Chapter 5

We were all out getting some lunch before we headed back home, I grabbed my phone bored because everyone went to get their food, I had asked Luke to grab me a burger.

ME: Hey, please tell me you're online.

James: I'm online...?

ME: Thank god!

James: Well, no one's ever been this happy to talk to me...

James: What's up?

ME: Well, I was just chillin' and I wanted to talk to you?

James: you wanted to talk to me? Or were you bored?

ME: you caught me ;) I came with luke and everyone to grab some lunch.

James: Okay.

ME: We all decided to hang out today, are you still here in LA?

James: yeah, leaving day after tmmr.

ME: Yay! Then you can come with us.

James: Oh no, I don't want to intrude...

Me: Aww come on they won't mind, plus you're my friend.

James: I am?

ME: OF COURSE! Let's just meet at jenny's Café?

James: okay, what time?

ME: after 20 minutes or so?

James: okay, cya.

ME: What?

ME: No!

ME: Don't go!

James: What? I'm still here...

ME: I'm still bored ya'know

James: What should I do?

James: Entertain you?

ME: Ooo, yes, please.

James: What should I do?

ME: Idk, your choice, entertain me.

James: Okay, what do you do if you come across an elephant?

ME: Ummm, Run?

James: No, wipe it off and apologize!

ME:???

ME: Ohh, wtf.

James: Another one, why does... Santa Claus have such a big sack?

ME: Because, he brings everyone gifts, duh!

James: No, because he only comes once a year!

ME: OMG, stop

James: Okay, okay. Ummm

James: How many South Americans does it take to build a light bulb?

ME: Idk, a couple?

James: A Brazilian!

Although the joke was super lame, James still managed to make me laugh.

ME: That was lame.

James: I can bet you 10 dollars that it made you laugh.

ME: Nah, I didn't laugh.

James: Yes, you did.

ME: Did not!

James: Fine this will make you laugh; I went to the zoo the other day, it was empty, except for a single dog.

ME: that's not funny...

James: ask me what dog it was...

ME: Fine what dog was it?

James: It was a Shih Tzu

I read what he texted and chuckled, it was a 'shit zoo'

James: Now admit it that u at least smiled.

ME: I didn't even blink.

James: such a liar, I saw u smile and heard u chuckle.

I turn around to see James, standing right behind me in the food court, "You're such a liar, Eve."

I glare at him and mutter, "I didn't know you were there."

"So that means that you can lie?" He questions, raising an eyebrow. He steps closer and sits beside me.

"Not really," I had been caught red-handed. "But, when did you come?"

"I guess you were just too engrossed in my messages to notice," He shrugs, smirking. I shake my head and glare at him. "What? It's no harm admitting it."

"Seriously though James, how did you even get here so fast?" I ask, ignoring his statement.

"I was just five minutes away from here," He shrugs. "I live close by."

I roll my eyes as I see Luke, Matt, Ricky and Sally heading over with their food.

"Hey, guys!" Sally exclaims gleefully, "When did you get here?" She asks, looking at James.

"Just like a minute ago" He replies, looking at Ricky and Matt who were unaware of James.

"Oh, then you should join us-Ooof," She gets cut off as Ricky drops a heavy arm around her shoulder.

"Hey Eve," Ricky smiles. He then sees James sitting beside me and his smile instantly drops. "Oh hi..."

"Hey man! How's it going?" James asks chuckling. Matt was silent as both of them visibly gulped.

What's up with them?

"As I was saying before I was interrupted," Sally says glaring at Ricky. "You should join us, James."

James shrugs, "Evelyn already asked me." He says jerking a thumb in my direction. "But I don't want to intrude."

Matt and Ricky look at him weirdly and Sally exclaims, "Oh no, please join us, you are a part of the squad." Matt and Ricky both glare at her but she doesn't seem to notice.

Okay, seriously what's up with them?

