The Book of Masks (Vol. 2)

A Friendly Offer from a Surprising Place

Previously: "Aftershocks" 

Caleb is probably just calling to talk about the mask he was aiming to get onto Yumi, so you can deal with him quickly before calling Patterson back. So that's who you call first. "Hey, I heard you were having a girls' night out with Yumi," you say without preamble when he picks up.

There's a silence. Then: "Yeah. But I hear you had some excitement too."

"Oh. Prescott told you about that, huh? But what's the deal with Yumi?"

"I can tell you about that. But if you're up in the loft and don't have anyone with you, I wanna come up to talk about the situation."

Okay, this is weird. "What situation?"

"Your living situation. Let's just say it interests me."

Huh. "Yeah, alright. Come on up. I'll leave the door open."

And since he's got something to say about it, you decide to put off talking to Patterson.

* * * * *

The gym is pitch black, but you wait down on the bleachers for Caleb. When the door opens, you call to him -- too late realizing it might not be him -- and let the sound of your voice guide him over. "You coulda got over here quicker," you tell him after he's crept up. "There's nothing to trip over."

"I don't know my way around these places," he says. "Can we go up to the fuck room? I'd like to see it."

"Sure. You know, we don't call it that. The 'fuck room'."

"No?"

"Uh uh. We just call it the loft. Only fucking sophomores call it 'the fuck room'."

"Then the senior class must be full of sophomores, 'cos everyone I know calls it the fuck room."

"If you don't wanna sound like a tool, call it the loft."

You've been ascending the stairs all this time, and when you reach the landing the lights from the loft guide you in. "So what do you think?" you ask, semi-boastfully.

"Christ, it stinks," Caleb says, and he crinkles his nose. "I love it. But you're shitting me, you're not going to live up here."

"Chelsea doesn't want me to. Steve-o doesn't want me to either."

"You should listen to them. This looks like an awesome party room, but -- Got a beer you can loan me?"

It surprises you that he knows there's beers to be had. Then you think: It stinks like beer in here, and obviously we'd have some up here anyway. You pull one from the fridge for him, and take one for yourself. "Thanks. So what do Chelsea and Patterson want you to do?" Caleb asks as he cracks it open.

"Chelsea wants me to get my own place. She even -- Never mind."

"No, tell me, what does she even what?" He swallows some beer.

"It's none of your business."

"Is she talking about moving in with you?"

"I said it's not your business!"

"Alright," he says sourly. "I thought we were all friends."

"And anyway, I only told her I'd think about it. Steve wants me to move into this apartment he has over his garage."

Caleb nods. "That wouldn't be bad."

"How the fuck would you know? You ever seen it?"

"Well, no. Tell me about it."

"Okay, you're right, it wouldn't be bad. But I don't wanna get in debt to my bro's parents. Okay?"

He swallows some more beer. You get the impression he's steeling himself to say something.

It turns out he is. "How about a third option?" he says. "You move in with me."

You almost drop your beer. "The fuck?"

"Yeah. We got an extra bedroom in my place. Uh, my mom -- " He looks around distractedly, as though searching for something. "She'd probably be interested in renting it out for fifty or a hundred bucks a month, and I think she'd like to have another guy in the house, especially one built like you." He flushes a little as he says this. "It's kind of a sketchy neighborhood, and if you were around -- "

"Whoa, whoa! Wouldn't you have to ask her all this?" You know Caleb's mom, and you have a hard time imagining her renting her room out to a hulking athlete like Gordon Black just on her son's suggestion.

"Yeah, I would. But I won't if you don't want me to."

Well, you're not going to reject the idea out of hand. That would be rude. But the longer you delay answering, the more appeal you see in it. It would put you close to Caleb again. It would give you a real house and access to real food, if you paid for some of the groceries that got fixed at mealtime out of your salary. It would be another way of trying to get Caleb and "Gordon" close together.

So you're not just trying to be diplomatic when you reply, "That's a real interesting idea, and I'd probably say yes except I don't know how I'd explain it to my friends."

"You mean we're not friends?"

