The Book of Masks (Vol. 1)

Death Drive

Previously: "A Charity Drive to Drive You Mad" 

You've never really been into sushi, and even less into the kind of kids who are into it. Still less would you like the idea of breaking bread at any table where Naomi and Kennedy are sitting.

But neither do you want to be the kind of dick who turns down what sounds like a veiled apology. Besides, of everyone you've met out here, only those two girls have been really unpleasant.

"Yeah, okay," you tell Zion. "I can give someone a ride. And no one has to pay for my food."

Zion winks and makes finger-guns at you. "Just try to stop us!" he says.

* * * * *

It takes awhile for people to come drifting out from under Kian's garage, during which time you text your mom to say that you're still helping on that charity drive and you're all "taking a break" for dinner. (You've no idea if it's a "break" or if everyone will be going home afterward, but you figure calling it a "break" will give you room to stay out late.) You were hoping that that Roberta girl might the one you'd give a ride to, but she's riding with someone else, so you get a different girl hitching along. "Hi," she says as she climbs into your truck. "My name's Virginia."

"Will."

"Will what?"

"Prescott."

There's a pause. "Oh," she says as you start your truck. "I thought you were saying you were going to do something."

It's not a propitious start to the drive, and for a moment the two of you look kind of askance at each other.

Her name is Virginia Moss, you find out, and she looks a bit goth. She's very small and skinny, with a pale complexion that's just a little too powdered, and lips, lashes and eyebrows that are just a little too black. Her hair is short, dark, and layered, with reddish highlights that are pretty obviously tinted. She wears a black t-shirt with a band name on it, and jeans fashionably torn across the top of one thigh. She also wears a silver necklace, a black leather arm band, and tiny, black onyx earrings. Her voice is soft and small, and her expression grave.

Still, you open by complimenting her on her style.

"I was born under the sign of Saturn," she replies. "That makes me saturnine."

"I ... guess it would."

"You don't know about astrology, do you?"

"No," you confess. "Just what I read on Chinese menus."

"It's silly, of course," she sniffs. "I don't even believe it."

"Oh. So why do you know about your sign?"

"I don't," she says. "But somebody told me that once, and I just found it interesting. They told me that's why I dress this way. Because I'm saturnine, born under the sign of Saturn."

"It's not because you're a goth?"

"No," she says with obvious disdain. "It just makes me comfortable."

Comfortable like a rattlesnake, you think. "Uh, this charity drive, is it for a school project or something?"

"Class project. Junior class project," she corrects herself. "Zion organized it. I mean, he's class president, you know."

"I didn't know."

"Really?" She actually sounds shocked. "I thought everyone knew Zion."

"Everyone in the junior class, maybe."

"You're not a junior?" Again she sounds surprised. "You're a sophomore?"

"Senior," you correct her through a clenched jaw.

"Oh God." She covers her face with her hands. "There, I went and did it again. I'm always doing that. Saying exactly the wrong thing."

"No, it's alright," you protest. "I, uh—"

"It's not alright! Oh," she groans. "I'm so sorry!"

"It's nothing, no big deal! Really!"

"Really?" She lowers her hands far enough to peep out with an apologetic smile. "Because I didn't mean to insult you."

"I'm not insulted."

Quite the opposite. You actually begin to warm toward her, a little.

* * * * *

She tells you more about the charity drive, and it thaws her out so that she smiles more and even relaxes a little. She tells you how Zion put it together and is running it mostly with the help of Kian and a few other people like herself. She disparages Naomi and Kennedy and a few other people, telling you that they're only working on it because it will look good on their college applications, while Zion and his friends are doing it because they actually want to help people. "It wouldn't do me any good on a college application," she tells you. "I'm not going to college/"

"What are you going to do?"

"Become a beautician, probably. No one in my family ever went to college." She says this while gazing out the window of Keyserling College, the campus of which you are passing.

You were bringing up the rear of a four-car caravan and are the last to arrive at Osaka, a tiny little Japanese restaurant squeezed into a triangle where three major streets intersect, and you have to park across the street and cross Borman to get to it. Everyone else is seated by the time you get in, and you and Virginia have to squeeze in side by side at the end of the table. You're glad to see that Naomi and Kennedy are seated at the far side. Roberta is seated near you, though, next to a girl you recognize from film class: a soft, lumpy looking person with granny glasses and a pale face that's freckle-free despite her red hair.

