'Oh, yeah. What a mystery,' Sam replied. 'Must be your bubbly personality.'
'Must be. Right, that's enough stalling. Dare time!'
Sam felt a knot in her stomach -- a rush of adrenaline passing through. By now, the conflicting feelings of nervousness and excitement were even more familiar than Lucy herself. She had known them longer, after all.
'Come on, then. Let's hear it.'
'There's two parts to this one. First, simply order us a noodle box each. I'm not a fussy eater so I'll let you pick.'
'Uh-huh. Why do I get the impression that I should keep away from the spicier choices?'
'Ooh, You're smarter than you look. Not that it's hard.'
'Ha. Funny. You're not really in a position to talk about appearances right now,' Sam replied, chuckling as she looked Lucy up and down. Lucy's dress had only barely covered her underwear when they'd set out, but with the added weight of milkshake, the sagging gusset hung just below the hem of her dress. Better yet, depending on your perspective, it was still dribbling its contents down the inside of Lucy's right leg.
'Okay, okay. Fair point, but are you going to keep laughing at me or are you going to get on with your dare?'
'Oh, I can do both. Be right back.'
Sameena had a decent idea of what Lucy was going to make her do, so she tried to keep it in mind while ordering. If she was going to end up with noodles in her knickers, the last thing she wanted was for them to be spicy, so the picante box was right out. No seafood either. She almost shuddered at the thought. They were guaranteed to be slippery with grease, but prawns down there? No thanks.
'Can I have two vegi boxes, please' she asked the girl on the till, barely even noticing her as she turned to have another glance at her friend. Lucy gave her a playful wave, her other hand furtively readjusting her milkshake-soaked knickers.
'It'll just be a couple of minutes,' the woman replied.
'Oh, no rush,' Sam said with a knowing grin. She caught Lucy's eye and tapped her wrist where a watch would have been, mouthing a deeply sarcastic sorry.
Even from a distance, Sam could see a familiar expression on Lucy's face -- giddiness mixed with trepidation. She was feeling much the same way, waiting for her own fate to be delivered up in an oily cardboard box.
'There you go,' the server said a moment later. 'Eight pounds, please.'
Sam paid, all the while thinking about what she was really paying for. She didn't expect to be eating many, if any, noodles. Looking at them, she figured her stomach might thank her for that.
'Here you go,' she said, sliding a box of noodles across the nearest table to Lucy, who was still standing up, despite every seat in the place, bar one, being free. 'We not stopping?'
'Oh, we're stopping for a moment. I just didn't feel like sitting down,' Lucy replied.
'No? I can't imagine why.'
'You're about to find out for yourself, in a way.'
'Come on, then,' Sam said resignedly. 'Where are they going?'
'Keen?'
'Keen to get it over with.'
'Sure. Well, originally I was going to have you put them both in your knickers, but that thong doesn't look like it will hold much. Besides, it's already got a job on trying to contain that.'
Sam raised her eyebrows, trying to look unmoved, but even as she did it, she knew it was unconvincing. 'So?'
'So, a compromise. One in your thong, whatever gets out gets out; the other one in that pretty bra. Admittedly, that also seems to be struggling, but I'm willing to give it a chance.'
'Oh, you'd love to give these a chance,' Sam said, cupping her cleavage and lifting it.
'What does that even mean?' Lucy asked, laughing.
'I don't know,' Sam replied, catching a dose of her friend's infectious laughter.
'Anyway, now who's stalling? Come on, girl, give us a show.'
Sam took a quick look around the shop, hoping nobody was paying them any mind, and so it proved. It was too early for the food court to be really busy and she doubted this was a hotspot at the best of times. Accidentally catching the eye of the bored-looking girl on the till didn't help, though. Sam flashed her a smile and looked away, lifting the first of the two noodle boxes.
'Come on, come on,' Lucy said. 'Get on with it.'
'Alright, keep your knickers on. Wouldn't want that milkshake to go to waste, after all.'
Both women laughed again, but Sam's laughter turned towards hysterical as she unfastened the box and held it to her chest. She was in the middle of working her way up to doing the deed when a couple of strands of greasy pasta escaped. 'Oh, my God,' she squealed. They didn't even manage to catch in the cup of her bra, just slithered down over the curve of her breast and into blouse. Still, the slimy, tickling sensation was enough to get another giggle out of her.
'Plenty more where that came from,' Lucy said encouragingly. 'Just don't miss the targets next time. They're plenty big enough.'
Without another word, Sam held the front of her bra an inch away from her chest, bit her bottom lip, and tipped the box. Slightly more than half of the noodles cascaded into the space between her breast and her bra, bringing with them a broccoli floret, a sliver of carrot, several bean sprouts and a couple of slices of mushroom. It was a lot to take it, with so many different textures competing for Sam's attention, to say nothing of the overall greasiness of the oil and sauce-soaked noodles themselves.