Lucas smirked as the bottle tip came across Eric.
"So what you wanna choose Eric, Truth or Dare?"
"C'mon Eric choose dare!".Kevin said to Eric enthusiastically. Eric couldn't help himself but to agree to Kevin.
"Fine then, I choose dare"
"Good! So..Your dare is to..Drink three full bottles of wine! That's it!".Lucas said casually.
"What're you sayin Luke! Are you nuts?!".Kevin said by making his voice a bit louder.
"C'mon Kevi-Kevi it's a super easy dare, y'know! Isn't it Eric?".Lucas looked at Eric who was looking at him viciously. Eric didn't want to be a fool in front of Kevin without accepting the dare, so he had no choice but to agree to Lucas's dare hesitantly.
"Waiter, bring three full bottles of wine"
Lucas ordered to the waiter and in no time he served him the three wine bottles.
"What're you waitin for Eric! Start drinkin dude!"
"Luke, you're so not fair, y'know!"
"C'mon it's fun Kevi-Kevi! Enjoy!"
Eric opened the first bottle and started drinking the wine. As he drank half of the wine in the bottle he suddenly choked. Kevin went to him worried and said."Eric! Enough! That's it! You should stop drinking!"
Kevin tried to take the bottle from Eric's hand who wasn't even able to stand properly, but he refused on giving up and he held the bottle with all his strength but Kevin was also determined to not let go of it.
When Eric took the third bottle and opened it, Kevin knocked the bottle off from his hands and refused on giving it back to him.
"No Kevi-Kevi! You must give it back to him! It's his dare to drink it! Give it back!".Lucas insisted on giving the bottle to Eric.
"No dude! I can't! Look at him! He can't even stand straight!".There was an immense care and warmth of Kevin towards Eric and extreme anger towards Lucas while saying this.
Lucas got frustrated of Kevin's rude attitude towards him. He decided to leave them on the bar by themselves and to enjoy the party, but he was concerned about Kevin, even though he took Eric's side.
As he turned to go from there he bumped onto someone.
"Pardon me".Lucas said with utmost propriety.
"Woah Luke! You don't need to be this much formal towards me!"
Lucas was about to walk by that person, but he stopped there. It was a voice which was familiar to him, so he turned to see who it was.
It was Keith Herbert, the elder brother of Kevin. He was seven feet and five inches tall with pale white skin like that of Kevin's and had cold blue eyes and wavy blonde hair. For girls, he was exactly like the handsome and charming Romeo of their dreams.
After the school graduation, Keith went to abroad for higher studies. It was after two years that he came back home only on Kevin's insistence that he wanted Keith to be there on his birthday.
"Keith! When you came back?!".Lucas asked to Keith with being astonished.
"It's just couple of days before".Keith smiled and by looking at Lucas's face he continued."My goodness Luke! You're all handsome and tall now, y'know!"
Lucas was dazzled on hearing a compliment from him because when they were young Keith always teased him by calling 'short cake' as he was very short as a kid then.
"Really!"
"Yeah! I never make jokes, y'know"
"Well, don't say like that Keith"
"Huh! What're you sayin?".Keith asked with a frowned look on his face.
"Don't you remember callin me a nickname before which always made me super annoyed?".Lucas asked by pouting his lips.
"I don't know about it but now I just only know that you're lookin super cute with your annoyed face!"
"I'm not cute! And don't you remember that nickname?!"
"No I don't Luke, why don't you say it by yourself?"
Lucas said with an embarrassed tone "I'm not gonna say that! It's awkward, y'know!"
"What awkward? It's alright! Now, just say it"
Lucas blabbered when he said "It's shor..short cake!"
"Short cake?".Keith paused for a while then continued "Oh! Now I get it! Short cake! Yeah, I used to call you that when we were young!"
"Yeah, because I was super teeny-weeny then, I know that".Lucas said in a childish manner.
"Aw, C'mon don't be upset. We were young then, y'know! Are you still mad at me Luke?!"
"No I'm not! What're you sayin! Absolutely not!".Lucas chuckled.
"Now I feel relieved!"
"Relieved? For what?".Lucas looked at Keith being confused.
"I thought that you are still mad at me and you won't talk to me anymore"
"Woah! Me not talkin to you can cause this much disappointment to you Keith?!"
"Yes".Keith said to Lucas with intense seriousness.
Lucas said nothing and he looked like he was deep in thought, thinking really hard about what Keith meant by agreeing to he said before. As Lucas was lost in his deep thought he forget about Keith standing in front of him.
Keith went closer to Lucas and held his arms firmly, then with a gentle shake he shook him out of his deep thought.
"What were you thinkin about Luke?"
"Oh! Um..It's nothin!".Lucas said anxiously.
"Luke, It's been a while since we had fun together, isn't it?"
"You're right! Let's have fun tonight!"
Keith took Lucas's hands and dashed toward their other friends. While they were enjoying themselves in the party a romantic music played along.
All the lights were turned off, then Mr and Mrs Herbert, Patrick and Raelyn made an entry under a spotlight in front of all there guests. They danced romantically like a 20's couple on that spotlight. Everyone gathered around them and were cheering for them. As Lucas was exitedly going to watch the dance, Keith gripped onto a hand of him and pulled him close.
"What're you doin Keith?! Gosh, Leave me! Your parents are dancing there, let's go and watch that dude!"
"Let them enjoy there"
"What?!"
"Yeah, We can enjoy ourselves here". Keith winked at Lucas.
Lucas stood there startled and didn't understood what to reply to him. Keith pulled him more closer and he placed Lucas's hands on his shoulders, then he held onto either side of his waist.
It was all dark around. They danced in that darkness ,where no one saw them, only they were the ones who knew about it. While they were dancing Lucas turned his head up to see Keith gazing at him lovingly, he quickly took his eyes off from looking at him.
The music ended and the darkness got vanished. Everyone made an applause for Mr and Mrs Herbert. Keith and Lucas were also done with their dance.
Lucas pushed Keith away furiously and said "What was that Keith?"
"Dance!".Keith grinned.
"Well, I also know it was dance, but why were you dancing with me, you should have just danced with a girl y'know"
"Huh? Why I can't dance with you?"
"Because..."
"Because?".Keith repeated to what Lucas said as a sign to continue.
"Because...My heart belongs to someone else and I would prefer to do this dance with that person"
Keith spoke nothing for a while. It was the time when he stayed two years in abroad, he understood about his feelings for Lucas. Keith was a type of person who never got close with anyone else except his family members. It was Lucas for the first time he got very close with, whenever he teased or annoyed him, it were all a sign of love and affection of him towards Lucas.
After taking a deep breath, Keith asked to him with a distressed heart.
"So...who is this person that you...you are in love with Luke?"