[Spirit of Lust 2] Chapters 126 & 127. (Patreon)

Chapter 126: Never have I ever.

Grace playfully tapped her finger on her lip, thinking of something to say. “Okay, I’ve got it. Never have I ever cheated on a partner.”

To my relief, no one at the table drank. However, I had to think if I had to drink or not. I had asked the girls if what I did counted as three-timing, and they said that no, it didn’t. This was all consensual, so… Yeah, I didn’t drink.

“Look at you guys, being faithful,” Mila laughed. “At least I hope you’re all being truthful.”

“We are, we are,” Kevin assured her. “Can’t say I haven’t been tempted, though.”

That earned him a cold glare from Grace. “Hurt Lena and you’re dead, Kevin.”

The tall boy straightened up immediately. “Y-Yes ma’am!”

We laughed at the little scene, but I think we all knew Grace was being 100% serious, especially Kevin.

Next was Sarah. She gave it some thought before she decided on something. “Never have I ever stalked someone on social media.”

Again something I didn’t have to drink for. Other than Sarah, though, everyone else drank. My mouth dropped.

“S-Seriously?” I spoke.

“It’s just so easy!” Mila said with shame. “They post EVERYTHING they do, Oliver! Everything!”

“Not proud,” Ben nodded. “But sometimes curiosity gets the better of you.”

“Yeah…” Thomas answered wryly.

“You can bet we’ve all gotten stalked, too,” Sarah pointed out.

“Oliver doesn’t even have an account,” Thomas said.

“And I’m not sure I want to, especially now,” I said. That got another laugh around the table, but… I wasn’t really trying to be funny. Still glad they laughed.

“My turn,” Mila said. “Mm… Never…” Her eyes landed on me. Her cheeks blushed, and with a small smile, finished her sentence. “Never have I ever told someone ‘I love you’ without meaning it.”

“Ooof,” Kevin winced and went for his drink with a shaking hand. “It’s like you’re trying to get me killed.”

“Kevin, I fucking swear…” Grace started in a threatening tone.

“I’ll treat her well! I promise on my mom!” Regardless, he had to drink.

No one else did, and I certainly wasn’t going to even touch my bottle. Mila, Grace and Sarah had their eyes on me, and when I didn’t even move my hand, they all giggled.

Ben frowned at a sudden revelation. “I don’t think I’ve ever told a girlfriend I love her. Huh.”

“But DID you love them?” Mila asked him.

“I… don’t know? I don’t think I know enough to be claiming what love is.”

“Does anyone ever?” Sarah said. “Don’t worry about it too much.”

“I guess.”

When that little conversation was done, all eyes fell on me again, and I realized it was my turn to say something. Shit, I’d been so worried about whether or not I had to drink that I didn’t think of what to say.

I didn’t want to say anything too boring. The level of the questions was already relatively high. It was all mostly about relationships. S-Should I stay on topic or try or change it? Would I accidentally reveal something I shouldn’t? My chest was starting to hurt.

“Oliver,” Thomas called out. “Ask whatever you want,” he said easily.

I pressed my lips, but nodded. “Never have I ever…” My eyes fell on the pool, and I had my question. “Gone skinny dipping.”

I nearly did at Sarah’s pool, but we wore swimsuits in the end.

I don’t think I should be surprised that Thomas and Sarah were the only two who drank.

Thomas laughed at that. “If you have a pool, you have to try it at least once, right?”

“Yeah,” Sarah agreed with a smirk. “It’s liberating.”

Grace pouted in thought. “Does a hot tub count?” she asked.

“Huh?” Ben and Kevin exclaimed.

“That’s up to the one who asked,” Thomas grinned. “Oliver?”

If it counted, then I knew for sure Mila, Grace, Sarah and I would have to drink. THAT would reveal a lot, I thought, so… “No, I meant in a pool,” I answered quickly.

“Then no,” Grace said. I think that made the guys more curious.

With that, it was Ben’s turn. He looked around the table and settled on something. “Never have I ever… have had a crush on more than one person at a time.”

I tensed up and glared at my bottle.

“I don’t like this game…” Kevin whined as he drank, looking at Grace with fear.

