The Academy - Friends vs. Family (30 page)

“She wants you to put ice in your
underwear,” he said. “That’s tame shit. I just did you a favor.”

Nathan turned to me. “Is that what you
want?”

I blushed, putting my fingers to my lips
but I couldn’t hide my smile. I didn’t have a better idea and Gabriel’s
suggestion was funny.

“Fuck,” he said and he got up to go to
the kitchen. He came back with three pieces of ice which he held out to me so I
could see. He sat down in his spot, yanked out the elastic to his shorts and
dropped the ice inside. “Christ,” he barked, and he closed up his legs, shoving
his face into his knees. “Sang!”

“Dare!” I called out, still hoping he’d
have pity on me.

“Bite Gabe,” he said through his teeth,
seething. “Hard enough to leave a mark.”

“Hey,” Gabriel said.

I started a giggle fit. Gabriel shifted
his legs so I bounced in his lap. I grabbed his arm, brought it to my mouth,
and stopped short to laugh again.

Nathan’s head lifted. They all stared in
silence as I opened my mouth and sank my teeth into Gabriel’s skin. I tasted
salt, felt the hair on the back of his arm tickle my tongue.

“Good girl,” Gabriel said, nearly
purring.

“I said hard, Sang,” Nathan said.

I bit down.

“Ow, fuck,” he said, yanking his arm
from my mouth. His forearm had my teeth marks indented into his skin.

“Silas?” I asked.

“Truth.”

I knew exactly what I wanted to ask him.
“What did you say...”

“You have a beautiful laugh,” he said.
His brown eyes zeroed in on me. “That’s what I said to you outside of class in
the hallway. I’m not ashamed to say it out loud.”

The others giggled.

“He’s right about that,” Gabriel
whispered in my ear. He bounced me on his lap again.

“Sang,” Silas said.

“Dare,” I said.

He was quiet for a minute, looking at my
face as if weighing in on what he could ask me. “I want another hug.”

The guys laughed again. I crawled out of
Gabriel’s lap and knee walked over. Silas held open his arms for me, catching
me. He wrapped his strong arms around me and squeezed me against his chest. My
cheek pressed against his bare shoulder and chest. His nose pressed to my neck,
and he inhaled deeply. I wrapped my arms around his neck, my fingers curled
into his hair, breathing in his ocean scent.

When he let go, Gabriel called out to me,
“Get back here.”

“Luke,” I said as I crawled back into
Gabriel’s lap.

“Dare,” he said.

“I want the damn photo deleted,” Gabriel
said.

“That’s not what I want,” I said,
laughing. “I want... um...”

North caught my eye. He made a kissing
motion with his lips.

“I want you to kiss...” I started to
say.

North wiggled his toes.

“My foot,” I said, getting another round
of giggle fits.

“I said no kiss dares,” Nathan growled.

“It’s her foot. That doesn’t mean
anything,” North said, shrugging. “I actually meant to get her to say her shoe
but close enough.”

Luke laughed, pushing blond hair away
from his face. “I’ve got the easy one.” He crawled over. I held out a leg. He
grabbed at it, and puckered, pressing his lips against the top of my toes.

A spark slipped from my foot to my
stomach.

The others were laughing.

Luke gazed up at me and we locked eyes.
He winked. “Sang,” he said.

“Tru...,” I said, but I got a jab in the
ribs from Gabriel. “Ugh, dare.”

Luke’s brown eyes flickered. He stood up
and held out his hand to me. “Come with me for a minute.”

I dropped my hand into his and he hauled
me to my feet. He tugged and I followed him to Kota’s bedroom door. He opened
it and pulled me up the carpeted stairs. The others trailed behind us.

We clustered together in Kota’s room.
Luke went to the closet and then held the door open. “In,” he said, jerking his
head toward the dark space.

I blushed. He wanted me to stand in the
closet?

“I don’t think so,” North said.

“She said dare,” Luke said. “She gets to
sit with me in the closet for two minutes.”

“No way,” Victor said. “That’s too far.”

“You guys don’t trust me,” he said. “I
slept in her room all night and you won’t trust me in the closet for a minute.
I’m not going to hurt her.”

“No kissing, either,” Nathan warned.

Luke pouted. “You guys ruin everything.”
He grabbed at my arm and yanked me into the closet, closing the door.

We stood in the dark.

Luke pressed himself close to me, enough
to where I could inhale vanilla. His fingers brushed against my chin.

“Luke,” I whispered. “They said no.”

“I know,” he said. He felt for my
cheeks. “Trust me.” He traced his hand over my mouth, his fingers covering my
lips. “Now, I’m going to let go for one second, okay? When I do, yell at me
about something. Tell me to stop. When they open the door, I’m going to make it
look like I am kissing you.”

I smothered a giggle. I should have
known. He was trying to prank them all.

Luke uncovered his fingers over my
mouth.

In my best distressed voice, I cried
out. “Luke! Stop it! No, they said not to!”

Luke’s hand flew back over my mouth. The
door was opened quickly and Luke bent his head down and kissed the back of his
fingers, tilting his head in a way that made it look like we were making out.

I still felt the warmth of his face so
close to mine. His fingers were pressed to my lips. Was this what a kiss felt
like? I was too flustered and my heart was thundering from being exposed.

The guys gasped together in surprised.
Luke lifted his head away to reveal his hand had been there all along.

“You little shit,” North said. His brown
eyes shot bullets at his brother. He reached into the closet and yanked Luke out
by the shoulder. “I should take you home right now.”

“I didn’t kiss her,” he cried out. “We
were just kidding.”

My face was radiating as I stepped out
of the closet. Maybe that was too far. How was I going to lighten the mood
again? “North? Want to go next?”

“I don’t want to play,” he said, letting
his brother go with a glare.

