"Dellie, would you like a dare or a truth?"

Joni's legs swung beneath the corner store's table as she cradled her very first slurpee between her palms. What was once a rainbow of the brightest flavours churning in the slurpee machine had now become something closer to brown sludge, but she still sipped enthusiastically without regard for the many brainfreezes she'd already suffered.

"Dare." Dellie answered with an orange stained grin, eyes darting beside her to Dickie and across the table to Nickie to make sure they heard that. She could be a fun dare-devil risktaker too.

"Hmm." Joni tapped her finger against her lips, looking up to the ceiling for inspiration. It was her first time playing this game, and she wanted to do a good job.

"I dare you to... have a great day tomorrow!"

They all looked over at Joni. The sound of Nico slurping up the last bits of slurpee at the bottom of his cup was extra loud.

"I, uh, don't think that's how-" Dellie clapped a hand over Dickie's mouth, scrunching her nose at him. She'd get it eventually- but for now, Joni looked so proud of herself. And besides, who says there were unbreakable rules on how you could play the game?

"Sure thing, I'll do my bes- ew, Dickie!"

She shrieked at the feeling of his tongue on her hand, yanking her hand back to the sound of his, and soon Joni's, laughter. Dellie grabbed him with her un-licked arm before he could run away, wiping her hand off on his shoulder. "You're disgusting."

She made a face and pretended she wasn't smiling too, looking up at Nico and wondering why he wasn't laughing with them. And he did, after a moment (after he saw her looking) but it sounded forced. Before he had a chance to hide it, Nico had looked worried. Like even though she had a brother, Dellie would be upset over a little spit.

Sometimes Nico treated her a bit more like a girl than a friend. She wanted to know why. How she could convince him he didn't need to insist she wear every elbow, knee, shoulder, and everything else-pad when he was teaching her to skateboard, or that he didn't have to tone down his cursing when she was around. 

"Nico- truth or dare?"

"Dare."

"You always pick that." She said with a shake of her head and a small smile. "Why not try something new and go for truth this time?"

He crossed his arms and leaned forward onto the table, a halfcocked grin under his unruly curls.

"Why Dellie? Are you trying to get something out of me?"

She leaned forward with her own grin, eyes sparking- Dellie knew a challenge when she heard one.

"I don't need this game to get any secrets out of you. I already know everything, remember?"

They were grinning at each other, closer than they usually were, and for some reason Joni and Dickie had fallen silent.

"Yeah, you do." Something softened in his face, and his eyes darted down to somewhere lower on her face.

Her eyebrows drew together. Why did he always do that? Give in so easily? That took away half the fun.

And he was always looking at her like that. Like the breath had just been knocked out of him, but for some reason he was happy about it.

"Dickie, your tongue!"

Joni's panicked gasp pulled her back, and she looked over to see Dickie frozen in place, tongue extended as he was about to lick the stubborn slushee bits that were stuck to his straw. They all held their breath, looking for the source of Joni's panic.

"It's blue!"