Page 98 of Black Hollow: Awakening

“For what?”

“Never Have I Ever. Come on in, I’ll explain.”

“Uh… I’m not a huge fan of those kinds of games,” Will said. To be honest, he’d rather go back downstairs and keep making out with Oscar.

“Come on, don’t make me beg!” Norma persisted. “If I managed to convince Blake, you can’t be harder to persuade!”

Will’s eyes widened. He stepped closer to her and peered into her room. Norma wasn’t bluffing. There on the floor, next to her two friends, Victoria and Sandra, sat Blake, looking like he was about to murder someone.

This could be interesting.

Will agreed. He made a quick run to the bathroom, then went to get Oscar, and a few minutes later they were both in Norma’s room. The group of players had grown—a senior named Dominic and Liam had also joined them.

“So, the rules are simple,” Norma announced once they were all sitting in a circle. “You’ll each get twenty tokens. We’ll take turns saying something we’ve never done. For example: Never have I ever stolen anything. Those who can say the same do nothing, but those who can’t have to put one of their tokens aside. Whoever loses all their tokens is out. The last one with tokens wins.”

“Sounds interesting,” Oscar commented, placing a hand on Will’s knee.

Will gave him a small smile.

“And no lying, obviously!” Norma stipulated.

“And how do you plan on verifying that?” Blake muttered condescendingly.

“By relying on the players’ good sense,” Norma retorted sharply. “I don’t want to hear your objections, Blake,” she added quickly, seeing him open his mouth to comment.

Will snorted quietly. He guessed that Blake was the type who liked to overanalyze everything and ruin the fun. Fortunately, Blake’s further remarks were pointedly ignored, and they could finally start playing.

It was fun. Probably because most of the players had a significant amount of alcohol in their systems, so eventually, everyone was just talking nonsense and laughing loudly, not quite keeping up with what was happening. It was only when the number of tokens began to drop drastically that their competitive spirits kicked in and they focused on the game.

“Never have I ever kissed a guy,” Dominic announced when it was his turn.

“Hey!” Will, who was down to just two tokens, protested. “That’s totally below the belt!”

“Yeah,” Norma, in the same situation, sullenly agreed.

Besides them, Oscar, Norma’s two friends, and… Liam also discarded a token. Will looked at him in surprise, and Liam just smiled broadly and winked at him.

The battle was fierce, though it had been one-sided for a while. Norma was the first to be eliminated, with Will right behind her, and the rest dropped out soon after.

“Blake won by being an antisocial asshole!” Norma declared to everyone. “Congratulations!”

Alden gave her a haughty look and muttered something about pathetic games for losers, but as he stood up, a satisfied smirk played on his lips. For some reason, Will found that incredibly amusing.

But when they went back downstairs, something else was on his mind. At one point, while Oscar was busy talking to Amy Smith, Will spotted Liam standing alone in the kitchen and immediately went over to him.

“Hey,” he said cautiously.

“Hey,” Liam replied, sipping a beer from a can.

“So…” Will cleared his throat, not quite sure how to bring it up. “Back when we were playing… did you discard a token on purpose after the question about kissing a guy?” he blurted out, and Liam raised an eyebrow. “To keep Oscar jealous or something?”

“That would be cheating.”

“Right. That’s why you winked at me.”

“What?” Liam laughed.

“You winked at me. Like you were trying to say, it’s just a joke or something. That’s what a wink usually means in that kind of situation,” he grumbled, slightly offended because Liam was still shamelessly laughing at him.