"Oh wha-umm, ok?" Spizzo said, feeling a bit of whiplash. That was not the answer he was expecting after his body was about ready to shit itself. He felt his shoulders drop from his ears, no longer feeling as tense. "I think there's some leftover Chinese food in the fridge if you want that?"
The two teens realised that they hadn't had much to eat since leaving school and starting this game - the cursed dumpster of a cocktail aside - as both their stomachs grumbled at the mention of day-old takeaway.
"What sort of Chinese?" Jacob asked, even though he'd accept pretty much anything at this point.
"Some lemon chicken and crispy plum beef, I'm pretty sure," Spizzo replied. "There was quite a bit left over this morning but who knows what my brothers took for lunch."
Jacob nodded before accepting the other teen's offer of food, saying, "yeah that would be great, thanks."
Spizzo nodded in return, jumping up out of his seat and heading inside. As he opened the door to his fridge, the cool breeze that emanated from it reminded him that he was still shirtless - something that had slipped his mind after Jacob's explosive rant. So, while he waited for the takeaway containers to heat up after chucking them into the microwave, Spizzo raced down the hallway to his room.
After about five or so minutes inside, Spizzo returned to the patio, now with a new set of top and bottoms on, Jacob's shorts in one hand and a tray of food in the other. He felt better now, no longer constricted by Jacob's too-small clothes.
As Spizzo made his entrance, Jacob looked up at him. In his lap was a large orange tabby, purring loudly as Jacob scratched behind its ear. "Since when did you have a cat?" he asked Spizzo, a smile of delight on his face. Jacob had always been a massive fan of cats, but due to his mother's unfortunate allergies and father's disdain for the animal (and most other animals), he never got to have one.
The other teen cocked his head to the side in confusion as he placed what he was holding down on the coffee table, watching his ex-best friend play with a cat he'd never seen before in his life. "We don't."
"Oh," was all Jacob had to say, too content to have a cat on his lap to care that it was likely a stray. Feral diseases be damned, he wasn't going to give up cat time for anything.
Spizzo grimaced at the new addition to their evening but decided to keep his mouth shut. After the tumultuous conversation they'd just had, he wasn't too keen to rock the boat again. Instead, Spizzo loaded a bowl of leftovers and passed it to Jacob, before serving himself some food.
"So what are your plans for next year?" Jacob asked, breaking up the silence. He stabbed a bit of crispy beef with his fork and took a bite, noting that the crisp was now past its prime.
Spizzo coughed as some fried rice went down the wrong pipe, quickly picking up his beer bottle to wash it down the right one. It shouldn't have been so surprising, seeing as they were in their final year of high school. People asked it all the time, but it felt different coming from Jacob.
"Uh not too sure yet," Spizzo responded, clearing his throat again to make sure all the rice was gone. "A soccer scout is in town from America looking for some talent, might end up in some college over there if they like what they see."
"That sounds pretty cool," Jacob nodded. "Whereabouts?"
"Dunno, haven't thought about it too much. Don't think it'll be in any big name places," Spizzo shrugged. He probably should've sounded more excited because, from an outside perspective, it was an exciting opportunity. But that wasn't something he wanted to think about. "What about you?"
Jacob shrugged as well, chewing on a piece of lemon chicken. "I put my uni application in last week with my choices but it all depends on what score I get on my ATAR, I guess."
It was an odd feeling, the two of them having a proper conversation like this, talking because they wanted to and not because it was part of the game they were playing. No truth, no dare. No barbs and insults like they'd been so used to using over the last four years.
"What were your choices?" Spizzo asked, trying to think of what the other teen wanted to be when they were growing up. Dinosaur was all he could remember, but unless science had made more progress than he was aware of, Jacob wasn't going to live out his childhood dream.
Jacob's reply was a bit more realistic. "Psych honours was my first but I don't think I'll get close enough to get in. I'll probably just do a general arts and work it out from there."
"Shame you can't be a pterodactyl," Spizzo joked, pretty sure that was Jacob's favourite.
"Plesiosaur," the other teen corrected, laughing anyway as he felt touched that his ex-best friend (almost) remembered. "One flew and one swam, but close enough."
"Oh shut up, you nerd," Spizzo laughed. "Nothing beats the T-Rex."
"Boring," Jacob yawned theatrically. "Next you'll rave about velociraptors."
"Yeah 'cause they're fucking awesome," retorted the other teen. "I'll rave about velociraptors all I want, thank you very much!"
Jacob laughed harder at Spizzo's faux-indignance. He'd always had a middling interest in dinosaurs when they were kids, only going along and learning about them because Jacob loved them so much.
As the laughter died down, the silence took its place. All that could be heard was the breeze and the purring of the cat in Jacob's lap.
"Did you want to keep playing?" Spizzo asked, sure that Jacob would decline. He'd wanted out so many times before and it seemed he finally got the answer he wanted. There was no reason to keep sticking around.
So it came as a shock as Jacob replied, "yeah sure, truth or dare?"