The Book of Masks (Vol. 2)

A Night of Not-So-Fun Fun

Previously: "Who's Who at Westside High" 

U there? Clover asks after you've silently mulled her request for a few minutes.

Wat u want dirt for? you reply, then turn to concentrate on finding a box of linguine amidst the supermarket's shelf after shelf of spaghetti. You'd rather do that than think about what a sorceress like Clover would do with four hundred pounds of dirt dug out of a cemetery.

Lol, she replies, every girl needs a big pile of dirt n her life.

You grimace, but are stuck for a tart comeback. When she follows up with, So will u do it for me? and a string of heart emojis, you decide to charge right past her request. I know ur not chelsea who r u?

Lol how u know I'm not chelse?

Chelsea was at party when u n me n jack met.

Wait, i thot u were jack now! :p

Why are u doing this?

Fun aren't u having fun I am.

How long? When r u put us back?

Don't be grouch jack no one likes grouchy jack.

With a snarl you hurl the phone into the shopping cart and charge off to find a frozen dessert. You ignore the phone when it chimes three times with incoming texts. But the itch in your palm won't be abated until you fish the phone back out of the cart to read them.

Srsly be like jack he likes fun have fun wit. Then: We go out have fun at club u dance like jack ok? Finally: Don't be mad pls I want have fun wu. As you're chewing your lip over possible replies a fourth text comes in: If u don't want b jack who u want be don't say urself.

Talk later got stuff to do, you reply. You blanch at the string of kissing-emojis Clover sends in reply.

* * * * *

Clover's texts aren't the only ones you get while at the store, and more come in after you're home, because Jack has a lot of friends and he is almost never alone. Leah wants to crash a Monday-night party that's happening at Josie Holden's, and Laura suggests getting a dozen people together at The Flying Saucer for a "study-thing-with-coffee-and-company," but you put them off by saying you need to sort through all the other ideas people are pitching at you. But in fact you feel like you'd rather stay in.

Well, you would rather stay in. Jack, on the other hand, has a very itchy ass, and after a distracted hour after dinner of not being able to concentrate on homework because you keep checking x2z and other social sites to see what's going on in the world, you give up and text Brianna Kirschke: Hey, u still want company? I'm suddenly free. You can almost hear the squeal in her reply: Come over!

Brianna might not be the smartest girl you know—you suspect that Leah Simmons, if she could ever pull her act together, might have it in her to conquer the world before breakfast—but she is the most put together. She's a band girl, one of the pillars in the world of the band kids, and she has a dedication to the band, to her schoolwork, and to her friends that Jack admires. But she doesn't lack for a sense of fun, either, even if—with her curly hair pulled back into a tight ponytail; her black-framed glasses; and her chipmunk overbite—she exudes more of a "librarian" vibe. Not a dowdy librarian, but not quite "sexy librarian" either, even if you've seen her with her glasses off and hair down, swaying tipsily to dance music. But it's in character for her that, when she texted to invite you over, she admitted that it would just be the two of you.

But when you pull up to her house, Hermione Gilbert's car is parked out front. You flinch a little at the sight of it. Jack doesn't dislike Hermione, but she's not his favorite person in the world; and you don't like her at all because of the things (you now know) she was saying about you behind your back. But you're here, and you know you can handle her, so you don't hesitate to ring the doorbell and let yourself in. "Hello?" you call when you find the living room empty.

There's a rush of feet upstairs, and Brianna and Hermione appear on the staircase. Brianna beams at you, but Hermione's smile is more satirical. "I told you dangerous characters would get in if we didn't lock the front door," she tells Brianna.

Brianna ignores her. "Oo, you bring me something?" she squeals as you drop your pack from your shoulders.

"I brought my schoolwork. I was gonna stay in and do it, but I got bored."

"Why didn't you go out to Josie's?" Hermione asks.

"Look, you want me here not?"

"Shut up," Brianna tells Hermione. Then to you: "She was helping me with my French, but I was bored too. Come on." She tugs you into the dining room, where open books are spread across the table.

