[maidstone] truth or dare { pm to join }

APRIL 2004
9:36pm

thread cw: underage drinking



A couple of hours had passed since the first people started arriving, and, so far, most people seemed to be having a nice time. Billie had had exactly one (1) drink, was mildly alarmed by the amount of people at this party (and everyone’s assumption that more would probably still be coming), and she couldn’t stop fretting about small things, but she was trying her best to “go with the flow”. Regardless, she was far more concerned about other people having a good time than she was about herself.

So. Truth or Dare. It seemed simple enough in theory; one was either dared to do something (ridiculous, probably), or they had to truthfully answer a question (also ridiculous, she assumed).

Billie, of course, had never played Truth or Dare in her life.

Her arm was linked neatly through Barbara’s, footsteps habitually more or less in sync, as they tentatively joined the group that had congregated in the living room. The couch and chairs had already been taken, so Billie found a spot at the edge of the carpet beside the couch and kneeled there, releasing Barbie’s arm so she could smooth down the front of her dress over her thighs. She'd picked a spot by the couch intentionally, because she was happy to stay away and to the side of this particular activity.

The blonde tucked some hair behind one ear then folded her hands demurely in her lap, exchanging a quick glance with Barbie before looking back at the group, her gaze going immediately to the first person to address the room.

Mavis had done all she could for the snack table in the kitchen. Teenagers had been steadily picking it over since around seven. And for an unknown reason, most of the vegetable tray some loser had decided to bring hadn't been touched, but every single biscuit had been eaten. Mavis had brought pizza, courtesy of her older brother Michael, and most of that was gone, but not all. The teenager reorganized the table, removed empty containers, and grabbed a slice on her way out. She was more than half-past drunk, and Mavis was desperate for solid carbs. Emerging from the kitchen, a piece of cheese pizza in between her glittery paint nails, Mavis spotted the group gathering in the living area, and her smile widened.

More people were sitting around than she had expected, and a lot of the seats were taken, but Mavis smiled as it dawned on her (for probably the seventh time tonight) that she never had to worry about things like finding a seat now that she had the Best Boyfriend in the world. Mavis finished chewing the bite she had and stepped over some cushions, and a few friends, to get to the sofa Killian was already sitting on. Taking a seat on his lap, Mavis finished her slice of pizza as more teenagers joined them in the circle.

"Everyone knows the rules?" She asked, "If you pick truth, you have to answer honestly." She gave Jae a look, narrowing her eyebrows even though she knew he was the last person to back down from anything. Honestly, with his stubborn streak, she had always wondered why he hadn't been put in Gryffindor with the lot of them. "And if you pick dare, you can't back out." She didn't have a good punishment to threaten them with, so Mavis wiggled her eyebrows and finished the thought. "Or else."

It was obvious who she'd ask first, and Mavis wasted no more time getting down to business. She leaned to one side, brushing her long hair off her shoulder, and smiled sweetly at Killian. "Truth or dare?" She asked, and when Killian told her to decide, Mavis felt even more mischievous than before.

"Alright... I dare you... to kiss someone in this room."

@Killian Buckley

Jae, who had been sitting in one the chairs, one foot up in the seat with his arm propped on his knee and his cup of beer dangling from his fingertips, was resolutely trying time ignore a certain Gryffindor for the entirety of the party so far. Except somehow he had kept track of everything she had done: cleaned up the snack table, grabbed some pizza, sat with Buckley. Disgusted, he took a long swig from his beer more to distract himself than in actual enjoyment. Already he had seen way more drunk students than he would have anticipated and the only question (he had many) that stood out to him was: did they actually enjoy the taste of this crap or was it all a ruse to Fit In? He wasn’t unaware of the fact that he should place himself in that second category as well but he’ll if tonight wasn’t the night for ignoring reality and making bad choices then what was it. 

He turned his head reluctantly to look at Mavis as she got everyone’s attention to start a little game. The fifth year smirked cynically and shook his head. Really? Truth or dare? Especially coming from someone like Mae who couldn’t tell the truth for the life of her. Although, he did give her some credit. It was some kind of like a dare to date someone who wasn’t much better looking than a troll. That took guts. 

He was taking another sip, swallowing quickly, listening to the familiar highs and lows of her voice when he realized. She was looking right at him. If you pick truth, you have to answer honestly with her gaze on him. Jae seethed at the implication. She was the one that never told the truth. She as the one that said they were friends and then picked everyone else but him.

Her dare only made him angrier and he made a scoffing sound of disgust as he glanced away from the happy couple, wondering for the eighty billionth time why he had come at all.

