No matter what happens, truth or dare is always bound to get awkward. But no one could anticipate how awkward and life-changing the games in these stories would get. Content has been edited for clarity.
The One True Hero
“So we were on a school trip in a coach bus heading back in the pitch black dark. Me and my friends were playing truth or dare, and there was a clear definition of who was going all in or not. It was a close race between two people who had done everything from licking the bottom of their shoes to stage kissing. I threw my hat in the ring and had to take an embarrassing selfie with one person and eventually steal somebody’s sock from the other side of the bus. I successfully completed both dares, BUT the highlight was player number four, who I’ll call Justin.
Justin got dared to go to the bathroom at the end of the bus, which was the only part of the bus that was still lit. He was specifically dared to take off all of his clothing, arrange them in a totally random and unexplainable pattern, and then accidentally let the door swing open to have a deer in the headlights moment for several seconds. He got up, walked solemnly to the bathroom, and closed the door. Me and the other seven or eight people watched with intent, not sure about what we were going to be seeing soon. And like clockwork, the door swing open. Justin had his shirt halfway off, and one of his pant legs was up. A sock was stretched on his head, and he had his shoe on one hand. Everybody looked to the back as the door swung open, making the only noise audible on the bus, as all other chatter died in a heartbeat. Everyone was watching. Five seconds later, he panicked and closed the door. Another thirty seconds passed, and our hero Justin comes back to his seat and rests as a champion. He went down in history as the winner, dwarfing all other dares in proportion.”
One Dare Permanently Changed Her Family’s Life
“I was dared to go into my friend’s mother’s bedroom and bring down an adult toy if I found one (we were all staying at my friend’s house). My friend told me I had to do that dare, despite my protests. I came down empty handed, but I was uneasy for the rest of the evening. I tried to tell my friend that I needed to talk to her about something personal. Once the other friends had left, I pulled out an eviction notice from my back pocket that my friend’s mom hid in the bedside cabinet. I felt so awful for doing that dare, and I felt worse for showing her. I stayed with that friend that night, as her mom was out of town. Apparently, her father had left them in huge debt, despite her mom’s well-paying job. But my friend had no idea that things were this bad. THeir house was repossessed, and now they were going to be kicked out of this two bedroom home that they rented. When her mother came home the next afternoon, my friend was going to ask her about the notice and say she found it. Before she could say that she was the one who found it, I jumped in to make it clear she wasn’t the one rummaging. I fessed up to make sure her mother didn’t think her daughter was looking for cash or something. I had been thinking about how it would go down all night and how bad it could go.
Obviously, I was told to leave with the threat of calling the police for snooping. I went back to that house with my father the next morning, after telling him everything. I obviously apologized for the snooping. I lied to my dad and told him I had been dating the girl for a few months and told him about her father, and to my surprise, he knew him. He was a customer of my dad’s who couldn’t pay following bankruptcy. He also knew of the mother through the court case my dad brought against the father, but the financial woes she had now wasn’t my dad’s fault. There really was nothing left to pay my friend’s dad, and my friend’s mom was feeling financial pressure to keep up with legal payments. It was such a mess.
So there we are at the front door. All I knew was that my dad said we would go there and set things straight. My dad out of nowhere asked if she was indeed the same woman he was thinking about, and she confirmed it. Out of nowhere, he told them both to pack their things and gave them rent free stay at one of his renovated apartments. It was a three bedroom detached house with no strings attached. My friend and her mom could stay there while my friend was going through high school and college. They lived there for just under a whole year until her mother told us they were moving in with me and my dad at our home. Now I have a step sister who is quite possibly the best friend I have ever had, and my stepmother is very good director for my dad’s business.”
He Needed To Get Away Immediately
“Back then, I had this major crush on a girl who lived in the upper floor of the same apartment as me. One day, my mom and her friends were sitting in our living room and talking about some stuff while I was playing with some other kids in my room. So we decided to play truth or dare. I was the only male in the group, and the group consisted of six kids around the same age (11-14). Of course, my crush was sitting next to me. Suddenly, I found myself being asked truth or dare. I said ‘truth’, and the girl asked the question, ‘Have you ever bought a present for your crush?’
