“Shoes off!” ordered Prad when he opened the front door. “Go straight to the studio, and don’t touch anything on your way. If my parents find out I had people round while they were away, they’ll pack me off to a boys-only boarding school in the country.”
I took Josh’s hand and led him downstairs where about twenty kids from my year were already settling in. He’d apologised all the way to Prad’s for not hanging out with me at the competition, and promised to make up for it by not leaving my side for the rest of the night.
I spotted Maz sitting with Nicko and Simon on the old couch in the corner and pulled Josh over to say hi to them.
“I’m, uh, going to see if Prad needs any help,” said Simon, jumping up from the couch as if it was upholstered in piranhas.
Maz eyed Josh with suspicion. “I thought you’d be helping your mates drown their sorrows.”
“Nah, it’s always more fun hanging out with winners, isn’t it? Anyway, Al wanted to come here.” He squeezed my hand.
“Lucky us.” Maz turned back to Nicko. She obviously wasn’t going to include us in their conversation, so we went to where a larger group was sitting in a circle on the floor.
“Who wants to play a game?” asked Tracy.
Prad returned with a big bowl of orange liquid with fruit floating in it. “Are we talking Scrabble or strip poker?”
“How about truth or dare?”
“An excellent choice,” said Prad. “I happen to have whipped up a batch of Doctor Chandarama’s Truth Serum.”
He dipped a plastic cup into the bowl and gave it to Tracy, who took a swig and pulled a face. “What’s in it?”
“A little of this, a little of that, a splash of whatever my parents won’t miss, and a tin of fruit cocktail for vitamin C. Who’s up for a dose?”
Prad filled more cups and Tracy handed them out. Josh took two.
“I don’t recommend that,” said Simon when I accepted the cup Josh offered me. “I saw what went in there and it’s pretty nasty.”
“I think Al can make that decision for herself,” Josh said, downing his drink in two gulps. “Whoo, that’s not bad!”
“Al,” pleaded Simon. “Seriously, all that stuff’s good for is cleaning floors.”
I rolled my eyes. “Can’t you relax for once? If anyone deserves to loosen up a little right now, it’s me.”
I followed Josh’s lead and took a big sip of the punch. It definitely tasted like medicine.
I forced my grimace into a smile for Simon’s benefit. “Delicious.”
“Are you playing?” asked Tracy.
Ordinarily, I would have said no – truth or dare at teenage parties is like mums racing to the dance floor when they hear the opening bars of “Nutbush City Limits” at a wedding reception: a cliché that can only end badly – but before I could answer Josh had pulled me to sit in the circle.
He topped up my drink. “This is going to be fun.”
Lily went first and chose truth.
“Okay,” said Prad. “Answer honestly: who do you think is the hottest guy at Whitlam?”
Lily blushed and rolled her eyes towards the ceiling.
“Come on, fess up,” encouraged Prad.
“Um. Josh, I guess,” Lily said finally.
Josh chuckled and saluted her with his drink. “Cheers, Lily. You’re not bad yourself.”
Prad’s grin disappeared. “Okay, pretty boy, you’re up. Truth or dare?”
“Dare,” said Josh without pausing to consider the two options.
“You’re a brave man, Turner. I dare you to stick your nose inside my sneaker and hold it there for no less than ten seconds.”
There were protests from those of us who were familiar with the stench of Prad’s sneakers. It was stomach churning enough being in the same room when he took them off, having your nose inside one was olfactory suicide.
Josh was unmoved by our warnings. “Bring it on,” he told Prad, who leaped up with a grin and climbed the stairs two at a time.
He reappeared a minute later, holding one of his shoes at arm’s length. Josh snatched it and put the sneaker up to his face. I had to close my eyes. The sight of Prad’s shoe so close to someone’s nose made me queasy (although that could have been the punch hitting my empty stomach). Lily and the others in the circle counted down slowly from ten. I opened them at “zero” to see Josh throw the sneaker across the room in triumph.
“Hey, watch where you’re throwing stuff!” yelled Maz.
By my turn I’d finished another cup of punch and was feeling more relaxed than I had in weeks, but I was alert enough not to risk having to answer a question about Larrie.
“I’ll take a dare.”
“Okay,” said Prad. “I dare you to … pash a chick.”
“What?”
“I said, I dare you to kiss a girl.”
I expected Josh to protest that I shouldn’t be kissing anyone except him, but all he said was, “Go on, Al. It’s only a bit of fun.”
“What are you worried about?” asked Prad.
“Nothing, but …”
“You’re scared you’ll enjoy it?” suggested Lily.
I tried to hide my panic. “I just don’t want to. Besides, who would I kiss?”
“I’ll kiss you,” offered Tracy.
“Problem solved,” said Prad, taking Tracy’s cup and mine and filling them both to the brim.
