The Book of Masks (Vol. 4)

Party of Five, Chapter 3

Previously: "Party of Five, Chapter 2" 

You don't expect to see any reaction from Sean at work on Wednesday to the story you have started posting, and so you aren't disappointed. And after yesterday, you're not surprised, only a little hurt, to see no comments on Chapter 2 and only a dozen views.

Is Sean one of your readers? You hope so, for this story is tailor-made to catch his interest, because it's a story that he himself has played around with writing. The webcomic it's based on is one of his favorites, and he had the idea some time ago to write up an adaptation of it. So you figure the intro by itself would have caught his eye.

You get your homework done early, insert your copy of Sean's brain into your own, and get to work writing the next chapter.

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SUSIE SAT HUNCHED ON THE DOUBLE BED, her shoulders slumped and her rucksack still zipped by her side. She glared at the window. The heavy fabric curtains were drawn across it, so the room was dim and slightly stifling.

God, she thought, why was I so stupid, throwing myself at Alfie and into this vacation? Now I'm stuck here with him and Dougie and Scarlett, and I'm going to be miserable, and I'll be more miserable if they wind up having fun and even more miserabler if they don't! I should have just gone home after I saw those texts! Except—

She closed her eyes and rubbed her forehead. She had been nursing a low-grade migraine all the way out to the island, and now it was threatening to explode.

Except I wanted to hurt Alfie, and I knew the best way to do that was to come along still. But I'm only going to hurt myself, and he's going to hate me after this, and I've totally blown it with him!

She clenched her eyes shut.

At least if I'd gone home, he'd have felt guilty and he'd have texted me or called me and we'd have made it all good. Now we're going to be stuck here not talking to each other, because I can't talk to him and I can't let him talk to me.

She fell onto her side with a stifled groan and pushed her face into the rough quilt that covered the bed.

Susie was the kind of girl who once she started blaming herself couldn't stop until she had heaped the sins of the universe onto her shoulders. Oh, Susie you can be so stupid! she continued as she explained everything (futilely) to herself. Stupid, stupid, stupid! You knew he still wasn't over Becca, that he was just looking for someone to make it hurt less. And like a freaking idiot you decided that was the perfect moment to lunge at him. 'If you still got room for someone to go with you to the island, Alfie, I'd love to go! I've never been out to Saginac! You still going to bunk with Dougie, right? So I guess that leaves that big bed for me and Scarlett? That doesn't seem fair, you should take it. Oh, you don't want to share it with Dougie? I guess I wouldn't mind sharing it with you. I mean, if you don't mind!'"

She clenched her fists.

You thought you were so freaking clever, Susie Parsons, by being so freaking obvious. And the way he just instantly said yes, and his face just lit up, you thought it was all on account of you, that Alfie must have just been waiting for a chance with you, and that this was it! But he would'a taken anyone, he wouldn'a taken Carla Freaking Jones if she'd got to him first! And I wish she had! Then maybe he'd have been sexting with me while waiting in the school parking lot with her, because he doesn't care who he's with or how he's doing it with them, he just wants—!

Someone shuffled their feet in the hallway, and Susie shot up with frown of terror. She felt the tears bruising the back of her eye, but she kept her hands down and clenched.

It was Tanya. She was standing in the doorway but hanging back, with her bag over her shoulder. Her expression was wary, and for a moment Susie thought she was going to bolt. But instead she grasped the edge of the doorframe and said, "Hey, I guess you're sleeping in here?"

Susie brushed an eye with the heel of her hand.

"I guess," she muttered. "I don't know where else I can sleep."

"Can I take the other bed, then?" Tanya asked. But she still hung back even after Susie waved dismissively at it.

"Listen," Tanya said. "If you want to go back home instead of staying here— I mean, it's our SUV, we can take off with it if we want, and Alfie would totally deserve—

"No!" Susie said.

"Really, I don't mind going back if—"

"And leave Alfie up here alone with Scarlett?" Susie snorted. "You know what they'll get up to, right?"

Tanya made a face. Then her mouth fell open when she saw that Susie was serious.

"But ... she's going with Brad!" she protested. "And he's, like, Alfie's best friend!"

"Alfie's acting like a tomcat in heat, he won't—"

"But Scarlett wouldn't—!"

