The Book of Masks (Vol. 4)

Unexpected Objects of Desire

Previously: "Reality Bites" 

You can hardly hear Beta-Jenny's words through the buzz of blood rushing into your ears. Chelsea Cooper asked Will Prescott out? On a date?

Cindy and the Garner girls come scuttling in right behind, so the chirp and chatter is almost deafening. You feel your face twisting into a grimace as you try to sort it all out. "Hey!" you finally shout, and loose a teeth-cracking whistle. "Shut the fuck up, you fucking wenches! One at a goddamn, fucking time! Jenny!" You snap at a finger at the startled girl. "You talk. The rest of you, shut it up and shut it hard!"

All of them—except Cindy, who looks a little amused—glower pinkly at you.

* * * * *

Beta-Jenny's story came from Beta-Will himself, so it sounds like bullshit. But as Jenny relates it, Maria taps away at her phone, and by the time Beta-Jenny finishes she is able to confirm the outlines of it with Chelsea herself.

It went down late in the day, in seventh period, when Will has a study hall. Chelsea Cooper—captain of the cheerleader squad—sauntered into the library and marched up right up to him. After complimenting him on his appearance, she asked him what he was doing that Friday night, and when he said he hadn't made plans she said that she would be going out with friends, probably, and that he should come along.

At least your beta had the wit to reply, "Sure."

"The fuck is Yumi doing?" Eva wonders aloud.

"Isn't it obvious?" Jessica snorts. "She's doing it to get back at Chelsea. The real one. Who's fucking up her old life with this—" She glares at you. "So she's trying to get back at Chelsea by fucking up her life. Dumping Gordon and picking up Will instead."

"Jessica!" Cindy exclaims. "How can you be so mean? You're talking like Will isn't a catch!" She sidles up and slides her arm into yours, and you can't help getting a rise out of it. "Remember all that stuff we did for him, raising his profile? Well, my God, we should all be celebrating, 'cos look how awesome it all worked out! Will's now so sexy that Chelsea Cooper wants to pphgghkkkk!"

She explodes in the giggles, and snot flies out her nose as she tries to stifle them.

"Yeah, well, fuck you too, bitch." You pull away from her.

"Oh, don't be mad, Will! I'm serious. Well, kind of. I'm sure it's a mix of things," she tells the group. "Right, so part of it's gotta be Yumi getting back at Chelsea, 'cos, you know, let's face it, Will's not exactly Chelsea's style. But I don't think she'd have even looked at Will if we hadn't put all that work into— Will!"

But you ignore her cry as you stalk out the storage bay and trudge toward the exit.

* * * * *

You pace the footprint of the storage complex—all twenty acres or so of it—with your head down and your hands shoved in your pockets.

Fucking bitches.

Well, it's not their fault that things are now in a mess. It's your fault, mostly, you have to admit.

You're the one who joined their body-jacking club, and signed up to help Fairfax with his twisted "sociology experiment." You're the one who let them change you and your image, and you're the one who sent your beta out to find a girlfriend. You're the one who suggested swapping Chelsea and Yumi, and you're the one who tried pairing the fake Yumi with a fake Gary Chen. So it's mostly your fault now that—

You wheel and kick at a wall, and kick at it again when the first kick doesn't solve anything.

Because it's not exactly a mess, is it?

So fucking what that "Chelsea" broke up with her boyfriend. From all that you've seen and heard, Gordon Black was a brute and a thug on track to be voted in the yearbook as "Most Likely to Kill Someone in a Bar Fight Before He's Twenty-Five."

And what kind of disaster would it be if "Chelsea" started going out with "Will Prescott"? Aside from it being a grotesque cats-and-dogs-fucking-each-other absurdity, it's the kind of fantastical twist of which more than one of your wet dreams has been crafted.

No, what hurts is Carlos's jeer, which Keith more or less repeated. Yumi has chosen you as the person to debase her "Chelsea Cooper" persona with, so as to get back at the real girl, and she chose you because you're all wrong for "Chelsea Cooper."

But, strangely, now that you've faced up to it, you feel a little better.

Probably because you've found someone else to blame.

Yes, it's Yumi's fault for flirting with your beta!

You've circled back around to the climate-controlled unit by now, and so are near at hand when the door flies open and Beta-Jenny comes out. She hurries up to you with a quick, excited step. "So I guess you're getting used to the idea, huh?" she says.

"What idea?"

"Well, the idea of you— I mean, your beta, going out with Chelsea. Not that I approve of Chelsea, exactly, but you know it's a real— What?" She breaks off at your snort. "What's wrong?"

"What are you so happy for?" you demand. "You heard them back in there. She's just using ... me! ... as a way to get back at the real Chelsea."

"Will!" Beta-Jenny exclaims. She looks hurt, even insulted. "Why would you say that? It's not true!"

"Isn't it?"

"Of course not!"

She grabs you by the arm, and again you rise and stiffen, though not as much as when it was Cindy.

"It's just Yumi being, well ... Yumi!" she says. "That's what it is. You know she's not into meat-headed jocks like Gordon or Steve Patterson, or any of those guys on the squads. Oh, by the way," she says, breaking in on herself, "I heard about what you did to some of those guys yesterday. That was pretty freaking awesome. But Yumi's always liked you," she resumes, "as a friend at least, and after what, um, Keith and them back there did for you, she's got a new look at you. And you know—"

She grabs you now with both hands, and puts her face close to yours.

"You were trying to set yourself up with her," she murmurs. "Remember? Before, you know—" She points at her face, then at yours. "So now she's got a chance to follow through on what you started setting up with her. I bet she really is interested in, uh, getting to know that guy you left behind."

You suck in a cheek but say nothing.

"And even if that's not it," she continues, "she probably wants to help you out, lift your profile. You deserve it."

No I don't, you mouth to yourself. But your spirit does lift a little.

"Come on." She squeezes your arm. "Cheer up. The thing I hate most about seeing you like this—you being Gary, I mean—is that it makes you look at the world like the way he does. Like everyone and everything's against you.

"But now?" she crows, and lifts her face toward the sky. "How could it be any better for you?"

* * * * *

There is one way it could be better. Chelsea Cooper could be going out with you and not your beta.

You don't say anything to Fairfax or them about switching back to your old identity, not yet, when you go back inside. They'd probably want to do it tonight, and you've got Chen's workday at the country club still ahead of you.

So you're still wearing his mask when Yumi texts you that night to ask you to pick her for school the next morning, and of course you're still wearing his mask when you pull up at her house at a little before eight.

"I spent all night thinking about what you said yesterday," she says in a small voice when she's inside your Jeep. "And I've decided you're right. I really wasn't being fair to you."

"Yumi—"

"No, let me finish. I wasn't being fair to you," she repeats. "I just assumed—" She swallows, noisily. "I just assumed you were in it for, you know, just a thing, like we did." You notice she can't bring herself to describe the "thing" that you did. "It wasn't fair for me to assume that you wouldn't want to, um, be serious about us."

"Yumi," you say, "you don't want to be with a guy like me."

You don't know how to follow that up, so you leave it hanging. She doesn't answer right away either.

Then she says, "But what if you aren't a guy like that, Gary? I don't think a ... a guy like that would have talked to me like you did yesterday."

"Except I did."

"So maybe that means you're not a guy like that. Almost everything you did with me, I don't think it's what a ... a guy like that ... would do. Is it?"

She asks the question in a very small voice.

If you tell her "No, it isn't," you'll have to stay where you are.

Because if she's right, and you're not "a guy like that," it's because she's seeing someone else—maybe she's seeing you—behind Chen's mask.

That's all for now.

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