Jae kept staring at him.

Killian caught him looking once, raised an eyebrow at him until he looked away. What was his problem, Killian wondered. Like, seriously. A whole month, longer even. Could he be normal.

Mavis plopped into his lap and he stopped worrying about Jae Kim. "Hi," he said, a little breathless, wrapping one arm around her back and another over her knees. They weren't usually this cuddly (though, they were pretty gross for PDA, generally) and never in front of mixed (not Gryffindor) company. Killian would have been bothered by that more if he was sober. Fortunately, he wasn't. He pressed a quick kiss to her cheek.

It was truth or dare, a game Killian hadn't much experience with. Nora had told him to always pick dare two years ago, and tonight she had said to always pick truth. So Nora was no help.

Mavis asked him first. "Oh, I don't know, you pick," Killian said, smiling, faintly embarrassed by the blatant favouritism of it all. Mavis chose a dare for him. To kiss someone in this room? Killian grinned. Easy. He made to shove her off his lap. "Oi, Ingvar! Get over here!" There was a faint spluttering from Ingvar as he chocked on his beer. Killian laughed, settling back into the couch and pulling Mavis back into his lap. "I'm just having a laugh, c'mere." The kiss he planted on her was fairly quick and dry, as far as Killian And Mavis, Best Kissers in the World, were concerned. MacTaggert threw an empty beer can at them anyway.

"Killian laughed, looking around the circle. Simply couldn't pick another member of his Gryffindor subgroup – even in his drunkeness Killian was aware he was prefect and therefore shouldn't encourage cliques. "Uh.... Danvers! Ben!" he called across the circle. "Truth or dare?" The Slytherin called truth back, which was. Er. Killian frowned, trying to think of something.

"Uh.... shag, marry, kill, Professor Ajay, Professor Blevins, Professor Ellington." He felt vaguely guilty asking, but, like, they weren't here, right?

Killian reached for his beer. Jesus Christ. What if they found out. He would die.

@Benjamin Danvers

He'd been intending a quick exit, really, and somehow ran into half the party inside just as he made it down the stairs. He could have just ducked out and made a run for it, its not like he owed anything to anyone, but well. There was Andy and there was Jae and... he could use the distraction, really. He should have some fun instead of brood and Billie had turned out to be pleasant company before, so he took a seat on a cushion after he'd refilled his drink. He called a quick truth at Buckley, snorting into his meade when he heard the question.

Merlin but all three were hot.

"I'd definitely shag Ajay." he started, grinning a little, as he made eye contact with Andy. His friend would know exactly who he'd marry of course, though he felt sort of guilty for leaving our Ellington, especially when that only left the one choice for her. "I'd definitely marry Blevins." he finally said. The woman was amazing, she was bloody fit, and she could fly. Literally wonderful combinations of the things he liked most. "Ellington's pretty fit, too, but yea that last one." he just liked the other Professors that bit more, he supposed, but he wasn't about to say it so explicitly. It wasn't like he'd ever do it anyway, but even alluding to it felt sort of icky.

Moving on, though! He glanced over at Jae, raising his eyebrow, when the Hufflepuff called out dare. He looked like he was in a bit of a mood, about ready to combust, and staring at the Gryffindors canoodling on the couch. He could feel some of the tension from where he was sitting, even. Right then, time to distract him. He knew just the thing that would chaffe him the most but that the probability of amusing him at least a little.

"I dare you to say I'm the best at Quidditch every-time someone calls my name." he said, grin in place, knowing Jae would want to throttle him a little every-time he had to. Quidditch was everything.

@Jae Kim

Ugh, Buckley thought he was so funny, didn't he. Annoying was more like it. His voice was so grating too, just the sound of it made Jae want to leave. Or maybe it was because of the way he was pulling Mavis onto his lap and kissing her and ugh. PDA was gross. Especially those two. Jae glanced away and drank more.

Ben's answer to Ki's dumb question was at least a good one. Jae probably would've picked the same, or maybe flipped Blevins with Ajay, and he was musing over that idea mostly to distract himself from other things when Ben called out his name. His brows flew up and he mulled over the choices for half a second before he gave a shrug and called out dare with a glance at the two Gryffindors on the couch. At least he had the gumption to choose for himself.

But Ben's dare? Really?

"Nevermind, I'll take truth instead," Jae drawled out which got a few titters of laughter and made his smirk more pronounced. And then of course the jabronis in Isaac's gang started chanting Ben's name, which of course made Jae roll his eyes and repeat "Ben's the best at Quidditch, Ben's the best at Quidditch" like a monotone robot.

