Odd One Out ( ON HOLD)

Chapter 5: Truth or Dare?

                                                                            Clara's POV

        Soon after Mae and Jasper left, things got really boring. There were no customers until 6:46, which meant an hour and a minute had passed by. I watched as the one customer roamed the isles. He was looking at the paint section and had a stack of papers in his hand. As a part of my job, if a customer walks into the store I have to greet them and ask if they need assistance. I sighed and put my book down. I admit that Hitchicker's Guide To The Galaxy is my uttermost favorite book. " Hi! Welcome to the Art Shack. Are you finding everything alright?

The customer looked up at me. He had dirty blonde hair with a 5 o'clock shadow. (Type of beard) He had a grungy- rocker look. Maybe he was one of Mae's crazy college friends. I decided to form my thoughts into words. "Are you one of Mae's friends?" He looked confused so I clarified. "Her parents own this store?" His face told me he didn't know her. "Never mind." I started to walk away, embarrassed. "Hey I need your help!" the boy said. "Sure what do you need?" I asked in my cheerful-employee voice.

"I actually need a couple of things. My band is having a concert soon and we need to make a banner, so we need really long paper. We also need a bunch of those admit-one ticket rolls. And we are trying to advertise. I was wondering if you could hang up a poster?" He held up a poster saying:

                                                   Come see Slashing Windows play                                                                                                                                   on  8/14  8:00-9:30                                                                                                                                                  at Neon Lights Cafe    

" I'll have to ask the owner if we can hang up your poster," I said gesturing upstairs. "We do sell long paper, but we don't sell tickets. You can probably find those at Target.... I'll go ask if we can put up your posters!'                                                                

  I quickly ran up stairs to ask for permission. Mr. Wyler gave me the okay. When I got back down stairs, the boy was talking on his phone. "Hey, yeah, i'm here." He paused and looked around. "Well, I was going to leave when i was done, but if you insist..." Another pause that was eventually broken by a huge grin. "Yeah, she's alright. Kind of mousy but I don't mind. When are you coming back?" Pause. "Great, could you bring back some Chinese? I haven't eaten since breakfast." Pause. "Cool I'll pay you back. Bye" 

    He hung up and turned his head just in time to see me coming down the stairs. "Hey! Clara, right?" I did'nt remember giving him my name. "Yeah, how did you know?" I asked, blushing. Mostly, I just wanted to talk to someone but I was concerned on how he knew my name. "So! I was just on the phone with a member of my band, Jasper. He's our lead guitarist. Jasper just informed me that you were Clara. His girlfriend's best friend. Right?"

  " Yeah! Wow you're in Jasper's band?" I asked in astonishment. Mae is ALWAYS saying how great Jasper's band is. "I'm the lead singer. We are having a concert  on Saturday, you should come." 

     He smiled and held out the poster and chuckled. "Can we advertise?" 

  Suddenly remembering my intentions on going upstairs, I answered him. "Of coarse! I have some duct tape behind the counter. Grabbing the tape, I directed him to come to the door to hang up the posters. 

   We had finished putting up a poster on the front window and one on the light post next to the stop. A bright light came up behind us. I turned around to find Mae's car parked behind us. She opened the door with a face full of excitement and a hand full of Chinese take out boxes. Surprising me with a hug, she started ranting on how amazing her date was. Typical Mae. " So you've met  Ethan?" Mae asked while nudging my side. I blushed intensely. "Yeah, he's cool," I said, lessening my true thoughts. He was cute. Rock and Roll god cute. "Well I invited him to stay and eat dinner with us. We brought Chinese!" She thrusted the boxes out at me. "YUM! Let's get inside!" I declared. 

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We all sat in a circle on the floor digging into our takeout. I had closed the store and we all decided to eat in the backroom on the first floor so we would'nt disturb Mae's parrents. There was a sofa and a TV  in there, so it was satisfied our needs. Mae begged me to stay the night since we haven't had a sleep over in forever. " Tanks or ringing me foo guys!" Ethan said with a mouth full of orange chicken. We all laughed at him. He was really funny and charming.... " SO! Who wants to play TRUTH OR DARE!!!"  Truth or dare was Mae's favorite game and used to get in alot of trouble for the dares she would take.

"As long as you don't do something ridiculously stupid, I think we are all willing to play!" Jasper said.

 " Who's going first?" Mae asked. We all yelled, "YOU!" and then giggled. 

   She was obviously going to give the best dares of the night. 

"Alrighty! Hmm, Jasper! Truth or Dare?"