The Love Dare

I Cringed as Cassie dumped the coffee I made for her down the sink. I know it wasn't a huge gesture, but it was something, wasn't it?
I decided not to fret over it and put it behind me; maybe the next dare would go better.
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I woke up bright and early the next day. I was trying a new tactic with the love dares: optimism. 
I hummed the chorus to whatever random songs were popping into my head, skidding into the kitchen with my socks on the linoleum. I grabbed the little leather book off of the counter, flipping it to the second page.

"Day 2 has officially begun! Odds are that first dare didn't work out in your favor, eh? Well don't sweat it! It's a new day, and maybe today's dare will present more satisfying results!
You're dare for the day: show your lady that you care. Clean the entire house to take away that burden from her busy schedule."

I flipped the small book shut and put it in the pocket of my mesh basketball shorts. Cleaning a house wouldn't be that hard, you just scrub stuff, right?
I grabbed some clorox, a sponge, and gloves and got to work on scrubbing our granite counters. I realized cleaning was a lot harder than I intended, but after a half hour I managed to scrub all the counters clean and handwash the dishes.
I brushed the beads of sweat beginning to collect on my forehead off, turning around to see Sebastian wagging his tail happily.
"This cleaning thing is easy, Baz." I chuckled, scratching him behind the ears.
After a little more scrubbing, I moved on to mopping, pulling out a swifter from the hall closet.
I moved the swifter front and back and along the floor of the kitchen, mopping all the dirt and crumbs that collected away.
"Aw, come on Sebastian." I pleaded as the pup playfully growled at the swiffer, jumping and prancing around it. I did my best to sweep around him, but he continued to yip and bark.
"okay, out out out!" I exclaimed, shooing him out by waving the swiffer at him. I felt a little bad when he sulked off, but I needed to get this done. For Cassie.
After about ten minutes of mopping, I was starting to get cocky. I thrusted the mop forward, accompanied by little 'hoo ha pow!' sound effects as well.
"done!" I yelled happily, pumping my fist in the air.
I went to go put the mop away when I realized I was stuck. I managed to mop myself into a box-the whole kitchen, other than where I was standing, was soaking wet.
"fuck." I muttered under my breath when I heard the doorbell ring. This was slightly embarassing.
"Hello!" a voice boomed as he let himself in the house. I watched as Jack entered the kitchen and cocked his head to the side.
"what are you doing?" 
"well," I sighed," I was trying to mop the floors but I boxed myself in."
Jack chuckled to himself and kicked off his shoes, walking to the the fridge abd pulling out a pudding cup. He grabbed a spoon from the top drawer and sat himself down on the counter.  
"you know," Jack remarked, pointing the spoon at me,
"it's kind of pitiful that you're being held hostage by the linoleum."
"it's for Cassie. It's worth it." I shrugged.
Jacks eyes suddenly lit up, abd I knew that meant he had an idea.
"you're not too far fom the carpet, you know. Why don't you make a leap for it?"
"I don't know, man." I replied skeptically, "you think I'd be able to make the jump?"
"'course, it's like a 3 feet jump. That's nothing."
I shrugged my shoulders,
"alright man, here goes nothing."
I crouched down, building momentum and jumped as far as I could towards the beige carpet. 
"fuck!" I yelled as my socks slipped, sending me flying backwards and my back colliding with the tiles with an earsplitting "SMACK!"
I groaned as I tried to sit up, quickly falling back down. I had definitely gotten the wind knocked out of me.
I stated at the ceiling for a moment, it suddenly being blocked by Jack smiling down at me.
He shoved a handful of potato chips in his mouth, spewing the crumbs all over me.
"Very graceful Alexandra Ballerina."
I groaned and asked weakly, "where did you get potato chips?"
He grinned and handed down a chip to me, then walked off, calling out "pantry!" as he left.
"I need to lock the pantry," I grumbled.
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Cassie
I hummed along to my car radio, Bad Romance by Lady GaGa blaring through the speakers. 'you and me could write a had romance' I hummed as I parked in the driveway, pulling out the groceries I had picked up on my way home from work.
I made my way up the porch front steps, stopping when I noticed the streaked windows. I tilted my head to the side and walked in, passing Jack and Alex on the couch on my way to the kitchen. The Ravens were playing The Giants and it looked like things weren't going great for them.
"Can I have help with the groceries?" I asked.
They both nodded their heads and jumped up, taking two or three grocery bags from my arms.
I grabbed the various snack items I bought and began placing themin the pantry.
"Jack!" I laughed, taking back the box of poptarts he had removed from the grocery bag. "I swear to god you're a fat kid at heart."
He gave me a toothy grin and hugged my waist, lifting my feet off the ground.
"sorry Cassie!" he smiled, putting me down and grabbing some more groceries.
Things became quiet abd an obvious tension filled the room as we continued to unload groceries. I remembered the streak marks and decided to ask the boys about it.
"boys, do you know why the front windows are all streaked and ruined?" I questioned with my hands on my hips.
"uh, yeah." Alex rmanswered, awkwardly scratching the back of his neck. "we were trying to clean the house so you wouldn't have to do it."
I sighed and rubbed my temple. I wanted to scream, but I knew they probably had good intentions. I let out a long sigh and looked up at the two of them with tired eyes.
"thanks for that, guys, really, but you only made it worse. I'm just gonna have to spend tomorrow cleaning the house, that's all."
Alex let out a sigh as well and trudged up the stairs, probably to his room. I could have sworn I heard him mutter an I Give Up.
I groaned and pinched the bridge of
my nose in frustration. Jack came over and quietly pulled me into a hug. 
"he was just trying to show you he cared," he whispered, rubbing my back as a few stray tears fell down my cheek.
"I know." I answered quietly, "but he's not doing a good job of showing it."