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“Richard, this is my party. I don’t need you coming in here and ruining it!”
“Call me Dick, sweetheart. You know how much I hate that name.”
“C’mon Richard,” she replied, giving me a glare I’d always found sexy.
“I’m not going to ruin anything,” I said, glancing around at the less-than-lively atmosphere. “Jess, I’m here to get this place jumping!”
“Please, don’t—” she began, but before I heard another word out of her mouth, I was making my way to the sound system with my iPhone in hand. I wove my way through the other intellectuals my sister called friends and pushed aside the geek hovering over the stereo. It was a pretty sweet setup—something you could always count on at a nerd party was that they’d have the best tech to play with.
“Sorry, but this crap needs to go,” I said, unplugging the in-use iPod and tossing it to the makeshift DJ. I could certainly do without the greatest pop hits from the eighties. The moment I hit play, the walls thrummed with the deep bass as the sounds of Nelly’s The Fix pulsed through the speakers.
“Richard, what the hell!” Jessica screamed over the music. “Nobody here likes this—”
But before she could finish, a cheer had already risen up in the room. More and more people started to move in time with the beat and the sexually charged lyrics. It wasn’t long before most of the party was dancing dirty. The look on Jessica’s face was priceless, a mix of shock and indignation as she saw her friends start to grind against one another like they were in a club.
“See?” I asked, leaning down to whisper into her ear, “This is a party. They want to let loose for a change.”
She stood there in stunned silence, her eyes fixated on the people who she’d thought would never act so… dirty. I got a weird sense of enjoyment out of the way her perception of everything around her seemed to shatter, watching her question just how much she knew of the people around her and maybe what she knew about herself.
“I…” she stammered, watching as her once quiet party turn into something she’d never anticipated. Even her best friend Becky had started to shake her ass on the dance floor, much to Jessica’s dismay.
“You’re going to have to get used to parties like this, Jess,” I said over the music. “This is what college life is all about.”
She let out a muted cry of frustration, lost amongst the throbbing bass before she turned and walked into the crowd to collect her friend and save her from my devilish music. I couldn’t help but laugh at the way she stomped away, furious that even at her own party I could turn everything upside down.
But I was only just getting started.
“Anyone looking to have a little real fun, follow me!” I shouted to the crowd before turning heel.
“Truth or Dare!” I shouted, pushing open the door to what I assumed must have been the master bedroom. By Becky’s squeals of protest behind me, I knew I’d picked the right door. Spinning round I took stock of my latest followers. Sure enough, the girls who’d met me on my way in were here, along with Becky and a few of Jessica’s other nerdy friends. Surprisingly, Jessica herself had come along, arms crossed and her brow furrowed. She looked ready to breathe fire.
“We’re not doing that!” Jessica said over the throbbing music still pulsing in through the open door.
“Not going to play the best party game ever created?”
“I think you mean the worst, Dick,” Jessica snapped, leaning against the walls as the others all made themselves comfortable around me. “Who the heck wants to be dared to do stupid things like stand on their head or tell their secrets?”
I let out a loud, almost mocking laugh.
“Oh, you sweet, innocent, girl,” I said, sitting myself down on the floor, two bashful little wallflowers quickly taking up the spaces on either side of me. “We’re all at least eighteen, Jess. Tonight we’re breaking out the adult version of ‘Truth or Dare.’_”
Everyone crowded around in a circle, some of the party guests sitting on Becky’s mom’s bed while others crowded around on the floor, nervous smiles on all of their faces. I knew kids like these were just waiting for excuse to cut loose and go a little wild, and I had every intention of being the person to set that powder keg off.
“This is so stupid,” Jess muttered, taking a seat opposite me on the floor, her legs folded demurely. “We were having fun before you got here, Richard.”
But from the mutterings and nervous squirming of the other guests, that statement seemed less than accurate. Even Becky couldn’t meet Jessica’s gaze, biting her lip as she glanced over at one of the other boys in the group—a boy who looked a little familiar, though I couldn’t exactly place him.
