Five Dares

by Eli Easton

  Now it was my turn to stare. “When you say ‘no using your hands,’ do you mean I won’t be able to type?”

  Dr. Benji laughed with genuine amusement. “Heavens no! Definitely no typing. That’s the last thing you should do. That would pull all kinds of skin and tendons.” He mocked typing in the air with delicate fingers. “Plus, it would hurt like a bear. No, you want to keep your hands as immobile as possible until your new skin is completely healed.”

  “Oh shit.” I wanted to cover my face with my hands, but just starting to bring them up reminded me of the inadvisability of that idea. And that made me realize how hard this was going to be. Every other minute I was going to start to do something only to realize I couldn’t do it. And that was just ordinary day-to-day stuff. That didn’t even touch on my job, which I was supposed to be starting in two weeks.

  For a moment I imagined myself showing up for work with my hands bandaged like this. Hey, here I am, reporting for duty! One small thing, though—I can’t type, hope that’s okay. Or hold a pen. Or open my desk drawers. Or even, you know, get inside the damn building, because I can’t grasp the door handle. Other than that, I’m raring to go!

  I closed my eyes and groaned. Dread and a sense of shame at having been very, very foolish prickled my neck and tightened my belly. I was so, so screwed. I was so getting Andy back for this.

  Only the moment I thought it, I realized something that hadn’t occurred to me: Andy had been holding firecrackers too.

  My eyes flew open. “Shit. My friend Andy. Is he okay? He didn’t lose any fingers, did he?” I couldn’t even imagine that. Andy was so physical. The entire world was like one huge game to him. If he didn’t have a ball of some sort in his hands, it was a stick or a dart or a bat. He had beautiful hands, crazy dexterous. Not that I thought a lot about my best friend’s hands.

  Okay, I did. I thought a lot about my best friend’s hands.

  Dr. Benji relieved my fears. “He’s in the same boat you are, pretty much.” He winked at me again. “Which means the two of you will need someone else to paddle.” He laughed, ho ho ho, at his own joke.

  This guy was a real comedian.

  “So he didn’t require skin grafts either?”

  “Not so far. And he won’t if he’s careful and follows doctor’s orders, just like you.” He gave me a warning glare that was as harmless as the bark of a Chihuahua. “Look at the bright side, though! Turns out you don’t have a concussion and you won’t have much scarring in the end. Cool, right?” He raised his hand up for a high five, and then, as if remembering I wasn’t supposed to move my hand, grimaced and dropped it again. “So, uh, yeah. See ya, sport. Okay? Hey, watch out for the lime Jell-O!”

  He walked out, laughing. Jesus Christ. Fucking modern healthcare.

  I lay in the hospital bed trying to figure out what the hell I was going to do now. I needed to call my sister, Sierra, and confess how royally I’d screwed up. She was two years older than me, and had helped me get a job as a programmer at the company where she worked, Neverware. And then what? I was supposed to move to California on Saturday. Could I even travel like this? No way could I move boxes or drive my car. Hell, I couldn’t even get my dick out of my pants to take a piss.

  Holy crap. How was I going to eat?

  It struck me that I was helpless as a baby. And that was for at least six weeks, maybe as long as eight. What was the point of going to California if I couldn’t work? A programmer needed to type. That was pretty much a minimum skill set right there. I couldn’t stay on campus, our place was already rented out to someone else. And wherever I landed, I’d need someone to take care of me.

  My summer was ruined. And maybe more than that too.

  On the bright side, I could ask the nurse to bring me a couple of servings of that lime Jell-O. Maybe I’d get lucky and that shit would kill me.

  Andy

  The first thing I saw when I woke up in the hospital was my dad. He was sitting in a chair drawn up close to my bed, watching me with a blank face.

  I closed my eyes again, inwardly groaning. Oh God, what had I done to deserve this hell? My hands were both bandaged and hurting. Worse, Jake was hurt too. I wasn’t even sure how badly he’d been hurt, because we’d been driven to the hospital in separate cars. The nurse in the ER told me he hadn’t lost any digits and was “doing as well as could be expected,” but I was still worried. Now on top of all that I had to deal with my father. Talk about a seriously crappy day.

