The Book of Masks (Vol. 5)

Nine's a Crowd

Previously: "Mini-Golf and Many Girls" 

You gnaw on your lip and bounce on the balls of your feet.

You came out to the mini-golf course because you wanted to hook up with some girls, and you've now got your choice of girls to chase.

But they're from St. Francis Xavier's, the tony private school out west of town, and so (you can't help feeling) out of your weight class. Even Roxanne, selling tickets at the front, has treated you coolly.

So you wander back into the game room, where Keith and Caleb are absorbed by the Galaga machine.

"Your turn soon as Johansson dies to these bitches," Keith tells you. He's gazing out the window at the course while Caleb taps the game buttons furiously. "Less'n you're gonna make a play for them hoes out there." He jerks his chin at the girls out on the course.

"They're Mutants," you reply.

Keith does a double-take at you. So does Caleb, and in the instant he takes his eyes off the screen his guy is blasted to space dust.

"Fuck me," Keith murmurs. "Okay, I'm'a go make a play for 'em, then."

But Caleb catches him by the neck as he starts to strut off.

"Don't be a dork," he tells Keith. "You got no chance with a gaggle of Mutants."

"Says who?" Keith protests. "An' what's it matter to you?"

"It matters to me 'cos you'll shoot your wad with'm, get blown out of the water, then spend the rest of the afternoon sniveling about it to Prescott and me."

"So tell me to go fuck myself if I do!"

"But you won't," Caleb retorts. "Sadly."

"Oh, fuck you, man." But Keith just goes back to staring longingly out the window at the girls.

* * * * *

You and your friends have used up most of the tokens and are talking about what to do next and where, when you're distracted by an outburst of voices from out front. You go back to watching Keith, who is playing Pac-Man, but Caleb wanders over to take a look at the newcomers. He stands looking off into the next room with his hands in his pockets for a moment, then nods and calls out, "Yeah, wassup?" Your curiosity now aroused, you join him to see what the ruckus is.

It's a gang of a half-dozen kids whom you recognize from your junior and sophomore years. (A couple you knew in middle school and haven't seen since then, and there's something uncanny about seeing them looking bigger and older and lumpier than when last you saw them.) Names? There's a Patrick and a Lorenzo and a some-other-guy you can't quite place; and there's a girl named Kristin and a girl named Trinity and a third girl whose name also escapes you. There's nothing real special about them—they're just kids from the high school—except that Lorenzo is dressed up very dapper in Levis and a long-sleeve, striped polo shirt. But then, you recall, he was always the most put-together guy in any of your junior classes last year.

He's got his wallet out and appears to be paying for the others with a credit card, but he keeps looking between Roxanne and Caleb even while chatting with his friends. And after he's collected his card from Roxanne, he comes sauntering over to glance into the game room.

"Johansson," he greets Caleb with a distracted air as he sweeps the game room with a quick, sharp gaze. "Will." He pushes his horn-rimmed glasses up to the top of his nose. "Still hanging out with Tilley, I see." He smirks lightly as he studies Keith's back. You don't remember Lorenzo having quite so deep and resonant a baritone, which doesn't quite match up with the faint air of the science-nerd that hangs about him. But then, neither does the preppy polo shirt.

"Yeah, still," Caleb agrees with a soft snort. "What about you?"

"Same old." He is still staring at Keith with a look of contempt as he says it, then jerks himself from the reverie. "Who you got for math this semester?" he asks Caleb.

"Kowalski for Calculus, Muniz for Stats."

"Damn, son," Lorenzo says. He looks startled. "You doubled up? Is either one an AP class?"

"Kowalski's calculus class."

"Damn," Lorenzo repeats. His sharp gaze shifts onto you. "How about you, man?"

"Just regular calc," you grudgingly reply. "With Kowalski." You'd forgotten that Lorenzo treats academics as a dick-measuring contest.

"Well, I'll see you guys around," Lorenzo says. But instead of joining his friends directly, he lets himself get distracted again by the oblivious Keith. There is something curiously intense about the way he stares at Tilley, as though burning the memory of your friend onto his retinas.

Then, again, he pulls himself out of that weird reverie to add, "Unless you're heading out for a game" to Caleb.

"I could go for another one," Caleb coolly replies.

"Are you paying for it?" You surprise yourself with the bluntness of your question.