Now of course I was an idiot. Without even thinking, I asked my crush if I’ve ever bought a present for her. Everyone went crazy, and I was still waiting for a reply. When I realized the shocking reality, I ran away from home and did not show up again until I thought they would be gone. I still remember this being so embarrassing, and I blamed myself for being so stupid. Now some of you might think that it would be pretty smooth if I didn’t run away. That would be correct, but the situation caught me so off guard that I needed to get away. I remember feeling like I wanted to cry, but I couldn’t. After only a few days, all of the neighborhood girls were talking about me. My own sister was even gossiping about me! If I recall correctly, my crush didn’t actually talk to me for some days after that mortifying event. My family moved to a different town shortly after, so I was able to leave my deeply troubling past behind.”
The Most Painful Truth Or Dare
“Strap in, because this is a very convoluted and weird story. I was dared to cover my privates with a cayenne pepper. I was only thirteen or fourteen at the time, and this whole thing would have looked really, really bad to my foster parents. Ironically, about five minutes after I did the deed, my foster parents pulled up to the house. Everyone who was playing truth or dare scattered, but my pants were full of cayenne pepper. It was burning, like a lot. But it gets worse. My friend that was over for the night decided to do it as well, because I look like I’m ‘being dramatic’. He didn’t use as much as me, but we both were in so much pain and regretted everything. So we decided we were gonna go get cleaned up. I went first because I did it first. Except there was one kind of big problem. My foster dad worked in construction, then he would go to my foster mom’s business and help her until she closed. Then he would come home and shower immediately and then go to bed. He would get angry if you tried to shower after he had gone to bed, because the bathroom was right next to his room, and the pipes were extremely loud. So by the time I got upstairs to get cleaned up, he was walking towards the only bathroom with a towel in hand. I had to tell my foster mom I was doing the ‘pee pee dance’ because I was moving around so much and looked so uncomfortable. I couldn’t tell my foster parents the truth, because that would involve them knowing that we were playing truth or dare.
I went outside to ‘pee’ but actually just tried to stop the burning sensation that wouldn’t go away. I also tried to scoop some of the pepper off (yes, I used that much, because I’m an idiot, that’s why), but things were just burning more and felt even more uncomfortable. So I got the genius idea to grab two glasses of water, take them down for me and my friend, and we would get cleaned up downstairs in my room, then just dump the cayenne water out the window. Sounds great right? I get the water downstairs, and my friend is already in my room, using one of my deodorant sticks on his to try and counter the burning. I hand my buddy his glass, and we clean ourselves up to the best of our abilities, dump out the cayenne water, and then go to bed. The next morning, we go upstairs for breakfast and bring our glasses up. I went to put mine in the sink, and my foster dad said something like, ‘Don’t grab another glass, we don’t need any more dirty dishes than we already have.’
And so I said, ‘Oh no, I’m just washing ours before dinner.’
He says, ‘Why? You just had water right? It’s not even dirty.’
And because I have social anxiety and didn’t want to talk about this any more than I already was, I just said, ‘Yeah, I guess your right.’
We both filled our glasses with water, didn’t touch them, then I got yelled at for wasting drinking water. And yes, I forgot about the cayenne deodorant and put it on at school. It burned and chaffed my armpits during flag football. Worst game of truth or dare I ever played. As for why we would be in trouble for playing truth or dare? My foster sister had recently gotten into a ton of trouble with boys, and she wasn’t allowed to date until she was sixteen. Conveniently, the only other kid that was relatively close to us in age in such a small little hamlet out in the country was my friend that was over. My foster sister was crushing for him super hard. On top of that, my foster parents knew about them crushing on each other, and they didn’t really like my friend because he was a really bad influence. So naturally, we decided to play truth or dare together like the idiot teenagers we are. After a few rounds, I was getting tired of being the third wheel between them and made a comment about how lame all their ‘spicy’ dares were, and so my foster sister dared me to put cayenne pepper down my pants, and ‘see if that’s spicy enough’. I ain’t no wimp, and I really didn’t think it would get as bad as it did. And I CERTAINLY did not think of all the stupid repercussions of such a stupid dare. But also, I really didn’t want to have to explain to my foster parents that it was their adopted daughter that dared me to do this.”
