Page 2 of The Dare

It doesn’t feel like she thinks it’s a bad idea, and if I had another few minutes alone with her, I know I could persuade her to do a lot more.

It’s a long train ride, but I’m already thinking about my future.

Our future.

A future we can share together, forever.

No dare required.

Chapter One

Natasha

“Truth or dare?” Suzanna asks me. Her eyes narrow with intensity but her creeping smile gives her away.

I roll my eyes, sighing loud, trying to be annoyed with my best friend.

“Suze. We’ve played eye-spy, counted railway crossings and now you wanna keep up with truth or dare?” I ask, hearing my voice move up to a steady whine.

Long haul, cross-country train rides aren’t my idea of fun.

Oh wait, thiswasmy idea.

Short airplane flights in cattle class are a thousand times worse for me, so my trip home from college had to be land-based travel only.

I thought a train trek with my mom and best friend would be something we’d remember for the rest of our lives.

Like a mini-vacation.

Romantic even.

I think we’ll remember, but maybe not for the right reasons if Suze insists on playing dumb games the whole way.

“Truth or dare?” Suzanna says again, impassive. Ignoring my attempts to get out of it playing this game.

I try to growl in frustration, but Suze’s face is so funny, so serious that I just have to laugh.

In no time, we’re both laughing like maniacs without even knowing why.

I’ve never had so much fun with Suzanna as on this trip home and it’s still only our first day.

I’ve missed seeing her every day for four years but she’s still my bestie.

Always will be, no matter what.

Just when it feels like she’s gonna start up again with truth or dare, I hear my mom coming back into the railcar lounge we’re hanging out in for the afternoon.

Train travel isn’t popular anymore, or maybe we just got lucky. But we have what looks like a whole car to the three of us so far, and the sleeper is just us too by the looks.

It feels like we have the whole train to ourselves, but mom, who likes to explore, tells us both otherwise.

There are other people on the train, but not many. One, in particular, she starts to mention, but blushes.

“You see something you liked?” Suzanna teases my mom, but I let her.

Anything to get me out of another round of truth or dare is fine with me.

Mom laughs, still blushing.