[alli55]

The sleepover that changed my life


Chapter 6 Heads or tails


The four of us – Bethany, Paige, me and my BFF Abi – were stood in the kitchen at Abi’s house in just our underwear, waiting with a mixture of nervousness and anticipation, though in my case just nervousness.

Our game of Truth or Dare had taken an unexpected turn, thanks in part to Abi but mainly because her Uncle Ryan had taken it upon himself to get involved.

The game had already gone further than any other Truth or Dare game I’d played before, which had made me nervous, though I had to admit I had enjoyed playing. When Abi had decided to stop the game for a kitchen-raid but in the same breath had dared us to go to the kitchen dressed as we were, we hadn’t really taken as much persuading as you might have expected. Abi had made her uncle cover his eyes so we could get past him on our way to the kitchen. When she’d tried to do the same on our way back, however, he had told us he was going to give us a dare instead, or else we could stay in the kitchen all evening. Having little choice, we had agreed to being given a dare. Now we were waiting to hear what it was.

We didn’t have to wait long before we heard his voice say, “So, girls, for your dare, you have to come back through one at a time. But before each of you opens the door, I will flip a coin and you have to call ‘heads’ or ‘tails’. If you get it right I’ll cover my face, but if you get it wrong I won’t.”

We looked at each other. Could we do this dare? The coin flip part meant that we had a chance that we wouldn’t really be dared to do anything. But what if we got it wrong?

Abi was the first to speak. “What do we think, guys?” she asked.

I was surprised when Paige said, “I think it’s a good dare and I think we should accept it.”

“But what if we choose the wrong one?” replied Abi.

“Well,” continued Paige, “I know it’ll be a bit embarrassing, but actually we’re not going to be showing anything more than if we were wearing a bikini, so I don’t think it’s that bad.”

Paige had a point. We wouldn’t be showing any more skin than if we’d been wearing a bikini. But, and it was a big ‘but’, a bikini is for wearing in public whilst underwear definitely isn’t. It would be more than a bit embarrassing for someone we hardly knew to see us in our bras and knickers, and even worse for Abi because it was her uncle who would see her.

But it was Paige’s next point that decided it for us.

“Anyway,” she said, “we can’t just stay in here, and if we ask for a different dare it might be a worse one.”

Deep down we knew she was right, so we all agreed to take the dare.

“Alright,” Abi shouted through the door, “we’ll do the dare.”

“Okay,” came her uncle’s voice, “who’s going first?”

That was a very good question. Which one of us was going to be brave enough to take first go at the dare? There was, of course, only one person it could be.

“Me,” shouted Bethany.

“Alright, Bethany,” said the voice, “heads or tails?”

“Heads,” Bethany called.

There was a pause, presumably while Abi’s uncle was flipping the coin, then he called out, “Heads it is! Just a moment while I cover my face … okay you can come through.”

Bethany opened the door just enough to look out and then, after seeing that he had covered his face as promised, she stepped out and walked through to the door on the other side of the room. We watched her open that door and go out before we shut the kitchen door.

There was quite a long silence before we heard Abi’s uncle say, “Have you gone through Bethany?”

“Yes, I have, sorry,” we heard Bethany say.

“Okay,” he said, “who’s next?”

Paige pointed to herself, and Abi and I both nodded our agreement.

“Me,” she called.

“Alright, Megan,” came the voice, “heads or …”

“No, it’s Paige,” Abi called out.

“Oh, sorry Paige, I do apologise. I didn’t mean to get you mixed up.”

“That’s alright!” said Paige.

“Okay, Paige,” the voice began again, “do you want heads or tails?”

Heads had worked for Bethany, so Paige decided it would for her as well.

After a short pause the voice called, “It’s heads. Well done Paige. You can come through.”

Paige’s face lit up with a huge smile and she gave us the thumbs up. Then she opened the door and confidently walked through and out the other door. Again, we shut the kitchen door once we’d seen her exit the room.

“I’m through,” Paige called out.

