Page 80 of My Fault

Shit, now the bottle was pointing at Nick.

“Truth or dare?” I asked him, a little brusquely.

“Dare, obviously.”

I tried to think of something that would really irritate him, but before I could, Sophie butted in.

“Take off your shirt,” she ordered him, and I huffed as I watched her devour him with her eyes.

“That’s not an actual dare,” I said.

“You should learn to be faster, little sister,” Nick said, stripping it off. All the other girls in the room must have been as entranced by his physique as I was. He was still to die for, even with the bumps and bruises Ronnie and his guys had dealt out to him.

“Thanks for the view, Nick. My turn,” Jenna said, reaching out and spinning the bottle.

Dammit.I was up. I almost shivered wondering what she’d ask me.

“Truth or dare?”

“Truth,” I shrugged.

“Tell us the worst thing you’ve ever done in your life,” Jenna said. She thought I was a good little girl who never did anything out of the ordinary. If only she knew…

Seeing the mocking looks on everyone’s faces, I felt the urge to open their eyes, but did I really want to tell them about the thing that had been eating me up inside since I was eleven? No. Honestly, I didn’t.

“I stole a pack of gummy candy from a store in my town when I was nine. They caught me, and I tried to run off, and I ended up pulling down two shelves full of stuff. I was grounded for a month. I’ve never stolen anything since then,” I said, remembering that day affectionately. The chase had been the most fun part.

Everyone laughed.

Some friend of Nick’s whose name I’d forgotten had to spinthe bottle this time. He’d had his eye on me all night. To my great displeasure, it slowed down and came to a stop on me again.

“Truth or dare?” he asked with a twisted smile.

“Dare,” I decided, since I’d pickedtruthlast time, but I had the feeling I might have made the wrong choice.

“Take off your dress,” he said, and the blood rushed into my face.

No. I couldn’t do that. The lights were too bright; everyone would be able to see every inch of my body.

Nicholas didn’t seem to like the idea, either. All I wanted was for him to come up with something that would get me out of it.

“Can I change back?” I asked.

Anna, clearly amused, asked me whether I had some kind of hang-up about my body. “It’s just a game,” she said.

“You can change,” Nick grunted. Everyone protested, but there was no changing his mind, and they had to give in.

“Fine. Since you didn’t want to go along the first time, your dare is going to be a little more complicated,” Anna said. I could tell she was enjoying making me suffer. I had the urge to get up and smack her in the head with the bottle. Triumphantly, she continued, “So you’ve got to go into that closet and make out with Sam.”

What the hell? No way I was getting in some dark closet. This night was going from bad to worse.

“Great!” Sam said.

“I’ll do it,” I said, “but here. I’m not getting in any closet.”

“Why?” Anna asked.

“She’s afraid of the dark,” Nicholas said. I couldn’t believe he’d just blurted that out without any consideration for me. Everyone cracked up.