The Book of Masks (Vol. 4)

A Special Effects Extravaganza

Previously: "Courtship at the Food Court" 

"I'm waiting for my— For Sydney. McGlynn," you stammer. Your face flushes hotly under the bright, gleaming attention of Cindy Vredenburg, Laurent Delacroix, Marc Garner, Austin Dougherty, and some other sinewy jock whose name you can't quite place. "We're supposed to, uh—"

"So tell her you're over at the theater," Laurent says.

"You wanna call Seth?" Austin asks Cindy. "Or hang out with a better crowd?"

Cindy blushes. "I should call Seth. If he finds out I went to the movies with five hot guys and one of them wasn't him—" The rest of her statement is drowned by chortles from the guys.

And you remain rooted to your chair, your phone frozen in your hand, until Cindy has dialed and has her phone to her ear. "Will, I thought you were calling Sydney," she says. Then: "Oh, hey! Sweetie?" she chirps into the phone. "Listen, I'm up at the mall and I ran into some guys, and we all want to see—" She lowers the phone. "What are we seeing?"

We're seeing all my plans go up in smoke, you seethe. But you hunch over your phone and thumb in a text to Sydney's cell, asking her to meet you up at the Silver Cineplex ASAP. Then, on legs that creak with reluctance, you get up and totter after the other five as they mill toward the nearest exit.

You'd hang back, but Cindy—who is in the middle of the pack—glances around and reaches back to pull you up by her side. "Don't get lost, Will," she says. "Did you get in touch with Sydney?"

"I sent her a text."

"She can find us." Cindy tucks her arm inside yours, which gives you a rise all over. "You know, you need to tell us all about how you got together with her, before she gets here." More chortles from the other guys. "Noah?" Cindy peers past you at the guy in the ski cap. "Didn't you try asking Sydney out right after school started?"

"Oh!" He clutches his chest. "And she shot me down hard." He jostles you hard. "How'd' you manage to score with her, man?"

"Will's got something special, I can tell," Cindy says with a twinkle. "He's not like you muscle heads." She squeezes your arm, which makes you bulge like a balloon in lots of other places.

Talk shifts to other girls—Austin and Laurent have to brag about the last couple they hooked up with, and Cindy is keen to ask if there's any chance of anything serious working out between them; and she also has to ask where Marc's girlfriend, Hannah, is—and that takes you all the way across the parking lot to the Cineplex. At the ticket desk you try begging off again, claiming you haven't got enough money to get in, but Cindy uses a credit card and buys tickets for you, Seth, Sydney, and her, and says you can pay her back later. Then you all cluster up to the concession stand, where Alec "Brownie" Brown, another Westside wrestler, is manning the counter. There's lots of good-natured joshing, which Brownie accepts with a grin as he takes your orders, and he only replies with a polite "Yeah?" when Laurent brags to him that you are here to meet up with Sydney McGlynn. Cindy pays for your popcorn and soda as well.

She is paying a lot of attention to you, even with Austin and Noah and Laurent trying to get between you and her. (Lots of chests are being thrown out, you notice.) Marc nudges you away from the group.

"Listen," he murmurs at you, "if Seth gets here before Sydney, just put me and some of the other guys between you and Cindy. Okay?"

"Okay."

"Yeah." He glances around, as though musing at the Art Deco murals that cover the walls, but you can tell he's watching Cindy and the others out of the corner of his eye. She's got her head thrown back and is laughing in a way that shows off all of her bright, white teeth. "She's doing that shitty 'hot girl' thing. You know, like, a hot girl gets a boyfriend all of a sudden, and then all the other hot girls have to wonder what makes him so special, so they all get interested in him. You know?"

No, you don't. But Marc is handsome, muscled, popular, and has a girlfriend, so you infer (with a touch of spiteful jealousy) that he probably knows what he's talking about.

"Yeah, okay," you say. "I was wondering how come she was flirting with me."

That gets you a direct look.

"She's not flirting with you, man," he says. His voice drops to almost nothing. "She's being a cunt," he tells you in a deep, voiceless register that is more like a vibration sounding through the carpet. "A very special kind of cunt. Don't let her fuck you up. And don't let Seth catch the two of you playing that game."

You swallow, and nod.

