Truth or Dare (boyxboy)

Chapter 23 - Ye of Little Faith

"Tell me more about what's happened with you?" Spizzo asked, deciding to move on with the conversation. His outburst felt like a heavy duvet putting a dampener over their evening. While it was good to share what he felt — and put into words things that he'd only ever really thought of in passing — he didn't want to dwell on it anymore.

Jacob paused as he tried to keep up with the changing conversation, unsure what spurred the other teen to switch it up so quickly. "What do you mean?" he asked to give some time for his mind to catch up.

"Well, I don't know," Spizzo shrugged, taking a sip from his bottle as he thought of what to ask. It was like he was trying to think up an interesting truth to spice up their game, but they'd seemingly moved past that now. He looked at Jacob sitting across from him — looked at him properly — seeing if that sparked anything.

It did.

"How are things with your dad?" he asked, noting his hair that was swaying softly in the light breeze. "Looking at your hair, something must've changed."

Jacob cocked his head to the side, curious of the observation that his ex-best friend had made. "What are you on about?"

"Well, I mean, I remember you always having super short hair growing up because of your dad," Spizzo pointed out matter-of-factly. He pointed his bottle towards the other teen as he shared his new theory, "so I gather from your luscious locks thats something must've happened to your dad."

"Well spotted," Jacob remarked, though it seemed that Spizzo was a bit behind. He'd been growing his hair out for a while now, so this must've only been a very recent discovery for the other teen. Mostly likely some time this evening when Spizzo began actually paying attention to him again.

"You remember my parents fighting a lot when we were still friends, right?" he asked, waiting as Spizzo nodded in confirmation. "Well, they got divorced about a year and a half, nearly two years ago. It was all extremely bitter, but I mean, neither of them had been happy this side of the millennium so no surprise really."

Spizzo shifted uncomfortably in his seat, more surprised by the news than Jacob seemingly thought he should be. It was odd to think about parents getting divorce. His parents were still quite happily married, the occasional bickering aside. They were far off any chance of even thinking about getting a divorce, let alone being bitter about it. Apparently he was the lucky one in this situation.

"Oh man, that sucks," was all he could really think to say in return to Jacob's revelation. "What happened to him then, after the divorce?"

"He fucked off to god knows where," the other teen shrugged casually. It was better off that way really, his father and him almost close to blows before his mother decided that enough was enough — for her and her son. The thought of his father made his blood boil in a visceral way, wanting to tear him limb from limb more than he'd ever wanted to do to Spizzo before tonight. "Doesn't really matter to me though."

Spizzo nodded, trying to process this sour situation, noting the anger that was clearly in Jacob's eyes. "So you grew your hair out because..." he began to ask.

"...he wasn't around to call me a sissy over it anymore, yeah," Jacob finished off.

The other teen was silent, his mind blank on how to move on from there. All he could come up with was to say, "Well it looks good on you, dude. A better look than that army buzzcut."

Jacob laughed, surprised by the sudden compliment. "Thanks," he said with a smile. His hand went up to tuck some hair behind his ear as a reflex.

He couldn't really blame Spizzo for the response. How else were you going to react to someone else's parents' divorce, especially coming from someone who grew up with the Brady-like Spizzinellis?

Speaking of which, Jacob asked the other teen, "what about your family?" — it was the best way he could think of to move the conversation on. They didn't need to linger over his parents' crumbled marriage.

Spizzo blew a breath out as he thought about where to begin. "Well, Dad's business took off a few years ago. Not really sure on much of the details really; he just tells us that he lucked into some really good connections and his referrals snowballed from there. Pretty much started raking it in from there and ended up out here in the lush part of town."

"God, I wish that were me," Jacob responded, the words slipping out of his mouth as he noticed the difference in how their lives had changed over the past four years. He thought about the struggles his mother had been going through over the last two years with divorce lawyers and a stingy ex-husband who tried to whittle down his payment to the smallest figure he could. She was trying so hard to make sure that Jacob's life was as comfortable as possible but it was a heavy toll. So spending the evening in a swanky house in one of the nicest neighbourhoods in town was a marked departure from home, where his mum was most likely still up answering online surveys to pull in some extra bucks.

If someone deserved lucking into good connections and finding success, it was his mother. Unfortunately, Jacob didn't have the power to make that happen for her — as much as he wished he did.

Distracted by his train of thought, it took a moment for Jacob to realise how odd his comment would have sounded. He decided to add in, "I'd love to live in place like this. You're all so lucky to be here," as discussing his mother's financial troubles was the last thing he needed to share with the other teen.

"Yeah, I guess we are pretty lucky," Spizzo replied, taking in what he heard. "I guess sometimes life happens around you so fast that you don't notice things until someone points them out to you."

"Well maybe you need someone around who can point those kinds of things out for you," was Jacob's response. "Maybe it'll help deflate that big head of yours."

"That sharp tongue of yours has been trying to do that all night," Spizzo retorted.

"Well, have I succeeded?" asked the other teen.

Spizzo shrugged. "You'd have to be the one to tell me. I didn't even realise my big head was inflated in the first place, so."

Jacob paused for a second and thought about their night so far. "I guess you've been a lot better person tonight than I'd expected. Definitely better than you've been to me in a long while."

"So you're saying that being around you again is doing me some good?" Spizzo questioned.

"Not to count our eggs before they hatch but I'd say so," was Jacob's honest response. The truth was tonight was just one night. Who can change after just one night? Good behaviour now didn't necessarily mean that that was going to stay the same when they left their bubble in the morning.

Spizzo scoffed, not surprised by Jacob's choice of words. "Oh ye of little faith," he said, shaking his head in disapproval. "Like I told you, Jakes: I'm not the evil monster you think I am."

"With an all-nighter we seem to have on our hands, you still have plenty of time to disappoint me," Jacob quipped back. He wasn't going to be charmed into a sense of security here. Knowing more than enough about history showed that it'll repeat as it always does.

Spizzo, on the other hand, felt a bit hurt by the other teen's dismissal of his character like that. He definitely wasn't an angel, especially when Jacob was concerned, but he was hardly the devil's incarnate.

Hurt feelings weren't going to do him any good though, pushing the teen to declare, "You should know me well enough to know that I'll just try and prove you otherwise now."

"Well, I look forward to seeing you try that," Jacob simply replied.

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A/N: Good chapter? Bad chapter? Who knows? I don't. Thanks for reading. Love you x