Truth or Dare

It's eleven o'clock at night, everyone else is asleep, and I'm lying in bed playing stupid games on my dumb phone. It's been a long day.

I only started playing

Super Run and Jump Man Funny 3D Game Free

to distract myself from my thoughts, but it isn't working very well. Things are just moving so fast... I mean, was it really only yesterday that I finally admitted my true feelings for Dion? Sure, it's been bubbling away within me for years, but after that game of truth or dare, how he touched me, how he looked at me...

I make the little man on my phone jump over some spikes. I get some gold coins.

And then that same night, I actually got into his bed! And we talked, and we truth'ed and dared some more... we nearly held hands, and I felt his...

oh screw it, Ashley, no need to be coy--You felt his big hard brother dick through his pants, resting right against your pussy.

Just for a second, but it was long enough to know--to hope, anyway--that he felt the same way as me.

Or you're just deluding yourself.

The little man gets hit by a helicopter and dies. Do I want to watch an add to continue?

I close the app, start another one.

The morning after, he caught me masturbating. Or at least, the aftermath of falling asleep trying to get myself off. Naked, wet, frustrated... but he didn't try anything. He just left.

See? He was grossed out.

Then he bought me that notebook. The one on my bedside table right now, that I hugged close and smelled just before turning out the lights like some kind of lovestruck schoolgirl. It was such a personal gift... not the kind of thing you'd get your sister. The kind of thing you'd get your girlfriend.

But then he saw Sophie.

I'm dressing up a digital doll now, choosing between a pink frilly dress and... a slightly different pink frilly dress. Why do I still have this game?

Your brother met Sophie, and immediately fell in love with her, and now she's all he cares about and he'll never want to be with you again.

He kissed me, when we got back home. We argued, and I dared him to kiss me, and he did. And it was so good...

And then

he

dared Sophie to kiss him.

I decide on an outfit and move to choosing some dance moves for my avatar to perform.

In retrospect, I guess it was kind of obvious that Ashley was flirting with me, not Dion. The looks she was giving me, the leading questions, the whole bikini thing... I was just so defensive of my brother that I couldn't see it. Although neither could Dion, for that matter--in fact, I'm pretty sure he still doesn't realise. He didn't see her kiss me, after all.

And then you told her you about your feelings for Dion, and she went all quiet until she could make an excuse to drive you both home and leave it at that. Because what you want to do is wrong.

The avatar starts dancing on screen. I'm supposed to tap along with the beat, but even though I've got it muted, I know the song by heart.

Dion was confused by the sudden goodbye. Worried, I guess, or sad he didn't get to do more with Sophie. Even when dad came home and told us we'd both get to finally meet his new girlfriend tomorrow, Dion could barely muster up a congratulations and a few back slaps. It was a quiet dinner, and then everyone went to bed.

He probably thinks you ruined it for him.

I get a high score, and a whole lot of gems. Now I can buy even more pink frilly dresses and dance moves and songs to use them in. I remember why I like this game; everything has a simple, logical order. Dress, dance, shop. It's like preparing a meal--if you follow the instructions to the word, it'll always turn out fine.

And how did this all turn out?

I sigh, turn off my phone, and lie there as the ghostly shape of my phone screen fades from my pupils.

I'd hoped to be in Dion's room again. We could've played another game, taken it further. Maybe we would've even kissed again. But as much as I want to go in there, I know it's hopeless. Whatever we could've had... there's not much chance of getting it back.

The room lights up. I shield my bleary eyes from it, see that it's emanating from my phone. What time is it?

Through my eyelashes I can see it's just past twelve. Was I asleep? Maybe just snoozing.

I almost don't check it. It could just be an email, or a drunken text from one of my friends, or a spam message telling me my bank accounts been hacked. But something tells me to pick it up, so I turn the brightness way down and read the message.

u awake?

It's Dion. I huff.

Nope

I put the phone back on the table, face down.

Three minutes later I pick it back up.

ur asleep?

, he's written.

Yes, I'm asleep

I put it back down again. Face up this time.

When it lights again it's in my hand in a second.

I guess u dont have a sec to come in here thn?

I purse my lips. What did I just promise myself? That I wouldn't go in there? That it was hopeless?

But then, what was I also just saying about recipes... That they make life simple, easy, trouble free. That you've just got to follow the rules, do it normally, and everything will turn out okay.

