To Love, Or Not to Love

Chapter 1

It was my turn now. I sat, eyes closed, sweaty palms, butterflies in my stomach, waiting to hear what they were up to next. They all had smirks acrossed their faces, and I knew this was going to be bad. I glanced at my bestfriend , Brooke, hoping for some type of supportive smile, I got nothing. Then I looked neverously at my twin brother, Nick, who giving my a look I knew too well.

Nick has his friends over almost every Friday night after their dance practice. I've gotten really close with each of them over the years. Especially Nick's bestfriend, Mikey. We had an on and off relationship for the past three years or basically since seventh grade. But just a couple months ago, it ended. Occationally, we meet eye contact every once but then we quickly glance away. Other than Mikey, these boyz have just been like brothers to me.

I was supposed to be over at Brooke's house because my parents don't like me here when Nick has the boyz over. I don't really know why but its the rule. But Brooke and I always sneak back over here and into the basement with the boyz. And this time, we were playing truth or dare. And like always, I picked dare.

As they just finsished talking about my dare, Vinny, Jason, and Louis all looked over towards me and laughed. What in the world were these boyz up to? Thomas scooted away from the boyz and his cheeks immedietly flushed with pink.

"Paige," Nick said, grabbing my attention, "We figured out your dare" He chuckled and winked at me.

"What is it?" I asked nervously.

Vinny responded still laughing, "You and my boy Thomas gotta kiss"

I looked over at Thomas and he was still blushing.

"Just a kiss?" I asked looking over towards Vinny.

Before Vinny could respond, Nick answered obviously seeing that Thomas was embaressed and said, "Yeah, just a kiss. You can go in my room if you want." Nick is always considerate of other people and knows to when to tone it down. But Vinny tends to take things a little too far sometimes. I stood up and looked over to Thomas who was still sitting down, almost stunned that I stood up.

"Are you coming?" I asked him smiling.

He stood up and happily followed me into Nick's room. I was getting more nervous by the second. I was going to be Thomas's first kiss and I didn't want to make this a bad experience for him. I opened the door and sat on the edge of the bed as he quietly shut the door behind him.

"You don't have to kiss me you know, we could just say we did. Im used to it," He told me disappointly, looking down at his shoes.

"No Thomas, were gonna kiss," I responded, trying to lighten his sprits.

He looked at my with a shocked expression, then it turned into a sweet, perfect smile. I stood up and we walked towards each other. I put my arms around his neck and he held my waist and we slowly leaned in. At first, I thought this was going to be a quick peck, but i didn't pull back. We both slightly opened our mouths and started making out. After only thirty seconds of intense kissing, Thomas pulled away, smiling from ear to ear. For this being his first kss, he was really good. He turned opening the door and wiping his lips and returned back to the circle. I followed closely behind and sitting back down next to Brooke, also smiling like crazy.

Nick, Vinny, Jason, and Louis all looked at Thomas and I with surprised faces and then just looked at Thomas. As any teeange boys say to their friend after they just madeout with a girl, they said their little comments like "Nice one" or "Good job." Brooke and I just giggle. Then I glanced over at Mikey who just glared at me. I guess you could say that both of us still haven't really gotten over each other yet. I looked away,not wanting to deal with his drama right now.

During the last round it was Mikey's turn and he picked dare. They boyz quickly discussed and then Vinny said, "You can take Brooke go in Nick's room and do whatever you want," His eyes drifted over to Brooke and he winked. Mikey gladly got up and held his hang out to Brooke. She glanced at me, waiting for me to approve. I nodded, and they left. Nick, Jason, Louis, Thomas, Vinny and I all sat there awkwardly for at least fifteen minutes, waiting. They finally came out and we all acted as if nothing had just happened and ended the game at that.

Other than the tension from that incident, the rest of the night went on like they normally do, playing video games, listening to music and watching tv. At about eleven o'clock, Brooke and I decided to get back to her house since it was late. We hugged everyone goodbye and headed out. Since we both only have our permits, we had to walk back to her house, which wasn't very far.

The thick summer air attacked me as we quietly snuck out the back door. My long, dark brown, curly hair, started to friz almost immedietly after we walked outside. We jumped over my fence and started our walk to Brooke's house. For the first couple minutes we walked in silence, then Brooke spoke up and said, "I need to talk to you about something,"

"Okay, what?" I tried to as casual as possible.

"Would you care if I dated Mikey?" She asked. This has obviosuly been on her mind for a while because when I shook my head no, she looked at me as if weights had been lifted off her shoulders. "Really?" she asked excitedly.

"Yeah." I responded plainly. Thats a lie. I do care if she dates him. I still have a lot of feelings for him, but I guess her, and Mikey's happiness is more important than my own.

"Thanks Paige!" She said with relief. I smiled hoping she didn't notice that it was a fake one.

Only moments after, a car turned the corner about a block ahead of us. The headlights blinded us as it inched closer. I thought nothing of the car, I thought it was just one of my neighbors. But then Brooke asked in a panic outburst, "Is that a police car?" I squinted trying to see if i was indeed a police officer.

I whispered back to her, "Run."

We immedietly dashed towards the nearest bushes we could find which were only a few houses away. We slid into the underbrush getting covered in dirt. Although it was almost impossible, we tried not to make a sound and sit completely still. We sat hoping and praying that the police officer didn't see us. We would both get in so much trouble if we got caught being out past curfew. These few seconds felt long and intesne but only moments had pasted and the car was out of sight and the only lights that were shinning were the street lights.

Brooke looked over at me, "Well, that was scary." We laughed as we stood up and wipped most of the dirt of ourselves. We both decided that it was safer just to go back to my house and sleep there. After that incident, we didn't want to risk it.

Gratefully, my house was only a few blocks away from where we were. We nearly ran the whole way home because we were so paranoid that we were going to get caught. Finally we reached my yard and walked over to the fence. From where we were standing, we could see that the back light was on outside. Curious, I quickly climbed over the fence to see that Mikey, Nick and Vinny we standing outside. Brooke and I got down and started walking over to them when we noticed what they were doing. My stomach dropped and I didn't even know what to say. Words couldn't describe the feeling I had. Each of them had a blunt in their hand. They all looked over at us.

"Paige..." Nick said as the rest of his sentence drifted off. I could hear the uneasy tone in his voice.

Mikey looked at me with pity in his eyes. That was the first time he looked at me with some type of deep emotion since we broke up. His eyes spoke for him saying, "I'm sorry." But his flawless expression stayed stoned. Vinny gorgeous hazel eyes were very bloodshot, he was obviously so high that he didn't care we had caught them and just kept smoking. He seemed as if he had not a care in the world. But Nick stood there, almost not being able to process what was going on. He stood on our back porch, with the blunt still resting in between his index finger and middle. Nick was not nearly as high as Vinny, but he seemed a little intoxicated. We all just stood there for what felt like forever. But in a situation like this, what else it there to do?