  “I know you’re awake, Andrew. So you might as well stop pretending.”

  I opened my eyes. Looking at my dad was like looking into a mirror that aged me twenty-five years. His face had a few lines and his blond hair was gray at the temples, but mostly he seemed old because of the serious set of his . . . everything. He wore glasses and dress pants, a shirt, and a tie, even now. What was it, like, 8 a.m.? He and my mom had been at my graduation the day before, but drove home after the ceremony. It was a four-hour drive from our house near Boston to NYU, so, yeah, he couldn’t have been happy to have to turn around and drive right back. I could add exhaustion to the list of his reasons to be pissed at me. Wonderful.

  “What on earth were you thinking?” he asked.

  I swallowed, but my throat felt like I’d been snacking on a bucket of sand. “Coffee?” I croaked.

  “Coffee,” he muttered with a huff, as though I’d asked for a hit of meth. He grabbed a glass with a sippy straw from the nightstand and held it up for me. I struggled upright a little on my elbows and drank. It was warm water that tasted vaguely of chemicals. It was disgusting, but at least it soothed my throat.

  “Well, Andrew,” my dad began as he put the glass back, “you’ve ruined your summer, if not your entire future. I hope you’re pleased with yourself.”

  I bit back a sarcastic reply. There was no escaping this ordeal of a conversation, so I had to grit my teeth and bear it. And, to be honest, I deserved it. I had miscalculated. Hugely. I should never have rushed a stunt like that. I should have tested those firecrackers way more thoroughly. Damn it. I’d hurt myself, but more importantly, I’d hurt Jake. And that was unacceptable. This convo with my dad was just the cherry on top of the shit pile.

  “My future is not going to be ruined if I don’t get to work at Kosen & Kosen this summer,” I said calmly, trying to keep the conversation from escalating.

  “It was on your five-year plan,” Dad pointed out.

  “I know that. But I’m just starting Harvard Law in the fall. It’s not like I won’t have other opportunities for internships.”

  He frowned. “Letting down a prestigious agency at the last minute is the perfect way to ruin your reputation before you even get started. And there’ll be a suspicious gap on your résumé.”

  God, my résumé. The holy fucking grail. It wasn’t as if other twenty-two-year-old future lawyers didn’t have a single summer in their lives when they didn’t work. I was sure there had to be others who were backpacking in Europe, or sailing around the Bahamas—or lying around recovering from burns.

  “I’m injured, Dad.” I sounded more irritated than I should have. “I have a good excuse for bailing on my internship. And it’s not like I was going to be that valuable at Kosen & Kosen anyway. It was just a clerk job.”

  My mom had gotten me that internship—not at her law firm, that would be too nepotistic, but at a firm she worked with frequently. I’d gotten the impression it was more a favor to her than a critical need for my help on their part.

  My dad’s frown didn’t shift one iota. “Obviously, you’ll have to say you were injured, but we need to come up with a story about how it happened. You certainly can’t tell them you were doing something idiotic on a dare. No one wants a lawyer who has no ability to foresee the most obvious consequences.”

  I gritted my teeth harder.

  My dad’s voice softened, became more worried than angry. “What were you thinking, Andrew? I’d really like to understand. The nurse said you were both holding lit fi
recrackers? Were you drunk? High? Was it Jake’s idea? I thought you were finally done with all that nonsense.”

  There was so much wrong with that statement. A spark of anger flared in my chest. I hated it when my dad talked smack about Jake. And yes, I did sometimes get drunk. But I was way more responsible than most guys my age. My dad didn’t have to act like I was a loser. Not when I’d busted my ass doing what he wanted for so many years. Hell, I’d just graduated at the top of my class at NYU.

  “It was my idea, not Jake’s,” I said in a low, tight voice. “It was a stunt that went wrong, that’s all. Yes, it was stupid, but I can’t change it now.”

  “A stunt! You and your interest in David Blaine and all that magic nonsense. It’s enough of a waste of time that you watch it on video or read about it. But to try to do it? Don’t you realize these things are dangerous? What is the point?”

