Silenced by the Night

Dare Sweet Dare

I haven’t answered the question Paige gave me last night. She was asking me who I had a crush on. Of course, you don’t have the courage to tell anyone that you’re in love with your best friend. Especially if you don’t quite know him; you don’t know who his cousins are. And he doesn’t even know my name’s ‘Eleanor’.

Nathan was sleeping on the top bed; snoring softly while his hand was hanging out his bed. Jessica on the other side was hugging that stuffed animal and the covers were already thrown out her bed. I stood up and went outside; the breeze was refreshing and the view of the sunrise from the shore was lovely.

It all made me forget about the problems I had. But only one remained on my mind; and that was Nathan’s face. He was the answer to the question from our game of ‘Truth’. If Caylah didn’t arrive in our cabin and disturbed us they would have already known who I was crushing on.

There was still something wrong with Caylah. By the way she looks at Nathan and me; it was… like… she was telling me to stay away from him. I don’t know; I don’t read minds.

The four of us sat down in a circle in the middle of the cabin. We were all preparing for the game ‘Truth or Dare’. This was gonna be a fun night. We actually change the directions, we spin a bottle and the first one the bottle points at gets to ask if truth or dare; we spin it again and the one it is pointing to gets to be the one who’s asked to tell the truth or do the dare.

“Spin the bottle Nathan”

He spun the bottle and it pointed towards Paige. He spun it again and it pointed to Jessica. Paige gave me a smirk; I wiggled my eyebrows and turned back to Jessica.

“Jessie, truth or dare”

“I’m a bit lazy so ‘truth’”

“Is it true that you are scared of the book ‘The Valiant Little Tailor’?”

She glanced over me and Nathan. Nate gave me a high-five and went back to the game. Paige never had the idea about Jessica being afraid of that beautiful book. It was a beautiful story but I never told Paige anything about her being scared of it.

“Yeah, I am scared. Now Ellie, truth or dare”

“Dare”

“I dare you to tell me who or what you are thinking about right now”

What should I say? Should I tell her that I’m thinking of Nathan? Or should I tell her a lie? The thought about Nathan was being blocked by Caylah telling Caroline something.

“I’m thinking that Caylah is telling Caroline that she and Paige were close to me behind her back”

Paige had a worried look pasted on her face.

“Paige, truth or dare”

Her eyes gazed over me, Nate and Jessie. But there was still worry on her eyes; the sign of puzzling and troubling, it was hard to tell.

“Truth”

“Did Caylah say anything about the both of you being close to me behind your mother’s back?”

“Not a single word, but I’m worried she will”

I felt relieved but we had the same feeling of worriedness about Caylah telling Caroline any secret we were keeping. Weak but negative feelings were building up about her. This was so wrong between all of us. Even Nathan had the same look on his eyes.

People wouldn’t actually make me feel uncomfortable. I always feel sick when I do things like this. The room filled with silence. It remained longer and longer until it lasted for twenty-three minutes. Caroline’s words were echoing so much in my head, a storm of words. A flood was growing in my head; her words were flooding in my head. It was a headache.

From Paige’s words; I felt more worried. How if she did tell her? What will Caroline do to me? Will she find out?

Paige and Jessica were at the shore finding shells in the sand. While me and Nathan were gonna go surfing. Caylah was dramatically tanning her skin. Nathan whispered something in my ear about crashing on the water and doing our best to make Caylah wet. This was a good idea. I passed the message to Paige and Jessica, and they agreed.

We stood there in front of her, Nathan was counting down.

“Three… two… one”

He crashed on the water making a splash and making her wet. We did the same and she became wetter.

“Eleanor, are you crazy?!?”

Nathan looked at me confusedly before Caylah ran to their cabin.

“Eleanor? What does that mean?”

“OK, my full name’s Eleanor but I hate being called ‘Eleanor’ so I didn’t tell you Nathan. Sorry”

“Whatever. Let’s just go to our cabin and play truth or dare again”

Melody was sitting across me and Paige. Nathan was on my left. Our position was like a clock, Jessica was already asleep. So Nathan was sitting at forty-five. Paige at sixty, Melody at fifteen and I was sitting at thirty. OK, Melody is a friend of ours that we met while surfing. I crashed into her board and Nathan crashed at both of us.

“Before we start, Ellie can you please teach Melody our traditional ‘Truth or Dare’?”

I took a deep breath and stared at the bottle in the middle of the circle.

“This ‘Truth or Dare’ is different; instead of picking someone who starts, it’s up to the bottle that gets to ask the one who will tell the truth or do the dare. Any questions”

“I do”

We all looked to Jessica’s bed her hand was raised and her face was buried in a pillow.

“Can you play the game more quiet?”

“Shall we continue? Melody truth or dare”

Paige gave me a smile and then gave one to Nathan.

“Truth”

“Tell us something you hate being called”

“The name that stupid mermaid invented ‘Mel Mel’”

I chuckled behind my cough and went back to the game. She turned to Nathan and bit her lips awkwardly.

“Nathan, truth or dare”

Her voice was also a bit annoying. It sounded a bit… I don’t know… flirty. Paige was laughing.

“Dare”

“I dare you to kiss someone you fancy in this cabin”

My heart was beating normally, my stomach wasn’t aching, my head didn’t have any thoughts, my hand wasn’t trembling, and I didn’t feel the slightest ray of awkwardness. The event in their kitchen happened again. Jessica stood up and walked towards us.

“Dude, do it already”

Jessica kept squealing until Nathan got up and approached me. OK, this is definitely awkward. He cannot fancy me. What if it was only a girl behind me? Someone just burst into the cabin and she was the one he fancies. He stood me up and pressed his lips into mine.

Did he just kiss me again?