roisa high school fake dating au pt. 4
Clara hesitated before saying anything. Not! Because she was scared or anything, because she wasn’t scared. She didn’t get scared. Just embarrassed. Mostly embarrassed. And she wanted Luisa to like her, which meant she had to be cognizant of what she was saying and how she replied. And despite the fact that this was truth or dare, there were certain things she didn’t want to answer. Not yet anyway.
Like her first kiss. She hoped Luisa didn’t ask about that.
But, despite all of that, Clara took a deep breath and said, finally, “Truth.”
“Chicken.” Luisa stuck her tongue out at her.
“Am not!” Clara exclaimed. “Only truth was the thing I wanted us to do, which was the talking about ourselves. It seemed more cowardly to pick dare.” She met Luisa’s eyes and grinned at her, heart thudding wildly in her chest. “But if you want me to change my mind—”
“Nope, nope, no take-backs, you’re stuck with a truth now.” Luisa grinned and leaned back on her palms, staring up at her ceiling, still studded with glow in the dark stars. “I just have to think of a good one.”
Clara frowned. “You didn’t have one ready?”
Luisa shrugged. “Most of my friends pick dare. Or we play spin the bottle. And I like spin the bottle, but—”
“It’d be a little weird with only two of us in here, right?” Clara blurted out all of a sudden. She flushed wildly. “But I guess, if I’m supposed to be your girlfriend, then it wouldn’t be too weird.”
Luisa watched her, and then a grin slowly spread across her face.
Clara winced. “What?”
“I figured out my question.”
“Yeah, well, then ask it then.” Clara stared at her, waiting, her stomach tightening. She felt sick. Not afraid, because she wasn’t afraid. Just sick.
“Truth – do you want to kiss me?”
Clara’s eyes widened, and she looked away immediately. She bit her lower lip. Her heart was beating really fast. She didn’t like this. “That’s not the kind of question you ask if you’re just talking.”
Luisa frowned. “Well, we’re not just talking. We’re playing truth or dare. And it’s definitely the kind of question you ask in truth or dare.”
“I wanted us to just be talking.” Clara wouldn’t turn back to look at her. “You’re the one who wanted us to play a game.”
“And you agreed to it.” Luisa reached out and touched Clara’s shoulder ever so gently.
Clara jumped at her touch. “What was that for?”
“You don’t have to answer if you don’t want to,” Luisa said, “and we don’t have to keep playing. Besides, I already know you’re going to say yes. Everyone wants to kiss me.”
Clara’s eyes narrowed. “If you already thought you knew the answer, then why did you ask?”
Luisa grinned. “I wanted to hear you say it.”
“Oh.” Clara brushed a hand through her frizzy red hair, pushing it back behind one ear, and she finally looked at Luisa. Or, she tried to, but her eyes kept drifting to her lips and even when she tried to not look at them, her gaze only moved to the strands of hair that had pulled loose of her half-ponytail, the ones she wanted to tuck back behind Luisa’s ear. She bit her lower lip again. “Yeah,” she said, finally, her voice soft. She met Luisa’s hazel eyes briefly, and they twinkled with green and gold flecks. Then she looked away again. “Yeah, I…I’d like to….” Her face blushed a bright scarlet, so bright that she could feel the blood rising hot in her cheeks. She pressed her lips together. “I’ve thought about it, I mean, so yeah. Yes. Yeah.”
When she looked up again, Luisa was grinning, smug. “Alright then. I’ll keep that in mind.” She nudged her knee with her hand. “Your turn.”
Clara nodded, still blushing furiously. “Truth or Dare.” She already knew what she wanted to ask, even though it wasn’t what she’d been planning on before. But if Luisa could ask her that sort of question, then she wanted to ask it back. It was only fair!
Only the more that she thought about it, the more Clara realized that she really didn’t want Luisa to answer that question. What if the answer was no? She didn’t want to know. She really didn’t. So maybe she wouldn’t ask.
“Dare,” Luisa said, grinning at her.
Clara’s eyes widened again. “I told you that was the coward way!”
“Yeah, well, I told you that’s what my friends and I like to pick!”
Clara frowned. “You just wanted to play the game so you could get out of talking to me about stuff.” She crossed her arms. “That’s not very fair, Luisa.”
“I can change it, if you want.”
“No, no. You said no take backs. You’re stuck with a dare now.” Not that Clara was very happy about it. She had so many questions she wanted to ask the other girl. And what sort of dare was she supposed to come up with? She knew the sort that someone else might have picked, but that wasn’t the kind of person she was. She knew what that felt like. She didn’t want to— No. “I dare you to pick truth next time.”
Luisa’s mouth dropped open. “Now that’s not fair.”
“All’s fair in truth or dare,” Clara said, meeting her eyes and holding her gaze. “So next time you’ve got to pick truth.”
“Fine.” Luisa’s eyes narrowed into what was almost a glare. “Truth or Dare, Clara Ruvelle.”
“Dare,” Clara said, staring at her.
“No take backs,” Luisa reminded her.
“Yeah, well, what sort of thing are you going to dare me to do?” Clara asked, staring at her. “You don’t want truths from me, so. You like this better, don’t you?”
Luisa nodded. She licked her lips once, looked over Clara again, and then said, finally, “If you don’t like this one, you can change it, alright?”
Clara blinked a couple of times. That seemed off. Odd. Both. Luisa didn’t seem like the sort of person who would give loopholes and ways around her dares. “Alright,” she said, hesitating, tentative. “What is it?”
“I dare you to kiss me,” Luisa said, and her eyes met Clara’s, searching them.
Oh.
Oh.