Priceless

To be honest, I was surprised with that. I never liked playing Truth or Dare or any other games like that—Red’s, seven minutes in heaven, etc. Especially if we were gonna drink. Games plus alcohol made people say things they wouldn’t say and do things they wouldn’t do when they’re sober.

But I didn’t know if I could talk Stephen out of it, because he looked pretty decided on it. Even though I was feeling curious as to what would happen if we did play, I felt the need to protest.

“I don’t wanna play that,” I whined as he typed on his phone. “Let’s just talk.”

He smirked, shoving his phone back onto his pocket before looking at me. “Aw, but where’s the fun in that?” he said. “Come on. Just this once.”

He looked like he was pretty decided on it, but I was a little bit scared, admittedly. I bit my lip, “Stephen...”

“Don’t you trust me?”

I looked into his eyes when he said that and there was nothing but mischief in them. Plus he was smirking, so I wasn’t really sure if he was serious with that question. “I do, but—”

“Then why don’t you wanna play?” he asked.

I sighed, realizing I wasn’t gonna talk him out of it without explaining further. And I didn’t want to explain further, so against my better judgment, I nodded. “Let’s just play,” I said.

He smiled at me gloriously as he started spinning the bottle between us. “So whoever this points to has to do a shot first before choosing between a truth or a dare,” he said before it the lid stopped at him. “Oh, fuck!”

I laughed as he pulled the shot glass out of the lid and filled it with alcohol. And then he drank it straight and I grinned as he rested it beside him, and put the lid on the bottle again and tightened it.

“Truth,” he said simply.

I racked my mind for questions to ask him, but I couldn’t think of anything. I wanted it to be light first, since it was the first one. Then suddenly, something crossed my mind and I just blurted it out. “Have you ever had feelings for Jess?”

I watched as he looked slightly taken aback at first, and then he softly laughed. “No,” he answered. “Jess is one of my best friends, that’s it. Well, there was one time I thought she was pretty, but that was a long time ago.”

I nodded, fully accepting his answer. “Well, Jess is beautiful,” I said.

“Yeah, but she’ll—” He stopped as he looked at me and then smiled. “Never mind.” He began spinning the bottle again and although I wanted to asking what that was about, I had no chance. I laughed once again as the bottle pointed to him. “Fuck, this is not amusing,” he said.

“You were the one who wanted to play,” I said, laughing, as he did another shot.

“Whatever. Truth,” he said, setting the shot glass down.

“Someone doesn’t like dares,” I remarked, smirking.

“I don’t wanna take the risk, I mean what if you ask me to jump off this roof?” He shrugged. “Go on, just ask.”

The next question came naturally. It was something I wanted to know for a long time. I wasn’t being fussy; I was just really curious. “How many girlfriends or hook-ups have you had?”

I watched as his lips slowly formed into a smirk. “Two serious relationships...and a few lot hook-ups that I’m not proud of,” he answered.

I tilted my head to the side, feeling something I couldn’t name deep inside me upon hearing his answer. “And what do you mean by a ‘few lot’?”

“That’s a follow-up question.”

“No,” I said firmly. “I asked how many girlfriend or hook-ups have you had. I wanted numbers.”

He slightly rolled his eyes as he lifted his head up, and, I supposed, began thinking for a while. Then finally, he sighed and looked at the bottle in between us. “I...there were plenty. Some of them I had met at bars, but it’s not like I had sex with them all. Some I’d just flirted with, kissed with, but I’m completely, honestly done with that now. I’ve been hook-up free for the past year, and I’m proud of that,” he answered.

I didn’t know whether to be happy or not about that. Well, I was happy that he’d stopped, but imagining him doing it...it just didn’t make me feel good. I looked down as he started spinning the bottle again, only this time, we were both quiet and it suddenly felt awkward.

The bottle stopped at him once again, and I let out a small smile as he cursed in a low voice. We both looked up at the same time and I’d noticed he was looking aggravated.

“Truth,” he said simply.

I sighed as he did another shot. I didn’t know what to ask him this time. A minute passed, and then another, and I still had nothing. I sighed once more and spoke. “I’ve nothing to ask,” I said.

He looked at me, quite surprised. “Seriously?” he said. “C’mon—we’re not even halfway through the game yet.”

“I don’t know what to ask.” I shrugged. “I’m a boring person to play with.”

“No,” he said firmly. “Come on. I’ll just ask you instead.”

“The bottle’s not pointing to me.”

He swiftly turned the lid to me, “Now it is. Come on, I have a lot of things to ask you.”

“You’re cheating,” I accused. “You’re not being a good sport. You didn’t spin it.”

“But what if it points to me again? You don’t have anything to ask anymore, so it’s just pointless,” he argued.

“You have to spin it first, otherwise I won’t answer your questions,” I said firmly. I watched as he rolled his eyes and frowned, and turned to spin the bottle. We waited and waited, until it finally stopped.

Surprisingly, it was pointing at me.

A silly smirk crept up his face as he looked at me. And then he filled the shot glass with the drink, and handed it over to me. “Truth, or dare?”

He made it sound like I was in a game show or something. I rolled my eyes as I took the shot glass and drank its content. “Truth,” I said, setting the shot glass down.

He pondered for a moment, seemingly analyzing me as he thought of what to ask. I felt slightly awkward, because I didn’t like it when he stared at me like that. It was like he was looking through my soul, and I didn’t like it. I didn’t want him to see through me. Not when I was feeling all these confusing feelings towards him.

Finally, he spoke, freeing me from the awkward situation. “So,” he smiled lopsidedly and I dreaded his next words, “tell me about your first kiss.”

