The Daring Game (and all my usual lies)

Chapter 1: Just sick (of it) enough to be confident

Ty

If there's one thing I can't stand, it's people who talk just to have something to say. I don't know if they're trying to fill the void, or if they're trying to not be alone with their thoughts, because I get that. I really do. The kind of thing that comes into my brain when I'm not keeping it busy is absolutely horrific, which I guess is what I get for reading that terrifying Chuck Palahniuk book of short stories. But you don't hear me talking all the time.

That's just about the only thing I like about Sebastian. He never talks just to say something, and everything he does say is so unexpected that I always think I've misheard him. We're friends mostly because we're both new, and because we share a dorm with some absolute clowns that could all enter the national competition for the filling-the-silence world championships, if that were a thing.

Aside from that, though, Sebastian is pretty annoying. He's always trying to make me feel included, which wouldn't be a problem except that nobody else in the dorm wants me to be included. I think friendships are situational, if I'm being honest. What are the odds that you're going to find people that you actually like spending time with, and have the opportunity to do that often enough that it doesn't just feel forced when you talk, like with my friend Alex, who moved to BC after Grade 8? It feels like we're always just catching up whenever we talk on the phone, and there's nothing lonelier than feeling like you have nothing to say to someone you used to tell everything because they're not a part of anything happening to you and it would just take so goddamn long to catch them up if you wanted to, anyway. I don't talk to Alex much anymore. I don't talk to anyone, most of the time, except that I was forced to talk to Jesse earlier that evening when he wanted to know if I was going to be in the dorm later that night.

"Obviously," I said. Where else did he think I was going to go? Besides, Sebastian had already told me about the dare, so it would be extra weird if I wasn't there, like I was assuming I wouldn't be included or something. Not that I had been invited, or anything. Well, not officially. Getting told by Sebastian that I could bring a dessert wasn't exactly the same as being a part of the original plan, which had obviously been between Jesse and Kyler. 

I knew why Jesse had proposed a feast. For one thing, he and Kyler were always eating. For another, it was a pretty low-risk dare. At the very least, we could all just sneak something out of the cafeteria during supper, which wasn't exactly challenging except for the slight hurdle of making it past the cafeteria supervisor who sat by the door to make sure were didn't take any plates out of the dining hall.

Anyway, Jesse had to go and make things awkward.

"Oh, okay," he said. "But, you know. It can get pretty intense."

"Sure," I said. Because, you know. Really? I mean, I'd heard their stories about last year, but those guys were almost always exaggerating. Anyway, my life had enough danger as it was, given that I'd been forced to take carpentry as an elective because I thought elective meant they were optional and I'd missed the sign-up date. The only artistic option left was collage and the mad science lab looked lame as hell, so I thought I'd try my hand at woodworking. Dan, our shop class instructor, had all these horror stories about people cutting off their fingers and liked to show us graphic videos on workplace hazards. Like I needed another thing to worry about, that I'd be cutting my leg off with a circ saw like the guy who didn't clamp his plywood down properly. This whole school was a hazard, considering what I'd heard about the dorms. Jesse was always bragging about what they'd gotten up to when Riley shared the room. He had a scar on his forehead from where he'd cracked his head against the dresser. Kyler said that it was his fault for doing a whippet standing up. I actually didn't know people still huffed laughing gas, because you only ever hear about it in books from the sixties where everyone did a lot of drugs. But that was last year. By the time Sebastian and I got there, the guys were over whippets, which was a relief. I think my brain is messed up enough as it is, and besides, Sebastian would have immediately told on them, like he did when the others shaved off their eyebrows. As though that was a safety concern of any kind, unless you counted the fact that our supervisor Chris had nearly had a heart attack when he'd seen their weird eyebrowless faces. Nobody liked Sebastian after that, but we were stuck with him because none of the guys wanted to deal with having to live with Riley again. Jesse said that Riley was a liability because he did stupid things, which was rich coming from someone who intentionally made himself look like an alien. At least none of Jesse's initiatives had the tendency to give people concussions.