For some reason, a group of Slytherins off to the side thought it was hilarious and kept it up so Jae dutifully repeated the words, his tone getting more and more clipped with each iteration before he said loudly, "Alright, enough, who's next?" His gaze fell on Nola and he asked her with a challenge in her voice which she wanted to do. Truth? Well then. This would be easy.

"Are you over Macnair yet?" He asked then his gaze slid purposefully to Isaac, wanting to see the full extent of his friend's reaction to the question.

@Magnolia Lane Hawkins

Billie glanced away as Killian and Mavis kissed, hoping they weren’t about to have a big makeout session on the couch or something. They were so comfortable being all over each other, in front of anyone! Billie couldn’t fathom it. She accidentally met Jae Kim’s eyes and glanced away again, wondering why he looked so irritated.

She didn’t say anything once they were sitting but she did exchange glances (scandalised to varying degrees) with Barbie on several occasions:

Killian’s professor list.

Ben’s I'd definitely shag Ajay.

The Slytherins' chanting.

She didn’t say anything out loud, but it felt to her as if they were having their own little conversation over here in the corner. She smiled here and there, too, enjoying the group excitement from what felt like an observer's position.

Jae asked Nola if she was over Macnair yet, and Billie glanced over at her Gryffindor friend, waiting for the answer. She swallowed, feeling nervous suddenly that someone might involve her in the game. She was having a nice enough time observing; it felt nice to be included in something like this, but she wasn’t brave and she certainly didn’t want to talk about her feelings. If anyone asked her a similar question — if anyone brought up Phillip, she might just die.

So, dare, then? It wasn’t that likely that anyone would even ask her, but she planned ahead just in case.

While Truth or Dare had not been her first idea of a good time (she’d been burned last time, she played it at a friend’s sleepover) it was much better than all the nonsense she had been getting up to until then which mostly revolved around trying out cocktail recipes from a book she had snagged from the library before the end of term (who knows how it got there!). So, when her friends finally reemerged and she found Mavis sitting at the table, she gravitated to the crowd. What better way for Magnolia Lane, Queen of all Hogwarts Gossip, to get some new tradeable info than to hear it from the drunk teenagers themselves? At least if she went into it with purpose, she could ignore the fact that it wasn’t just girls giggling around a pink room at midnight but boys and alcohol, too.

Mavis’ dare was a bit unexpectedly bold for a start but Magnolia giggled anyway, hoping Killian would have the good sense not to pick her or anyone else that would make things awkward. But surely if he and Mavis were still together, that had to mean that Killian was just as smart in these situations as he was in the books. Good to know! Taking a small sip from a very delicious cocktail which was all sugar and a little alcohol, she looked on excitedly as Ben was asked next. Magnolia had a whole one Slytherin at a time policy, hence the progression of crushes, but she thought he was kind of cute but she didn’t know much about him. She bookmarked the name in her brain for an investigation later.

Of course, Jae’s dare was funny, but what made it even funnier was the look on his face when Isaac’s group of friends (sans Allison, thankfully) started chanting Ben’s name to make him say it. She giggled in response, pointing a finger a Jae as if to emphasized that they had gotten him.

“Nope,” Magnolia said firmly, as she could tell from the look on Jae’s face that if she said Dare, she’d regret it several lifetimes. Of course, saying “Truth,” wasn’t any better either. She took another sip of her drink, liquid courage if you will, and almost choked on it as she heard the question, her face warm at the thought that everyone at the table now knew that had been a thing.

“How do you even—” she started but sighed, “Macnair is so last year, Jae, of course I’m over it, duh—” she said, but then Mavis’ words came back into her head and she felt a little guilty, “but…I mean you know if we meet again and its fated then I’m not gonna say no, like there is something there, very little, basically nonexistent,” she said, as confidently as possible, before her eyes landed on Isaac. She was hoping he wouldn’t make a big deal out of it.

“Truth?” she repeated with a grin on her face, “Tell me something even your best friend doesn’t know about you.”

When Isaac realized people were sitting down to play truth-or-dare, he shoved Aaron out of the way and sat down on the end of the sofa. He hated to be the one stuck in the middle seat, and he had only had one beer, so he knew Aaron didn’t have a chance to refuse the demand. “Piss off,” he said for good measure and set the disaster of a drink Magnolia made him down on the coffee table beside the sofa. The Gryffindors got it started, because someone had put them in charge seven million years ago, and they were still carrying that torch, and Isaac listened as the truths and dares began.

