summer boy ~ tal fishman ✓

~10~

'Sophie, truth or dare?' Adi asks. 'Truth', she answers. 'How many boyfriends have you had?' Sophie counts on her fingers. 'Like serious ones? Three, I guess', she says. 

'Truth or dare... Julia?' 'Umm... truth', I answer. 'Do you have a crush at the moment?' I think about Tal and try not to turn red. 'Yep', is my reply and I try to sound chill. Sophie gets excited: 'Who?' 'That wasn't your question, was it?' The rest laughs and Sophie looks a bit disappointed. She should have asked the question a lot smarter.

'Mer, truth or dare?' I ask and look at Meredith. 'Dare.' She sounds calm. I think of an evil plan. Shall I do it, I ask myself. She's going to hate me. Or love me. Or both. Why not? 

I hesitate a moment and then I smile and say 'kiss Adi'. The rest of the group says oohh, even though it isn't the first kiss of the night. 

She looks at me with an I'm-going-to-kill-you-face for less than a second and then gives Adi a peck on the lips. He turns a bit red while she just goes back to her place and puts her hair behind her ear like it's no big deal. Always her hair. It has to be perfect all the time. 

'Truth or dare to... um... Tal.' she says, while pretending to think. I know she had it planned though. Just to get revenge on me. She makes eye contact with me for a split second and I'm scared. I know what she's thinking. Don't do it Tal, don't- 'Dare', he replies confidently. 

Oh no. 

'Give Julia a kiss.' I knew it. I knew it was coming. The rest of the group turns silent and just looks at Tal and at me and back to Tal. They then chuckle and giggle. This is what they would call 'the drama they're living for' in their words. 

I really hate and love Meredith at the same time right now. Was this how Meredith just felt? He leans in and gives me a small kiss, which seems to last forever. My stomach is acting strange and I feel the butterflies, which I thought were dead or at least sleeping, flutter up again. 

I look into his eyes while he goes back to the place he first sat in. I don't know if it's the lighting or my brain that's fooling me, but it seems like Tal is just as red as I am. 

And well, that was my first kiss. Meredith knew it. I'm not bothered, I mean I have this huge crush on Tal, but still. It wasn't like I imagined it, I guess. But well, it could be worse.

We pretend nothing has happened and we play on, but the kiss is playing over and over again in my head. After playing truth or dare for a while, it is starting to get a bit boring. We get to the point where we just keep doing and asking the same things over and over again because we're not creative enough to come up with new ones. 

'Who's down for a karaoke competition?' Meredith asks since she notices the same. I swear we nearly have the same brain. 'Me!' I shout and our friends agree. Meredith turns on her TV and opens YouTube. I see Tal getting nervous, why would he get nervous right now? Did I do something wrong? How could I have done something wrong? I don't know and decide to ignore the feeling.

'Okay, so we play two people against each other and who wins, plays against the winner of another sort of match, until we got a winner. Round 1; Sophie versus Olivia. Which song?' Sophie and Olivia stand up and discuss for a while to find a song they both know. 

'Okay, today we will be performing 'Havana' for you', Sophie says. She clears her throat and Olivia does the same. Then they both start to sing the song. Their tone isn't horrible, but the timing is completely off and they laugh throughout nearly the entire song. After they finish the song, we clap for both of them. They bow and after a short consultation, we decide Olivia won. 

After a few of those 'matches', Meredith and I are left and are in the final. We decide on the song '22' by Taylor Swift because we both know it by heart. After we are finished, we bow for the applause and wait for the verdict. 

Our friends are talking for a long time, so we don't know who won. They're trying to build up the suspense, wow. After a while, Adi clears his throat. 'We have made the hard decision that... drumroll please... Meredith is the winner!' he says with a formal voice. 

I laugh and give her three air kisses. She acts all shocked and pretends she is holding back tears. 'Acceptance speech!' I laugh harder. This is going to be good. 

Meredith stands up onto the coffee table and clears her throat. 'Well, I just want to say thank you all for supporting me. Thank you to everyone that has been by my side through the good and bad times. I especially want to thank my fans, they mean the world to me. Without them, my world would be nothing.' She wipes away a fake tear. 

'Thank you all once again. Okay, bye, I'm getting food now.' We all laugh while Meredith bows once more and then jumps off the table before she walks to the kitchen to get some food.

I follow her, still giggling about her amazing speech. 

When we're in the kitchen, I pull her to the side so we're out of sight. 'Did you really have to do that? That was so awkward! I hate you!' I whisper to her. She just chuckles, not intimidated by me at all. 

'That was pure gold. Shush. And you made me do it first, so it's really just karma, honey. And we both know you can't hate me, I'm too lovable.'

She's right for the most part but I'm not admitting that.

'Give me some chips too, I followed you to the kitchen, I had to move my limbs for this. I want some', I tell her.

'You know I'm right', she says with her sing-song voice which I can't stand. She always uses it to show she's better than me or rubbing something in my face. I squint my eyes at her. 

'You do know we're in your house and I know where your baby photos are stored, right?' 

Now it's her turn to send me an evil glare. 

'You're not showing the pictures of me as a baby potato to them.' 'No, I'm not. I'm just using it as leverage. Now hand me the chips.'