Dare Me (2 page)

“Maybe that should be one of the dares? See who can date her and survive.”

John laughs at my joke, but it’s empty. “Like there’ll be another. I think Ricky might be changing his mind.” He doesn’t seem bothered by this idea. “What are you thinking?”

“The car surfing, it was fun, right?”

John looks up. “Take out me doing a face plant, yeah, I’d say it was fun.”

“Kind of like eighth grade. You know?”

John looks back at me and searches my face. “I do, but we both know it can’t end like that again. Too much on the line now.”

I nod quick. He’s right. We pound fists and go our separate ways, while down the street Danielle and her man are kissing, looking like they’ll take the action into the backseat.

My house is empty. The way I like it. I grab some cookies from the pantry and head up to my room.

I turn on my computer, pick through the laundry on the floor, and find the dirty blue polo I have to wear to work. I slide it on while holding my breath and pull up our video. Shit, we’ve got two hundred hits. I check the comments:

Nice ride, bros.

Thought that one kid was going to die. Fucking awesome.

What’s next?

They go on, and some suggest what we might do for stunts. I don’t want to touch half of them. My stomach draws up and suddenly I don’t want the cookie in my mouth. I think John was wrong. I’m pretty sure Ricky’s going to want to forge ahead. And if he follows any of these suggestions, we’re dead.

CHAPTER 2

P
izza and More
is like every little pizza shop around: cute on the front end but dirty as a slaughterhouse on the back side. I pull my Jeep into the parking lot, and the stench of the Dumpster wafts over me. I get out and dart inside. Chuck stands in the middle of the floor, arms crossed over his barrel, wife-beater-covered chest.

“What time are you supposed to be here?”

Shit, 4:00. Am I late? I glance at the clock over his shoulder. It’s ten of. “Four?” I say and crinkle my forehead.

Chuck starts laughing and slaps my shoulder. “I’m messing with you. Of course you’re on time. Everyone’s on time now that Alexia works here.”

I turn red and cringe behind his fat body because Alexia Bellamy’s at the counter. He’s always doing this, trying to embarrass me through her. He doesn’t realize that I’m already embarrassed. Or, knowing Chuck, that’s exactly why he does it. Either way, she’s on the phone, so I’m in the clear. “Funny, Chuck.”

“I know, right?” He puts his hands on his hips and looks genuinely proud. He then slaps my back, and I’m almost thrown to the floor. “How was your first day, Doc? Big senior now.”

When I started here I got lost all the time. Chuck started calling me “directionally retarded” which got shortened to “d.r.” This got me so jammed up I almost quit. But my dad had me study a map of town day after day, and double-checking my routes on my phone’s GPS. I never got lost again. I know all my regular customers by heart and can plan out routes better than anyone, so now “d.r.” means Doc.

“Doesn’t feel like anything’s changed.”

“Yeah, welcome to the real world. The calendar only looks different because I buy a new one. You know?”

I do and nod along. “Then I’d better get to those deliveries.”

“There we go, but don’t get too close to her. You might pass out.” He laughs his deep, fat-boy laugh and elbows me. I walk away, shaking my head, wishing for a way to put him in his place. I grab the slips for the outgoing orders.

Alexia hangs up the phone. “Got one more for you. Just an antipasto, so I’ll get it.” She hands me the slip and smiles with her perfect white teeth and I don’t say a word. Can’t. I nod, stupidly, and enjoy the sensation of her hand running over my palm. She goes to the refrigerator and I know I must look like a total creeper.

I bag the orders, punch the addresses into the GPS, and sure enough, the navigation system displays the exact order I would have followed.

“Here you go.” Alexia dangles the bag before me. She used to do the same when we played as kids, handing a toy over with the same line. I had no clue then how truly fabulous she was.

I take the bag and say thanks.

She lingers. This is new.
I
always linger. Not her.

“I watched the video Ricky mentioned. The car surf?”

My ears are red, I know it. “Uh huh.”

“That was awesome! How’d he find it?”

My head is scrambled and it takes a second for me to respond. “I don’t know, but I think it was on Jasperg Lane. You know, the one by the farm?” Immediately, I know I’ve said too much.

