Truth and Fiction

"That's one down and seven to go. Anna, since Chloe was the last one to speak you'll lead us off in the next round."

"Right. I started work on becoming a sommelier."

That was a funny way of saying that she took a couple free classes at the local rec center. Trevor wished someone would call bullshit; he didn't think Anna even knew she was lying.

"I'm a polyglot," Kaya said. "I speak German and French fluently and I'm learning Spanish."

"I've won my fantasy baseball league three years in a row," Riley told them.

"That's more interesting than speaking three languages?" Laura asked.

Riley cleared his throat. "Well, we take it pretty seriously."

Violet shrugged, "I'll allow it."

Riley was visibly relieved.

Audrey came next. "I haven't cooked my own dinner in over a year. I pick something up on my way home pretty much every night."

"I have twelve houseplants in my bedroom," Natalie said. "It looks like a jungle."

Paige's turn. "I like to read trashy romance novels."

Trevor wondered how long she could keep it up. She didn't have a lot of steamy secrets to draw on. At least, he didn't think she did.

For the fourth time in a row Aaliyah left the task of sharing to her daughter; she seemed content to just stand there and glare at nobody in particular. "I led a guy on for about six months because my friends and I wanted to use his swimming pool." Hanna kicked her own foot, clearly uncomfortable to admit that.

"I dated my first boyfriend for three years," Laura said after a pause. "I wasn't in to him at all. I was figuring myself out, but still. I knew I didn't want to be with him. He had no idea."

Anna continued the train of confessions. "My first boyfriend broke my heart. I really thought he'd be the one, but it turns out he didn't even like me. He dumped me in the middle of prom and spent the night with a different girl. It took me a long time to get over it."

Riley opened his mouth to speak but was cut off.

"Wait," Kaya said. "That's bullshit."

Violet turned to Anna. "Is it true?"

"Of course it's true," Anna said, somewhat insulted.

Kaya furrowed her brow. "No, last night you said that you'd never been dumped."

Anna looked confused. "I don't think so. You must have misunderstood me."

"No," Kaya repeated, growing angry. "You said you'd never been broken up with. Clear as day."

"I'm sorry Kaya," Violet said, "but you called bullshit when Anna was telling the truth. Please take a seat."

"You _lied _to me," Kaya almost screamed, whirling on Anna.

"It was just a misunderstanding," Anna insisted. "I'm sorry, I really am. But it's not my fault."

Trevor figured that if you didn't know Anna you might have even believed her. She probably believed herself.

"Kaya, please, take a seat." Violet said calmly.

Kaya slowly sat down on the ground but she kept her wide-eyed glower pinned on Anna.

"Now for the third round," Violet instructed them. "Riley, you lead us off."

He looked back and forth between Anna and Kaya, the former of which was looking everywhere but at the latter. "Sure. I can just say anything again, right?"

Violet nodded. "We've reset."

"Alright then. I keep track of our grocery expenses in Excel. I like to break down how much we spend on each kind of food."

"I believed in ghosts until my thirties," Dr. Friedman said.

"I still believe in ghosts," Natalie said next, a little defensively.

"I like the Twighlight movies," Paige admitted. "I watch them at least once a year."

Well that one was definitely true. He'd had to listen to Riley rant about them for days after she had made him watch them with her.

"I've got a thing for red heads," Hanna offered.

"There are naked pictures of me on the internet," Laura said for her turn. She did not elaborate.

Anna came next. "I only wear panties about half the time."

Before speaking, Riley briefly gave an embarrassed look to Paige, but he looked away before she could meet it. "I watch porn."

Violet frowned slightly. "Most of us do. We need a little bit more than that."

"Well," Riley clarified, "I'd been keeping it secret from Paige. She thought I didn't."

Indeed, Paige was frowning at Riley, who wouldn't look at her.

"Fair enough. Let's keep it moving then," Violet said, motioning to Audrey.

"I have a masturbation ritual," she said. Her face was a blank mask. Trevor would not have wanted to play poker against her, not that he'd ever had the chance. "I draw a bubble bath, light candles, the works."

Natalie gave a healthy amount of time for someone to call bullshit before she confidently made her own admission. "I think facials are hot."

Trevor's eyes widened. That...was not something he had ever wanted to hear come out of his sister's mouth.

