58| Truth Or Dare

Travis leaned against the window in his room and stared at everyone playing cards near the lake. His eyes searched for Zoey but she was nowhere to be found. What if she was crying again?

He got his answer when Zoey entered the room and walked over to him. His eyes travelled down her body as he checked her out. She was wearing denim shorts and a black crop top, her hair pulled on top of her head in a messy bun. How can someone so pretty be interested in him, he wondered.

"Let's go. They are going to play Truth or Dare outside. It will be fun." She said and gripping his hand, dragged him with her.

Travis stopped at a spot and pulled her back towards his chest. "So, we aren't telling your friends about this experiment of ours. Right?" He asked, locking his arms around her small waist.

Due to their height difference, Zoey had to angle her neck to look at him. "Do you want to?" She asked.

"Do I want to suffer the wrath of your friends especially Althea? No thanks." Travis smiled and stared into her eyes. She was so pretty up close, with small freckles dusted all over her nose and the swirling brown pattern of her eyes.

"Why are you looking at me like this?" Zoey whispered, a faint blush appeared on her cheeks.

"Like what?" Travis asked, inclining his head towards her.

"Like this, with your eyes all passionate and warm." She replied.

"Isn't that how experimental boyfriends look at their experimental girlfriends?" He asked, making circles on her bare waist with his fingers.

Zoey shrugged and rested her forehead against his. "How will I know? The closest thing I had to a boyfriend was this guy in junior year. But my relationship with him was just physical."

Hearing this, Travis stilled and slowly pulled away, wrinkles appearing on his forehead.

"What now?" Zoey asked.

"Do I look like I want to hear about your sexual endeavours with other boys?" He scowled.

Zoey smiled at this. "Aww. Are you jealous?" She asked, pinching his cheeks.

"Yeah, right." Travis rolled his eyes and started walking. "Come on now. Let's go play with them."

"Okay, trial boyfriend." Zoey said and linked their hands together.

"Whatever, trial girlfriend." He replied.

Reaching the main door, they both parted away so not to cause any suspicion to anyone. "You go first." Travis said.

Nodding, Zoey made her way to her friends and sat down in an empty spot. Few minutes later, Travis came and sat down beside him. All eight of them were assembled in a circle, with a bottle in the middle.

Zachary picked up the empty beer bottle to initiate the game. "Just a warning guys, this game can be pretty serious. Don't play if you are going to chicken out any way." He announced and then rotated the bottle.

The bottle first stopped at Cindy and she chose Truth.

Zoey was the one sitting at the other end of the bottle and she didn't know her very well so she had no idea what to ask. After pondering for few minutes, she said, "Tell us a secret of yours."

Cindy exchanged a look with Ethan and sighed. "Well, Olive, Ethan and even Althea know so I guess there is no point in hiding anymore. Ethan and I aren't dating. I am gay. Whatever." She said and earned a few gasps from the rest of them.

"Moving on," Cindy said and rotated the bottle once again. This time, it rested on Maya and she chose Truth.

"So Maya," Ethan started asking. "What do you feel for our friend Zachary here?"

Suddenly, the playful atmosphere turned awkward as Maya became flustered and Zachary's eyed widened. "What... What do you mean?" She asked.

"Come on. I think you know what I mean." Ethan said and earned a glare from Zachary.

"I... Um... Well, he is nice. And a great person to be friends with." Maya said, lowering her gaze to the ground.

"Just friends?" Ethan asked.

"It was supposed to be just one question. Move on now." Travis interfered before they could embarrass Maya any more. That's what he disliked about these people; they are too open and doesn't give anyone their space.

Shrugging, Ethan rotated the bottle again. Next was Olive who was given the dare to do twenty Burpees which she did without breaking a sweat.

Then it was Althea's turn. Zoey was the one who was supposed to give her a dare so she chose to mess with her a little. "So, Althea, my dare to you is do a 30-second strip tease." She said.

"What?" She shouted in return. "I'm not a cheap stripper."

"So are you backing out?" Zoey lifted her eyebrows and asked innocently.

"No. Harpers don't back out." She said and stood up.

"I don't want to claw my eyes out so I better turn around." Zachary said and turned around in her spot. "Ethan and Travis. If you both dare to look at my sister, I'll kill you both." He announced with closed eyes.

"I can't promise anything." Ethan said and Althea rolled her eyes.

The song started and Althea slowly started to move with the rhythm. She slowly took off her top, revealing her flawless skin clad in black undergarments. Travis was staring at her uninterestingly when he felt a smack on the back of her head.

"What?" He asked Zoey.

