Truth or Dare

The music is loud and Max is slightly intoxicated.

Well, slightly is kind of a loose statement. Max is a few drinks in, so he's intoxicated. Or at least intoxicated enough to squeeze his way into a circle of kids playing some stupid party game.

When he blinks and his vision focuses a bit, Max recognizes the people in the circle. Josh. Chris. Matt. Dan and his boyfriend Nicholls. Vegan's here. The scrawny kid with the tattoos and the hot little brother whose name escapes him at the moment. Some other girls he knows. Okay. He can handle this.

“We're playing truth or dare,” Josh says. Max grins. His favourite.

“Okay,” Max says. “Whose turn?”

“Dan's.”

“Oh. Okay.”

The truths and dares go around a few times. Dan gets dared to kiss a girl, so he kisses Melanie, and Melanie doesn't mind. Matt gets asked who he'd most like to see naked in the group and he says Vegan. Chris admits that he and Georgie had sex in a public toilet once and everyone is kind of thrown off because Chris and Georgie do not seem like the kind of couple who would have sex in public toilets.

Eventually after a few minutes of Max watching all of this go down and a few drinks out of his personal bottle of rum, he hears his name.

“Max,” Nicholls says. Max looks up.

“Huh?”

“Truth or dare.”

Max ponders. “Truth,” he says.

“Have you ever fucked a guy?”

Max blinks. “Um, well,” he says, “I've been fucked, but I've never fucked a guy.”

The group makes various noises of approval or disapproval. Max notices Josh is silent. It's a bit off-putting. Normally he's loud when he drinks.

Max dares Matt to stick his hand down Vegan's pants until his next turn.

Max listens absently again, watching Matt and Vegan out of the corner of his eyes. Matt dares Dan to get his balls out so he does. Dan asks Oli if he'd ever walked in on his parents. Oli gets back at Dan by asking him how big his dick is and Nicholls answers for him. Seven inches.

Max finishes off his bottle, setting it down behind him. When he turns back around, Dan is looking at Josh.

“Truth or dare?” Dan asks. Dan still has his balls out.

“Dare,” Josh says. There's a chorus of “oooh”s.

“I dare you to kiss Max,” Dan says.

Max blinks. “What,” he says.

“Um,” Josh says.

“I dared you to kiss Max,” Dan says. “Kiss him. At least five seconds. With tongue.”

Max nearly dies on the spot. Josh. Who he's been in love with for ages. And now he's crawling across the circle for a kiss. Max sits up a bit and then Josh grabs his hair and kisses him.

Josh tastes vaguely of beer and tequila shots, but Max couldn't care less about that because he's fucking kissing Josh. Max winds his fingers into Josh's hair and then Josh's tongue breaks into Max's mouth and oh wait there's a ton of people around him.

Once Dan calls time Josh pulls back and leaves Max open-mouthed, breath heavy. Oh god. Their eyes stay locked and after a few seconds of quiet, Max hears the familiar beat of police sirens.

Motherfucker.

The whole group nearly leaps up off the ground, Matt wrenching his hand from Vegan's pants and Dan shoving his balls back away, and they all make a run for the backyard. The cops are in the house by then and Dan wrenches back a loose board in the fence (placed there for this type of occasion precisely) and they all file out of the yard into the neighbors' yard. Max jumps the fence to get out to the street and then he stands there on the side walk for a solid ten seconds without thinking anything at all.

When he blinks, Josh is next to him. Max looks up at him.

“Do you want to walk home?” Josh asks. Max nods. So they head off in the direction of their houses.

It's quiet, and dark. The sky has no stars tonight. It's just black. Max stumbles a few times. He shivers. He hadn't brought a jacket. He feels Josh's eyes on him.

“Here,” he says. Josh shrugs off his jacket and offers it to Max. Oh. Max smiles weakly and tugs it on.

“Thanks,” he whispers. Josh nods.

Max pulls the collar up close to his face and smells. Josh's cologne. He could live in this jacket. He smiles.

It's quiet for another few minutes, until they're just a few blocks from Josh's place. Max doesn't want Josh to leave. Max hears Josh sigh and Max peers over the confines of Josh's collar.

“What?” Max asks.

Josh is quiet for a few seconds, as if he's trying to figure out what to say. “You're a good kisser,” he says.

Max feels his face burn hot against the cold hair. Oh god. He bites his lip. “Thank you,” he whispers.

It's quiet for another block or so until Josh sighs again. Max doesn't say anything this time.

“Max?”

Max looks up. Josh has stopped walking and Max feels his chest thud because oh god he knows what this means Josh knows doesn't he oh god he probably felt it when he kissed Max and ugh that kiss.

“Can I have another kiss?” Josh asks softly.

Max nearly bricks himself.

“What,” Max says.

“...can I have another kiss,” Josh murmurs, his voice shrinking. Max blinks, and okay, this is real because he can feel his thumb nails digging into his palms and his fists tighten and it hurts.

“I,” Max says, but then he's suddenly forgotten the entire English language or something so he just nods. Josh bites his lip and he takes the step over to Max. Oh god. Max just looks up at Josh as he holds Max's neck, and Max can actually feel his heart rate double. Josh leans his head down and connects their lips.

Josh holds Max's head carefully in his hand and Max's hands go to Josh's waist, just kind of holding him there while they kiss. Josh interlocks their lips. He runs his fingers through Max's hair.

“Babe,” Max whispers into Josh's lips. Josh is quiet. “Babe I love you.”

“I know,” Josh says. He slides his arms around Max's body. “It's a bit obvious.”

Max turns dark red and shoves his face in Josh's shirt. “Can we just go home,” he says, voice muffled.

“Yeah,” Josh says. “I assume by home you mean my house.”

“Yes,” Max says into Josh's neck. Josh grabs Max's hand and intertwines their fingers and Max peeks up at Josh.

“C'mon,” Josh says softly. So they hold hands and walk back to Josh's house.