To Dare

Jonny stood at his locker, staring blankly into its interior. It was far too early in the morning to think. And it was far too early in the morning to pay attention to anything that Chris was saying to him, all hyper and bubbly like always, but that didn't stop Chris from chatting on and on. Of course, Chris did realize that his talking was pointless, and so he never mentioned anything of importance.

But this particular morning, Chris had a very serious subject which he wished to speak to Jonny about. It did make him rather nervous, though, so for a few minutes he actually said nothing. Jonny hardly noticed, lost in his own dream world.

Something brought Jonny back to the moment, and he figured that it was probably the eerie silence surrounding him. He slowly turned his head to make sure that Chris was still standing there, and he was, very pale and wide-eyed. He just blinked at Jonny a few times.

“Chris, are you feeling all right?” he asked, probably the first thing he had said since he had said goodbye to his mother as he left the house for school. “You look kinda...”

Jonny let his sentence trail off, and Chris cautiously nodded. He tried to muster as much courage as possible before answering with any actual words. He took a deep breath, though it didn't feel like much air had been taken in.

“I was just... wondering,” Chris began, his voice as shaky as his unstable legs at the moment. His fingers fiddled with the buttons on his jacket. “Well, are you doing anything Friday night?”

“No,” Jonny slowly and skeptically replied. “Why?”

“Um, you know- well, no, I guess you don't know, but I...” Chris tried to pull himself together, forced himself to make eye contact with Jonny even though it frightened him greatly to do so. “I was wondering if maybe you would want to, perhaps, say... um... go... on a date with me?”

Before the words even escaped his lips Chris could feel his cheeks heating up, burning bright red. He was even more afraid now of what he would see in Jonny's eyes, so he broke his gaze and stared down at his trembling hands. He had done it, it was over. He told himself that it shouldn't matter what the answer was. He could live with being rejected, after all-

“Sure,” Jonny quietly answered.

Chris was completely taken aback. His head shot up and his jaw dropped, and somewhere in the distance behind Jonny came a loud shout, “Oh my God!!”

Jonny spun around; not far from where he and Chris were standing was Guy, Will beside him, snickering. Guy stared at him with as much shock as Chris, maybe even a tad more.

“What's going on?” Jonny worriedly asked. He was starting to think that there was way more going on than he was aware of.

“You said yes! You actually said yes!!” Guy exclaimed, his eyes only increasing in size. “I didn't think you'd say yes...”

Will cut his laughter out long enough to at least moderately explain to Jonny. “We dared him to do it,” he said. “We dared him to ask you out.”

“I didn't think you'd say yes,” Guy defensively repeated.

Then suddenly Jonny felt like a complete idiot, and all he wanted to do was go hide somewhere and potentially stay there for the rest of his life. He couldn't even stand the thought of facing Chris again. The presence of Chris's hand on his shoulder did nothing to help. Jonny involuntarily turned, instantly regretting it, but it was too late to turn back.

“You would really go out with me?” Chris asked, his voice low in hope that Guy and Will would not hear.

Jonny shrugged a little. “Yeah.”

Chris smiled, pulling back his hand from Jonny's shoulder. “So, Friday's good for you?”

Jonny shook his head a bit to make sure that he wasn't simply imagining things. When he was convinced that all was real, he smiled back. “Friday's great.”

Chris had intended to reply, but he found himself to be entirely speechless. So for the next few moments, he and Jonny simply grinned at each other. In the background, Will scoffed.

“You know, I had a bad feeling that something like this was gonna end up happening,” he said. “Now they're gonna start dating and we'll constantly have to hear about it.”

“I think it's kinda cute,” Guy told Will. “I mean, look at them.” Will did as Guy suggested, and it seemed that Chris and Jonny had gone back to their usual positions, Jonny staring into his locker while Chris rambled in his ear. “They've been best friends for a lot longer than we've even known them. I think we may have actually helped them out.”

“Best friends doesn't mean shit,” Will retorted. “You and I've been best friends for as long as they have and we don't...”

Will's words became lost somewhere in the air, the awkward silence that consumed them hanging over the two boys like an extraordinarily heavy weight. Guy kept his focus on Chris and Jonny as a distraction, and Will just looked over to the wall that happened to be nowhere near Guy.

“I think I should be off to class now,” Guy said. He cleared his throat, scratched the back of his neck, and finally tore his eyes away from his other friends. “See you later.”

“Right,” Will lamely replied, and the two walked off in totally opposite directions despite their next classes being right beside each other.

“It was, like, the craziest thing I had ever heard- and, Jonny?” Jonny looked up and into Chris's big, blue eyes. “I'm really excited for Friday. I mean, it's only been a few minutes and I already can't stop thinking about it. Is it Friday yet?”

Jonny had to think for a moment. “Two days,” he said. He closed his locker and took a step closer to Chris. “It will come soon enough, don't worry.”

“I suppose. But in the meantime-” Chris leaned forward and quickly pecked Jonny on the cheek. “I'll walk you to your next class,” he brightly offered.

“All right,” Jonny replied. The two began to walk down the hallway, taking their time even though the bell was to ring in a very short amount of time. Neither of them had to speak, as it was plenty just to be near the other. And as they walked a little further, Jonny accidentally brushed his arm against Chris's, and somehow that action caused their hands to slide into each other's, and their fingers to lace.