Page 16 of Dared

His fingers closed around mine, lowering my hand. He squeezed it briefly and then let go, letting out a loud, dramatic sigh.

“Fine. I guess I owe you one.”

“Our relationship isn’t transactional,” I reminded him, earning me a light punch to my shoulder. “Seriously, though. Can you help me be less of a fuck-up? Give me some flirting pointers or whatever?”

“Yeah…” he said slowly. “If that’s what you want to do.”

“It is.”

“Okay, then. Tomorrow night. Meet me outside the student union.”

7

“See that guy over there?” Finn leaned in, his breath skating across my skin as he lowered his head to my ear. “The one with the Raiders cap?”

I followed his gaze. Directly in front of us was a guy in a baseball cap casually resting one elbow on the bar counter. His body was angled towards the girl next to him, perched on a bar stool, and he was saying something to her with a flirty grin on his face, making her smile in return.

“Look at his body language and then her body language. See how they’re open to each other? Leaning in? Honestly, half of flirting—for me, at least—is checking on the other person’s body language. If their posture’s all stiff or they don’t wanna look at you or whatever, I know there’s no point in taking it any further.”

“What if they’re just uncomfortable to begin with, though? Like I was with you?” I shifted on my feet. My intention wasto turn so I could see his face, but I ended up with the back of my left shoulder pressed against his chest. I went to take a step away, but he reached out and gripped my waist, holding me in place.

“You were never uncomfortable with me, though, were you?” His voice was so low in my ear. “Not even when you found out that I knew who you were.”

“I-I guess it’s different with us. We’re not trying to flirt with each other, and we got to know each other online first. We were already friends.”

“Yeah.” He sighed against me before releasing his grip on my waist. I felt suddenly cold without his body heat to warm me. “So…watch the people around us…maybe listen in if we can get close enough, and we can discuss their techniques.”

“Okay.”

We spent the next hour roaming the student union, eavesdropping on conversations while trying not to seem obvious. Eventually, though, I had enough. It was clear to me from the actions we’d witnessed that I’d never be a natural flirt. I couldn’t even talk to anyone normally, let alone anything more. Finn’s advice was to just be myself and be friendly and listen to whoever I was speaking to rather than try to hold the conversation. It sounded simple, so why did I find it so hard?

“I’m done. Can we leave?” I said after our fifth circuit of the bar area. Finn glanced at me, a thoughtful expression on his face.

“What about a dare? I dare you to speak to one person. Not even flirt with them. Just speak. Then we’ll go.”

“Fiinnnn.”

“Leoooo.”

“Fine. But you’d better be there with me.”

“Course I will be. C’mon, little lion. Let’s go find someone.” He grinned and slung his arm around me, pulling me into a side hug. I was beginning to get used to how tactile he was.It would’ve been weird with anyone else, but with Finn, it felt normal, somehow. Nice. It reminded me of the way JJ and his friends were with each other.

We reached the room with the pool tables, and I smiled when I saw Charlie with Bennett, Levi, and Pete from the football team, playing a doubles game. Finn’s dare hadn’t specified who I had to speak to. Most of these guys were his teammates, and that fact should theoretically make it easier to speak to one of them.

Charlie was closest to us, chalking up the end of his cue while he watched Bennett taking a shot. He looked up when he saw us, greeting Finn with a lift of his hand and then giving me a polite smile.

Okay. I could do this. Licking my dry lips, I returned his smile with a hesitant one of my own. “H-hi. I’m Leo. Finn’s friend.”

He nodded. “Yeah. Hi. I saw you at that football practice with Sophie.”

“Oh. Uh, I wasn’t with her. Just sitting with her.” My stupid fucking face was heating again. I could feel it.

“Alright, bro?” Finn took over the conversation, giving Charlie a fist bump before dragging me around to be introduced to the others.

They made small talk for a few minutes, mostly about football, but Finn stuck to my side, glancing over at me every now and then as if he wanted to make sure I was doing okay. I appreciated him doing so, but I…I’d done it. I’d introduced myself to someone new, and it hadn’t been anywhere near as bad as I’d been building it up in my head. I had the feeling that a lot of my issues were due to my brain running wild and making me think things that weren’t true.

“We’ll catch up with you later. We’ve got an important date withLesath Legends,” Finn announced to the four of them when there was a break in the conversation. Lifting his hand in a wave,he backed away from the pool table. I followed his lead, giving a tiny wave of my own and receiving matching grins from them.

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