Thomas gave his drink a thoughtful look before he also drank. None of the girls touched theirs.

…

With pursed lips, I took my bottle and drank.

“Ohoho?” Kevin raised an eyebrow at me. “Oliver?”

“He said crush,” I defended myself.

“So he did, so he did…” Kevin smirked, and goddammit it was his turn. “Never have I ever… kissed more than one person within a week.”

Motherfucker.

No one else touched their drink. I didn’t dare look at the girls, because if I did, everything would be way too obvious. I… I could lie and just not touch my drink, but…

With a sigh that was almost a groan, I took my bottle and drank the last quarter in one go out of frustration. My face was burning and my head was spinning, and I knew for sure it had little to do with the alcohol.

No one commented on it. Ben and Kevin looked at me with wide, stupefied eyes. Thomas smiled wryly and shook his head in disappointment. Again, I didn’t dare look at the girls.

We had gone a full round, so it was Thomas’s turn again. He tried to de-escalate the situation by asking something tame, saying he’d never ever cheated at a board game. The girls and I also tried to play it cool. They had better results than me, sounding a lot more composed.

But then it was Ben’s turn again. I prayed silently, asking for them to just let it go. But it seemed they were having fun with this.

“Never have I ever had a crush on someone at this table.”

I shut my eyes and took a deep breath. I heard three more people drink. I had to open a new bottle to keep playing and had a bigger swig. Maybe if I drank more people would just think I was drunk and brush everything off.

Again, no one said anything. Kevin took his time pondering on his next question. Though I guess they weren’t really questions. Or were they indirect questions?

…

Yeah, the alcohol was getting to me. My head was feeling a little heavy and my vision felt ever so slightly delayed from my head movements.

Kevin swallowed hard, bit his lip nervously, but spoke. “N-Never have I ever had a threesome.”

I rushed to my feet with bottle still in hand. I felt the world around me spin, but not enough to break my balance. I walked away from the table and closer to the pool, giving my back to the others.

He did not just say that, did he? He knew what he was doing, right? Nerves and embarrassment were giving way to anger. This WASN’T appropriate. I barely knew these guys and THEY were the ones pushing this.

When Thomas teased me and even laughed when I told him things, I never felt offended. I always told him things because I felt I could trust him, and so far he’d been worthy of it. But that wasn’t the case with Ben and Kevin. I didn’t owe them anything, I didn’t owe them the truth.

Yet I still drank, because I’m a weak-willed imbecile who feels guilty for lying. Because that last time I refused to play a game like this…

I heard a grumble, a sigh and someone clicking their tongue. From the corner of my eye I saw the three girls drinking as well. Thomas had his elbow on the table, rubbing the bridge of his nose with a look of disappointment.

Ben and Kevin were looking at us with wide eyes, stunned. And now I wasn’t completely sure I liked these guys.

************

Chapter 127: Coming clean. Reluctantly.

“I’m sorry,” Thomas said softly. He was directly addressing the girls, but I could tell it was directed to me as well. “I shouldn’t have suggested the game at all.”

“We agreed.” Grace grimaced. “We could’ve just lied, but….”

“I knew we shouldn’t have played,” Mila groaned.

“There’s nothing wrong with the game,” Sarah argued. “These two took things too far.” She glared at Ben and Kevin, but they seemed unable to think of anything other than the obvious revelation.

“B-But wait,” Kevin started. “W-Who…? Which…?”

“We’re dating,” I admitted, not looking at them, but down at the pool. I tried to keep the venom out of my voice, but I didn’t know if I succeeded. “Since Wednesday.”

My head was starting to hurt. Slowly, I began to believe that maybe I was overreacting. Surely this wasn’t as big a deal as I thought and I shouldn’t be getting angry at something so trivial. But… I always worried that I would make people uncomfortable with anything I said, to the point it made me paranoid. But Ben and Kevin didn’t care that they’d been making ME uncomfortable, despite Thomas asking them to stop several times. Then again, Thomas was the one to suggest this stupid game. I held my head and tried to shake away all these thoughts.

“A-All four of you?” Ben asked.

“Mila, Grace and I are dating Oliver,” Sarah replied in a cutting voice. “We wanted to keep it a secret for as long as we could. We’re failing spectacularly so far.”