But that's how you end up with Albert's Bushtucker Special. Sure, it smelled nice, but so did everything else. What would

really

make it special would be adding mereny, pindak and yams Because then it'd be

mine,

and it'd be unique, and exciting, and not culturally appropriative, and wouldn't warp tourists' perception of Noongar culture and...

Wait, what was my point again? I can't remember, but I'm pretty sure it was a good one. So...

I get up and go to my stupid brother's room.

He's got his blinds fully closed tonight. Little orange strips still glow between the gaps, but not enough to spill into the room, so I have to gingerly feel my way in hoping I don't knock anything over. He's on the near side of the bed again, so I hitch a leg over him and roll quietly over his body, and slip under the sheet.

"I knew you couldn't resist me," he whispers.

"I can leave?"

He grabs my arm. "Ah, no, I take it back. Please stay."

We lie there quietly for a while. Somewhere outside, a car rolls by, and the orange strips between the blinds briefly shine yellow.

"So..." he starts, in a barely audible whisper. "Busy day."

"Mmn hm."

His grip on my arm loosens. "Look, about Sophie... I'm sorry if I was a bit, you know..."

I tilt my head and give him a look, then realise we can't actually see each other so make a sort of questioning noise instead.

He sighs. "I just thought that... like... we're not related."

"We're not?"

"Me and Sophie, I mean. So if we... I don't know, got--" his voice dips lower and I can't make out what he's saying, but I know I wouldn't like it anyway. "...and so it wouldn't be... wrong. Like it is when...

we

do stuff." He clears his throat lightly. "Does that make sense?"

I purse my lips. It does, really. I can't be mad at him wanting some sort of normality... but I can be mad for him being a bit of a dick about it. "You should have told me."

"I didn't think she was interested in me, until she started flirting. And--"

I sit up on my elbows and turn to him, and the sudden motion cuts him off. I wish I could see his expression right now, because I can't tell if he's joking. "Flirting with you?"

"Yeah. Until you two went off to talk, anyway. And then she got a bit weird and decided it was time to leave. I guess you didn't exactly put in a good word for me..."

I'm speechless, and I suppose he takes my silence for confirmation because he squeezes my arm.

"But it's fine, because I've had time to think about it, and... I was wrong. I think some part of me was just attempting a last ditch effort to get interested in someone that isn't a blood relation, and Sophie's cute, and she was interested, so I just... went with it. But I shouldn't have, because you're cuter, and nicer... I guess I lo--"

"Dion, she wasn't flirting with you."

A pause, then, "huh? She wasn't flirting?"

I sneakily take the high ground, despite the fact that I had thought she was flirting with him too. Either we're both terrible and reading signals, or Sophie wasn't very good at dropping hints. "She

was

flirting, just... not with you."

"Oh? But... but who...? Oh.

Oh.

Wait, seriously?" His hand leaves my arm, and I hope it's just out of surprise. "How do you know?"

"She told me so. And... she kissed me. On the lips and everything."

"Jeez, okay... wow. What, and you rebuffed her? Is that why she drove us back straight after?"

I breathe in through my teeth. "Actually, I sort of kissed her back. It was something else that spooked her..."

"...Ash?" His voice hitches. "What did you say?"

"I... told her about us."

"Oh god." I hear a gentle slap as his hands hit his face. "What the hell? That's... but you can't just... shit."

It's the first time in a long while I've heard him swear. I huff and fold my arms, which has the added effect of shoving my elbow into his side. "Well, so what? Was I lying?"

"I mean... what exactly did you say?"

My heart starts beating a little faster. "I told her I was into you. Like... girlfriend boyfriend kinda thing. And I thought you were too."

"You said that?"

"Yeah. Plus I told her you fingered me, and I liked it. A lot."

"What!?"

"Shush!"

"I didn't finger you!" He hisses.

"Then what do

you

call rubbing my pussy with your finger?" I hiss back.

"I was... being helpful. With your whole shaving--Wait, you really liked it that much?"

"Of course I did. I've fantasised about you doing that for years." I hesitate, then add, "Or whatever," to make myself seem cool and aloof.

"Shit..." he says again. He's becoming quite profane.

"So?" I repeat, "Answer my question. When I told her all that, was it... true?"

"I... um..."

