Chapter #83Two Snakes Walk Into a Coffee Bar ... by: Seuzz   You don't have anything else to do, and the lure of gossip is too much to ignore.
Still coming, you reply to Jason, and kneel to pick up your clothes.
* * * * *
You glance quickly around on entering the Starbucks, not to look for Jason (who you spotted on your way in, seated near a window) but to see if there's anyone you know, and also to see the effect you entrance has had on the other patrons. There are a few other people hunched at their tables, but save for one middle-aged woman who looks up at you with a bored expression, they are all preoccupied with their phones.
It was fun getting dressed. Pulling on the tight, thong-like panties. Strapping the bra around you. Tugging on the jeans and buttoning them and zipping them up. Pulling on the t-shirt and the sweatshirt and shrugging yourself into the puffy jacket. Squeezing your tiny feet into the tinier shoes and lacing them up tightly. Then you spent a good few minutes at the mirror, primping and settling your hair, and repairing makeup that got smeared and blurred during the mask-copying process. (You're not sure how that works: the mask apparently copied at least some of the makeup Kendra was wearing and transferred it to your face along with hers, but it does come off like real make up.) Then, after you felt yourself nicely settled inside your clothes and hair and eyeshadow and lip gloss, you went downstairs. As you crossed the empty gym, you noticed that you were walking with a mincing but graceful little stride, and were so distracted by the sensation of walking like a girl that not until you were outside did you realize that you don't have a key to the loft or the outside gym door anymore, and paused to text Will Prescott, telling him to come back up to the school and lock everything up again.
Then you slid behind the wheel of Kendra's wine-red Kia Optima. It was when you turned the motor over, and the song "Foolish Forever Over You" came on, that an electric buzz ran through you, and you felt that you were completely and naturally "Kendra Saunders." You sang softly along as you carefully drove out onto Borman Avenue and steered your nose for the Starbucks.
"Cold day," Jason says with a grin as you drop into the chair opposite him.
"Gonna get colder," you coolly retort. "You gonna buy me something warm?"
He looks surprised, and stammers something unintelligible before finally asking what you want. You glance over your shoulder at the board over the register.
"Blonde espresso with almond milk and honey," you decide after drawing the moment out as long as you dare. "And whatever you want," you add.
You stare out at the parking lot while waiting for him to bring your drink. The barista was watching you the whole time you were looking at the board, even though you ignored him. He looked familiar, but it took you a couple of moments to place him as a Westsider who graduated last year. One of Carson Ioeger's friends, it comes to you. Kendra's aggressive disinterest in guys like him seemed to block you from remembering him too easily.
"Fancy drink for the fancy girl," Jason says as he sets your cup down before you. "And something basic for me." He settles back into his chair. "So, did you drive out to the school before coming here?"
"Tch, no! It was a dumb idea anyway, meeting up there. That's why I said to meet me here."
"Oh. Well—"
"So what did you want to tell me? That you couldn't just text me?" You lift your drink to your lips. Fancy Starbucks drinks never appealed to you, but this concoctions—one of Kendra's standbys—is warm and rich on your tongue.
"Well, I didn' wanna leave any texts on your phone," Jason says. "On account of, I don't know if Chelsea'd like you talking to me."
You make a quick, dirty face at him, and tell him to get to the point.
"Well, it's on account of this new pet monkey Gordon's got himself," Jason says.
"Gordon got a pet monkey?"
"I mean this jerk-off. Will Prescott's his name."
You have to brace yourself to not react to that.
"D'ju know, Gordon actually gave this little mofo a key to the loft and the gym and ever'thing?" Jason continues. He studies your face for a reaction, then adds, "Yeah, it's all kinds of fucked up" when you only take another sip of your drink.
"So is this guy hanging out up there? With Gordon and you guys?" You take a dainty sip of your coffee, and feel Kendra's resentment that she only gets to go up there when she's invited.
"I guess. Stevie says he was up in the loft t'other day, makin' a fucking nuisance of himself. Oh, and he's got this idea that I'm s'posed to be showing him how to work the weight machines. 'Cos he doesn't know how to himself," he sneers.
You two-faced motherfucker, you think to yourself, though in truth you can't say that you're surprised.
"Is that all?" you ask.
Jason rubs his nose, then takes a long pull on his own drink.