“B-But…”

“It’s like an open relationship. Big whoop,” Grace cut Kevin, crossing her arms below her chest. “Don’t act like this is that big a deal.”

I felt a hand brush my shoulder. I flinched, but when I turned back to see Mila’s worried face, I eased up.

“You okay?” she asked me, softly.

“...Sorry. I screwed up. And now…” ‘I’m overreacting’, is how I wanted to finish that, but I couldn’t. Half of me felt that way, but the other half felt I had the right to be mad.

Mila held my hand, interlocked her fingers with mine and kissed my cheek. “It’s fine. Remember, I didn’t want to keep it a secret in the first place. And we’ve… been saying more than we should, anyway. The girls and I.” She giggled. “For all her talk, Grace wants to shout it to the four winds, too.”

That did make me feel a little better. I gave her hand a gentle squeeze, and by God did it reassure me that things were okay. The contact and her smile.

“And you knew?” I heard Kevin ask. The others were continuing that conversation.

“Yes, I knew,” Thomas admitted. “Oliver trusted me to keep the secret, which is why I was asking you, politely, to drop the fucking subject.”

Ben grimaced and Kevin outright flinched and shrunk at the rise of Thomas’ voice.

“But they were playing along!” Kevin argued. “Oliver could’ve just not drank!”

“He’s honest to a fault,” Sarah told him. “He hates lying.”

It felt weird, and wrong too, to hear people talk about me not three meters away from me. I wanted to say something, but I didn’t know what. In fact, I feared, especially now, that whatever I said would make everything worse.

“Can you really not notice when you’re making a guy uncomfortable?” Grace asked them.

Oh, I think they noticed. They just didn’t think it was a big deal. But I didn’t want this to end with people mad at each other or something. I’d rather they be mad at me than fighting amongst themselves over this.

“It’s fine,” I said. “It’s… done already.” I swallowed. “Sorry, I better leave now.”

“No, no,” Ben said, standing up. “We’ll leave. I have to wake up early tomorrow and Kevin still has a date. Sorry to make things awkward.”

“Y-Yeah.” Kevin stood up as well. “Don’t worry. Like we promised, we’ll keep quiet. We won’t tell anybody.”

I heard Grace muttering under her breath. “You better.”

Thomas didn’t try to stop his friends. In fact, he saw them to the door.

Mila led me by the hand and asked me to sit down. I did so reluctantly, looking down at the glass table. Thomas came back and took a seat with us as well. None of us spoke for a long moment, until I couldn’t hold it anymore and spoke despite the knot in my throat.

“I’m sorry. I did it again.”

“Did what?” Thomas asked me.

“Ruined another game,” I said. “Ruined another party.”

“What do you mean another?” Sarah asked in a tone that said she didn’t think I had ruined anything.

“W-When I was a kid, I went to a birthday party with my sister. We were playing truth or dare, and they asked me to do something I wasn’t comfortable with, so I didn’t. Everyone started calling me lame… Even my sister.” I don’t know why I was admitting this. “Maybe I’m just not made for this stuff.”

God, the self-pity in my voice disgusted even me. It’s seriously better to just stay quiet, to not say anything, to not be…

“No, Oliver. This was my fault,” Thomas told me. “I thought this would be a good way to tease them back, to show them how uncomfortable it can be to be asked questions you don’t want to answer. I didn’t think they’d double down.”

“B-But I’m the one who overreacted…”

“Sure, it would’ve been better to just laugh it off,” Sarah said. “To joke around, to tease Kevin for saying he’d never had a threesome or something. But that doesn’t mean you’re not allowed to get mad, Oliver. I got mad, too. If you hadn’t stood up I would’ve been the one to say something. Believe me, I’d call you out if I thought this was your fault. You know this. But it’s not your fault. And besides, who really gives a shit if they know?”

“B-But you said…”

“There can be some complications, yeah,” Grace said, shrugging. “But it’s not like we’re going to jail or anything. Technically, the school’s code of conduct prohibits relationships within school grounds, but they can’t enforce anything on us if we play it quiet. And besides, I really do believe they won’t tell anyone.”

