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It was Chess’ fault, really. She shouldn’t have picked dare; especially when Cairo was the one asking her to pick truth or dare, when the previous dares she had dished out were roughly summed up to “make the freshman who looks like she doesn’t know what the definition of a hangover is chug Farrah’s parents’ probably-whiskey at-this-point” and “have Farrah spin around until she can’t see straight and hole up in the bathroom for the next 20 minutes.''
She shouldn’t have picked dare when there was really only one thing she was scared of doing, one thing she knew Cairo would be absolutely thrilled to toss out during this game, especially if she or Kate were up to bat.
Chess was the one who had insisted on coming to the sleepover, so it was her fault she was stuck here, like this. “A fresh start,” she had told Kate at some point while attempting to pack her overnight bag. Kate, meanwhile, had thrown the first pieces of clothing she got her hands on into her backpack and called it a day, topped off with a battered copy of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo for when she was ready to tune out, which would probably be 10 minutes into the sleepover.
Chess had teased Kate about how the flannel sweatpants she grabbed without looking would clash with her flannel jacket. When Kate lazily flipped her off, she carefully added, “You’ll look cute no matter what, so I guess it’s fine, though.” Kate hesitated for a moment before picking a sweater off of her bedroom floor and hurling it at Chess’ face, but before it blocked her vision, Chess thought Kate’s face might have turned a shade redder.
Maybe it was Chess’ fault for imagining things that didn’t mean anything actually did. Too long touches, extra-close embraces, entwining each other’s fingers after a high-five, warm breath on each other’s skin as they leaned in to whisper in each other’s ears secrets that they wouldn’t tell anyone else, looks into each other’s eyes to say they understood the other like no one else would. None of that had to mean anything. But it could, Chess’ thoughts insisted, if only not to absolutely crush her. But did it?
Maybe it was Chess’ fault for not taking the initiative sooner to admit her feelings before. If she had, she wouldn’t be second-guessing herself like this. And she certainly wouldn’t be having a mental debate with herself right before something like this was about to happen.
Yes, she finally concluded, it was definitely Chess’ fault that she was leaning in to kiss her best friend, the best friend in question who looked shocked – and maybe Chess was imagining it purely out of desperate hope – but not too opposed to it, with Cairo looming in the background with an amused smirk on her face.
Maybe Chess didn’t mind truth or dare too much. Maybe she should be thankful she showed up tonight and followed Riley’s strict agenda if that’s what got her to this point.
Chess had only froze for a second when she registered what Cairo dared her to do. Then when she turned to face Kate, who had turned beet red, she said nothing and only slowly and carefully leaned in.
She tried to ignore the way Kate’s shoulder shook, the way she trembled when their lips brushed. Instead, she focused mostly on the thrill of kissing her, the first time – and very likely only time – she would get the chance to.
The moment passed in a matter of seconds. The basement had turned silent, no one really knowing what to say after that. Then Farrah had let out a badly attempted low whistle, which caused Annleigh to turn and give her a light smack on her shoulder. Then the two started bickering like they normally did, and the night unfroze and everyone moved on. That ended up being the last round in that game of truth or dare.
But now Chess had to talk with Kate. And she wasn’t really sure she knew the right words to say.
She nudged Kate with her elbow when they had turned on some TV show Cairo had somehow wrangled Riley into watching, which no one else seemed to really care about. When Kate looked over at her, Chess nodded her head in the direction of the basement door and got up. Kate followed diligently after her, Reese being the only one to notice the pair leave but said nothing about it, only flashing Chess a brief, encouraging smile. Chess nodded in acknowledgement and tried her best to return the smile, but it came out wobbly.
Chess and Kate got out of the basement and paused right outside of the stairwell. When Chess opened her mouth to say something, she was interrupted when she heard Riley exclaim, “This is too gorey! I can’t watch this!” and Cairo say something about needing to get better at handling her nerves. They didn’t hear the rest of the conversation, as Kate closed the basement door to drown them out.
“So,” Kate said before Chess had the chance to. “Did you want to talk about it?”
Chess swallowed. “Yeah.”
“Ok. I’ll start for you: ‘It was just a dare, it didn’t mean anything, sorry to put you through that, we can just pretend that didn’t happen. Great?’ Great. Let’s head back down.” Kate reached out to grab the doorknob, but Chess reached out to put her hand on Kate’s before the door could open again.
“Th-That’s not what I was going to say at all,” Chess said, ignoring the way Kate’s eyes went wide when she had connected their hands.
“It wasn’t?” Kate asked, bewildered.
“No. I was going to say…” Chess suddenly felt like she was going to be sick if she said anymore.
Kate didn’t let her breathe and prompted, “What were you going to say?”
Chess muttered, “It meant something to me.”
“What did you say?”
“It meant something to me!” The words burst out of Chess’ mouth before she could even process that she was thinking them. The air stilled, and Chess begged for Kate’s expression to unfreeze, to shift into either relief or repulsion, but just to change into anything.
“Oh.” Kate blinked. “Oh.”
“What? Good ‘oh’ or bad ‘oh’?”
“No, that’s– That’s good, I think.”
“You think?” Chess echoed.
Kate shook her arms. “I don’t know what I think! I’m taking in a lot of information here!”
“Sorry,” Chess immediately apologized, which caused Kate to let out a startled laugh.
“I– You’re just so…” Kate smiled fondly, shaking her head.
“Thanks, I think so too.”
Kate laughed at that, genuinely. “This is why I like you so much.”
Chess’ heart fluttered. “Yeah?”
Kate looked back up at her, eyes sparkling with hope. “Well, one reason.”
Chess knew the exact same hope was shining in her own eyes, too. “Even more than my charm? And that’s one of my best characteristics.”
“Even more,” Kate rolled her eyes. “You’re sweet, and funny, and…”
“And?”
“And you’re an alright kisser, I’ll give you that.”
Chess managed a scoff-laugh in surprise. “Just alright?”
“You’ll get better.”
“Is that a threat?”
Kate shrugged, although her attempt to be suave waned with the giveaway of the red tips of her ears. “I guess we’ll have to find out, won’t we?”
An explosion of horror movie music and a loud shriek managed their way through the basement door, followed by Cairo’s heartfelt laughing.
“Think they’ll miss us down there if we’re gone a little longer?” Chess asked, inching a bit closer to Kate.
“I can’t let Cairo have the satisfaction of thinking she’s the reason we’re up here alone together,” Kate replied, though she laced her and Chess’ fingers together.
Somehow it felt different than it had anytime they’d done this before. Maybe it was because Chess knew it did mean something, and she didn’t need to second guess herself anymore. “I mean… Isn’t she?”
“We don’t need to let her know that. C’mon. You can sit next to me on the couch.” Kate pulled open the basement door.
“I was doing that already!” Chess laughed, letting Kate lead the way, feeling glad that they could maybe say that the way this whole incident had played out was her fault.