The energetic sound of people screaming and laughing rushed past my ears as Nathan and I walked further into the park. I raised my eyebrows as we turned a corner, and caught sight of a big carousel alongside lines and lines of different concession and game stands.

"A fair? That's what the surprise was?" I smiled as I turned to face him. 

Nathan, had barged into my room in his normal fashion this morning, but this time instead of spraying me with a bottle, he had poked me with a stick. I admit it was a slightly better way to be awoken, but it still could use some improvement. 

Anyway, after being a total arse, he had proceeded to order me to put on some clothes because he was taking me somewhere 'awesome.' He also mumbled on about how this could count as a second apology for how he treated me which again made me feel a little guilty but I didn't dwell on it.

Despite my unwavering persistence to squeeze an answer out of him, he didn't spill an inkling of a hint about where we were going. I swear to god, the pure reason why he wasn't telling me was that he knew it was a number one effective way to piss me off.

He turned to me with a smile. "Well, what did you expect? You did tell Noah I was taking you to the fair, so I decided to make it the truth," he shrugged.

"Hmm, I like your thinking," I drawled as I lightly bumped his hip with mine. 

He shook his head immediately. "Yeah, no, don't do that," he said flatly. 

"Why?" I snickered.

"Because it's weird, and it embarrasses me," he said bluntly.

"All the more reason to do it," I sang as I saddled up alongside him and gave him an extra vicious bump with my hip. 

He let out a grunt as he jolted to the side, and I just snorted. Once he had recovered, he scowled and moved back beside me before hitting me back with his hip just as hard.

I shuffled to the side immediately, causing me to almost hit a young man in the process. I returned back beside him and gave him a playful push. "You almost made me bang into someone, you idiot," I laughed. "And besides, what happened to hip-bumping being weird, huh?" I probed. 

"Correction -it's only weird when you do it," he said with a teasing smile.

Rolling my eyes, I took my attention off of Nathan and back to my surroundings. My eyes immediately zeroed in on a churro stand in the distance. Before I could yell at Nathan to go buy me some, a young man stepped out in front of us, causing us both to come to a sudden stop. He was a tan, thirty-ish looking man and greeted us with a bright, friendly smile.

Nathan, for a reason unbeknownst to me sharply took my hand in his as though it was instinctive. Before I could ask Nathan what the fuck, he thought he was doing, the man in front of us cleared his throat.

 "Tourists, right? Let me guess, English," he questioned as he looked eagerly between the two of us. His words were underlaid with a thick Greek accent, confirming my initial assumption that he was a local.

"Yeah, we are," I said, smiling politely.

"Well, I've got a perfect game for such a beautiful couple," he said as he nodded his head towards his table.

"We're not together."

"Okay, what's the game?"

Nathan and I both spoke at the same time, so it took me a minute to register what he had said. Once I did, I eyed Nathan in confusion, suspicious as to why he hadn't bothered to correct the guy about the nature of our relationship. 

Allowing people to believe I was his girlfriend was becoming a real trend with him...

"Come, come," the man said as he gestured us over. Nathan and I both looked at each other, then shrugged before following the guy to his little gazebo.

He gestured for us to take a seat, and as we did, I noticed he had a laptop positioned behind him with a few wires and other random things sticking out of it. Nervous, I looked around at other passer-by's, checking there were witnesses for whatever weird crap we were about to get ourselves into.

"This is...a...er.. lie detector test," the man said as he tapped his screen. "You ask each other questions, and then we find out if you're lying. Great game for couples," he announced proudly.

"A l-lie detector test?" Nathan stuttered. He swallowed nervously and looked over at me cautiously.

While Nathan was scared, I felt incredibly intrigued because god knows there was a shit ton of things I'd love to ask him.

 "Why do you sound so nervous, Natalie? Got something to hide?" I sang.

Nathan swallowed again but kept strong eye contact. "No, why have you?" he questioned. I was tempted to snicker at how hard he was working to maintain his poker face.

