All Started With A Dare

one The bottle slowly comes to a stop on me, for the first time in the night. I grin and raise an eyebrow at my friends. "You already know I'm going to say dare," I grin, "so what's it going to be?" Keeley and Cameron roll their eyes at my unwavering confidence, but Jordan was too busy lying on my sofa and stuffing his face with popcorn to particularly care. After watching a bunch of comedy films, I had suggested we play a game of truth or dare at 10:30 on a Friday night because unlike normal teenagers, my best friends and I didn't go out to parties but usually stayed in. Keeley had organised a sleepover, which basically meant childish games and lots of films. "Okay, let us just think up a dare suited for our majesty here," Cameron scoffs, turning around with Keeley to decide something for me. They pull Jordan down, who protests at his popcorn munching session being interrupted, but joins them in conferring. I'd done quite a few dares before, but I'd have to say the biggest dare I'd done was run through the park in only a bikini, singing Twinkle twinkle little star. People had been talking about the crazy girl in the park at school, but no one figured out it was me and thankfully the rumours died down. Only my best friends and I knew the truth. A truth I hoped stayed between us, for my own sake; I didn't want to end up in a mental asylum anytime soon. "Okay we've got it!" Jordan announces, spinning around with the bowl of popcorn clutched in his hands. "I think this one is perfect." "I'll do anything you give me," I say stubbornly, raising my chin. "I doubt anything can beat running around the public park half naked." "Yeah...that's matter of opinion," Cameron says, his blue eyes flashing devilishly. Keeley quickly jumps in, looking excited about getting revenge for me making her drink cat pee. "You'll do anything will you?"Keeley smirks, a mischievous glint lighting up her brown eyes. "I dare you, Jade Elsie Brooke, to break into Trystan Woods house and steal a pair of his boxers without him finding out." My eyes widen in shock, as I allow myself a few stunned seconds to process what Keeley had just dared me to do. "What?!" I splutter in shock, wondering if she'd lost her mind. "I can't...but - you know we never even talk to any of the populars, forget break into their house and steal their underwear!" "Ah, but I do recall the words I'll do anything you give me? in this conversation somewhere?" Cameron reminds me cockily, tilting his head as if offering me the challenge. "Sound familiar, Jade?" This was crazy. I know it didn't sound as bad as running through a park half naked, but if you went to our school you would understand. I liked not having anything to do with the populars, just going through high school with my best friends. Blending into the background was in fact an agreeable way to coast through school, not having to worry about undue or unwanted attention. But you'll lose your reputation if you don't do it, the voice at the back of my head reminds me. I suck in a deep breath, and make up my mind. "Okay. I accept your dare," I say firmly, nodding. "I mean, I doubt Trystan's even home. It's a Friday night, populars don't stay in on Friday." "You're doing it?" Keeley asks in disbelief at the same time as Jordan exclaims, "She's doing it!" "Oh my god, you will touch Trystan Woods underwear you lucky girl," Keeley gushes, hugging me and seeming to forget that it was her insane idea. "You will be living every girls dream!" "You know what, why don't you just do this dare if you're so excited about it?" I ask dryly, raising an eyebrow. She immediately shrinks back, shaking her head rapidly. "No no no, this is your dare," she reminds me. Cameron had reached over beside me, and held up my brand new iPhone 5S my parents had given me for my birthday. "Hey get your filthy paws off my baby!" I gasp dramatically, as he taps in my password and clicks around on it. "Calm down drama queen," he laughs, rolling his eyes and handing it back to me. "You have to record the whole thing so we can all laugh at it in the future and show your children." "Which will also be his children because you will both bond over his underwear and fall in love," Jordan adds wisely. "Ugh, you're all crazy," I mutter, grabbing my phone and staring down at the video setting it was on. "Let's get this over with. And if I end up in prison I'm so blaming you guys." "Sure, sure," Keeley says eagerly, grabbing my arm and dragging me towards the front door with the other two following behind us. "Now remember: never stop recording no matter what!" "Wait!" I dig my heels into the ground before she can throw me out of my own house. I grab my coat and pull it on over my sweatshirt and sweatpants, glaring at them. "One of you comes with me to his house." "Not me!" Keeley and Cameron call out quickly, and they both look at Jordan with sly grins. "What?" He looks confused, and I grab his arm and link it with mine. "You're coming with me," I smile, and pull my open my front door. Before he can protest I give Keeley and Cameron a little wave before