Truth or Dare

"I used to let Jackson and Oliver Puddu finger me under the cafeteria table." Chloe smiled at me sweetly, took a deep drag, and passed the joint to Ryan. I could count on one hand the times we smoked weed together. Now, she looked so natural, as if she did it all the time.

"You're such a slut." Ashleigh laughed nonchalantly. Chloe's dormmate already lost her top on an earlier dare. Now, she lay reclined on her bed in a red bra, her feet resting on Aiden's lap.

"Oliver Puddu?" I remembered feeling Chloe up. We sat in a corner where the teachers couldn't see what we were doing. Our friends looked out for us and giggled conspiratorially. I had put my hand on her knee. She grinned and spread her legs wide, daring me to go higher. As far as I ever got, until much later, was a brush of wetness on my fingertip. I did not know she let Oliver do it too. A rich kid with a bully streak, if Oliver had any redeeming qualities, I never discovered them.

"You don't remember? You both pulled my legs apart."

I thought back: white linoleum tables, cinnamon disinfectant, Chloe sliding around on the bench between us. We were all laughing. It seemed so innocent now. "I remember playing around. I didn't know he made it that far."

Aiden gave a sideways grin, and I realized he superficially resembled Oliver: tall, lanky, disheveled hair. "Don't get worked up," he said. "You were young."

"I'm not jealous." I forced myself to smile, took a drag, and scanned the faces of Chloe's college friends. Except for Ashleigh, they were all guys—all good looking, pseudo-intellectual stoners.

After those early days of exploration, Chloe and I became sweethearts, despite having very different personalities. While I studied hard and worked at my dad's accounting firm, she skirted by in school and spent every spare moment with friends. She exuded a sense of adventure, which I loved and admired, and also a certain neediness that made me want to take care of her. I bought a nice car and had lots of money, but she always had people vying for her attention. When we went out, I treated her like a princess and felt like the luckiest guy at school. I never even kissed another girl.

Then, I got accepted into Grinnell. She went to Clarke. We kept our relationship kindled by meeting at home every other weekend. But this was my first time visiting her at college and meeting her new friends. It was Aiden's idea to play truth or dare. I handed him the joint.

Chloe rubbed her hands together and smiled at me mischievously. "Truth or dare?"

"Dare."

"Shirt."

I rolled my eyes. I pulled myself from her bed in her dorm room where we were gathered. The others sat on Ashleigh's bed or on the floor. I strutted a half-hearted striptease in the center of the room and peeled off my shirt. I got a couple laughs. I tossed the shirt to Chloe and dropped back on the bed beside her. "Happy?" I asked.

"Yes." She playfully dragged her nails across my chest. It occurred to me she was wasted.

"Girl, there're four boys and only two of us," Ashleigh said. "You know we're going to be naked long before they are."

"That's the risk of truth of dare," Aiden said. "Your turn, Jackson."

I turned to Chloe. "Truth or dare?"

"Truth."

Aiden rolled his eyes. Chase and Ryan groaned in chorus. The guys undoubtedly hoped to see more of my girlfriend's skin. I was grateful she had, thus far, managed to keep her clothes on.

I looked into Chloe's eyes. Although I wondered if I was just being paranoid from the weed, I was suddenly certain she had had sex with Aiden. All the guys seemed so familiar with Chloe, as if they had known her forever and I was the interloper. I imagined Aiden putting his hand on her knee. Would she stop him before he reached her pussy? I was unsure. I tried to think of the right question to elicit the truth, but every possibility seemed too boorish for the situation. Chloe's eyes widened almost imperceptibly, as if she was reading my mind.

"Dude, ask a question," Ryan said.

"Have you ever had sex with Oliver Puddu?" I blurted out.

I felt a twinge of guilt for asking the question, as if I was taking advantage of her when she was high and could not be expected to respond intelligently. However, the guilt passed quickly when she parted her lips and just stared at me blankly.

"I'm gonna say that' s a definite 'yes!'" Aiden said.

Chloe wrung the bottom of her shirt into a knot, exposing a patch of her taunt stomach. She rolled her eyes back and forth to indicate the others in the room. "Do you really want me to answer that here?"

