Clare

  “So, what do we try first?” Sawyer asked, gazing down at me as we stood in the corridor lined with doors leading to various recreational activities.

  “There are so many. It’s hard to decide.” I said.

  “How about we try to do as many as we can and record points for who wins each time?” he proposed.

  “What do we need points for?” I asked curiously.

  “Whoever wins gets to choose the location of our next date.”

  I froze at his words, caught off guard by the flutter of excitement they sparked. Trying to mask my feelings, I shrugged casually. “Sure.”

  “You don’t want to go on another date with me?” he asked.

  I shook my head quickly. “No. I-I’m just surprised. We’ve hardly even been alone together since the start of this date and you’re already sure you want another date?”

  He smiled and instead of clasping our arms together, held my hand, raised it to his lips and pressed his lips to the back of it. “Well, I actually regretted inviting you to this party as our first date so I would really love an intimate picnic for our next date where it would be just us, getting to know each other, without the loud music blasting from the food court and this jostling crowd.”

  I knew my face was flushed because I was greatly flattered by his smile and the kiss he pressed on the back of my hand that was still tingling even as he interlocked our fingers.

  To distract him from my very much not cute, red as a tomato blushing face, I proposed a game and then instantly regretted it. “How about we try karaoke first?”

  He smirked at me and then pulled me in that direction. “Okay, then let’s start.”

  After singing some karaoke songs while getting rated by the sophisticated karaoke machine that rated how well we sang the songs to hit the right notes with Sawyer winning four out of five times, we moved on to the arcade area where Sawyer won three out of five times. By the time we walked out of the Virtual Reality gaming area with Sawyer winning most of the games, I had given up on winning.

  I was also slightly exhausted from the games, so we decided to take things easy by going to take photos together at the photo booth.

  We were enjoying a cup of ice cream together when Koda came over to personally invite us for the truth or dare games he’d reminded Sawyer to attend earlier.

  However, to my surprise, when I got to the lounge used for the truth and dare which only a few of the partygoers had been invited to, I found Elijah seated there. He was holding onto a cup of fruit punch and when our eyes met, he gave me a sarcastic grin as Sawyer guided me to a seat in the corner with his palms pressed respectfully to my lower back.

  Probably because she came with us, Lissa was led into the lounge room for the game and allowed to sit among the onlookers on the chairs arranged behind the lounge chairs.

  As the game started, I couldn’t get comfortable for a while because Elijah’s gaze remained fixed on me. It was only after a while that he looked away, at which time Sawyer patted my hand.

  When I looked up to meet his gaze, he gave me a short nod that made me realize that he’d seen how Elijah had fixed his gaze on me and how uncomfortable it had made me feel and had done something to make Elijah look away while my gaze had been fixed awkwardly on my fingers.

  It was only after this seemingly insignificant incident that I got to finally enjoy the truth or dare game, watching people spin the bottle and answer questions or do dares before getting the chance to spin the bottle.

  As this was a game with only werewolves, Koda had even gone as far as securing a real truth meter machine to ensure that everyone who chose truth could not lie.

  The truth meter machine was a small square box with indicator lights and an arrow that could move in a semicircle along a bunch of lines. To the right edge of the semicircle was an unlit green indicator light and to the left edge was an unlit red indicator light.

  Several minutes into the game, the bottle cap pointed in Sawyer’s direction. The girl who’d done the spinning was a girl with dark roots and dyed blond hair that made her dark blue eyes pop.

  She and Sawyer seemed to know each other, and they had to have some sort of history because Koda kept glancing nervously from me to the girl to Sawyer as Sawyer chose truth.

  “Sawyer, what do you look for in a girl?”

  Sawyer pressed his hand to the truth detector, glanced at me with a smile, and said, “I’m not sure. So far, I want someone who is assertive and communicative, with an agile mind and spirit that can keep up with me. Someone like Clare Parker.”

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  I blushed as everyone stared down at the truth detector, whose indicator light was a solid green. Even more impressively, the indicator ruler was stuck on the right end of the truth to lie scale where complete truths were on the right, lies were on the left and lies mixed with truths were in the middle.

  “Tsk, tsk, I can’t believe you’re using my birthday party to publicly confess your feelings for a girl. Where’s the stoic, mentally unavailable, and emotionally in-adept boyfriend, Sawyer?”

  Sawyer chuckled while glaring at Koda. “Mind your business or I’ll give you something to do now. Don’t forget that I get to spin the bottle next.”

  “Okay, okay. You’re the best! The most emotionally adept, intelligent guy in the world!” Sawyer rushed to flatter.

  “What was your first impression of Sawyer?”

  “Pretty boy…then annoying, arrogant troublemaker.” I said with a smile.

  “That sounds about right. Then how about now?” Koda asked excitedly.

  “Sweet…Intelligent…and very sensitive.” I answered with a smile, unable to meet Sawyer’s gaze as I spoke.

  Koda let out a hearty laugh at my words before turning to Sawyer. “Oh, oh, I really want to know what your first impression of Clare was.”

