"Truth or dare?"

"dare"

"I dare you to answer my question truthfully."She smirked as she inspected her perfectly manicured nails.

It was the first time during the game that Rihanna got a chance to toast me and I knew that she was not going to leave me alone.

It was Stella who suggested that we must visit Rihanna's house and settle things between us. Stella always believed that the problems that were left behind heaped up to become an unbreakable wall between two people. I begged her not to force me on the matter and there were three reasons for it. The first one was that I did not want to meet Rihanna with the stone in my hand. The second reason was that I did not want to meet my crush while being an honest girl and the third was that they were siblings.

If I ever had a little idea about the fact that Rihanna was going to force us into playing truth or dare in her brother's presence I would have buried a grave for Stella and returned to my bed for a long and charming slumber but no I could not see the future. The only thing that I was good at then was being honest.

"So tell me, Lilly, why did you lie to me about your crush?"  She played with her Alice Cullen hairstyled jet black hair as she raised one of her eyebrows.

"Because I was afraid that it would affect our friendship".My face became red and hot due to the question and my eyes darted towards Raymond. He was reading a newspaper when I answered the question. His brown eyes were concentrated on the paper. I was relieved at the fact that he did not hear me talk about the secrecy of my crush but I was also hurt at the same time that he was not at all interested in my love life.

Raymond was lying on the floor while supporting his head with one of his hands. He used the other to hold the news paper. The blue t-shirt and black pants suited him well and his good look reminded me of one of the reasons why I was head over heels for my friend's brother. He showed his boredom through his sitting position but Rihanna showed no sign of letting him alone.

Raymond, almost always, listened to his sister. It was either because he was afraid of her 'dark arts' or because he loved her so much. I was pretty sure that it was the latter because though I knew that they were polar opposites , I could always notice the glint of affection for his sister in his eyes and maybe that was what made his brown eyes so alluring.

"So now it is your turn, Raymond" Stella said. He kept the newspaper aside and using his brown eyes, he shouted silently at us that there were a million other interesting activities . He spinned the bottle and the green bottle stopped at me.

Our eyes connected, brown eyes met black eyes. I would have seen the freshness of wood and many other poetically beautiful things in his eyes if the stone was not in my hand. I started sweating as soon as his eyes met mine

"What do you think about 'the Nyx'?" He asked and tilted his head. His smooth black hair fell on his face.

"You are supposed to ask-" Rihanna's advice was cut off by my answer.

"I think they are cool," I was happy at the way that he decided to frame the question. Had it been some other way, I would have spilled our identities.

"Okay time to stop the game," Rihanna said as she stood up and glared at her brother.

Rihanna left the room when her mother called her . She sent an eye signal to Stella (like I was not there) to not leave me alone with Raymond as she went away. Stella nodded at her (like I was not there)

Ray(that is the nickname that I decided to call him once we were a couple) sat up and took the news paper in his hands.

"Do you really think that it is 'the Nyx' who stole 'the Iris of hell'?" He held the report in the newspaper in front of me while pointing to a headline which said, 'The Iris of hell with 'the Nyx''.

"Yeah." I looked at Stella and hoped that she could understand the plea in my eyes.

"I think we must leave," Stella said and stood up. I followed her action and smiled at my crush. It was hard to smile at him but I had already trained myself to act normal around him.

I did a research on 'how to forget your crush?' when I confirmed my noncommunicable disease, a few years back. I had even discovered some ways myself like 'think of Rihanna's wrath when he is around'. If there was a Nobel prize for a person's discovery in the field of 'crush' , I am pretty sure that I would have won many Nobel prizes.

"Wait! You guys should stay for dinner, Mom already prepared it so... please" He tossed his head causing his shoulder-length hair to move in sync.

"Okay but let us go to the kitchen and help her," Stella suggested.

It was still a little hard for me to speak properly with him. How could I when my heart bet like a world war 3 was taking place there. I always felt it difficult to keep eye contact with him so I tried to minimize my conversation with him to 'only absolutely necessary' ones.

We walked towards the door of his room as he took a large book from his shelf , he kept it on the bed and sat on his bed. He opened the book while adjusting his spectacles. His 'reading face' was his 'second cutest face' right after his 'rubix cube face'. I realized that I was staring at him only when Stella pulled my sleeve. I smiled sheepishly at her before leaving the room.

Ellie, Rihanna's mother, was an expert when it came to making chicken sandwiches. She knew how to perfectly combine the flavor of tomatoes, the sauces , the potato and the chicken. The aroma of her sandwich was enough to make five star hotels hang their head low so once we were seated around the table, I could not see anything around us except the juicy delicious sandwich.

I was sitting with Stella and Ellie on either of my sides. Rihanna was sitting next to Ellie while Raymond was sitting between Ellie and Stella around the circle shaped dining table.

"A major part of all the newspapers contain articles on 'the Nyx', Hermes and their latest accomplishment," Raymond said.

I started swallowing the sandwich rather than letting the heavenly bites roam around my mouth, blessing it with its celestial flavor. I always knew that Raymond loved speaking while eating, he was obsessed with discussing current affairs, strange scientific facts and constellations while having food. I had prayed a lot before having dinner. I prayed that he would make his mouth busy with the sandwich rather than discussing about 'the Nyx' with me.