“You have to,” Gabriel said. “It’s
Sang’s game.”

North huffed. “Dare.”

Gabriel stood behind him and tugged at
his shirt and tried to mouth something to me but I wasn’t understanding.

“Take off your shirt?” I asked out loud.

Everyone laughed. North shook his head
with a smirk but pulled his shirt off of his body, hanging it over his
shoulder. His muscles flexed, my eyes lingered for much too long on his abs and
the trail of hair below his navel.

Gabriel laughed, shaking his head. “I
was trying to tell you to get him to strip.”

“That’s too far, Gabriel,” Kota said.

“It’s truth or dare. It’s what girls
do.”

“He knows so well,” Luke said.

“Sang,” North said, looking at me
intently.

“Tru...” Nathan tagged me in the ribs.
“Ugh, dare,” I said quietly, sighing. Of all the people to dare, North’s was scariest.
His eyes were intimidating.

He curled his fingers at me. “Come here.
Get on my back.”

I bit my lip, crossing the room. He
turned and lowered to the ground so I could wrap my arms around his neck. His
hands clutched my thighs to pick me up off the ground. He dug a cell phone from
his pocket and flicked the camera on.

“Smile, Sang Baby,” he said. I grinned
and he snapped the picture. He kept me on his back as he turned the phone
around to look at it. His face was almost grumpy, tough and serious and I had a
crazy face while I smiled. Night and day. “Not bad.”

“Kota!” I called.

“Dare,” he said.

North put me down on the floor. My eyes
flitted around the room for an idea. I was trying to ignore Gabriel since he
picked so many. Luke popped into view. I did my best to mimic what he was
trying to pantomime.

“Rub your nose... against mine?”

The others laughed. My heart seemed to
stop when I realized how close he’d get if he did that.

“As you wish,” Kota said. He closed the
distance between us. His fingers found my shoulders, drawing me closer. His
face hovered a breath away from mine. I had to close my eyes as it made me feel
cross-eyed. Kota slipped the tip of his nose down to meet mine. He glided his
nose back and forth.

Our lips were close enough that he only
needed to tilt his head a tiny bit to kiss me.

A shiver, like a whirlwind, danced up my
spine. Our noses touching felt like gentle spring breeze against my skin. I
secretly wanted it to continue.

He drew away, cheeks red and his lips
twisted up. I wondered why I felt odd now. I realized it was because no one was
laughing.

“Sang?” Kota asked.

I sighed. “Dare?”

He seemed pleased. “Come with me,” he
said.

He padded into his bathroom and flicked
the light on. He took my hand and guided me inside.

“Hey now,” Luke said. “You all made a
fuss when I did that.”

“You guys can come watch,” Kota said. He
pushed the door open wider in invitation.

The others followed us, crowding into
the doorway of the bathroom. I smothered my shaking, nervous as to what Kota
was coming up with. It was exciting and scary at the same time.

Kota pulled me until I was in front of
the sink. “Sit up here,” he said, patting the counter. He put his hands on my
waist to assist me so I could hop up and sit on the counter in front of him.

“Close your eyes,” he said.

My heart did flips in my chest, my
stomach tightened. I let my eyelids fall. The air shifted in front of me and
imagined it was Kota waving his hand at my face to make sure I wasn’t peeking.

I heard the water from the sink behind
me turn on for a second and Kota shifting around on the floor. Some of the
others started giggling.

“Open your mouth,” Kota said.

I gaped at him. “What are you...”

“You said dare,” he said, the command
slipping into his voice but in a happy tone. “Don’t you trust me?”

How much did I trust him? I took a deep
breath, letting it out and opened my mouth.

A tender touch brushed up against my
tongue and I flinched, pulling back. The object was removed from my mouth.

“Sang,” he said in a sharper tone. “Open
your mouth.”

I opened my mouth again and steeled
myself. Pressure fell against my teeth as he applied the object again. I tasted
mint. I realized it was a toothbrush and he was brushing my teeth. I started
giggling as the way he was brushing was ticklish against my gums.

“Don’t laugh,” he said. “I don’t want
you to choke.”

I was going to say something, but I
mumbled around the toothbrush. He reached up for my jaw, tugging at it with his
fingers so I’d open up further. I opened my eyes. He was focused on my mouth,
with a determined grin on his face. A flash appeared, causing me to jerk back
again in surprise. North had his phone back out and he snapped a picture. I
squinted my eyes at him, trying to send him a mean glare but he only grinned.

“The best part is,” Gabriel said, “he
could have put that thing in the toilet first and you wouldn’t know.”

My eyes widened and I choked a little.

“You know I didn’t do that. Calm down,”
Kota said. He pulled the toothbrush from my mouth. “Okay, you’re done. Go ahead
and rinse. Let’s get back downstairs. You guys get out.”

There was the resemblance of thunder as
the guys ran down the stairs. Kota remained behind with me as I bent over the
sink to swish my mouth and spit. I pulled back and he had a towel ready for me.

“Having fun?” he asked, crossing his
arms over his chest and leaning back against the sink.

“Yup,” I said, smiling as I wiped my
mouth dry with the towel. The toothbrush was beside the sink. “Is this yours?”

“Yeah,” he said.

I pushed the toothbrush under the
running water to clean it. “Aren’t you worried about girl cooties?”

“Are you worried about boy cooties?” he
asked, smirking.

I didn’t know the right answer for that.
Did that mean something?

“I’m glad you’re having fun,” he said,
adjusting as he leaned against the sink and watched me. “The guys are doing
their best.”

I knocked the toothbrush against the
sink. Water droplets flickered back into the basin. “What do you mean?”

“We did this for you,” he said. “It’s
been a tough week. A tough several weeks, actually.”