  I was surprised he even knew I was into David Blaine. So he actually paid attention to the shows I watched or books I read? The thought was worrying.

  “Sometimes there isn’t ‘a point,’” I said calmly. “Sometimes you do things because they’re funny. Or exciting. Or they seem like a good idea at the time. I already admitted the firecracker idea was dumb. It was a mistake, and I should have been better than that. What else do you want me to say?” I started to clench my fists, as I often did when talking to my dad. Agony shot through both hands, making me writhe on the bed.

  Fucking hell. Don’t move your hands. Idiot.

  “Should I ring for the nurse?” my dad asked worriedly. He reached out and brushed the hair out of my eyes. Crap. Just when I wanted to shut him out, he had to be nice.

  “No, I’m fine.” I gasped through the pain. I already felt loopy from the drugs they’d given me overnight. I just needed to . . . not move. I lay there, staring at the ceiling and panting.

  “Mom?” I asked to change the subject.

  “She was going to come back with me, but I told her not to. The doctor who called us said it wasn’t critical, and your mother had a full slate of meetings this morning. But she sends her love. I need to text her and let her know how you’re doing.”

  “Okay.” I let my breath out slowly as the pain began to fade—thank fuck.

  “Well,” my dad said grudgingly. “From what I understand there’ll be no permanent damage. I hate to say it, but maybe this injury will turn out to be a good thing. Maybe this is what you needed to finally wise up and stop with this daredevil business. It’s time to grow up, Andrew. Your entire future is on the line now.”

  He was right. My future was on the line. But then, when had it ever not been? It seemed like it had been absolutely critical that I do everything right since I started earning a report card in first grade.

  As the pain left my hands, I relaxed on the bed, feeling miserable. All I’d wanted was . . . what? To do one more spectacular dare with my best friend? To somehow hold on to Jake?

  To somehow hold on to Jake.

  The nurse had given me the impression Jake’s injuries were much like mine. So maybe he wouldn’t be leaving for California. The thought made me feel considerably less miserable.

  “The doctor says you can’t do much of anything all summer. I suppose we’ll have to hire you a nurse. Your mother and I can’t just take off work to wait on you day and night.”

  “No. I know that. Will the insurance cover a nurse?”

  “Of course it will! Physical therapy too. Unlike most people’s insurance. Good insurance can save you millions, you know.” My dad sounded pleased with himself. He took insurance seriously. He was a financial planner, and believe me, it wasn’t just a day job for him. Sometimes I wondered if he’d ever thought about anything else in his life.

  He rambled on about the importance of health insurance for a while. “We could afford a much better hospital, but they’re going to release you tomorrow morning anyway, so there’s no point in having you transferred.”

  “No,” I said quickly. “I’m fine here.” I’d rather be where Jake was than in the most luxurious hotel in the world. “So, Dad . . . about this summer.”

  Andy

  My dad finally left, and all I wanted to do was see Jake. The hospital we’d been sent to was in a huge old building in Brooklyn. My father turned up his nose at the place, but it honestly wasn’t that bad. My private room on the second floor was decent except that Jake wasn’t in it. I had to charm the nurses ruthlessly before one told me that Jake was up on the tenth floor. She wouldn’t agree to take me up there, though. Said she was too busy and “maybe later.”

  Right. Like I was going to wait. I’d try texting or calling him, but with my bandaged mitts, I couldn’t use my phone. And, anyway, I had to see for myself, in person, that he was okay. I got the nurse to put the IV on a rolling stand for me so I could go to the bathroom and sit up in the chair. After that, it was easy enough to sneak out of my room. I managed to operate the elevator buttons with my elbow. And there I was wandering around the hospital with a rolling IV stand I was steering with my forearm, my two hands taped up like Muhammad Ali, wearing nothing but a hospital gown, socks with that nonslip stuff on the bottom, and, thankfully, my underwear. Well, I’d done stupider things, that was for sure.