“Thank you, Paige,” the voice replied. “So, who’s going next?”

All the time this had been going on I had been getting more and more nervous. It was the same sort of nervous that you get when you are queuing up to go on a big ride at a theme park for the first time ever, three-quarters scared but a quarter excited. However, there was one thing I absolutely knew for certain: there was no way I was going last.

So, before Abi had a chance to speak, I called out, “Me, Megan.”

That showed how my nerves had affected my brain. Clearly there was no need for me to tell him who I was, since there was only me and Abi left and he would instantly recognise her voice.

“Okay, Megan,” the voice said, “what’s it to be? Heads or tails?”

What should I choose? It had been heads both times so far, so surely it wouldn’t be again. But what if it was?

Suddenly, Abi, who had been watching me as I tried to decide, said, “Oh my God, Megs! You’re actually shaking!”

I was! The mixture of nerves and excitement had me trembling like a leaf, and my heart was pounding harder than ever.

“Tails,” I called out, after agonising for ages, and put my hands over my face hardly bearing to know the result.

There was the dreaded pause, and then came the voice of doom as it seemed to be to me at that moment.

“Hang on a minute, Megan, I’ve dropped the coin.”

No-oo! Don’t do this to me!

“Sorry about that, it is tails, you got it right, you can come through.”

Yessss!!

I quickly opened the door and scurried past the sofa where Abi’s uncle was sat. When I looked at him I had to suppress a giggle. He was sat with one hand holding the cushion over his face, but with the other hand he was doing one of those little finger-wave things. I carried on and reached the other door, opened it and joined Bethany and Paige on the other side. Then I let everyone know that I had finished.

“Thank you, Megan,” I heard the voice say. “Right then, Abigail, it must be you now. Heads or tails?”

I was grinning widely, both through relief and at the sight I’d just seen.

Paige grinned at me and asked, “Was he waving at you?”

“Yes,” I told her.

“He did that to both of us as well,” she said. “I nearly burst out laughing when I saw it.”

We listened as Abi ummed and ahhed a bit before calling heads – she never found it easy when faced with making a choice.

When the voice spoke next, its tone had changed. It now sounded like someone who was having to pass on bad news.

“Ohhh, Abigail,” it began, “oh dear, …”

Clearly, Abi had called wrong.

“… unfortunately …” the voice continued.

Poor Abi! I could just imagine how she must be feeling with the prospect of letting her uncle see her in just her bra and knickers. I wished I was back in the kitchen to give her what support I could.

“… it’s heads!” The voice had returned to its normal friendly sound. “You guessed right, well done!”

Oh my God! Her uncle had been teasing her!

We heard the kitchen door open, and quickly afterwards Abi burst through the door next to us, brushed past us, and raced up the stairs. We turned and followed her up and into her room, where she flopped face-first onto her bed. We shut the door and looked at one another, not sure what to do.

I went over to Abi, put my arm around her shoulders and asked, “Are you alright, Abs?”

Abi lifted her head up, rolled over, breathed out, and exclaimed, “Fuck!”

I was totally shocked. I’d never heard Abi say a word like that; she just didn’t do that. Was she alright, or was she upset or angry? I just didn’t know. My head was spinning.

She sat up. Her face was flushed. “Fuck that was intense!” she said, before giving us a smile the Cheshire Cat would have been proud of. I breathed a huge sigh of relief.

“You haven’t told your uncle that you’re through,” Paige pointed out.

“Let him sit there for a bit!” Abi told her. “That’ll teach him to tease me like that!”

We all laughed.

We opened up the crisps, and as we munched our way through them we talked excitedly about what had just happened.

I don’t think I had ever felt so alive as I did then; my whole body seemed to be on fire. I’m pretty certain that the others all felt the same way.

So it was no surprise at all that, once the bowls of crisps had been eaten, Abi suggested that we continue the game; and no surprise at all that we all quickly agreed.

As I took a swig from my bottle of water, I wondered how on earth we could top that last dare. It should have made me incredibly nervous, and it did. But I couldn’t wait.