I Dare You by Jessica Pham (books to read to get smarter TXT) 📖

Prologue~

My name is Kayla, and this whole fucking thing started with a dare.


~ Spin the bottle ~

Oh good god. Him, really? I grimaced, he’s cute, don’t get me wrong, but he just isn’t my type. He has dark, curly hair, and his chocolate colored eyes gleam mischievously, as if he were thinking dirty stuff about us girls. And he’s one of those guys who would flirt with every girl alive. Player.
Ehh, who cares, here I go… I stood up, walked over to where KJ was sitting and leaned toward KJ and gave him a kiss, which turned out to be really nice, his kiss was soft, and gentle. I smile and go back to my spot in the circle. Mary turns to me and smiles. Huh, he ain’t such a bad kisser after all.
My friends and I are playing spin the bottle; I have no idea why I agreed to do this, but I did. Its little kid game I know, but hey, when you’re a senior in high school, things get…interesting.
I snuck a glance at Mike, he wasn’t looking my way, but I could tell that he had a frown on his handsome face. I’ll talk to him later, I thought. Mike has been my best friend for as long as I could remember. He’s like my brother. I even have a nickname for him!! Wanna hear it?? Get ready… Surfer Dude. I call him that because he has blond hair. He looks so adorable when he flips it! He hates his nickname, which is part of the reason why I love it so much.
I looked at KJ and he’s staring at me. I raised my eyebrow and at him and he turns away. Huh, weird.
“So!! This game is pretty boring, who wants to play truth or dare?” I ask the guys. Mary, KJ, Max, Jen, Lauren, Chris, Flinn, and a dude I don’t know nodded their heads. Who the hell is that dude?? I swear if he’s a rapist then imma call da cops on him!! Why didn’t I notice him earlier?
“Who the hell are you?” I asked the dude.
“S’cuse me?” He asked in a low voice. Woa, I never knew peoples voices can go that low!!
“I said, who the hell are you?” I asked again, but this time I say it slow, like I’m talking to a child.
“My name is Nick.” Nick says equally slow. What the fuck? ‘Kay, so lemme get this straight. This dude comes into my house and actually has the nerve to talk to me like imma kid?
“Nice to meet chu Nick. And who invited you to my house?” I ask suspiciously.
He smiled evenly at me while I stared back at him with narrowed eyes. My friends are looking at Nick like he just magically appeared in my room. Mike was the only one who wasn’t staring so he cleared his throat and we all whipped our heads towards him. “What?” I asked. He didn’t say anything so I turned back around but Nick was gone. Just like that. POOF.


~ The Forest ~

What the hell? This is starting to feel like I’m in one of those creepy movies where the girl invites her friends over for a slumber party and they all end up dead the next morning.
“Ohhhkay! So, truth or dare Max?” I ask. He considers it for a moment before saying, “Truth.”
“Aww, your no fun!” I complained. “Fine. Is it true you asked Jessekah out to the movies?” I asked in a bored voice.
Max shifted uncomfortably before answering, “Yea.” “Ok, truth or dare Kayla?”
“Dare!” I replied enthusiastically. “I dare you… to go in the forest, and stay there the whole night with Mike!” he said with an evil edge in his voice. “Ight. Aye, Surfer Dude. C’mon, let’s go!” I said grabbing my coat and flashlight. “Don’t do anything fun without me!” I yelled behind my back, earning chuckles behind me.
We silently crossed the backyard to the forest, located behind my house. When we entered the dark forest, I turned around with a worried look on my face. Mike had taken an interest in his shoes, and his hands were jammed inside his pockets.
“Mike?” I asked. No reply. I walked to him and grabbed his shoulders. “Mike, look at me.” I demanded. He wouldn’t look up so I dropped my hands and started towards the house. I turned around and Mike was already walking deeper into the forest. Perfect, he didn’t suspect a thing. I was tempted to do my evil laugh right then and there but decided not to.
I quickly and quietly ran to him, trying to jump on him from behind to cheer him up like we used to do when we were kids. But at the last moment, I jumped up and… missed. Whaa? His back was just to me and now we’re face to face. Intense moment here!

