Take Your Pick

Ch.8 ~ Discovering the Deeper Meaning

~ 'Man is not what he thinks he is, he is what he hides' ~

They say some secrets are best left unknown but when the need to know them gnaws at you and hinders your judgments, what then?

I snapped out of my thoughts and zoned in on the atmosphere around me. Sean had stepped out for a bit, something I wished to do but I didn't need a confrontation from him or anyone else for that matter. Everyone else in the room seemed bored of the game and that's when Raphael spoke up,

"This game is getting dead now, let's switch it up. How about l--"

He didn't get to finish because Shan had interrupted,

"Truth or Dare!" she shouted. Raphael screwed her for interrupting but showed no signs of objection.

Sean had returned three rounds in and this next one landed on me--Shan had spun it. I wasn't in the mood for truth. I wasn't sure if I wanted to to reveal my full truth and I needed to get out of this misery that was my mind so I settled for,

"Dare". I looked Shan dead in the eyes as I said this, communicating pleading words for her not to do anything silly or stupid. I was all in for the fun but I had my limits. It seemed as though she had either not got my message or she did and chose to ignore it, because what she said next woke everyone up.

"I dare you to lips Hugo"

"Not happening".  Almost instantly Hugo had replied.

He was sprawled out across one of the sofas with his gaze fixed on the TV that had been playing low in the background.

Although I didn't plan on kissing him, his abrupt response made me feel some kind of way. The atmosphere in the room grew tense with curiosity and confusion. Everyone was looking from me to Hugo every so often until Shan decided to break the ice.

"Riiiiiighttttt, thing is no one was asking you but if you really don't want it...you're disqualified and so is Kam cos she can't carry out her task".

To be honest, I didn't mind and I'm sure Hugo didn't either. Yet, he had a dejected look on his face from what I could tell. Something told me, however, that it wasn't the result of the current game.

***

We had all finally headed home in the early hours of the morning and caught up on much needed sleep. It was now late afternoon and Shan had insisted on spending the rest of Sunday with me at mine. After grabbing Nando's takeaway, we were sprawled out across my bed. The atmosphere had shifted into something more relaxing and calming with a hint of concern. I hadn't stopped thinking about the past weeks of my life and it was about time I let it all out.

"I wonder what their deal is" I voiced aloud in the silence.

Shan turned her head towards me but my eyes remained fixed on the ceiling. She didn't have to question who I was on about because it was written all over my face.

"Hell, I wish I knew" she scoffed.

"They've been so uptight these last few days and I've been trying to piece it together but none of it makes sense. I thought they knew my brother with the way they reacted so much but Hugo swears he doesn't".

"Kam, babe, don't work yourself up over it. It's possible that they could know him but they just don't know that they do" she reassured me.

They don't know that they know him?! That doesn't make sense since they've seen a photo of Kieran and didn't react or acknowledge that they knew him in the slightest. I didn't get a look at their faces to see if they were hiding anything but I was confident that they wo--