The Book of Masks (Vol. 2)

A Warning for Laura

Previously: "The Problems of Three People in This Crazy World" 

How do you want me to handle that fat chick you hung out with in middle school?

That's Steve Patterson's question to you on this Sunday afternoon, and he shows you a nasty grin as he asks it. But there's no point in telling him how to handle Laura MacGregor. He'll do whatever he wants, and he'll probably do the opposite of whatever you ask. So you just shrug and tell him to do whatever.

As you turn to leave, though, you give him a caution. "You know, if Chelsea's behind all this," you tell him, "there's a pretty good chance you're going to be stuck as me for a really long time. Maybe forever."

"Shoot me now," your reluctant replacement mutters.

"Just saying you might want to make the best of it."

He shows you the big, yellowed teeth he acquired from you in this hideous soul-swap. "Shoot me now," he repeats, and turns his back on you.

* * * * *

There's no point warning him off of Laura, but you can maybe warn her off the asshole who is now wearing your face. You text her: Hey, u up for meeting up smwhere to hang out?

Who all? she replies a few minutes later.

Just me. Don't feel like heavy lifting today.

Oooo a date! Wear shorts!

You roll your eyes, and make a point of changing into heavy trousers and a windbreaker. You've got a cap pulled down low over your eyes when you head out to meet her at The Flying Saucer.

Laura doesn't say anything about your legs when you slide into the booth opposite her, but she looks concerned. "Hey," she says, and leans across the table to bop the brim of your cap. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong." You resettle the cap.

"You're not making a party of it, and it looks like you're trying to hide." She ducks her head to look up into your face. "Something's up."

"No, really." Suddenly you are restless. "Just want to spend some quality time with my favorite girl."

"Tch, awww!" Laura turns a little pink, and grabs your hand. You stiffen, and stifle the urge to yank away. "Someone's got you down. You know, Leah was telling me you were all in the dumps yesterday at her place."

"I was not!"

"She said you took off early! You invited half the school over to her place even though she had a hangover, and then you just took off! She's mad at you."

"Not really," you ask doubtfully.

"No, but you did take off."

"I had to go. I got a text."

"You've got too many people to take care of. Well, you don't have to worry about me any more!" She brightens and smiles smugly at you. "Will and I got it all straightened out between us!"

"Yeah?" You dodge her eye.

Her face falls. "What's wrong? Don't you care I—?"

"No, I care. I heard all about it. I talked to Will."

"Really?" Now her expression turns hopeful. "Wha'd he say?"

You resettle your cap a couple of times, and turn sideways in the booth. You lunge for a sugar packet and twiddle it between your fingers. How do I warn her off that asshole? you ask yourself. "You can do better than him, Laura."

A little color comes into her cheeks, and a muscle works in her jaw. "What are you saying?"

"I'm saying you can do better than, uh—"

"No! That's not—!" She snatches the sugar packet from you and tosses it onto the floor. "That's not what you're saying, Jack!" Spittle shows on her lip.

Then she catches herself, and fear shows in her eye. "Did he say something? About me, when you talked?"

"No. He told me you guys talked. He told me it was all fixed between you. But, uh, you know, you did hurt him when you—"

"He said it was alright!" Laura slumps back in the booth and crosses her arms. "He said we were—! What do you think, Jack? Are you mad at me because I—?" She gulps.

"No. I'm not mad. Why should I be mad, it's none of my—"

"Oh, bullshit! You act all non-judgmental and shit, like you're everyone's best friend and trying out to help them do what's best, but you're really one of the most judgmental pieces of shit I—! No!" She catches herself again, and covers her face with her hands.

From behind them she sniffs really hard a couple of times, and her face is mottled and red when she shows it to you again. The tears are standing out in her eyes.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean that," she says as she touches her puffy lids with her fingertips. "You're sweet and kind and— And—! And it really matters to me what you think!"

