Chapter Seventeen - Dare

“Uh…” Saki glanced over at me helplessly, fidgeting under Aria’s gaze. “I-I’m not good a-at that sort of thing. M-Maybe you can skip me?”

“There’s nothing you want to be able to make me do?” Aria smirked at her, leaning forward intently. I could almost hear the wheels turning in Saki’s mind, but she kept her face mostly neutral and shook her head adamantly instead.

“What is wrong with everyone? We’re all naked in a gorgeous bath that’s more like a pond than a bath and we’re all twiddling our thumbs! All except Mizuki who’s been getting busy!” Aria grinned at Mizuki who smiled and glanced around in confusion, plainly unaware of what Aria was talking about. “Well, maybe not right now, but she was!”

I stopped myself from gagging through sheer force of will. It wasn’t just that Mizuki had sex which, in and of itself, would be something akin to nightmare fuel for me. It’s that she had sex with Yuto. The same Yuto an alien race could very well mistake for a peculiar humanoid subspecies. The Yuto who made kissing noises to a giant smelly lizard and then laughed like a moron for no particular reason. I shook my head to clear the horrible circus images, replete with carnival music. I failed miserably. The image was burned into my brain and refused to be dislodged. Once more I forced back my gag reflex.

“I-I’ve never played before so I’m not, uh, really sure what to dare people,” Saki managed, shrugging helplessly.

“Fine! Emi! Dare me to do something!” Aria demanded. Emi was beginning to fade fast, the alcohol numbing her brain.

“Oh. Ok.” Emi mumbled. “Uh…” By the look on Emi’s face her thoughts had scattered like autumn leaves before a brisk wind.

“For fuck’s sake, you people are killing me,” Aria sighed and shook her head. “Fine. It looks like I’ll have to get things rolling on my own. Emi, I dare you to lick me from my neck to my belly button.”

“Huh?” Emi blinked at her, before shooting a surreptitious look at me. To say I was a bit surprised would be an understatement. This certainly was…different. Aria climbed onto the edge of the bath and stretched languidly; legs still dangling in the hot water. She giggled and glanced down at her naked body before looking back at Emi.

“I-uh,” Emi glanced between Aria and I nervously.

“From here,” Aria trailed a finger from her graceful neck, between her breasts and over her flat belly, stopping just above the triangle of dark hair at the apex of her thighs. “To here.”

“Like in the book,” Emi whispered breathlessly, shooting me another anxious glance.

“You can’t say no, Emi,” Aria purred. “After all, rules are rules, right?”

“I guess they are,” Emi didn’t sound convinced.

“Then back up the way you came,” Aria smirked and ran her finger back up her belly, tracing the gentle curve of her breast before returning to her throat. “I know you can do it. Can’t you, Emi?”

“I suppose,” Emi looked at me one more before standing unsteadily and making her way over toward Aria.

I stared at Aria impassively. What the hell was this? What game was she playing? I guaranteed it wasn’t the same one we all were. She was plainly putting on a show and, admittedly, it was quite impressive, and I was relatively sure I was the primary audience for it, but it felt wrong. I was grateful she hadn’t tried to involve Saki in whatever was going on in her head but roping Emi into it wasn’t ok, either.

“You’re not going to do it are you!?” Mizuki gasped, covering her mouth with her hands.

“Those are the rules,” Aria chuckled, fixing Mizuki with a languid gaze.

“Yeah but…” Mizuki looked tremendously uncomfortable. “isn’t that too sexual? You shouldn’t do that with someone unless you love them. Not to mention-”

“Yeah, it’s pretty sexual,” Emi interrupted her, straightened slightly, and looked at Mizuki. “But you exchanged spit and more with Yuto. Are you saying I can’t do sexy things?”

“But I love him!” Mizuki protested vehemently.

