Truth or Dare

Chapter Eight

What the characters actually look like 🙄 above

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April's P.O.V.

Leo's arms encircle me, holding me close to him. I smile into the material of his shirt, still half in shock at what had just happened.

"April?" Leo mumbles into my tangled red hair, and I close my eyes, breathing in the scent of sandalwood.

"Hmm?" I murmur, opening my eyes and smiling up at him.

"You know we still have to go to school today, right?" he says, looking down at me. I gasp, pulling away from him.

"Oh, shît! I was meant to go home last night!" I exclaim, my hands flying to my hair, automatically trying to smooth out the tangles. I glance down at my crumpled uniform in frustration, my fingers catching in the knots in my hair.

"Dad's going to be so mad!" I fret, looking around wildly. Leo catches my wrist, smiling down at me reassuringly.

"I'm sure he won't mind that you stayed over here just one night," he says reasonably, but I shake my head, grimacing.

"I slept here on Sunday night too, remember? Not that we actually got much sleep," I admit, crossing my arms in front of me, "ugh, he's going to kill me!"

"I'm sure if he really minded he would have called you and told you to come home," Leo says, trying to make me feel better. I know he's wrong though. My dad is just too drunk to learn how to put numbers into his contact list, and there's no way he'd be able to remember a phone number. He's always drunk. But Leo doesn't need to know this.

"No, my phone is dead," I lie swiftly, not catching his eye. I hear him shuffle awkwardly and look up to find him gazing at me.

"Oh, okay," he mutters, rubbing the back of his neck and averting his eyes, looking anywhere but at me.

"I can drop you off at school, if you like," he offers suddenly, glancing down at me hopefully, "I'm pretty sure we've missed the bus by now."

I turn to look out the window at the end of the hallway; bright rays of sunlight stream through the glass panes, signalling that the sun has risen. I nod gratefully, smiling at him awkwardly.

"I just... I have to get ready," I realise, turning and running down the hall to Skye's room, "I think I left my stuff in Skye's room last night."

"April, wait-!" Leo calls anxiously, but I have already thrown the door open and entered Skye's room. Her ruffled blonde hair and bleary grey blue eyes appear from under the duvet, and then the rest of her face comes into sight. My hands fly to my mouth in shock, muffling a horrified exclamation.

"Oh my gosh, your face!" I cry, hurrying forwards, "what happened? When...what...your face!"

Skye glances at the doorway behind me and I turn to see Leo hovering halfway inside the room, seeming unsure of himself. I turn back to Skye, my brow creasing with confusion.

"What-"

"I hit her."

I spin around and stare at Leo, my eyes widening with shock. Skye makes a small noise of protest behind me and I look back at her again.

"It was an accident," she says quickly, her voice hoarse and raspy, "And actually not all Leo's doing. I was out with Jamie last night, remember? Leo showed up, Jamie pissed us off, Leo tried to hit him, I got in the way, I hit Jamie and then Jamie got pissed and hit me and knocked me out."