James blinks at her as if she just spoke Latin, "Are you guys sure?" He then asks looking at Matt and Ricky who were still glaring daggers at the back of Sally's head. "I mean... I have some packing left to do..."

"Quit stalling," I whine. I grab my burger from Luke and take a bite, "You're coming whether you like it or not."

"We'll meet you guys at my house," I tell the others. I grab my burger in one hand and his arm in the other, dragging him out to the parking lot to his car, I open the driver's door and shove him inside. I then go around the car and sit in the passenger seat.

_______________________

"You know the way right?" I ask James, whose eyes are focused on the road. He turns to face me but quickly concentrates on the road again.

"I think," He mutters. "I mean I've been there before..."

I shake my head smiling as I tell him the way; he had been on a totally different route.

________________________

"So water fight, huh?" James asks grabbing a couple of bags of balloons and keeping them in the basket, before heading home James and I stopped by a store to buy some extra balloons

"Yep," I beam, putting another water gun in the basket. "I thought it'd be fun."

"It will be," He says. "How about this? Lets tie-dye the balloons with food colouring."

"Ooo, and when the balloon bursts it's going to colour their shirts." I snicker, putting some food colouring in the cart too. "I love your ideas, James."

James smirks, "I bet that's not the only thing you love about me." He says winking at me.

Okay...

______________

"And done!" I sigh, tying the knot to the last balloon. "Let's go and change into some old clothes," I say to James who had helped me fill all the balloons while the others chilled.

I place the balloon in the bucket with the rest; we had gotten exactly 150 balloons which meant there were 50 for each group, so this was going to be fun. Luckily none of the balloons popped in the process.

I walk upstairs with James trailing behind, "You can borrow Luke's clothes. You guys seem to be almost the same height and size..." I say. He was dressed in a Nike hoodie and black jeans.

"I am an inch taller," He pouts but follows me to Luke's bedroom anyway. "Whoa, he has a very messy room." He exclaims seeing the mess.

"Bruh, this is nothing," I say, looking through Luke's closet. "This is tiny compared to how it was before, he just doesn't have much stuff to throw around since most of it is packed."

He smiles as I hand him a plain t-shirt with sweats, and goes to change in the bathroom while I walk back to my room and lock the door. I too, change into a simple black t-shirt and grey sweats. I go downstairs to see Matt, Ricky, Sally and Luke all dressed up in sweats and t-shirts as well.

"Let's make the teams," Matt claps, grabbing our attention. "Blue, Green and Red."

"Team Red!" Ricky and Sally yell simultaneously. They both look at each other and I swear I saw their cheeks turn pink.

"Okay, so Red is team Rally," I smirk. They all look at me giving me confused and weird looks.

"Rally?" James asks looking very confused, "What do you mean Rally?"

"Ricky and Sally." I smile winking at both of them.

"Anyway," Matt says rolling his eyes, "I want..."

Matt is about to say something when James interrupts, "Me!"

"NO!" Matt shouts, but then clears his throat, "I meant, ehm, uh... Luke"

"Okay," James smirks. He turns to face me and hooks his arm with mine and says, "So you and I, Eve?"

"Of course!" I smile, I lean closer and whisper in his ear. "We can take this to our advantage, let's choose team blue."

"What are you guys talking about?" Luke asks glaring at James, "Let's just begin."

Since everyone ditched James and me to chill while we were stuck tying the balloons, we chose Team Blue, which meant that we kept the water balloons with the food colouring to ourselves.

"This is going to be so much fun," I mutter to myself. James turns to me and smirks, I feel the adrenaline pumping through my blood as I smirk back.

"Okay everyone, take your positions," Matt says. "Your buckets of balloons are at your base, remember your colours."

"Of course we will," Sally mutters rolling her eyes. "Oh and each team gets two buckets of balloons and each consists of twenty-five balloons, which means fifty balloons each team."