"I meant how I'd explain it to Steve and Chelsea and them. I'm not even supposed to know you, how would I explain -- ?"

"Just say you saw an ad someplace. It's cheaper than an apartment, and you wouldn't have Chelsea trying to move in with you. And you don't want to sponge off Steve's folks, you said. It's perfect."

Since he puts it like that: It is. If you can just delay giving the other guys a decision by a day or two, so you can pretend to have spotted some kind of ad --

"Yeah, alright," you say. "If you make up the ad and put it somewhere I can say I saw it."

"Okay. I'll talk to my mom tomorrow, and if she's okay with it I'll post something on -- Oh, I know, I'll put up a goofy fake ad on Pinterest. When you're with Chelsea, you can look around and find it on accident, supposedly. Then talk to me, and we'll set it up."

It sounds like he's got it all figured out. "That's really generous of you, Johansson. Thanks."

There's a pause. "Well, you're welcome," he says. "And it's not that generous of me. Because I know it's really you, Will."

* * * * *

It was Gordon's applying for the job at Salopek that exploded it. Up until then, you and Gordon almost had Caleb fooled into thinking that you'd ditched the masks. But he knew you too well to think you'd actually apply for that job.

He and Gordon had it out earlier this evening, right after you'd left the school basement, when "Will" told him about what happened with Gordon's dad. Not that there was a confrontation, let alone a fight, because Caleb actually had to admit that Gordon had been a pretty good friend while pretending to be you. He assures you that, now that everything is out in the open, he's happier about having Gordon as part of your friendship circle. But he also has to admit that "happier" is a relative thing. "It's all gotten so complicated since we told him about the masks," he grumbles. "Remember when it was just you and me pretending to be each other?"

"And you wanted to prank people with the masks," you remind him. "And you're the one who got the mask onto Gordon. Hell, you wanted to -- "

"I know what I said, Will," he says. "Maybe it has worked out okay this way. Well, it's worked out for Gordon. I don't know about you." He glances around the loft.

"But you're trying to help out there."

"Yes," he sighs, and sounds very pained and annoyed. "If we could do something about Gordon's dad, though -- "

Your heart goes sideways in your chest. "Like what?"

He catches the growl in your voice. "Like what kind of what?" he asks.

"You tell me."

"I mean, if we could fix it so he wasn't such a shit."

"Like how would we do that?"

He stares at you; then his face lengthens. "I wasn't talking about using the masks!"

"Oh. You weren't?"

"No! I mean, how would we do that anyway?"

"I don't know."

His expression turns thoughtful. "It's an interesting question, though, right? How could we -- ?"

You're suddenly desperate to get him off the subject. "How was your date with Yumi?"

"What? Oh. It wasn't a date. I just talked about Eva with her." He shifts on his feet.

"And got a copy of her into a mask?"

"Well, no," he says, sounding peevish. "I couldn't seem to manage it. And then I was thinking about you -- I mean, Gordon -- being out at Salopek. I bet they've got most of the stuff we need.

"Jesus, you want him to steal it from my dad's work place?"

"Or someone could. Maybe Gordon could? Once he figures out where the stuff is stored?"

"I'm not doing it."

"I didn't say you could, Will. Remember who you are, and who'd be sneaking into Salopek."

You snort. "Did you float this suggestion past Gordon?"

"Of course not. I said I'm happier about him being mixed up with us, I didn't say I was having twenty orgasms a day. Or how about this, he uses the mask to copy someone who already works there, and uses that mask to get the stuff out."

"Or maybe Gordon can pay for the stuff out of his paycheck."

"That'll take forever!"

"You were talking earlier about giving up on the magic experiments!"

"Then maybe we should," Caleb says, sounding very belligerent. "Get rid of the book, get rid of the masks, get rid of everything!"

And maybe you'd be willing to do that.

But you remember what you realized the last time Caleb suggested it.

Back then, it would mean breaking off the friendship with Gordon. Now it would mean sticking him with the disaster zone you've made of his life.

Next: "A Turn to the Future" 

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"Table of Contents (Vol. 2)" 
"The Book of Masks (Vol. 2)"