20 February 2020

Mark

Score: Truth or Dare - Emily Osment

I push past Lydia and the Baby Lord and walk into the room.

"No," I say. "I told you, I'm not taking part in you kids getting alcohol poisoning. And, Truth or Dare? Are you fucking serious? What are you, twelve?"

"Come on!" Gloria literally stomps her foot. "It's gonna be so much fun!"

"So, you are twelve," I sneer and sit down on an armchair.

"Marco," I hear a voice to my right. I turn in the direction of the voice to see the guy who was glued to Gloria's face mere minutes ago. I recognize one of the barmen, working in the bar downstairs. He is extending a hand to me. I just look at it, but don't take it.

"Mark," I say and the guy's face splits into a massive grin. He taps his hands on his chest and says "Marco", then he extends his arms towards me and says "Mark", and then laughs.

"Yeah, yeah," I wave him off. "Aren't you going to lose your job, or something, selling alcohol to underage girls, not to mention making out with guests of the hotel?"

Gloria looks annoyed.

"He didn't sell me the bottle, asshole!" she says. "He bought it himself. And, for the making out bit, I'm sixteen and it's very much consensual."

I scrunch up my nose.

"I don't want to know. What is wrong with you, people? Last night Alex and Nate can't keep their hands off of each other and Lydia gets blind drunk, and now you? I didn't realize I was here to babysit a bunch of horny teenagers!"

"Don't act all grown-up and shit, bro," Nate walks into the room, hand in hand with Alex.

I wonder whether they heard what I said about them. I hope they did. This whole trip was a mistake! The situation is getting worse by the minute! And I thought my main point of concern would be Patrick! He's actually the least pain in my ass right now.

"Well, stop acting like fucking children, then."

"OK, OK, who wants to play, stays here and plays, who doesn't want to play is free to do whatever the fuck they want." Gloria lifts her hands in the air.

I watch as Patrick moves around the coffee table and sits on the sofa next to Marco. Lydia glances at him and then sits down on the armchair opposite me. So, she's in? After last night? Oh, stupid Lydia!

"There's not enough space to sit," Gloria says. "Let's clear some space and sit on the floor."

I sit back in my armchair and watch as Patrick and Nate push the armchairs back to the walls and scoot the coffee table closer to the sofa. Then Gloria, Nate, Alex, Lydia, Patrick, and fucking Marco sit on the floor in a circle. This is going to be fun.

"I'll go first," Gloria says. "Nate, truth or dare?"

"Dare." He says without hesitation.

"Twenty push-ups," Gloria says. "And take your t-shirt off."

Alex frowns at Gloria, but Nate goes on to take his t-shirt off and does twenty push-ups. Show-off!

When he's finished, Nate puts his t-shirt back on, despite Gloria's protests, and sits next to his girlfriend. Alex is beaming with pride, and she leans in to kiss him.

"Marco, truth or dare?" Nate asks.

"Truth," Marco shrugs his shoulders and smiles sheepishly. I don't know why, but I don't like him.

"Who would you like to kiss in this room?"

Oh, come on!

Marco grins, then leans to his right, where Gloria is sitting and starts kissing her. And keeps kissing her...and goes on...

"OK, OK, you've made your point!" I put my hands in front of me and get to my feet. I take two steps and pull them apart, then sit between them. "You kids are hopeless! You can't even play a stupid childish drinking game without me." I turn to look at Gloria, who looks furious. She gets up to her feet, walks around me, and sits next to Marco again.

"Now, let's play, shall we?" Gloria looks like she's going to hit me.

Marco clears his throat and then says,

"Newcomer, truth or dare?"

"Dare," I say almost instantly. "Truths are for pussies."

"Take a shot of whisky."

"Seriously?" I unscrew the cap off the bottle, which Marco hands me, and take a swig directly from the bottle. "Amateurs. Alex, truth or dare?"

"Truth."

"Did you have sex in more than one bed last night?"

Alex looks down at her hands and blushes intensely. I glance at Nate, who's grinning like an idiot.

"Y-es." Alex stutters.

