The Book of Masks (Vol. 3)

Grabbing a Garner

Previously: "Occupied Territories" 

"How about the Garners?" you murmur to your boyfriend.

He stops in mid-chew, his chopsticks halfway to his mouth. "Eva and Jessica?"

"Yeah. How about them?"

Gary sucks down his mouthful, then puts his face to the side of yours. "Twins," he whispers. "That is too hot."

A shiver ripples through you. "I know, right?"

You don't even have to explain your notion of using them to make trouble for the friends they still have on the cheerleading squad.

* * * * *

You have one mask ready to go, so you could strike at one of the sisters tonight. But Chelsea asks you to wait until Thursday before making a move, so you've time that evening to go shopping and make another mask. You work on it up at the school, inside one of the old, ratty portables out back. It's dark and musty and creepy in the portable, whose ceiling sags and whose half-rotted away floor tilts toward a corner, and more than once you stop and listen to the creak of boards and a rustle like little feet, and you draw your own feet up under you for fear of rats coming up to nibble on your toes.

Whatever aftershocks there are from the earthquake that knocked Eva and Jessica off the squad are taking place are happening outside your ken. But they must be fierce and ugly, because Eva snarls at you at you the next day when ask if she can stay after school to talk to Chelsea. "Who are you?" she demands. "Chelsea's errand girl all of a sudden?"

You're in the Orchestra room, and you can't help glancing over at your boyfriend, who is packing up his viola case. He pretends like he's not listening.

"Don't be like this, Eva," you snap at her in turn. "I just— I don't know what it's about. But she wants to talk to you, and she wants to talk to me, so she just asked me to ask you if—"

"If it's about the squad, she can go fuck herself."

"I don't know what it's about! Besides, if it is about the squad, wouldn't you like to tell her to fuck off, instead of getting me to do it?"

Behind her back, Gary's mouth twists into a brief smirk.

Eva must have seen you glancing at him, because she tosses him a quick look over her shoulder.

"It's like I don't even know you anymore," she mutters. "But what time and where?"

"Six o'clock, in the parking lot next to the gym."

"Perfect. Of course," Eva sneers.

You squeeze her arm affectionately, even though you'd prefer to throttle her. "I'll take you to Panera afterward, my treat. I mean, I'm not looking forward to it either. We'll both probably want to scream after we're done with her."

Eva grumbles in the back of her throat, hikes her pack onto her shoulders, and stomps out of the Orchestra room.

You jump when you feel your butt tweaked by strong fingers. "Oh, you know you're gonna scream by the time I'm done with you," Gary murmurs in your ear. He rubs his nose in your hair, and you giggle.

* * * * *

You kill the balance of the afternoon in the school library with homework, though you don't get much done with Chen snuggled up beside you, his arm around your waist and his hot breath on your cheek. Every time you start to get into a groove, he breaks away from his own schoolwork to smooch you on the side of the head, and you have to return his kiss with a lip-to-lip kiss of your own. In this way you manage to snack your way through most of your math problems, but no further before the library closes for the day. After that you drive out with him to the Panda Garden for another on-the-house supper provided by his aunt.

You're back up at the school by five forty-five. A girl who looks like Chelsea Cooper is tapping her foot impatiently by the gym's side door, and she flashes Gary Chen a dirty squint when he grins at her. Wordlessly, she unlocks the door for you and slaps the key ring into Chen's hand before stomping away. "She doesn't like you," you observe as you follow him into the echoing basketball court. The lights are off, and the interior is hung with dim shadows.

"She knows what I'm thinking when I look at her," he chortles. "God, do you know what it's like to look at yourself from the outside, and to think how fucking hot you are?"

"I thought you always knew that about yourself, Chelsea."

"Yeah, well." He turns a little shy as the door clicks shut behind you. "It's one thing to do yourself up and look in the mirror and think you look real nice. It's totally something else to look at yourself from the outside and think—" He sucks in a deep breath, and sighs. "I'd like to fucking pound her inside and out until she's soft as a jelly donut." He squints at you sidelong. "That's the thing in my pants is thinking, anyway."

A twinge of hard jealousy runs through you. Before you can muster a retort, though, Chen follows it with, "What about you? What do you think when you see, uh, that guy who looks like you?"

"Well, I don't want to fuck him shapeless," you reply. "Or let him fuck me shapeless."

"He's cute."

"You think so?"

"Sure." Chen rubs your back. "Sometimes I wonder what it'd be like if—"

He puts his mouth to yours, and gently probes his tongue between your lips. You softly kiss him back. But you are holding your breath, even as he grips your head between his palms and nibbles at you.

"Mmm," he says when he breaks off. "But come on. Let's get ready for Eva."

* * * * *

She's late showing up because of course she is, and she returns your tight smile with a glare as she clambers out of the minivan. "So where's Chelsea?" she asks.

"Inside, waiting."

"Where's her car?"

The question puzzles you, until you realize that the fake Chelsea drove off in it.

"I don't know," you stammer. "Maybe Gordon dropped her off."

"Is your boyfriend dropping you off?"

Another puzzling question, until you realize that the only other car by the gym is Chen's Jeep. "He gave me a ride up here," you improvise.

"Oh, God, Yumi!" Eva groans. "He's not going to hang out with us when we're done up here, is he?"

"Well, what if he does?" Then you catch yourself. "I can send him off, you and me can go off to Panera or wherever—"

"I don't feel like it," Eva snaps. "Let's just get this over with."

She brushes past you, and you give her back a dirty look. I'm gonna have to change her attitude when that's me up inside her, you think.

Eva is already inside the darkening gym when you catch up to her. "So where is she?" she asks as she glances around.

"Up in the loft. She said to come find her up there."

Eva snorts and follows you. Your sneakers squeak and groan on the polished hardwood floor.

But at the shadow-draped corner where a winding staircase leads up to the loft, you hang back and push Eva forward. "What are you—?" she starts to say.

But she has no more time to say anything else. From around the corner steps Gary Chen. You catch Eva from behind in a bear hug as he thrusts something at her.

Then Eva falls like a dead weight, dragging you down with her.

* * * * *

Chen lifts her up in his arms, and carries her up the stairs. It's a huge strain, you can tell, from the way he grunts and puffs and takes each step slowly and carefully. At the top he carries her over the threshold into the loft—it's like a black parody of the traditional honeymoon ceremony—and drops her onto the gym mat beside the dorm refrigerator. He moans loudly and presses both hands into the small of his back. "God damn!" he hollers, "she's fucking heavy!"

"It's all muscle," you remind him as you kneel beside Eva and begin pulling her shoes and socks off. Gary lets you work a moment, then with a grunt kneels beside you to help. Inside of a minute, you've stripped every bit of clothing from her, and you can stare down at her bare, naked form.

She's gorgeous.

Okay, not as gorgeous as Chelsea or Cindy. Eva's kind of a hefty girl, and though she's not carrying much extra weight, she is covered all over in baby fat. But she is luscious in her nakedness, with big, floppy boobs and rich, thick, fluffy patch in the seam between her legs. Her blue eyes are half open but unseeing, and her loosely curled, pale-blond hair swirls in a disordered heap under her head.

You flinch a little as Chen touches your back and strokes it. "Nice," he says, "really nice."

"Mm-hmm."

"And you're gonna have another one just like it." He means Jessica, who is also on your list. "Unless you want to share."

You jerk at the question. "What do you mean?"

"Share the girls. You know. One for you and one for me."

"I thought they were both supposed to be mine."

"They could be. Or we could share. I could get one, you could get one. And then you could, like, take someone else to go with Eva."

Next: "A Hell of a Way to Wake Up" 

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