"You chose truth!" Aiden said. "Let's hear the deets."

My heart sank as everyone but me and Chloe laughed. I imagined Oliver taking off Chloe's top in her parent's basement, where we first did it. I pictured them making out on the leather couch, their bare chests pressed together. I felt sick to my stomach.

Ashleigh shot Aiden a look. "We shouldn't torture Jackson like that. He's obviously jealous."

I slumped onto the bed, my face hot from anger and jealousy. "I can't believe you let that douchebag fuck you." I pictured Chloe's skinny legs wrapped around Oliver, her shorts and panties dangling around one ankle in case her parents came home early and they had to get dressed quickly.

I tried to catch Chloe's eyes, but she was staring at Aiden with a dumb expression.

"How many times did you have sex with him?" I asked.

She shrugged.

"I mean, twice? Five times? Ten times? A hundred times?"

"Maybe three times?" She met my eyes and bit her lip. "It was just sex. It didn't mean anything."

Ashleigh took a drag from the joint. "Okay, she answered the question. It's Ryan's turn."

I considered taking Chloe's hand and leaving, but we were in her room, and I had no idea where else to go. I felt like my head might explode from jealousy.

Before I could think of a way to leave with at least some of my dignity intact, Ryan turned to me and smiled. "Truth or dare, Jackson?"

I tried to shake the images in my mind of Chloe spreading her legs for my nemesis. The thing was that Oliver used to tell everyone he had fucked Chloe, but she always denied it. Back then, Oliver bragged about his alleged exploits with dozens of girls, so it was easy to brush off whatever he said about my girlfriend as mere lies intended to make me upset. The revelation that Oliver had in fact fucked her three times was more than enough truth for me to deal with at the moment, particularly when I was so high.

I gritted my teeth. "Dare."

"Take Ashleigh in the closet for a full half hour. Whatever happens in there—even if nothing happens—neither one of you can tell anyone, especially Chloe. You're welcome!"

Ashleigh's mouth shot open in feigned shock. "That sounds more like my dare!"

"You know you want to." Aiden pressed his tongue to his cheek and pantomimed fellatio.

Chloe fidgeted beside me as the others laughed. "You guys are so bad," she murmured.

I shrugged at Ashleigh, who stood, eagerly tripped across the room, and extended a hand to me. She was blond with big tits, fleshy around the belly. As far as I could tell, she was not dating any of the guys in the room, but I suspected she had probably fucked half of Clarke College. I found her mildly attractive, but I was already certain there was no way I was going to let anything happen with her in the closet.

I glanced at Chloe, whose demeanor had changed markedly from just a moment ago. She now looked at me with wide eyes, squirming awkwardly, her cheeks as red as strawberries. I felt a flash of smugness that this situation had apparently—for the first time in our relationship—sparked her possessiveness. I said, "You know I'm not going to actually do anything with Ashleigh, right?"

"You can let her suck your dick, if you want." Chloe pouted and then giggled nervously. She looked like she was about to hyperventilate.

I framed her face and kissed her lips. "I love you. It's just a dare. I promise you nothing will happen."

"It's okay."

I kissed Chloe one more time and accepted Ashleigh's hand. The guys stood and cheered. They ushered us to the closet as someone turned up the music to a deafening level.

"We'll set a timer for thirty minutes!" Aiden shouted, shoving us into the closet. "Under no circumstances can you open this door until we let you out."

Ashleigh kicked some shoes out of our way. "We understand!"

No sooner had we ducked inside than they shut the door, leaving us in total darkness. The music droned beyond the door. The small space was packed with clothes. I struggled to find a way to stand up straight. Ashleigh wrapped her arms around my waist. The heat of her bare skin surprised and excited me. The fabric of her bra tickled my ribcage. In the confines of the closet, it was possible to image Ashleigh as anybody I wanted her to be. I was struck by a sudden urge to at least touch her boobs.