Her eyes widen. “Right! Well, if that’s where they were, it’s a good spot. There’s like no one out there.”

“Seems like that was the idea.” I don’t know what else to say, and I know Chuck is watching.

“What do you think’s next? There were some crazy ideas posted.”

I so want to tell her. It’s not like we haven’t shared secrets before. But that was then, and like Ricky said,
We can’t tell anyone it’s us because we’ll be arrested. Period. If this is going to work, no one can know.

“We could bet on it.” My stomach wobbles as I speak.

Alexia opens her mouth wide and steps closer to me. “Yeah? Which one are you going to choose?” Her voice is hushed and breathy.

I feel squirmy and way too excited, and so nervous I’ll yell out something about her boobs, but manage to say, “There was something on there about the bridge, right?”

Her face pinches. “Really? That’s the one you’re going with?”

“Uh, yeah, I guess.”

“But that’s like seventy-five feet.”

I hope she’s wrong because I assumed it was less, but whatever she thinks is fine by me.

“Hey, Doc, you charging for this consult?”

I straighten at Chuck’s words and Alexia jumps and grabs my arm. I look at it and she heads back to the phone, so I shoulder the bags.

“What are you up to, Romeo?” Chuck asks as I walk past.

“You ever check out YouTube?”

“The hell you talking about?”

“Some other time, Chuck. Got to get these out while they’re still hot.” I pat the bags and head to the Jeep, my head still swimming from Alexia and what I know is coming next.

—

It’s a Wednesday
so there aren’t many deliveries, and by 7:00 Chuck sends us home. I want to walk Alexia to her car, see if I can talk to her some more, but Jesse picks her up and speeds off. The bass of his music vibrates my intestines.

I park in the driveway, and through the front window, my parents are visible at the dining room table. It’s an odd scene because we only use that table when we have company, or for the holidays. Or for when they want to talk.

Shit. I bet they found out about the car surfing. Someone saw it and called. I knew the masks and Ricky’s editing wouldn’t be enough. First they’ll rub it in my face about Ricky, especially my dad, and then they’ll kill me. At least I was right about one of us dying.

I whip out my phone and pull up our video. We’ve got one thousand views and over one hundred comments. My legs go heavy. Now I’m sure they’ve seen this. Seems like the entire town has.

I walk inside and head directly to the dining room. “What’s up?”

My parents both smile that fake everything’s-fine-why-are-you-asking grin? Mom reaches out and loosely grips my wrist. “Why don’t you sit down and tell us about your day?”

She’s trying to soften me up before they crack down. Classic move I’ve seen too many times. Mom’s some kind of lab technician and Dad does line work at the local plant, so they tend to do the same things over and over at work, and with Ginny and me. I know the script for this scene, and it’s fine. I’ll play my part and accept my punishment and go to my room. Later, they’ll come up separately and have a little “private” chat about how sorry they are, and how they’ll reduce the sentence if I could do this or that for them. I’ve never been grounded for more than an hour.

I shrug. “Not much to tell. You know, day one nonsense.”

“That’s too bad. It’s your senior year. It should feel different somehow.” Mom frowns.

“Give it time. It’s bound to feel . . .” Dad doesn’t finish. He looks away and coughs into his hand. I turn to my mother, but she’s watching him.

“Is everything all right?” I no longer think this has anything to do with the video. Dad doesn’t get choked up. Ever.

Mom rubs his back and he nods, coughs again, and turns to me. He looks in my eyes for a moment but then down at the table. “Ben, I’m being relocated. The plant is making cuts and in order not to lose my job, we have to move.”

My temples pound. He grips the edge of the table and turns to my mother. A tear runs down her face. “When?” I manage to ask, but it’s tough to get the question out. My throat is suddenly tight.

“I don’t know yet. Could be a couple of months. Could be longer. I hope it’s not shorter.” His voice fades with the last sentence. He skims a hand over the tabletop. “I should know next week. Least that’s what they’re saying now.”

“What are you thinking, honey? What’s running through that head of yours?” Mom reaches across the table to me, and I barely feel her hand on mine.

