Chapter 5

OLIVER

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I wanted to jump off a cliff. A really high one. And suffer a painless death.

“Actually,” I smiled nervously, “I’m tired. ” I faked a yawn that was so bad I’m partially sure it was a crime.

“But this is your favourite game,” Rick said.

Shit. He was right. It would be weird if I backed out.

Judah was staring at me with a blank expression. I looked back from him to the others, contemplating whether I should ask if we switch partners or risk Rick knowing that I don’t like Judah.

Jude must have caught on my thoughts because a shadow of a smile swept across his face. He seemed really interested in whether I would go ahead with that.

I plastered a grin facing everyone. “Let’s do this. This is going to be fun. Right Jude?”

Jude rolled his eyes, scoffing. He walked past me, clearly not in the mood for pretenses. He didn’t like me. I didn’t like him. It was simple.

I inwardly rolled my eyes and padded my feet to where he was standing careful to put some distance between us.

From the corner of my eye, I saw Casey trying to hide a laugh.

Bastard, I thought.

“Now,” he winked at me and joined JJ to explain the rules for Jude’s sake. I risked a glance at Jude’s face and he had the most bored expression-like nothing could impress him, including our games.

Suddenly, a wave of determination overtook me. I’d made this game. Like hell you’re going to be bored with it.

I grabbed Jude’s arm and raised my hand . Casey must have not expected that because his eyes widened.

He cleared his throat. “Judah and Oliver.”

Jude must have not expected the dare either because he looked at my hand on his arm then at me like I was crazy. I let go of him and whispered, “Be a man.”

“I’ll start the dare,” I declared and faced Jude. “I dare you to pretend you’re Barbie and your favourite dress has been ruined.”

Jude recoiled from me and I knew I’d hit my jackpot. He and his friends were always making fun of me liking girly stuff. An attack on his masculinity now was the perfect vengeance.

Jude took a deep breath and regained his composure. He glanced at JJ. “I choose scare.”

I silently cheered. I’d been waiting for that.

“Your scare is…” JJ rummaged through the hand-made stacks until he picked one at the bottom. He unfurled it. “To get on your knees and worship your partner like a god for 30 seconds.”

Jude looked horrified. “No way. I choose dare.”

“You can’t backtrack on a scare,” Casey said.

“That’s a stupid rule.”

“Well It’s my game and I made the rules. Now will you do it or will you forfeit and look like a loser.”

Jude’s jaw muscles clenched and unclenched several times. He looked like he might fly at Casey and rip his head off. Then he took a deep breath and went to his knees, muttering something under his breath.

“Oh, Oliver…great and magnificent Oliver,” he choked on those words. “How mighty you are, how…”

“Can’t hear you,” I said, smiling down at him.

Jude cursed. He restarted his chant with his voice a little louder though it wasn’t necessary as his voice was so deep you could hear him whisper. I was doing it to annoy him.

I made him restart about 4 times before he got fed up. “Thirty seconds are up.”

“Are they?” Casey asked innocently. I could tell he was enjoying this too. “I could have sworn…”

Jude gave him a menacing look. Casey swallowed. “Thirty seconds are up. Scare completed.”

Jude stood up. He cast me a baleful look that promised horrific things when my turn came up but I didn’t care. My ego had skyrocketed. I’d be laughing at him for days.

Next up was JJ. Casey dared him to frog-jump around the room twice while spanking himself. Learning from Jude, he obviously didn’t pick Scare though he ended up being a panting mess when he was done. He was also red from embarrassment as by the time he was done we were laughing our asses off.

I made a mental note never to partner with Casey for Dare or Scare.

Rick’s dare was the most basic. He dared Vanessa to act like Michael Jackson and dance like him too. Vanessa surprised us all with the fact she did it flawlessly.

Now it was round two and it was back to my team again. My fingers began to tremble, my back stiffening. Jude looked at me evilly and I swallowed. Maybe I should have gone easy on him.

