Chapter Five
Chris blinked patiently at him. "Just nod and smile."
"Hey, I'm serious about all of this!" Aaron nearly shouted, growing more and more frustrated with every second of the conversation.
"You know I've never understood any of this God stuff," Chris said, his tone more exasperatedly than at first, as if taking a hint from his friend.
"And maybe if you would listen to me, you would. Maybe you're not the wisest choice of person to talk to about this Rebecca deal. I mean, you're not even listening to me about any of the stuff that really matters: like what God wants, or how I think I might have to give up the Dare to not hurt her feelings," Aaron set his cup of coffee down on the table with a loud clank, causing his friend's gaze to stop wandering and focus its attention on him. "All you care about is the stuff I say about Rebecca."
"She sounds like a challenge," Chris commented, as if agreeing to something Aaron had just said, when in fact agreement was not what he'd been looking for.
"Yes, a challenge!" Aaron walked to the door and motioned his grinning guest out the door. "A challenge for sick men like you."
Chris hadn't been a very worthy assistant, but he'd been Aaron's best friend since fourth grade. They'd had their rocky moments, and had actually not been friends for their freshman and sophomore years, mostly because he had grown up firmly in the Christian faith and Chris had not. Chris was the type of person that was totally indifferent to everything. While Aaron got good grades and cared about what went on in his life, Chris could care less what his grade point average was, or what the student council was doing as a fund raiser that month.
He did, however, know the exact date of Homecoming and had his prom date picked out several months ahead of time. When it came to women, he was anything but unconcerned.
And that was why Aaron had made a horrible mistake in choosing that particular friend to be his assistant in the Dare. But now it was too late to change; Chris knew all of it and could not simply erase his own memory. And for all Aaron knew, he could go and tell everybody that his friend was trying to seduce Rebecca—which was far from the truth—and wouldn't think a thing of it.
At least until the friend who was trying to seduce Rebecca socked him in the jaw. And at the moment, that's precisely what Aaron felt like doing, and would probably do, to anyone who ticked him off in the next hour.
A month had passed since he'd been issued the Dare. He had completely backed off Rebecca for the time being, waiting to figure out what he should do. He would talk to her occasionally, or attempt to carry on a conversation with her, which would be returned with small nods or shakes of her head. They were characteristic nods and shakes, but they were not enough to dialogue with. It was like trying to converse with a Chinese person who did not know what you were talking about and you did not know anything the other person was saying. Rebecca was talking a foreign language to him, and he had yet to even figure out what that language was. He couldn't even learn it.
As for the Lord, He was supplying nothing but unsure feelings about the situation. And Aaron was beginning to think that was going to be His answer: don't walk on thin ice. It could crack and betray you any second of any minute, of any hour, of any day.
But wasn't that what he was trying to do? Crack Rebecca's shell?
Aaron had a feeling it wasn't working well.