* * * * *

Sydney—the fake one—shows up before Seth does, and she sweeps in with a wide, confident smile. "Hey, sweetie," she calls, and with a bold lack of embarrassment she slides an arm around your back to stroke you. "This is a great idea," she says as she grins into your face. "Hey, Cindy," she greets the other girl. "Guys."

You don't dare turn to face them, but out of the corner of your eye you can see them all grinning. None of them say anything, though. With a burning face you push and tug the pedisequos a little away from the others, to put most of the guys between you and Cindy. "What are we here to see?" Sydney asks you.

"Shock and Awe," you reply. (The actual title is Shock and A.W., an action-film spinoff from another action franchise.) "Thanks for coming out."

"God, like I'd even miss it." Sydney's eyes slide sideways as she tries to glance behind her at the other guys. "Is she okay with it?"

"Who? Cindy? It was her idea."

"Kinky. But I guess I'm not surprised. I'm sure I'd do the same thing. And your original is okay with it? Her and real-you sure moved fast."

Her words startle you. She thinks I'm the fake? You gulp. Is this the way the pedisequoses are going to talk about you behind your back?

"I guess they did," you stammer. "Um—"

Fake-Sydney grins. "Let's razzle-dazzle 'em, whaddaya say?" Before you can react, she pushes her muzzle into your yours, and twines her arms all the way around you. She hooks you behind the ankle with one of her feet.

Fireworks explode inside your head.

"Hey, Prescott," Brownie calls out in a hard voice. "Keep the show inside the auditoriums, okay?"

* * * * *

Seth shows up a little later. He's as meaty and aggressive as the others, but a lot flintier, too, and when the other guys call his attention to you, he just gives you a very steely once-over and a gruff, "Hey, Prescott" before turning his attention back to Cindy. In compensation, you pull Sydney closer to yourself.

Your 8-person party crowd into the auditorium, taking up the middle of three rows, with Cindy and Seth in front, the four guys behind, and you and Sydney behind them. Laurent turns around to wag an admonitory finger at you. "No hand jobs back there," he says. "I don't wanna get hit in the back of the head with anything warm and sticky." You blush and sink into your seat.

The movie that follows is loud, stupid, kind of fun, and not nearly good enough to distract you from the way fake-Sydney keeps trying to squirm her way into your lap.

"You know," she mutters into your ear, loud enough to be heard over the THX-enhanced rumble of seven skyscrapers sliding into ruin as a man-made tidal wave engulfs an unnamed coastal city. "The only reason I want to stay for this is so they know we're having fun."

"You mean Laurent and them?"

"No, you goose! Sydney and Will!" She grips your inner thigh, and you gulp hard.

"Is this just for them?"

"Well, I'm having fun. Aren't you having fun, sweetie?"

"Sure." But you're really freaked out.

"Listen," fake-Sydney growls, and she twists your head around so that you're facing her. She puts her cheek to yours, and her mouth to your ear. "They're doing their thing, and they left us behind to do their thing too. Do you really want to be boring? Don't you want to get up to your elbows in me?"

"In you?" you squeak.

"Grrrphhh!" Sydney pushes off from you and stomps down the aisle toward the exit. Someone in the row ahead of you—Laurent? Maybe it's Marc—turns around to look at you. With a burning face you get up and hurry after fake-Sydney.

She's outside the auditorium. You half-expect her to yell at you, but she grabs your hand and pulls you close.

"Don't be so freaking chivalrous with me, Will," she says. "You know what we are." She grabs you by the back of the head and rakes her fingers through your hair. "Let's take advantage of it. Don't you want to? Wouldn't you want to? With her?"

"Want to?" You nearly strangle on the words. "You mean you want to ...?"

"Yes. They're going to. Why don't we?"

* * * * *

But she doesn't mean right now, not right away. She still wants to show off in front of the ones she thinks are the real Will Prescott and the real Sydney McGlynn. So you return to the auditorium, and you and she linger with the others afterward to talk about the movie.

But Cindy has her own plans. "How about us going out to get dinner or something?" she suggests when it's just you and her and Seth and Sydney. "Like a double date. Honey?" she asks Seth.

He shrugs.

And that's all it will be. There's not going to be another switch tonight, you know that. Cindy surreptitiously sent you a text during the movie, telling you that "tomorrow" is when she'll set it up for you to take Seth's spot.

Next: "A Spicy Supper for Four" 

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