Page 1 of Game Night: Truth or Dare

Chapter One

Leo

Cancelling plans last minute was always the plan. And my evening started as I’d planned. I was living my best hermit life, alone in my room, trying to avoid people like they were the plague. It was a Friday, and I knew the off-campus university students were all going to the huge party happening at the rugby lads’ houses. It was a row of three houses by the local university we attended, and where most of the rugby team lived.

My headphones were in, Netflix was playing, and all the lights in my room were off.

Obviously, I wasn’t getting away with it.

Without warning, my bedroom door opened wide and in walked Morgan, dressed in her finest fishnets, miniskirt, and tube top. “Absolutely not,” she said, snapping her fingers.

The perils of living in a student house was living with students, which I was, but that didn’t mean I liked it. Except, Morgan was my best friend, and she was always pushing me out of my comfort zone.

She stamped a hand against the wall, turning the big light on.

I shrank into my duvet to hide. Holding onto my aging teddy bear, Morgan found me as she whipped back the duvet.

“You’re coming,” she said. “Everyone else is going. It’s going to be the biggest party of the semester and if you’re not there, you’re going to have massive FOMO when all the pics are uploaded on Insta and you’re like, not tagged in even one of them.”

“I’ll live,” I told her, taking my headphones out.

She sat on the bed and shook her hair out, letting all the little bits of sprayed glitter dust me. “I’ve already made us drinks so we’re not rocking up sober,” she said. “You were excited about it the other day. Remember?” She smacked her red lips together. “Come on. You were saying how you were gonna try and flirt, maybe get laid.”

“But I have an essay due on Monday.”

She looked at my MacBook screen. “And you’re not getting anything done right now. Come on. What did we even go clothes shopping for if you were going to decide not to come out?”

I did tell her that I wanted to go, and I’d also told her I was excited about it, but that was before there was an actual obligation to go, time had passed since I’d agreed, I could change my mind. But Morgan’s infectious energy was already warping my mind.

“Strawberry daiquiris,” she whispered. “Gwen let me use her blender. The one that crushes ice so fine it makes slushies. You know you can’t resist it.”

And that was how I was talked out of the comfort of my bed.

Morgan hadn’t been lying when she said it was going to be the party of the semester. It was something to do with the rugby lads playing a game, and win or lose, they partied hard.

Everyone else in the house was heading over too. I lived in a house with girls, they were all mostly Morgan’s friends and she was the one who’d arranged our living conditions once we all moved out of university halls.

After the first daiquiri, I was immediately more confident about going to the party and being face-to-face with my biggest crush. Since I first saw him on the first day of university a year and a half ago. Alex Redford, a muscular rugby head who wore gym clothes in all weather. It was hot, objectively.

On the second daiquiri and I was opening the hook-up apps on my phone. There was no better distraction from being face-to-face with Alex or in his house at his party, than by thinking of someone else, and I needed a hot, torso with DL tendencies to get me through the party.

And by the third daiquiri, I was more than ready to leave the house.

We lived a couple streets over from the rugby lads’ houses. Although it felt like we were much further than that with the alcohol in our system and the adventure it took us on to get there.

The thump of music was heard from down the street. It was only the middle house of the three, but it kept them from getting warnings from the police because the houses at either side were both rented by them. Although that probably wouldn’t stop the neighbours further complaining.

Already vibing, tipsy off all those daiquiris. I’d become a social butterfly, confident and playful. It wasn’t my usual self, which was more prone to reading books and enjoying rewatching any number of my comfort TV shows.

Walking through the house of thumping music and swarming with bodies, Morgan was trying to pimp me out, aka get me laid. I secretly loved that she pushed me out of my comfort zone at every opportunity, it kept me from doing it myself.

“This is my friend, Leo,” she said. “He’s gay. If you’ve got a gay friend, let me know and I’ll let him know. He’s sweet, he’s a Sagittarius, and he’s studying English lit.”

I wasn’t even mad.

People found Morgan hilarious, and some of them were going to talk to their gay friends. It made me sound desperate, but who was I kidding, I was desperate, and I never really put myself out there.

Pulling on my hand, Morgan led me straight through to the large living room where they were playing spin the bottle.

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