Page 48 of Spark

“I didn’t do anything. Savage and Laila planned the whole thing.” Are his eyes flickering from my eyes to my lips, or am I imagining that?

“You were the life of the party, though,” he says. “You got everybody going.”

Okay, Kendrick’s gaze definitely flickered to my lips that time. “I needed to let loose.”

“How are you feeling now?”

“So much better. Drunk, though.”

“Yeah, me, too.” Kendrick drags his teeth over his lips, drawing my gaze. Would he return my kiss the same way he pretended to do back then, if I leaned in and kissed him now? Or this time, with no camera pointed at us and no reason to pretend, would he jerk back and say, “I’m sorry, I don’t feel that way about you, Ruby.” God, that would be mortifying.

“Sorry if I made you leave earlier than you wanted to,” I say softly. We’re both lying on our sides now, face to face.

“I was looking for an excuse to leave, anyway.”

I chuckle. “Liar. You were just getting started. Like Titus said, you didn’t even get to playBirthday Truth or Dare.”

“Like you said, I’m all out of good ideas for dares, anyway.” His Adam’s apple bobs. “But I guess, I mean, if you insist on me getting to play, we could do it now.”

My heart rate increases. The boy wrote lyrics for a song called “Spank,” and now he wants to play one-on-oneTruth or Dare? Color me intrigued.

“Okay, sure,” I say, trying to sound unbothered and nonchalant.

He licks his lips. “Tell me the truth, Ruby. Am I the guy in Cooper’s song?”

Well, fuck. That’s not what I expected.

Unfortunately, the honest answer to that question is yes. In fact, I can’t even count the number of times Cooper brought up Kendrick throughout our short relationship, in exactly the same ways he brought up the guy in the song. Indeed, our final fight was mostly to do with his jealousy about Kendrick.

“Come on, Ruby Duby,” Kendrick coos, cutting the thick silence. “It’s my birthday. You have to answer truthfully.”

I exhale. “I think it’s possible, considering how jealous he’s always been of you.”

“Did he ever tell youwhyhe was so jealous of me, in particular?”

“He couldn’t understand our close friendship. But I’m not inside Cooper’s head. Who knows what he was thinking?” I do. I know exactly what Cooper was thinking, because everything he accused me of during our relationship made it into that damned song. “I certainly never gave him any reason to be jealous of you, if that’s what you’re asking me.”

Kendrick twists his mouth, but he doesn’t say a word. Can he sense I’m not telling him the full truth? But how could I tell him about the time Cooper accused me of having a sex dream about Kendrick, when I genuinely don’t vividly remember the dream myself, so I can’t confidently confirm or deny the accusation? For all I know, I was moaning “Kendrick” loudly in my sleep because I was dreaming of him giving me a slice of delicious chocolate cake. Or hell, maybe I wasn’t moaning “Kendrick” at all, like Cooper insisted. Who knows? I’mcertainly not going to take Cooper’s word for it that I did that. Repeatedly. And I’m not going to pass along Cooper’s possibly baseless accusations to Kendrick.

“What about the other lyrics?” Kendrick asks. “The sex dreams and ‘you said his name twice?’ Do you think those lines are about me, too?”

Jesus. “How many questions do you get in a one-on-one game ofBirthday Truth or Dare?”

“Unlimited.”

“No way. You don’t get unlimited dares when we play. You only get one per player. It should be the same with truth.”

Kendrick smiles. “Dares take more energy to execute, though.”

“I’m too tired for more.” I fake a yawn. “Let’s stop and go to sleep.”

“Just answer that last question.”

“I forget what it was.”

“Do you think the other lines were about me, too? The sex dreams and saying his name twice.”

“I have no idea.” It’s not the truth, but there’s no way I’m going to admit Cooper accused me of everything in his song. “Can I ask you a question, even though it’s not my birthday?”

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