Decline the bet. The Jack-Off is the last thing you need in your life

You stare at Jack, holding Mal’s phone in his hand, wearing that stupid grin of his. You stare at him until the seconds drag long and the silence becomes awkward. Uncomfortable, even. Jack’s smile begins to waver. Eventually, he breaks.

“Why the heck are you being so quiet?” he asks, looking unnerved. “Has your head gone empty?”

“I wanted to give you a chance to reflect on everything that you just did,” you say, disgust dripping from your voice. “Here you are, getting all pissy and cranky, starting a dick-measuring contest, because, what, your cock uses more blood than your brain? And you keep going, sucking yourself off on your pretend brilliance, coming up with increasingly skull-numbing shit, descending into a pit of degeneracy so deep that you’ll never claw your way back out. Really? Whoring out your sister and wanting to fuck mine, literally wanting to use them as, what, your personal ****, and all for what? So you can sit in this goddamn chair?” You give it a kick and shake your head. “For shame.”

With that, you turn around, going to find another place to sit, when you feel a hand clasp your shoulder.

“Hey dude,” Jack calls out, and you turn around, glancing at him. “I… I was just making some fun. Right, Mal? Just a funny joke, to see if you’d go along with it. No need to get so uppity about it, yeah?”

Mallory snorts.

“Sure,” she says. “Blame it all on me. I had no idea what you were thinking, Jack. I just put myself in there to make sure you didn’t colossally fuck up.”

“Oh come on,” Jack says. “Helen. Come on, you know me. That wasn’t how it was, was it?”

Helen gives him a very strained smile.

“You had every chance to convince me otherwise,” she says. “You should stay quiet now. For your own good.”

You raise an eyebrow at Jack, wondering if he’s got anything more in the tank after this. But he deflates, hanging his head, staying dumb as a brick. He slowly lowers himself into his hard-won seat, and looks to his left. Helen is studiously ignoring him, revising her notes for class. He looks to his right. Mal gives him a sympathetic look, but doesn’t say anything. You see that she is busy deleting all evidence of the bet from her phone. Probably a wise move.

You find yourself a seat on the other side of the classroom, where it’s a little more quiet. At first, you’re not sure if the people around you heard what was happening on the other side of the classroom, but then you notice the looks that you’re getting from all around. Dang. You only hope you made the right move.

Thankfully, Professor Ward soon arrives to start class, and you bury yourself in the lecture, trying to forget about the insanity that just transpired.

The end of class comes quicker than you expected. As you make your way outside the classroom, supply and demand curves still intersecting in your head, you spot Helen waiting by the door. She lights up when she sees you, giving you a quick hug.

“Hey, about what happened before class. I really appreciate what you did there,” she says. “I was scared you guys were going to go through with it, and that would have been…”

“Really messed up,” you offer, and Helen nods.

“Yeah, let’s go with that. That’s much nicer than what I had in mind,” she says, still seeming in disbelief about the bet that he suggested. To be honest, you are, too. “I’m just… flabbergasted. I have no idea what Jack was trying to do, coming up with something like that. I thought he wasn’t like that. He’s not that bad, is he?”

“I’m not the most biased source on Jack,” you say, resisting the urge to immediately trash the man. “But this was just his locker room talk, said out in public.” You see the look of shock on Helen’s face. “I’m sorry. I know he was nice to you. I can’t say that he treated others the same way.”

Helen stares off into the distance, as if trying to come to terms with something.

“You going to be alright?” you ask her, reaching out to touch her shoulder.

She slowly nods.

“I just don’t understand. He was so well put together when we first met. Suave. Eloquent. Dapper. But this was… abhorrent,” she says.

“It can take time for somebody’s true colors to come out,” you say. “But it should never have been like this. This was too much.”

“But you played along with it,” Helen says, in a tone that is frighteningly accusatory. “For an awfully long time, too.”

“I didn’t know where it was going at first,” you say. “And then, by the time I realized, it was already too far gone… I don’t know. I got caught in the moment too.” You glance at Helen, who’s frowning. “I’m about to go get lunch. You want to join me? We can talk it over. Maybe that’ll help.”

But the pretty blonde only gives you a wan smile.

“I think I need some time to process this by myself. Thanks for talking. It helped.”

Jack -20
Helen +10