INTO

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Six shocked faces, all directed towards Miranda looking exactly like Petal.

"I know, I know," Petal's lookalike said, returning to her seat. "It's cool. You're shocked. It's understandable."

With their eyes all on her, she shook her body and in a flash, was back to her normal self.

"You'd better not go around taking my form and pretending to me," Petal said, wrapping her arms around her body.

"Sounds fun but no thanks," Miranda replied her. "Don't flatter yourself. I don't have a reason to but if you're so worried, don't have me touch you. It's that simple."

"I-"

"What are you all doing?" Tina spoke up, eyes turning and eyebrows arching in her direction. "Isn't this supposed to be a fun night? All you're all doing is talking about our powers and stuff. Where's the fun?"

"You're right," Petal stretched her legs forward. "What game should we play? Hm, Truth or Dare or Never have I ever?"

"Truth or Dare!"

"Never have I ever!"

"Don't be bores," Stefan got up to grab a bottle. "Truth or Dare, it is. I'll spin the bottle."

"Let's just play both," Gwen suggested. "Back home- I mean, in situations like this when half of us wants to play something else, we should just play both, don't you think?"

"Truth or Dare is going first anyways."

"Again, I'll spin first," Stefan said and spinned the bottle. "Look at that. It's Petal against you, Gwen."

Gwen gulped as Petal folded her arms at the result. "Truth or dare, Gwen?"

Cursing under her breath, she replied, "Truth."

"Boring but I understand you," Petal nodded. "It's our first time so you're testing the waters. Anyways, I'll go easy on you."

"Shoot."

"Do you have a crush on anyone in this circle?"

Gwen literally choked on her saliva. "What? No, I do not."

"Ouuu," Petal drawled. "Too bad."

"Yeah, whatever," Gwen muttered, trying to look at Adam as stylishly as possible. Immediately their eyes met, he looked away and focused his gaze on the spinning bottle.

"Petal you're up again," Stefan said. "You against Miranda."

"Truth or dare."

"Truth."

"Let's end this game already," Petal groaned. "Anyways, I'll ask. Who do you dislike the most here?"

Without hesitation, she replied. "Gwen."

"Ouch," Gwen raised her eyebrows. "You really have no filter, do you?"

"I thought the feeling was mutual," Miranda blinked at her. "Aw, are you suddenly liking me?"

"You wish."

The game lasted for a bit longer with him getting more interesting as Stefan and Tyler stepped in. The bottle was spun a few more times and they finally concluded the game after a while.

“So let’s move on to our last and final game of the night,” Petal dramatically announced. “Put a finger down. I’m guessing so all know the rules already, yeah? Put a finger down for each thing applicable to you and the first person with all his fingers down would have to drink that big bottle of whiskey. All of it.”

“I’ll start,” Petal said with a smirk on her face, watching them all raise their fingers. “Put a finger down if you have a crush on anyone in this circle.”

Adam, Stefan and Tina all put a finger down, taking them all by surprise.

“This would be interested,” Miranda laughed. “Well, my turn. Put a finger down if you have kissed anyone in this circle.”

Gwen sent Miranda a death glare as she watched Adam put a finger down.

“Wait, this is confusing,” Stefan spoke up. “Who did you kiss? Aren’t y’all like siblings?”

“Well yeah we’re related,” Gwen replied as she awkwardly put a finger down. “Let’s just say it happened as a result of a game of truth or dare gone wrong.”

“Real crazy,” Petal shook her head. “Anyways, who’s next?”

“Put a finger down if…”

They carried on with the game for a few more rounds before a loser was chosen. Having all his fingers down before anyone else, Adam had no choice but to empty the huge bottle of whiskey down his throat.

All exhausted, Petal offered them to spend the night at her place. It wasn’t really an offer considering how late it was. It was way too late for any of them to think of returning back home.

Not only were they to spend the night at her place, Petal had make it clear to them they would be going over to Clover's first thing in the morning to ask him if he had made a new decision.

Her words had brought about an inevitable to the Caesars but they had no choice but to play along and act like were excited about it.

Now, even later at night, Gwen was left to battle with her insomnia as she watched everyone sleep but her. With a sigh, she got up and stepped out of the room, heading to a wider and emptier place she guessed was the living room.