Jessica too seemed to notice everyone else’s discomfort and frowned, her face turning that cute shade of red all over again. Seeing her mad was honestly the highlight of my life ever since our parents had moved in together and gotten married.
“Whatever,” she muttered after a moment, resigning herself to sitting back and playing the game. “But I’m not doing any of your stupid dares.”
“That works for me,” I said, chuckling as I searched for my first victim.
It was so hard to choose at first, but after a moment of watching everyone, my eyes kept coming back to Becky as she stared at the boy a few spaces away from herself. He wasn’t a terrible looking guy—in fact, there was a charming quality about him that I knew would drive some girls insane. I smirked, deciding that Becky would make for the perfect start to tonight’s festivities.
“Beckster!” I said, knowing full well how much she hated that name. “You’re first.”
“What?” she squeaked, her cheeks flushing with color as she looked around at all the other people around her. “Me?”
“That’s right, Beckerino,” I said, my grin growing wider the more nervous she became. With every new nickname, more giggles erupted from the crowd. “So, what’s it going to be? Truth or Dare?”
Her eyes widened and she gulped down what might have been her own bile. Becky was never one for the spotlight, and seeing her squirm was almost as much fun as seeing Jessica squirming herself, though that brought to mind a much different kind of squirming. Becky glanced down at her knees, sweat beginning to bead at her temples, wringing her hands as though I’d just asked her to choose between her parents and a bus full of children.
“Tick-tock, Becky. Take too long and I pick for you,” I said in a sing-song voice, which only seemed to make her more nervous.
“I—Dare! Wait! Truth!”
“Sorry, Becks, no take-backsies,” I said with my shit-eating grin. “Dare it is.”
Maybe it was just the kind of guy that I was, but dares were always my favorite, even when I was on the receiving end of them. Something about making people do what I wanted just did it for me in a way I couldn’t describe, even when I had to do something else in return.
“I dare you…” I began, making sure to draw my words out, enhancing the tension that seemed to bubble up in the room as all eyes turned on Becky. “I dare you to go into that closet and play a good, old-fashioned game of Seven Minutes of Heaven with whatever guy I send in there after you.”
“Seven Minutes of What?” Jessica asked, her tone incredulous. “What is this, the eighties?”
“I… okay…” Becky said, biting her lip and glancing again at the dark-haired guy she’d been eying since we’d sat down. “Just seven minutes, right?”
“Becky!” Jessica exclaimed, her eyes wide. I did my best to hold in my laughter, watching Becky shrug in response to Jessica’s objections before she disappeared into the roomy walk-in closet and shut the door behind her.
Jessica turned her venomous gaze back on me as I combed over the prospective gentlemen in the room, deciding on whether I should grant Becky’s silent wish of having the young man she’d been eyeing be the one to play the game with her. Deciding to be merciful, I granted her wish, pointing at the charming boy and motioning him to follow after Becky for his seven minutes.
Another distressed sound from my stepsister told me that I’d once again made the perfect choice as the young man smirked and eagerly strode across the room. I couldn’t shake how familiar that guy felt as he closed the door after him, blocking both he and Becky from sight.
“While they’re doing that, let’s move on to the next victim,” I said, my eyes immediately resting on my stepsister, an enormous grin on my face. Her face went immediately went pale, her frown deepening as I tapped my chin in thought. “Jessica… Truth or—”
“Truth,” she interrupted, her hands clenched on the hem of her skirt, hoping that avoiding a dare might save her from any undue embarrassment. I couldn’t help but laugh at just how wrong she was. “I told you I wasn’t going to do any of your stupid dares, you creep.”
“You’re sure you want to go with Truth? I mean, you have to answer whatever I ask. You get that, right?” I asked, biting my lip as the perfect question came to mind. “I’ll let you have one takeback. Just because you’re my stepsister.”
