“Truth or dare?”

“Truth, of course.” Jaelyn responded immediately. Dares could definitely veer into humiliating and gross situations she didn’t want to experience firsthand, ever. She would hate to embarrass herself any more than she already had by simply existing. Jaelyn was already beginning to regret coming to this party; there were so many people she barely knew by name, but she was forcing herself to socially interact for once.

“Who do you have a crush on? And you can’t say nobody, you have to choose someone.” Mallory smirked obnoxiously.

Jaelyn’s heart dropped. She should have suspected something like this, but she still wasn’t prepared. She didn’t have a crush on anyone, and never would, and that was fine with her, just to be totally transparent. But for whatever reason, this was a novel concept that others couldn’t begin to grasp.

“Well…all the boys at this school are ugly, and I don’t know anyone else,” she hedged. Around her, all the guys protested her judgement, but a few people laughed in agreement.

Jaelyn had hoped that this would get her off the hook, but prying gazes still pricked her skin from every direction. “Could I have options maybe?” She could choose the most conventionally attractive dude, even if she didn’t like them.

Mallory rolled her eyes, making Jaelyn kind of want to punch the condescending look off her face. “Ugh, fine. If you could date any boy in this room, who would it be?”

She glanced around the room, her stomach churning at the thought of being romantically involved with any of these people. She exhaled slowly, forcing herself to remove herself from the equation. All she had to do was fabricate a crush, this was child’s play. Who was, objectively, someone people would fall for?

“Noah,” she said before she could regret it. Her chosen victim was decidedly flustered at the sudden attention, stabbing Jaelyn with guilt at dragging him down with her.

“How _interesting_.” Mallory suddenly lunged for Jaelyn’s arm, yanking her away from the rest of the group. “We’ll be right back, you all continue!”

She pulled Jaelyn to a relatively empty area, shoving a clearly tipsy freshman aside to make room. The physical contact alarmed her, since, if anything, Mallory had been distant to the point of apparent hostility. It was also very possible that contact was alarming in general for Jaelyn.

Mallory dramatically glanced from side to side before addressing Jaelyn. “Okay, look, I’m gonna be totally blunt, girl. You can definitely pull Noah. I could set you guys up or something. And I know that’s like, really nice of me, but you don’t have to repay me or anything, I’d be happy to help you out here. What can I say? Romance is my passion.” She flipped her hair over her shoulder mockingly.

“Um, no thanks, I’m good.” Jaelyn might die. This was far more attention than she ever could have wanted, and she wasn’t sure that someone as popular as Mallory was actually capable of sincerity. And this was all ignoring the blaring elephant in the room.

“Nonsense! You do like Noah, right?”

_No_. “Yeah, of course!” Ugh, she said that too fast, there’s no way Mallory wasn’t suspicious at that point.

“Then let me help you! Come on, it’ll be fine.” Mallory obliviously took hold of her arm again, and Jaelyn desperately wanted to be anywhere but this specific moment.

She led her back to the group, but Jaelyn no longer heard the buzzing conversations. All her brain processed was the pounding in her chest and her spiraling thoughts, torturing her with scenarios and threats. And underneath it all was a bass line in time with her pulse, screaming _Oh no, what have you done? _

__

What had she done?