Chocolate Covered Strawberries [Remus Lupin]

𝚜𝚒𝚡𝚝𝚢-𝚝𝚠𝚘

Chapter sixty-two; The boyfriend protection squad

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Jasmine closed her eyes after reading the dare on the parchment and let out a long breath through her nose. She immediately regretted picking dare instead of truth. While the dare itself was not that bad, she had seen worse that night, it was especially bad for her since Remus was right there in the same room sitting opposite from her. Jasmine opened her eyes and looked straight at Remus.

His face was in shock, his eyes wide open and he looked from Jasmine to the person sitting next to her. The crowd erupted into excited cheers and chatter when she read the parchment aloud and they were all watching her with eager eyes, waiting for what she is going to do. Jasmine painfully slowly tore her eyes away from Remus and turned slightly to the left.

Gabriel smiled at her awkwardly when he saw her shocked expression. No matter how many times Jasmine tried to convince herself that she didn't care what people thought about her, at that moment she really did care. She couldn't believe how time and again she found herself under pressure and in different situations where people were watching her every move. It made her decision making that reckless, not thought through and influenced by said pressure.

She thought over her options. Turning down the dare would make people go crazy, she would appear as a prude, a coward and people would be very disappointed. Or she would accept it, kiss Gabriel and have to suffer the consequences of doing that by having an inevitable fight with Remus. She felt his green eyes on her, waiting for what she's going to say.

Gabriel watched her as well, silently, sitting as still as possible and waiting. Either way, Jasmine would do something wrong but at that moment, no matter how much alcohol she had within herself, Remus' feelings, her feelings and their relationship meant more than some stupid dare. The longer she waited the thicker the atmosphere got as everyone was anticipating her next step.

''Just kiss already!'' Someone shouted, clearly having too much do drink.

The crowd yelled in agreement but Jasmine ignored them. She turned her head to Gabriel who had his eyebrows high on his forehead. A decision was made in Jasmine's head and she acted quickly before people could protest and complain. She leaned closer to Gabriel, got a hold of his face turned it sideways and kissed his cheek. Then she got up as if she did absolutely nothing wrong and walked away.

Behind her people shouted in protest 'that's not what the dare said' or 'that's not a kiss'. The dare did not specify anything and a kiss on the cheek still counted. Jasmine fleeted to the drinks table, trying to calm down her fast-beating heart and ignore the shouting behind her. She immediately poured herself some water and just stood there staring at her cup. Enough alcohol was drunk that night and she restored to water. She didn't know how long she stood there silent and staring down at the floor but it must have been a while because when she looked up the music changed and less and less people were still playing the game.

''Hey.''

Jasmine snapped her head to the left and was met with the sight of Gabriel. She looked away from him and down at her hands again.

''What-'' Gabriel cleared his throat and stepped from one foot to the other awkwardly. ''What was that back there?'' He pointed with his thumb over his shoulder.

Jasmine cringed on the inside. Of all the people she could pick from she didn't expect this reaction from Gabriel. She looked back at him no guilty expression visible anywhere on her features. She noticed he was holding a drink in his hand and it suddenly made a lot more sense. He was either tipsy or drunk – in any case not thinking rationally. Jasmine took a breath to answer when she spotted something out of the corner of her eyes.