Change of plans.

I went back to the old music room and found the three girls having lunch there. They were eating out of their own lunch boxes, which I found surprising. Sarah turned to me and followed my eyes.

She lifted her lunch box and said, “I can’t stand the food in the cafeteria, so I bring my own.”

“It’s not that bad,” Grace said. “My previous school was ten times worse.”

“I’m just a picky eater,” Mila said. “Even if there’s rice in the cafeteria, I like mine done a certain way.”

“Hey, don’t just stand there. Sit down,” Sarah told me, patting an empty spot on the gym mattress. I sat down with them and opened my own lunch box.

“What did they call you for?” Mila asked.

“…Mr. Ortiz wanted to ask if I was doing okay,” I answered, keeping it short so as to not hint that their names were brought up, but Grace was far sharper than I had given her credit for.

“So they already started warning you about us? They work surprisingly quickly when they want to,” she said, eyes narrowed and distant.

“H-He did, but…” I swallowed. “I don’t care.”

“Oh? So **** to get your dick wet you’d even hang out with this dangerous bunch?” Sarah asked, sounding teasing but I believed I heard the hidden tones of self-deprecation in there. I would know how that sounds.

I shook my head fervently. I needed to deny that as strongly as I could. “Not true. I… I said I’m bad with people, but I do want to talk. I’m just… afraid.”

“And you’re not afraid of us?” Sarah asked.

Again, I shook my head. “I’m afraid of getting laughed at, or shunned, or that I might bother people. You… seem to want me here, so…”

“I see,” Grace said, smiling and moving closer to me so that she could rest her head on my shoulder. “I had you all wrong then. Sorry.”

I was afraid they’d say something like, “So you’re actually a really pathetic guy. We don’t want to hang out with you anymore. Bye.” But instead, what I got was…

“Hey, let’s play truth or dare!” Grace suggested, her face lighting up with an excited smile.

“What?” Sarah asked, unamused. I very much wanted to echo her question.

“I have a bottle,” Mila said, putting a plastic bottle of water in the middle of our group.

“Okay, but why?” Sarah asked again.

“We can play amongst ourselves if you don’t want to join,” Grace said, moving to close the… triangle and leave Sarah out.

“No, no, I wanna play,” the blonde said, moving and sitting between Grace and Mila. We now had a circle between us four. Technically a square, but I’m not about to start that.

“Have you played before, Oliver?” Mila asked me. I bit my lip at the bitter memory and raised one finger. “Okay, so you know the rules, then.”

“It was my idea, so I’ll start.” Grace took the bottle and let it spin. It landed on Sarah. “Alright! Truth or dare?”

“Um… dare.”

“Sing a song. Pick whatever.”

“Wha-!? You know I sing like shit!”

“Exactly!” Grace grinned.

“I fucking hate you. Fine.” Sarah took a moment to think of a song before she started. “Somebody once told me the world is gonna roll me…”

Grace and Mila had to cover their mouths to stop themselves from laughing. As for my part, I… pursed my lips tightly. Sarah really wasn’t a very good singer, but I wouldn’t laugh. When Sarah was done, her friends stopped holding back and laughed in her face.

“Oh boy, you really need to learn how to sing,” Mila said, wiping a tear from her eye.

“Why? I’m never gonna sing professionally or anything,” Sarah shrugged. “My turn.” She spun the bottle and it landed on Grace. Sarah grinned mischievously. “Truth or dare?”

“Truth.”

“Tell Oliver your most embarrassing story.”

“Mmmm.” Grace innocently looked up at the ceiling, thinking with her finger on her lips. “Okay, so I don’t know if this is the most embarrassing, but it’s the thing that always makes me cringe when I remember. I once called a teacher ‘dad’ in the middle of class.’

“Oh, but that happens, right?” Mila said.

“In senior year of middle school.”

Her friends laughed out loud, even throwing their heads back and holding their stomachs. Even I had to suppress my laughter and it ended as a single snicker.

“He was a really nice teacher, okay? I wish he was in this school.”

“Oh? Did you have a crush on him?” Mila teased.

“If I had I would’ve called him ‘daddy’,” Grace answered sultrily before she also burst out laughing. “Seriously though, he was just a really nice guy and a very competent teacher. He had a talk with my dad and that finally made the old man stop giving me shit for every little thing.”

“Ah, I remember you telling us that before,” Sarah said.

“Yes, but continuing the game…” Grace spun the bottle, and it landed on me. “Perfect! Truth or dare, Oliver?”

Honestly? Neither sounded good, but I didn’t want to be the party pooper. Not again. “D-Dare.”

I braced myself for the worst. Would Grace have me sing as well? Would she make me dance? It’d be safer if she made me do something… sexual to any of them since we’d done some of that already.

“I want you… to act like a chicken.”

Ah?

The three girls grinned and looked at me expectantly. I swallowed, made my arms into small wings and flapped them awkwardly as I made terrible chicken sounds. That sent them into another fit of laughter.

“What the hell? You’re a terrible chicken!” Sarah said.

“Yeah! A chicken doesn’t sound like that! It sounds like this,” Mila said, and started making some much exaggerated yet very cartoon-like chicken sounds. And that, that stupid thing, those simple and silly sounds were what finally got a laugh out of me.

I wasn’t cracking, I wasn’t holding my stomach from the pain, I wasn’t out of breath, but I just… laughed. And it felt so fucking good. Until I realized I was laughing and got all self-conscious and stopped, of course.

“Aw, why’d you stop? You have a cute laugh,” Grace said.

“S-Sorry.”

“Whatever, it’s your turn!” Mila said, passing the bottle to me. I spun the thing and it landed on her of all people.

“Truth or dare?” I asked.

“Mmm… Truth.”

Okay, so I had no idea what to ask. What would be appropriate, or what would be inappropriate to ask? I looked around the room, speaking as I did to buy myself some time. “What… is your… favorite…” Her favorite what? Why did I default to that? My eyes landed on her lunch box, and I ended my questions without thinking it through. “…food?”

It was such a fucking boring question! Why did I ask that!? They were trying to have fun and all and that was what I came up with?

“God, I love lemon pies so much!” Mila answered immediately and with eyes shining. “I can’t eat them that much because, you know… sugar.” She patted her stomach for emphasis. “But I’d eat them every day if I could! They’re just so good and I know this place that sells the best lemon pies in the city!”

I blinked, and the next words that came out of my mouth I didn’t plan. “Maria’s Bakery?”

“Oh my God, yes!” Mila nodded fervently. “You know that place too?”

I was taken aback by her reaction, but I still had a small, excited smile. “My sister buys cheesecakes from there and they’re pretty good, so…”

“Yeah, cheesecakes are good, too.” Mila groaned. “Urgh! Now I have cravings! Why did you have to ask me that?”

The game continued. Someone would spin the bottle and someone would have to answer a question or do a dare. The game never escalated past silly questions and random, harmless dares.

I wasn’t blind to what they were trying to do, and it made me immensely happy. It only reaffirmed my decision that it was okay to hang out with them. I didn’t care about the rumors or their history. They were being nice to me. That was all that mattered. Well, that and that I wanted to do the same in return.