The Book of Masks (Vol. 1)

A Date With Himself

Previously: "A Warm Hand in the Cool Darkness" 

"Jack was telling me about this Legends dance club," you tell the girls clustered around you.

"Ooh, Legends!" Faith Becker exclaims. "I haven't been out there since—"

But Leah nudges her hard. "We're going to the Warehouse. 'Cos Genesis wants to see Blake."

Genesis squeaks.

"Well, she can go," Faith protests. "And we can—"

Leah nudges her again. "She needs our support." When Faith frowns at her, Leah leans in close to mutter something at her.

Jack touches your arm. "I can drive us out to Legends. Anyone else coming?" It might be your imagination, but you think a few of the girls hesitate, then cower when Leah rounds on them with a glower. "Okay, looks like it's just you and me," Jack says as he punches you in the shoulder.

"Don't worry, I'll see you guys all around again next weekend," you call out to the girls. "We'll hit the Warehouse for sure then. Or tomorrow. Hell, we got all weekend, right?"

"Bye!" the girls all wail, and almost you wish you'd chosen to go to the Warehouse instead.

"We're gonna run into some other people I know out at Legends," Jack tells you as you buckle yourselves into his minivan. "I know Parker's gonna be out there. He doesn't like going to the Warehouse."

"I hear it's kind of rough."

"It's not as bad as people say. But I'm just letting you know it's not gonna be just you and me out there."

You lightly pound his hand as he lays it on the gearshift. "That's fine. That's something I, uh, wanted to talk about anyway."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah. Uh, don't take this wrong, but I don't exactly want to rush into anything."

"Oh." Maybe you just expect the reaction, but it sounds like a sigh of relief. "That's— That's great. I— I kind of feel the same way. Um—"

"I want us to be friends," you tell him. "Friends first. You know?"

"Yeah! That's how I, uh—"

"And then, you know, maybe, after we're comfortable—" If I ever am comfortable with the idea, you think to yourself. Then you add, What am I saying? As if I ever would be comfortable with it!

But Jack is still talking, and it is easiest to just go along with him. "Yeah, that's what I was thinking," he assures you, and you pretend to smile.

A silence settles inside the cabin as the minivan races down the night-shrouded boulevard. You can guess what needs to be said, but you decide that you want him to be the one to say it.

But when he doesn't, you reach over to ruffle the hair over his ear. That seems to set him off.

"Just so you know," he gasps, "Saratoga Falls isn't, you know, the most progressive place around, but it's not bad. But I've never actually, um, gone out with a guy. With anyone. I mean, like, gone steady."

"You mean you've never had a boyfriend?"

"No. I mean, yeah. That's what I mean." There's a tremble in his voice.

"Well, thank God you said it! Same with me!" You tweak his ear, then drop your hand into your lap.

"You've never had a boyfriend?" Jack yelps.

"No! And you neither? You don't know what a relief that is!"

"Whoa! I was sure—"

"I told you, they were all assholes back home. Oh, fuck!" You let out your breath. "So, you know, no pressure—"

"No!" Jack sounds almost giddy.

"So, no pressure, no plans. Just be cool, be friends." You rub his shoulder. "Figure it out between us."

He takes his eyes off the road long enough to give you a couple of quick looks. "Totally!" he exclaims, and his voice is tinged with almost hysterical relief.

* * * * *

As Jack promised, there are other people at Legends, all of whom you of course recognize but have to pretend like you don't know already. Parker Stott, who was Jack's best friend since elementary school. Kristina Townes, who is a long-time friend who has now become Parker's girlfriend. Wendy Terrill, another long-time friend. Laura MacGregor, a girl you yourself hung out with early in high school, but who has drifted away. (She's gotten kind of chunky in the meantime, to your disappointment.) All of them you greet enthusiastically, and they seem very happy to meet you.