"Ugh, fine. Truth or dare?" I turn onto one side, facing him squarely while still leaning on one elbow. I can just make out the glint of his eyes looking back at me. "Truth, did you say? Cool, good choice. Dion, are you attracted to me? Do you get... turned on by me, and want to have sex probably one day even though it's totally illegal, and... more than that, do you... do you properly love me? Like, more than a brother... like, you'd want to date me if it was somehow possible? And... yeah?'

I stop adding questions before I accidentally propose or something. I watch Dion's eyes, trying to make out his expression. He's quiet for a long while. I'm expecting a wisecrack, something like "that's three truths" or--

"Yes."

I realise I've been bracing myself, waiting for him to finally say no, to tell me it's over, but... but he didn't, and I guess I don't need to brace myself for that anymore, and I fall back onto the bed in relief.

I move my hand out, looking for his, and we meet in the middle. I guess he was doing the same thing. "Okay... cool," I say. "Me too."

"Cool."

We squeeze hands. I think about how life's going to be different now, and that constant, niggling part of me tells me it's going to be worse, harder, impossible, but I push it back and tell myself to just live in the now.

"Truth or dare?" He whispers.

"Dare."

He squeezes me hand once more, then sits up. "Let's take a walk."

Contrary to what our dynamic may seem, it's

me,

not Dion, who's a stickler for the rules. I've never had an issue with voicing my distaste for them, if I think they're silly (why exactly wasn't I allowed to play around on my laptop during class once I finished my schoolwork? Who decided we couldn't sit down while working checkouts at Woolworths?) but actually

breaking

those rules I have a lot more trouble it.

"It literally says we can't, Dion," I'm saying as I point to the sign at the top of the sandy incline. "Read it.

'No use after ten p.m.'"

"So?" He shrugs and checks his wrist. "It's, what, eleven? So it's barely an infraction."

"It's past twelve, Dion. You're not even wearing a watch! We could get in serious trouble if someone caught us."

"I think there's other things we're doing that I'm more concerned about not getting caught for." He wraps an arm around the small of my back and pulls me into him, and I gasp and go to push him away but then his other hand is behind my head and he kisses me. And it feels so good that I forget everything for a second.

I grunt when he pulls off and pats my cheek, and smarmily says, "Take my point?"

"H-hey," I growl. "That's... you're influencing me. With your... mouth." And when he wiggles his eyebrows and traipses down the ramp, I can't do anything but jog after him.

There's not much of a moon out tonight, and the promenade lights only barely spill onto the sand, leaving much of it in a cooling darkness. It's past here that Dion leads me, and I have to admit it's a lovely experience. The evening beach is calm, quiet, perhaps a bit lonely. And very... blue, but in a sort of serene way.

"Truth or dare?" Dion asks, looking ahead. I can see him a lot better than I could in his room, but it's still hard to fully make out his expression.

"Truth, I guess."

"How are you feeling?"

I grin, skip forward a bit to catch up with him. "Good. Happy. Relieved."

"Told you it'd be nice out here."

I shove him. "I meant us, not the beach,

nookang.

I'm still mad you're making me break the rules."

"You can go back any time."

I huff. "Your turn."

"Dare."

"I dare you--"

"If you say 'dunk your head in the water' I swear to god I'm dragging you in with me."

I stop. After a moment, he stops too. There's a glint in his eye when he looks back. "You wouldn't..."

"I would."

He's squinting a little bit, like he does when he's considering something. I run my tongue over my teeth, then draw a bit of hair into my mouth and chew it. Our impasse lasts a few more seconds, neither of us backing down. So I say, "I dare you to try. But be warned, I've--"

He lunges and I squeal and dart to the side. We've roughhoused before, when we were young, and I pretty much always won. But it's been a long time since we've wrestled, and Dion's grown.

A lot.

So when he darts around and tackles me I'm taken completely by surprise. While my arms flail uselessly, his momentum sends us both skidding toward the water, and it takes everything I have to dig my heels into the wet sand and push back.

"Damn," he grins. "I was hoping that'd do it."

"You're... not even, rrghg... close," I growl, though my straining voice doesn't exactly inspire confidence. My side, and the long, thin cut I got from the rock capers, is burning, but I ignore it and try and push forward more. Yet despite his gangly build, Dion's height makes moving him even one step impossible. I'll have to be clever.