  Sawyer smirked at him. “I’m not answering that question if the bottle doesn’t spin my way.”

  I gave my rights to spin the bottle to Sawyer and after he did, the bottle pointed straight at Koda. “Koda, truth or dare?”

  “Dare.” Koda said with a grin.

  “I dare you to try to scream, bark, and shriek like a fox. Three different sounds.” Sawyer said with a grin.

  “Noooo! You can’t do this to me on my birthday! Do you know what respecting the birthday boy means? How can you ask such an evil question? By the way, you cheated. How the hell did the bottle point at me?”

  I couldn’t help laughing as they quibbled until Koda eventually had to make fox noises.

  However, I wasn’t laughing when Elijah spun the bottle and the cap of the bottle was pointed at me.

  This time, I couldn’t avoid looking at him, as he gave me a derisive smirk. “Truth or dare, Clare.”

  I looked down at the bottle before answering. “Truth.”

  He reached for the truth meter and then slid it across the table until it stopped accurately in front of me.

  The lounge was silent as everyone seemed to have sensed the undercurrents of emotions between Elijah and I.

  The only person who spoke this time was Koda. “Hey, be careful with that truth meter, Elijah. It took a lot of connections to rent it, you know.”

  “Sure.” Was Elijah’s response as he used his head to indicate that I put my thumb on the truth meter.

  I wordlessly placed my thumb as everyone else had done earlier, feeling the zap as the meter activated to indicate a successful connection to me.

  “When you like someone, how long do your feelings last before you magically wish them away at the snap of a finger or at the snap of a finger from any other boy who's willing to give you some attention?”

  The room became charged as everyone’s eyes fixed on me seemed to change. My hand trembled as a few people started whispering.

  I didn’t like being the center of attention and I really didn’t like airing out my business like Elijah had just done. I hated the feeling of walking past a whispering person and feeling like they could be gossiping about me.

  When Sawyer took my hand and seemed to want to say something, I decided to stop being cowardly around Elijah and my feelings for him.

  Squeezing Sawyer’s hand, I looked up and met Elijah’s eyes. “I wouldn’t say I actually liked you. I was just infatuated with who I thought you were. Congratulations, you keep proving over and over that it was a good choice to give up on you when I saw through your mask. I’m sorry if it makes you mad, but I know better than to stay attached to a mask.”

  I leaned closer to him, making sure he held my gaze as I said, “If I’m going to love someone, I have to love every side of them.”

  Koda’s mood was much more muted as he took control of the situation with a glare directed Elijah’s way. “The truth meter says that she’s telling the truth. I hope that answers your question, Elijah. Now let’s continue without the super intense questions, okay? Simple, playful questions everyone!”

  We were still playing when I looked back and realized that at some point, Lissa had left the lounge room.

  I was going to look away, thinking she had possibly left because she got bored, but then I noticed that the seat of the older guy beside her was empty. Something about that made me uneasy and as a Fae-Witch who had never reaped any benefits from ignoring her instincts, I asked Sawyer to check her whereabouts.

  As soon as he did, he shook his head. “She’s in the small kitchen behind one of the food courts. That’s a closed off area and she shouldn’t be there alone. Let’s go make sure she’s fine.”

  Thankfully, we left the game and went to find her, rescuing her from a suspicious-looking college boy trying to get her to take his drink despite her repeated refusals.

  When we returned to the lounge, the truth and dare game had ended, so we wished Koda a happy birthday and left.

  Sawyer first dropped Lissa off at her home and, after making sure she got home safely, we took a comfortably silent and peaceful drive to the trailer park.

  “So how was it?” Sawyer said as he helped me out of his car and closed the door behind us.

  “Hmm?” I asked, turning to look at Sawyer while trying to clear my sleepiness.

  “Our first date? Did you enjoy it?” he asked.

  “I enjoyed it. It is definitely the best date I’ve ever been on.” I answered truthfully, since I’d only been on a few and barely decent dates in my lifetime.

  Sawyer beamed at my words as he held my hands loosely with his, swinging our joined hands back and forth. “So, would you like to go on another date tomorrow afternoon?”

  “Sure.” I answered.

  “Great!” His smile grew wider as he raised my hand to his lips and pressed a kiss to my palm.

  My palm tingled all the way as he escorted me to the front of Josie’s trailer in a comfortable silence.

  “I’m here.” I said, as we stopped in front of the door.

  “Well, I’ll pick you up at 2pm tomorrow evening?” he asked.

  Tomorrow was a Saturday and just like today, I didn’t have a shift at the Lounge, so it was easy to agree. “Sure. I’ll be ready by 1:50. Should I…Can I dress casual or…?”

  He seemed surprisingly unsure about how the dressing had to be as he scratched the back of his head. “Well, let’s do casual for the second date.”

  I smiled. “Then, see you tomorrow?”

  He raised our joined hands in the air and then dropped them before releasing my hand. “See you tomorrow.”

  I smiled at him, stepped closer to him, and pressed a kiss on his cheek before rushing into Josie’s home without a backward glance.