"No, I haven't got anything to hide at all. You can ask away," I lied confidently. "Just no questions about my family," I added as an afterthought.

"Okay, fine, then. I'll do it if you do it," Nathan announced matter of factly.

"Okay, deal," I said, nodding my head.

"Excellent!"

"Great!

"Marvellous!"

"Can't wait."

"Okay, let's stop doing this, it's getting weird," Nathan said, interrupting our little back and forth.

Nathan and I agreed to ask each other three questions, and I offered to go first. The man briefly explained that we could only ask yes or no questions if we wanted accurate results. I held out my hand as the man attached all kinds of straps and readers to my arms and fingers. Once I had all the equipment on, the fear of what I was about to do really started to sink in. 

I was hooked up to a highly accurate-looking lie detector machine and was seconds away from being questioned to death by a guy I was having a hell of a lot of conflicting feelings about. And from how widely Nathan was smiling, I knew the questions would likely be horrendous.

The man cleared his throat. "Okay, I'm ready now. Ask her some questions you know are true. Like her age, and name, so we can calibrate the machine," the man explained as he tapped away at a few buttons.

Nathan smirked and leaned forward in his seat. "Is your name Sophie Wright?"

"Yes," I said confidently.

"And, are you nineteen years old?" he asked. "Yup," I confirmed.

"Okay, I've got the readings, you may start," the man said, nodding his head at Nathan to go.

"Hmm, what to ask, what to ask," Nathan sang, amusement dancing in his eyes like a cat who was playing with its favourite toy.

I rolled my eyes. "Stop being annoying, and ask me something already," I snapped impatiently.

Nathan chuckled. "Okay fine, first question. Do you think I'm more attractive than my brother?" he asked boldly, his eyes watching mine carefully.

 I paused and took a couple of seconds to think through my answer. I mean, I knew what the real answer was but hell would have to freeze over before I would admit it.

I looked him dead in the eyes. "No, Noah's better looking than you, sorry," I shrugged.

Nathan recoiled back as though I'd slapped him. As hurt clouded his features, he frowned. "That's such-"

"She's lying," The guy intercepted, cutting Nathan off from whatever he was saying.

My heart jumped in embarrassment, and I frantically shook my head. "No, that's not true. That's not true," I repeated desperately.

 "The signs are jumping even more now," the man piped in annoyingly.

Nathan, who already looked fairly amused started to practically kill himself with laughter. While I sat moodily in my chair, Nathan finally sobered up and set his eyes on me.

 "Why, thank you, Sophie. I'm flattered," he winked. 

"The machine is broken," I said quickly.

Nathan smiled even wider. "Okay, next question. When I displayed my seduction techniques on you the other day, do you admit that you were turned on?" he chuckled.

 My face burned instantly at his question, and the amused side-eye the computer guy was giving us certainly wasn't helping. I couldn't help but wonder if the dude had set up the stand to listen in on people's gossip.

"I...erm..I, is it hot in here? I think I need to get some water, excuse me," I said as I reached to pluck the sensor off my finger. 

Nathan slapped my hand back on the table, preventing my escape. "No, you're not running till I get my answer," he said with a determined spark in his eyes.

I growled in frustration, before taking a deep breath in and out to calm myself. 

It's fine, Sophie. You're a good liar. You've got his. Just keep your heart rate low; you can do this.

Once I felt as though I was in a strong enough place, I swallowed and looked up at him. "No, I was not turned on," I answered smoothly, while working hard to keep my voice steady.

Please say I'm telling the truth. Please say I'm telling the truth. Please say I'm telling the truth.

"Another strong lie," the man snorted.

Well, shit.

Nathan immediately started grinning from ear to ear. "I fucking knew it! God, going to this stand was the best idea ever," he laughed.

"Oh, shut up, Natalie, and ask your final shitting question," I snapped with the roll of my eyes.

"Okay, this is my final question," he said, clearing his throat. "Do you truly consider me your friend?" As soon as the question was asked, the whole mood in the air shifted.

