“I’m not playing,” he said.
Taylor pouted. “Don’t be so gay,” she said.
Jeremiah said, “You shouldn’t use the word ‘gay’ like that.”
Taylor opened her mouth and closed it. Then she said, “I didn’t mean anything by it, Jeremy.”
“Then what did you mean by it, Taylor?” Jeremiah said. He spoke in a sarcastic tone, but even mean attention was better than no attention. Probably he was just mad about all the attention she’d been giving Conrad that day.
Taylor heaved a great big sigh and turned to Conrad. “Conrad, you’re being very lame. Play truth or dare with us.”
He ignored her and turned the volume on the TV up louder. Then he pretended to mute her with the remote, which made me laugh out loud.
“Fine, he’s out. Steven, truth or dare.”
Steven rolled his eyes. “Truth.”
Taylor’s eyes lit up. “Okay. How far did you go with Claire Cho?” I knew she’d been saving that one up for a long time, waiting for the exact moment she could ask. Claire Cho was a girl that Steven had dated for most of freshman year. Taylor swore Claire had cankles, but I thought Claire’s ankles were perfectly slim. I thought Claire Cho was kind of perfect.
Steven actually blushed. “I’m not answering that.”
“You have to. It’s truth or dare. You can’t sit here and listen to other people tell secrets if you’re not going to,” I said. I had been wondering about him and Claire too.
“Nobody’s even told any secrets yet!” he protested.
“We’re about to, Steven,” Taylor said. “Now man up and tell us.”
“Yeah, Steven, man up,” Jeremiah chimed in.
We all started to chant, “Man up! Man up!” Even Conrad turned the TV on mute to hear the answer.
“Fine,” Steven said. “If you shut up, I’ll tell you.”
We shut right up and waited. “Well?” I said.
“Third,” he said at last.
I relaxed back into the couch. Third base. Wow.Interesting. My brother had been to third base. Weird. Gross.
Taylor looked pink with satisfaction. “Well done, Stevie.”
He shook his head at her and said, “Now it’s my turn.” He looked around the room, and I sank deep into the couch cushions. I really, really hoped he wasn’t going to pick me and make me say it out loud—how I hadn’t even so much as kissed a boy yet. Knowing Steven, he would.
He surprised me when he said, “Taylor. Truth or dare?” He was actually playing along.
Automatically she said, “You can’t pick me because I just asked you. You have to pick someone else.” Which was true, that was the rule.
“Are you scared, Tay-Tay? Why don’t you man up?”
Taylor hesitated. “Fine. Truth.”
Steven grinned evilly. “Who would you kiss in this room?”
Taylor considered it for a few seconds, and then she got that cat-that-ate-the-canary look on her face. It was the same look she’d had on her face when she’d dyed her little sister’s hair blue when we were eight. She waited until she had everyone’s attention, and then she said, triumphantly, “Belly.”
There was a stunned kind of silence for a minute, and then everyone started to laugh, Conrad loudest. I threw a pillow at Taylor, hard.
“That’s not fair. You didn’t answer for real,” Jeremiah said, shaking his finger at her.
