Temptation

-5-

           

The dares came with three rules:

1.      One a day

2.      The other boys couldn't know about it, and

3.      They had to be done on film.

The first one had been too daunting and disgusting to do on my own so I roped the others into it, saying that it was a challenge that we could put on YouTube.

"I don't know about this," Mikey said, perched on the edge of the couch. "Remember how the pet food challenge went?"

            "Come on, you wimp. These are actually meant to be eaten." I shook the bag of jelly beans, which Andy and I had purchased last night for Dare #1 – Eat an entire bag of Beanboozeled.       Mikey took the bag from me and scanned the flavors – Each color had two different ones that it could be: Something delicious, and something gross.

            "Look!" He exclaimed, pointing to the labels. "There is literally a pet food flavored one." I peered down at where he was pointing.

            "We'll make sure to give you a brown one then, considering how much you love it." I smiled at him, and he buried his head into his hands.

            Jack leaned over, whispering into Mikey's ear – "You can't taste them if you hold your breath."

            "No holding your breath! That's cheating."

            "If I throw up, I'm doing it all over you," Mikey threatened. I scrambled over to the other end of the couch and Andy followed suit, saying, "There's no way you're making me sit next to him, not again."

            And, for a while, the challenge did exactly what Andy had predicted it would – For the twenty or so minutes that we were eating the jelly beans, or forcing Mikey to not spit his out, I didn't think about Sophie once. It didn't cross my mind to imagine what it would've been like if she was there, because she didn't like candy, anyways.

            My thoughts of her only returned once the bag and empty, and Mikey was downing a bottle of soda because he'd had a particularly unlucky streak with his flavor choices. Brooklyn was complaining of a stomach ache because he'd eaten too many – Ever the brave one when it came to food, he finished off the bag when the rest of us refused to – and Andy was proclaiming that he'd never eat another jelly bean again.

            "You do know that Roadies are going to give us them at every meet and greet now for the rest of our lives because of this, right?" Jack moaned.   

            "You have no reason to complain," Mikey said darkly. "You got every butterscotch in the bag. You missed the pet food and bubblegum challenges." Jack just smirked in return.

            I'd gone against my own rules and held my breath the moment that the hard shell cracked open to reveal something nasty – The perks of being broken hearted.

            "I think I'm gonna be sick," Brooklyn moaned, which caused Andy to leap up and onto my bed and away from him. I laughed as he took off for the bathroom and Andy cuddled into me.

            "You still sure you wanna do this?" I asked, meaning the rest of the dares.

            "Are you?" He asked back, angling his head to get a better look at me. I nodded and then rested my chin on the top of his head.

            "Then yes. Besides, I'm planning on being more of a camera man from here on out."

            "Ah, you'd rather just watch me suffer."

            "No! Well, yes. But it'll be fun."

            And, I believed him. My heart still ached, but maybe not quite as much as it did before. I almost didn't wish that it was Sophie curled up with me instead of Andy...Almost.