Under the Same Stars(12)

“Katie, Amanda, and my sleepovers were exactly how Hollywood makes them out to be,” Reese said. “We gave each other makeovers, gushed over boys, and obviously someone always had a Ouija board…”

“And we always, always played truth or dare,” Amanda said, giving her sister’s sleek ponytail a tug. “Katie here was our little daredevil.”

I almost choked on my seltzer. Excusez-moi? Katie chose dare over truth? I never would’ve expected that from her. She seemed so prim, proper, and play-it-safe.

Reese laughed. “Oh, yeah, the time she walked to Wawa at midnight and brought us each back an Icee is iconic!”

“She was only thirteen,” Amanda said.

What?! I thought, ears almost ringing.

“Respect, Katie.” Meredith offered her a fist bump, and then it only took three seconds after their knuckles knocked for someone to squeal, “Let’s play!”

The bed full of bridesmaids cheered, and I heard myself cheering right along with them. Was I nervous? Yes, my pulse was pumping, but with both nerves and excitement. I hadn’t realized how much I’d missed games like this.

“Truth or dare?” Amanda asked Yasmin.

Yasmin considered, then said, “Truth.”

“Booooo,” Katie and Meredith crowed.

Amanda shushed them, then returned to Yasmin. “Hmm…who was the last person you searched on Instagram?”

“Oh my god, that’s such a softball,” Courtney said.

But nevertheless, Yasmin blushed and answered so quietly that everyone went, “Huh?”

“Bieber,” she spoke up. “Justin Bieber.”

Meredith promptly whacked her with a pillow.

“I’m not going to apologize,” Yasmin said through giggles. “Call me a Belieber, his concerts are life-changing!”

“Sorry, but Justin Bieber is no Harry Styles,” I said as I helped myself to a slice of Brie. “Harryween at Madison Square Garden will go down in history as the most mind-blowing concert of all time. My thirteen-year-old-self lost her voice for two days.”

“And I lost mine for three,” Reese said. “So I completely cosign that.” She mimed dashing off her signature.

“Truth or dare?” Courtney asked Paige.

“Dare.”

“I dare you to go rearrange Aunt Stacy’s spice cabinet.”

Katie cracked up and fell back against her pillows.

“You two are evil,” Amanda breathed. “She is going to lose her shit…”

Paige smirked. “It’s done!” she announced after disappearing downstairs for five minutes. “Everything is officially un-alphabetized.”

“Katie!” Meredith said brightly. “Truth or dare?”

“Dare,” Amanda answered for her.

Meredith took a sip of her rosé and then scratched her chin, pretending to think. “Okay, I dare you…” She paused to build the suspense. (Admittedly, I barely took a breath.) “To put Stephen’s hand in a bowl of warm water.”

Katie blinked. “What?”

“You heard me,” Meredith said, lips curling into a smile.

“You want me to make your husband wet himself?”

Meredith nodded. “I do.”

The rest of us took that as permission to cackle, and we cackled harder when Katie gingerly got off the bed and moved at snail speed toward her bedroom door.

Austin is going to die, I thought as I filmed her slo-mo exit. Maybe this was one of the things he loved about Katie. Her willingness—or, in this case, unwilling willingness—to step up to a challenge.

“Oh my god,” Yasmin said a few minutes later, still wiping tears of laughter from her eyes. “Meredith—”

Whatever she was about to say got cut off; suddenly the door flew open and Katie ran through it, water sloshing out of the bowl she held. “I didn’t even make it to the bed,” she told us. “Let alone pick up his hand.” She looked at her friend. “He knew it wasn’t you based on my footsteps alone; he knows yours by heart.”

Meredith smirked. “Did I not mention that?”

Katie rolled her eyes. “He also knew you were going to pull something like this.” She whipped around and locked eyes with none other than me. “Madeline!”

My smile slipped off my face right as my heart slipped into my stomach. “Yes?”

“Truth or dare?”

Blood pounded, pounded, pounded in my ears. I liked a good dare, but there was no way I was going to risk Katie and her embarrassment countering Meredith’s dare by instructing me to draw on her grandfather’s face with lipstick or send me over to Wawa for snacks. (That walk didn’t scare me, but it was past 1 a.m. and I hadn’t packed my pepper spray.)

“Truth!” I basically shouted. “I pick truth.”

Katie’s shoulders slumped; she’d definitely had a dare planned. “Um…”

“I have one,” Reese said when Katie couldn’t come up with a question. “Mads, which guy are you hooking up with?”

My mind went blank. I had zero clue what she was talking about, even though Katie’s cousins both exclaimed, “I was wondering that too!”

Reese could tell. “You were hanging with two guys in the kitchen earlier,” she said as if I had amnesia. “The dude washing dishes, and the lax bro stuffing his face at the island. Which one are you with?”