Thomas nodded. “Even if the guys do end up slipping, at worst you’ll have people talking about you for a couple of months, maybe three. Some will call Oliver a hero, some will say the girls are sluts, some will say you’re a three-timing asshole and most will probably just think you’re all begging for attention and nothing is actually happening. As long as you’re not making out or having sex in school…”

The four, collective winces made Thomas stop. “Are you serious?” We all played innocent and no one gave an answer. “I don’t know if I should call you all stupid or be really, really jealous,” he admitted with an amused tone.

“None of us wanted to keep it a secret, anyway,” Mila said nonchalantly. “Though I’m still a little surprised that you knew, Thomas. Kinda happy about it, too.”

“Happy?” Thomas asked with a laugh. “Why?”

She giggled. “It means Oliver has someone to gossip with.”

“Oh yeah…” Sarah nodded in understanding, but then glared at the two of us. “Wait! H-How much have you told him!?”

“I…!”

Thomas barked another laugh “Relax! This dude is stingy with the details. At this point he probably knows more about my sex life and I do his.”

“Probably better that way,” Grace said, smirking teasingly. “You’d die from envy, big guy.”

“Not at all. I’m rooting for you all. What you have going on sounds really cool. I do wish I had something like it of my own, yeah, but I’m happy you all are getting along so well.”

I sighed. “You’re far more charismatic than I am,” I told him. “You could do it.”

“I think I agree,” Mila said. “I’m sure there are girls in school who’d willingly date you at the same time.”

It was Thomas’ turn to blush. “Come on, I can’t even keep one girl. What makes you think I could date two or more?”

That declaration made it so a soft silence lingered between us.

“Can we finally ask why you guys broke up, or that’s still a sore topic?” Grace asked carefully.

Thomas looked at me, silently asking for my opinion. “They won’t tell anyone. If you feel like venting again…”

“Yeah…” Thomas sighed. “My theory is that it was a combination of a lackluster sex life with the idea that Lyla didn’t like me all that much to begin with.”

“Oh,” The girls exclaimed.

“Now it makes a bit more sense,” Sarah admitted.

“Is… sex really so important in a relationship?” I asked hesitantly. It was weird for me to ask, considering that for us everything started with a night of casual, spur-of-the-moment sex. If I wasn’t as good as they claimed I was…

“I’d like to know your opinion, too,” Thomas told the girls. “Better to hear someone else’s opinion than keep knocking my head against that wall.”

“I think it can be important,” Grace started, “but it’s more so to some than others. I know couples who don’t have the best chemistry and have even broken up a few times but end up getting back together because the sex was good.”

“Girls can enjoy it just as much if not more than any guy,” Sarah added. “Some may not care much, yeah, but if you’re dating someone who does, a bad sex life will probably end in a breakup.”

“But that’s not always the case, right?” Mila asked, sounding a little hopeful. “These days there are so many ways for people to improve their sex life, so the most important thing should be good chemistry, shouldn’t it?”

“...What could I have done, then?” Thomas asked. “To improve my sex life with Lyla, I mean.”

“There’s lube, exploration, toys…” Grace began listing. “Maybe think outside the box. Sex is not just penis in vagina. It’s about feelings and what turns you on. A costume, a situation, a specific body part…”

Why did I feel like I’d heard something similar before?

Thomas sighed. “I guess we never did try many new things. I was afraid I’d make her more uncomfortable.”

“Communication goes both ways, right?” I said. “If she didn’t say anything, you can’t blame it all on yourself.”

“Just so,” Sarah agreed with me. She even got up to stand behind me and hugged me in my seat, kissing the top of my head. “We talk things out with Oliver and it’s…” She didn’t finish the sentence, but that dreamy sigh did it for me.

The contact warmed up my body, and I couldn’t stop myself from giving Sarah’s hand a little squeeze.

Thomas chuckled and nodded. “I see your point, yeah. As the days go by, the less I blame myself for this.”

This was so strange. When Ben and Kevin were asking about us, I got uncomfortable and upset. But now I was talking about sex with Thomas and my girlfriends and… there was nothing awkward about it. Thomas himself was encouraging this, and I felt like this was something good to talk about.

I suppose that’s what trust means.