“We’re not twelve. Why would we play fucking truth to dare?” Cardinal grunts, finishing the rest of his beer.
Willow leans into him tauntingly. “Scared?”
“You wish Princess, I’m just saying we’re grown adults. This is a child’s game.”
“Oh c’mon grumpy, turn that frown upside down and let’s all play a game together. What’s the alternative? Go to bed early?” Phin waggles his eyebrows at him and waves a hand towards outside where the rain still lashes at the now closed doors. “We can’t exactly go anywhere, so let’s spend time together.”
Merle gives his boyfriend an unexpected stern look of disapproval, but he just shrugs it off and gives him a boyish grin. His expression doesn’t ease up though and Lil clears her throat.
“Yes, well put Brother. We can even make it a drinking game. So truth, dare or down your entire drink.” She nods towards my wine glass and I politely smile, because fuck no. I am not going to down a full glass of red wine that will instantly make me throw up. Nudging Mavis at her side, she hands her the custom cards which I decipher is our game for the evening, but she doesn’t turn one over.
“Do we get to know the dare before we have to answer the truth?” She asks with apprehension.
“Sure! I dare you to go jump into the lake.” She doesn’t hesitate and I bet she has a long list of dares ready to delegate.
“I’m obviously not going to do that, it’s raining.”
“So you’ll already be wet when you jump in Babes, why not?” Bran asks, drinking from a can of beer, resting his large arm on the table.
“Hello, it’s practically flooding the entire gardens. I’m not walking down to the lake in this and jumping in, I could drown.” She says back a little bluntly, a brittle edge to her tone as she glares at her boyfriend across the table. Bran doesn’t even flinch at her words, just shrugs and sits back to continue sipping his beverage. He keeps checking the doors towards the house, but Jay still hasn't reamerged. What the hell is going on with them both?
“Truth then!” She excitedly bounces in her seat, tapping the cards in Mavis’s hand to prompt her to turn one over. She does, the keen blonde reading it over her shoulder. “It says, how many of the guests have you slept with.”
Phin sits forward. “Oo, spicy cards. I love it.”
With all of us watching, her hand flutters around her wine glass and I think she’s going to pass on the truth by neckingthe entire thing, which is strange because her boyfriend is right there. Has she slept with someone else here? Before she can raise the glass, Bran laughs tightly.
“We’ve been together since we were sixteen, so that’s a boring card. I’ll go next.”
Her entire body sags in relief and Wren doesn’t miss it either, by the way he looks from his drummer to the silver haired women trying to hide the way her chest heavily rises and falls.
“What the hell is that about?” He whispers close to my ear, making it look like he’s reaching for my untouched wine glass on the table.
“No idea, but he doesn’t seem happy with her and I think she’s been trying to avoid him this weekend. She lied about where she was Friday night.” I quickly whisper back, before Wren sits back into the plush chair, sniffs at the wine and winces before discarding it back to the table.
Around us, Bran is upside down on his chair whilst Phoenix helps him drink his entire beer as a dare, and I can feel prickly heat radiating off his boyfriend. I've never seen Merle annoyed before. The girls all cheer and even Starling is laughing, but honestly all I can focus on is the one curl fallen over Wren's forehead.
He leans forward, his lips brushing the side of my cheekbone as he hovers next to my ear. “Do you think she is seeing someone else? Someone here?”
The thought seems like ice water over how hot I feel being pressed so close to him, and my nerve endings melt to putty when I feel a large palm run up the outer side of my thigh. I need to clear my throat before I speak and he chuckles, knowing full well the effect he’s having on me. “Maybe—but who?” I gesture at him, “I’m presuming you’re not shacking up with her, that leaves Cardinal or Jay. Cardy seems to be a loner, so would Jay really do that to his best friend?” I ask, turning my face to glancearound that no one is watching our little hushed conversation. Phin has volunteered to go next and is taking on his dare.
Wren’s hand leaves my thigh, twisting around a strand of my brown curls pinned up. He wraps it around his index finger and gives it a little tug. “Firstly, I am not shacking up with my friend's lady. I have my eyes very focused on a small snack gremlin and before you roll your eyes at me like I know you’ll do, you eat too many snacks for breakfast and I will be portioning you from now on.” An unexpected laugh bubbles out of me and I push him, causing a blinding smile to appear on his face that I think just tattooed itself inside my chest. “Secondly, she might not be straight, that adds Lily and Willow too.”
“So she could be with anyone that isn’t her boyfriend?”
If that is Mavis’s secret, it would implode her relationship. That could be a motive.
He checks around us again, but everyone’s attention is hyper focused on the way Phin tries to sing the song playing in French. Our boarding school made the girls fluent in a number of languages, so I assume it did the same for the boys by the way he’s getting most of the words correct, the core words anyway.
“What if it was Corbin?” I say out loud and not as quiet as I hoped. Wild silver hair flies across her face as her head snaps in our direction, amongst the cheering guests. Phin bows and everyone claps, but not Mavis, her round eyes burn into mine and I just know I’ve got it right. She pales at the mention of his name, visibly shaking before she can try to control herself and takes a large gulp from the wine, staining her lips crimson red.
“Well fuck me.” Wren says, falling back into his chair.
“Fuck me indeed.” I reply, repeating his actions as our arms drop by our sides like the realisation is weighing our limbs down, ready for the reality to knock us from our chairs.
“That’s a really weird way to propose having sex, but can you stop?” Merle hisses in my ear, and like a zombie I raise a limp hand and bat at his face until he leans away.
I’d known for a very long time that Corbin had never been faithful in our relationship, even when I foolishly took him back countless times. I knew whilst being apart he’d probably been between someone's legs. I think the final crack had been finding him here in this house with another woman, after he’d promised me a fresh start. There were always women I didn’t know about, so to now picture him with Mavis, all I can do is blink at her in utter horror.
