Chapter Nine

Rebecca didn't regret telling Aaron everything, but when she arrived home and saw Ruth's questioning look, she was wondering why she told him herself.

Sighing, she sat down at the table across from her sister and said, "Aaron was at the church. Apparently he had the same idea as me about coming after the service for a little bit of time by himself. Well, I told him everything."

"Everything?"

"Everything," Rebecca replied grimly. "I—"

Ruth had a smile on her face. "It was your choice, you don't have to explain. If I were him, I would be exasperated by you not talking to him at all."

"He was dumfounded, really, when all of a sudden I said a steady stream of words for half an hour. You should have seen the look on his face. One blow after another, first I was actually talking to him, second I told him about my cancer and that he knew me as a little kid but didn't remember."

"I'm sure he was surprised," Ruth agreed, handing Rebecca a handful of her cookies.

"You're always baking, aren't you?" after a nod from her sister, Rebecca continued. "I told him that there was no going back and now that he was my friend he was not going to get out of it."

"He's sticking around," the words until the end went unspoken, but they were still there.

Rebecca shrugged. "And he promised me that I was going to get sick of him by the time my hair started falling out."

"He said that!"

"Well, he didn't say it exactly like that, but he told me that we were going to squeeze in as much fun before the more difficult things happen."

"As in…"

"As in doing things two or three times a week, and I can invite anybody I want to. Of course you're coming," Rebecca said. She frowned. "I don't know if I'll invite Sherrie. I have a feeling Aaron will insist of paying for me and everyone I invite, whatever we end up doing. So I think it will be better if it's just us three."

"You deserve such a nice guy," Ruth said with a grin.

"He's outta here after I start getting treatments," laughed Rebecca. "He did say, though, that when I didn't feel like going anywhere he would be on my front doorstep with a board game."
This sent Ruth into more laughter.

"Hello?" Aaron heard Rebecca's voice on the other end of the line. She'd answered on the second ring.

"I told you I wouldn't leave you alone," Aaron teased.

All that he heard in reply was a soft laugh.

"Well before I invite you to do something tomorrow, I want to know how you have come to have such great acting skills."
"What do you mean?"

"I mean how you pretended to be nervous and self-conscious when put on the spot when the problem was that you just couldn't be friends with anybody," Aaron explained. "You know how you always rushed to the bathroom when on the receiving end of too much attention."

Again Rebecca laughed. "That wasn't feigned, Aaron. I guess I'm more at ease with you now that I've told you everything… and now that you remember the person I was when I was younger, before the leukemia. I don't know what it is, it's just something happened to my confidence since I went away."

"Why? You don't really have a reason to be afraid or nervous around anybody," Aaron said, frowning even though she couldn't see his facial expressions over the phone.

She sighed. "I don't know why. It's just something that happened. My parents always forced me to go to youth group and church because I was home schooled and they said I needed to get out some more. Throughout the year or so I was gone; the only places I went to were the hospital and home. I never had to deal with anybody but my family, and so when I came back I suddenly became nervous when I had to talk to other people. My self-consciousness only helped my determination not to make friends."

"When I smiled at you at youth group a while ago…"

"Okay, so I really wasn't that nervous, since I knew you wouldn't care whether I made a fool out of myself or not, but I didn't want to talk to you."

"Aha! Do you realize what an idiot I felt like? Anne told me that I might have made you a little freaked out by suddenly wanting to be your friend," Aaron said, relieved to have his answers. Before she could answer, he went on, "Tonight I want to take you and Ruth and if you want, Sherrie, to the movies. Your choice of show and one snack and a drink."

"Oh!" her surprise was audible.

"And don't you even think about telling me that you're paying for yourself. All of these treats in the coming weeks are on me, and I'm not listening to any protests from you. Ma'am."

"Yes, sir."

"I'm going to hang up, and I will see you at six tonight."

Aaron didn't feel proud, even though he'd already solved the Dare. He was officially Rebecca's friend, but he wasn't happy about it. He wanted to be her friend and forget about the Dare, to tell the entire youth group that the Dare was off and that it was too cruel to solve it.

But eventually Rebecca was going to find out, was going to be angry at him for it. And he would feel like an idiot yet again. You are an idiot, Aaron, for accepting this Dare in the first place.

But another nagging thought contradicted the first one. If you hadn't, you wouldn't have become Rebecca's friend.