English Is Flammable (Student/Teacher)

Chapter 11

Dani, Jere, and I were sitting in my living room with three giant bags of chips, a few soda cans, two empty pints of ice cream (Phish Food) with the third in hand, and a bottle of tequila.  We don’t drink that much so it was a cheap bottle that was almost empty I found in the pantry.  Surely nobody would miss it.  When Dani and I had gotten back to my house we found that my parents had left a note saying that they had to leave for business and would be back Thursday of next week.  I have to say that thought my parents are gone a lot for work, I really don’t mind.  I pride myself in having independence, though I do appreciate it when they’re here.  

Johnny was staying with a friend tonight because unlike us, he didn't have school tomorrow and this kid in his class invited him for a sleepover.  Dani and I last minute invited Jeremiah to spend the night with us just because he’d been away for so long.  We always did this a few times each year and spent the night at one of our houses and just talked.  We really did love each other.  Right now we were playing truth or dare.  This was never a good thing with us three.  

“Dani, truth or dare?”  I asked her, knowing that she’d pick truth after the dare we’d challenged her to last time.  

“Truth”  Called it.

“Who was the last guy you kissed?”  This was bound to be good.

“Jasper.”  She said sheepishly.  Jasper was her West Highland White Terrier.  I had always been jealous of her having a dog.  I had been begging my parents for a Whippet since I was 12, I think they were almost worn down enough to oblige.  

“Seriously?  That’s so...unlike you...”  Jeremiah trailed off for fear of offending her.  

“Well, the last guy I hooked up with was the guy from the Fourth of July bonfire.”  Dani said, giving me the ‘that was a very good night for somebody I know...’ look.  

“Yeah, I guess that makes sense.”  I said nodding giving her the ‘he doesn’t know!’ look.  She shot back the ‘why not?’ look as Jeremiah just looked at us, clearly confused.  

“Jere, truth or dare?”  Dani asked him.

“Dare.”  He said.  Dani and I huddled together to conjure up a dare worth giving him.  

“What should we do?”  She asked me in a hushed tone.

“Which one of us wants to swap shirts with him?”  I asked her.

“I will.”  She said.  We broke our huddle and turned to face him.  “You have to switch shirts with me.”  She said, grinning slyly at him.

“Alright, let’s do this.”  He said.  They both stripped down right then and there, tossing each other their shirts.  Dani looked fine in Jeremiah’s shirt, like she was just lounging around in an oversized t-shirt, Jeremiah on the other hand...let’s just say that hot pink isn’t his color, and he does not look so great in low cut crop top, which is what Dani’s tank top turned into once Jere put it on.  

“Shay, truth or dare?”  Jeremiah asked me.

“Dare.”  I responded, feeling bold.

“Alright, allow the jury a moment to come to a verdict.”  Jeremiah joked.  He and Dani whispered to each other for a minute then giggled madly.  “Ok, here’s what you’re gonna do: you’re gonna go outside, take off your shirt, leaving you only in your bra, and run from here, to the end of Larkin Street, then back.  You up for it?”  He asked, grinning evilly.   

“What’s the forfeit?”  I asked them.  Will lived on Larkin and this was the last thing I needed him seeing.

“You have to go drink a glass of toilet water remember?”  We had the rule that if you felt you really couldn’t complete a dare there was a dare you could forfeit and do a back up dare instead, hence the name.  We always made it really bad so you wouldn’t want to have to do it and would buck up and do the dare.  I didn’t want Will to see me parading around the neighborhood in just my bra, but I wasn’t willing to drink toilet water to avoid it.