39. Truth or Dare.

BETH.

Grace, Janet, Yeesha, Lara, Tony and I sat in Tony's sitting room, ready for the little get-together Lara had invited all of us to. I had no idea it was going to be at Tony's house and when we got there, I had to first ask Tony if his brother was home or not. He said he was home, but he wouldn't be joining us at our little party. I let out a sigh of relief on hearing that.

Arranged on the table in front of us was a series of drinks and wines. Each person is to pick any of their choices. We all sat on fluffy mats on the floor and surrounded the large centre table.

"You have such a nice place, Tony," Yeesha said.

"Yeah," Janet agreed.

"He sure does." Grace also said.

Lara smiled in satisfaction and replied. "That's my boyfriend!" Tony chuckled, while the girls giggled a bit. I sat there looking at them as the whole discussion did not interest me in any way.

"Anyway," Lara started. "I'm thinking we should play a small game."

"Uh, what sort of game?" Tony asked her.

"Truth or dare?" Lara asked.

"Uhm, no. I don't want that," Tony said and moved. He looked very uncomfortable.

"Why?" Lara asked him with raised eyebrows. He was seated next to her, and opposite me.

"I'm the only guy here, babe. It won't be that much fun." He said, he then shrugged. She gave him a face, so he said. "If you think it's okay though, no problem. We can go on with it then."

"Let's play spin the bottle," Yeesha said. "Anyone the head of the bottle points to will be asked a question or made to do something by the person the back of the bottle points to."

Lara rolled her eyes at Yeesha. "Duh, still my idea. It's still truth or dare, just that the selection has to do with spinning a bottle."

"Well, that's my suggestion. You can decide not to do it, I was only giving ideas." Yeesha replied. I could tell from her tone of voice that she was trying not to snap at Lara. She was pissed, but she tried not to show it. She probably didn't like the way Lara replied to her.

"Whatever," Lara said. She was about to speak again when Luca walked into the sitting room.

"Hi, everyone!" He said and jumped on the mat next to me. "Hey, Beth."

"Uh, hi."

"Thought you said you weren't coming?" Tony asked him.

"Well, I changed my mind." He said and shrugged.

"Indecisive young man," Lara muttered and rolled her eyes again. We all acted like we didn't hear her.

"I'll spin the bottle for a start," Tony said and spun the bottle in front of us. After rolling on the table for a few seconds, its back pointed to Janet and the front pointed to Lara.

"Ouuuu!" We all exclaimed.

"Truth or dare?" Janet asked Lara.

"Dare," Lara replied without any hesitation. She looked very relaxed. If it was me, I would have been sweaty by now, or my hands would have been shaky. I hated moments like this. Yet, I don't opt out of these games. I do it anyway.

"I dare you to kiss…" she paused, thinking of what dare to give Lara. She couldn't possibly say Lara should kiss Tony. It didn't feel like a dare, since that was something they do all the time. It would seem casual to her. However, it would also be wrong to tell Lara to kiss Luca. Luca is Tony's younger brother, so it's wrong in every way.

She finally spoke. "I dare you to prank call a random number in Tony's house's phone book!"

"Lame," Lara replied and nonchalantly stood up from the mat. She then turned to Tony, "where's your house's phone book?"

"You all still keep phone books at home? This is the 21st century, we do not do that here." Tony replied.

Lara turned to Janet. "Another dare, duh. A more sensible one this time around." She said and sat down on her mat.

"Fine. Give your phone to Tony and let him call the last person you called." She said.

"That's too easy!" Luca snapped.

"Well, I couldn't think of a better one," Janet said and shrugged. Lara looked in her direction and glared at her. I could tell that she didn't like the dare at all.

"Just let him do it and let's leave that and move to the next person," Grace said, and everyone else agreed.

"Your phone," Tony asked her. Reluctantly, she released the phone to him. She unlocked her phone and handed it over to Tony, who collected it and opened her call log to call the last number. "Uhm, your last call is with some person named Jerry, so I'll call him now."

As soon as he mentioned Jerry's name, Lara's head moved in my direction. She understood what it meant for Tony to call Jerry, and I also understood. If Jerry picks the call, he'd start to rant about how Lara had hung up on him the other time and had been wasting his time all these while by two-timing him. We both knew Lara was in danger by this, and my heart began to beat very fast when he started calling the number. He placed the call on speaker mode, so we could all hear.

Luckily for Lara, Tony called twice, but Jerry didn't pick up the call. I assumed he was probably too pissed to pick it up, and I was very thankful for that. I let out a sigh of relief and I could see that Lara, who was a bit tense before, had calmed down.

Being the last person that was questioned, Lara spun the bottle. I was still busy praying silently that the bottle shouldn't turn to someone that would ask me a ridiculous question when I heard Yeesha speak.

"Truth or dare, Beth." She said to me.

I opened one eye slowly, and then the other one, only to see that the bottle had pointed at her and me. Damn.

"Uh, dare?" I said. Something about me felt that she could ask me anything concerning my feelings about one of the guys if I chose the truth, and I didn't want that to happen.

Without thinking twice, she replied. "I dare you to pick one of the guys present on this table and give the person a lap dance till he's hard."

"Ouuuuu!" The others screamed again.

"Now, that's a dare. You need to learn from Yeesha," Lara said to Janet and she rolled her eyes.

"Uhm, no. I ain't doing that." I replied. As soon as I did, the room went silent as all eyes went on me.

"It's a game, Beth. You picked dare and no one forced you to. Do the needful and don't be a pussy." Lara said nonchalantly, and I could see that Tony nudged her slightly to watch her tongue.

"No. I'm not doing it." I replied sternly.

"Fine," Lara said and turned to Yeesha. "When you dare someone and they can't do it, what do they do? Pay money, yeah?"

"Uh, Beth is rich anyway, so it wouldn't change anything. That only works when the person doesn't have much." Grace replied.

I scoffed at how they were talking about me as if I wasn't present. My heart was beginning to beat very fast by now.

"I have an idea," Yeesha said. Then she turned to me. "Beth, since you can't do the dare, then you'll have to tell us a secret about you that no one on this table knows, not even Lara."

"Excuse me?"