“Didn’t you love Daishi up until you started dating Yuto?” Emi chuckled, but I could tell she was irritated. It took a lot to irritate Emi, but once it happened it generally ended poorly. This might require an intervention, I thought grimly. “Like, until July you were drooling over him. And didn’t you have the hots for Jun before that? And what about Kai? And Niko. And Ren. Huh, come to think of it I’ve known you for three years and you’ve had quite a few loves.”

“This is different!” Mizuki snapped. “What you’re doing isn’t right.”

“Of course it’s different,” Aria chimed in. “This is just a game. Do you want to take Emi’s place?”

“I would never do that! I have a boyfriend!” Mizuki scoffed indignantly.

“Maybe we should try a different dare or, maybe try a different game…” I wasn’t good at playing peacemaker, but it certainly seemed destined for bad times if someone didn’t.

“It’s not cheating if it’s with a girl, Mizuki,” Aria chuckled. “I mean, it’s not like you can get pregnant.”

“What?” I turned to Aria, my brain trying to process what she’d just said.

“I’m not going to do that weird lesbian stuff, whether its cheating or not,” Mizuki shook her head emphatically. “It’s not normal.”

“Are you serious right now?” Emi gaped at Mizuki, the alcoholic fog burning away almost instantly.

“Of course I am!” Mizuki shot back. “I mean, I’ve got nothing against those people. I just don’t think it’s ok.”

“Wow,” Aria shook her head ruefully.

“’Those people’?” Emi growled, standing up in the water, fists clenched angrily. “What’s that supposed to mean? What if I was lesbian, Mizuki?”

“But you’re not,” the surprise on Mizuki’s face would have been comical if everything coming out of her mouth wasn’t so unwittingly disgusting. “I’ve known you for years, you’re normal. Don’t say things like that. They’re not funny.”

“Normal?” Emi gaped at Mizuki. I shook my head slightly and felt a pang in my heart. I’d just officially lost the friend I’d had since I was 4 years old, and it hurt in a way I couldn’t really define. If I were honest with myself, I knew she felt that way. Most people in Tottori most likely felt that way. Hell, most people in Japan probably felt that way. I knew my parents did. Now I had clarification on Mizuki’s stand on the matter.

I suppose I should be grateful for the admission, I reasoned. It saved me the pain of seeing her disgust if I’d decided to come out to her. Not that I ever would have, I thought. But if I’d had a moment of madness and thought our friendship could have survived such a revelation I might have. Now I didn’t have to worry.

“Most girls try out sex with another girl at least once, which means lots of girls are at least bi-sexual. So, technically, it’s kind of normal,” Aria chimed in. My brain simply couldn’t keep up with the sheer quantities of what the fuck moments piling up in the room like manure.

“That’s not true,” Mizuki shook her head. “That’s just what they tell you to make you try deviant things.”

“I don’t know if I’m lesbian or heterosexual or bisexual or pansexual or any other kind of sexual, but I know it’s not right to talk like that about people,” Emi snapped angrily. While I caught myself slipping into melancholy, Emi had taken a different path and her dander was definitely up.

“Of course you’re heterosexual,” Mizuki soothed. “You just haven’t met the right man, yet.”

“What?” Emi’s eyes had opened to the point they were like saucers. Uh, oh, I thought. “You think I just need some guy’s dick like it’s some magical talisman before I decide what my sexuality? Is that how you figured out you were straight, Mizuki? Did Yuto’s magical wand plowing the furrows of your garden like a tiny, misshapen meal worm give you the validation you needed to reinforce your heterosexuality?”

“Emi, I- “Mizuki shook her head.

“Maybe you should- “I tried to interject as well but Emi wasn’t having it.

“This!” Emi proclaimed angrily, grabbing her crotch for emphasis. “This is mine! I get to decide what to do with it! I don’t need anyone’s help figuring that out. You need to grow the fuck up, Mizuki.”

“No!” Mizuki growled, standing as well so as to face off with Emi across the bath. “You need to grow up! The world doesn’t work like that! You sit there like a doll and play the part of the ideal daughter whenever your parents want you to! You go on about weird stuff like being naked and acting like you’re going to do something to change the world, but here’s the cold reality, Emi, you’re just a coward like everyone else!