"I can pay for my own," Caleb retorts. "You can hang out in here with Tilley. Or—fuck me—you and him can take off." To Lorenzo: "Can I catch a ride home with you guys after?"

"Sure man, come on." Lorenzo shoots Keith one last parting glance before leading Caleb out, leaving you to watch with a sense of bafflement and anger.

"An' that's how you play it," Keith brags when you rejoin him at the Pac-Man machine, where a new screen is loading. "Hope you're taking notes."

But you're not. Though you lean against the machine, you are staring out the window, where Caleb and the others are sorting themselves out at the first hole. He looks perfectly at home in their company.

* * * * *

Keith is pissed when you tell him that Caleb has gone out to play another round of mini-golf with some other guys, and he is all for joining them until you point out that seven is already too big of a crowd, and that nine (which is how many you'd be if you and he joined) would make the game unplayable. So, with a sulky hang of the shoulders he buys some more tokens, and you and he spend most of the rest of the hour playing arcade games.

But the kids outside take an even longer time to work through their game, and they are still half-a-dozen holes from the end when you and Keith finally run out of money and patience. Together you go out to find Caleb, to tell him you're taking off.

He's setting up a putt when you reach him, and is taking so much care over the angles of the course that you don't dare interrupt. Lorenzo is watching with almost as much concentration as Caleb, so it's with Kristin and Patrick that you fall into conversation. They both seem strangely pleased to see you and Keith, with Kristin chirping a friendly "Hey Will!" when you join them, and Patrick playfully punching Keith in the shoulder. (A blow that Keith returns.)

"So who's winning?" you ask.

"Them two," Patrick says. He's a curly-headed kid with a bright eye and a bit of a paunch, and his reply is distracted because he is dodging and weaving as he tries to punch past Keith's defenses to land another light blow on your friend. "Playing like it's a freaking geometry class or something."

"They're so competitive," Kristin agrees. She has a wide smile and long, straight blonde hair that hangs to the top of her boobs, and she would probably look very pretty indeed if she wore a little more makeup and wasn't dressed in a faded blue track suit. "Is Caleb like that when he plays with you guys?" she asks you. "Why aren't you out here playing?"

"We played earlier, blew the rest of our money on games inside." You throw an annoyed glance at Keith and Patrick, who are now hopping around the golf course, trying to slap each other. "We're about to take off."

"No!" Kristin cries. "Come hang out with us! We're gonna all go do something after this!"

"What are you gonna do? I don't got any money left."

"We'll spot you. We're gonna go hang out at Lacie's family's restaurant. You can probably get something to eat, you'll probably even get comped if it isn't too big."

"Well— I need to take Keith home, anyway."

"Can't he come too?"

"I dunno. I'll talk to him. Yo! Tilley!"

You have to shout because he and Patrick are now halfway back to the main building, grappling and wrestling. Keith's head pops up in your direction, and in this moment of distraction, Patrick knocks him on the side of the head and then scampers away, laughing. Keith shoots him an annoyed look, then starts trotting over to join you, but you hurry up to meet him.

"We gotta go," you tell him.

"Yeah? You tell Johansson we're taking off?"

"I told the other guys. Come on."

Patrick hoots and hollers after you as you walk toward the entrance, and Keith turns to give him a double-bird and a grin. "We can't take you anywhere, can we?" you grumble.

"Fuck you, man, we're having fun," Keith retorts. He's in a mood to hum to himself.

* * * * *

You're not sure why you so insisted on leaving with Keith, or why you didn't offer Keith the chance to stay behind with Caleb and the others. Even when your phone chirps with a text from Kristin, asking if you're coming back, you say nothing to Keith but only drop him off at his house with the excuse that you have to get home yourself.

Only dimly does it occur to you that you don't really want to hang out with those other guys, and that you hustled Keith off because you didn't want to be the only one who went home. But you shove the thought away, burying it in the same hole where you put all the other guilty thoughts you've ever had.

As you turn for home, though, you feel your mood shifting. Why shouldn't you go out and meet Kristin and the others, since they want to see you badly enough to have texted after you've gone. After all, isn't that why you went out to the minigolf in the first place? For a chance to meet up with some girls?

Next: Coming soon! Check back!

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"Table of Contents (Vol. 5)" 
"The Book of Masks (Vol. 5)"