Summer with the Sidemen

Chapter Twenty

'Chloe!' Somebody shouts. 'Over here!'

You put your drink down, turning around to look for whoever is calling you. It's Josh.

He's standing around a table with a group of about six other people, who look kinda familiar - you must have met them earlier. They're all looking at you now, waiting expectantly. You walk over to them, casually strolling into an empty spot next to Josh.

'We're playing truth or dare.' he explains. 'Wanna join?'

You shrug. 'Okay. Why not?'

——————

20 minutes pass by and you find that you're very glad you decided to join in. There's been some good dares, like drinking vinegar, biting into deadly hot chilli peppers, and the guys stealing JJ's phone and taking weird and stupid selfies. 

At one point you got dared to go outside and lick JJ's Lamborghini, which you did, and made everyone pat you on the back/high five you and tell you that you were awesome. There's also been some shocking truths - someone's been arrested, another person kissed their best friend's mom, and you confessed to sneaking out of your house at 3am on a school night with a group of older guys on motorcycles just so you could go get food (you were really craving a burger, okay?). Which didn't seem that much compared to the other confessions, but everyone was still stunned considering you were 15 when you did it. Josh even called you "secretly badass". You can't help breaking out into a smile, feeling loved and admired. Like you really belonged.

"Okay," One of the guys, you think his name is Aaron, says and rubs his hands together. "Let's play another game."

"Cool." Katherine (?) replies. "What one?"

Aaron reaches for something behind him, and turns back around to place it on the table in front of everyone. It's an empty bottle.

"Spin the bottle." he answers.

You freeze, tensing up.

You don't really want to join this one. Not that it wouldn't be fun, it's just... you don't wanna give your first kiss to someone you barely know. Yeah, that's right. You hadn't kissed anyone yet. It might seem stupid to some people because you're already 18, but the truth is you'd just never met the right guy. What's wrong with that?

"You all up for it?" Aaron asks, looking around the group. His response is everyone's shouts of "Yeah!" and "Awesome!"

You don't want to kill the mood and bring everyone down by saying you don't want to, since they're all clearly eager to do it, so you nod and force an excited smile.

"Me first." Another guy - Max?- says, placing his hand on the bottle. You gulp nervously and look away, staring at Josh instead.

A thought suddenly crosses your mind - you could end up kissing him. It's possible. You don't really know how to feel about that. You have definitely noticed before that he's kind of cute. And, it's better to give him your first kiss than a stranger you'd met a few hours ago. You'd feel so much better about it if it was with a good friend and not someone you'd probably never see again. You want it to mean something, and with Josh.. maybe it would. But there's six other people in the group, what are the chances the bottle would land on him when it was your turn?

You turn your attention back to the game, and luckily it hasn't pointed at you yet. But it's getting closer to your turn. The girl next to Josh is currently busy making out with the guy next to Max.

"Alright, guys. Save that for later." Aaron laughs. "Next go - it's Josh."

You look over at him once more as he spins the bottle. It spins in a fast blur and takes ages to slow down, but eventually it does. It's slowly coming closer to your direction... and it stops. It lands on the girl to your right.