Troubled

TWENTY SIX

KYLE GARCIA

My eye brows shot up as she took a shot. I guess I wasn't actually expecting her to take it, after all she was the only one that protested against alcohol. I guess the identity of whoever was the eye must be kept a secret. I could have asked any question, any question at all. But that was question that somehow took importance in the moment.

"Whoa, she actually did take a shot?" Xander asked as he strolled down with a batman T shirt and a plain black short. A towel was draped on his head.

"Yeah, I guess she isn't big into truths." I say as I watch her.

She wore her usual blank expression, but she was blinking twice as much as she did before.

"It's your turn." She tells me.

"Truth or dare?" Her voice was void of emotion as she asked.

I was actually nervous because of that one, with her, I could never know what to expect. She was very unpredictable.

"Truth." Call me a coward but I didn't want to be dared to go home.

"What about me piqued your interest?" She asked me.

I blanked for a minute, I had said she piqued me interest the time I first saw her.

"Your beauty? Your conspicuousness? I'm not sure, but something about you intrigued me."

She swallowed. I guess she wasn't expecting me to answer.

"Who am I supposed to ask now?" Xander asked. He was oblivious to the staring contest we were having now. Her eyes held a lot of things, I didn't know how to decipher them, so I look away first.

"You can ask me." I tell Xander.

"Truth or dare?"

"Dare." I grinned. He won't dare me to go home, I was sure of it.

"I dare you to do a free style rap."

I laugh, why would he think of that?

"I am so bad at rap."

He laughed too,

"But it's a dare, or you'll take a shot."

"I don't have a beat." I try to argue.

"I can find one." Cora said while scrolling through her phone.

I was surprised.

"What model of phone is that?" I ask because I'm genuinely curious.

"I know right, I asked her that too."

"Not every one has money to throw around like you kids." She said casually while searching through the phone.

I felt a pang of guilt.

"Found one. Stop looking at me like that. It was a joke. I don't have a reason to use my phone so I see no reason to change it." She says after seeing the apparent look of guilt on my face.

She pressed play on the song and I listened for a bit before trying to jump on the beat.

"Yeah no I can't do that." I say before taking a shot.

I grimaced a little. Cora made it look like she was drinking juice. It was bitter.

She paused the song before slipping her phone back into her pocket.

"It's my turn to ask Cora." Xander says excitedly.

"Truth or dare?"

"Truth."

"What is your worst fear?"

She answered without thinking,

"Letting it control me."

"What's it?" Xander asked.

"It's not your turn yet." She tells him with a straight face.

"It's my turn to ask you, truth or dare?"

Xander smiled,

"Dare."

"Eat a spoonful of jalapeno."

Xander pouted. I didn't expect her to give him that, if it were me, that's a different story.

She shrugged and Xander walked into the kitchen, he picked up the bottle and brought spoon with him. I ran to bring in cubes of ice, he will be crying for it.

"I don't like you so much right now Cora." He says before putting a spoonful. I wince. That was such a terrible idea.

"Just take a shot." I advise.

He closed his eyes before taking a spoonful. He ran to the kitchen, I hear him wretching.

"He's so brave." I say.

"He was foolish." She shrugged.

Maybe she didn't have emotions. If she didn't have emotions, my work was going to be a lot tougher.

"Ice would make it worse, give him milk."

I walk to the kitchen fridge and pass him the milk. He gurgled the milk like his life depended on it.

My eyes roll to where she sat, she didn't even turn to look at him. Didn't she care?

"You told him to eat the pepper, you can't even check on him?"

"It was a game of choice, it was his choice to eat the pepper. But he had to prove himself to you. You cannot blame me actually."

I blinked. How detached could she be?

"Are you f*****g serious? He is your friend for crying out loud."

"Like I said, game of choice. Would he have set himself on fire if I told him to? He could taken a shot."

I couldn't understand this girl.

"So you would leave your friends once they make bad choices? Are you even his friend?"

She shrugged lightly, her face expressionless.

"You're doing enough caring for both of us. Besides I offered the idea of milk."

I laugh, but this time it was bitter.

"You must think you're all that huh?"

"I don't think anything. Kyle you're making this a bigger issue than it seems. Is your problem the fact that I sat here while you helped him out with my idea?"

Her comment was sharp and witty.

"And what if I wasn't here, who would help him then?"

"He wouldn't have taken the pepper, like I said he did that to appease you because for some reason the rest of the zombie fied class mates have made you a subject to look unto. Something they want to appease, for no reason if you ask me."

"So you're punishing him for doing that?"

"No, actions have consequences, his action, his consequences."

Her facial muscles remained the same while we went back and forth. While me on the other hand, I was seething. I was shaking in anger. How could someone be that.. apathetic?

"You know he lost his friends just to be yours right?"

"That's not even in the context of this conversation. Should I bow to him and treat him like God because he left his friends to be mine?"

My jaw dropped open. She did not just say that.

A cackle left my throat. Dry and painful.

"And this is why the whole school f*****g hates you."

Silence.

She picked up her bag and walked out the front door without a word.