She went and stood directly in front of him like I predicted. I saw Uche smile when she came to him so I looked away to stop myself from feeling jealous but my eyes kept returning to them.
She was about to the same thing she did the last time. She raised her hand to touch his hair but he stopped her by holding her wrist, and before I could jubilate over that, he dismissed her, walking away from her and towards Nick and the other boys. I found myself smiling at what he just did.
Looking around now, I saw that almost everyone was now in the hall, I was too busy watching Uche and April, I didn't see the little crowd come in.
"Alright guys," I heard Kim say out loud and get all eyes to look and him. The place became quiet."We doing the truth or dare?"
I wondered if everybody would say yes unitedly but rather they all nodded so Nick took out a bottle.
"Form a circle, everyone." Kim said and the place got a little rumbly with every person trying to secure a spot around the bottle. Casey pulled my arm as she hurriedly sat on the floor opposite to Nick. I checked to see who was opposite to me and it was Kim so I stood up.
"What are you doing?" she whispered to me.
"I don't wanna be opposite him," I said after I squatted down to reply her. She turned her neck back to see for herself.
"Don't worry, Uche will be the one there." She told me like she was so sure.
I let my eyes go round the circle, and to my surprise Uche wasn't in the circle like everyone else who sat with their legs crossed on the ground. I looked around the room and saw him at a corner using his phone.
He soon put in his front pocket and came to the circle, and took a sit next to Nick. Casey winked at me, so I rolled my eyes and wanted to return to where I stood from when April showed up from nowhere, about to take the same spot.
"Julie was gonna sit there," Casey told her, so she flipped some of her hair to the back and looked at me before shrugging.
"She stood up, didn't she? I don't think she wants to stay here, so please mind your business, Casey." April smiled like she just said something nice.
She took the spot opposite to Uche while I watched her and did nothing. Casey slapped her forehead in disappointment and looked up at me.
"Maybe I'll just watch you guys play the game," I told her and went back to sit on one of the foldable chairs she had brought earlier.
I saw Uche take out his phone, I think he was texting someone.
My phone dinged in my pocket, almost jerking me from watching Uche's every movement. When I took out my phone, I saw that it was a text from him; I was who he was texting.
[Come back to the circle]
[If U're not here, then I won't play, I'm just gonna walk out.]
[....]He was still typing.
[There's no more spot to sit] I texted back.
[ Wdym, it's a circle, come back and sit with Casey] He replied in less than a minute.
[April took my spot] I texted then deleted immediately but I got his reply to what I just deleted.
[Come back and ask Casey to make some space] I didn't reply anything for some seconds, I just looked up and saw him still typing.
[If Kim starts the game with the first spin, nd u're not here, I'm gonna leave the game.]
[Trust me, everyone would be able to calc that I left cuz of u]
I bit my lips while trying to gather some confidence to walk all the way back to the circle because I knew how many eyes would follow my every step.
I wasn't doing this because Uche said he would leave the game but because I knew that if he stood up to leave, he would come to me, and everyone present here would see him do so I didn't want that to happen.
"Julie? You came back!" It was Casey's excited whisper when I returned to the circle. She made some space for me from her side and I sat in between she and April.
I expected Uche to switch places with Kim and sit opposite to me but he didn't. I moped disappointedly before making a decision that came back to bite me in the ass. I got up from where I was seated near Casey and went to the space opposite to me. Yup, that's right, I went and sat right in between Uche and Nick and watched as April's jaw fell after I did so.
The game began when Kim spined the bottle and everyone kept their eyes on it to know who it was going to point to. It's nozzle stopped in front of me. I looked up to see Kim grinning widely.
"It stopped in front of Julie!" he announced happily. I started to squeeze my fingers nervously. Why did it have to stop at me on the first spin?! Everyone was surely looking at me now. I lower my head to avoid eye contact with anyone.
"It stopped in front of Casey," One of the boys corrected so I looked up.
"No, it's Julie, are you blind?" Kim got mad out of nowhere.
"It's Casey, take a closer look." The boy came forward to measure it and was right.
"You must have touched it just now, it was pointed to Julie." he defended and picked up the bottle.
"Just spin it again," Nick said and others started to nod. Angrily, Kim gave the bottle to Nick to spin it and sat back down.
The bottle started to spin on the floor but Nick stood up before it could stop. He hurried out almost weirdly. When half of the circle's eyes returned from watching him leave, we saw were the bottle was pointed to. Me. Fuck shit, it was pointing at me.