Chapter 34

That sinking feeling stuck in Foster's stomach for the rest of the afternoon, making it difficult to fully enjoy his after-sex cuddles with Claudia. Claudia left as soon as she woke up to speak with Mr. Rennet to confirm her safety. Even just being without her for a few minutes made Foster's fear grow. However, Joe and Micah managed to save the evening, sharing their plan for a double date full of fun involving board games and some booze that Joe was able to score from an older sibling. Drinking the booze, surrounded by his friends and love helped ease his worries.

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"Right-hand green," I hear Foster call followed by the groans of our other two friends. I manage to contort my body in a way so that I am able to follow the instruction. Unfortunately, my ass was directly in the air, basically giving everyone a show. I feel a pair of eyes boring through me sending warmth spreading from my face to my neck. I try to turn my head to look at Foster, but that small movement is enough to send me toppling over on top of Micah, winning Joe the game.

"Agh, FUCK! I totally had that one," Micah shouts in frustration. I groan and rub my now slightly bruised tailbone.

"Sorry Micah, I didn't mean to fall on top of you," I muster up an embarrassed apology.

"It's fine I guess," she huffs. "Ooh! Let's play something else! What about never have I ever," she places her hands out for everyone to see as she wiggles her fingers with glee.

"Or, hear me out, what about poker . . . strip poker?" Foster helps me up and stabilizes my body against his. I can feel something poking me from behind which only makes me blush harder. He envelops my waist in one arm, rubbing my bruised bottom and giving it a few squeezes here and there.

"Ew get a room!" Micah smacks Foster on the back of the head.

"I almost have one if you just trade me roommates!" Foster retorts with a mischievous smirk as he removes the hand from my ass to rub away the ache from Micah's previous assault on his cranium.

"Okay okay, so no never have I ever, and no strip poker. What about something easy like fucking truth or dare?" Joe picks Micah up and sits down with her on top of his lap. She snuggles her back into him and grabs her red solo cup of mysterious liquid.

"I'm down," Foster agrees, following Joe's actions, pulling me on top of his lap. I feel his erection twitch as he brings me down on top of it. I try to force memories of earlier out of my mind to focus on the game at hand.

"So who goes first?" I ask the gang, taking my own red solo cup into my hands, swirling the clear liquid around, eventually bracing myself for the bitter juice that's about to set me on fire. After some deliberation, we end up having a quick rock paper scissors battle. Of course, I lose. Joe starts.

"Foster, Truth or Dare?" he asks.

"Uh dare, obviously," I laugh at his constant need to prove himself.

"Okay, I dare you to sign up for the Karaoke thing that's planned for tomorrow night," Foster glares daggers at Joe but removes me from his lap to go out into the hallway and find the damn piece of paper that's floating around wherever. A few minutes later he's back, eyes full of determination.

"So my turn now?" He asks as he settles into the couch, grabbing my waist and moving me back to our previous position. We nod, unsure of what he has planned for whoever he chooses to mortify. "Micah, Truth or Dare?"

"I would normally choose dare, but I don't trust you in the slightest and I'm not about to do something stupid like run down the hallway screaming penis, so truth," she crosses her arms over her chest.

"Fine by me, I can think of a good question to ask you," after a few moments he pipes up again, "What do you ladies do at your sleepovers?" he wiggles his eyebrows at us.

"Sleep. Okay my turn now," she says bluntly.

"No way, that doesn't count as an answer."

"It definitely does dickhead. That's the truth. At some point during the night, we end up sleeping, now my turn." Joe just laughs, shaking his head at Foster's attempt to embarrass his girl. "Claudia, Truth or Dare?"

I think over my options, a bit nervous to choose dare, but I'm not about to chicken out now, "Dare."

"Alright girly, I dare you to go knock on someone's door and invite them to go skiing with us tomorrow." Thank god I think to myself, something I can do. I get up to leave the room, struggling to get Foster to let go of me. Once free, I exit the room and tiptoe down the hall so as to not wake anyone. I stop in front of the room just past ours being too lazy to walk all the way down the hall. I quietly knock a few times, hoping whoever is there won't hear me. I remain outside of the door, slowly counting to sixty before deciding no one is coming, and turn to walk away. As soon as I take one step, the door creaks open.

"Claudia? What are you doing at my door so late at night?" A sleepy girl yawns, stretching her arms towards the sky.

"Sorry to wake you up. I was hoping you wouldn't actually answer the door. I got roped into a silly dare and have to ask you to join us for skiing tomorrow," I explain.

"Yeah, that sounds fun. I'm going to go back to bed now so please leave me out of your game so I can rest," the girl slowly closes her door leaving me surrounded by silence. No longer feeling suffocated by the task, I head back to 205.

We play a few more rounds of the game, gulping down lots of alcohol before I eventually get everyone to separate for the night. It takes some time though as Micah is stumbling around. My vision is a bit blurry too which makes it difficult to make it back to our room thankfully it's literally right next door so we get there without too many extra scrapes and bruises.

Being the least drunk of the two of us, I am in charge of getting us both into bed. I drag Micah to the bathroom and help her out of her clothes and into something comfortable to sleep in. Next, we brush our teeth to hopefully wake up with less than deadly morning breath. Micah sits down on the toilet so I can braid her hair for her. Eventually, I get her into her bed and under the covers where she immediately drifts off into some random dream. I hike to the kitchen to grab two glasses and fill them with water, returning and setting them down on the two dressers between our beds. Just as I slide under my covers I hear quiet whispers calling out to me.

"Claudia, Claudia?" Micah says, only half-awake.

"Yes?" I respond.

"I had so much fun tonight. This is going to be a great week," the tipsy teen chirps.

"I think so too."

"I don't want it to end because I know when we get back, we will barely see each other," sadness trickles into her speech. I know she's probably right, but it still hurts to think about it. She is in sports that take up most of her time and has to keep up with it because she is hoping to get a full-ride because otherwise, going to college might not be an option for her. Our schedules never seem to line up so we only ever have time to text each other silly memes or tiktoks. It's nice, but I definitely want to see her more.

"How about when we get back, we both make an effort to spend more time together?" I try to cheer her up, not fully believing my own words.

"Can I steal you from Foster at lunch? It's so not fair that he gets you all to himself all of the time," she pouts.

"That sounds like a great idea and Foster will just have to deal with it," I reassure her. The tiny spark of hope that seeing each other for even an extra hour a day warms my heart.

"Good, because I don't care what he thinks. You are my best friend so I get to spend time with you too," her childish possessiveness over me makes me laugh. I try to cover it with my blanket to keep it down, but it only half works.

"Of course Micah. Now go to sleep. We have a lot of skiing to do tomorrow and that takes a lot of energy." Before I even finish my sentence she is already passed out again. I turn off my bedside light. Darkness sweeps over the room and eventually swallows me too as I close my eyes.