The line clicked over, and I shoved my phone back into the jeans of my shorts. Breonna and Amber were sitting on the large couch with a scary movie frozen on the screen. Their eyes were filled with mischief as they followed my movements, and I stopped in my tracks.
“What?” I folded my arms across my chest, trying to come off serious.
Breonna stood with popcorn bowl in hand and grabbed my wrist. “Are you done wallowing in sorrow with your daddy?”
I rolled my eyes and tilted my head to the side. “For now, why?”
She didn’t reply before pulling me down the long hallway toward her bedroom. Amber followed behind in excitement, and a wave of nervousness crept over me. Breonna was on the extreme end of the spectrum between the three of us, with Amber being the good Christian girl, as I fell somewhere in the middle. She busted open the door to her room, and Amber closed it behind her. Breonna's middle name was Mischievous, and it was written all over her face as she patted the deep purple carpet, motioning me to sit.
“So, did you tell your dad that you enrolled at Northern?” She reached behind her and grabbed the floral dotted Ziploc bag filled with various candies and chocolates.
“What?” Amber held her hands to her lips with wide eyes before letting them drop slowly to her lap.
I let my shoulders slump as I folded my legs into a pretzel. “No…”
Before everything went to shit, I applied to Northern University, I wanted to get out of Stonebridge, but I didn’t want to go too far, so Chicago seemed like the best place. Except Northern yearly tuition started at $30,000, and that didn’t include room and board. Two years ago, my dad would have paid that in cash in a blink of an eye, but without any college savings and no construction jobs, the odds of me going were slim to none.
“I thought you guys didn’t have any money?” Amber asked as she reached for the bag of candy.
“They don’t,” Breonna chimed in before I could answer. “Let’s get off the dreary train and play a game. Our girlie can use a little bday pick me up.”
She straightened her spine and tossed her hair over her shoulders. I leaned back on the palms of my hands and stretched my legs as I waited for the queen of scandal to tell us our fate.
She clapped her hands and sliced her gaze between the both of us. “Truth or Dare…” She let the words flow off her tongue as she tapped the pads of her fingers together. “Amber, you go first. Truth or Dare?”
Her cheeks turned darker at the sudden demand, and she whined, “Why do I have to go first?” She folded her arms across her chest and leaned back against Breonna’s bed frame. “Truth.”
A smile bigger than the Cheshire cat spread across her face, and she waved her fingers in the air like she was some sort of magical Houdini. I snatched the bag of candy from her side and fidgeted with the wrapper of a chocolate-covered strawberry.
Amber stumbled words out of her mouth, starting and stopping like a lousy internet connection before she finally spit out, “I bought a vibrator with my dad's credit card.”
Amber covered her eyes with her hands before slowly widening the slits of her fingers to peak in Breonna's direction. Obviously, she was unimpressed and winged a brow as she racked her brain for a response.
“But did you use it? Did you put it on your clit?”
“Shhh,” Amber deadpanned, and she focused her gaze on the door. “Your mom might hear—”
“Hey church girl, focus. Did you turn it on and use it?” Breonna asked, interrupting her.
“No, why would I do that?”
I couldn’t hold back the laugh that erupted from my throat. Breonna's brows fused together in disbelief, and she rose her chin to the ceiling. Although Amber was one year older than me, her experience with anything remotely sexual was nonexistent.
Taking another piece of candy from the bag, she unwrapped it and plopped it in her mouth. “Moving on. Pearl, ask me.”
“Truth or Dare?”
“Easy, truth. Amber, plug your ears,” she joked as she tossed popcorn her way. “I fucked Joey and let him cream pie my mouth. He wanted to watch it seep out from the corners of my lips before he forced me to swallow it.”
“Nooo…”
She jumped up and down and clapped her hands together in such a proud manner.
Amber stuffed popcorn between her lips and leaned in. “What’s a cream pie?”
“It’s a protein snack. Pretty salty, you wouldn’t like it.”
She hunched over and bit the inside of her cheek as she digested our words. Watching her think made us both burst with laughter, and I nearly choked on my sip of water.