  Unfortunately, the pain meds were stronger than I’d accounted for. Loopty-loop, man. It was fun to feel semi-stoned, but not helpful. I finally found room 1023. The door of the room was open, and I peeked in. It was a small room, dingy, with two beds. One bed was mostly hidden by a drawn curtain. Jake was in the bed closest to the door, and he was awake. The head of his bed was raised so he was almost in a sitting position. His cell phone was on his lap on top of the sheets, bracketed by his two bandaged hands. They looked an awful lot like mine. They lay limp on his thighs as he stared down at his phone morosely. There might even have been a hint of moisture in his eyes. He looked miserable, and my heart did a sick little throb. Oh Jake. Bro. Guilt gnawed at me.

  “Hey,” I said, walking all the way into the room. I didn’t have any trouble mustering a contrite expression. Hell, even my stomach was contrite. It was doing its damnedest to hide behind my spine.

  Jake glanced up at me sharply. When he saw it was me, he frowned, making me feel even worse. I knew Jake’s expressions like I knew the back of my hand—or had known the back of my hand; it might be scarred after this. Jake should look ready to punch me, but instead he appeared worried. About me. That was the kind of friend Jake was.

  “Are you okay?” he asked.

  I shrugged, taking care not to move my hands where they hung at my side. “Doctor says I’ll heal, but I’m gonna be fucked up for a while. You? You have to have surgery or anything like that? Anything permanent? The nurses wouldn’t give me the details.” The cruel bastards.

  He grimaced and looked down at his bandages. “All fingers accounted for and no surgery. At least, not unless I get infected or try to move around too much before it heals.”

  That was basically what the doctor had told me too. Jake’s words should have been reassuring, but they weren’t. Even the thought that Jake could have been hurt that badly, that one of my stunts could have disfigured him for life, freaked me the fuck out. I felt woozy and had to sit down. There was a visitor chair against the wall. I hooked my foot around one leg and dragged it closer to his bed, then collapsed into the thing, taking care not to upset my wheeling IV rack.

  “Wow. Andy. I’ve never seen you turn the color of cottage cheese before. You gonna faint?”

  I shook my head, but I was in no state to joke about it. Dots of black swam in my vision, and somehow I’d disturbed my hands despite not using them. They hurt like a bitch. “It’s the drugs,” I managed, closing my eyes.

  I sank back in the chair, waiting for the dizziness and pain to pass. I felt a little better just being in the same room as Jake. He wasn’t dead, and he didn’t hate me. Or, at least, he was still talking to me. Maybe the hate would come later. I wouldn’t blame him.

  When I opened my eyes, thoug
h, Jake was looking at the wall, his face miserable again.

  “You okay?” I asked. Stupid question.

  He sniffed and shrugged, then laughed bitterly. “Fuck. I can’t even rub my nose.”

  “I know.”

  He sighed. “The nurse helped me call Sierra just now. She’s gonna talk to HR at Neverware for me. Hopefully they’ll delay my start date. And not, you know, fire me before I even start working there.”

  “God, Jake. I’m so sorry.”

  He said nothing, just stared at the wall. Now I knew why he looked so miserable. And my own sense of guilt multiplied like extras in a zombie movie. I swallowed. “What did Sierra say exactly?”

  He gave me a dark look. “That I’m a fucking idiot. Which, you know, fair point.”

  “She always did have a knack for stating the obvious,” I teased. He didn’t smile.

  He worried his lip and stared at the wall some more, like maybe he was trying to conjure up a portal to a happier, simpler world. He was totally in Serious Jake mode.

  Jake was the funniest guy I knew, but scratch that witty facade and you’d find a bone-deep worrier. He’d always taken things seriously, even back when we’d met in seventh grade. In high school he’d studied for tests and never ditched school. I’d done those things too—because if I hadn’t, I’d have had to deal with my old man. But school was easy for me, and I’d always managed to do the bare minimum to make the dean’s list and keep my folks happy. Jake’s focus had intensified once we got to college. We’d roomed together for four years at NYU, so I could attest to his grueling study habits. Dear God, the Saturday nights when I’d had to drag Jake out of the room by the scruff of his neck.

  Shortly after Jake and I met, Jake’s dad left them. He’d been having an affair with some lady in his office, and she got pregnant, so he decided to divorce Jake’s mom and move in with this other woman, marry her, and raise the kid. Basically leaving family number one to start family number two.