The Book of Masks (Vol. 4)

Books and Bases

Previously: "The Mystery of the Girl from the East" 

[Text by rugal]

You sit at one of the small tables and check your phone, both to browse and to see if any new messages come in though none do. You make some idle, inconsequential chit chat with Eric while a few people begin to filter in. You notice that girl glancing your direction a couple of times and you're almost tempted to talk to her, mostly to ask her what her deal is. I don't need to make it look like I'm desperate enough to try picking up a freshman, you tell yourself and that's enough to table any idea of that.

The door chimes once more and in walks Gillian, much to your surprise. You knew she'd be coming since that's what she'd said earlier but still, she's here before everyone else besides you. "Hey Will, I guess I'm early, huh?" she says, echoing your thoughts.

"Seems like it," you reply, unsure of what to really say.

But Gillian merely stands by the door and holds it open. "Oh and look who I found!" she says.

Through the doorway walks Natalie, still looking cute and dressed not all that differently from what you saw yesterday. Just replace the jeans with cargo pants and a thin, light blue hoodie covering what looks to be a yellow t-shirt. She waves at you. "Fancy running into you here, newbie," she says. "How totally and completely unexpected!"

"Ah, yeah, I wasn't expecting to meet you two days in a row," you reply, going along with her attempted joke.

Natalie doesn't say much but instead walks over to you and snatches your cap off of your head, placing it on her own. She smirks. "You look better without this beat up old thing, by the way," she says as she ruffles your hair. She then walks over to greet Eric leaving you red-faced.

Gillian giggles and pinches you in the side, bringing you back to Earth. "She doesn't mean anything by it, Will," she says. "Like I told you, Natalie is Natalie. She's just funny like that."

You want to ask her what she thinks you were thinking but you don't get the opportunity to because not long after, Christian and Howie and the others soon begin filtering in. Though conspicuous by his absence is Braydon. "He texted the group saying that something came up last minute and he was't going to be able to make it out today," Christian explains when you ask where he is.

"He didn't say anything about that to me!" Gillian cries.

"Maybe he thought he texted you already," shrugs Darrell Parson.

But that doesn't seem to mollify Gillian who grasps your arm and rests her head on your shoulder. "Well, since my hubby is being a jerkass, why don't you keep me company, Will?" she asks.

You'd really wanted to talk to Natalie but how can you say no to someone like Gillian? Especially when Natalie herself jumps in to needle you. "You should totally keep her company. Maybe you can even steal her away if you're smooth enough," she laughs. You notice Gillian make a face at that.

After being pressured, you can't help but acquiesce although you're awkward and don't really know what to do. But Gillian is very forward, very flirty and very touchy feely. You half-wonder if she'd agree to just leave and go some place else with you if you asked. But in spite of how she's acting you're not sure you feel any actual intimacy from her. No, it's almost like how it was with... you stop yourself before you can finish that thought.

Neither of you join in with the game Christian and his buddies are playing and it's maybe twenty minutes before Gillian, probably starting to get bored, stands up and says she's going to head out. You and Natalie go with her.

"Sorry I'm not much of a conversationalist," you apologize to her once the three of you are outside.

"No, you're fine, don't worry," Gillian replies. "I'm really only ever out here to spend time with my hubby but he's not here so... I dunno, it's just hard to maintain interest." She heads over to her car but stops to look at Natalie. "Are you coming?"

"Nah, I think I'll stay for a little bit. Will can give me a ride home," she says as she looks at you, smirks, and gives your cheek a hard pinch, "can't you?"

You rub the tender area where she pinched you but you're also not about to turn her down, either. "Yeah, it's fine, I don't mind," you say.

"Alright then," says Gillian as she waves at you. "Maybe I'll see you at school tomorrow."

Once she's off, you suddenly notice a quick shift in Natalie's mood. The bright expression is replaced by something harder. She talks but she doesn't look at you and the exuberant tone she'd had isn't there. "Hey, you wanna ditch these guys and hang out, just the two of us?" she asks.

"Uh, sure, I guess, but why?"

She lets out a small "hmph" as she starts walking towards the parking lot. "I just suddenly don't have the stomach for Dungeons and Dragons, that's all," she says.

