The Book of Masks (Vol. 1)

Two Consultations Without an Answer

Previously: "When the Bullies Come Out to Play" 

Caleb nudges you again. You turn so you can mutter at him without Jenny hearing. "Let's stick around here. I think Eva's coming this way."

"Garner?" Caleb's eyes flash, and he looks over his shoulder.

"Jesus, control yourself," you murmur. Then you drop cross-legged to the grass and unpack your lunch. It's leftover meatloaf and green beans that were cold when you took them out of the fridge, but which achieved room temperature in your locker. You watch Eva approach.

All the Garners have great legs, but Eva and Jessica improve on their brother Marc by also have trim hips and curved stomachs and pronounced boobs. Things that look great in a cheerleader uniform, and which are only improved by the sun-washed hair and healthy glow in their cheeks. But Eva's expression is wary as she comes up to your quintet -- you and Caleb and Keith, Jenny and Paul -- though you're relieved that she gives you a quick smile, so it's probably not you that's got her bothered.

"Tell me you're mad at me and aren't speaking to me," she says as she kneels on the grass and plucks a white jicama stick from Jenny's lunch.

"Uh, I'm mad at you and not speaking to you?" Jenny replies. "How come?"

"Because I lost the coin toss, and if you're mad at me then Jessica will have to talk to you when you have her in math class. Don't ask her about it in front of Marc, though."

"Ask her what?"

"You're mad and not talking to me, remember?" Eva pops the jicama stick into her mouth as she gets up. "So you can't -- "

Jenny drags her back down by the hem of her shorts. "I am so talking to you. About what?"

Eva grimaces. "How friendly are you with Gillian Kiefer?"

"Friendly enough, I guess."

"Enough to be like a go-between? Introduce someone to her?"

"Who?"

"I'm not sure. Bonny Trask, maybe? Almida? Stephanie or Tara Weston or -- ?" Eva's complexion -- normally the color of a healthy peach -- gets a little wormy.

But Jenny seems not to notice. "What are you talking about? What's the deal? None of them know Gillian but they want to?"

Eva shrugs. "It's her boyfriend they want to meet."

"Braydon?"

Behind you, Keith bursts out laughing. You glance back, but he's still absorbed in his cell phone. It must be a really funny video.

" -- don't know anyone who knows Braydon," Eva is saying, "except Gillian, and they don't even know her. I said I thought you knew Gillian pretty well, so they asked me if I'd ask you -- " She sighs. "I don't know why I want in the middle of it."

"Why all the complication?" Jenny asks. "Why can't they -- ? Oh, screw it, if they want to meet Gillian or Braydon, I can set it up."

"Thanks. I just don't want to be there when they start talking about ... stuff." Eva rubs her nose as she gets up.

"I can do it for you," Caleb says, and he thrusts himself past you. "I can handle it."

"Handle what?" Both girls swivel toward him.

"Make an introduction. I know Braydon, and these girls -- "

"I can handle it," Jenny says. She looks rather cross at the way Caleb has inserted himself.

You find your own voice: "How do you know Braydon?"

Caleb's glance is withering. "We have him for English, haven't you noticed?"

You roll your eyes. "Fuck me, yeah, I've noticed him, all gothing it up in the third row -- "

"So I'll do it tomorrow," Caleb tells Eva. "I'll talk to him tomorrow, fourth period. Have one of your girls text me when they can talk to him after lunch, and I'll set it up."

Eva raises her eyebrows, then looks at Jenny. Jenny shrugs and tears another bite out of her sandwich. "Okay," Eva says. "Thanks, I'll tell them, and then you can -- "

"Well, hang on," says Caleb. "What do they want to talk to him about? So, you know, I can tell him what it's all about?"

Eva makes a face. "Braydon type stuff. Isn't he into, like, black magic?"

Jenny's jaw drops. "The fuck? What are they interested in that for?"

"They say it's for Halloween," Eva replies. "They want to ask him about -- But they were also all talking about hair clippings and fingernail clippings and stuff like that. You're not going to have that stuff in a haunted house attraction, are you?"

But Caleb is unfazed. "Okay, I'll tell him it's research. These are who again? Almida Jones? Tara Weston?"

"That group, yeah. Do you have any of them in class?"

"Got a couple of them in English."