"Our mission is to avoid getting wet," says Ricky. "But obviously everyone will get wet, so the main mission is to avoid getting hit by the black balloons, which we will have to throw at the other teammates. The catch is that the black balloons are in the swimming pool, so one person would have to swim to get one and pass it to the partner, got it?"

"Wait, black balloons?" James asks, "There were only three colours..."

"The black balloons consist of food ingredients and the team that gets hit by them the least wins."

"Yeah, and they are at the bottom of the pool so you would have to dive in and get as many as you can..." adds Luke.

"Okay..." James says, "But what if you lose?"

"Try not to lose," says Matt smirking. "'Cause if you do, you and your team member will have to face circumstances."

"What do you mean?" James asks.

"He meant," Begins Sally, "The losing two teams would have to do something extreme, it can be anything like getting your nose pierced, or getting a tattoo..."

"Oh..." James says, "I so don't want to do that, Eve please let's win this thing..."

"Let's do this," I smile running to our base. "We have to win."

"Alright, on your mark... get set, GO!"

As the following words left Luke's mouth, James and I both grabbed balloons and aimed it at the nearest target, who was Matt, the balloon exploded splashing water on him and staining his shirt with a bright green.

Hmm, I guess this way we'll know how many people we hit.

"Why the hell is this water coloured?!" Matt yells looking at his shirt with disgrace, James bursts out laughing and I follow. Matt looks at us and points an accusing finger at the both of us, "YOU! You two did this! Why did you do this?!"

I grab another balloon and hit him with it; Matt glares at me and throws a balloon at me, I feel my wet shirt stick to my torso as I aim the balloon at Ricky and Sally.

James grabs four balloons and starts to throw them aimlessly at everyone. I grab our bucket and run behind him, aiming at the nearest targets.

So close to the pool...

I get hit by twenty balloons by the time I reach the pool to get the black balloons that are waiting at the bottom, "James!" I yell, he runs towards me dodging some balloons. I point at the bucket which is halfway done, "I'm going to jump in the pool and throw the black balloons, catch them and put them in the bucket."

I jump in the pool holding my breath after he nods, Luke and Sally jump, I reach the bottom grabbing two balloons in a hand and pushing myself up by my feet I throw James the balloons, he catches one but the other one hits him splashing what seemed like mustard all over him, "SORRY!"

"Oh god!" He scowls, "Look what you did; I'm on your team!"

"Oops," I smile biting my tongue. He shakes his head throwing the balloon at Ricky who was grabbing the balloons from Sally. I dive back into the pool to grab another round of balloons.

-----------------------

There were only three black balloons left with me and two left with James, we both were drenched in numerous nasty food items; ketchup, flour, ranch, mustard, mayonnaise, vinegar, sriracha sauce (which burned my eyes) and other disgusting stuff.

James, unlike me, didn't smell like a walking food disaster. He got the good stuff, like Nutella, jam, peanut butter, honey and other yummy stuff. Although he got the nasty ingredients too, I being very unlucky got them more.

The others were also obviously hit by the black balloons, but I think James and I were losing and by the looks of it so were Matt and Luke.

I aim a balloon at Matt who was trying to hide since he was out of balloons. He got hit by it and was now covered in soy sauce too.

"Yes!" I smirked doing a little victory dance as I got hit by a balloon. "HEY!" I looked up to see Luke smirking at me as he threw another balloon at me.

"That's for hitting my partner!" Luke exclaims. James threw a balloon at him splashing Luke with salsa. It hit him right on the face.

"MY EYES! OH, MY GOD! THEY ARE BURNING!" Luke yells, jumping up and down, "HELP!" He screams.

Matt shrugs as he walks up to him and pushes him into the pool.

Luke emerged from the pool, spitting water everywhere. "A warning would have been lovely," he says, glaring at Matt.

My face was red from laughing and my sides had started to hurt. "Oh my god! Y-you should've seen y-your fa-ce!" I manage to say between the laughter.

"Shut it!" Luke scowls.

