Work Text:
“Did you see that TV special the other night?” Langa asked Reki, panting softly as the two of them sat down on the deck of the halfpipe, drinking their sodas. It was a really nice day out; warm, but not overbearingly so, in a more pleasant way. There was hardly any clouds in the sky, yet every now and then, a gentle breeze would waft through the air, feeling cool and refreshing against one’s skin. It was such a pleasant day to be outside, so pleasant that Reki and Langa had ditched most of their morning classes to go skating, and they did not regret it one bit.
“You mean the one that came on after that new reality show? Kinda,” Reki replied, swinging his legs and chugging his cola, leaning back slightly as he did so, feeling the fizz of the drink on his tongue as it went down. “I was doing homework at the same time, so I was really half paying attention. I heard the part where it all started with a simple truth or dare game, though. Who knew truth or dare could cause a buncha kids to go on a crime spree.”
Langa stared at his soda can, tilting it back and forth slightly. “I never really played truth or dare that much. I think I played once or twice with the kids of some people my dad used to work with, but that was when I was twelve, I think. Don’t remember exactly when, but I’m pretty sure it was before high school.”
“Huh. I think I played with some kids at a party I went to when I was still a middle schooler. It got really crazy, one kid broke a punchbowl and we all got sent home.” Reki chuckled a little bit at the memory. His mom was really upset about that, but looking back, it was pretty fun, in all honesty.
“We should play.”
“Huh?” Reki looked at Langa.
“We should play truth or dare. Maybe get Miya involved too,” Langa said, scratching at the bandage on his nose. “I mean, until my nose is better, I can’t really do any skating at S. And it could be fun.”
“What could be fun?”
The two teens turned around to see Miya, still in his school uniform, carrying his board under his arm, holding a plastic water in his other hand, which was about half empty.
“Miya? Aren’t you supposed to be in school?” Reki questioned, tilting his head.
“Something went wrong with the heating and cooling system. Not exactly sure what’s wrong, but it’s been switching between the air conditioning being on at full blast to the heat being on,” Miya explained, leaning on the side of the halfpipe. “One of the teachers passed out from the heating, so they sent all of us home early so they could fix it. Anyways, what’s up?”
“Do you wanna play truth or dare?” Langa asked. “Me and Reki thought it would be fun.”
“Isn’t that a game that preteen girls play at slumber parties?” Miya wrinkled his nose, looking unamused.
“It’s a slumber party game?” The Canadian tilted his head, clearly confused. The boy was pretty clueless when it came to girls, even more so when it came to social events and such, since he wasn’t really outgoing or anything.
Miya sighed, shaking his head, but he didn’t blame the boy. “Nevermind. But why do you two wanna play truth or dare?”
“Well, since Langa can’t go to S until his nose heals, we thought we might do something fun,” Reki answered truthfully, tossing his now empty cola can from hand to hand. “And besides, the doctor said it’ll take three weeks! That’s way too long.”
Miya chewed the inside of his cheek, looking off in the distance. When Reki’s arm got hurt after his beef with Adam, the poor boy was extremely restless, with not being able to skate, and the fact that Reki most likely had undiagnosed ADHD didn’t help in the slightest. In fact, the moment the sling came off, Reki had jumped onto his board and skated for so long and with so much energy, you would have thought he was much younger than he was.
Lord only knows what Langa would do once Cherry let him skate at S again.
“...you know what, fine. I’ll play,” Miya sighed, part of him feeling like he was going to regret this much, much later. “But mostly to make sure you two don’t do something stupid.”
“Awesome! Get up here, let’s start the game!” Reki grinned, scooting over and patting the space between him and Langa. Miya grumbled, but he climbed up and sat. “Okay, rock paper scissors to see who goes first!”
Langa nodded in agreement, while Miya rolled his eyes, yet made a fist.
“I’m ready, Reki.”
“Me too, slime.”
“Okay!! On three!” Reki grinned a toothy smile, hand curled into a fist. “One, two, three! Rock, paper, scissors, go!”
