I Dare You!

Now and again, I still enjoy playing the game Truth or Dare. As a much shyer younger person, I always picked “truth” because I found this as an easy way to get people to ask me the questions that I wanted to give them the answers to anyway. However, though there is an unwritten rule that states that you have to do some dares, I never willingly picked “dare.” From watching others demean themselves with dares, I always dreaded what mine would be. To this date, the worst dare I’ve had to do was flash my bra at traffic and, lucky enough for me, it was on a residential street on a very light traffic day. I hope this remains the worst.

While my dares have always been tame, two dares given to two kids stick out in my mind. The first involves a trip to the emergency room. The second involves a strong dose of discipline.

At a party, many years ago, my friends and I played “Truth or Dare.” Had we had driver’s licenses then or our parents had decided to pick us up early, this game probably wouldn’t have taken place. Yet, we were young teens who were guests at a party that never seemed to start. Bored beyond words, one of the girls in the room suggested we play that infamous game. Having no better option, we began to play. At first, the truths and dares were pretty tame (Tell us who your crush is. I dare you to take off your shoes and smell them.).

However, as the game progressed, so did the intensity of the questions and commands. The last dare given out was extremely foolish and abundantly wrong. In hindsight, it shouldn’t have happened and could’ve been avoided. One of the girls had brought along her new boyfriend. She dared him to drink a bottle of hot sauce. Now, this wasn’t any usual hot sauce. The hostess’s father collected hot sauces as a hobby. This bottle was taken from a definite “Look, but don’t ingest” stock. Being the cocky little boy that he was, he accepted the dare and unscrewed the cap. From the look on his face when the first drop hit his tongue, it was evident he wanted to cry. Still, he drank down the whole bottle, his girlfriend cheering him on. Very soon after he finished, he doubled over and started to vomit, violently. His girlfriend, embarrassed, told him to leave the room. Obviously, he couldn’t move. One of my friends ran upstairs to get her dad. Seeing the situation for what it was, he got the kid into the car and called the kid’s parents on his cell phone on the way to the hospital. As I wasn’t close to either the boyfriend or the girlfriend, I never found out what the outcome was.

The second dare took place at my former high school. A group of us was sitting in the chorus room, waiting for our rehearsal to start. Realizing that our choir director was on the phone and how long he usually remained on it, we decided to play “Truth or Dare.” Now, there was this extremely energetic, borderline mentally challenged boy in the group. A couple of us whispered to each other that we didn’t think it would be a good idea to let him play. However, not wanting to make him feel left out, the other members of the group invited him into the game.

One of the other boys in the group was this jerk who enjoyed getting people into trouble and causing drama. When it was his turn to ask or command someone, he would come up with something truly embarrassing. Though we tried to make it so that he didn’t get to ask or command this one kid, it ended up happening. He dared this kid to run around the school, screaming that there was a fire. Wanting desperately to fit in, he did just that. Our high school consists of two buildings, four floors each. So loud did he scream that we could hear him in the other building. Suddenly, we couldn’t hear him anymore, but then we could. Crying and begging not to be punished, he was escorted back to the choir room by one of the security guards. While this one guard understood the situation and told our choir director to watch his students better, another guard had heard and wasn’t so understanding. This kid ended up getting suspended and his parents pulled him out of the school. And of the kid who dared him? My choir director fined him for being disruptive, but he never paid the fine.

Despite these two situations, I still enjoy playing this game. Under the right circumstances and played with the right people, it can make for a fun time. However, too often, people go too far. Quite suddenly, a game of “Truth or Dare” can turn into “Torture or Destruction.”