Nessie stares at me with stretched eyes, but doesn’t pursue any more information.
“Okay, my turn.” Cooper reaches into the bag of bottled drinks and picks out one of the fruit juices. “Chloe, truth or dare?”
My stomach lurches, but remains intact, knowing Cooper won’t be too harsh. “Truth.”
Nessie laughs at my obvious discomfort.
“What’s something you’ve never told anyone else?”
I mull over the question, my face likely puckered as I try to think of something that isn’t going to be humiliating or reveal just how crazy my thoughts sometimes wander. “Um…I once cheated on a test for AP History.”
Nessie pulls her chin back with surprise. “Really?”
I nod, feeling both relieved and embarrassed over the simple truth. School has always been something I’ve worked tirelessly at and have taken seriously. I’ve known since middle school that I want a career in astronomy. “I’d missed three days after having my wisdom teeth pulled, and the painkillers made it impossible for me to stay awake or focus, so when I got back, and Mr. Bradenburg gave us a pop quiz, I cheated and looked at someone else’s paper.”
“Is that really cheating?” Cooper asks, twisting around in his seat. “I mean, if you were out, why didn’t he just give you a pass?”
“In Chloe’s rulebook, it was definitely cheating. We took Spanish together our freshman year of high school, and she’d even get mad at me for cheating off her work.”
I scoff. “I still let you, and look how that ended for us.”
“Busted!” Cooper yells.
“We both served detention for a week,” I say.
“That wasn’t the worst part. Afterward, I had to sit on the other side of the class next to that Ben kid, and he was even worse at Spanish than I was.” Nessie shakes her head.
“Your turn, Chloe,” Cooper says with a smile.
Rules of inclusion tell me I should be asking Tyler next, but I know how competitive games turn back on you, and the last thing I want is for him to ask me the question in return. “Nessie, truth or dare?”
She grins. “Dare.”
“Kiss the person on your left!” Cooper yells.
“Why would I dare her to kiss me?” I ask him, rolling my eyes as I glance around the car. “Okay. Call one of your friends, and sing the chorus of the next song to them.”
Nessie leans forward, giggling as she reaches for her phone. My sister is confident and brazen with nearly everything in life, making her easy to admire and even easier to like and want to be around. Her laugh is quick and contagious, and she’s always looking for ways to have fun, so I shouldn’t be surprised that the dare doesn’t even make her blink as she scrolls through her phone and calls someone. She puts the phone on speaker and then belts out the chorus, her voice cracked and uneven because singing might be the only thing Nessie doesn’t excel at. She giggles wildly as the girl on the other side laughs in response.
“What are you doing?” the person she called asks.
Nessie wipes a tear from her eye. “Just wanted to serenade you. I have to go. Bye, Britt!” She hangs up and beams.
“We might have to stop at a karaoke bar,” Cooper says.
“All right, Tyler, truth or dare?” Nessie asks, ignoring Cooper’s suggestion.
I catch his blue gaze in the rearview mirror, finding humor and intrigue enrobed with what I think is a reluctance to participate as he remains silent for long seconds. “Dare,” he finally answers.
“I dare you to get the phone number of the next car that drives by us.”
Tyler glances out the window, and I follow suit, catching sight of a minivan with an older couple starting to pass.
“Going to get me bloody arrested,” Tyler says, accelerating to match their speed.
I’m already struggling to keep my laughter in, and he’s only rolled his window down.
“Better than the guy behind them,” Nessie says, turning to look at the motorcycle following the van.
“Bloody hell.” Tyler rolls his shoulders. “Coop, you watch the road.”
I slap a hand across my face with my fingers spread so I can still see. “This is a terrible idea.”
Nessie places her hand on my knee. It’s meant to be calming, but right now, my eyes are glued to the road. Tyler is waving at the couple to catch their attention.
The woman in the passenger seat starts to lower her window, and then the husband looks across, shakes his head, and uses the control on the driver’s side to close it again. The woman turns to her husband, clearly objecting as she waves an arm, and then turns and starts to lower the window again. My guilt ratchets higher as humor works to join the party. She probably thinks he’s trying to warn them their fuel door is open or something legitimately important.
“Have you ever wanted to become a cougar?” Tyler yells over the road noise.
“Oh my God,” Nessie giggles into her cupped hands.
Cooper raises a hand to shield his face.
“What?” the woman yells back, her face pinched as the wind blows against her.
“Can I call you sometime?” Tyler asks, his full attention on her, requiring Cooper to lean over and grab the wheel.
“Call me?” the woman asks.
The wind displaces Tyler’s dark blond hair as he sticks his head farther out the window. “That’s right.”
The woman ducks back into the car to say something to her husband, who is the easiest to see from my vantage point. He pulls his shoulders back and starts to say something, but the woman is laughing as she faces the window again and starts reciting a string of numbers and then cheers before her husband changes lanes and speeds up.
“That was easier than I expected,” Tyler says, rolling his window up.
Nessie is in stitches. “She really seemed like she wanted you to call.”
“Nah, she was trying to get her husband worked up. Did you see him carrying on?” Tyler shakes his head and runs a hand through his hair, unbothered by the fact Cooper is still steering the car.
After what feels like a millennium, he takes the wheel, his smile cocky. “All right, Chloe, truth or dare?”
4
Tyler
Chloe cringes, reminding me of how low her expectations of me are. The realization has half of me wanting to be a total dick and ask her something scandalous and embarrassing, and the other half of me feels guilty for having asked her.
“Truth,” she says reluctantly.
I hadn’t thought about what I’d ask, so it takes me a moment to come up with a question that isn’t going to up the ante of her dislike of me. “What’s something that most people think is true about you but isn’t?”
She blinks, but I can’t read her expression as I’m pulling back onto the freeway. When I finally glance up, she’s looking at Vanessa. “That I’m Vanessa?”
“That doesn’t count,” Cooper says, shaking his head.
I was going to give it to her because while it’s an obvious answer, I hadn’t set any parameters.
“It’s true,” she objects.
“It’s still a cop-out,” Vanessa says, earning a wide-eyed stare of accusation from Chloe.