You see, I usually play on our girls football team as the goalie during the spring and summer, but I didn’t make it this year. I’m convinced that Lilly paid off the coach or something, but no point in complaining now. The point is that I was already good at running before I was making midnight dashes to my friend's houses. Now though, I wasn’t running for my school reputation; I was running for my life to beat the sunrise to my house.

As the cool midnight air whipped through my hair, I just thought about getting to Megan’s house in time. Hers wasn’t the closest, but it definitely wasn’t the farthest either. That would’ve been Brittany’s, which is wayyy far away from us, and the closest one I think is Maria’s or Cadence’s. I had to skip over a few lawns and knock over a couple garden gnomes, but I made it to her backyard in record time.

By the time I made it, the four other girls were assembled and hanging around. Cadence, Megan, and Maria were all talking while Brittany stopped and looked my way with a pretty deadly glare. The other three all stopped talking and waved me over, and I gladly joined.

I think if there’s any sort of happiness that comes from school and school-life, people like Maria make it happen. She was pretty short, I’m talking maybe an inch or two over five feet, and a bit chubby, but she’s just the sweetheart that every friend group needs. She always had this strangely positive attitude, even when everyone else was down. Well, at least when she was awake; night-life drained her hard, and she was a real zombie when she couldn't sleep well. Apparently she told her mom she just had a hard time sleeping, and she gave her melatonin to take before bed.

I wouldn’t say Maria was particularly beautiful like I could say for the rest of the group, but she was adorable, which was enough. She had golden blonde hair that reached a bit below her shoulders, but she had dyed most of it a soft red. Her clothes were also pretty telling of how she was. She almost always wore some kind of sweater no matter the weather, and they weren’t oversized or anything, but they were thick as hell. I’m honestly surprised she hasn’t had a heatstroke yet. Paired with the usual skirt or sometimes jeans, she was pretty much the big huggable teddy-bear of the group.

“Yay, you made it, Sophs!” Maria said with a chipper smile. A far cry from how she looked at the end of chem class.

“Thought you were going to bail out on us,” grunted Brittany.

Brittany was… well, she was the muscle in our group. Believe me, her shining blue eyes and freckles made her beautiful all on their own, but a lot of guys liked her because she could compete toe-to-toe with them. If you ever did compete with her, she’d probably bite your head off or something. Brittany had a bit of a tempter and well, wasn’t afraid to rip into you verbally or physically if she really had to. Or at least if she wanted you. She handed out nosebleeds to touchy guys like they were lollipops. I had a hunch she had a softer side, but it’s more like comparing pavement to pavement with a blanket on it really.

She had a nice set of curly black hair though, and it flowed down her shoulders in curls that made me dizzy when I tried to trace them to their roots. It just looked untamable. She had on a t-shirt with a jacket over that, and a pair of jeans. Casual and discreet, but looking like she could kick your ass was how she went.

“I wouldn’t miss out on any of these,” I smirked.

“Then let’s go already,” Cadence said, looking at her phone. “The last thing we need is to sit in Meg’s backyard all night.”

*   *   *   *   *

“Alright, Britt, truth or dare?” laughed Megan from the swing set. The five of us had taken residence at an empty playground after a night of laughing, sneaking into bars, and causing as much chaos as we could without getting caught. Brittany smiled from hanging by her legs from the jungle gym and brushed her hair aside.

“I told you I don’t wanna play, Meg.”

“Come on, truth or dare!”

“Don’t be a stick in the mud,” giggled Cadence from the seesaw. She had sneaked some not-legal-for-her-age drink past my eyes and might be a bit out of it.

“Fine,” she said, caving in. “Dare.”

“I dare you… to kiss a guy walking by.”

“That’s stupid,” she laughed.

“That’s gross,” Maria said from the slide, making a puking motion.

“That’s hilarious,” I said from the swing beside Megan.

“Come on, just do it,” urged Cadence.

“Fine, fine. Let me just find the guy.”

Brittany dropped down and landed on her feet, then walked to the sidewalk and sat on a bench. So there she was, a teenage girl at like 2am sitting on a bench beside a playground in the dark doing nothing in particular. Then after minutes of waiting and watching people pass, this guy walked by who looked around our age. He was really shrimpy too, at least compared to Brittany; no way he was going to win a muscle fight with her.

When he passed by, Brittany suddenly stood up, towering maybe about 3 or 4 inches above the guy. He looked like a titan just stepped out in front of him instead of a teenage girl his age. He swallowed hard and cleared his throat. The four of us leaned forward, not fully willing to believe the sight.