I knew that this was a bad idea. Climbing up in his roof with a bottle of Jack Daniels and agreeing to play truth or dare with him was a bad idea. But well, we were both at this moment now, and I knew he wouldn’t let me go without answering that, especially after he had answered those questions I’d asked.

I tilted my head to the side slightly, deciding to ask him first to be specific before I answered. “And by first kiss, you mean..?” I asked.

He laughed at this and took a shot of our drink before answering me. “First kiss,” he replied, “like on the mouth—regardless if it’s with a girl or a guy.”

I bit my lip right there and then. The question would have been much, much easier to answer had he not included the girl part, because technically, if he didn’t, my first kiss would have been with Alex. I could just lie, really, but somehow, I didn’t feel like doing so. I mean, so what if I told him? It was just a kiss anyway.

“Come on.” He laughed at my silence. “You agreed to play. You have to tell me the truth.”

I rolled my eyes and grabbed the shot glass and filled it with alcohol. He smirked and muttered something about getting drunk as I did, but I ignored him. I imbibed the drink before I answered him, the liquor lining my throat as I spoke. “It was with Erin,” I answered honestly and I noticed his eyes widen at this. And then a smirk crept up his face and I could tell that he was amused by this fact. “I was 15, and we were at this drinking session at John’s house. We were both wasted and she knew I didn’t know how to kiss, so she decided to ‘teach me’.” I used air quotes at that. “And I let her do so. We...we made out. And after that she laughed and told me I was gonna be a good kisser someday.”

I took another shot and then looked up at him afterwards. He was staring at me, biting his lip in the cutest way, probably trying not to laugh.

“What?” I asked him as a smile made its way to my face. “I swear I’m not lesbian. Neither is she. But the kiss was good, in case you wanted to know.”

He still didn’t answer, his expression remained the same and I just felt aggravated.

“Come on, stop doing that. Just say something,” I snapped, but I was really not that annoyed, I just wanted him to speak. But he still didn’t answer and his silence drove me crazy. “C’mon, what are you thinking?” I said in an aggravated voice.

“Nothing.” He smiled as he took the shot glass from me and started pouring alcohol into it. “Next question. Have you ever made out with any guy at all?” he asked and for a moment, I stayed silent. I didn’t even bother protesting that he hadn’t even spun the bottle yet, since clearly, this was now an Ask-Bailey-Anything Game, not a truth or dare.

The answer to that question was no, I haven’t. I have never been with any guy besides Alex, and he pretty much just enjoyed sweet and innocent kisses on the lips, and there was no way in hell I was going to make the first move just so we could go further than that. Although it could be a nice experiment just to see if I would feel something if he made out with me—as shallow as it was.

“No, I haven’t,” I answered as I started toying with my hands, not sure whether to be shy about this fact or not. I looked up at him to see what his expression was. I was surprised to see that he was now moving closer to me, as he set the shot glass beside the bottle. My heart began throbbing faster, and I had no logical explanation behind that. All I know was, it was how I sometimes felt around Stephen.

Well, most of the times.

“Do you want it to be with your...boy toy?” he asked, and I couldn’t help but smile a little at that. Somehow I had finally accepted that he would never call Alex by his name, and I was tired of correcting him.

He moved even closer and rested both his hands on my knees and my breath got caught in my voice as I answered, “I don’t know,” because it was the truth. I supposed I could have answered yes, since I had been thinking of that anyway a few moments back, but with his face being so dangerously close like that, I couldn’t think straight anymore.

He smirked and I could feel his breath on my face, reeking of alcohol and cigarettes but I found it attractive. “Do you want it to be...with...me...”

It was more of a statement than a question, and his lips were already literally an inch away from my lips, so I didn’t know why he still felt the need to ask. Our eyes met and I could see that his displayed the same emotion as mine probably did—longing. “Could you stop talking...” I said, not able to say anything anymore after that, because his lips were already over mine. I shut my eyes and succumbed to the longing I was feeling.

It was only for a brief second, though—because there was a disturbance that came right after our lips met—but I could say that in that second my mind was blown away, and I started feeling...well, I couldn’t put my feelings into words, but I’d have to say they were all positive. And that’s why when he pulled away, I was beyond disappointed. I was aching for more though it probably wasn’t right.

“Stephen! Bailey! Get down now, we’re watching a movie and the food’s ready!” Josh called from inside the house and that was the reason why he quickly pulled away from me. He was obviously startled by Josh’s voice, and I was, too, but I was so caught up in the kiss that I was dwelling more on how I wanted it to continue and get deeper. I didn’t even care if Josh had seen us or not—though he probably didn’t, because his voice sounded like it was coming from Stephen’s room and not the attic.

My eyes opened the moment he distanced from me, and I fixed them on him. He was already at least a meter apart from me, fixing his hair and avoiding my eyes. I couldn’t read his expression—I had no idea what he was thinking.

I remained at that same position he had left me in, hands in between the space my crossed legs left, back slouched. I didn’t want to move. I felt like if I didn’t, he would go back to where he had been moments ago and we would pick up on where we left off.

“We’re coming,” he called back and slowly turned to me. The moment our eyes met, I could feel my cheeks flaming up, but I didn’t dare look away from him. “Nice of Jobe to ruin the moment,” he mumbled, and a smirk slowly formed on his lips. And then he stood up, grabbed the bottle and the shot glass, and then extended his free hand towards me. It was almost like the scene at Jess’ roof, except we didn’t share a kiss that time and maybe that was why I was debating whether to take his hand or not.

But I ended up holding it anyway. As he helped me up, he squeezed my hand a little which made me look at him. He gave me a smile and as we made our way to the attic, I couldn’t help but wish for another moment like this with him, as wrong as it probably was, since I had a boyfriend...a boyfriend who didn’t make me feel the way Stephen James Gomez did.

~~~