"I think that's bullshit," Hanna's voice rang out. She seemed unsure, and her eyes darted nervously to Violet for confirmation.

"Natalie? Is it bullshit?"

"No," Natalie said, voice clear. "It's true."

Trevor shoved down an image of Nat with her face covered in cum. Something he now could be pretty confident had happened. Shaking his head he compartmentalized the thought in the back of his mind. His sister had a sexuality but that was none of his business.

"I'm sorry Hanna, and Aaliyah, but you have been eliminated. Please take a seat."

Aaliyah sat down in a huff, but Hanna was much slower. She hung her head between her legs and closed her eyes.

Paige took her cue from Violet and composed herself to lead off the next round. "I like antiques," she said. "I have a one hundred and fifty year old rocking chair that I found at a thrift shop."

Laura came next. "I'm probably a good enough pitcher to play for a division one school, but I couldn't get a good enough scholarship at any of the ones I applied to."

"I'm part of a hip hop dance crew," Anna said.

"I once streaked across a mall parking lot on a dare," Riley told them. That one was true, Trevor knew. He'd been the one who made the dare.

Audrey was up. "I once went home with a man pretty much only because I liked his accent." She smiled slyly.

Now that was surprising. He'd never pictured Dr. Friedman as the type to have one night stands. He'd never really pictured her as having much of a sexuality at all really. Of course, today was offering several challenges to that notion.

It was Natalie's turn again and Trevor braced himself for whatever unwanted piece of information he was going to receive this time. "I've written a couple of erotic short stories."

Well, that wasn't so bad.

Paige was up next and she was glowing beet red. "The first time I...touched myself...was to, um, I had just finished watching an episode of...Danny Phantom."

Trevor stifled a laugh. The girl was absolutely mortified and he wasn't going to make it worse for her. He did however file the information away to tease Riley with later.

"I hooked up with a girl in the locker room showers," Laura said.

She could be lying, Trevor reminded himself, mostly to drown out the scenarios running through his head.

"The first guy I hooked up with after breaking up with Trevor," Anna said, "was a guy I met off of Craigslist."

That was probably true.

Riley came next. "I used to let my last girlfriend put me in handcuffs."

Trevor caught a curious look from Paige as she inspected Riley. Trevor felt bad for her. It couldn't be easy to listen to your boyfriend tell people about his former sexual exploits, even if they hadn't really been that racy so far.

"I've done psychedelics at most of the conferences I've attended," Audrey declared.

That couldn't possibly be true, Trevor thought. That had to be a lie. But why would she lie about that?

He looked around at some of the other contestants. Several looked to be debating calling bullshit. Audrey made eye contact with them confidently, as if daring them to call her out. No one did.

When the silence had gone on for long enough Natalie finally spoke up. "I masturbate almost every night."

Violet made a 'go on' motion with her hand.

There was a small slip in Natalie's cocksure mask but she rallied quickly. "When I lie down to got sleep my mind just sort of fills up with fantasies. It can be distracting, so a lot of the time I have to take care of myself before I can fall asleep."

Out of the corner of his eye Trevor caught a devious smile spreading over Anna's face. His stomach dropped.

"That's bullshit," Anna said, delighting in the opportunity.

"Natalie?" Violet asked.

Her face fell. "It wasn't true."

"But it is now," Violet said.

A strange pressure started to build up inside of Trevor's head. New memories slipped into place among his old ones. He'd lived with Nat all his life and now he had learned a long time ago not to bother her once she shut her door for the night. Once she'd left the door only mostly closed and he'd come in without knocking. He hadn't seen anything, but he'd learned an important lesson. He could also remember more than one night where he could only assume Nat had gotten carried away; the walls weren't that thick. Drowning out the sounds of his sister moaning in the other room was just something he'd learned to live with as an occasional, annoying problem.

The sensation abetted and Trevor was left breathing heavily on his throne. His eyes snapped up to Natalie, who was crouching on her podium and looked to be in about the same state as he was. She met his eyes, blushed, and looked away.

Trevor found the experience disorienting. He could remember believing his old memories, but now the new ones felt real while the old ones felt almost like a dream. Intellectually he understood that the old ones were the real memories, but they didn't feel like it. Trevor's blood ran cold as he realized that maybe that was because the new memories were real. Had Violet done more than implant memories? Had she actually gone and changed their history?

Natalie took a seat on her podium as Violet started up the next round of the contest.