“Cheers.” Tracy drained her cup and I followed suit.Then she knelt in front of me. “It’s okay, Al, kissing’s fun whoever it’s with.”
“And there’s nothing hotter than two chicks kissing,” added Josh.
“I, uh …” I searched my mind for a way out of the situation, but the best excuse I could think of was that I had a contagious disease, which I figured wouldn’t go down too well with Josh. Meanwhile, Tracy’s face was moving closer to mine.
Over her shoulder, I saw Simon’s eyes widen. “It’s just a stupid game, Al. Don’t let them force you into doing anything you don’t want to.”
“What’s your problem, Lutz?” asked Josh. “We’re just having fun.”
My eyes flashed from Simon to Josh. What was more important to me: taking the moral high ground or proving I wasn’t a prude? When my lips met Tracy’s there was a chorus of approval. I opened my eyes for a second to see how Josh was reacting. His grin told me I’d made the right choice.
I knew Tracy was an experienced kisser, but I was still a little surprised at how, well, good she was at it. Unlike the guys I’d kissed, Tracy wasn’t at all slobbery, and she didn’t flick her tongue around like a snake, which seemed to be the technique all teenage boys acquired. Tracy’s kisses were gentle but persistent, and even though no other part of our bodies touched, I felt more intimately connected to her than I had to anyone I’d kissed in the past, including Josh.
I was kind of lost in the moment, so I was surprised when Tracy pulled away from me without warning. My eyes shot open in time to see her get up and take a bow as the others clapped and whistled. I put my hands up to my face to try to hide my burning cheeks.
“Are you sure you’ve never done that before?” asked Prad. “Because you looked like pro.”
Lily and a couple of the others echoed their agreement, but Josh put his arm around me protectively. “Come on, Al was a good sport. Now it’s someone else’s turn. Prad: truth or dare?”
I wondered how Maz had reacted to the kiss, but she and Nicko had abandoned the couch, presumably for somewhere more private. Simon was standing next to the stereo with his back to the room, doing a bad job of pretending to be engrossed in Prad’s music collection. In that instant, I wanted to be very far away.
I mumbled to Josh that I was going to the loo, but when I got upstairs I bypassed the guest bathroom and headed for the lounge. Prad had told us it was off limits, but I figured that was the rule for a whole crowd of rowdy teenagers, not for one tired and confused girl. The talent of the Chandaramas’ decorator was evident: the living room was an oasis of calm colours and soft, pillow-like sofas. I sank into one of them and closed my eyes to do some thinking.
I’d enjoyed kissing Tracy more than I thought I would. A lot more. But as Tracy herself pointed out, kissing’s fun. And if I’d enjoyed it more with her than I had with the guys I’d kissed (a total of three, for the record – including Josh, not including Pete Kelly’s nose) it didn’t mean I was gay. It was just that Tracy was a better kisser than them. Right?
“You okay?” Josh’s voice sounded more annoyed than worried.
“Yeah,” I lied. “I think I had too much punch.”
“I told Lutz you were fine,” he said, sitting and pulling me into his arms. “That guy is such a killjoy.”
I snuggled against him, enjoying the warmth of his chest against my cheek. We stayed that way for a few minutes.
“Did watching me and Tracy really turn you on?” I asked.
“Sure – like I said, girls kissing each other is hot. But you kissing me is hotter.”
He lifted my face up to his and kissed me hard. Then his tongue darted in and out. When I caught myself comparing his kiss to Tracy’s, I did my best to ignore it by concentrating on how much I liked Josh. And when his hands reached under my T-shirt and then pulled me on top of him, I went with it.
“Al?”
Josh didn’t stop when Simon spoke, but I did. I sat up and straightened my clothes.
“I think it’s time to go home,” said Simon.
Josh was furious. “Who do you think you are, her minder? Al’s already got an interfering, know-it-all big sister, she doesn’t need you busting her fun too.”
Simon kept his eyes locked on me. “Come on, Al. It’s past your curfew already.”
“It’s past your curfew already,” mimicked Josh in a high, whiny voice. “Get a life, Clutz. Come on, Al, let’s go somewhere more private.”
It only took me a second to realise that I didn’t want to be somewhere more private with Josh right then. Not when we were both drunk, and not while I was feeling so mixed up.
“He’s right,” I said. “I’d better go or I’ll be grounded till the holidays.”
Josh’s expression lay somewhere between disappointment and fury. “Are you sure? I could drop you home in an hour or so. I’ll come in with you and tell your old man we had to wait ages for a bus.”
“Thanks, but I don’t think my dad’d buy that. I’d better go with Simon.”
Josh looked daggers at Simon as he drew me towards him for a long, snaky-tongued goodbye kiss.
Simon was broodingly silent in the taxi, as if there were so many things that he wanted to tell me off about that he didn’t know where to start. I pretended not to notice. I had enough on my mind already without worrying about what he thought of me.
Al Miller is dazed and confused.