Page 20 of We’re All Going to Die Tonight!

“Well, well,” he says, sipping his drink. “Look who gets another chance—”

“Dare,” I say, not making the same mistake again. “Just give me a dare, Emerson, so we can move on.”

He chuckles.

“Oh, I can give you a dare,” Emerson says, rubbing his chin thoughtfully, “but it needs to be a good one.”

He casts his eyes around the room as Javi retakes his seat next to Kaitlyn and Lucas settles where Caulder had been sitting next to Marlene. Caulder sits on the other side, shoulders still tense. Emerson looks past them, considering the rest of the room. His gaze roves over every inch of the space, and I do my best not to follow it. The last thing I want is for Emerson to know he’s getting under my skin. I fold my arms over my chest, even though Mom’s told me not to. Apparently, it doesn’t improve my resting bitch face.

Right now, though, I don’t care. In fact, let Emerson get the full effect. Maybe it’ll scare him off from giving me a terribly embarrassing dare.

But his eyes don’t stay on me. They pop between me and Caulder, and I see the exact moment that an idea takes root there. One I’m certain I’m not going to like.

“I dare you to make out with Caulder,” he says.

I don’t even have time to compute the words before Caulder says, “No.”

Emerson stares at him as if he doesn’t understand. “Excuse me?”

“No,” Caulder says. “We’re not making her do something she doesn’t want to do.”

“So you’re turning down a dare?” Emerson says, looking from me to Caulder.

“It’s not his dare,” Javi points out.

“But it involves him,” Marlene reasons. “That’s not fair, is it?”

“Maybe we should let Avery talk,” Kaitlyn says, raising an eyebrow as she looks over at me. “She’s being unusually quiet.”

And I am being unusually quiet, but that’s because words have completely left my body. I have no idea what to say. Because of course I don’t want to make out with Caulder in front of everyone. But also…He clearly doesn’t want to do that with me.

“What if it wasn’t public?” Emerson says. “What if you just had to go into that room over there and make out?”

He points down the edge of the hall to a room with two open doors. It’s too dark and too far away to see much of what’s inside from where we are, but I think I spot a few bookshelves inside.

“But we wouldn’t even get to see it!” Lucas says.

“Are you talking about, like, a seven-minutes-in-heaven thing?” Kaitlyn clarifies. “I thought that only happened in old movies.”

My cheeks flare with heat, and I start to stumble words out before Emerson interjects.

“You know what, yes, I do mean a seven-minutes-in-heaven thing.” Emerson smirks. “They have to go in that room and make out. Or not. But they have to stay in there for seven minutes. That’s how it works, right?”

“Fine,” I say, just wanting to get it over with. “We’ll go in there for seven minutes. And that’ll be my dare.”

I meet Caulder’s eyes, seeing if he’ll agree to this.

“It’s just seven minutes,” he says. “What could possibly go wrong?”

Chapter 11

Marlene

October 17

12:35 a.m.

I let out a sigh of relief when Caulder and Avery disappear into the room. This game was getting too close to things that need to stay secret, scratching at doors that can never be opened.