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“How did she end up in this situation?” one may ask. Well, Dani doesn't know either.
She really doesn’t understand how she ended up in a closet with Emma. It was only made worse by the fact that she couldn’t hide her blush with her mask like normal.
Now, to truly understand how this happened, let’s go back to the beginning of the party. (You should be seeing how this happened now.)
〜Time Travel〜
“Hey, Dani! Come on in!” says John as he opened the door for her.
John was what some may describe as handsome. A 5’10 Englishman with dirty blonde hair and eyes that remind people of shining emeralds.
“I wasn’t sure you’d show up,” he continued, laughing.
“Well, considering the fact that you bugged me into coming, of course I was going to show up,” Dani sighed exasperatedly.
“True, I would’ve whined about it for a few weeks if you didn’t come too,” John proudly stated, as though he had no shame.
Dani’s only response was a sigh, as she knew it was true. It happened the last time John had invited her to a party and she hadn’t shown up. Don’t blame her, she had tests in several of her classes and passed after she reached her bed, and overslept.
“Well, come on. Everyone else is already here.”
Walking into the living room, Dani saw Mike, Sam, Margaret, and Emma. It seemed it was just their small friend group.
They were a pretty quirky little group. They all had different qualities to them.
Mike’s often seen as a stoic wine uncle type of person. At some point, people thought he was just stone-faced all the time. They have since changed their opinions. (They just didn’t want to get caught in one of his pranks again.)
Sam’s the father figure of the group. Dependable, caring, and having common sense. He was very needed, especially with all the shenanigans they got up to.
Margaret’s a bookworm, to put it simply. It explained why she was getting her degree in English Literature. She always seemed to have a book on her to dive into whenever they hang out.
Emma’s sort of the cinnamon roll of the group. Always sweet and caring. She was also extremely passionate about everything she did. She worked incredibly hard in the Environmental Science she studied.
“Hey, guys. How’ve you been?” Dani asked as she approached the group.
It’d been a few days since Dani’d seen any of them. She’d been busy with homework for her medical minor, as well as the test for her business major.
“We’ve been well, missed you though,” Sam answered.
He was holding a red cup (holding a red cup, you’ve seen movies… sorry) with what Dani presumed was either water or soda. He was the designated driver whenever they went out drinking. Dani was next in line, although 3 she still drank a little, she could just hold her liquor well.
“Aw, you do care,” Dani said teasingly, bringing a hand to her heart exaggeratedly.
“Of course we care! We need our mom friend to keep us out of trouble!” Emma piped up, jumping to hug Dani
Dani sputtered, definitely from the sentence, not from Emma hugging her. “I’m not the mom friend!”
“Just keep telling yourself that, Mom〜,” John teased coming into the room with two cups, handing one to a mentally flailing Dani.
Dani paused to glance down at the cup. It held a clear liquid, that, from the smell, she could tell was just soda. She was grateful it was soda because knowing John’s parties, there would end up being drinking games later on in the night.
She would most likely end up drunk later, but she could hope not.
“So now that Dani’s here, what are we doing?” Margaret asked, looking up from the book she’d been reading.
“Well, why don’t we start with board games?” suggested Mike.
“Sure, why not?”
After that, the following few hours were filled with disastrous (heavy on the dis… sorry) games.
Several rounds of Monopoly (that shall never be spoken of again), Uno (another rather horrible choice— How did Sam keep winning?!—), and Bullshit (Dani won these, she really is the only one that could keep a straight face) later, they finally grew tired of the board and card games.
‘I really hope John doesn’t decide to do anything stupid right now…,’ Dani thought, having just settled into a comfortable conversation with Margaret about her most recent reading book.
As if summoned by the thought, John suddenly perked up.
“Why don’t we play Truth or Dare?”
‘Damn it. I jinxed it.’
“Would that really be a good idea right now? We all know you’re going to pull out the alcohol as soon as we start.”
“I don’t see why not, a little alcohol will add some fun to the game!”
“For you maybe. Everyone else will be regretting decisions in the morning afterward. Whether it be from the drunk actions or the hangover.”
“Let’s put it up for a vote then! Have everyone decide!”
With that, everyone voted on whether or not they were playing truth or dare, with the drinking.
Sam, Mike, Emma, and, of course, John all voted to play. Unfortunately, only Dani and Margaret were against the idea.
“Well, I guess we don’t have much choice now…”
“Nope!” John cheered, a little bit too happily. “Not like you could have really stopped this anyway.”
“Well, let’s get on with it then. You’re lucky I don’t have classes tomorrow morning,” Dani sighed, leaning back farther into the couch she was sitting on.
“Fine, fine. I’ll start. Mike, truth or dare?”
And here began a time that led to far too much chaos. John was dared not to flirt with anyone for the next three days starting the next day, Margaret ended up ranting when asked about her least favorite author (they had to cut her off after roughly ten minutes), Mike was shirtless, Dani wasn’t wearing her normal mask, Emma wasn’t allowed to talk about plants until her next class, and Sam had to send a pick-up line to his crush, with no explanation (it was a girl in his history class).