“Hey, um, what’s-”

Brittany placed both hands on the sides of his head and pulled his face to hers. All of our jaws dropped at Brittany actually going through with something like that. When she let go of the poor guy, he fell to the ground and looked up at her in even more terror. She hauled him up and slipped a piece of paper in his pocket.

“Call me,” she said with the most cutthroat smile and kissy face. 

The guy scrambled away from her as quickly as possible and ran into the darkness like she was about to give chase. Brittany looked back at us, and we all started laughing hysterically. Brittany wasn’t usually one of the wilder ones, but I guess she was really adventurous tonight to do a stunt like that.

“Well shit, I never thought you’d do it, Britt!” Megan said, voice cracking in laughter.

“Yeah, but I did, and now it’s my turn.” She looked around at all of us. Maria and I would definitely only choose truth. Megan might go either way, and Cadence was far enough gone that whatever she chose, she’d do it no matter how insane it was. “Sophs, truth or dare?”

“Truth,” I said without really thinking.

“You got a crush on anyone, Sophs?” she asked with a grin.

“Nope,” I said, turning my head.

“Is that the truth?”

“Yep.” I looked over. “Cadence, truth or dare?”

“Darree,” she said, giggling.

“Cross the monkey bars.”

She stumbled over to the monkey bars and held on firmly to the first bar. When she stretched her second hand out, she grabbed the bar securely before letting go of the first one. As soon as she did though, her arm gave out and she fell to the ground, scattering mulch everywhere. We all had a good laugh about it, even her who was laughing harder than the rest of us for some reason. 

“Ok, your turn,” I said.

“Uhhhh… Mars!” she said, pointing at Maria. If it was anyone else, I wouldn’t have been worried, but Maria was… susceptible to pressure. “Truth or dare?”

“Um…”

“Come on Mars, dare!” Megan cheered.

“Dare, dare, dare, dare!” chanted both Britt and Meg.

“Hey, don’t do it if you don’t want to,” I warned.

“Dare,” said Mars hesitantly.

“I dare you,” Cadence said, rifling through her handbag until she plucked out a lighter and a small box. Everyone but Cadence stopped laughing. They knew what it was. “I dare you to smoke one of these.” She pulled out a cigarette and held it out to Maria.

“No way,” I said, storming over and getting between Cadence and Maria.

“Hm? You want one, Sophs?” she asked, confused. “I didn’t know you were a smoker.”

“She’s not doing the dare,” I said, staring into her eyes. I could practically see her growling back at me.

“It’s just a game, Sophs. Chill out.”

“That’s not a game,” I said, pointing to the cigarette in her hand.

“You’re not her mom, Sophs,” she snarled, putting the lighter and cigarette back in her bag. “And you’re not any of ours either. So don’t act like one.”

“Someone’s gotta keep you from killing each other,” I mumbled.

“Got something you wanna say?!” Cadence asked, whipping back around. I knew she was too out of it to actually win if she wanted to fight. It wasn’t worth picking one.

“Let’s just all go home,” I said. Brittany and Megan were awkwardly staring. “You two can take Cadence home.” I pointed to the two of them. “I’ll walk Mars to her house.”

“See ya tomorrow,” Brittany said with a wave, taking Cadence by the arm. Megan didn’t say anything to me, but I felt some kind of tension there, as if she resented me taking away her master’s fun.

*   *   *   *   *

“Hey, are you going to be alright?” I asked when we stopped by Maria’s house.

“Yeah, I will,” she said. “Thanks for standing up for me though. I really didn’t want to do it, and I don’t know if I could’ve refused…”

“Hey, we’re friends,” I said, giving her a small punch on the arm. “It’s what we do.”

Maria gave one of her bright smiles before giving me a big hug. Her fluffy sweater warmed me up in the dark of the night, which returned to bitter cold when she pulled away. She waved and went to climb through her window.

“See you tomorrow, Sophs!” she said excitedly.

“See ya, Mar-Mar!” I laughed, watching her clumsily tumble into her room.

I turned around and ran to my own house, hoping to catch a couple more hours of sleep before I had to go to school. I approached our house and gently navigated around to the side yard. Then I carefully opened my window, climbed through, and closed it again, latching the locks. I then promptly fell right into my bed and knocked out instantly. I wasn’t looking forward to tomorrow at all really.