Truth or Dare

By Madeline Clapps

Precaution is better than cure.
~Edward Coke

In fifth grade, I really wanted to be Allison's friend. She seemed to know a lot of things I didn't. Allison had an older brother and a big house, and a really sarcastic sense of humor that you didn't want directed at you. What else did Allison have? A giant slumber party for her birthday in her finished basement, complete with snacks and foosball and what promised to be a pretty exciting round of Truth or Dare. I seriously wanted to be on Allison's good side.

I was a hopeless romantic, even from kindergarten. I never had a lot of luck with diaries, but every few months I would start a new one when the agony of love was just too much to bear. "Today, Kevin came in with a haircut, and it was AMAZING," I would write. Or, "James said he would play tag with me at recess and then he DIDN'T! I am so mad at him!" In that regard, Allison had something else to offer me — she was friends with most of the boys in our grade, and she really liked to talk about it. Staying up late listening to music and discussing which boys we liked was my all-time favorite activity. For this, I would follow Allison to the ends of the earth.

One day, Allison came over to my desk to talk about the sleepover we were having that night. She said she had something awesome planned, something she had done before. "We're going to talk to guys... online," she said. "We chat with them, and we flirt with them."

"Are these boys from our class?" I asked, always looking for an opportunity to "accidentally" let slip my latest crush. I mean, if they didn't know I liked them, how would they know to like me, right?

"No, I don't even know them," Allison answered. "They're just random guys. We go online and find them and then talk about kissing them and stuff."

Something didn't feel right. It was one thing to want Jeff to know I thought he was cute. It was another to talk to some random guy online. I may have been a fifth grader, but I was still a straight-A student. How did we know these guys were our age? How did we know it was safe?

But still — I wanted to be Allison's friend. I wasn't going to be Allison's friend if I always chose "Truth" in Truth or Dare, and I wasn't going to be Allison's friend if I didn't do this thing with her. It was that kind of situation. "Okay," I said. "Sounds awesome."

That night, I was packing up my things to go over to Allison's house. I knew my mom had a strong distrust of Allison's parents and thought they were totally weird. I usually tried not to add fuel to the fire, but something just didn't feel right.

"I think we're going to make friendship bracelets," I said to my mom, "so I need to bring my string with me."

"Mmmhmm," my mom answered, otherwise occupied with making dinner.

"And then we're going to go online and chat with some boys. It's not that big a deal, just like, flirting and stuff."

"What was that?" My mom put down her knife. "Do you know these boys?"

"Well, no, they're just random guys, but it's fine. Allison said she's done it before."

My mom didn't think it was fine, not even a little bit. And I kind of knew it wasn't fine... that was why I told her. When my mom dropped me at Allison's house that night, she went in to talk to Allison's mom while I ran upstairs to get settled. My stomach was in knots. Allison would definitely know that I told on her and she would never want to be my friend now. I was pretty sure our friendship was over. I was pathetic, and she would laugh at me.

"Hey," I said to Allison. "So... my mom found out we were going to chat with boys online tonight. She says we can't do it."

I waited for her response, my stomach doing flips.

"Whatever," Allison said. "Do you want to watch a movie?"

I was stunned. She didn't care at all.

That night, we didn't touch the computer. We made popcorn, watched a movie, and listened to music. In the morning, my mom picked me up. Allison never mentioned it again. I know now that what I did was right — no friendship is worth doing something unsafe and wrong.

And you know what? I was invited to her big slumber party after all. It was awesome.

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