Poor Minnow Boy
“I was at a summer camp, and we all had small groups that we would meet with in the mornings after breakfast, in order to help plan out the days. On the third or fourth day, we were all getting pretty close and decided to play truth or dare. Our group met down by the lake, and we were all sitting with our feet in the water. Someone was dared to catch a minnow with a net, nothing too crazy. However, immediately after the minnow was caught, it was my turn. I said dare, hoping my friend would dare me to kiss my crush, who was also in our small group. Instead, being the little turd he was, he dared me to eat the minnow. Trying to be a very cool sixth grader, and certainly not trying to wimp out, I did it and swallowed it whole with my cup of hot cocoa. If eating a live minnow wasn’t bad enough, a couple more rounds go by, and my crush was then dared to kiss me. Naturally, she quickly yelled out, ‘Eww, I’m not kissing minnow boy!’
That became my nickname for the next week and a half. I never got the kiss to say the least, and I still wonder to this day if that’s what gave me the tapeworm they found inside of me a year later.”
Karma Has Never Been So Perfect
“I was at a friend’s birthday party. We were playing truth or dare of course. When it was my turn, I was dared to kiss this specific guy. He was actually my friend’s crush, so I was worried I looked over to her, and she hinted to me that it would be totally okay, so I went in for the kiss. A few rounds later, if was that guy’s turn, and he was dared to kiss the girl standing opposite him in the group, which turned out to be me. Then when it was his turn again, he had to spin a bottle and choose who he would make out with. Everyone was chatting and otherwise distracted, except for me and my friend. The bottle landed on the friend, but for some reason the guy spun the bottle again. It landed on me. I ended up making out with a friend’s crush repeatedly in front of her. Looking back on things, even though I was close with this friend, out friendship was quite superficial. She was a bit too much in general. She like to judge everyone a bit too harshly, including me. I have since moved on from her, and we haven’t really kept in touch. That friend was always trying too hard to make guys fall for her, but she ended up scaring them away eventually. After that party, things were a bit awkward, but she couldn’t really stay angry at me for too long. It turns out that a totally different friend ended up going out with that guy a few days later!”
He Was Just About To Be Ruined
“I played truth or dare with a mixed group of kids. I was spending the night at a friend’s house, whose older sister was also having a sleepover. We were three years younger, and we were of an age where avoiding the girls was the safest bet. I think we were twelve or thirteen. Anyway, the girls roped my two friends and me into a game of truth or dare. After about a half hour of stupid dares, it got serious, and a girl was dared to take me into a closet and ‘make a man’ out of me. I was terrified, and not even too sure what I was in for.
The girl took me into the closet and sat down next to me. She held my hand, said we weren’t going to do anything, and we stayed in there for about twenty minutes while the game continued. I think she sensed how scared and embarrassed I was. They knocked on the door a couple times, but she would scream to go away. The whole time we were in there, we talked about how stupid the game was, and that she was sorry that I got singled out. When we finally left, after the other kids got bored with the game, she explained the whole thing away by saying she chickened out and we just talked. The way she explained it, it didn’t even become a thing, and the night was as uneventful as any other night. She saved me loads of shame and embarrassment at an age that would have ruined me. I love her for this, even though I don’t even know her name. I think this qualifies as both my best and worst truth or dare experience.”
A Most Unexpected Consequence
“So there I was, in eighth grade, playing truth or dare on the train ride home. Well, I wasn’t really playing. I was trying to do my homework while sitting next to all of my friends (Seven girls and two dudes). Normally, we would play truth or dare, but we had all pretty much kissed each other, so that was old news. But one of my friends had his sister along with us, and I had a massive crush on that sister’s friend. I usually resolved my crush by putting in headphones and doing my homework in solitude. Well apparently she got hit with a dare, and one of my friends dared her to french kiss me for ten seconds. I wasn’t even playing, and I didn’t hear them, so I wasn’t aware of any of this when this girl started doing what she did. So imagine you are me, sitting on a train, doing homework, when all of a sudden your crush who you’ve been ignoring gets frustrated, takes off your headphones, stares you dead into your eyes and says ‘Okay?’