------------------

"I can't believe we lost!" Matt whines. We had finished playing, everyone had taken a bath and had changed into their pyjamas. I gave James Luke's extra pair of pyjamas and I changed into mine.

"I can't believe that you can't believe that you lost!" said Sally, we all looked at her weirdly, "What I mean is...it was obvious that you'd lose!"

"You're just saying that cause you won!" says Luke, he faces me and James. "Aren't you guys sad that you lost?"

I shrug, "I mean we had fun though, right?" I ask looking at James.

"Yeah!" He smiles. "I mean I always wanted a tattoo anyways."

"Who said you're getting a tattoo?" Ricky asks with a smirk, "It's our choice since we won, and we definitely won't let you get a tattoo as a punishment since you want it."

"What do you mean?" I ask, "Isn't it either a tattoo or a piercing?"

"No..." Sally trails. "It can be anything extreme," She says, emphasizing on 'extreme'.

"This isn't going to end well." Matt mutters.

"Matt and Luke are getting their ears pierced," Ricky informs.

"WHAT?!" They both shout in unison. I look at them and smirk.

"Yeah, James and Evelyn will get their hair dyed," says Sally. My smirk immediately disappears and is replaced by an actual smile.

"Wha- why?" asks Luke, "Dying your hair isn't extreme!"

"Uh, yes it is," Ricky grins mischievously.

Oh no something's up...

"Let's get your piercings," Sally says pointing at Luke and Matt who were glaring at her. "And your hair dyed." She said pointing at James and me.

"Oh Jesus, help me," Luke mutters walking behind me, it was late around nine and the six of us were going to go to the salon.

__________________

We had decided to go to the nearest salon that did both piercings and dyed hair. I was now seated with James beside me on the salon chairs while Matt and Luke were getting their piercings.

A lady came behind me with a bowl and brush. She unties my hair and starts applying the dye. Since I had already taken a bath, she didn't need to wash it.

"Aren't we like suppose to decide what colour we want?" James asks the lady who was doing his hair, and the lady rolls her eyes and decides to ignore him.

"The girl outside already told us the colours we have to dye your hair with it." says the lady doing my hair.

Well, at least she isn't ignoring us like the other rude bitch.

"Okay," I reply trailing. "So what is the colour?"

She shrugs, "She told us not to tell, and that you guys will see soon."

I faced James whose face held the same expression as mine; horror.

The thick cream that she was applying was colourless so I had no absolute clue on what the colour was.

After long clueless thirty minutes, we were done, the cream was fully applied on both of our hair; James was done earlier since he had way shorter hair than me.

"Please follow me," She smiles waiting for me and James to follow her outside. She guides us both to another room which had the sinks, "Here please both of you take a seat, I'll be right back." She smiles politely leaving us.

"What colour do you think Sally made us dye our hair?" Asks James. I shrug looking around the room, it was without any mirrors.

Well, that's a bummer; I really wanted to see the dye.

Our hair was wrapped in many pieces of aluminium so the dye could 'colour' our hair, "I don't know but I hope it's not neon."

"What if it is neon!?!" He whines, "I have to go back to New York tomorrow and I have to start university too. If the colour is actually neon I would die out of humiliation!"

"Don't worry you guys, it's not neon," the lady assures us coming back with two towels in her hands, "Now let's wash the dye off."

She lowers my head in the sink gently removing the pieces of foil and then turns the water on and washes the dye off my hair.

Five minutes later, she had shampooed and conditioned my hair as well, and currently, my hair was wrapped in a towel. I looked at James and his too was now wrapped in a towel.

"You look funny in a towel," I chuckle eyeing him, he looks at me a pokes his tongue out, "Oh how mature," I mutter rolling my eyes.

"Would you like me to blow dry it? Or would you let it air dry?" The woman asks. I smile at her and tell her to blow dry my hair.

The lady blindfolded us as she dried our hair, so we couldn't see each other's hair. Curiosity was eating me alive and I couldn't wait to see my hair.