"So Lilly, do you have any concepts about the members of 'the Nyx'?" He asked before he took another bite

"Yes," I answered in between my chewing. I wished that the stone would rot in hell because one of the greatest crush related fears for girls is looking savage in front of him and that just happened. My eyes darted between Rihanna and Stella.

"What are-" Raymond was not going to let the conversation drop.

"Cockroach! Cockroach! Cockroach!" Rihanna started shouting suddenly.

"In the sandwich?" Ellie snatched her daughter's sandwich and started dissecting it immediately. Raymond pulled his chin back as he saw his mother's fingers tearing the sandwich apart.

"No, there, there!" Rihanna pointed at the floor while looking longingly at the carcass of her sandwich.

May god bless the soul.

"Then why are you shouting? For god's sake Rihanna!" Ellie gave the carcass back to Rihanna and she accepted it with a half-hearted smile.

"You used to have a collection of dead insects and if I remember it right, the majority of them were cockroaches, cockroaches that you killed so why the katereptophobia now?"

"Katsaridaphobia..." Raymond shrugged.

"Yeah, that" Ellie glared at her son.

"No, it was that... I was warning Stella because she has Kastardiphobia"

"Katsaridaphobia..." Raymond said before taking another bite from his sandwich.

"Stella used to bring cockroaches for you in tins, isn't it?" Stella blushed as she nodded at Rihanna's mother.

"People change mother, people change, end of the discussion," Rihanna said as she replaced the tainted tomatoes and pissed potatoes back into where they belonged. She took a bite from her mutated sandwich and mumbled about her mother ruining her sandwich.

"By the way, Lilly, why is a stone glued-" This time it was Ellie who was interested to speak with me.

"umm...Spider," Stella blurted.

"In the sandwich?" Raymond asked.

"No...on the wall" Stella was pale as she moved her sandwich away from the sandwich murderer's son.

Ellie simply shook her head in disappointment as she kept speaking about girls and their irrational fears including 'spiderophobia'. Raymond corrected her saying that it was arachnophobia and that was how all of us got a free lecture on respecting our elders while eating the dinner.

She kept on repeating that we must agree to an elder person even if he points at a jackfruit and calls it a mango.

I escaped yet another truth. The stone was becoming a real pain in the head. I thought that I could trick it when I removed the gloves on the night of our mission and I was on cloud nine when I could remove my gloves without any obstacle, however, I almost screamed when I shook the gloves to make the stone fall in a box. I thought that I lost it when I removed the gloves and I thought of different things that should be written in my will. I was almost on the verge of breaking down due to the stone. On the bright side, it did not take me too long to realize that the stone was still on my palm. I checked my gloves for any holes but could find none.

Raymond returned to his room as soon as the dinner was over. He said that he wanted to study 'the theft of The Iris of hell' in a detailed manner. Rihanna discouraged him as she told how he was wasting his time on random thieves. He answered her with a smirk and told that she would quit teasing him once his name would be printed on all the newspapers across Yoyomia due to his service for the nation by finding the real identities of the infamous thieves.

He was always interested in reading about different crimes and Sherlock novels but he was never into 'the Nyx' or Hermes. The theft of the Iris of hell upgraded our status as thieves and I thought that it must have sparked some interest in him. I knew that he was joking to his sister but the possibility simply shuddered me.

  Would things be the same if our identities were out? Would our families hate us for ruining the family honour that we never had? Would we be jailed?

Who am I kidding? We would of course be jailed and that was the price that came with being the most notorious female group of thieves in the country.

As we were about to leave , Rihanna stood at the door. Stella gave her one of Stella's infamous good night hugs and she stepped back before looking at me. We actually visited them to make sure that I and Rihanna was back to where we were before the cursed stone entered our life but I felt that the visit did not actually serve its purpose .

I proceeded to hug Rihanna.

We were never on 'hug me' terms. I used to be very uncomfortable with hugging another person , I felt it to be awkward but I mimicked Stella since I did not exactly know what else to do.

Rihanna folded her arms when I approached her and I simply hung my arms before sighing.

"Do you still have a crush on my brother?" Rihanna asked.

"Yes," I could sense my heart beats. They were way too loud and clear for my liking. I looked at Stella to see her find a sudden interest in the sky. She started counting the stars and turned to the other side.

"Do you love my brother?" I turned my head to my other best friend as she asked a million-dollar question. It was a question that I could not find myself an answer to. None of my sleepless nights or diary entries ever helped me. I just could not understand that if Raymond was just a crush or something more. I even took an online ' Am I in love' test and it said that I may or may not be in love. I am pretty sure that the test was created by a weather forecaster.

It may or may not rain today. Well, thanks Newton I already know it.

"Yes," I was sweating profusely as I gave her the answer .

"Would you ever let it come between our sisterhood?"

"No," I almost shouted this time and I knew that the answer was more than what was due to the stone. It was a truth that I always knew.

"Perfetto, stupid" She whacked on my head.

"Idiot" I slapped on her face.

"Monkey face"

"donkey bu-"

"Okay, I get it. The storm has come to end , quit making me feel like a third wheel" Stella said with a slumping posture. I and Rihanna looked at each other before pulling Stella into a group hug. Stella loved hugging one on one but she loathed the idea of group hugging as she believed that it reduced the effect of two different hugs (her words).

I hated all kinds of hugging but sometimes we end up doing things we do not love for people whom we love and some other times we end up sacrificing things we love for things we love more.