"Hey Will." Roberta greets you with a lazy smile. "Glad you made it. I was starting to think Virginia kidnapped you and took you to Kooky Koffee instead."

"I don't know that one," you admit.

"She means The Crystal Cave," Virginia says in an almost inaudible voice. Her eyes are downcast.

"That's it! That's your favorite spot," Roberta says. "I think I see you there every time I go in."

"Must be a coincidence," Virginia says. "I'm hardly ever in there."

"Can you introduce me to everyone else," you interrupt before things can get more awkward. "Or, at least, tell me who everyone is."

"Sure!" Roberta exclaims. "This is Meredith," she says, pointing her friend, who makes a weird kind of pinched, closed-mouth smile at you, like she's trying to stop something that'll fly out of her mouth if she parts her lips. "And Steven—"

"'T'sup," says the long-faced, dopey-eyed guy in the ski cap and the t-shirt emblazoned with a marijuana leaf. He's the other person from Mr. Hawks's class you know. "And Kian and Christine, next to her boyfriend—"

That would be the girl with the long, kinky brunette hair, sitting next to Zion. Seen in profile, she has an overbite like something you'd see on a Simpsons episode, but she's actually kind of cute.

"—and Naomi and Kennedy, who you know, and Natasha and Timothy."

"Where's everyone else?" You are missing a couple of faces.

"Went home. That's how come you had to give Virginia a ride." It sounds like there's a hidden meaning in what she's said.

You're starting not to like her attitude, so you twist around to concentrate on Virginia. "I'm not big on sushi," you tell her. "Is there anything I can get that doesn't have raw fish in it?"

Roberta answers for her. "You can get a California roll."

You gently nudge Virginia. She lifts her head with a start and says, "Yeah. You can get a California roll." That's when you see that she's tapping into her cell phone under the table.

"Zion and Kian said something about paying for mine. Is a California roll cheap?"

"Pretty cheap," Roberta answers. "Philadelphia roll is cheaper, but it's got raw salmon in it. Actually, the salmon roll is the cheapest thing on the menu."

"What are you getting?" you ask Virginia.

"Tako nigiri."

"So saturnine," Roberta sighs, theatrically.

Virginia bolts to her feet and runs from the table. A few people glance up in surprise, but Roberta just rolls her eyes. "Tako nigiri is octopus, Will," she says.

You give her a hard look, then push yourself to your feet and follow Virginia around the corner she disappeared past. You stop dead, though, when you find the corridor dead-ending into the Ladies' room.

You loiter there, for now you've just about decided that Roberta is as bad in her way as Naomi and Kennedy are in theirs, and don't want to go back. You're not given a choice, though, for a minute or so later Roberta appears.

"Huh," she says. "I was almost expecting to find you inside." She tries to push past you, but you block the door with your arm. She looks at you in surprise. The moment hangs.

Then she sighs. "I can tell you're trying to be a gentleman, Will," she says. "But it's wasted. She's just being dramatic. And you don't want anything to do with her, trust me. She's a vampire, an emotional vampire." When you say nothing, she sighs again. "Do you think I'd be mean to someone for the sake of being mean?"

"I don't know. I don't know you. You might."

"Well, I wouldn't. Virginia's a leech. I feel sorry for her, actually. Or I would, except she's driven too many people I know crazy. But find out for yourself." She shrugs. "Maybe you'll get away in time. You are a senior." She turns and walks off.

You wait for Virginia. It's several more minutes before the door opens and she comes out. This time it's you who startle someone coming out of a bathroom. "Oh!" Virginia gasps.

"I couldn't follow you in."

"No you couldn't," she agrees. "I didn't expect you here." She pauses. "I heard you talking to Roberta."

"Forget her."

Virginia's face tightens. "I wish I could. But she's had it in for me ever since ... Well ..."

"Since what?"

Virginia glances at you uneasily. Then she says, in a very low voice, "Roberta's a lesbian, and she made a pass at me!" She shivers.

* * * * *

And wouldn't you know it, you're stuck between them at the end of the meal as well. Meredith, who gave Roberta a ride out, has to leave early, so Roberta asks you for a ride. When you glance at Virginia, she says, in a small voice, "It's okay. I can squeeze in with Naomi."

Next: "Slaughterhouse Drive" 

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