Eternal Sunshine ✓

12. Dare Night: Stay Woke

"So y'all telling me that the rumors about Dare Night are all a hoax?"

The three boys laughed at Tasha's surprised face. "Not exactly a hoax, but the rumors that say it's dangerous and illegal are fake," Nelson answered.

"But... how?" Tasha questioned, emptying a bag of hot Cheetos into a bowl.

Malik, who was moving the furniture in the living room paused and answered, "So when we first thought about Dare Night, we told people about it and somehow word spread that it involved illegal shit. It got people excited so we never corrected them."

"And," Steven added, "after the invited people actually learned the true events of Dare Night, they never brought up the fact that the rumors weren't true."

Tasha's eyebrows were raised in surprise. "Wow, I bet they so excited to be kicking it with y'all that they don't care."

Nelson shook his head with a smirk. "I mean we're cool and all, but the reason Dare Night became so talked about is because of the exclusivity. People wanna be part of it cause not everyone can."

Steven agreed, "Yeah, it makes them feel special. Better. More important."

Tasha was still confused. "But what do y'all get out of it? I mean, it's not like y'all get paid or anything..."

There was a moment of silence, where she noticed that Nelson and Malik's gaze went straight to Steven, as if he held the answers she was looking for. Unknown to her, he did.

To put it plainly, Dare Night had started as a means for Steven to be noticed by Tasha. His freshman year, he was looking for a way to be noticed by her without talking directly to her because he wasn't ready for that yet.

So, once he and his friends gained popularity from Dare Night and their basketball skills, he still needed a way to talk to Tasha without looking thirsty or coming off weird.

His young mind told him that the only way to come off "normal" to Tasha was to personally invite her to Dare Night and make sure that she actually showed up so they would get to know each other.

Long story short, Tasha outright rejected Steven, but on the upside, Steven now had excuse for talking to her-he constantly invited her to Dare Night. That branched out to become Steven just continuously teasing and annoying her. Dare Night was essentially what opened Steven up to constantly being in Tasha's face.

Tasha looked patiently between the three friends. "So? What's the tea? Any of you guys gonna answer? Why do y'all still do Dare Night? You must be getting something out of it."

Nelson coughed, automatically excluding himself from answering. Malik, who was trying to act unaware of Tasha's questions, started moving furniture again, getting out of answering too.

Tasha turned to Steven, who was scratching his head with an awkward smile on his lips. "Uh, we still do it cause it just became sort of a... How can I put it?" He thought real quick of a lie to save him. "...A tradition. Yeah, something we want to remember when we get old."

Tasha totally fell for it. "Awww," she looked at them with awe and admiration. "That's so nice, it's like y'alls own thing!"

Malik rolled his eyes at Steven without Tasha's knowledge but nodded and smiled at her. "Yeah, I guess it is."

...

DARE NIGHT

"Welcome, everyone to Dare Night! Today is our fourth year anniversary and we just destroyed East Central!"

People cheered in excitement, both from Dare Night's fourth year anniversary and especially from the win against East Central High School.

Steven continued talking after the crowd settled down, "In celebration of today's occasion, we have an extra special and different approach for tonight's DN."