"Could you please at least give a hint about my hair colour?" I ask the lady, "I won't tell Sally!"

"I'm sorry," She mutters. "But I can't, Sally had persuaded our boss to give us these strict instructions."

I'm gonna kill her, slowly and painfully...

_______________________________

"Can I remove my blindfold now?" I ask impatiently. We had walked back to the main room where I assume everyone else was and I could hear them whispering stuff to each other but they didn't let me or James remove our blinds.

"Sure," Sally snickers. "You both look amazing."

I removed my blindfold and looked in the mirror, I couldn't help but gasp, my beautiful blonde hair was now dyed red, bloody red!

I looked at James whose hair now too was dyed the same colour as mine RED!

"What the hell?!" I cried glaring at Sally and Ricky. "Why red?!"

"Well, it was either red or blue!" Laughs Ricky and James comes to me and drops an arm on my shoulders.

"It's not that bad," he says. "In fact I kinda like it." I look back in the mirror, my hair was completely red but at least it wasn't bright.

Plus the lady did say that it would fade away in a span of two months.

"Yeah, I guess" I agreed. I looked at Matt and Luke who were glaring a Ricky and Sally, "What's up with you both?"

"They made me get my freaking ear pierced!" Matt whines, he pointed at his ear which was now pierced at his lobule. I looked at Luke and he pointed at his ear too, it was pierced at his helix. They had both gotten one piercing and both of them got it in their right ear.

"Um, nice." I fake a smile, I guess it was just unusual to see their ears pierced. "I honestly want to get one there too Luke."

"Yeah, but it's a girl thing!" Luke whines.

"Guys get them done too, you know..." says Ricky, we all glare at him, excluding Sally who tells him to shut up.

________________________

We were now seated in a circle in the TV Lounge on the floor with a glass bottle in the middle; we had decided to play a game on Truth or Dare when we came back from the salon.

I spin the bottle and it lands on Matt and Sally, "Truth or Dare, Matt?" Asks Sally.

"Dare," He says puffing his chest out proudly, making us all chuckle.

"I dare you to..." She trails keeping up the suspense, but there's no hiding the smirk on her face, "Kiss the person on your left."

Matt shrugs, "That's easy." He says smirking. He turns to his left and gulps audibly when he sees James smirking at him with raised eyebrows. Matt's smirk immediately disappears and gets replaced by a look of horror.

Matt faces Sally and glares at her. Sally just smirks at him shrugging, as if saying You-Got-Yourself-Into-This.

"Just do it already," Luke urges. Matt twists around making James now on his right, he then kisses the person on his left on the cheek.

"Eww, Man what the hell?!" Whines Ricky rubbing his cheek furiously. Bro, it was just a little peck. "Why would you do that?"

Matt raises an eyebrow and they have some silent conversation with their eyes. "Oh..." Ricky nods in understanding.

What the hell is going on?

"Okay..." I trail off. Luke rolls his eyes and spins the bottle, this time making it land on James and Luke.

"Truth or Dare?" Asks James.

Luke thinks about it and proudly admits, "Dare."

James smirks, "I dare you to... go ask your neighbours for a cup of sugar."

"That's it?" Luke asks in disbelief.

"I'm not finished yet," Says James grinning evilly. "You have to go shirtless in a bra."

Luke blushes a deep red, he is probably about to reject but when he sees the look on Matt and Ricky's face he gets up knowing whether he did this dare or not Matt and Ricky will not shut up about it.

They won't shut up either way...

"Okay," Luke sighs removing his shirt. "I will do it!" he walks upstairs to his room and comes back wearing a neon pink bra... the boy's wolf-whistle at him making him go even redder.

"That is not mine..." I say, "Whose bra is that!?!"

"Uhm, I don't know..." He blushes a deep red. "I -uh, am just gonna go get the sugar..." he says getting an empty cup and walking to the door.