“Dani, truth or dare?” John had asked.
“Dare.”
“Play 7 minutes in heaven with Emma.”
And with that, Dani’s mind blue screened, or, rather, rainbow screened. See, Dani has had this tiny little (massive) crush on Emma since they met several years ago, so she was currently running into a bit of a bi-panic at that moment.
Despite her frozen brain, Dani still managed to respond.
“Only if Emma is comfortable with it.”
Her own response caused her brain to unfreeze and start yelling at herself.
“How about it, Emma? Care to play?” asked John.
As it happened, Emma was also frozen, a rose tint taking over her skin. Dani couldn’t tell if it was from embarrassment or something else. Being directly addressed seemed to snap her out of whatever daze she had gotten stuck in.
Briefly shaking her head, she responded, “Sure.”
With that, they were corralled into the closet under John’s staircase. When Dani says corralled, she meant unceremoniously shoved in.
John’s closet wasn’t much, with shelves lining the walls, linens and games stowed away on the shelves. There was a small open space in the middle of the space with a light bulb hanging from the ceiling, providing enough light to see.
“Well, this is one of the more annoying dares that John’s come up with,” sighed Dani as she sat down. “Emma, what do you want to do?”
“In all honesty, I’d like to kiss you,” Emma answered with no hesitation.
Both of their faces exploded a vibrant red at Emma’s words. While Emma was stuttering trying to initiate damage control, Dani was just staring at Emma in shock.
‘How had I not noticed?’ she thought, taking in the sight of Emma.
Her midnight black hair that shined a deep blue in the sun. Her dark purple eyes that glittered like amethysts flecked with gold under the light of the moon. Her light flush highlighted her freckles and rosy lips. (A/N: Just fucking kiss already!) All Dani felt was the overwhelming urge to kiss her.
So she did. (A/N: Ah)
Her mind ceased to function as her body moved on its own. The next thing she knew was the feeling of smooth, soft lips pressing against her own chapped ones.
It wasn’t the fireworks that all the books Dani stubbornly refused to admit to reading. It was a gentle, enveloping warmth that spread through her body and wrapped around her.
‘So this is what her lips taste like…’ was all Dani could think as her body went limp, arms wrapping around Emma’s waist as Emma’s went around her neck, pulling Dani closer.
Emma’s lips tasted like the Sprite and alcohol that she was drinking earlier. Up close, Dani could smell the bellflower and lavender-scented shampoo that Emma used.
Only pulling away from the soft kiss because of the need for oxygen, Dani smiled warmly down at Emma, only just missing the sound of her breath hitching.
As Emma looked up at Dani, her breath hitched. She tried to memorize how breathtaking Dani looked. (A/N: yeah… I know…)
Dani’s hair had been taken out of its high ponytail at some point and was cascading down her back as waves of chocolate caramel, shining like a halo under the light of the bulb above her.
While Dani’s face was slightly shadowed, it did nothing to hide the glowing adoration found in her glittering hazel-brown eyes. The darkness only highlighted the gold spun in her irises like thread. Her small smile radiated warmth like a blanket sitting next to the fireplace.
Only Dani’s hand coming up to cradle her face could force Emma out of her admiration.
“You still in there, love?” Dani asked teasingly, causing Emma to melt at the endearment. (A/N: I have taken both my beta’s and I’s hearts hostage at this point…)
“Uh- y-yeah, I’m here,” Emma stuttered watching Dani’s eyes grow impossibly softer.
“That’s good. I was just asking if you would be my girlfriend?” Dani asked nervously, still holding Emma’s face gently.
“Of course!”
At that Dani’s smile grew slightly and pulled Emma back up for another chaste kiss, joy coursing through her body.
When she pulled away, Dani and Emma shared a small smile, love shining in their eyes.
“I hate to alarm you, but our seven minutes will be up soon,” Dani whispered softly. “Do you want them to know this or no?”
“Not yet, maybe later. Don’t want John to be smug about this,” Emma whispered back.
“Maybe when the party’s over, or tomorrow, we head back to my dorm to cuddle and watch movies?” Dani asked in return, reluctantly withdrawing from Emma.
“I’d love to.”
“Lovely,” Dani smiled. “Now to convince them nothing happened. What’d you do in English yesterday?”
With prompt, Emma launched into a detailed explanation of what happened in her English class the day before.
Just in time as well, for not a minute later, John opened the closet door to see Dani sitting on the floor listening to Emma passionately rant about her English class.
“Your seven minutes are up, you can come out now.”
“Alright,” Dani said, getting up and walking out of the closet. (A/N: I’m gay—)
(If Dani and Emma sat a little too close to each other for the rest of the party, well. That was no one’s business but their own.)