"Wouldn't she?"

"Susie!"

The sisters stared at each other. Then Susie dove across the bed to grab Tanya by the wrist and pull her inside. "Close the door," she hissed. Tanya stood dumfounded while Susie leaned in close.

"Listen, Scarlett's my best friend," Susie said after they were shut up inside the dim, stuffy bedroom. "But she's a skank's skank. She'd do it with Dougie if it was just the two of them here! You know who arranged it so we could come? Brad." Susie nodded. "He told Scarlett to find someone to come out in his place, to find some girl who could keep Alfie distracted. 'Cos he knew if him and Scarlett were out here alone, or even just with Dougie—"

Tanya nearly shrieked. "He told his own girlfriend he didn't trust her?"

"No! Well, not like that! Brad's not that much of a dumbass! He was just, like, 'If it can't be you and me, babe, can you set it up so it's Alfie and someone else?' So she asked me if I would, like, be interested, and I—"

"I thought it was your idea! That you went to Alfie—"

"Yeah, after! Scarlett asked if I wanted to come along, but that was just to, you know, hang out and do stuff. But then Brad also asked me to keep Alfie distracted from Scarlett." Which I was happy to do, Susie added privately.

Tanya turned this over in her mind. "So if you and I leave," she started to say.

"That'll leave Alfie here with Scarlett and Dougie. And even if Scarlett doesn't do anything with either of them, Brad'll think—"

Tanya groaned. "Oh, we are so screwed!"

Susie looked at her sharply. "Why?"

"Because of what you told me! We can't leave, so we're stuck here with them. And you and Alfie—"

Susie fell back onto the bed.

"Oh, don't worry about me and Alfie," she said. "I'll start being polite to him again after I'm done unpacking. Everyone'll have fun. You'll have fun."

"Not likely!"

Susie made a spiteful face at Tanya. She could be such a goodie-goodie, and such a martyr when other people were unhappy. What was the old saying about attention-whores? The bride at every wedding and the corpse at every funeral! Tanya never tried playing the bride, but if someone was having a funeral, Tanya would definitely try upstaging the corpse!

"I'm going to go talk to Scarlett," Susie suddenly declared, and clambered to her feet. "Where is she?"

"I don't know. But why do you want to talk to her?" Tanya sounded bewildered. "I mean, after she was being such a bitch to you on the way up here!"

Susie gave her another sour look. "You don't understand her, that's all," she said. Then she opened the door, looked out to make sure the coast was clear, and hopped the rest of the way down the hallway to look into the master bedroom.

As she expected, Scarlett was there, slowly unpacking the biggest suitcase Susie had ever seen. She looked up from the bikini she was folding back up again, and smiled broadly.

"I should'a guessed you'd take over this room," Susie said. "Mind if I take the other side of the bed?"

"Sure!" Scarlett scooped up the bikini and dropped it onto a stack of clothes that was getting taller by the minute. "Alfie says he'll be taking the sofa. I guess that puts Dougie and your sister in the other bedroom. Oh, hey, do you think Tanya likes Dougie?"

"I don't know, I've never talked to her about him."

"I should tell him to wear shorts while we're here. Some of those khaki ones he likes. Doesn't he have the sexiest legs? And his knees!" She grinned and groaned.

"If Tanya and I left early, any chance we could get you to go back with us?"

Scarlett almost dropped the t-shirt she was folding.

"What?" she cried. "Go back early? Why—? Oh, Susie!"

"Well, if we do. Tanya's being a little pill about this whole situation—"

"So, spray her down with a hose or something! No way I'm going back to town early, and I can't believe you— You don't wanna leave early, do you?" A look of mild alarm showed on her face.

"No, I'm not going back if you're not going back," Susie said.

And as soon as she said it, she felt it. She knew for a fact now that there was no way she was going to run off.

That was why she had said she needed to talk to Scarlett, she realized. Because she knew that Scarlett could bully her out of running away without even trying to.

"Well," Scarlett said as she went back to folding the t-shirt, "I'm not going back early even if you and everyone else have a medical emergency. So don't plan on having one. Okay?"

She looked up from her task and gave Susie a slow, heavy wink.

Susie smiled in relief, and said that she'd go get her ruck sack and be right back.

Next: "Party of Five, Chapter 4" 

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