"Eyes away, mister." She whispered. Everybody else was busy looking at Althea that nobody noticed what they both were doing.

"Are you jealous?" He smirked.

"Yeah, right." She said and turned her head back to Althea who was now taking off her shorts. "Thirty seconds are over. You can stop now."

They all settled on their seats again, except Ethan who looked genuinely distressed. When he excused himself to go to the bathroom, the rest of them started laughing.

"Why is everyone laughing?" Maya asked innocently and that made everyone laugh harder.

"I'll explain you later." Zoey said to her and they rotated the bottle again.

This time, the bottle landed towards Travis who groaned. He chose dare because he couldn't afford telling anyone the truth about Zoey.

"So your dare is, kiss anyone in this circle." Olive said. "Well, anyone except me. I don't kiss boys."

"Neither do I." Cindy said.

"Um..." Travis turned his head towards Maya and stared at her with begging eyes.

"Ew... No. I'm like your sister, idiot." She said, making a contorted face.

Travis couldn't kiss Zoey in front of everyone so he stared at the remaining female available.

"Don't even think about it, Walmart boy." Althea said.

"I'd rather kiss a monkey anyway." Travis said under his breath and turned his head back towards Zoey.

"I guess you are the only option left." He said and leaned forwards to give her a peck. But just as he feared, he couldn't stop himself and ended up kissing her hard. Her delicious scent and expert mouth made him forget that they were in the presence of other people and he deepened the kiss. It was an unfamiliar cough that brought his sanity back and he pulled himself away.

Awkwardly, he stared back at everyone looking towards them. Zoey's cheeks were flushed and he was sure her own were just as red. Clearing his throat, he rotated the bottle again.

The bottle stopped at Zachary and he was dared to take off his shirt. "My pleasure, ladies." He said and pulled his T-Shirt over his head, revealing his tanned, muscular body.

The bottle was rotated again and it stopped at Zoey. She chose Truth and it was Ethan's turn to ask questions, who had a reputation for asking really uncomfortable things. "So Zoey, where did you lose your virginity?"

"Um..." Zoey took a long breath and gave a quick glance to Travis, who didn't look happy with this question. "It was in a movie theatre. We were sitting in the back and there were very few people in the theatre."

"Oooh, kinky." Someone made a weird noise and the rest of them started laughing.

They all started again and this time, Ethan was dared to do fifty push-ups. When everybody was focused at Ethan, Travis scooted closer to Zoey.

"In a movie theatre? Really?" He asked.

"Yep." Zoey shrugged.

"Don't expect me to do things like that. I am a vanilla person, Zoey." Travis replied.

"I know." She winked. "Just so you know, it turns out that vanilla is my favourite flavour."

Both of them kept looking at each other until the fifty push-ups were done and the game started again.

•••••••••••

They were on their way back to home. The seating arrangement was the same as before so Travis ended up in the back seat of Zachary's car with Zoey. Few minutes into the journey, Zoey's snores filled the car and Maya's joined her moments later.

With every jump, Zoey's sleepy head bumped against the back of the driver seat. To ease her, Travis shifted her position in a way that the upper half of her body was now lying on him. For a moment, she opened her eyes and passed a brief smile to Travis, that caused him to place a small kiss on her forehead.

Once he focused his eyes back to the front, he noticed Zachary's eyes on them through the mirror. Travis suddenly felt uncomfortable on being caught but for some reason, Zachary didn't comment.

The rest of the drive, he kept looking at the dark road. Somewhere along the way, sleep overcame him and the next thing he knows, someone was calling his name.

He opened his eyes and found Zachary's face right in front him. "We are at Zoey's house. It's 3 in the night so what do you say? Instead of driving everybody home, you can stay here and Maya can sleep at our guest room." Zachary asked.

Travis yawned and stretched his arms before contemplating. It was late and it was definitely a better option than wasting the time driving everyone to their homes.

"Okay." Travis said and tried to wake Zoey.

"Don't bother. I have been trying for the past five minutes. She won't wake up." Zachary said.

Blowing some air out of his mouth, Travis walked out of the car and then picked Zoey up in his arms. The guard opened the door for him and he took her inside. The whole mansion was drowned in darkness and it took him some effort to reach her room.

Once he did, he pushed the door open with his legs, switched on the lights with his shoulder and then lay her down on the bed. Within no time, she sprawled over the bed in a way that her tiny body covered the whole bed.

"Move over, lady hulk. I am sleeping here too." He said and then turned off the lights.

"Can't stay away from me, can you Anderson?" She muttered in sleepy voice and moved to a side.

"I try my best." He said and lay down beside her, pulling the blanket on top of both of them.

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