“You’re not gay or anything else,” Mizuki continued. “You’re just a spoiled brat who thinks it’s fun to play at being different because you know it’ll get a rise out of people. Inside, though, you know that the world is too big to give a crap about you and it scares the hell out of you! It’s ok, though! It scares me, too! I’m your friend! I’m here for you!”

“Do you know what scares me?” Emi muttered darkly before stomping out of the bath. “You.” She whispered, not turning. A moment later she was gone.

‘That could have gone better,” Aria said trying to break the silence.

“I didn’t do anything!” Mizuki protested, looking at me for validation.

“I’ll take care of it,” I muttered, wading through the bath toward the other side.

“I really didn’t do anything!” Mizuki repeated innocently.

“M-Maybe we should talk, Mizuki-senpai,” Saki offered helpfully behind me. I put my robe and slippers on grabbed Emi’s robe and followed after her.

I found Emi sitting naked on the floor of the kitchen, the candy we’d put in bowls earlier spread out around her in a semi-circle. She fiddled with the wrappers idly, not looking up at me as I approached. I stared down at her for a moment. Her wet hair hung limply in front of her face; her elbows rested on her thin legs as she struggled to unwrap a Sakura Twix bar. Her chin was quivering but she was resolutely holding back the tears.

“Are you cold?” I asked quietly. Her thin shoulders hunched up in a shrug, but she didn’t say anything. “You look cold. Here, I brought you a robe.” I draped it over her shoulders, and she nodded gratefully. I eased myself down onto the tile floor beside her and looked at her, waiting.

“I wonder if Mizuki has gotten the call from the Meiji era wanting their morality back, yet?” Emi finally mumbled.

“Yeah, that was a thing,” I agreed.

“It just makes me mad she’s so stupid,” Emi shook her head. “I know it’s got to suck worse for you.”

“Well, being both her childhood friend and gay, I can say unequivocally it’s not ideal,” I admitted.

“She started it, you know,” Emi growled, tearing the Twix package open finally and popping the light pink bar into her mouth.

“Well, I guess technically, her parents started it, but yeah, I know,” I pulled her close to me and hugged her.

“Why do parents suck?” Emi asked through the chocolate.

“Not everyone’s parents suck, but I know what you mean, and have no idea,” I shrugged. “Maybe they think since they gave birth to us, we should just be little clones of them and think and act the way they do. Then if we don’t, they try to yank us back on the path they’ve decided for us.”

“I have no idea,” Emi mumbled, unwrapping another Twix bar, while laying her head on my shoulder. “Maybe you’re right. Or maybe they’re just assholes.”

“You’re not wrong,” I chuckled, running my free hand through Emi’s hair soothingly.

“Mizuki’s an asshole, too,” Emi pouted. “She killed my party.”

“The party’s not over, yet” I soothed.

“Ok fine,” Emi scowled at the candy wrapper. “She gave it the black death and put it on life support, then.”

“She probably caught it from Yuto,” I chuckled.

“How gross was that?” Emi shuddered.

“There simply are no words,” I nodded. “You didn’t help with the plowing her garden thing. I’ll never look at a tomato the same again thanks to you.”

“Yeah, that was pretty gross, huh? I’m going to be even meaner to Yuto, now,” Emi decided.

“I’m not sure I’ll even be able to face him after this.”

“The mental images alone are going to require a ton of therapy,” Emi nodded morosely.

“What do you think? Think we can revive the party?” Emi looked up dubiously and shrugged. “I mean, Saki’s going to be a doctor and you’re a witch. If we all work together, we can manage it, I bet.”

“Well, I am a witch,” Emi nodded hopefully. “Ok, let’s try to save the patient. But maybe we shouldn’t play truth or dare anymore.”

“Yeah,” I agreed. “I think truth or dare is out of our league.”

“Definitely.”