After dinner, the group lounged around the living room, bellies full and moods light. Empty plates and half-finished drinks cluttered the table, but no one cared. The air buzzed with energy, the kind that came from the rare freedom of finishing exams.
Damian, sprawled across the couch like he owned it, clapped his hands. "Alright, people. We need a game."
Luke perked up. "Cards?"
Emily groaned. "Boring. Something fun. Something spicy."
Her grin was mischievous enough to draw groans from both Damian and Luke, who clearly knew where this was going.
"Don't you dare say...." Damian began.
"Truth or dare," Emily declared, triumphant.
Amara chuckled, shaking her head. "Seriously? What are we, twelve?"
"Yes," Emily said without hesitation, then gestured around the room. "Come on, it'll be fun. We need something to embarrass us for life. Admit it."
Even Adrian, leaning against the armrest with his usual detached calm, couldn't suppress the faintest smile.
"Fine," Luke said. "But if I end up streaking outside in this weather, I'm blaming you."
The circle formed quickly....Damian and Luke across from Emily and Amara, Adrian sitting between his two friends but angled just slightly toward Amara. The fire crackled in the background, adding warmth to the charged atmosphere.
First Rounds
The game started light.
"Truth or dare?" Emily asked Damian.
"Dare," he replied, smirking like a man with no fear.
Emily's grin widened. "I dare you to dance like a ballerina for one minute."
Damian groaned, but stood anyway, arms flailing in an exaggerated spin that had everyone doubled over with laughter.
Luke chose "truth" and ended up admitting to once accidentally calling a professor "mum." Emily confessed to having a crush on a campus DJ. The dares stayed silly....wearing socks on their hands, speaking in accents.
Then Luke, clearly eager for mischief, turned his attention to Adrian.
"Truth or dare?" he asked, eyes gleaming.
Adrian leaned back, thoughtful. "Truth."
Luke's grin widened. "Alright. Have you ever been in love?"
The room quieted. Even Damian leaned forward, interested.
Adrian's eyes flickered briefly....so briefly that most would miss it....toward Amara. "No," he said finally, his voice steady.
Emily raised a brow. "Never?"
"Never," Adrian repeated, taking a sip of water.
Amara shifted uncomfortably, heart thumping faster for reasons she couldn't quite place. He looked at me. Did he? No, maybe I imagined it.
The game moved on, but for Amara, that small moment lingered.
The Shift
As the night wore on, the dares grew bolder, the truths sharper. Emily dared Luke to hold Damian's hand for five minutes, which they did with overly dramatic flair. Damian asked Amara if she'd ever cheated on an exam, and when she said "No," Emily immediately called her "saint Amara."
But when it circled back to Adrian again, Emily leaned in, her eyes glinting.
"Truth or dare?"
Adrian hesitated this time. "Truth."
Emily smirked. "What's the most important thing you've never told anyone?"
The question hung heavy in the air. Adrian's usual composure faltered just slightly....an almost imperceptible twitch at the corner of his mouth. His gaze dropped to the floor, his fingers brushing against his knee.
What's the most important thing I've never told anyone?
Adrian's Thoughts
He thought of his father.
The cold man whose voice had shaped his childhood. Whose expectations hung like chains around his neck. Whose approval was as rare as it was fleeting.
You're not here to waste time, Adrian. You're here to inherit, to lead. Don't disappoint me.
The words echoed like thunder in his memory. He had grown up not as a son, but as a successor. Every achievement was measured, every failure magnified.
Even now, years later, he felt the weight pressing down on him. His father's shadow stretched long, consuming, relentless.
And yet, here he was, sitting among friends who laughed freely, who teased without fear. And opposite him sat Amara.....Amara, with her soft smile and quiet strength. A girl who unsettled him, who made him want to be seen not as his father's heir, but as himself.
For a second, Adrian almost said it. Almost confessed the truth....that he lived under the crushing burden of being nothing more than his father's son.
But instead, he forced a small, practiced smile. "That's for another time."
The group groaned at his evasiveness, Emily throwing a pillow at him. "Lame!"
Adrian caught it with ease, but his thoughts remained elsewhere, dark and tangled.
Night's End
The game fizzled out after that, the energy slowly winding down. Damian declared himself "champion of dares," Luke claimed to have learned everyone's deepest secrets, and Emily promised to plan a rematch "with real consequences."
One by one, they drifted toward their rooms.
Adrian showered quickly, needing the cool water to ground him. But when he stepped out, towel draped over his shoulders, he nearly bumped into Amara in the hallway. Her hair was damp, strands clinging to her face, her pajamas simple yet somehow striking.
For a moment, neither moved.
"Sorry," Amara murmured, stepping aside.
"It's fine," Adrian replied, though his voice was softer than usual.
Something unspoken lingered in the air, fragile and taut. He wanted to say more....to ask if she noticed the way he'd faltered during the game, to admit the storm that lived inside him. But the words stuck.
Instead, they walked together to the living room, where the fire had burned low. They sat side by side, playing a simple card game Damian had left out, their laughter quieter now, more intimate.
And when Damian, wandering back for a drink, suggested a final round of truth or dare before bed, Adrian's gaze flicked again to Amara.
This time, he wondered...not for the first time....why her presence made the silence feel less heavy.