Truth Or Dare.

Chapter 11

11

I cleared my throat nervously and joked, "No, it's a bruise," I pressed my lips into a tight line in an effort to keep a straight face.

"Don't be funny. Bruises rarely appear on the neck," he snorted and he leaned to take a closer look. "It’s a hickey,” he said with finality. 

No longer able to hold back, I burst into laughter,” Duhh." 

Ace’s eyebrows pulled together as he watched me laughing like some mad lady. “Is it from Matt? Did he force you? I’m so going to kill him-“ Rolling up his sleeves, his eyes were burning with fury.

I quickly stopped him from beating the shit out of his brother, “No, I mean yes, I– geez, just don’t hurt him, I don’t want you to get into trouble because of me.” I explained while putting on the best innocent face I could compose.

His shoulder sagged a fraction but his frown didn’t fade. He took in a deep breath as if to calm himself down before asking, “Are you sure?" 

“Yes and let’s go. We’re going to be late for class.” I feigned a smile, held his arms and dragged him towards class.

***

"So, should we add this or that?" I asked Ace, pointing at two test tubes; one with chemical in blue colour and one in transparent.

He chuckled softly with a mesmerizing smirk, "You and I know that I have no idea what to do since we were basically chatting all the time when she was giving us instruction." 

I huffed out, "So we should just choose based on our instinct?”

Ace nodded in agreement and he started to count down, “3,2,1 . . .” Both of us pointed at the same transparent chemical. We exchanged glances before I started pouring white powder into it. I wasn’t really focusing on what I was doing at that moment as my mind suddenly replayed what happened last night. Matt, he bloody ki- . . .

“Watch out!” Ace urged. My heart skipped a beat and the test tube slipped off my hand and shattered into pieces on the table. Then I realized the chemicals overflowed out the test tube and bubbles were forming everywhere. Standing there motionlessly, I froze. I simply looked at the broken test tube and bubbles on the table with my mouth half opened in shock. 

"What the hell are you doing?" Ace grabbed my hand roughly and pushed me to the nearest sink and turned on the water tap. I shook my head and got myself back to reality.

"Oh god..." I exclaimed after seeing the mess I have made. 

 Ace arched his eyebrow," Girl, your reaction is kind of . . . slow? Are you alright?" 

I bobbed my head in affirmation and gulped nervously, "Yeah, I'm alright. Sorry, my mind was off to somewhere just now." 

Ace looked at me warily but the next second, he did a big gulp too and cursed, "Damn...." I turned my head around and immediately knew why.

 The next hour as expected, Ace and I received a long lovely lecture about the chemical spill from our teacher, and finally the bell saved our ass and we got to go for our break.  

The silence engulfed us while we were on our way to the cafeteria. It was an awkward silence which I didn’t like. ‘Where’s Matt? I didn’t see him in school today.’ I thought as my eyes automatically scanned the place. ‘Wait. Why am I worrying about him? He is just a jerk who likes to play around with my feelings and I’m silly enough to fall into his trap’ I bit my lower lip and scowled unintentionally.

 “Is something up?” Ace queried, giving me a questionable look.

I shook my head and mimicked his look, “Why?”