~ Wtf? What just happened? ~

My heart beat faster as I looked into his eyes. They were electric blue, and I couldn’t help but notice how cute he is. The way his dimples showed when he smiled. His intense eyes bored into me, and my breath quickened. Dammit, this is my best friend we’re talking about here! Ahhh! Dear Lord.
The next thing I knew, his lips were on mine, kissing me hungrily. I kissed back with the same amount of hunger, and he wrapped his tan, muscled arms around my waist. I reached up on my tip-toes and wrapped my arms around his neck. Wow, this guy right here is even better than KJ! I slid my hands down and felt his lean upper body. Wait. This is my best friend I’m making out with right now..
Holy crap! I could feel a fit of laughter build up inside my chest; I just had to ruin the moment did I? I couldn’t help it anymore I pushed away and burst out laughing.
Mike had this confused look on his face and I laughed even harder, clutching my sides. I… can’t… breath! “Kayla, are you ok?” he exclaimed, out of breath. “Hold up, I needa chill for a sec.” I answered, still out of breath.
A few minutes later I calmed down a little. Mike looked at me with an amused look on his face. “Sorry.” I apologized. “No worries, you’re always cracking up at the wrong times” he chuckles. “Ha.” I said sarcastically.
“So, what happened back there at the house?” I asked. “Shouldn’t you know by now?” he replied.
I raised my eyebrow. “No, I don’t know.” Yup, I’m always the clueless one in the family.
He just smiled and dodged the question. “C’mon! Let’s see what’s in the forest!” he grabbed my hand and pulled me deeper into the darkness. It was 30 minutes later when I noticed that the air around us was friggin’ 20 degrees! I shook violently and Mike, being the perfect gentleman he is, handed me his jacket. I was too cold to go through the oh-but-it’s-yours-and-then-fight-
over-who-gets-it routine, so I just grabbed it and put it on, on top of my other one. My PJ’s weren’t really helping, because they were thin as a leaf, and my jacket was thin too. I turn around after putting the jacket on and look at Mike behind me. “Thank you.” I said. “No problem,” he said.
I wrapped the jacket over both of us and smiled at him. “Are you cold?” I asked. “Nah.” he answered, and we continued our walk. I tripped a couple of times over thick roots that covered the ground and blushed. Hopefully, Mike couldn’t see in the dark, like, night vision or something. I ran my hand over the rough surface of a tree, feeling the texture. I turn back to Mike. “Hey, do you know what time it is?” I asked. “Uh,” he checked his phone, “11 o’ clock.” “Wow, we’ve been out here for like, 3 hours already.” I stated. He nodded, “What should we do?” I yawned, “Lets find a place to sleep.” Wow, boy was I tired, my eyes started drooping and I swayed. Mike chuckles and all of a sudden, I’m being lifted up into his arms, bridal style. I smile and looked up at him and his eyes connected with mine. I look down and snuggled in his arms. He kept on walking and I drifted off to sleep.

~ The Meadow ~

I woke up when we stopped. He gently lets me down and I looked around. It’s dark, so I can’t see very well. I didn’t feel like turning my flashlight on, but I could see faint outlines of trees surrounding us. It seems like we’re in a meadow. How we got here, I don’t know. The meadow had tall, green grass that swayed slowly in the wind. I shiver and pull my jacket closer. Mike is collecting twigs and other stuff to make a fire.
Ten minutes later, we have a warm, cackling fire. Mike and I sit on the ground right next to each other and stare into it.
Mike reaches over and grabs my hand. I squeeze it and put it on my lap, faintly tracing patterns on the back of his hand. He had his legs out in front of him and one arm out behind him. I’m sitting criss-cross-applesause. I suddenly had this strange urge to go sit in his lap. Man, it looked comfortable! Ehh, what the hell? I let go of his hand and scooched over into his lap. I can feel him smiling and then he wraps his arms around my waist. I sigh and lean my head back against his shoulder and close my eyes. A couple of hours later, -I think- I woke up when a twig snapped. I’m a light sleeper. But Mike, on the other hand, can sleep through a hurricane. You usually have to jump on him or push him off the bed to wake him up. When he wakes up, he isn’t grumpy or anything, he’s as sweet as a pie. I didn’t want to wake Mike up, so I slowly lifted his arm from my stomach. Then I bent down and kissed his cheek. I grabbed my flashlight. I clicked on the flashlight and tip- toed towards the direction the noise came from, which is behind the trees that surround the meadow.
Don’t you hate tip- toeing? I do. When I tip- toe, my whole weight is moving back and forth between my tiny little toes and they hurt from putting all my weight on them for too long. I got to the edge of the clearing and into the big trees. I slowly scan my flashlight around, casting shadows on the trees. Creepy! I push through torn bushes, earning many scratches in the process. Then finally, I came to a clearing. It looked a lot like the meadow Mike and I were sleeping in. But the only different thing about it was that instead of the ground being covered with grass, this clearing had only dirt and rocks. Some of the rocks were as big as my head. Then all of a sudden, a figure steps out of the shadows. “Well, well. Nice to see you again.” the figure said. “Nick.” I breathed. And then he lunged at me. Damn, he was fast. He had me in a headlock and one of his hands over my mouth before I could scream, “Potato head.” This is incredibly fast because he was