"Wait!" shouts Ricky, "Matt and I will come with you, to make sure you do it and to see the lady's reaction."

Luke just nods probably still embarrassed as they all walk out the door. James, Sally and I look at each other and burst out laughing, "I can't believe he would do that!" I say between laughter and Sally nods.

About two minutes later the door opens with a very flushed looking Luke. Matt and Ricky come after him still laughing like hyenas. "Oh my god! You should've seen the woman's face when she opened the door!" Says Ricky.

"Yeah! I mean she was like 'Oh hi sweetie, what do you-' she immediately stopped when she saw Luke's attire and just closed the door on his face!" Matt says, tears falling down his face. I look at Luke who is still red from the embarrassment, "I mean she didn't even give the sugar!" We all burst out laughing.

We continue playing a couple more rounds until it lands on James and me. "Okay, James asks Eve now." Says Ricky.

"Truth or dare?" James asks. I think about it for a while, the dares had been too weird especially the ones that James gave.

So I say, "Truth," James smirks thinking about it.

"Who was your first kiss?" he asks, it was a very common question to be asked in a truth or dare game but my heart starts beating faster, flashes of that day three years ago start popping in my head. I gulp the bile forming in my throat.

The tension in the air was so thick you couldn't even cut it with a saw.

I look up to see Sally who hung her head low fiddling with her fingers, Ricky bit his lip, Luke went pale, and Matt, oh lord, he turned red and when we made eye contact he snapped.

"WHY THE FUCK WOULD YOU ASK SOMETHING LIKE THAT?!" Matt shouts furious. He gets up about to march toward James, who looked confused.

James looks shocked and stutters for a response, "I-Um...Uh...wha---?"

I take two deep breaths and turn to Matt. I reassure him by keeping a hand on his arm and give him a nod, "Its okay Matt, you know it's a common question, plus he doesn't know." I whisper in his ear.

I then turn to face James, "It was Will." I say trying to say it casually even though there was nothing casual about my friends' reactions.

Realization hits his face, "Oh..." He says his mouth forming an 'O' shape, "Bad breakup?"

We never dated, my friend.

I nod, "Something like that."

"Okay people," says Ricky, spinning the bottle. It lands on Sally and me. I mouth a quiet 'Thank you' to Ricky in return to which he nods.

"Okay, Sal, Truth or Dare?" I ask, she was never a daredevil, so I had the perfect question.

"Truth," She says, confirming my thoughts, I thought about it thinking whether it's worth it or not and then asked.

"Who was your last kiss?" I smirk wiggling my eyebrows suggestively. Sally blushes profusely.

"I- uh... you know..." She stutters. Luke nudges her making her spill, "Ricky!" She exclaims, "It was Ricky."

I gasped looking at Ricky, we all stare at them wide-eyed, and I break the silence first by exclaiming, "YES! Finally! I've been shipping Rally forever!" I look at Sally and wink at her, "I thought I'd never get to see my ship sail before I leave!"

Matt looks at me smiling and spins the bottle; it lands on him and Ricky, "Truth or dare?"

"Dare," Says Ricky.

"I dare you to kiss Sally, prove your point," Matt smirks. I look at Sally to see that she turned even redder.

"Okay," Ricky shrugs smirking. "I mean we're dating anyway."

What?!

I look at Sally and she gives me the 'We-Will-Talk-About-It-Later' look. I raise my eyebrow and mouth, 'You better!'

Ricky gently cups Sally's cheek and their lips lock. "Aww..." I coo, giggling.

James, Matt and Luke wolf whistle. We expected Ricky and Sally to pull apart but they were slowly getting heated. James puts an arm on Ricky's shoulder, "Guys he dared you to kiss not to make babies!" At that, they pull away flushed.

After that, we stopped playing and kept talking and somewhere between I fell asleep, I was cuddled against Luke as he snored.

I love my friends so much, was the last thought I had before my eyes shut and I fall into a deep slumber.

__________________

Now that was longgg