Violet's Dare

I summoned a deep breath. Really, deep down, I wasn’t surprised that he’d chosen to go this way. He chose to come to my door that afternoon for a reason. Most probably he was planning this evening from the start. Harry just wasn’t crafty enough to notice he was being played. Jack was expecting me to pick truth. It was the very start of the game, and we both knew that giving him any more of a say over the evening was too much. But I also knew that would basically obligate me to pick dare somewhere down the line, when things might be getting ‘sillier,’ to borrow Joan’s parlance. I sighed. “Dare,” I said.

“Wait, really?” He looked shocked. Exactly what I was hoping for. “Uh.”

I scowled. “I said dare, Jack. You’re the one who begged to go first. Can’t you think of something, or have the **** fried your brain?”

He took back his cool in a jiffy. “Relax, Vi, I just didn’t think you’d be that eager to let me do what I want with you,” he laughed. I rolled my eyes. He was smug, he was a douche, but that didn’t mean he was going to push his luck this early. We waited for him to come up with something, and I felt Joan staring at me. However this went would determine if she started panicking now or later.

“Okay, got it,” Jack declared.

I leaned back on the futon. “Fire away.”

He looked very pleased with himself. “Give me a genuine compliment,” he said.

It was amazing how he managed to find some way to piss me off even when I was expecting the worst from him. “First off, that’s basically a truth,” I said. “Second, a compliment given under duress doesn’t even count.”

“So do it.”

I wasn’t about to back out. The baggie of white powder was visible over Joan’s shoulder. Cocaine was far outside my wheelhouse and I definitely didn’t want to pick up the habit tonight, least of all to get out of such a tame dare. Plus, I was the winner of the ‘Good Sportsmanship’ award at my middle school graduation. A game was a game. I wracked my brain to try to think of something. The term ‘backhanded compliment’ exists for a reason, I thought. “You’re very good at capitalizing on your resources,” I said.

Jack grinned. “You know, that actually wasn’t bad,” he said. Despite myself, despite everything, I actually respected his reaction. If he was going to insist on playing silly games, maybe that didn’t mean he was going to be a dick on top of it. “That means it’s your turn.”

Sweet freedom. Right away, I thought of Harry. Don’t show your cards, girl, I told myself. We were only friends, and there was no reason to blow that up. Then the answer came to me. Better me than someone else–someone more nefarious. There were two people in the game who needed to wade into the shallow end. I just had to choose between Joan and Paul.