Chapter 9 - Truth or Dare

The six friends arrived in Sulani on a warm Friday evening. They were staying at Laurie's  beach house. As soon as they arrived, James ran inside to get a drink. 

"So I'm assuming I'll be sharing a room with Kiara?" Jasmine wondered out loud.

"Yeah - you guys can take the master bedroom," Laurie said. The master bedroom... That must be Michael's room... I don't know how I feel about that, Kiara thought as she made her way inside. 

James and Laurie started playing a game of beer pong whilst Brianna and Jasmine went down to the cellar to grab some more wine. 

"I hope you're not upset Brianna forced you to come on the trip," Jackson said as he took a seat next to Kiara on the couch.

Kiara laughed. "No I wanted to come, I was just worried about work and... money. But I don't understand why Brianna and Laurie wanted us all to come in the first place..."

Jackson stared at James for a while before responding. "Yeah... the whole thing is pretty weird. Have you been to Sulani before?"

"Never! I can't wait to see what it's like during the day time."

"Do you want to go for a walk? The sky is amazing here at night, you can't experience stars like this in San Myshuno." 

"Sure", Kiara said.

Jackson led Kiara down to the beach and the two of them walked together in silence, enjoying the sound of the waves crashing onto the beach. They stopped walking after a while and stargazed on their backs in the sand. Jackson wanted to tell Kiara how beautiful she looked but every time he tried to open his mouth, his shyness got the better of him. Even though Jackson was a popular kid growing up, he always struggled to express how he felt towards girls.

"Should we go back? I think the others might be wondering where we went," Kiara said as she sat up, dusting the sand out of her hair.

Jackson nodded reluctantly and helped Kiara up. They arrived back at the beach house to find Laurie, Brianna, Jasmine and James seated in the living room. 

"Where did you guys go," Brianna whined. "We've been waiting for you! Sit down, we're playing a drinking game." 

Jackson and Kiara did as they were told. "We're playing truth or dare. The rules are simple - if you don't want to answer truthfully or complete the dare, you have to finish your drink. I'm going to start..."

The first few rounds were pretty tame. When it came to Brianna's turn again, she smiled a devilish grin. "Jackson, truth or dare?"

"Dare," Jackson said instantly. 

"I dare you... to kiss Kiara." 

Damn it... If I don't kiss her and choose to drink, she's going to think I don't want to. But I do want to, just not like this... Oh fuck it, Jackson thought, before quickly grabbing Kiara's face and planting a peck on her mouth.

Kiara froze, unable to process what had just happened. Did Jackon just... kiss me? 

"Okay Jackson, that was boring. It's your turn now," Brianna said.

Jackson was fuming. "Brianna, truth or dare?"

"Truth." 

"Why did you invite all of us to come to Sulani?" 

Brianna hesitated before answering. "What do you mean? You guys are my friends and I wanted to spend time with everyone!" 

Jackson threw his head back and laughed. "That's a lie and you know it. You picked truth, so tell us the truth Brianna."

Brianna wanted to down her drink so she didn't have to answer but she knew that Jackson would persist until she said the truth out loud. She looked around the room then lowered her head. "It's because... I wanted James to come... but I didn't know how to invite him without inviting more people. Fuck you Jackson," Brianna sputtered before storming out of the room. Jasmine ran after her and Laurie walked off in the opposite direction.

"What the fuck man!" James shouted in Jackson's face. 

"You guys need to sort your shit out because I'm done with all your games!" Jackson shouted back at James. Kiara got up to break the boys up. Jackson shot James a piercing glare before following Laurie out of the house. 

"I love her," James murmured before burying his face in his hands. "I should've been the one that asked her out three years ago."

"Why didn't you?" Kiara asked.

James turned to Kiara with a regretful look in his eyes. "I was so busy studying that I barely had any time to see anyone... I didn't even know Laurie had asked her out for months afterwards."  

"So have you and Brianna been seeing each other this whole time...?" Kiara asked, still recovering from the scene that had just unfolded before her.

"No! She didn't feel the same way about me for a long time. But one day, something changed and she just started looking at me differently. We've never vocalised our feelings or ever been physical with each other. I've always felt guilty about my feelings towards her because Laurie is my best friend, and I've tried so hard to just let her go but I can't. And now I can't take any of this anymore. I can't be around them without numbing myself from the pain... Damn, this takes me back to my med school days. I was so stressed all the time, my only relief was alcohol... You'd think that knowing all of the damaging effects of alcohol on the human body would stop me from drinking... But no, alcohol has been my only solace." James plopped down into a chair and sighed. "I don't know what to do."

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