Page 14 of Daring You

“God…fuck.” Astor gives up, wraps the sheet around herself and goes to the door. She avoids brushing against any part of me as she does so.

“What, Marcia?” she says as she swings the door open.

“We got reports of—oh. Ben Donahue. Hi. Hi.”

The RA, Marcia, I guess her name is, flutters her porcelain doll green eyes at me as she steps into the room.

“Hey,” I say reluctantly. “What’d you get reports of? Astor and I were kind of in the middle of something.”

“Right,” Marcia says, taking her time assessing the sheet wrapped around Astor’s body. “Great game yesterday, by the way. I didn’t know you were here….anyway. Yes. Reports of weed. In this room.”

“Huh?” Astor and I say at the same time.

And right at that moment, at that terrible, black second of reality, I see the shadow behind Marcia.

“Hue, buddy! How’s it hangin?”

Dodge’s scrawny form steps out from behind Marcia. His face is worse for wear, but no worse than the rest of him.

I unclench my jaw. This boy isn’t going to see any reaction from me. I say to Marcia, “You know what that kind of accusation does to a guy like me?”

“I—like I said, I didn’t know you were here,” Marcia says. “You sure this is where you got the weed?” she asks Dodge.

“You’re going to believe a guy like him?” I ask.

I’m being aggressive, potentially frightening the girl, but I can’t think of anything else to get them both out of the room. Now. Before Astor speaks. Before Dodge is given time to say any fucking thing he wants.

“More like, is she going to believe a guy like you?” Dodge says, smiling with pure evil. When his milky gaze slides to Astor, I say frantically, “Astor, whatever this dude says, he’s lying. Okay? He’s lying.”

Astor’s hands are shaking as she clutches her sheets, but she’s looking at me like I have all the answers. “What’s going on?”

“You did it, man. Congratulations. You did the dare,” Dodge says.

A gong show could’ve happened in this room, and nobody would’ve noticed. Marcia glances between all of us.

“Is there actually weed here? Or is this—omigod, it is! It’s one of your famous pranks, right Ben? I heard about this. The girls on this floor talk about it all the time. All the crazy shit you guys get up to on campus. I can’t believe…can I get a picture? Can we…” She trails off, finally considering Astor, frail and hunched over despite her height, cowering in white sheets. “Omigod. You’re the dare. You’re Ben’s latest conquest.”

“She certainly is!” Dodge crows. “Well done, man. Tell me, did any of her zits puss while you fucked her?” He thrust his hips, having sex with the air. “Pop-pop-pop-pop!”

There’s a camera flash. Marcia actually has the balls to take a fucking picture.

“GET OUT!” I roar, and she drops her phone as she fumbles with fear. “Get the fuck out! Both of you!”

Astor, finding some semblance of herself, grabs the phone off the floor, and after a few thumb taps on it, opens up the sole window in the room and throws it outside.

“Hey!” Marcia says.

“Go get it,” Astor says. “And take your little bitch with you.”

“You talkin’ to me?” Dodge points at his chest. “That’s not right, considering you’re the bitch who only got fucked on a dare.”

Dodge barely gets the last part out, since I’m tossing him through the door by his throat. He enjoys every second, laughing, spitting, guttural with mirth.

“Well done, dude. Your secret’s safe with me,” Dodge says, but I slam the door in his face.

“Astor,” I say.

“You, too,” she says flatly, looking to the floor. “You need to leave.”

---