"Alright, enough fooling around," he says, and lifts a leg up to readjust his position for a final push. I take the opportunity and turn sideways, spinning him around on his one leg so that now

his

back is to the ocean.

"Yeah, enough... fooling around!" I triumphantly say, and go for an almighty push...

And he just lets me. I yelp as we both fall down, and he shimmies out of the way so I land flat on the sand. "Ouch. Hey! Get back here." I grab his pyjama shorts as he stands and they half slide down, and he tries to grab them but I persist, gripping the other side.

"Hey, woah, careful Ash," he says. "You don't wanna do that."

"Oh yes I do!" I cry, and give another almighty tug. He turns to me, about to plead, when the hand holding his own waistband slips and his shorts slide right down--revealing his completely naked lower half.

And of course, along with his shorts I go, falling down face-first into his groin. My nose hits something soft, and my chin hits something softer.

Dion grunts in a mixture of pain and surprise as we both continue to topple down, my face apparently attached to his pelvis. He grunts again when we land.

"Unff," I say, muffled by his balls.

"Ow," he replies.

A moment passes as we both try to comprehend the situation. Another moment and we're both scrambling away from each other.

"Sorry!" I say. "I didn't mean to... headbutt your, uh..."

He's trying to pull up his shorts and cover his dick at the same time. He isn't particularly successful with either. "It's... okay. It was more of a chinbutt. Ooh man, that hurt though."

"Sorry," I say again. I should probably be looking away, but... his dick is

right there.

And I can't help but get an eyeful. I wonder if this is how Dion felt when I was naked that one time. Or the other time. Or the... other time. Jeez, am I a pervert?

"I guess the tables have turned, at least," he mumbles, apparently having given up on pulling his shorts up and now just covers himself with both hands.

"Yeah. Um... so does this mean you lost the dare? I'm still pretty dry," I tease him. Although the latter statement isn't

entirely

true... not that I'm going to tell him that.

"I... guess?" he says. I notice his mouth twitch, and his hands shift position outward, as if the thing they're covering is getting bigger.

"Alright, new rule," I declare. "If you lose a dare... you've gotta do another one."

"Ash..."

"And I dare you to move your hands."

"

Ash.

I'm..." He licks his lips. "I'm kinda... hard."

My heart flutters. Why did that sound romantic? "Good," I decide. "Move your hands."

He looks at me for a few seconds more, and then finally...

I try to conjure an appropriate description for the penis in front of me. Videos aside, I've read my fair share of erotic literature, and dicks in there always sound so... violent. Everything is 'throbbing' angrily, or 'flushed red with lust', or 'imposingly' erect, or...

tumescent.

But Dion's dick. It's... pretty. Smooth, pleasant to look at. Perhaps because this is real life, it isn't this ginormous focal point dripping with precum and looming above me like I'm used to in porn. It's just... part of him.

"Well?" he asks quietly, and I cock an eyebrow.

"Well what?"

"Is it... okay?"

We both look down at his penis. It's not fully hard, actually. Sitting back as he is, legs partially spread, it's resting against his left thigh. Though it twitches cutely every now and then, it has this feeling of being... dormant. Not in the sense of a sleeping dragon, more like a cute fox snoozing in a forest.

"Ash?"

"Hm? Foxes?" I glance up, see Dion's confused expression, and wave a hand. "Sorry, lots of thoughts whirling around. Um... what was your question?"

He's looking a little frustrated. "Am I, like... does it look okay?"

I guess men have some insecurities too. I lean forward, peering closer at him, amazed that I'm even being allowed to do this. I have no idea how he measures up in the grand scheme of males, especially since my only frame of reference is gay porn, but I don't think I'd him to be any bigger. Perhaps it's the fact that he's shaved, which seems to make him look longer, but I estimate I could wrap both my hands around him and honestly that's a little bit scary. Because it's meant to... fit in me, and I can only manage three fingers

after

a warmup.

His balls are squeezed together between his thighs, which gives them a shiny, slightly inflated look. I feel the strongest urge to just... play with them. They seem soft and fun. He isn't circumcised either, and I think I prefer it that way. I've never understood that whole thing.

I lean back and smile at my brother. "You've got a nice dick."

That seems to relieve him, and with newfound confidence he sits back too, without covering himself this time. He looks a bit silly with his shorts still around his ankles, but I'd prefer this over him pulling them back up.