"Well, there's this, too. He wanted to talk to you about Chelsea."
"Who did?"
"Prescott. He asked me to set it up so he could talk to you about Chelsea."
You feel your features settling into a sullen and hostile stare. "What did you say?"
"I tol' him to piss up a rope. But here's the deal. You told me that Chelsea has ... plans ... for him?"
You swallow, but say nothing.
"Well, he's got wind of it. From Steve."
"Steve told him?"
"Yeah. I told you it's all fucked up. But Steve, he's sucking up to Gordon by being all nice to Prescott. So when he heard the same thing you told me—"
He stops to give you a wary and searching look. "D'ju tell Stevie what you told me?"
"No."
"Well, he must'a heard from someone else, then. But he told Prescott, and I 'sume he told Gordon, too. And Prescott naturally started shitting himself, and asked me to ask you to talk to him about it all."
He leans back in his seat, and watches you to see what effect all this has on you.
"Huh," you say after exhausting the silence. "Well, it's not like I'm actually going to talk to him or anything—"
"Yeah, fuck that," Jason agrees.
"But it's not like it makes a difference." You cock your head. "You really don't like him, do you?"
"Who, Willie Boy? Fuck no! Weaselly little shit." He snorts.
Takes one to know one, you think, and twist your coffee cup around a couple of times while thinking of what else to say. But it's Jason who gives you your opening.
"So what's Chelsea got planned for him?" he asks.
You give him a quick look, and do some social arithmetic in your head.
"If I tell you, you can't tell Gordon," you warn him.
"Yeah, I won't."
"I mean, you gotta swear." Jason raises his hand in a scout pledge. "I'm not kidding, Jason. Same thing'll happen to you as happens to him, if you tell Gordon."
"You don't gotta worry about me," Jason promises. "I just wanna know, you know, how I can help."
"Okay." You twist the coffee cup around a few more times. "Well, you know, her and Gordon are broken up now, so she's looking for a new boyfriend."
"Uh huh." Jason looks very interested in that.
"And she wants this guy, this whatsisname weasel Gordon's adopted, to get hurt. To be hurt."
"Sure."
You look at Jason from under your brows, waiting for him to add it all up. Dumb fuck that he is, he can't do the math.
"So, it's gonna be like on one of those 'bachelor' shows," you finally tell him. "You prove you want to be Chelsea's, um, 'new beau', by doing a thing for her. And whoever does the best job at doing the thing—to whatsisname—well, he gets the rose."
Jason's eyebrows go up.
"Whoa!" he gasps.
* * * * *
Jason wants to hang out a little longer, but you tell him you've got things to do. You leave at the same time, but you take a long drive around the block, and wind up back at the Starbucks, to organize your thoughts in a back corner over another Honey-Almond Espresso.
If Jason takes the news you shared to Gordon, you're pretty sure it will end forever any chance of him and Chelsea getting back together. And if Jason warns "Will," then it will prove that he was only milking Kendra for news and didn't really mean all those nasty things he said.
But you're pretty sure he won't warn the fake you left behind. Will he tell Gordon? It depends on who he hates more, Will Prescott or Chelsea Cooper.
You text your doppelganger, telling him to deny seeing Kendra at the school, and to report back anything Jason tells him.
You're also not sure whether to believe his story about Steve giving Gordon a warning about Chelsea having "plans" for you. Gordon didn't say anything to you, and you doubt that Steve would give enough of a fuck about you to tell Gordon anything about any shit storm coming your way. (Like Jason, he's probably looking forward to watching it.) Still, there's a chance he was telling the truth.
Trouble is, the only way to find out if he was lying is by talking to Steve, and only through "pillow talk" could you likely worm it out of him. You flinch as you get a fast, vivid memory of your mouth and tongue sliding down the shaft of Steve Patterson's hot and turgid cock.
These reflections are interrupted and complicated by a steady stream of posts on x2z updating the latest news about the parties planned for tonight. Chelsea tasked Kendra and Gloria with spreading the news about her "interest" in seeing Will Prescott punished, and Kendra planned to attend a couple of parties where she could continue that job. (She got a start on it last night, at the Legends dance club, with some of the lacrosses players.) But you are torn between doing that, and getting together with Steve, whose loyalty you could test as you are now testing Jason's.   indicates the next chapter needs to be written. |
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