Page 12 of The Beach House (The Kissing Booth)

It was late, and a few people had started to leave the party. The alcohol supply had mostly run out, and the buzz it had given people seemed to be fading.

“Okay,” Kory announced, heaving himself up from where he lay on the ground. He shook the sand out of his hair with one hand. “This is starting to get boring. Come on.”

So we did. We all got up and followed him from the clusters of partygoers to a small, dying campfire a little farther off, where we sat around on some logs.

After dumping a little more driftwood onto the fire, a guy called Miles said, “Truth or dare?”

“Sure,” everyone said, nodding. I wriggled into a more comfortable spot on the log and hooked my arm through Lee’s, feeling the chill of the night air now, glad he’d reminded me to bring a hoodie.

“I’ll go first!” Jess chirped. “Um…Maria! Truth or dare?”

“Truth.”

“Your most embarrassing moment. And don’t spare us any details.”

Maria’s olive cheeks turned pink. “Right. Okay. Ugh, I hate you for this. Right. So in my sophomore year of high school, some kid tripped me up in the canteen and I, um, I spilled my lunch all over the head cheerleader.”

“It doesn’t stop there.” Jess giggled. “Go on.”

Maria shot her a glare, but smiled a little. “My pants ripped when I fell.”

There was a moment of silence. Then we all burst out laughing.

“Oh my gosh,” I gasped. “Are you serious?”

“Honestly, girl, I wish I wasn’t. My turn,” Maria said. “But, Jess, I am going to get you back for that one later. Hmm, who should I…Miles.”

“Yep.”

“Truth or dare?”

“Dare.”

“I dare you…to…Oh, God, I’m terrible at dares! Someone else think of one.”

“I’ve got one,” a boy called Hunter put in. “See those guys over there?” He pointed and we all looked around. Miles nodded. “Go pants one of them.”

Miles’s eyebrows went up. “Those guys are huge.”

Hunter shrugged. “Probably drunk, though.”

Miles sighed. “If I get a black eye, dude, you are so getting your ass kicked.”

We all watched as Miles walked over to the group of guys. He kept looking back over his shoulder like he was expecting one of us to tell him he didn’t have to go through with the dare. But the guys didn’t notice him as he got closer.

Then, in one hurried motion, he yanked the khakis of the closest guy down and spun round, sprinting for the safety of our little campfire so fast he fell face-first into the sand and did a forward roll. My eyes widened in panic as I wondered if he was all right.

He was back on his feet in a second, though, and his legs flailed around madly as he made his way toward us.

The guy whose pants were now round his ankles was either too stunned or simply too drunk to pull them back up before trying to run after Miles.

At that point, I had to laugh. Lee fell off the log because he was laughing so hard, and I wasn’t the only one clutching my sides as Miles collapsed back in his spot.

“My…turn,” he panted. “Nathan, truth or dare?”

And on it went. After we cracked open the supplies Jess had brought along to make s’mores, Lee was dared to fit as many marshmallows in his mouth as he could.

(For the record, it was fourteen.) I had a truth—what was my first kiss?

It was fun, though, and when it came to truths, I didn’t have a problem with sharing stuff with these random people, however embarrassing.

I would probably never see them again, so why should I care what they thought of me?

Everything was going great until Hunter said, “Elle. Truth or dare?”

And I replied, “Dare. No! No, wait, truth!”

“Too late,” Kory said in an irritating singsong voice. “You already said dare.”

“I dare you,” Hunter said, “to go skinny-dipping.”

I blinked. Then I blinked again. Eventually, I said, “Huh?”

“You know, skinny-dipping,” he repeated. “In the sea.”

I looked round, over my shoulder, at the sea. It was as dark as the sky; the only way I could distinguish between them was by the white, foamy tips of waves.

“Um,” I said, fiddling with the zipper on my hoodie. “Yeah, no thanks.” It was pitch-black out there—not to mention freezing in the water. And I was not about to actually skinny-dip. I’d almost tried to at one of Lee and Noah’s parties once, after too many drinks. I’d never been so embarrassed.

Lee piped up, “There’s no way she’s doing that. What if she drowned? Are you as big an idiot as you look?”

Hunter scowled at Lee. “What the hell’s it got to do with you, huh? It’s no big deal. Everyone does it.”

Lee shook his head. “Wow,” he scoffed. “You’re actually an even bigger idiot than I had you pinned for.”

Hunter shot to his feet.

Lee was standing in a split second.

The two of them just stood there, glaring at each other.

“Hey—you don’t have to be a substitute Noah,” I muttered, but loud enough that Lee heard me, since the rest of our little circle was so hushed. “One is enough.”

I saw something flash across my best friend’s face. It was somewhere between amusement and wanting to roll his eyes at me. But he fought hard to keep on glaring at Hunter.

“Fine,” Hunter snapped, sitting back down. “You can do the forfeit.”

“I’ll do the forfeit,” I said.

“You guys have to make out, that’s the forfeit,” Jess said hastily, before Hunter had a chance to open his mouth.

“What?” I exclaimed, whipping my head round to look at Hunter. “You’re joking. Absolutely no way in hell that’s happening.”

“Not Hunter,” Jess clarified, grinning. “You and Lee.”

“What?” Lee and I both cried. I added, “Now I know you’re joking.”

“Nuh-uh.” Nathan shook his head, his smile growing a little. “Your forfeit is to kiss Lee.”

“Why am I involved in this?” Lee demanded.

“You were fine with getting involved a minute ago,” Hunter muttered at him.

“Yeah, but—” I started.

Lee said, “I have a girlfriend, though. I can’t—”

“And I have a boyfriend.”

“So what?” Kory shrugged. “Neither of them is here, right? And it’s just one harmless dare. Nobody even has to know.”

“Did he really just say that?” Lee asked nobody in particular.

“Did you have to?” I whined, turning to Jess. “Really?”

She arched an eyebrow at me. “Would you have preferred Hunter to give you a forfeit?”

“I guess not,” I mumbled back. “But—”

“You two look so close. I mean, seriously. Tell me. Have you ever even tried it?”

“No, because—”

“Well, now you’ll know. If it is true love, you can thank me later.” Then, loud enough that the others could hear her, she said, “Come on, you two, don’t chicken out on us. Suspense is building. Tension is high. All that jazz.”

I turned to look at Lee.

“Um,” he said.

“Um,” I replied.

I searched his face, and I knew he was thinking the exact same thing as me: This is not happening.

I couldn’t kiss him. It was way too—

“There.”

I blinked, and I missed it. I don’t think he even really put his lips on my cheek long enough for it to constitute a kiss.

“No, that doesn’t count!” Damien told us teasingly. “That was barely the kind of kiss you give your grandma. Man up.”

They were all egging us on, drumming their knees and shouting.

Even if we were both totally and completely single, I knew there was no way I could ever kiss Lee.

What if it made things permanently weird between us? What if it wrecked everything?

Also—neither of us was single. I never backed down from dares usually, but this was different. I wasn’t about to kiss anybody else, especially not for some stupid dare, to shut up people I’d never see again.

And Lee had to be thinking the same, surely.

I heard Lee sigh, and because he was sitting so close to me I felt his breath wash over my face and neck; it sent a shiver down my spine.

“Well,” he mumbled, low enough for only me to hear. “They can never tell us we didn’t try it.”

And I just thought, He’s going to kiss me .