The guysโthey dared me. And in my group that was a big deal. If you said no to a dare, the shit rained down on you for at least two months. One time our friend Brian came home to find goldfish swimming in the water bottles in his fridge after he said no to a dare. That was just the beginning for him. The next week he woke up without an eyebrow. Then came the worst of all. The other guys told the new girl he'd just started dating that he had herpes.
The poor girl bolted harder and faster than an unbroken mare. The sad thing about Brian's girl was that she was the first girl he'd actually liked in two years. And it was over in half a minute. Relationship ended. Dust.
Knowing my friends' habits made this particular dare even more frightening. They wanted me to make out with some random girl I'd never metโand I had to say yes without seeing a photo. They would give me an address. That's all. The question wasโwhat was wrong with her?
Besides the obvious questions about whether or not I'd find her attractive, numerous questions bombarded me. Did she have uncontrollable acne? Halitosis? Or maybe she was just bitchy and the other guys wanted to get back at her for some perceived slight. Either way, I felt some fear and assumed the worst. Let's face it, bad breath sucks.
"Okay, I'll do it," I said. Last month I put Brian through the ringer and a bet, and I needed to maintain the upper hand. Really, I didn't have a choice. "So what are the parameters of the bet? What do I have to do to win?"
"You get to the house," Brian said, "you knock on the door. The moment she opens the door, you step inside and kiss her. No introductions. After the first kiss you can talk, but you can't leave until at least fifteen minutes of a make out session."
I watched the other guys carefully. Fifteen minutes didn't seem so bad. There had to be something more to it. Why would they dare me to do this? It was then I finally realized what a bunch of pricks my friends were.
Brian caught me looking at the other guys. "Look that's it," he said. "Fifteen minutes of make-out."
"Nothing else?" I asked. "Nothing beyond kissing? Anything like that?"
The guys shook their heads.
"I'll text you her address on the way out," Brian said. "You better get to it." He pulled out his phone.
I stood to leave, and the other guys and the other guys squealed at me with their high-pitched piggy voices, "She's expecting you, Tombstone! Make the little girl happy!"
I gave them the finger. Brian's text came before I even reached my car. Apparently the girl's name was Sybrina. She lived two towns over and I had twenty minutes to decide if I really had the balls to finish the dare or not. But in my heart I knew I wouldn't back down. Even so, it took me just over 23 minutes to leave the sports bar at 1:37 am in the morning and arrive at a brand spanking new house in a new subdivision at 2:01 am. I parked in the empty driveway. For minutes my knees shook in nervous anxiety.
I wondered what the worst that could happen was? No hygiene may have been the worst thing I thought of.
A couple of deep breaths later and I was knocking on the door. I waited, holding my breath. No one came. I did my duty, and I could leave. A part of me wanted to run like hell. Getting set up was never fun, and somehow, the entire bet felt like getting set up to the extreme.
Right before I turned away, I remembered how bad the guys retaliated after a failed bet, so I knocked again. I chose not to let the guys harass me for not doing my due diligence.
This time I heard footsteps. A shadow passed in front of the peep hole, and then the door swung open. Without thinking I stepped inside, caught a flash of black sweats and a black tank top in the low amber light, and leaned over to kiss the short girl who answered the door. The kiss lasted ten or twelve seconds, and my heartbeat at an accelerated pace the entire time. There was even a slight electric tingle.
Finally she broke away and I could see her dark features. Olive skin, brown eyes, black hair pinched into a ponytail.
"Wow, that was unexpected," she said. "But nice."
I took the rest of her in. A sort of plain woman stood in front of me, looking up at me with a quizzical look. The girl was thick, and I immediately knew I lucked out. One of the other guys, Dave, would say she was fat, but would have all fucked her in a second. But what did he know? He liked his girls built like boys. For me, her femininity shone through.
The coup de grace for her body, though, was her enormous rack. I made it a point not to stare at the cleavage at the top of her tank top.
"Do you want to come in?" she asked.
I nodded. We made it to the living room and onto a brown leather sofa. She brought me a glass of water and had one for herself.
"I can't believe I'm doing this," I said. "I've never been set up on a date, let alone a make-out session."
"Is that how they billed this to you?" Sybrina asked. "A make-out session? I just wanted someone to chill with and maybe watch a movie. Brian said they'd send someone by. Of course he said that I'd have to make-out for fifteen minutes for him to do it."
Her response told me a lot about how my friends operated. Maybe I didn't want to be their friends if they were going to coerce people into physical intimacy.
"He must have some kind of dirt on you," I said. "I mean, if he's going to con you into making out with perfect strangers."
Sybrina took a sip of water from her glass. I knew from the gesture that he did have some dirt on her and he wanted to make both of us squirm. It worked until I got here.
"That was an okay kiss, when you kissed me right there," she said. She was now smiling, her lips hidden partially by the water glass raised to her mouth.
I thought about it for a minute. It was an okay kiss, but then I thought about it even more.
"I didn't think you'd kiss me right away," she said.
The moment she said it, I had a realization.
"Wait, you kissed me," I said. Although the kiss took place moments before, in memory I thought she'd kissed me.
Her jaw dropped. "No you kissed me. But let's not argue about it. Do you want to go in the bedroom? It's more comfortable to watch a movie in there."