Join classmates at campus cafe

"Maybe" I answered "Where are you going?"

"The campus cafe. It's pizza day," the blond girl quickly replied, as if to dispel any doubt.

"Um...I'm kind of short on cash," I admitted. "I usually eat at my dorm."

"Dorm food? Doesn't that get tiring?" She was right.

"Well, it is sort of bland, but it's not that bad. Plus, it's included with the room and board cost." I tried to make it sound better than it was.

"Tell ya what, I'm feeling generous today," she declared. "I've still got the better part of a hundred bucks burning a hole in my pocket...if I had a pocket, it's actually in my purse. Lunch is on me."

"In that case, I'll gladly join you. How could I resist?" Besides, free pizza sounded better than free dorm food.

Inside the cafe, it was much cooler, and the three of us breathed a collective sigh of relief. "By the way, I'm Stacy," the taller blond girl announced, "and this is Tina" she added motioning to her brunette friend. I introduced myself in return. After Stacy paid for our pizza slices, we found a semi-private table toward one corner and sat down. While we ate, we continued on to our backgrounds. Stacy had grown up in the northern part of the state in a small town. Tina was from a small city in the neighboring state to the east. We each had a few things in common, such as relatively conservative families, some siblings, and certain interests. But we also had some differences. Stacy had apparently had many boyfriends dating all the way back to junior high, and it was evident that she had lost her virginity a long time ago. Tina also indicated that she'd had a few boyfriends, though it sounded as if she might still be a virgin like me. Meanwhile, Stacy was planning to major in Marketing, while Tina was majoring in Elementary Education.

As the conversation began to slow, I took the opportunity to inquire more about the discussion in the elevator. "If you don't mind my asking, what happened last Saturday?"

Stacy and Tina looked at each other for a moment, then came to a silent agreement. "It's sort of a funny story," Stacy began. "Last week, the two of us didn't even know each other, but since we're in the same class we ended up walking together after English and heading here to the cafe for lunch each day. It just sort of bloomed from there. Last Friday over lunch, we decided that since we didn't have any plans for Friday or Saturday night that we should get together and do something one of those nights. Somewhere along the I'd also mentioned that I was into dares." She paused and looked at Tina.

Eventually Tina took the cue. "Yes, well Stacy had bragged about all this cool stuff she had done in high school and it sort of got me jealous. Then she described some crazy dares she had done with her friends, I started to wonder if she might be pulling my leg. It just happened that one of the nearby papers had an ad on the back for a contest at a bar, and without giving it much thought, I decided to put Stacy to the test, so to speak."

Stacy jumped back into the conversation. "So here in the middle of the campus cafe during the busy Friday lunch period, demure and innocent Tina suddenly dared me to enter a wet t-shirt contest! Our voices were loud enough that I bet half the students heard us too. Well of course this is real dare, so I accepted. What Tina didn't realize is that whenever you initiate a dare, there is a consequence; if I complete your dare, then you must complete a dare of my choice in the future."