"I told you, I'm not mad at you." Jack is used to these occasional storms from Laura—and the other girls—so her outburst didn't bother you a bit.

"But you have to be honest with me, Jack! Oh, keep your eyes to yourself!" she snarls at the occupants of a nearby table. It's a couple of guys in Eastman letterman jackets, and one of them has been staring at you and Laura with undisguised interest and amusement. The guy's jaw drops, and he turns away with a barely stifled laugh. "Be honest with me, Jack," Laura tells you. "In your heart of hearts—"

"I'm not mad at you, Laura. Why should I be?"

"But you think I did a bad thing!"

"You mean what you told us about meeting up with Will? You said you just panicked."

"But it really hurt Will, did it?"

She is staring at you hard, like everything in the world depends upon your answer, so you hesitate.

"Things were kind of weird for him," you say. "You knocked him off balance."

"And now he's mad at me," she pouts. "That's why you're telling me there's better guys for me, 'cos he told you he's mad at me, and you're trying to let me down easy."

"No! He didn't say anything about being mad at you. He—"

"But he is, isn't he? 'Cos he wouldn't hang out with me, he told me he was grounded, but—"

You're about to tell her that Will is grounded, but you catch yourself in time. You've had another wild idea.

The kind of idea that would probably cause Jack Li to kick your ass and tell you not to be stupid. But times are crazy, so allowances have to be made.

"Well, he didn't tell me he was grounded when I saw him," you start to say.

"You saw him?"

"Uh huh. I caught up to him before I texted you. So sue me, I wanted to hear from him how it went with you and him. He's not mad at you. But he was talking about some other girls."

Laura's mouth twists into a sour frown. "Who?"

"I'm not gonna say, Laura. But he was asking me about them, like if I knew them or ever hung out with them. Like if I could set things up so he could hang out with them."

"Who?" Laura asks again in a tone of frozen fury.

You give her a look. "You're not going to act like you're all jealous of ... Kendra Saunders, are you?" you improvise. "Because Will's got no chance with—"

"Wait!" Laura's hands bunch up into fists. "Did Will say he—?"

"He was asking if I ever hung out Kendra. Some of the other cheerleaders. He—"

"He wasn't serious!"

"Well, maybe delusional. The point is— Well, you can do better than a guy who is delusional."

Laura settles back in her booth and gives you a very long, intense, open-mouthed stare. You sip your coffee—which by now has lost all its heat—and glance around the cafe. Your eye goes back to table where those Eastman guys are sitting. They're not paying any attention to you—or they are being much more discreet—and you can't help doing a slight double-take at one of them. He is very tall and strikingly handsome, with an aquiline profile and dark, smoldering eyes under a thatch of dark hair. You get a thrill and a throb, and have to force your eyes off him. He looks like Blake O'Brien, you think. Jack likes his guys the way he likes his Cafe Grandes: tall, dark, and strong, with a bitter edge on them.

"Basically, you're telling me that Will's not mad at me, he's just not interested in me."

You turn back to Laura. "Huh?"

She gets to her feet, smiling tightly at you. "Thanks, Jack," she says. "I'm sorry I made it tough for you."

"Where are you going?"

Your words seem to catch her off guard. "You still want to hang out? You told me what you wanted to say."

"I wanted to give you a heads up. That doesn't mean it's the only thing I, uh—"

"Thanks, Jack." She comes around the table and leans over to kiss the top of your ball cap. "But I wanna go."

"Laura!"

But she's already walking away. She waves at you without turning around, and whaps the back of the eavesdropper's head as she brushes past the Eastman table. He laughs, which gets him a hot, sour look from his tall, dark friend.

You can't help wondering what's going to happen next between Laura and ... Will Prescott. But that's a subset of your worries about what ... Will Prescott ... is going to get up to. Maybe you should try hanging around him at school tomorrow, to keep an eye on him.

Next: "Crises, Small and Tall" 

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"Table of Contents (Vol. 2)" 
"The Book of Masks (Vol. 2)"