Jae’s was funny; everyone on the Slytherin Sofa chanted him on, Isaac too, so the teenager should not have been so surprised when the Hufflepuff turned his attention toward Magnolia. It was a question for her, but Isaac felt like Jae had sucker-punched him a little too, and he did his best to keep the glare off his face. Everyone knew she had a thing for Roderick Macnair, but he had graduated, so wasn’t she supposed to forget all about him by now? Magnolia said about as much, but Isaac did not believe her. If it was fated? Isaac rolled his eyes. The teenager reconsidered his stance on the copious amounts of alcohol Magnolia had poured into a plastic cup for him; drinking it was better than listening to this, right? He picked up the glass again, and the golden liquid swirled around inside. It was oily, slick with alcohol, and not nearly enough of anything else, and somehow, she had also added glitter to it? Magnolia had given him a chaser, but he had put it down somewhere and forgot about it since.

Magnolia’s voice hit his ears, and Isaac looked up again. “Truth,” he said because he was not going to let Nola dictate anything he did tonight. His face scrunched up at her question, disapproval reaching his eyes. He should have picked dare and or just not played at all. But whatever, he just had to get past his turn, and then he could go back to judging everyone else. In the spirit of the game, Isaac offered up a bit of truth because he did not give a crap what they all thought. “I regret quitting the Quidditch team,” he said, and because a moment of authenticity was more challenging to swallow than the dragon fire in his cup, Isaac topped his statement off. “Because the team has gone to shit without me.” He raised his eyebrow once as he looked at Benjamin, and he knew the Captain and his Head Girl girlfriend were here somewhere too, but Isaac did not care. His brown eyes slid past Benjamin and to the tiny Ravenclaw whose house they were currently partying in.

“Billie, truth or dare?” And the quiet blond answered tentatively; from the way she had said it, he wondered if she’d take it back or decide not to play altogether. “Alright…” He smiled as Aaron bumped his shoulder, and then Isaac looked down at his glass. “I see that your hands are empty, so I dare you to drink the rest of this.” The Slytherin held out the cup, taking a tiny sip of it ahead of her just in case she might be worried, and then looked over at Magnolia. “Nola made it; I have no idea what the glitter stuff is.” He laughed, but it was not sinister; he wasn’t trying to humiliate Billie or make her do something unhealthy (though… the ratio of alcohol to everything else wasn’t entirely healthy) but rather to lighten up and have a good time. It was a party after all.

And with that in mind, Isaac passed the cup for Billie down toward her and stole the beer Aaron hadn't opened yet. Popping the tab, he held it up for Billie to cheers with him before they both drank.

@Billie Fay

He couldn’t help the lopsided little grin he shot Jae, just to be a fucking shit about it, as he fluttered his eyelashes. “I don’t think I’ll ever enjoy hearing anything else you have to say more.” he quipped, feeling quite pleased with himself. Cranky little shit that Jae was he knew the other boy probably appreciated the cheap shot on some level. His housemates chanting only added to hilarity of it all.

He almost choked when he realized that someone - a human someone, a cute human someone, had a crush on his cousin. He pondered that for a second before deciding to let that thought die. That path clearly led to madness, though he couldn’t help but file that information down for later.

At Hackney’s admittance the older Slytherin didn’t outwardly react, meeting the younger boys gaze head on before leaning casually back. A slow grin worked it’s way past his mouth, a touch mocking, and eyes glittering. “Why don’t you prove you’ve still got even a modicum of skill left, yea?” he shot back lazily. He wouldn’t ordinarily comment only that he actually thought Hackney was serious about regretting being a fucking quitter. Ben wasn’t the type to forgive that sort of thing ordinarily and part of him was inclined to not, ever, but allowances could be made if he proved himself committed.

Hackney was lucky he wasn’t captain because he’d certainly have to go through a lot of shit to convince him to put him back on the roster. Andy and him were pretty like minded when it came to Quidditch so in reality the older boy would probably agree and Isaac  would only have a saving grace in Aideen who, quite naturally, had a lot more say than he did anyway.

This would be a good way to get him to save face about it, if he were serious, though. It was a handshake disguised as a punch. “Though I guess nothing could be worse than Kim on the pitch.” He smiled, smirk in place, as his blue gaze flickered over to Jae.

Isaac had better figure out if he wanted in or out because there was a prime moment to prove himself worthy now, with everyone graduating the end of term. The tall Slytherin chanced a glance at Billie, making a mental note to quietly watch out for her alcohol intake, and filling it away. She didn’t seem the time to indulge usually and that meant she was likely to let herself get carried away without someone to look out for her. He doubted anyone would take advantage but there were quite a few older years skulking about.