"What was that?" I put my hand to my ear.

"Yes," she says, more firmly this time. Gloria and Lydia burst out laughing and start teasing their friend. Alex looks like she'd be very happy if the ground opened under her feet and swallowed her whole.

"I thought so. Good thing I called housekeeping, while you were out, then," I look around the circle.

Mortification is written all over Alex's face. She takes a couple of deep breaths, before saying,

"Patrick, truth or dare?"

"Dare," he says. "Truths are for pussies." He looks me square in the eye.

"Show us the last message you sent on your phone."

Patrick hesitates for a bit, but then pulls his phone out of his pocket and opens a messaging app. He shows it first to Alex, who makes a face of pure adoration and says "Awww," before Patrick shows his phone to everyone else.

Of course, his last message is a photograph of a fucking puppy!

"That's my dog, Shelly," he says. "She's an Australian Cattle Dog. She lives with my grandfather now."

I glance at Lydia, who is sitting right across from me. Her eyes are glued to Patrick and she looks like she's about to liquefy and puddle in his feet.

Dammit!

"My turn," Patrick says. "Lydia, truth or dare?"

I look at Lydia, waiting for her answer.

"Truth."

"Who was your first kiss?"

I feel a jolt of electricity coarsing through my veins and I don't even know why. Unable to control my body, I lean a little forward, in anticipation of her answer.

Throughout the years, Lydia has been the most secretive about her love life. I told her and Gloria when I lost my virginity. I just didn't tell them the details, even though they were begging me to.

Gloria was blabbing on and on about her first kiss for a week after it had happened. At some point, I had to tell her to shut up about it.

Lydia, though, hasn't told me anything. She used to tell me when she had a crush on someone, but that all changed when she met Alex. Then, she stopped confiding in me about boys. I guess she thinks it's weird because I am a boy. I didn't mind it, though. Maybe she confides in Alex and Gloria now. Girls talk, I guess.

I'm watching her, as she blushes almost as intensely as Alex did when I asked her about her truth. She swallows and looks down at her crossed legs.

"I can't answer that," she says, lifting her face and looking Patrick straight in the eye. "Because it hasn't happened yet."

I suck in a harsh breath. I panic that someone's noticed, but then I look around and realize I wasn't the only one. Patrick looks like he's about to pass out from embarrassment. Marco, that bastard, looks at Lydia, pityingly shaking his head. Gloria looks at her friend knowingly.

And then it hits me. If Lydia says she has never been kissed before, then, when I kissed her last night, that was her first kiss!

I was her first kiss!

I put my hand over my eyes and rub them vigorously.

There's no way I could have known, I try to reason with myself. She's almost sixteen, and smoking hot, how was I to know she's never been kissed before?

What the hell? And the fact that she's now saying she's never been kissed before means she really doesn't remember anything from last night!

Fuck!

I can't even look at her. I suddenly feel awful about last night.

"OK, stop looking at me like that!" She says. "My turn. Gloria, truth or dare?"

"Truth," Gloria says.

But I can't even hear what comes next, or what Gloria says or does. I glance up at Lydia and memories from last night come rushing into my head.

"I think I like you, too...No, I actually love you! I'm not sure, though...

"You're not sure?"

"No. Never loved anyone before. Don't know what it feels like..."

"You know how we find out? You have to kiss me."

"That's the only way I'll know if I love you."

"I'm not kissing you!"

"C'm ooonn, I have to know..."

"Lydia, I'm not doing it!"

"Pleeeaasee..."

"Please, kiss me..."

I close my eyes and cover her lips with mine.

Oh, my God!

"Mmm...", she murmurs, "I know now."

"You know what, baby?"

"I know that I love you..."

"Mark!" Someone calls my name. I snap out of my trance. "Are you OK?" Gloria's looking at me with her eyebrow raised. I clear my throat.

"Yes, I'm fine." I look around. everyone's staring at me. Oh, God, how long did I faze out for?

"Truth or dare?" Gloria asks.

"Dare," I say absent-mindedly, not caring about the stupid game anymore.

I have other things to focus on.

"Kiss Lydia."