Murray Peterson 
Double Dare 

They looked at each other, she semi-naked on the bed, him standing with arms crossed over his bare chest. Neither knew what to say. "I give up, " Jim said finally. He switched the light off, but before he could walk out and close the door behind him, Helena called, "Jim!" "Yeah?" "I lied." "What?" "I lied, when we were kids and we played truth or dare. I never liked Kyle." He stood in the doorway, unsure how to respond. Jim remembered how disappointed he had been when he believed his best friend liked his older brother and not him. He had believed she would never like him, not like how he had liked her. Why would she lie about liking Kyle? And then Jim laughed, as in an instant, something that he’d thought was fundamentally true about his life–that Helena would never like him in any other way than as a friend–was blown apart. Suddenly, the world held millions of new possibilities. "Well, you know the rules; if you lie, it becomes a "A double dare, " she laughed, "I was hoping you’d forget that." Jim stood motionless, wrapped in a towel, thinking what possible dare he could come up with right at that moment.