Reki and Langa, both sharing a braincell at that moment, both threw paper, while Miya threw scissors. Reki pouted, while Miya smiled slyly.
“My turn first,” Miya smirked. “Okay Reki. Truth or dare.”
“Dare!” Reki cackled, swinging his legs so hard Miya thought he’d throw himself off the deck of the halfpipe. “Go on, don’t go all easy on me!”
Miya chewed on his lip for a few minutes, thinking about a good dare. One finally popped into his head, and he smiled slyly at Reki.
“Oh, you wanna dare, huh? Well, here’s mine…”
They had to wait until they were heading back from S that night. Joe was driving the minivan he owned, Cherry in the passenger’s seat while Shadow was in the back with the kids, who were all sitting together in the long seat in the back, near the trunk. Cherry and Joe were fighting again, while Shadow was just massaging the sides of his head, most likely having a headache from Reki nearly getting hurt multiple times in the span of a half hour.
The kids had the windows rolled down, under the clever guise of being hot. Reki, who was sitting by the left window, stared out the window, watching, waiting, watching buildings and houses pass by, until he saw it.
A fried chicken place, which was probably the worst place in town to get food. The chicken was always either barely cooked or overly dry, it smelled like burnt hair and mold in the house, and the sides were just overly bland. And everyone hated the chicken strips.
Reki unbuckled his seatbelt, moving to stick his head and upper torso out of the window, staring at the young woman who was cleaning tables outside. Miya giggled, Langa watching with wide eyes. Cherry glanced in the rearview mirror, eyes going as big as dinner plates once he saw that only Reki’s legs were in the car.
“REKI KYAN, WHAT ON EARTH- ”
“FUCK YOUR CHICKEN STRIPS!” Reki yelled at the worker, sticking his head back in the car, where Miya and Langa were laughing hysterically, the latter flapping his hands a little.
“Oh my God, I didn’t think you would actually do that, holy shit!” Miya laughed, wheezing slightly. “Oh my God, I gotta catch my breath… and you quoted the vine!!”
“What on Earth were you boys thinking?!” Cherry screeched. “Reki could have gotten hurt! What if he had fallen out of the car? Or another car passed by?”
Cherry continued lecturing the boys as they pulled into the parking lot of an A&W, for the usual post-S food run. After finishing off with a “don’t pull something like this off again”, he stepped out of the van, almost instantly starting to fight with Joe again.
“My turn for truth or dare,” Langa announced, scratching his bandaged nose. “I pick dare.”
“Okay! Hmmmmmmm…” Reki’s face scrunched up, glancing up at the A&W sign. “Oh! I know! I dare you to jump up and try to touch the A&W sign!”
“Ohhh, okay!” He turned to Miya. “Film me, Miya. I’m gonna try to recreate the Krispy Kreme vine.”
Miya giggled, pulling out his phone and pressing record. “Okay, it’s rolling!”
“WE’RE BACK AT IT AGAIN AT A&W!” Langa screamed, getting the adults’ attention. He ran up to the the sign, jumping as high as he could, only for the Canadian to slam facefirst into the sign, sparks flying, sending everyone in a panic.
Reki and Miya screamed, the latter nearly dropping his phone, the former’s eyes filling with tears. Langa somehow managed to land on his feet, though he felt dazed.
“Oh my God!” Joe ran over to him, grabbing his face in his large hands and examining him for injuries. “Are you okay, Langa? How many fingers am I holding up?” He held up two fingers.
“...two?” Langa mumbled. “And I’m fine. I think. My head just hurts.”
“Well, he doesn’t look concussed. Somehow,” Joe mumbled. “Listen kids, I don’t know what’s gotten into all of you, but you all gotta stop with these dares. Me and Karou don’t wanna be held responsible if one of you gets seriously hurt cause of something dumb you guys did.”
Everyone mumbled in agreement, glancing away. Well that went that game.