“I dare you to lick the nearest toilet bowl on the inside…” he paused, relishing my look of horror, and continued, “and drink toilet water for one-no-two minutes.”

“God no,” I shuddered before gazing at Casey. “Scare. I choose scare.”

Casey tried to hide his disgusted expression. He picked the nearest handmade stack. He unfurled it, his frown lines deepening as he read it. Surely, it couldn’t be worse than Jude’s dare, could it?

Casey cleared his throat. “Your scare is…”he hesitated, shooting me a quick look that looked like worry before he continued. “Get on your partner’s lap, sing twinkle twinkle little star in their ear and kiss them goodnight.”

My world seemed to shatter. I saw Jude stiffen but I could not look at him. I couldn’t let him see how red my face was.

At the back of my mind, I wandered who between Casey and I wrote that. Whoever it was must have been horny. Creative and horny.

I couldn’t back out of this scare so only Jude could refuse. I knew for a fact he liked girls. He was a literal certified playboy in school.

On top of that, he displayed a hefty amount of toxic masculinity with a pinch of homophobia. And on top of that, he hated me.

All this amounted to a mountain of ‘No way will I be a part of this.’

Then he did something that absolutely blew my mind. He shimmied his hips on the beanchair he was on, patted his lap and said, “Let’s get this over with.”

Rick looked absolutely speechless. “Are you serious? Aren’t you going to back out?”

He took the words out of my mouth. By this time, my jaw was on the floor. He was actually going through with this.

My heart went into overdrive. I remembered all the times he called me a weakling. Right then, his eyes seemed to imply exactly that; A weakling too scared to do this scare.

Against every instinct in my body, I rose amd went up to Jude. Almost in a daze, I straddled his waist and sat on his lap, my hands on his chest.

The entire room seemed to be spinning, holding its collective breath….but I didn’t care. It was only me, Jude and my uneasy determination to complete this scare.

Jude looked bewildered like he hadn’t anticipated me to actually go through with the scare. Suddenly, he looked like he wanted to be anywhere but there.

“This doesn’t mean anything ok?” He whispered. He was mumbling his words, eating them out, his eyes shifting, “It doesn’t change anything. I’m only doing this because I have to.”

I nodded and leaned forward, beginning to sing twinkle twinkle little star. His heart began to beat faster in response. With him this close, I could smell the faint scent of Aftershave and lemon-scented shampoo on his clean-cut buzzcut. His lips were pink and luscious, a huge contrast to his dark-chocolate skin and I was starkly aware of how close I was to them.

As if he could read my thoughts, he turned his head away and I thought I could see his ears reddening.

My butt began to feel like it was sitting on something hard and I unconsciously shifted it. His grip on my waist tightened . His head snapped to my direction and we locked eyes.

Suddenly, all I could think about were his eyes. He had the prettiest of eyes. And his light moustache and goatee…my fingers twitched on his shoulders, wanting to feel them, their rough texture.

My hands moved to his chest and his muscles flexed underneath them. I craved to feel them, to sneak them my hands under his T-shirt and feel every crevice, every abs, every…
“Oh my gosh,” I whispered.

What was I thinking? I despised him. So why was I experiencing these thoughts, letting them run wild….

“Fuck,” Jude whispered making my voice falter. He was panting hard, his breath coming out in short sporadic bursts. His eyes were closed and I felt the overwhelming urge, like a wave threatening to knock me off my feet, to kiss them open. Where our arms were touching, a burning trail of fire and sparks ignited. I didn’t know where his body ended and mine began.

When Jude parted his lips, I couldn’t take it anymore. I didn’t care whether I’d finished the lullaby. I stood from his lap amd turned my back on my friends, clutching my chest. I should have kissed him to finish the scare but I could not. I feared a part of my brain would have exploded and I’d be a medical mess if I did that.

“Whew, is it getting hot in here?” Vanessa spoke breaking the silence.

Jude broke from his trance. He stood up like a taut wire being stretched. Before I could even process this, he bolted out of the room, leaving everyone in stunned silence.