I was reaching up to make my move when she tugged me to the ground. She shoved shoes and clothes out of the way to make space. She pushed me onto my back and nuzzled on top of me. She rested her head on my shoulder. I held her awkwardly; there was nowhere else to put my arms. With her weight on top of me, it was now obvious she was not Chloe, whose petite frame had barely changed at all in the years we had dated.

She placed her lips near my ear and nibbled my earlobe. "You can kiss me. I'm not allowed to tell."

"I don't think that's a good idea."

She sighed, and I felt her hot breath on my neck. She smelled like rum and sex. My cock twitched. Despite that I was not really into her, the sensation of having a very enthusiastic, half-naked girl on top of me made for an almost irresistible temptation. I decided making out with Ashleigh would not hurt anyone, and it would certainly make our time in the closet go by faster. I found her mouth. She parted her lips. Our tongues twisted together as we made out for several minutes.

She pulled back, panting, and ran her hand down my body. She found my hard dick and purred. "I won't tell. I thought you might wanna get back at Chloe—you know, for what she did with that boy."

I tensed. I had almost rid my mind of Oliver Puddu, who had once produced a pair of panties from his locker that he claimed belonged to Chloe. "You're a cuckold, Jackson!" Oliver said to me. "She fucks everyone. You're the only dumbass who doesn't see it." He clucked like a chicken as his friends laughed. I slammed him into the locker that day and almost got suspended.

"That was a long time ago," I said to Ashleigh. "I'm already over it."

"You know, Chloe and I are roommates." She unzipped my fly, slipped a hand in my pants, and wrapped it around my cock. "She tells me everything."

"What's that supposed to mean?" I pushed her off my chest and sat up.

"Nothing!"

She clung to my neck, but I brushed off her arms and pulled myself to my feet. I zipped up my pants and wiped the saliva from my mouth. I had had enough of Chloe's slutty roommate and her douchey new friends. I was too old to be smoking weed and playing truth or dare in a closet. I reached for the doorknob.

"Wait!" Ashleigh said. "Can't we just talk?"

I tried to turn the doorknob but felt resistance, as if someone was holding the knob from the outside. In a panic, I twisted it more forcefully and at the same time rammed my shoulder into the door. Someone shoved their weight against the other side. I jammed my foot in the crack, then both arms. I pried the door open and forced my way back into Chloe's room.

"What the fuck?" I said, my voice completely drowned out by the music.

Someone had dimmed the lights. It was not much brighter than it had been in the closet. My eyes landed on Chase, who stood behind the door, his hands up in a gesture of surrender. I turned to look for Chloe, to take her out of there to a place where we could talk, but her bed was now empty. In fact, both beds were empty.

I sensed movement on the floor, a tangle of bodies in various stages of undress. My eyes tried to make sense of what I was seeing. Even before I could distinguish the lines, I recognized a shared sexual act with Chloe in the center, the details of which at first alluded my comprehension. I made out Chloe's bare legs in the air. She lay flat on her back. Someone's white butt pumped furiously between her thighs, apparently racing against the timer.

My mouth dropped open.

Another figure—Ryan—crouched beside Chloe. I saw he had pulled up her shirt and was pawing her tits, presumably waiting for Aiden to finish so he could take his turn.

In a flash, I thought of all the rumors I heard about Chloe over the years, and not just from Oliver Puddu—the countless parties she attended when I was studying or working, when it was later rumored she had hooked up with this or that guy. Of course, when I confronted her, she always denied it. She told me she loved me, that she would never cheat on me. I believed her. But there was no way to deny it now. Chloe's friends had conspired to distract me with Ashleigh so they could run a train on her right under my nose.

Aiden shuddered, apparently climaxing inside my girlfriend. He scooted over. Ryan pulled down his sweatpants and edged his way between her legs. The music was so loud they were oblivious to my existence, or they just did not care.

Ashleigh put her hand on my shoulder. I left it there. I was too stunned to do anything but stare. Ryan mounted Chloe and found a rhythm. Her hands cupped his ass, driving him in hard.

"Don't be too upset!" Ashleigh said, shouting into my ear. "Chloe fucks everyone. You're literally the only one who didn't know."