[PATREON EXCLUSIVE] TRUTH OR DARE: Chapter 2 (Patreon)

Chapter 2

We spent the next hour drinking, watching an old Bruce Lee movie that Donny was obsessed with. We talked old times. “Remember the airsoft guns?” John said, and we all had a good laugh. There were so many stories—so much I’d forgotten, so much I would never forget. But it wasn’t long before the topic moved into the future, and I once again had nothing to add to the conversation.

Donny started going off about his planned trip to Europe, that conversation turned into the guys discussing which European girls were hotter: Eastern Europeans or Western Europeans. It didn’t take them long to decide that the East had the hotter girls. When they asked me what I thought, I just shrugged and agreed, and that brought the conversation right back into the past, but not where I wanted it. “You’ve always been shy about the girls, huh?” Donny said, nudging my arm.

“No, I just don’t have anything to say,” I said.

“Nothing to say? How can you have nothing to say? I seem to remember you asking that girl out—or should I say, that boy.” He started to laugh.

“It was a mistake. I was thirteen.”

“You were fourteen.”

“What’s the difference?” I said.

“Big difference.” Everyone nodded in agreement, as if there really was a big difference.

“Well it could have been worse, Eric. She could have said yes, and you could have found out much later, when you finally got into her panties,” said John.

“Fuck you,” I said, taking a long sip from my drink, looking around for some inspiration to change the subject. “This movie blows, by the way,” I said.

“It doesn’t,” Donny said, “but nice try in changing the subject. We should look that chick up. Do you think she’s still hot, or do you think she went through puberty and now she looks like Steven Seagal in a dress?” At least he admitted that she was hot—because she was. Larissa was a convincing girl—anyone could have made the same mistake. The only reason they didn’t was because they were informed that she was a man before me. “What was her name? Lauren or something?”

Everyone looked to me, waiting for me to answer. I shrugged my shoulders, pretending not to know. “Oh, c’mon, Eric. You know. What was her name?” John asked.

I had a feeling they all knew and they were all playing dumb, setting me up for another piece of the never-ending humiliation. “I think it was Larissa,” I finally said.

“That’s right! Larissa. Let’s look her up.” Donny pulled out his phone and started to search for her on Facebook. I just sat there feeling embarrassed, praying they would get bored of the subject and start off on their future aspirations again. Even though I had no future aspirations to talk about myself, I preferred the awkward silence over this. “Is this her? Damn, if this is her, she looks pretty good.” He turned the phone to us. It was her, and he was right—she did look pretty good. “Too bad she’s a guy. And there’s probably some Photoshop going on here.”

“I don’t think she’s good-looking at all,” Grant said with his arms crossed. “Clearly a dude in a skirt.”

John and Donny both squinted at the photo. “Yeah, maybe,” Donny said. “But I bet you couldn’t look that good in a skirt.”

“She doesn’t look good,” he reiterated. “Besides, I’m sure anyone could pull off a semi-convincing girl with enough makeup, a wig, and a dress.”

“Do you think you could pull off a convincing girl with some makeup, a wig, and a dress?” Donny asked.

Grant shrugged. “Probably. I bet Eric would even ask me out on a date.” They all started laughing again. I should have seen it coming. I felt my cheeks turn red and I wanted to defend myself, but it was useless. They were determined to use me as their punching bag, and I was destined to take it.

Thankfully, the topic changed once Donny started talking about ladyboys in Thailand, one of the countries he wanted to hit up during his epic backpacking trip. That got him talking about Asia in general, and then about Australia, and then they started talking about Australian girls and accents they found sexy, and I was just silent the whole time, with nothing to contribute once again.

Maybe it was a good thing that those sleepovers were coming to an end. Maybe I didn’t have as much in common with my friends as I thought. Maybe going to a different college than the rest of them was for the best—I could meet new friends with my same interests. I still liked Donny and John and Grant, they would always be my friends, but maybe it was time for them to play smaller roles in my life. Plus, it wouldn’t hurt to find some friends that were oblivious to my embarrassing incident with Larissa.

We went out for a walk, down to the park where the stoner girls hung out on weekends. John had the hots for one of them—a girl who always wore a toque that almost covered her eyes, and baggie hoodies that hid her body completely, making it impossible to tell if she was fit or chubby. They were there, sitting up by the kid’s slide, sharing a doobie. They waved us over. John went off with his crush, leaving the three of us with the girl’s three stoned buddies.

I was silent the whole time. They offered us a toke, we accepted. It didn’t help me relax though. It just made me more paranoid, as usual—worried my buddies would find some way to embarrass me in front of a new group of people. Thankfully they didn’t, though they did point out my silence, making me feel like a loser. “You don’t have to be shy around us,” one of the girls said. She looked into my eyes with a cute smirk. She was cute enough, but not my type. Her teeth were already yellowed from years of smoking cigarettes, and she coughed a lot.

I wasn’t shy. I just had nothing to say. All they wanted to talk about was scoring some more pot, and the parties that were starting up soon. They asked us if we wanted to tag along, and thankfully my friends rejected the offer. I couldn’t wait to get back to Donny’s place. It was kind of cold outside. I looked over at John, who was now making out with his crush. They had their backs to us, but I could see that his hand was down between her legs, probably fingering her. She was squirming slightly. I just thought it was a terribly inappropriate thing to do at a kids’ public park, even if it was almost midnight and every kid within ten miles was asleep.

I was relieved when John finally came back over and said, “Let’s get going.” His face was red and he was biting the edge of his tongue. His lady-friend was standing about ten yards away with her back to us. They must have had a fight. And thank God for that.

We returned to Donny’s house with a new case of beer and a couple new bags of chips. It was late, midnight, but for our sleepovers, the night was still young.