Under the Stars (a lunar chronicles Modern AU)

Chapter Eleven: Truth or Dare

By the time they reached their hotel Thorne was exhausted. No one else had a licence so he had to drive the whole way, not that he would have let anyone near the wheel of his car.

Scarlet slung her rucksack over her back, her phone finally put away, and was helping Cress with her electronics.

"Couldn't you have gone a day without it?" Scarlet asked.

"I'm important," Cress insisted as they lugged everything into the motel.

It wasn't particularly fancy, but they were only staying the night and would be driving back by tomorrow evening if everything went to plan. They had two rooms, one for the boys and one for the girls, and though Thorne didn't know Kai he would be fun to interrogate.

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"We are totally playing truth or dare and I don't care what any of you have to say about it," Iko said once they were alone in their room. The other girls glared up at her. "What? It'll be fun."

"You just want to drill me on Kai," Cinder pointed out.

"Maybe, but you'd never tell us would you." Cinder rolled her eyes.

"Actually," Scarlet said, shifting where she sat, "maybe it could be fun."

"Perfect!" Iko said, "now, who's going first?"

"I am," Scarlet said as the girls huddled together with their blankets. "Truth or dare Cress."

"Umm..." Cress said. She hadn't played this with the girls in a while, and last time Winter was there to back her up if she was ever embarrassed by something. "Truth?"

"What's the strangest thing you've ever hacked into?"

Cress thought for a moment. She'd hacked into so many different databases and devices over the years she was losing count. There were some pretty odd things, like once she got into this profile on this dating site which had a virus that corrupted her computer. There was over a thousand files with the same song on, besides the very bottom one which had a document with the recipe for tomato soup. But then there was that other time...

"I once got into the coding of this website – I don't remember which one – but in the notes there were two people having a conversation and all the messages had been left. It was frightening, one of them was trying to convince the other to commit suicide with them, and the very last comment said "Today". I couldn't touch my computer for the rest of the week.

"And you kept hacking anyway?" Cinder asked.

"Of course, it's what I do," Cress said, "anyway, it's my turn. Truth or dare... Iko."

"Dare pansycakes," Iko said.

"What?" Scarlet asked, "What's a pansycake?"

"Doesn't matter, please continue Cress."

"Let me keep your phone for the rest of the night, and anyone who texts you I get to text back however I like," Cress decided, holding out her hand as Iko hesitantly took the phone from her pocket and handed it over, looking like she had never regretted anything anymore.

"Okay," Iko said, perking up suddenly, "my turn." She had an evil grin on her face as she turned to Cinder. "Truth or dare Cinder."

Cinder sighed, "You're going to ask me about Kai either way aren't you." Iko couldn't have looked smugger, and as much as Cress wanted to know what was between Cinder and Kai, she felt sorry for Cinder.

"Just answer the question!" Iko insisted just as Iko's phone vibrated in Cress' pocket. "Seriously!" Iko complained.

Cress stifled a giggle as she pulled Iko's phone out of her pocket, it was from Thorne.