shutting the door behind us. "Jade," Jordan whines, tugging on my arm as I walk quickly down my garden path. The night was quite cold, with cold air biting at my face. "Why do I have to come?" "Because this dare will be the death of me and I don't want to die alone," I say, looking down my long street. I knew where Trystan lived, because I go past his house on my way to and from school everyday. Another perfect reason why I should break into his house. "So how are you going to get in?" Jordan asks me, not bothered that much about walking around in the middle of the night in the freezing cold. And this is why I love him. "Yeah still thinking about that one," I frown, thinking about his house. I was pretty sure his bedroom window was at the side of the house, so I'd have to run onto the front garden. We both stop outside his house, which was all brick and white plaster. Jordan was complaining about being cold, so I pull my jacket off and hand it to him. "Now shut your mouth and if you see me running from the house screaming tell my family I love them." I look up at him, and his lips curl into a smile. "Don't worry, I'll tell them anyway because I doubt you'll leave that house alive," he grins, giving me a slight push toward the house. "If you're in there longer then twenty minutes canoodling with Mr Woods I'm out of here." "Jordan!" I hiss, pushing him down behind the fence so if anyone looked out of the window they wouldn't suspect anything. "Wish me luck." I tiptoe away from him, clutching my phone tightly for reassurance. You could get sent to prison for this, a void whispers snidely at the back of my mind. Well you're the one who was encouraging this stupidity, I snap back at myself, and shake my head when I realise I'm talking to myself. Focus Jade. Entertaining the voices in my head won't make a good cover story in court when the judge wants to know what the hell possessed me to carry out an underwear robbery. After glancing up at the windows to make sure no one was watching me, I dart across the garden and run to the side of the house where there is a gate leading into the back garden. I push it open and walk down the path until I'm directly under his window. "Well I'm screwed," I mumble to myself, acknowledging that I wasn't Spider-Man and most certainly couldn't climb up walls. I consider giving up and saying it's impossible as an excuse, when I see the dark vines trailing up the walls. I warily place my foot on a twist of vine, and balance my weight on it. It doesn't snap to my relief, and I slowly haul myself up so my foot's caught up in the next hold. It's like gym class all over again. No, not reassuring, because I fell off the climbing wall and sprained my wrist during gym class. Maybe it was a sign to stop being idiotic and get down. But I might as well finish this dare now I had gotten this far. I climb up slowly, and yelp in surprise when I nearly slip on a loose piece of vine. After several near death experiences, and a lot of internal yelling at myself for being suicidal, my fingers clamp onto the windowsill and I pull myself up so I'm perching carefully on it. Don't look down, don't look down, I chant repeatedly in my head as I fumble with the clasp on the window. The curtains were shut so I didn't know if anyone was in, but that's what I was going for. The window opens to my surprise, and I let out a silent chorus of victory before remembering that it wasn't over. I still needed the underwear as evidence. I swing my legs over behind the curtain so I'm sitting inside but the curtain is hiding me. I slowly peek around it to see if anyone's inside. The lights are off, so it takes my eyes some time to adjust but when they do I can't make anyone out in the darkness. The bed sheets are untidy and pulled back; everything else in the room unmoving. "Thank god," I breathe, pushing aside the curtain and jumping down onto to the floor. I leave the window open for a quick getaway, and look inside what I assume is the bathroom. No one was in there either. So he was out at a party, or doing whatever people with social lives did. Great, just steal the boxers, and run away. He would never suspect me, some girl he didn't know existed, would steal them. I pull out my phone, and start the recording. I leave flash off, because even though the quality wasn't as good I wasn't risking it. "So I'm in," I whisper into the camera, carefully stepping over a pile of clothes on the floor. "Trystan isn't in here, and I climbed up to his room! See I may have nearly killed myself in gym but I'm not all that bad." "This place is a mess," I mutter into the camera, placing my hand on his drawers so I don't walk into them. "Now Keeley, I'm going to have to find the underwear section. You happy? I've lowered myself to a perverted teenage girl trying to find his boxers. Which is you, by the way." The first draw was a messy jumble of clothes, which by holding up in front of the camera I identify as shirts. "If this is his underwear I would be worried," I wonder aloud, shutting the door and opening the next one. It takes me five minutes to get through all