Straight and Fast (Looking For Alaska)

Straight and Fast

Pudge picked the Colonel and I up at their room. We walked down to the bridge and Pudge told us the story of his little rendezvous with Lara.

I thought it was cute-young love. And Pudge looks adorable with Lara.

"I can't believe it, twice in one day," the Colonel said.

"Technically, just once," I corrected. Lara didn't do it right the first time.

"Still."

"Poor Colonel," I said with a smile.

§

That night, Pudge and Colonel came down to my room. We were celebrating our Barn Night success. This would be the first night the Colonel and I were celebrating with Pudge.

I offered him some wine, but he settled for pretzels. So I broke out some paper cups and the Colonel and I started drinking the wine.

"We're classin' it up tonight!" the Colonel said.

"It's an old Southern drinking contest," I said, "We's gonna treat Pudge to an evening of Southern living. We gonna match each other cup to cup until the lesser drinker falls."

And that's what we did. We drank and drank and drank some more. We only stopped to turn the lights out at 11:00 so the Eagle wouldn't stop by.

We chatted a little, the Colonel and I did most of the talking, Pudge mostly nodding and whispering a quiet 'yea' here and there.

I watched him study my Life Library, carefully looking at every book, every detail. He followed the stacks until his eye's gazed at the white tulips Jake gave me for our anniversary.

He asked me about them so I answered him in one swift sentence.

I continued conversing, but this time with the Colonel. We talked about middle school and games. Then, we started talking about Truth or Dare. Mostly, we just rambled on about our theories-if it faded out or not.

"Pudge isn't listening," I said.

"I'm listening," he said.

"We were talking about Truth or Dare. Played out in seventh grade or still cool?" I thought it was still acceptable to play, but I was drunk so what did I know.

"Never played it," he said. "I had no friends in seventh grade." I felt a little bad for him. Not that I was the most popular girl in school but at least I had friends. Pudge didn't. And for that reason, I almost pitied him, and Alaska Young's pity is not easily earned.

"Well that does it!' I yelled, probably a little too loud, but I didn't care. "Truth or Dare!"

I watched Pudge as he briefly considered it. His expression was barely noticeable due to the darkness that engulfed the room.

"All right," he agreed hesitantly. "But I'm not making out with the Colonel."

I nodded slightly, though he probably couldn't see. That would have been a good one.

"Can't make out," the Colonel said from the corner, "Too drunk." That reminded me of freshman year here at Culver Creek. On my 5th day here, I took the Colonel-who, at the time, was Chip-into the woods and we sat down with a bottle of liquor I stole from my dad before I left and talked. We shared our life story with each other and then just like that, we became friends. We became friends over a bottle of liquor and our deepest secrets.

I took a swig of wine and said, "Truth or Dare, Pudge."

I always thought that Truth or Dare showed what kind of person you were. If you picked Truth, you most likely played life safe and you probably didn't have a whole lot of trust with whoever you were playing the game with. If you Dare, you were a risk taker. You travel the risky path, not knowing what will happen or what you will encounter, but you take it anyway. Not knowing is what most people are afraid of. Also, you have deep, dark secrets that you can't risk sharing.