The Book of Masks (Vol. 3)

How to Replace an Absent Friend

Previously: "Something Like Witchcraft" 

"That's cool," you tell Gordon. "I'll catch up to her later."

Gordon's face darkens. "Chelsea wants to see you now," he growls.

Your heart goes into your throat, and you come within an ace of giving in.

But the presence of the two girls, who are listening with a glinting interest, gives you just enough courage to defy Gordon.

"I said I'll talk to her later. I've got her number, I'll text her when I can— I gotta get to class, man," you gasp as Gordon's brow lowers. "Tell her I promise I'll catch up to her later. See you guys around too," you tell Ella and Lily.

Gordon steps in your way, but you slither around him. As you saunter—on trembling legs—down the breezeway, you expect at any moment to feel powerful hands on your shoulders. But you make it to the double-doors to the school without being grabbed, and without yielding to the urge to glance behind. Once inside the school, though, you do chance a look back. Then, though there's no sign of pursuit, you break into a sprint and book it for your locker.

* * * * *

Caleb is absent from first period, so you have to wait until second before you can brag to anyone about your date last night. Keith listens politely but with a slightly bored expression as you tell him about meeting up with Rachel and her friends, and he only grunts and says, "That's cool," in reply.

Andy Tackett, who sits in the next row over, is more interested. So interested, in fact, that it makes you nervous. So very interested, in truth, that a horrible thought occurs to you. "Rachel's not seeing anyone, is she?" you ask him.

"I don't think so," he replies with soft amusement. "I don't think she's seeing anyone." His reply satisfies you, until it occurs to you (after class starts) that by "anyone" he was implying that she's not seeing you either. But by then it's far too late to make a sharp reply.

* * * * *

Caleb isn't in English, either, so he must be absent. Which is a relief, because it makes it easy to saunter over to Rachel's desk and ask if she wants to hang out during lunch. She replies that she usually takes lunch with Ella and Lily and other friends, and invites you to have lunch with her and them. You eagerly accept. So giddy are you that, when you bump into Keith on the way from the classroom, you heedlessly invite him along too.

So you wind up eating in the cafeteria—something you rarely do—with half a dozen kids that you never have anything to do with. Talk is free and easy, though, and to your relief Keith carries a lot of it without saying anything too freaking embarrassing. If anything, he and Mitchell Belz, Audrey's boyfriend, hit it off. Keith is doing something with YouTube videos—you're not interested enough to ask him what—and he and Mitchell more or less make plans to hang out and talk about it some more.

Though you try concentrating on Rachel, you find out more about her friends. Lily and Ella are on the track team, and Audrey was too before she had to drop off on account of her parents wanted her concentrating on her academics. All three of them are of a type, then: skinny, high strung, prone to giggling and squirming, and tend to overshadow their boyfriends. Lily's boyfriend, Noah Baker, is on the school baseball team. He's quiet and doesn't talk a lot, but he's not a sulker, and he slaps hands more than once with a passing acquaintance as lunch progresses. Chuck Johnson—Ella's boyfriend—is even quieter, but you learn he lives out in the country, on a farm, and is taking agriculture-oriented classes. He and Noah are solid, good-looking kids who don't look prone to getting into trouble.

That leaves Mitchell as the odd man out. He's a smirker and a joker, dressed all in black, with a shaggy mop of hair dyed an unnaturally deep black. Ella must have told him about your supposed "study sessions" with Chelsea, because he asks about them, and about her, and about whether you and her are gonna get your sines and tangents tangled up. You retort, with frightened frivolity, that you don't kiss and tell—a reply that fills you with horror when you realize that you said it in front of Rachel. "Besides, it was just the one time," you add with a flustered blush. "I don't even know that there's gonna be a second time."

The worst part doesn't come, though, until after lunch, as Keith troops out the cafeteria door with you. You're halfway to your lockers before he drawls, with a studied nonchalance, "You didn't tell me about no study sessions with Chelsea."

"What?" His observation makes you jump, like a hot knitting needle to your ball sack.

"I said, you didn't tell me about no study sessions with Chelsea."

"Well, it's none of your business."

"Oh," he says. "It's Mitchell Belz's business, but it ain't mine?"

"Well, it isn't anyone's business." You flush.

"Is it my business you're gettin' bizz-ay wit' Rachel Whatsername?"

"No!"

"Then how come you busted a gut telling me all about her in second? But you don't say nothin' about no study date with Chelsea Fucking Cooper?"

"Because I knew you'd make a big deal out of it, and I don't want people making a big deal of it. It's no big deal!"

Keith leans insolently next to you as you open your locker and start changing out your books. He sucks on a tooth.

"It ain't no big deal," he muses, "when you hang out with the head cheerleader, one on one, so close you can smell the—"

"It wasn't one on one!" you exclaim, anxious to correct his misapprehension about a meeting that didn't even occur. "Jesus, you think Gordon would let another guy get one on one with his girlfriend? He was there the whole time! It was horrible!"

"It was still you and Chelsea—"

"Look, are you fucking jealous?" you ask as you slam your locker door shut. "Is that what this is? You think I'm holding out on you or something by not telling you— What the hell was I supposed to tell you?"

He smirks in your face.

"Listen," he says, "I ain't gonna piss all over your fairy tale in front of anyone else, you don't gotta worry about that. But don't fuckin' lie to me, man. In fact," he adds with a cheerful insolence, "maybe we should get together tonight, put a little meat on this story of yours, so it ain't such obvious bullshit."

He slaps you on the arm—a gesture that makes you want to punch him in the face—and swaggers off toward his own locker.

* * * * *

You'd love to eat out with Rachel again, but you're worried that it'll look needy and stalker-ish. And besides, the meal yesterday ate up a significant portion of your meager savings. So you take supper at home.

You can't help noticing your dad, and the querulous looks he keeps giving you over the table, but he doesn't fuss at you like he sometimes does, and in fact he hardly says anything except to grunt at your mom's occasional questions and comments. But after supper, as you're coming in from taking out the trash, he stops you to ask, "What was that about at work today?"

"What was what?" you ask. The question makes no sense.

He starts to reply, but is distracted by a call from your mom. After giving you a puzzled and angry look, he stalks off to see what she wants. It's an errand to the store, it turns out, so he leaves without clarifying.

You'd left your phone up in your room during supper—something your dad insists upon—and you absent-mindedly check it after plopping at your desk to start your homework. You almost ricochet off the roof when you see that you've got a text, and who it's from.

Chelsea Cooper wants to know if you can get together tonight.

You'd completely forgotten about that thing with Gordon this morning, so at first her request floors you. Only after you recover a sense of balance do you realize this must the sequel to what you told Gordon: that you'd talk to Chelsea later.

And it turns out that she does want to talk to you!

Sure I can see u tnite, you reply. Your thumbs are trembling as you tap the answer in.

She says that would be great, and asks you to come up to the school. But that doesn't sit well with you, for it immediately brings back memories of last Friday, and that weirdness. It also brings back memories of yesterday afternoon, when Gordon hauled you up to the fuck room and—

Well, you still have no idea what happened up there, except that you got knocked out.

So you counter with the suggestion that you meet at the municipal library instead. Your heart is beating at the back of your throat when you add, We could study together after we finish talking.

You almost faint when she replies, That would be great! followed by some smiling and thumbs-up emojis. Meet now?

You're hauling ass downstairs when a nifty thought occurs to you: You could text Keith to come out to the library too, and surprise him with who you're studying with. It'd wipe the smug grin off that asshole's face.

Next: "Checking Out What's In the Library" 

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"Table of Contents (Vol. 3)" 
"The Book of Masks (Vol. 3)"