How to Be a Virgin

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CHAPTER 24

[ Mike ]

Instead of sitting around and waiting for another completely disastrous thing to happen, I took it upon myself to initiate a tight-knit protection squad for Noah. He was against it at first, as he always seemed to be when it came to his much-needed protection, but I insisted that we take the necessary measures to protect Noah against another Nicolas attack.

It was clear that the French stalker wasn't quite over me and my good looks, and he thought it'd be suiting to eliminate Noah because he was deemed as a threat. Amnesia or not, he was certainly capable of doing some crazy things, and I wasn't about to sit around and wait for shit to hit the fan, so I organized a little sleepover at Derek's house, complete with all the sleepover essentials: scary movies, popcorn, pizza, alcohol, and weed.

"No!" Calvin shrieked at the top of his lungs, making us all turn our attention to him. "Why would you go in there! Are you stupid? Oh my god, he's right behind you! He's right—" Another sharp yell fell from his mouth as he buried his head into Derek's shoulder, allowing for Derek to laugh at his boyfriend's cowardice.

"I hate watching movies with Calvin," Maya commented with a straight face as she dug into the bowl of popcorn that she shared with Cora.

"I hate watching movies with Calvin, too," I felt the need to co-sign. "Quick, Noah, change the movie."

Noah's clear blue eyes looked to me in confusion. "But we just got to the good part."

Calvin kicked his legs up onto the sofa and rolled his eyes. "You guys are always so mean to me."

"You make it so easy, Calvin," I said with a smug smirk just as I reached out to wrap my arms around Noah, who I was currently sharing the loveseat with. He responded by snuggling closer to me. His bruises were slowly fading away, but they were still apparent and they still made me mad at Nicolas every time I saw them. Noah didn't deserve any of this, and so I had made it my mission to get to the bottom of this even if it killed me.

As Calvin continued to shout at the inanimate TV screen until we hushed him into silence and as the movie came to an end, everyone was starting to feel a little bit tired. In an effort to wake everyone up, Cora suggested we play a game of truth or dare rather than anyone thinking that maybe we should've been discussing the Nicolas problem that we had.

Nicolas was capable of blowing stuff up and kidnapping people. I didn't want to know what else he could do, but clearly no one else beside me cared enough about the situation to talk about it, including Noah since he had taken a seat on the floor and pulled me along with him.

"So the rules," Maya began to speak, lowering her voice and rubbing her hands together in a mischievous way, "you're able to choose anyone who hasn't had a turn yet, and a new round can't start unless everyone has had a turn. No go backs. Tell the truth, and do the dare no matter how embarrassing it is. Dares that are off limits are, of course, anything that involves self-harm or getting arrested. I'll start with Derek. Truth or dare?"

Derek lifted his eyes from his phone and slumped onto his elbows. "Dare."

"Kiss the most attractive person in the room."

Derek raised an eyebrow and laughed. "Can't really kiss myself, so..."

Maya's gaze narrowed into thin slits. "The second most attractive."