You sitting there in total confusion when it all goes down. After a short while, she blushes and moves away from me. Now I cant remember most of what happened in middle school, but I will definitely remember that moment forever. In case anyone is curious, she was (and still is) very gay, and now happily married to her wife for five years. But she was aware of my huge crush at the time, and she was also aware of how much popularity a guy could attain when other women show interest in him. She did that kiss for me, and I didn’t realize it at the time, but that moment increased my popularity wildly. That popularity wave carried me well into high school.”
She Definitely Wasn’t What She Seemed
“I was around fourteen, and a girl from school hosted a ‘class party’. I had hit puberty really early and looked pretty mature for my age, which came with getting a lot of attention from older guys, which made a lot of my peers assume that I had some experience and extra confidence. We played truth or dare, and I was dared to kiss this boy in my class who hadn’t hit puberty. He had braces and generally didn’t match my ‘maturing’. I think he expected me to refuse, but I had actually been crushing on him and found him really cute. Also I hadn’t actually kissed anyone before, despite what everyone believed. We both leaned over on all fours from opposite sides, and I could see the huge and boyish smile that formed on him. It felt really safe and comfortable, and to this day, I’m glad that was my first kiss. It was really sweet! Going through puberty early and being objectified by older men throughout my teens was awful, but this was one of the last memories of experiencing pure ‘childhood’ in that it should come with innocence. I think it was a good moment for him too.
I’m in my mid twenties now, and I look back on this time and note how little self-esteem I really had. I lost touch with that boy, since that party was ten years ago. I don’t know what he is up to now, butI already moved pretty far away for university. That boy and I started at different schools after that party, but perhaps we can hold another truth or dare game at our school reunion!”
He Immediately Regretted It
“I licked the school bleachers on a dare. I am ninety percent sure I have done worse, but I have memory issues, so I don’t know if I have or what it was. Not too long after this event, we were learning about viruses and bacteria in science class. We had this ongoing assignment where we documented the growth in petri dishes of bacteria from swabbing something in the school (I don’t remember the exact process). I swabbed the bleachers. Mine was the second worst out of all my teacher’s students that year, next to the girl who swabbed her trumpet mouthpiece.
To be honest, I have a lot of gaps in my memory, many of which are large gaps, especially from when I was younger. Most of the gaps are completely blank spaces, but some of them are more like the memory is extremely foggy or just out of reach. I have a vague notion that things happened, but I don’t actually have (or have access to) any memories that serve as proof. Some things in the second category have been confirmed from other people talking about them, and nothing has been disproved so far, but I can’t be completely certain about these things until someone else confirms. Doing worse things in truth or dare falls into the second category. I have a vague feeling I’ve done worse but no memories of it, and I’m not about to text my old friends and ask.”
She Never Expected That Ending
“It was New Year’s Eve in 1995. I was dared to kiss this guy that all of my friends were crushing on, but I really wasn’t. I smooched him on the lips, and everyone was complaining how that wasn’t a ‘real kiss’. So I decided to go in deep and hard for a second one. I was fourteen, and he was sixteen. Believe it or not, we have been together ever since. This guy followed me to college, and I followed him out of state for work. We moved back home at age twenty-five and twenty-seven, and we got married. Here we are in 2021 and still together. It is so bizarre.
Yeah, when I graduated high school, I went to college about two hours from our hometown. He had already completed trade school and wasn’t going to a four year college. But we got an apartment together and haven’t been apart since! I don’t even think of us as interesting. I had known him since I was three years old and went to his birthday party. We went to the same school in K-12. He was always funny and sweet, but he was the guy all the girls crushed on, so I never even considered it. Honestly, at fourteen, I wasn’t paying much attention to any guys!
He has the most delightful laugh ever and can actually fix anything! He is also the single most chill person on this planet, and he is super smart. His gorgeous blue-green eyes are a bonus. He isn’t one for big romantic gestures but he always reminds me of how loved I really am. I couldn’t ask for more, and I hope that I am half the partner he is. I wish everyone could have such a solid life partner. We don’t have any kids. He thought he might want them, and that is why we were together for ten years before getting married. As the oldest of seven, I knew I didn’t want any. I see it in friends that having kids is the hardest thing on a relationship. It is hard to remember you are more than mom and dad. Every day we make it I am blown away. I am 38 now, and we have been together for 26 years. Holy cow!”