The Book of Masks (Vol. 2)

Party Plans

Previously: "Fireworks" 

"I'm gonna grab the book before we go," you say, and lumber over to the burning pile of earth.

"You're gonna fuck it up," Caleb exclaims.

"Even if I do, we know it works and can set it up again," you retort. "And we can set it up in the basement."

Caleb shouts something else, but you're not paying attention, and kneel next to the berm. You are very careful about putting your hand into the dirt, in case something should happen, but you feel about until you touch the edge of the book. You pull it slowly out.

Some of the dirt comes away with it, but you do it no other apparent damage, and push the dirt back in. Pulling the grimoire out doesn't seem to have affected the fire at all.

But when you try to turn the page to the next spell, you find that it is still stuck to the page beneath. You hope that only means the fire has to finish doing its work before the spell is complete.

* * * * *

The fire is still burning when you stop by the spot on the way to school the next morning, and it is still burning when you stop by to check on your way home in the afternoon.

You were late checking it, too, for Chelsea insisted on staying after practice with you, up in the loft. At first you were hoping you were going to get lucky, but she insisted on keeping it down to only some heavy petting, and then wanted to talk about who to invite to the party on Friday. "I need to let people know tonight," she said. "I should have told them earlier, but I wasn't sure I was going to get to have it. Stupid Jordan was talking about having his own party out there Friday, and he didn't turn loose until this morning." Jordan Cooper is her older brother, a student at the college.

"I don't care who you invite out," you told her. "As long Steve and Jason are there, and Huber and his crowd aren't."

"We've got to have some people from the football team," she insisted. "If only to show some school spirit."

"Carstairs is okay," you said with a roll of your eyes.

"Some of Cameron's friends," she said. "He's the quarterback, you know . What about Reece Palendech or Chris Ratliff? They'd look nice with some of our friends."

"I don't think Palendech is Steve's type."

She punched you. "I meant they'd look nice with Gloria or Kendra, or Eva and Jessica. Which reminds me -- "

You tensed, expecting her to ask about Caleb again.

"What are you going to do about Jeremy? Are you keeping him on the squad or aren't you?"

You relax again. "Richards? He's staying, I guess. I can't decide, which means -- "

"I wish you'd get rid of him. I heard that him and Eva were, like, sucking on each other's tonsils, and I -- "

You bolt upright. "What?"

"I know. Ew! Which is why you should -- "

"Eva and Richards are dating?"

Chelsea made a weird kind of noncommittal choking noise. "That would be even more horrible. Or maybe less horrible, since that would mean it isn't just physical."

"But you mean they're -- "

"I don't know, Gordon, and don't give me nightmares by trying to imagine it." She sat back on her heels and cocked her head. "You know, you're not ever really that interested when I tell you about these things."

"Yeah, well," you stammered. "This is Richards, and you're right. Ew." But of course that wasn't it at all.

And then something -- probably mention of Eva -- did remind her of Caleb. "Did you talk to that guy you're rooming with about coming to the party?"

"I'm not rooming with him, I'm renting from his mother."

"Tch, don't be so technical. You're under the same roof, so you're rooming with him."

"Does that mean you're rooming with your brother?"

A spot of white showed in her forehead. "Have you asked that guy?"

"I mentioned it to him. He didn't sound interested."

You hadn't paid that much attention to her after that, being completely distracted by her news that Eva Garner, apparently having decided that Caleb Johansson wasn't actually interested in her, was falling into the clumsy hands of Jeremy Richards.

* * * * *

Caleb turns from his laptop to stare evenly at you. "I get that your girlfriend's interested in this. Why should I be?"

You snort, and close the bedroom door. You're so tall that you're able to do it from the bed just by stretching your leg and kicking it with your foot. "You know why you should be."

"I know why you think I should be," he says, and you can tell you've hit a nerve because his voice has jumped half an octave in pitch. He wheels back to the laptop. "Just drop it, Will. I've told you before to drop it."

"What the fuck is wrong with you? Or is it Eva, you think there's something wrong with her? No, can't be that," you continue when he just clacks away at the keyboard. "Because we've talked enough about how hot she is. Oh, and Gordon and his friends have also talked about it, talked about her and Jessica -- "

"Ahnanananananananananah!" Caleb yells, and claps his hands over his ears. He looks back hotly at you. "You can tell me what you do with Chelsea, but don't you fucking tell me what you, and especially what Patterson, has fantasized about Eva. Or Jessica."

"So you do care for her!"

"I care for her the way I care about puppies at the pound. I don't wanna see them thrown into a wood chipper, but that doesn't mean I'm going to go out and adopt them all myself."

"So you'd let Richards slobber all over her."

"Better him than -- " Caleb makes a face. "If it makes her happy, I don't get it. If it makes him happy -- " He shrugs. "He used to be friends with us. What does Gordon think of him?"

"Thinks he's a goof, a doofus, and a fuck up. A platinum-plated ding-dong. Six quarts short of a gallon, and twelve thumbs when it comes to handling a basketball."

"Okay, I get it."

"Chelsea wants me to bust him and Eva up by kicking him off the squad."

"How will that bust them up?"

"I dunno. I guess Chelsea thinks Eva's only going out with him because he's on the squad."

"Is she only going out with Gordon because he's on the squad?"

You give Caleb to the count of five to withdraw the remark, then slowly sit up on the bed and put your feet on the floor and stand up. Caleb has to lean back to take you all in as you tower over him. "Would you like to ask a different question instead of the one you asked?"

"Okay. Is she only going out with Gordon because she lost a bet?"

You pull him out of his chair and into a loose headlock, then fling him onto the bed. He rolls gently across it and sits up undamaged. You take his place in the chair. "I don't know what she's thinking. I'm pretty sure Gordon could never figure it out, and he's no dumber than me when it comes to girls."

"Well, for God's sake don't do what she's asking you to do. If Jeremy's happy -- "

"You want to make him happy?"

Caleb shrugs. "I don't despise him. I used to, but recently life's gotten too busy for me to keep in practice."

Then Caleb's mom calls you out for supper. You take your time eating and help her clean up, so you don't get a chance to return to the subject before Will shows up.

Then you're talking about other stuff after your trio has adjourned to the bedroom. He checked on the project before coming over, and reports that it's still burning. "And I thought it took forever to make a mask," he says.

"That reminds me," you say. "What are we going to do with that mask of Lynch? It's going to waste."

"There's nothing we can do with it, right?" Will says.

"It's been awhile since you've hung out with your friends," you remind him. "We could make Caleb put it on and then the three of us -- "

Caleb throws a book at you.

"Yeah, have you been hanging out any with Steve and Jason since moving in here?" Will asks.

"Not so much," you admit. "But I'll see them at that party at Chelsea's. Sure you guys don't want to go?"

Caleb looks around for another book to throw, but none are in reach. Will groans. "I told you, I'm not going. I hated those things. Let's the three of us go out -- Oh, but you've got to go to the party at least. I guess Tilley it is for the third," he sighs, turning to Caleb.

Then an idea comes to you, and you feel a smile creeping up the side of your face. "You know, when Caleb and me were starting to play with these things, we were talking about pranking people with them. What if we got masks of a couple of people -- Lynch and some other guy, say -- and sent the real people off on a snipe hunt or something, and then you two snuck into Chelsea's party disguised as them?"

Your two friends both look skeptical, but they don't look like they immediately hate the idea. You bet you could talk them into it if you tried hard enough.

Next: "Party Prank Prep" 

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