THE JOCK JUST WANTS THE NERD [2]

PROLOGUE

||JACKSON||

The bottle pointed at me as Liam sent an intimidating and devious grin. I felt myself cower in anxiety, knowing he would do something ludicrous, plus obviously drunk. "Truth or dare," he started, obnoxiously tapping his beer can in hand.

"Dare," I mumbled.

Eyes roamed around the players within our circle. His gaze stayed put on Brad and Noah for a few moments before continuing on and landed on Ethan. A smirk only grew as he made up some challenge. "Give Ethan a kiss," he said distortedly. I looked at him as if he was deranged with my mouth opened in shock. I glanced at Ethan who looked uncomfortable. I don't know if I could do this. Everyone fell quiet, Zack didn't bother to object and Ethan didn't complain about it. Swallowing the lump in my throat, I hesitantly scooted myself closer to him, the more he became unsettled. "A-are you okay with this?" whispering with uncertainty.

"W-well... I don't know," he stammered, thumbs twiddling. I felt my cheeks warm up and my heart pumping dangerously unstable. Then, slowly bit my tongue as I could hear the thumping in my chest. Ethan sighed and turned his cheek toward me. Shutting my eyes very tight, I gradually inched closer with worry and placed a soft gentle kiss on his cheek. He was warm and I was too. Letting my body feel looser, I started to relax and shifted a little bit in a better posture. Only now have I realized that I awkwardly lingered a little bit more than I intended to and my eyes shot wide. I reluctantly pulled back with hot skin and looked at Ethan. He doesn't seem to be putting attention to me as if he didn't want to look at me at all. His hands were folded calmly in front of him. I frowned and felt embarrassed. Cringing at myself, I winced and returned to my original spot in the circle. "Woohoo!" Liam applauded. I gave him a glare and sent an inconspicuous middle finger directed to him. My sight darted back to Ethan who was completely trying hard to avoid my direction. I felt really awkward and self-conscious about how he feels and thinks of me right now. I don't know why, but I for some reason felt a tad bit insecure of how he judged me for that. Resisting the urge to get up and run away, everyone brought me out of my thoughts telling me that it was my turn to spin the bottle. "Ah, y-yeah..." I murmured, giving the bottle a spin.

-

Throughout the remaining time we have left, I couldn't get Ethan out of my head. I would sometimes catch myself subconsciously looking at him then quickly evade when his eyes turn to me. I felt my stomach bubble weirdly as I don't know why I feel so uncanny in his presence especially now. Everyone else seems to be enjoying their time, freely reveling in this small get together. When it was my turn to give the dare, I ordered Brad to give Noah a cuddling hug in the entirety of the game; which he took by heart and still has Noah in his tight embrace right now. Looking at them, they oddly felt comforting to me, as if I wanted to be in that same scenario with someone. I shook my head to dismiss those thoughts as it was so unlike me. "But why am I having these feelings right now?" I thought to myself.

"It's getting kinda late," Zack said as he looked outside the windows, the sky was now dark with blue. Everyone nodded as they all planned to start getting ready to head home. Zack walked over to Brad and Noah and patted Brad's shoulder. He looked very comfy, snuggled onto Noah with his eyes closed, "Hey Brad, we should start going," Zack said. Brad hard-headedly protested and shook his head. This continued on for a while before we decided that it was futile to convince him to come with us. Noah and Zack came up with a solution that Brad would just stay over here at Noah's place for the night while Annabel and Ethan would ride along with us. A wave of nervousness came at the mention of Ethan but we didn't have much of a choice. We tried to clean up as best as we could: picked up out trash, crumbs, and Liam's stupid beer cans. "Goodbye you guys," Noah waved under Brad's strong constricting arms. We said our farewells to Noah as we headed out to the door and met with the cool breeze of late dusk. Zack hollered us over and we followed behind him to his car. I noticed Liam's stumbly steps and rolled my eyes as I let him lay his arm over my shoulder for support. We were all already slightly cramped the time we came over, and I am not letting Liam sit next to me to inevitably throw up on me. Opening up the back of the car, I helped him get in the back where he can have all the space to get sick in. As usual, sober Zack took the wheel and his little brother got shotgun. With the space we had, we tried our best to get ourselves to fit the four of us: Taylor, Annabel, Ethan, and me. Taylor and Annabel are sat near the window sides and I was in between Taylor and Ethan. My breathing started to get a little bit inconsistent from how close I was to Ethan. Zack checked on us to see if we're all ready before beginning to drive away. I shuffled in my seat and was starting to heat up. I looked at the smaller boy beside me, who kept still and calm. Seeing him this near, my heart started racing even crazier.

I think I might have a heart attack...