I’m numb and don’t know what to think except for one question. “Where?”

My father sits back and sighs. “That’s also up in the air, but we have sister plants in Michigan, Arizona, and Washington.”

It’s as if my head is a balloon and someone is inflating it breath by breath. “But that’s like across the country. Michigan is halfway.”

My parents nod in unison and my mother wipes her tears. “We know this is going to be hard on you. And Ginny. We haven’t told her, so no texting or emailing her.”

As if I’d do that. What would I write?
Hey, remember that place you call home? Yeah, you can forget about that.
This is unreal. I was expecting to get into trouble, not this. Not ever. All I’ve ever known is this town. It’s my senior year. I can’t leave now. Not with the dares. Not if we have one thousand hits.

No, something will work out. It has to. Maybe I’ll be in college by the time this ball gets rolling. Or maybe I’ll still be a senior. Shit.

“You okay?” Dad’s voice pries through my thoughts. His eyes are heavy, and as much as I want to say no, he deserves better. This can’t be easy.

“Yeah, I guess. We’ll see what’s what. Right? Nothing else we can do.”

He nods and Mom clasps her hands. “When did we get such a mature young man?” She cries again and I steal a glance at my father. He lifts his chin toward her and I know what to do. I get up and hold her tight and let her cry, when really all I want to do is go up to my room, get on my computer, and focus on other people’s lives, their problems. Not mine.

She settles and I release her. My father frowns at me. “We’ll keep you posted, bud. Okay?”

“Yeah. That’s fine.” I choke back my own emotions. “Dad, for what it’s worth, I’m sorry.”

I get up and leave them to talk or to cry or to figure out whatever they need to. My head has expanded but hasn’t yet popped. I hope I can sleep tonight.

I settle in front of my computer but don’t get online. I sit and stare at the keyboard and replay the scene from downstairs. Move? I can’t move. Sure, I was planning on going away to college, but I’d come back on breaks, keep some part of this life. Should I even bother applying anywhere? Am I going to end up at some shitty community college in the middle of Arizona?

I hop on Twitter and search for Alexia, and her profile pic pops up. She’s even cute in thumbnail size. We have no followers in common. No shock there.

I feel like slapping myself. Why am I thinking about following Alexia? I may be gone in a month, so what’s the point? If I’m not here I won’t be working with her, and she won’t be thinking about me. As if she is now. Unless we go viral. Shit.

But even then she won’t
know
it’s me. I close my eyes and take a deep breath. Ricky’s always said,
Stop thinking about the big picture. Enjoy the here and now. It’s all we have.
I almost laugh at the hypocrisy. His entire point with these dares is to Leave them stunned. Isn’t that the big picture?

However, I understand the truth within the contradiction. As much as we know, we can never fully know. We’ll just find out. Whatever’s around that corner, whether I can see it coming or not, will be there. I’ll face it.

I hit the tab and follow Alexia. There’s no turning back.

CHAPTER 3

I
check our stats
one more time before leaving for school. We’re up to 2,155 views. The comments have doubled as well. And there’s an ad before our video, some outdoor adventure brand. What the fuck?

John’s waiting for me outside his house, bouncing back and forth on his enormous feet. “Did you see?” He holds out his phone.

“Yeah. Just checked.”

“This is unreal. Ricky was right.” He watches the video again as we walk. “Man, I wish I didn’t look like such an ass.”

“You don’t,” I lie.

“Next dare, I’m on it.” John slides his phone into his pocket, and we walk the rest of the way to school. I think about telling him about the move, but I don’t want to bust up his good mood. And besides, it might be best to wait until I know for sure. My parents didn’t say anything about it this morning. They drank their coffee and read the newspaper like usual.

It feels all slow-mo as we enter the senior hallway. Like in the movies. We’re stride for stride, both smiling, nodding our heads. I’m waiting for the fist bumps and high fives. The squealing girls. Ten steps in and we stop. No one’s noticed us. Everyone’s doing their thing in front of their lockers, sharing iPods, cracking jokes, leaning on each other, and sipping coffee.