"You need more desperation in your voice," Jacob said for about the fortieth time, starting to feel desperate himself as the two of them rehearsed the lines on Spizzo's patio. "You don't want Martha to leave and take the baby, now c'mon!"
Spizzo looked at him as if he wanted to punch him out, but delivered the lines anyway, "No, Martha please! Don't leave me like this!"
"I-I need to go, John, I'm sorry," Jacob responded, acting out Martha's part.
"You can't just do this to me, Martha, please don't do this to me," Spizzo read aloud, sounding more desperate than he'd even been so far. Jacob had to stop the smile showing on his lips.
"I can't be here anymore, I feel like I'm suffocating here," he filled in.
"You feel like you're suffocating, Martha?" Spizzo's tone shifting from desperate to incredulous, to absolutely menacing as he added, "If you walk out that door, I'll show you something that will really suffocate you, Martha."
Jacob was silent for a moment as a chill ran down the length of his spine at Spizzo's words. "That was really good," he said, breaking from the rest of the scene that they still needed to work on.
"Thanks," Spizzo mumbled before standing up from the deck chair he'd been sitting on. "This play is fucked up though."
"Yeah," Jacob agreed. "I guess those rumours about Mr Bentley are true. I mean, his wife leaves him and he makes us do this play? Pretty obvious he has some issues."
"No shit," Spizzo laughed, hands on hips as he surveyed the view in front of them. Spizzo's house was on the outskirts of town, on the more affluent part surrounded with lush forest and rich neighbours, so they were currently treated to a beautiful view as the sun began to set. "I need a drink, did you want one?"
If Jacob were being honest, he was surprised by the offer. It was probably the nicest the other teen had been to him for a long time, so all he could do was nod.
Spizzo nodded in return, not feeling the need to say anything as he opened the patio fridge and pulled out two bottles of beer and tossed one in Jacob's direction. "Cheers, Skidmark."
"Yeah, cheers," Jacob replied, holding the bottle in his hand, not realising that, by 'drink', Spizzo had meant alcohol.
"You not drinking?" he remarked, eyebrow raised with a look of judgement.
"Oh yeah nah, of course I am," Jacob responded, twisting off the top and taking a sip, trying not to wince as the liquid hit his taste buds. Beer is vile and he would never understand why people enjoyed drinking the stuff.
Things were quiet for a moment as they both drank from their bottles. Spizzo was enjoying the quiet as he bathed in the remnants of the day's sunlight, while Jacob struggled through his personal hell, wondering why he could never say no.
"Let's play a game," Spizzo suggested as the last of the light faded and he turned the patio lights on. "Truth or dare."
"We still have more lines to practice before tomorrow," Jacob retorted, not enjoying the sound of playing truth or dare with Spizzo. Part of him knew that it would not end well at all. "We don't have the time to play games."
"Put it this way," Spizzo began, necking the last bit of his beer. "We play truth or dare for a little bit then we can finish off practising the last bit of that scene..."
"...or?" Jacob asked.
"Or, you can fuck off home and I won't learn the rest of my lines," Spizzo finished off, letting out a large burp to punctuate his point.
Stuck between a rock and a hard place, Jacob realised that he only really had one choice in this. "Fine. Let's play."
"Fantastic," Spizzo smiled, almost sinisterly. "Truth or dare?"
Jacob sighed, knowing already that he'd made the wrong decision by agreeing.
"Truth."