One summer our parents decided to take the family on an "off the grid" vacation. No TV. No internet. No portable consoles.
No phones!
"You guys never spend any quality time together these days," they told my sister and me. "And when you do see each other all you seem to do is fight. This vacation is a chance for the two of you to reconnect, start over and forge a new relationship."
So off we all went to a cabin in the middle of nowhere, where there was nothing to do but stare at trees and count down the days, hours, minutes, & seconds until we could get back home to civilization. Oh, and there were only two bedrooms, so Cadie & I had to share a bed like we were kids!! Oh yeah, we both gave them hell for that!
As you might expect, the first couple of days & nights were an absolute disaster. Cadie and I fought more than ever, & I think our parents were seriously considering just giving in and taking us all back home.
But then, on the third night, when the olds had gone off in search of a bar and some quiet, Cadie suddenly turned to me...
"Hey," she said, grinning mischievously. "You wanna play Truth or Dare?"
My first instinct was to roll my eyes and tell her to act her age. Cadie was younger than me by two years, but we were both technically adults, & games like Truth or Dare were for kids. And besides, Cadie had always been a total bitch to me, stealing my clothes, getting me in trouble for stunts she'd pulled, spreading rumours about me all over town... stuff like that. So I couldn't see why she would want to play nice all of a sudden.
"C'mon," she insisted. "They've already got us sharing a bed, & it's not like we've got anything better to do. Besides, it might even be fun. So...?"
"Yeah, okay," I agreed, a little hesitantly. My natural inclination to distrust my sister flashed hot in my mind, but she was right: it wasn't as if we had anything else to do, & maybe sharing a laugh together was exactly what we both needed to get over our long-running hostilities.
"But on one condition," I warned her. "What happens in the game stays in the game - our secret forever."
"Swear it," I told her.
"I swear," Cadie replied, with her hand pressed to her heart. "It'll be our secret."
We quickly set up a table of "dare" forfeits. In truth there wasn't a whole heap to choose from in the cupboards of our little cabin but when I returned to the bedroom after raiding the kitchen, I found Cadie had produced a nearly-full bottle of vodka from some hidden personal stash.
"Okay, so it's a drinking game," I thought. "Probably should've expected as much from Cadie the wild child."
But I didn't say anything. I knew it would only result in my being called a wimp or a square, & it did seem more fitting somehow than the meagre assortment of condiments & bowl of ice-cubes I'd managed to forage.
And... yeah. I guess the next part should've been obvious. By the third round, the ice-cubes had melted, & the whole "eat a spoonful of mustard" just didn't have the giggle-factor it had possessed when we were so much younger. So the game quickly degenerated into "truth or drink", with Cadie opting to drink casually between her obligatory shots.
I, on the other hand, had no such tolerance for hard liquor, & my head was starting to spin. But it was nice, y'know, playing & laughing together like when we'd been much younger.
"Your turn," I told Cadie. "Truth or dare?"
"What's the question?" she asked, giggling & letting her head flop to one side drunkenly.
I shrugged. "Just tell me something true, I guess. Something I don't already know."
"Okay," Cadie snorted. She looked thoughtful for a few moments, & then an evil gleam came into her eyes.
"I bet you don't know this," she said, her voice suddenly flat & serious. Then she hit me with it... her Truth: "I've always wanted to pee in your mouth."
"Wait... What?!" I couldn't believe my ears. "You want to... to pee in my mouth?"
"Sure," Cadie shrugged. "Whenever we argue, which is basically all the time (right?), I get like a flash of you down on your knees, & I make your mouth my personal toilet. Honestly, it's been that way for as long as I can remember."
I let out a strangled laugh. Maybe it's because I was drunk, or the fact that this mad bombshell revelation came under the disarming umbrella of the game, or maybe it was Cadie's complete nonchalance about it, but somehow I wasn't totally horrified, the way I rationally knew I ought to be. More than anything I felt... sort of curious actually. I wanted to know more about these "flashes" Cadie was apparently having. I mean, they were about me, after all.
"So what," I asked. "I just... let you do it?"
"Every time," Cadie snorted, winked, & downed another shot. "I mean," she rasped over the alcohol burn, "it's my fantasy, right? So yeah, you're very compliant. I fill your mouth up with my pee, & you swallow it down. Simple."
"Wait!" I cried. "I swallow your pee? Ew!"
"You don't think it's 'ew!' the way I picture it," she chuckled. "In my fantasy you can't get enough of it. You're a very thirsty girl."
The way Cadie was looking at me started to make me feel decidedly uncomfortable. "Okay," I said, screwing up my face & raising a hand. "Okay stop. That's enough!"
"All right," Cadie said, still looking at me with a strange sort of intensity. "I reckon that's my turn done then. So... truth or dare?"
I hadn't quite recovered from the shock of Cadie's strange confession, & shook my head to dislodge the stubborn mental images.
"Hey, hurry up," Cadie whined playfully. "I gotta go pee."
Perhaps it was a coincidence, or maybe she'd timed it deliberately. Either way, on the back of her confession, those last words lodged in the air between us in a way that was impossible to ignore.
"I've always wanted to pee in your mouth," she'd said. Now she needed to pee, & it was just the two of us together in the cabin. Drunk. Alone. Had it been just a statement, or a veiled suggestion? The truth is, I really couldn't tell.
I became suddenly aware of my heart racing in my ribcage, & (to my horror & surprise) my nipples hardening beneath the light fabric of my expensive nightclothes.