Sleep was barely an option for her. She sat with her legs pulled close to her chest, different thoughts clouding her mind.

“Can’t sleep?”

Gwen raised her head at the voice to turn and meet Adam behind her. Without hesitation, he bent and sat next to her. “Is that it?”

“Yeah, something like that,” she nodded in response. “It’s even harder when I’m at unfamiliar places so yeah.”

“Ah, I see,” he also nodded. “Are you going to be staying up the whole night then?”

“No, I don’t think so,” she laughed lightly. “Hopefully, I’ll fall asleep in a couple of hours from now.”

“Damn, a couple of hours from now is still pretty far.”

She simply shrugged in response. “How about you? Why aren’t you sleeping?”

“You can call it a side effect from drinking too much,” he replied, massaging his temples. “My body works in weird ways. When I’m drunk, unlike most people I’m unable to sleep.”

“Whoa, that’s crazy.”

“It is.”

“Wait a minute,” Gwen sat up. “Are you drunk right now?”

“A little bit,” he smiled at Gwen. It was the first time she had seen him smile that widely and she had to admit, it was quite the sight. “Some of my actions maybe alcohol induced but I’m still in my right senses. Partially.”

He was beginning to make no sense and she chuckled at him. Tilting her head, she took it as an opportunity to actually stare at him.

His head was hung low, his dark hair falling to his face as he did. His black eyes blinked from time to time and his lips twitched like he was contemplating on speaking or not.

She swallowed. It was the first time she noticed how handsome he actually was.

“So,” he raised his head, Gwen immediately looking away to prevent getting caught staring. “You don’t have a crush on anyone at the moment?”

“What?” she returned her gaze to him. “What are you talking about?”

“During the game earlier,” he replied. “You said you don’t have a crush on anyone at the moment, right?”

“Oh, that. I have a boyfriend back home. I meant-”

“I mean here,” he cut her off, staring at her directly. “I’m not talking about back home. You don’t like anyone here, right?”

She wasn’t sure how to respond. Did he want her liking someone or was he glad she didn’t?

“Well, no,” she finally replied. “I guess.”

“Okay then,” he nodded then looked away. “I still have a chance then.”

“What?” Gwen immediately felt her cheeks get flushed. “You-”

“Aw, look at this!”

They both simultaneously turned to meet Miranda walking towards them with a huge weird smile on her face. Her hands were shoved in her pocket as she looked at them, her smile quickly changing into a familiar smirk.

“Aw, I was right,” she said as she was in front of them. “It’s the siblings who shared a kiss!”

Gwen rolled her eyes. “What are you doing here, Miranda?”

“I could ask you two the same,” she folded her arms. “But I don’t think I want to listen to a gross answer so I wouldn’t.”

“Get your mind out of the gutter,” Gwen shook her head at her. “We were just talking.”

“And I didn’t assume otherwise.”

Gwen sighed then rose to her feet. “You should take care of your cousin. He seems a little drunk.”

“Oh, so you were both here drunk conversing?”

“That’s not even a word,” Gwen said watching her wiggle her eyebrows. “Stop doing that! Nothing happened between us.”

“Sadly your voice is a bit too high pitched for me to believe you,” she replied, Gwen letting out a groan. “Anyways, it’s fine. I won’t interrupt you anymore. Go back to what you were doing. Right, what was it again? Oh yeah, doing nothing. Go back to having nothing happen between you.”

She gave Gwen a little wave then danced out of the living room. After watching her figure become completely out of sight, Gwen groaned and turned to face Adam, hands on her waist. “Why didn’t you say anything? You just-”

Gwen let out a huff as she ran her hands through her hair. Of course he wasn’t saying anything. There was no way he could when he was already so fast asleep.

Pressing her lips together, she sat next to him. His arms were folded and rested on his lap, his head resting on his arms.

“I thought you couldn’t sleep easily when you were drunk,” Gwen sighed, watching him. He looked like he was sleeping so peacefully with tiny breaths escaping his slightly parted lips.

Letting out another sigh, she mirrored his actions and folded her arms to have them rest on her lap. Slowly, she rested her head and tilted to closely watch Adam.

After a couple of minutes of her doing nothing but watch him sleep, she finally felt sleepy herself and in a matter of seconds, fell asleep.