Legends is a retro-techno dance club with a strong disco vibe, and patronized mostly by a young professional crowd. It's the kind of scene that clean-cut kids like Parker and Jack and their friends fit in well with. But the self-consciously retro vibe also attracts a gay clientele, and you can't help picking up on it, especially after you and Jack start dancing together. It turns out that you've inherited his dance moves—some of the best at Westside—and you can tell he's impressed and excited as you match him move for move as you shimmy at each other on the floor. The others are impressed as well. "Oh my God, you are amazing out there!" Wendy gushes when you collapse next to her at a table after a twenty-minute, hands-free make-out session with Jack out on the floor. You can only nod with gratitude, for you are wiped from the exertion. You might have Jack's skills and dexterity, but this fake body you've built can't match his gym-honed stamina.

The hours pass quickly, and you actually lose track of the time, so that it's Jack who reminds you that you have until eleven-thirty to get home or you'll turn into a pumpkin, and he leaves his friends to take you back up to the Eastman parking lot. You're full of breathless compliments for each other on the drive, and you eagerly inform him that he has a great set of friends: "I'm gonna be hanging out with them if I'm hanging out with you, right? Please say yes."

"Parker's got a girlfriend," he reminds you.

"I didn't mean that!" you blushingly insist. "Although—"

"Yes?"

"Nothing."

You kick yourself for almost adding the afterthought, He is hot. It distresses you—not only yourself, who (now that you're off the dance floor and the adrenaline is draining away) is more than a little aghast at how easily you fell into dancing ecstatically with another guy—but the brain you borrowed from Jack. It's a shock to see so plainly how hard Jack is fighting not to acknowledge his strong feelings for Parker. But being "Will Chang" has given that part of Jack the opening to come rushing out, and it makes you (Jack?) feel a little sick and very guilty. You hope that your "Although" didn't set Jack toddling down the same path.

You linger in the cabin of Jack's minivan for a minute or two after he's parked next to your truck, repeating the same expressions: "It was a great night." "Thanks for inviting me out." "Thanks for coming out." "Talk to you this weekend?" "I'll DM you when I know what's happening." "Be sure to include me." "Count on it." A pause. "Thanks again, man." "It was great!" There's a feeling like you're connected to Jack by a rubber band, so that it's hard to part from him.

"Hey!" He stops you with a shout before you can shut the door on him. "If you wanna hang out this weekend," he says, "just the two of us—" He shrugs.

"You make the call," you tell him. "I'm up for anything." You shut the door on him with a grin.

A grin that turns glassy as you turn toward your truck. Anything? you gulp.

* * * * *

It was closer to midnight but not past it when you get home, so your dad just arches his eyebrows at you when you come running in, like a runner sprinting for home plate. There's no consequences the next morning, though, and you're able to get away without being roped into any chores. You take the grimoire and all your magical supplies with you.

You woke to an early DM from Jack, apologizing for the early hour but inviting you to join him and his friends up at the gym for an early morning workout, if you were up. You wait until ten to send him a reply: Bro I just woke up y r u up? He replied with a long apology. You wince: I promised him we'd hang out. But now that you're out of Chang's mask, you're much less interested in keeping that promise.

But that changes after you've taken a look at the next spell in the book.

You take it with you over the old elementary school, where you camp out in a shady spot with your back to the old brick wall. The basement door is just a little ways off, but you concentrate on the book rather than it. Your expression tightens and tightens even more as you translate the list of ingredients using your phone, and as you check the prices for them online.

It requires a lot of new stuff, a lot of it quite dangerous—explosive liquids and the like—and expensive as well—several hundred dollars at least, you calculate.

It also requires a something that you can get for free, though it would take some nerve: four hundred pounds of earth taken from a graveyard.

You haven't got that kind of money. But you still have the shadow of Jack's brain laying over yours. And though most of the individual memories have vanished, you do remember certain very salient facts. Like that Jack gets quite a lot of spending money from his parents, and even has a credit card of his own. If you could get your hands on it ...

Or Parker. He has a credit card and a bank account with a debit card. If you got his card, and a copy of his face and brain ...

You sigh. But maybe the easiest way is to show this stuff to someone, to find a partner.

That's all for now.

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