Poor Thing || Trollhunters || Angor Rot

4. The Real One

"Truth or dare?" Darci crossed her arms, looking straight at me. We were on our fourth round of spin the bottle. In the previous round, I had chosen dare and had been forced to call Mrs. Janeth and recite the decimal expansion of pi. It was so silly and pointless that we all burst out laughing before I could even hang up.

"Truth," I said confidently to myself, munching on some chocolate chip cookies.

Darci's eyes glinted mischievously as she leaned forward, a sly smile spreading across her face. "Okay, Hira," she began, drawing out my name in a way that instantly made me nervous. "What's the most embarrassing thing that's ever happened to you in front of a crush?"

The room fell silent, with all eyes on me. Claire stifled a giggle, and Mary raised an eyebrow, clearly interested in hearing the answer. I swallowed hard, feeling my cheeks flush as I fumbled for a response.

"Uh, well..." I hesitated, twirling a lock of hair around my finger. "There was this one time back at my old school in Vienna. I was trying to impress this boy I liked during a soccer game." I could already see Darci's grin widening. "I was running down the field, ready to show off a little... when I tripped over the ball and fell flat on my face." The group erupted in laughter, and even I couldn't help but chuckle at the memory. "And to make matters worse," I added, "my shoe flew off and hit him in the head."

Claire was practically rolling on the floor at this point. I also burst out laughing, feeling tears welling up in the corners of my eyes. It was a good memory. "Okay okay my turn," I said, wiping the tears from my eyelids. I spun the bottle hard. All four of us watched expectantly as it slowed down. Until it finally stopped completely. "Mary," I said with a smile, ready to come up with a dare for her as revenge for my first - I had to drink a cocktail of sardines and sauerkraut because of her. "Truth or dare?" My question hang in the Claire's living room.

Mary's eyes darted around the room, and a nervous smile crept onto her face. "Uh-oh," she murmured, glancing at the bottle that was pointed directly at her. "Alright, I'll go with... dare." She sat up a little straighter, as if bracing herself for whatever I was about to throw at her.

I grinned, a mischievous glint in my eye. "Okay, Mary. I dare you to..." I paused for dramatic effect, making her squirm a bit, "text the last person you talked to and confess that you've secretly been in love with them for years."

The room erupted in gasps and laughter, and Mary's mouth fell open. "What? No way!" she protested, her cheeks turning a deep shade of pink. "What if it was my mom? Or—or my math tutor?"

"No backing out now," Darci teased, nudging her with a playful shove. "A dare's a dare. You have to do it."

With a groan, Mary pulled out her phone and opened her messages. Her fingers hesitated over the screen. "Fine, I'll do it," she said, taking a deep breath. "But if this goes terribly wrong, I'm blaming you, Hira."

We all watched as she typed, and then, with a look of pure dread on her face, she hit send. "Done," she announced, tossing her phone onto the couch like it was a hot coal. "And now we wait..."

The room buzzed with anticipation. "I can't believe you actually did it," Claire said, shaking her head in amazement. "You're braver than I thought." 

Before Mary could respond, her phone buzzed with an incoming text. She grabbed it, her eyes widening as she read the reply. "Oh my God," she said, looking up at us, her expression a mix of shock and disbelief. "They... actually said they liked me too."

The room exploded with cheers and laughter, and I could barely hear Mary's voice over the chaos as she added, "Well, guess I just got a date out of this game!"