All characters in this story are over the age of eighteen.
It was one week after his eighteenth birthday and therefore a week before Christmas. Richard was at home for the holidays but he wasn't looking forward to the next week when his eldest sister would arrive back from college for the winter break. She'd been enjoying her first term of her year abroad in Frankfurt by all accounts and she'd been making his life awkward constantly suggesting to their parents that they should send him over for the Christmas markets as a birthday present. He'd exhausted most of his excuses for avoiding family 'events' to get out of going to visit his sister. It wasn't that he didn't like his sister it was just that they seemed to always find something to argue about when they met up and he found it so infuriating that he had decided on a path of avoidance to make life easier.
Home was a 1970's style bungalow built around a rear courtyard on three sides. It had been the height of chic living no doubt when it was built but now it was showing it's age and the tired decor had yet to come back into fashion as retro-cool. All the bedrooms were in one branch of the u-shaped building with sinks in each room resplendent in there avocado green finish. Only the parental bedroom had an en-suite the rest of the bedrooms relied on a single toilet at the end of the corridor for late night bladder relief. So the bathroom for all the 'children's bedrooms' as they had been when they were all still living at home, was at the other end of the bottom of the u-shaped building. It's was also fortunate enough to have a 'luxury' avocado green suite but it also got gold effect fittings and the walls were adorned with a rippled bronze mirror finish tile scheme that was almost like being in a hall of mirrors at a fun house with the way it reflected but distorted whomever was in the room.
Julia arrived home two days later but not without suitable fanfare that irked her younger brother more than he had even expected. Julia jumped from the back of the family car all smiles and laughs but behind her was 'the surprise'. Dana was a five foot nine beauty with golden hair cut into a severe bob and a fabulously athletic figure and she was a guest in their home until Christmas Eve.
"Home for the holidays! Julia exclaimed.
"Your home is so beautiful, thank you for having me." Dana said smiling at the assembled family before hugging each of them in turn.
The two women were very flighty, much more so than Richard recalled his sister having ever been before, unless perhaps she'd already consumed at least two bottles of white wine. The friends kept to themselves for most of the next few days which actually annoyed Richard a little more than he'd expected his annoyance all the more enhanced by the beginnings of shared glances and whispered sniggers at mealtimes.
The next evening their parents were going out and so it was a take-away for supper and just the three of them at home that evening. Dana suggested that a bottle or two of the German Riesling from the Mosel valley she had brought with her would make a great accompaniment to their feast something which Julia agreed enthusiastically with but an idea that filled Richard with dread.
His sister was diminutive by comparison to Dana at five foot four a fact made up for with her loud and boisterous voice and domineering personality. She was often the centre of attention and always attracted a crowd of admiring young men when they went out as a family or if they went to the beach together. She was pretty enough in her own way but it was usually her chest that drew the most glances. Unlike Dana her chest was well developed and rather than an athletic silhouette she was curvaceous and petite.
The parents left at just after six and the takeaway arrived about seven thirty by which time music was playing through the Alexa in the kitchen and several gin and tonics had been consumed. The food was dished out and the wine began to flow and Richard didn't think the evening would be too bad after all. It was just as the second bottle of Riesling was being opened that the snow began to fall, thick flurries gave way to almost blizzard like conditions. The weather was of no concern to the three young people drinking indoors until the phone rang bearing the news that their parents wouldn't be getting back that evening as the city centre was closed due to drifting.
"House to ourselves, great" said Dana. "What do you guys want to do?"
"Shots!" Shouted Julia.
"Yeah, shots" chorused Dana, "and a game!".
Richard just groaned.
Forty-five minutes later, and seven or eight shots, the game was finally decided on, spin the bottle. A very 'college' dorm choice for what was becoming a very college dorm experience Richard thought to himself. The two young ladies were thoroughly enthusiastic about the whole proposition however and with the only rule they stipulated being the spinner couldn't be the 'victim' the game soon began in earnest. Richard choose truth over dare anytime the bottle ended up pointing at him and then lying about whatever he was asked to reveal. Julia and Dana however were constantly looking for dares which they were quite happy to complete should they be chosen a fact that did not escape Richard's notice, nor did the fact that with two of them the odds were stacked in his favour two to one as long as the random bottle continued to decide.
"The next person the bottle chooses has to french kiss the person to their left" declared Julia on her next turn with the bottle. Richard assumed this was a thinly veiled attempt to get him to snog Dana until looking up inebriated, as he was, he realised that obviously this also mean that Dana and Julia were running the risk of fulfilling the challenge. The bottle span on the faux Persian rug and stopped pointing squarely at Dana and, much to Richard's surprise, she shrieked with joy as she leant straight forward and planted her lips squarely on his sisters and they then proceeded to kiss for what seemed like the longest time. Now at this moment two things occurred to Richard, firstly 'is my sister gay?', not a problem for his but certainly a surprise revelation; secondly, 'I am staring, it's very hot to watch and i need to adjust my shorts as my rapidly rising boner is going to be apparent for all to see!". As an afterthought, having readjusted himself, it also crossed Richard's mind that this was why the young ladies weren't taking any truth questions but were performing the dares without question! He knew their little secret and that could be handy.
The girls broke apart with Dana biting at Julia's lip with a lingering tug until the momentum of leaning back pulled her away from Julia and back into the cross-legged position she had been sitting in.
"Come on little brother" said Julia looking a little flushed but nonchalant about the display she'd just been a part of. "It's your turn to spin the bottle. What's it to be this time?"
Thinking this was an opportunity to get the real lowdown on the situation thus gaining him some degree of 'power' over his sister, Richard said "Fine it's a truth question, no dare, but you can't take a dare instead if you don't like the question and you have to answer."
Julia began to protest at the flagrant violation of the rules that they'd established when Dana broke in and saying "Okay Richard but if we're changing the rules for this round and it points to you then you have to accept a dare and do it no matter what, deal?"
"Agreed" blurted Richard almost to his own surprise, but after all what's the worst thing they could make him do? If they're into each other so much then he was safe on any sexually embarrassing grounds so it would probably be some harmless if unpleasant challenge nothing too onerous.
Richard span the bottle on the carpet watching it spin as he planned how to interrogate the most information with the best worded truth question he could come up with but fate being a fickle as she is the bottle slowed and stopped neck pointing directly towards him.
