Then James reached out and touched the easel and Justin’s hands slipped through the tyre as if it had turned to air. He could no longer touch it.

No.

My eyes widened as I stared at the wheel, willing it to keep moving. It trembled and then, thank God, momentum moved it a tiny bit more and the pointer sat directly over my face.

I was going to be challenged after all.

Pete frowned. “She’s only just done a dare.” He leaned back in his chair, acting as if he didn’t really care. “Should we spin again?”

A chorus of negatives filled the space; voices tense with the fear that their reprieve might be snatched away.

“It’s alright, Pete.” I smiled tightly. “It can’t be worse than the last one and I managed that OK, didn’t I?”

Pete’s eyes skidded from mine. “Dying to be popular, are we?” He shrugged and rose from his chair. “Your funeral.” He leaned against the wall again.

I swallowed and turned to face James.

“Now we’ve got that out of the way…” James smirked and his hair glittered bronze in a shaft of dusty light. “Time for the challenge, Oh.”

I nodded.

“Come on then. On your feet.”

“Up, up, up.” The refrain propelled me onto my toes. The temptation to take Justin’s hand was so great I had to fold my arms.

“You know the rules now.” James’ voice was bloated with satisfaction. “I set the challenge but you can double dare if you want to send it back my way. If you do you have to double up, that is make the dare twice as hard, according to the moderators Harley and Tamsin here.” He gestured and the light falling on his wrist made a shadow like a snake moving over the floor. “If you can’t make the challenge doubly hard, it goes back to you. If I turn down the double dare, someone else is allowed to take it on, for points. If you would rather take a truth than the dare, you can enter the confessional.” His smile widened like a sharks. “This week in the confessional we’ll be testing the truth about your personality: how much pain can you stand? Of course, you can choose to swap your place in the confessional with someone else, your best friend in the group, the guy who proposed you. So what’s it going to be, Oh? Truth or dare?”

“Just to clarify,” I rasped. “I can go into the confessional and you’ll hurt me until I can’t stand it any more. Or I can make Pete go inside instead, which makes me look like a bitch and means Pete’ll probably do the same to me next time he’s challenged. Or I can take your dare, but I don’t know what it is yet?”

“That’s right.” James nodded. “Fun, isn’t it?”

“But I can double dare you?”

“Only if you can double up and not make the dare impossible.”

“And if I win the dare I get to set the challenge next time?”

“That’s right.”

“And if I refuse the dare altogether?”

James glanced at Tamsin for a second. Her crimson lips curled. “Remember Derek?”

My mouth went dry. “But what if I lose the dare, if I just can’t do it?” That was the only thing I wasn’t clear about.

“Why, nothing,” she answered.

“Nothing?”

“Nothing,” James parroted. “If you genuinely try but still fail the dare, you go back on the wheel and I get to set another challenge next week.

“That’s it?” I wrinkled my nose.

James leaned forward. “So what’ll it be? Truth or dare?”

I met his gaze with a steely one of my own. “Dare.”

Excitement made James literally dance on the spot. “Everyone listening? Here’s the dare for this week. Remember what Hargreaves had to do the other week, and how he failed? Well that dare is still up. Oh, you have to go to the building site where he died, climb the scaffolding and walk across the part that hasn’t got a handrail.”

Gasps rent the air as the shock hit the rest of the V club. Justin literally growled and as I turned he launched past me, fists swinging. His right arm powered through James’ cheek and came out the side of his head without moving a single carefully styled hair.

He landed on his side, spitting and furious.

“You can’t be serious?” Pete rubbed his stubble-specked head.

I met James’ smug gaze and blinked. My breath sat in my chest like an undigested wad. “Are you allowed to set a challenge that isn’t possible?”

“Moderators?” James glanced over at Tamsin and Harley.

Slowly Tamsin nodded, but her face was now white. “W-we already decided it was possible.”

Pete leaped back into the circle. “Come on, there’ll be security now. Maybe even police. If we get caught they’ll look harder at Justin’s death.”

James shook his head. “We have friends in high places, Petrol Pete, remember? The Met won’t be looking into the V club.”

“Fine, but wake up, Justin died. Clearly it isn’t possible.”

Harley’s lips twisted under his acne scars. “I dunno, dude, it should be do-able. Justin was just unlucky.”

“Unlucky?” This time Justin hurled himself at Harley, grabbing for his lapels. In the end he had to settle for screaming into his ear. “You dick, I’m dead. You call that unlucky?”

Tamsin sniffed. “Pete has a point, Justin did prove it impossible.”

I forced myself to breathe past the obstruction in my throat. This dare was beyond crazy. The V club was out of control. But now I had a way to get the challenge on my own terms.

“I’ll do it.” I silenced the objections with a stab of my gloved hand. “But on one condition: if I make it, I get to set a challenge.”

“Yeah, yeah, that’s how it works.” James waved airily.

“No, I get to set my challenge straight after. No waiting a week. I get to set a truth or dare right after I do this thing.”

James sucked air in through his teeth. “Haven’t we bent enough rules for you?”

I shrugged. “The moderators said the challenge was impossible, didn’t they? So either you agree to bend that rule for me, or I don’t have to do the dare and you lose your chance to set a challenge.”

I heard Tamsin’s inhalation from where I stood. Pete shook his head and stepped backwards, leaving me to my insanity. Only Justin rolled to his feet.

“Do not do this, Tay.” His earnest face was centimetres from mine. “There has to be another way, I just haven’t thought of it yet. Maybe I can haunt James until he cracks, or hang around these guys until someone talks about what happened.” He looked hopeful, but I shook my head slightly and showed him my hand.

“It could take forever,” I murmured into my gloved palm.

“What was that, Oh?” James jerked forward, but I stepped back.

“Just wondering what your decision was.”If you succeed, you can set your own right after.”

26

MY LAST THOUGHT

I nursed a coffee in the kitchen and tried not to check the time every two minutes. Every bulb was blazing, even the ones under the cupboards, yet it still felt as if the shadows were closing in. Although it was a sunny day there was a quality to the light that suggested approaching night. The air was oppressive and I felt anxious and on edge, as if I was in the eye of a storm and it was about to break.

Justin watched me with solemn eyes. Finally he spoke. “I'm coming with you.”

I tightened my hands around my mug. “I know how hard that will be for you.”

I knew I should tell him to stay behind, but I couldn't bring myself to do it. I didn't want to do the dare alone. And if something went wrong I wanted someone with me. Someone I liked.

I caught my breath. I... liked Justin. I explored the sensation as if I was probing a broken tooth with my tongue.

Sure, he was good-looking, but he'd always been attractive; his attitude had made me immune. Somehow this last fortnight he'd become a friend and that had exposed my heart. I glanced at him then quickly away, afraid that he'd somehow be able to spot the change in me.