* * * * *

You head back in to give customary goodbyes before you direct Natalie over to your truck. You're not really sure where she wants to hang out and she doesn't give a real answer—just an "anywhere"—when you ask. But you hit upon an idea and hope that maybe she'll find it cool. So you head towards Acheson and the community center. Grabbing your backpack, you hop out of the truck and have her follow you over to the old school house and towards a padlocked door. Digging around, you find the key and are thankful that it still works.

You lead her down the steps into a dank, dark basement, flipping the light switch to illuminate it. "Pretty neat, huh? Me and my friends discovered it a little while back," you explain. "We bought ablock so nobody else can get in."

"Nice! Like a secret base!" Natalie exclaims as she walks past you to look around. "I would've killed for something like this when I was a kid! All I had was a treehouse."

"Glad you like it. We can keep coming down here if you want to, you know, keep hanging out," you say.

She turns back to you, an excited look on her face. "Yeah, I'd be totally fine with that!"

So with a barrier seemingly broken down, you decide to get into what's been bothering you all day. "I'm glad but, uh, why?" you ask. "You know, you just met me and you're giving me your number and you're wanting to hang out despite barely even knowing my name."

Natalie looks at you with confusion, as if she doesn't quite comprehend what you're saying. "Anything wrong with that?" she asks.

"Well, no, but Christian's crew were telling me that you were with some group from Eastman and were probably going to be pumping me for gossip."

"Pfft, yeah," Natalie says dismissively with an eye roll. "I am totally Jane Bond, looking to get all of Westside's deep, dark state secrets." She pushes herself up onto the table that sits near the stairs. "Okay sure, I'm part of Alyssa's circle but people have this really weird perception of what we're like. Like we're the Illuminati or something. I mean yeah, Alyssa likes collating rumors and whatever and sure I'll pass along stuff I hear but I'm not, like, some kind of spy or something."

"You were still pretty quick to hang out with me all the same," you reply.

"Sure, but that's because... I dunno," she shrugs. "You ever just meet someone and you feel like you're just kinda similar? That's what I thought when we were talking yesterday. Like I just got this vibe of 'he's pretty similar to me and probably won't mind hanging out', y'know? You felt like that too, right? Otherwise, you wouldn't have messaged me."

"Sure, I guess I get what you mean."

"Right! And I thought... man, finally someone who gets that!" she exclaims.

"Well, you've known Gillian a long time, or at least that's what she said," you state. "You don't get that with her?"

"No, I do, but, y'know, she's got her hubby so we can't always hang out," she tells you. "Plus I just like meeting people and getting to know them. But, I mean, if you don't want to hang out..."

"Whoa, no, I definitely do!" you protest and then cringe because that probably sounds desperate.

But Natalie doesn't seem to notice or at least doesn't comment on it. There is, however, a lull in the conversation and you realize that this is probably the opening that you need. So you grab the book from your backpack and put it on the table next to her.

"What's this?" she asks as she hops off and eyes it curiously.

"It's a book," you state plainly as you open it. "I picked it up at Arnholm's a few days ago."

"Looks like it'd be a prop in some fantasy movie," Natalie says.

"It's written like it's real, " you tell her. You then pull the mask out as well and show it to her. "It had instructions to make this in it. It says you have to polish it but I've been trying it for a few days and it's been slow going."

She picks the mask up and looks at it before handing it back to you. "Maybe it's some kind of fantasy themed arts and crafts book," she says. "I mean, it's obviously not like it's a real magic book or anything but it'd probably be interesting to look at it some more."

"Are you into stuff like that?"

"Arts and crafts? Yeah, kinda," she says as she looks at the book.

And there's what you've been looking for. With this, you could ask her if she'd be interested in working on the book with you to see what it has. The book has been weird enough so far that you're fairly convinced it is really magic and if it is, something like this would be neat to share with Natalie.

But from the way she's been talking, you probably don't even need to bring the book into things if you wanted to keep hanging out with her.

Next: "Of Hearts That Suffer" 

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"Table of Contents (Vol. 4)" 
"The Book of Masks (Vol. 4)"