the drawers, and none of them held any underwear. Time was running out and soon enough he would get home, and find some random girl looking through his things. I kept up the commentary while searching, because for some reason I felt comforted talking to myself. I'm a weird person, I know. After tripping over yet another object on the floor, I resist screaming in frustration. "This is unacceptable! Even Callum doesn't live in a pig sty like this," I grumble, referring to my older brother. As I shine the camera over the bed - I turned flash on because I decided getting caught is better then killing myself on another random shoe lying on the floor - the light passed over a lacy bra. "Oh Trystan you dirty animal," I say into the camera, shaking my head even though you couldn't see me. I was wasting time, but I just had to stop on the bra. "I sincerely hope you haven't been cross dressing, because it would just ruin your reputation," I giggle, imagining the football star posing in front of the mirror in a bra and knickers. "Now that would be a sight to see." At last I find the wardrobe, and chucked on the floor of them are piles of black and white boxers. Fifteen minutes had passed according to my phone, and I really needed to get out of here now. "Oh gross I do not want to touch those," I pull a face, a disturbing thought passing my mind. Who knows if those are clean or dirty? Oh please shut up, no one asked you. Yeah I'm crazy. I bend down, and using my pointer finger and thumb gingerly pick up a black boxer, holding it up in from of the camera. "And there you have it, the famous boxers of Trystan Woods," I announce, pushing the wardrobe doors shut and turning away. "If you're wondering why I picked black it's because it blends in with the dark and also - " Voices stop me short, and I freeze where I am, underwear in hand and phone letting off a bright light. "Shit." The voice at the back of my mind was telling me to drop everything and jump out of the window. But I valued my life, no matter how screwed I was right now, and the voice was usually wrong anyway. The voices were getting closer and I could identify them as male, which was not helping. I jump to duck down under his bed, just as the door opens and a yellow light floods the room. I hadn't gotten down in time. I knew I hadn't, because one of the voices had abruptly stopped talking about some redheaded girl in a black dress. Details that didn't matter, now that I was going to die of embarrassment. I slowly sit up from beside the bed, meeting the shocked gazes of two teenage boys who I recognised immediately. The first one was Trystan Woods, who was staring at me as if I had grown another head. The other one was his best friend, Finn Walters. Trystan had many friends, but it was a well known fact him and Finn were inseparable. He was also staring at me, but his lips were curved up in a small smirk. "Well, looks like we've got a fan, Trystan." "We? This is my room Finn, nice try," Trystan scoffs, surprise leaving his face to be replaced by a confident expression. "So. Want to tell me how you got into my room at 11:00 in the night?" "Um..." A sudden thought distracts me from the situation at hand. Why didn't I just take Callum's underwear? I could have pretended to go down the road, sneak back into my house, run into his room and easily take one of his boxers and claimed it was Trystan's. God you're so stupid, the voice patronises me. "Excuse me?" Trystan raises an eyebrow and I realise with horror I had said that out loud. "How can you call me stupid when you're some creepy stalker girl?" he says angrily, furrowing his eyebrows. "And is that your underwear dude?" Finn adds, his hazel eyes wandering over to my right hand. I realise with a jolt I was still clutching Trystan's boxers, and I immediately drop them as if they had burnt me. "Okay wow, this looks really bad but just let me explain," I blurt out quickly, standing up and backing away from them. You could still jump out of the window, the voice offers. No. Shut up, me. "So basically, we were playing truth or dare, and then it landed on me and I picked dare because you know I always do. Wait, you don't know that. Never mind. Anyway, Keeley dared me to steal your underwear, because I think she has some hormonal crush on you but decided to use me for it. I couldn't say no because it's a dare, and my reputation would shatter if I refused it. So I came to your house, and I only know where you live because I drive past your house everyday. I climbed up your wall and the window was open, and I was just on my way out when you made an appearance. That's pretty much it." After my stupid speech, I know Trystan thinks I'm absolutely crazy. Hell, I'm convinced I'm crazy at this point. He's staring at me with wide eyes, but I can see amusement in them. Finn on the other hand is full out smirking at me. "Look if you want s*x then just ask, you don't need to break into my room," Trystan says arrogantly, stepping towards me. "And steal my underwear," he adds. I open my mouth to reply, but nothing comes out. My mind was blank, because I