed games and sex. And yet, she didn't want to do any of it if it was just so she could say that she had. She didn't want to sleep with a stranger just for the "adventure" night-stands promised to offer. She wanted it to be real.

As old-fashioned as it sounded.

Carter snickered, as if reading her thoughts and mocking them, labeling them as cliché and outdated. She didn't care as she glowered at him.

"I think you asked way too many questions, Mia," laughed Sia. "Just because you're a slut doesn't mean all girls are."

"Hey!" shouted Mia.

Sia cocked her head provocatively. "Am I wrong?" she challenged.

Mia opened her mouth to protest, but shut it again, reconsidering. Then she seemed to change her approach. "So what if I'm a slut, huh? I own it, bitch," she said with a dazzling smile and grabbed the whiskey.