Allison

"I'll pick Allison," Sam said. "What's your pleasure, Alli? Truth or Dare?"

Allison pondered for a moment. "I'll go Truth," she says.

"Fine. In keeping with the theme for the evening - let's say you had to spend the night naked in a bed with one of the girls in this room. Who would you pick?"

Allison's jaw dropped. "What the hell kind of question is that?" she asked. "I'm not a lesbian!"

"No one said you were," Erica said. "She didn't say whose pussy would you lick, she just asked who you'd pick to spend the night with."

"Whoever doesn't snore, then," Allison said.

"Come on, Allison," Sam said. "We want a real answer."

"And it has to be the truth!" Anita threw in. "You can't just pick one at random. You have to think about it."

Allison glanced over the room - the twins, waiting with undisguised anticipation; Suki, who looked even more embarrassed than Allison herself, and turned away when their eyes met; Anita, who seemed amused by the whole situation; Cathy, who didn't actually seem to care; and Jo. Jo was unreadable, and it wasn't just the sunglasses.

"Okay," Allison said. "It would be... Jo."

"Me? Why?" Jo asked.

"I don't have to answer that," Allison said.

"Is it because I'm blind?" Jo asked. "So I wouldn't see you naked, or something? Come on, you owe me some kind of answer. Not because of the game, but because I just think it would be decent of you to tell me."

Allison felt all the eyes in the room on her. "It's not because of that," she mumbled. "Look, can we just get on with this?"

The room felt suddenly very uncomfortable.

"Um, I didn't mean to cause a problem," Sam said.

Anita stood up. "Look, we're all getting along really well here, and it would be a shame for us to have a problem now over some silly game. I think we should take Allison at her word and move on. Maybe she was just picking at random because she didn't really have time to think about it; maybe she figured that Jo would be more comfortable with the idea because, after all, she was feeling Cathy's breasts and kissing Erica a moment ago."

"God, when you put it like that..." Jo said sardonically.

"I'm not trying to put you on the spot here either, Jo," Anita said.

"All right," Allison said, standing up herself. "I'll try to explain. But I want something in return, since I'm essentially having to go twice in a row here."

"Sounds fair," Cathy nodded. The rest of the room agreed.

"Okay," Allison said, taking a deep breath. "Um... I'm trying to figure out how best to put this..." She took a few more deep breaths and swallowed. "I admit that it does, in a way, have something to do with the fact that you're blind."

"Go on," Jo said.

"See, I came from a black neighborhood. My friends were all black, everyone I knew was black, it was the culture I grew up in. Then I came to this town, and all of a sudden I'm a 'minority'. People take second glances at me when I walk down the street. Other students look at me, and I wonder, do they think I'm here on some kind of quota program? It's something I've always heard about, but I never lived it until now, and it really bothers me."

There was silence in the room.

"All of you here look at me, and my skin color is probably the first thing you notice. I'm not saying you'd treat me differently over it, but you all notice it first. All but one of you. Because she can't tell. And... I kind of liked that."

Further silence filled the room.

"Um... is anyone going to say something?" Allison asked.

Cathy threw the rest of her drink down her throat, stood up on unsteady feet, and lurched her way over to Allison - then threw her arms around her. "That was so beautiful!" she cried.

It broke the tension. Everyone relaxed and smiled, and drank the remainder of their punch all around.

"So, what is it you want from all of us?" Anita asked.