AN: LadyLyriss (I think you're right. It is not so much a history of mankind as what you explained. I don't mind, thanks for letting me know that. I sort of intended it to be more but couldn't remember some of the things I was going to include in it) Me1 (Thanks for your advice, I think you're right on some of those, but I never meant it to be political. I'll go back and revise it and see what needs to be done about that part of it! Thanks!)

Chapter Thirteen

Aaron thought he might turn purple with rage. "You told Teri. You told Teri! You told Teri!"

Chris looked away guiltily. "You aren't the only one that had a bit of romance last night, okay?"

"What, just because you like her, you have to betray one of your best friends?" asked Aaron with disgust. "You could have told her anything else humiliating about me… now the whole youth group probably knows. The whole youth group!"

"So Teri called you and told you," Chris said, his face and temperament completely calm again as he looked over at his friend.

Aaron sent him a glare, walked out of the house, and stalked out the door. Without forgetting to slam the thing behind him. Lord, oh Lord! Please help Rebecca not to have found out. I need to tell her this myself.

"I should have known," Rebecca said quietly.

Aaron looked down in shame. She'd shown him in, her face completely cool as if she hadn't heard, and then…

"I am so stupid; I should have known you had received the Dare. I wondered who it was but there was no way to find out… but with you so popular in the church I should have known. I can't believe I didn't realize this earlier," she said simply. "With you suddenly wanting to be my friend. Suddenly talking to me and asking me to go bowling with everybody else."

Rebecca looked up at him now for the first time since she'd begun. She had tears in her eyes, and he felt more ashamed than he ever had in his life. "I trusted you. I told you everything. I even told you about how I went away, about my cancer. I confided in you and even grew attached to you. And the most humiliatingly, just a few days ago I kissed you."

Before Aaron could even talk, she pointed to the door, and he obeyed, leaving her to think.

And think she did. She hadn't just kissed him. She'd grown attached to him; she'd even sat in the massaging chairs with him. Beat him at bowling. Grown accustomed and comfortable with him… fell asleep in his presence. Her parents liked him and wanted her to keep her friendship with him.

By now tears were rolling unchecked down Rebecca's cheeks, and she sat there, numb and not knowing how to feel. Sadness would eventually set in if she kept thinking these thoughts. But she couldn't stop them.

With the youth group grapevine growing faster than weeds, the minute the word was dropped it spread at light speed. It hadn't taken long for one of Ruth's friends to call, who'd gotten the news from Teri.

So much for the Dare becoming a secret.

Ruth sat down beside her, interrupting her thoughts by saying, "He wasn't supposed to tell anyone, not even the juniors, until Christmas. He was just supposed to be ready to tell what the Dare was and that he was the Dared, and if he solved it or not. Knowing Teri, though, she couldn't keep the news to herself when Aaron's friend told her."

"None of that matters," Rebecca said. "I don't care how it got around. I am humiliated, Ruth. My friend, the one I told everything to, has been a fraud the entire time." She turned tear-filled eyes toward her sister. "I even believe I came to care for him. He was so nice… last night I didn't think he was real… and he wasn't at all… it was all just an act..."

Ruth put her arms around Rebecca and told her, "I think it was an act at first, the first time you went bowling. How do you know his resolve didn't change after you told him everything?"

"Because no guy is as nice as he was to me. He told me he would be at my side the entire time, through all the chemotherapy and treatments, and that he would be on my doorstep when I didn't want to go out. He held my hand and made me feel sacred. And the entire time he was only there because he really had no choice. He was just building on his reputation, becoming one of the high school students to solve the Dare. I was easy."

"I think he sounded sincere, Beck," Ruth said gently, and when her sister didn't reply she just kept holding her until the tears stopped flowing. Lord? Ruth prayed. How much can this girl take? Do you constantly have to lift her hopes and then send them crashing to the ground again?