It took me aback that out of all the things he could ask, that was what he wanted to know the most.

It was a question I barely knew the answer to myself. He stared back at me with large open eyes as though anxiously awaiting what I might say. Rocking my eyes back and forth between his, I found myself nodding. "Yes, Nathan, I do," I said, the words leaving my mouth with a genuine amount of sincerity.

The man at the computer slowly nodded his head. "Yeah, that one's a truth," he said softly.

Nathan's green eyes rested on mine, not saying a word. Then, gradually a small shy smile wormed its way onto his face.

We didn't get a chance to stare for too long before the man gestured for us to switch over. I eagerly un-wired myself, and the man started attaching all the equipment to Nathan.

Nathan's cool easy expression instantly morphed into fear as increasingly more of the wires were strung onto him.

I leaned forward on my elbows with a chuckle. "Hmm, we don't look so confident anymore, do we?" I drawled.

Once the man gestured for me to start, I whizzed through the starter questions, eager to get to the juicy stuff. Before asking my first question, I stared at him for a while with an eerily still smile, watching as he twitched and squirmed in his seat uncomfortably.

 Finally, when I was satisfied he seemed nervous enough; I cleared my throat. "Natalie, on the first of November, you were overheard moaning out the name Sophie. Would you like to admit you were having dirty thoughts about me?" I asked boldly.

Nathan rolled his eyes. "No, I wasn't. How many times do I have to-"

"Lie," the man interrupted with a snort. 

Nathan whipped his head towards the guy. "What? No! Check again!" Nathan demanded.

"I don't need to," the man chuckled. "Your readings are practically thought the roof." He promptly twisted his laptop to face us before pointing to a very large spike on the graph.

"I knew it, you're such a fucking liar," I laughed, struggling to contain my breath.

His eyes widened in alarm. "I'm not lying! My heart jumped out of disgust of the idea. I swear!" he protested.

My only response was to let out another unconvincing snort.

"Ask sensible questions," he snapped.

I smiled at him evilly. "Oh, don't you worry, Nathan, I will," I winked.

"I am never ever playing another game with you, ever again," Nathan grumbled as he stormily trudged alongside me. We had finally escaped from the weird lie detector game and were weaving our way through the hordes of people at the fair.

"Aww, why not? I had fun," I pouted.

He frowned even harsher. "Well, I didn't. That game was utter shit,"

"You're embarrassed because the machine exposed how much of a perv you are," I teased. I had used my remaining two questions to one: ask if he'd fantasized about me naked and two: ask if he'd looked at my arse more than once. 

He'd answered no, to both, of course, but let's say the machine practically broke itself from how strongly it swung in the lie direction. The man at the stall literally had to have a time-out because he was struggling to work the keys because he was cackling so hard.

"Hhmm," Nathan grumbled, likely too pissed to form words.

Focusing on the direction we were going, my eyes drew to the carousel in the distance. The twirling horses bopped up and down on the disk and span around in circles. It played a nice little tune and was flashing a dizzying number of bright colours. When I was little, I used to beg my mum to ride on one till I was blue in the face, but she would never let me. I didn't understand at the time, but now I realize it was likely because of money.

"Want to go on?" Nathan asked softly, his voice interrupting my thoughts. I turned towards him in surprise, not even realizing we had both stopped walking until now.

The irritation on his face had melted and in its place were gentle eyes and an even warmer smile. Remembering he had asked me a question, I slowly shook my head. 

"No, don't be silly, it's for kids," I smiled.

Instead of shrugging his shoulders like I thought he would, Nathan's eyes sparkled with challenge.

"Then, looks like we're kids," he said. And like that, he grabbed my hand and hurled me towards the queue line. 

----------------------

Author's note: 

Hope you enjoyed the chapter and thanks for reading. 

What question would you want to ask Nathan or Sophie if they were strapped up to a lie detector test again?

Also, for those wondering there's going to be 70 chapters of this book. 

Next Update: Wednesday (6-8PM - UK time)