Paul has been quietly listening all this time, but now he speaks up. "Didn't you say Braydon's in there too? So why don't they just go talk to -- ?"

Caleb punches him in the shoulder. "I said I can handle it, Davis."

"Yeah, I'll leave it in your capable hands," Eva says. "You gonna be around after school?" she asks Jenny.

The two girls talk a bit about late afternoon plans while you anxiously search for a place to insert yourself into the conversation. No chance comes, then Eva turns to walk back the way she came.

You lunge after her. "Hey Eva, you gotta minute?" You fall in beside her.

"I left my lunch tray with Chelsea and them," she says. "If I don't get back they'll throw it in the trash."

"Oh. Well, I'll just ask you real quick. Um, you know how me and Lisa were, like, going out over the summer?"

"Uh huh?" Eva keeps her eyes forward as she power-walks her way back around the corner of the office.

"And then, right after school started, suddenly we weren't?"

"Uh huh?"

"Well, did Lisa say anything to you about that? About, uh, why suddenly we weren't?"

Eva doesn't answer right away, and keeps her eyes forward. "Well, maybe you weren't, you know? Going out over the summer."

You flush. That's exactly what Lisa said that day she threw your arm off her shoulder: We never really said we were going out. "Well, I thought we were."

"It's funny, people sometimes see the exact same thing in totally different ways."

You're moved to recklessness. "So, did she tell you why we weren't going together?"

Eva blinks once, heavily. "There's lots of people she's not going out with, and she hasn't told me why she's not going out with them."

"You know what I mean!"

Eva stops so hard you have back up a couple of steps to get back even with her. "Look, Will," she says, and her large blue eyes are filled with sympathy. (But behind the sympathy you can also see the impatience.) "Don't worry about Lisa. About you and Lisa, I mean. She's got her thing, and you've got yours. Or you should get yours. You know? You and Lisa, you're in the past, and the past isn't real, you know? It's all back there." She waves her hand in the direction of the school office. "Someplace where you can't get to. So stop trying to get back to it."

She sighs. "Sometimes you don't win, and you need to let go. Then you can go off and win someplace else. With someone else."

You glare at the ground. "Did anyone ever tell you that?" you demand of one of only ten girls judged beautiful enough and fit enough to be a Westside cheerleader. "To stop thinking about someone you -- ?"

"No, and I have to get back to my lunch," she snaps, and now the impatience fully breaks forth. "If you really want to talk about it, I'll tell Jessica, and she can give you some advice." Without waiting for your retort, she spins on her heels and strides off toward the doors to the school.

Briefly you debate taking her up on that suggestion, but decide not to. Jessica, in your experience, is much tarter of tongue than even her sister. Your spirits crumple like a Styrofoam cup under a steamroller as you trudge back. If Eva is telling you to look to the future, it's probably because she is diplomatically trying to avoid telling you what she knows about the past.

Caleb is getting up with his trash as you approach, and as you've lost your appetite you gather up your own trash and follow him to the library, leaving the other kids to laze about on the grass. "Why are you so hyped about doing that thing for Eva?" you ask him, since you want to get your mind off the other business.

"It's a chance to get an in with some sexy girls, you dumbass," he says. "Think about it," he continues. "Think who Eva says it is. Almida and Tara and Stephanie and Bonny. They look almost as good in shorts as Eva does." He darts a quick glance over his shoulder. "Some of them look even better, in my opinion," he adds, leaning so close you can practically hear his eyebrows squeak as he waggles them. "So I do this favor for them, and then, like, I can go up to them afterward and be all, So, wassup, you get that thing you wanted from Braydon? Need any help with it?"

You give your best friend a sidelong glance up and down. The idea that those girls -- a bunch of trim, fresh-faced, soccer- and basketball-playing athletes -- would have anything to do with his long-nosed, droopy-eyed, dork-on-stilts ass -- Well, it's ludicrous. They'd be more likely to pay attention to you. After all, despite what Eva said, you did have a beautiful girlfriend for a couple of months over the summer.

Oh, and you do share a sixth-period class with one of the girls mentioned: Stephanie Wyatt. You could totally pre-empt Caleb by talking to her first about this thing with Braydon.

* To continue: "Awkward Invitations" 

*
"Table of Contents (Vol. 1)" 
"The Book of Masks (Vol. 1)"