Page 10 of Summer's Edge

“Truth. Do you have acrush—” Kennedy draws the word out.

“Oooh,” Chase says.

“Grow up, guys.” Ryan clutches Catan uncomfortably.

“—on anyone in your class?” Kennedy finishes, and looks at me expectantly.

“Really?” I look around the room. “Not to tiptoe around the obvious, but I haven’t been in school for a year.” There’s a brief silence, blink and you’d miss it, like a skipped heartbeat.

“You’ll be a senior in September,” Kennedy points out. “What about your senior class?”

“Pass,” I say firmly. “I can’t answer without actually meeting them.”

“Boo,” Chase says. “Mila’s going to be a senior.”

“Not interested.” She gives me a once-over as if an afterthought, and then a pity smile.

“Fine, but you have to answer this one.” Kennedy draws the next card. “Chelsea, on penalty of permanent banishment, who was your first crush? Wow, they really went all in on crushing.”

“Crushing it with crushing.” Chase looks pleased with himself.

I bite my lip. We all know the answer to this one, and it’s only going to make it awkward to say it out loud. “Um, obviously it was Ryan.”

Mila raises an eyebrow as a tight-lipped Kennedy foldsthe card in half and reinforces the crease several times. “That explains a bit.”

“Read the next question,” Kennedy says.

Ryan flushes uncomfortably, then picks up a card without looking at me. “Chase, what would you do if—”

“Dare!” Chase interrupts with a look of indignation. “You didn’t even ask.”

“Whatever,” Ryan says.

“We don’t have to play.” Kennedy gathers her cards and reaches for mine, but I fold my hands around them protectively and hug them to my chest. She shoots me one of herWhose side are you on?looks, but I sort of want to see where this goes. I’ve been humiliated, and it kind of feels like everyone should have a turn in the hot seat before we give up. We all know exactly who feels what about who, the good, the bad, and the ugly. But no one ever says anything out loud. That might have been our downfall. I wonder now if it might save us. What’s left of us.

“Let me do my dare,” Chase pleads. “Ryan, I will make you laugh during the course of this game. I will make you crush on me.”

Ryan forces a pained smile. “One more round. That’s all I have in me.” He looks down at the card. “Hold your breath for one minute without laughing.”

Chase gives him a puzzled look. “Really?”

Ryan shows him the card. “It’s your genius game.”

“Okay. Here goes.” Chase draws a deep breath and holds it as the rest of us count to sixty together. He maintains a studied Gaston-like expression of exaggerated ease throughout, flexinghis muscles and spinning the game box on his fingertip like a basketball. All he needs is a set of muddy boots and a deer’s head mounted on the wall behind him. “Didn’t laugh,” he says when the minute is up. “As hilarious as that was.” He turns to Mila.

“Truth,” she says immediately.

“Who’s the cutest person in the room?”

Mila smirks. “You think I’m going to say you, but I’m bound by the rules to tell the truth. You’re cute, but I’m cuter and everyone here can vouch for it. Sorry.” She blows him a kiss, selects a card, and looks to Kennedy. “Pick your poison.”

“Truth.”

“Who is the last person in this room you betrayed?” Mila asks in a low, dramatic voice.

“Read the card,” Kennedy says, annoyed.

“I did,” Mila protests, tossing the card into her lap.

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