Taking His Dare

Chapter Three

Chapter Three

I remember when Rut started going downhill.

It began freshmen year, when his parents started hounding him about getting serious about school or they would have to take ‘drastic measures.’ Rut was always serious, though; always the one to strive to do his best in anything he did. When he told his parents this, they told him his best wasn’t good enough for them. 

It tore Rut up inside, like it would any other child. Rut was hard on himself, though, and tried to make his best better. He would stay up all night studying, join every sport, club, and extracurricular activity he could, volunteer, attend his parent’s dinner parties, and somehow find time to hang out with me in between it all.  He worked himself so much he eventually became the empty shell he is today, and when things go bad for him, he tries to forget it by using his Extremely Idiotic Homemade Remedies. I’d like to say that talking to me helped him, but Rut was never one to share his feelings or troubles often, so rather than talking it out he tried to bury it with drugs, alcohol, girls, and the high he got from daring people.

His parents never softened up on him, they only became stricter with every new thing Rut did. With college so close now, they were at their worst. Rut never had the caring parents who loved their child for who he was, but for what he did to rival their socialite friend’s kids. His parent’s don’t know what he does to help himself, but if they did they would surely disown him. That’s why I have to be there for him, so when he gets bad and fall apart, I can pick up the pieces.

                                                                                ~~~~~~~

Walking out to the parking lot at the end of the day, I spotted Rut’s Hummer already running—well, actually, I heard it. He had rap blasting again.

When I reached it, I knocked on the window, letting him know I was here and to unlock the doors. When I heard the click, I opened the door and climbed in. He drove out of the school lot as I put my seatbelt on and turned the radio down.

“You know what will happen in you keep playing this stuff around me,” I told him. He smiled slightly, but said nothing. I knew he remembered, but I refreshed his memory anyway.

“I’ll be forced to rap along. I’ll know all the lyrics, and won’t be able to help myself. And you know how good I am at singing, can you imagine rapping?” I was a terrible singer. I liked to think I’m  tone deaf, and told my mom this once when I was singing along to Aerosmith in the car, but she said I was just heartbroken that I wasn’t as talented as Steven Tyler and had to stop coming up with excuses for it.

Rut laughed through his nose, and shut the radio off completely. He must need to tell me something important, he usually waits until we get to my house to talk.

“I need to tell you something.” He was stalling? He would normally just come out and say whatever he had to.

“I know.” If I looked closely enough at his face, he almost looked a little nervous.

“I…” He paused again. This was so unlike him.

“You what? You know you can tell me,” I said to reassure him.

“I know. I just…it’s…. You know what? Never mind,” he said, becoming frustrated with himself. I wasn’t going to let it drop that easy, though.

“What?! No! You just can’t start to tell me something and then stop! It will eat at me until I know!”

“Dizzy, stop being so dramatic. I’ll tell you. Just not today,” he gave me a stern look, one that I knew meant drop it now or I’ll ram this car into a tree and you’ll never know.