didn't know how to respond to such an open suggestion. Finn took my silence the wrong way though. "Dude look how desperate she is," he chuckles, shaking his head. "Give me a chance after will you? Her choice of clothing commendable as well." I instinctively look down at what I'm wearing, and cringe in embarrassment. My sweater is bright blue colour, dotted with red hearts and my sweatpants are riddled with holes at my knees. How did I not notice this before? "Um... Thanks," I squeak out, feeling my face heat up. "And I don't want to have s*x with you!" "Sure," Trystan rolls his eyes, looking down on me. "You're just a creepy stalker girl. The first one who's actually managed to get in though, I'll give you that." "No, I was - " "And she was so close to getting away with the underwear." "Actually - " "Not to mention she got a nice picture," Finn says, motioning to my phone clutched in my hand. I'm freaking out inside my head, and this itself was a bad thing. When I panic I do stupid things, things that I will regret later. Finn and Trystan are still discussing casually about my underwear fetish - that I didn't have by the way, and nothing I said would convince them other wise. So I did the only reasonable thing I could think of in the situation. I bolt towards the window, shove the curtain aside and practically throw myself down the wall. I hear yells of surprise as Finn's head looks out of the window, and I scramble down the ivy. "Hey wait! Hold up stalker girl!" he yells, waving his hand. "I'm not a stalker!" I yell back, jumping down and stumbling back into the fence. That was quick, the voice admits as I give the ivy one last look. I had gotten down surprisingly fast for my athletic self, but I didn't have time to dwell on that. I sprint out into the front garden, and I'm surprised to see Jordan sleeping outside the garden. Wait,scrap that. This is Jordan we're talking about, of course I'm not surprised. I violently shake his shoulder, my eyes darting up to the house. "Wha... Where am I?" he mumbles sleepily, but I pull him to his feet and drag him down the street before he can say anything else. "Jade?" "Shut up and run! Trystan caught me and thinks I'm a stalker girl who wants to have s*x with him!" I hiss under my breath, feeling a stitch coming up my side. I was shockingly unfit, it was unbelievable. "He mistook you for Keeley!" Jordan exclaims, easily keeping up with my pathetic running which was slowing down. "Did you get the underwear?" "No! I was too busy getting the hell out of there!" We slow down after running for a few minutes, mainly because I was ready to collapse right there and fall asleep. Jordan waits patiently for me to catch my breath, waving pleasantly at a man who was jogging past. He gives us a weird look, and crosses the road to avoid us. "Who goes jogging this late?" Jordan asks nobody in particular. We walk the rest of the way to my house, and my adrenaline rush was leaving me. I push what just happened out of my mind, knowing I was going to have to deal with it tomorrow. "Stupid dare," I grumble, trudging up the path to my house. "Technically you didn't even complete the dare," Jordan says, not unkindly but as if he was stating a fact. I don't bother replying. I don't ring the bell in case it woke up my parents or brother, but instead knock lightly so only Keeley and Cameron would hear. Keeley throws the door open immediately, a bright grin on her face. Cameron was standing behind her, looking curious and slightly worried and also eager to hear the story of how I embarrassed myself monumentally. "Took you long enough!" Cameron huffs, as Jordan and I walk in and shut the door behind us. The warmth welcomes me, and I feel even more sleepy. "So what happened?" "Details woman!" Keeley shakes my shoulders, and I swat her hand away. "Wait... you don't have anything. Did you chicken out? The great dare devil give up?" "No," I snap, feeling annoyed she would question me after I went through all of that. "I was basically out of the room when Trystan came home with Finn," I explain quickly, but Keeley didn't look satisfied. "Finn Walters?" I nod at Cameron's question. He let's out a low whistle, and I could see a small smile on his face. "You got caught by the two most popular kids in our school stealing underwear. Busted." "I'm hoping they'll think it was a dream and forget the whole thing. It's not like they know who I am," I say, trying to sound hopeful but I knew it was pointless. It was going to spread around like wildfire and soon enough Trystan or Finn would figure out who I was. Jordan opens his mouth to say something, but I cut him off with my hand. "I'll answer all your questions about I've just ruined any chance of a social life," I say, and then add, "in the morning. I'm tired and going to sleep." "Fine," Keeley says in defeat, and the other three follow me into the living room. I fall onto the sofa, not even bothering to grab my duvet. I could hear the others talking quietly about something that was most likely my disastrous dare but I didn't listen, because the moment I close my eyes I'm in dreamland.