"Your mom home?" you ask as you drop your pack on the table.

"She's at an arts-council committee meeting, or something."

"You should've invited a boy over."

"I did." She tickles your stomach.

"I mean for me. I'm kidding!" you add when Brianna and Hermione exchange gleefully scandalized looks. "I don't know what we're going to do together," you add as you pull Brianna into a hug, and smooch the top of her hair, "except work some more on your French."

"What did you do this weekend?" Brianna asks as you unpack your bag. "Leah said you invited half the school to her place, then bugged out."

"I got a text and had to go."

"Who'd you go meet?"

"Is that your business?"

"I'm only asking 'cos everyone was up at Leah's."

"Well, not everyone, obviously, because I had to go meet—"

Hermione barges in. "Did it have anything to do with Steve Patterson?"

You give her a steady look, and out of the corner of your eye you see Brianna shooting her a dirty one. "Because," Hermione continues, undaunted, "I heard he hauled you out to the portables today."

"It's none of your business," you mutter when the silence has gotten awkward. You concentrate on arranging your books, but you can't miss the significant glance that passes between Hermione and Brianna. "I did talk to Laura," you continue, loudly and unwisely, "if you want to know what else I did this weekend. About Will Prescott. If you two are dying so much for a bone to pick over."

"Oh, that," Brianna says as she falls into a chair. "I heard about that."

"Heard what?"

"About her and him. How they met up that night when she said they didn't."

"Did she tell you that?"

"Yes. She told you too, I guess."

"Of course she did," Hermione says.

"She's telling everyone," you say. "So be nice to her."

"I am nice to her."

"And be nice to Will, too." You look between them. "He was telling the truth about that, and neither of you believed him."

"You didn't believe him either!"

"Yeah, but I didn't burn up the social webs talking about what a creepy stalker he is." Hermione flushes at your words. "But if you want to talk about it, how about you trying saying it in French." You cup your chin in your hand and give Brianna Jack's most pointed look.

* * * * *

So it's mostly school business after that, though of course there's enough talk and gossip to so it isn't totally a grind. Brianna tells you about some of the stuff that happened at Leah's party after you left, and Hermione lightens the mood with the most recent stories about Susie Lekuawehe's air-headed antics. You hang out with them until ten, but you don't linger long after finishing your schoolwork. Hermione, to your discomfort (and to Brianna's surprise, judging by her expression) says she'll accompany you out the door. You're polite enough to walk with her out to the curb, but before you can wish her goodnight, she stops you with a blunt comment. "Look, about Steve Patterson and whatever business you two had—" She hesitates, and her eyes fall as you give her a direct stare. After taking a deep breath, she says, "If it was about Brendan Tummler, we all know. Or a lot of us do."

"What about Brendan Tummler?" With more heat, you ask yourself, And what the fuck do you think Brendan Tummler has to do with me?

"Well," she stammers, "a lot of us— Most of us— There's talk online, in DMs—" She swallows. "About him being gay."

"Uh huh."

"Well, we assume you knew that too."

"Why? Because all the gays know each other from the secret club meetings?"

"Don't be like that, Jack!" Anger flashes in her eyes. "I just meant, you seem to know everything at school. Everyone tells you everything, it seems like, and I'm telling you that everyone— I mean, a lot of us— In DMs—"

"Know that Brendan is gay," you finish for her.

"Yeah."

"Okay. So?"

"Well. I don't know why Steve Patterson would be talking to you, especially not out at the portables, unless, you know, it had something to do with Brendan. Like he was, I dunno, was mad at you about Brendan."

"Jesus!"

"I just wanted you to know what people are thinking!"

You do your best to stifle the kindling anger you feel. "So who are 'people'? The people who are thinking this way?"

"I'm not trying to get you to say anything, Jack! I just feel like you should know—"

"Well thanks, Hermione. Thanks so fucking much. No, I mean that," you add as she whitens. "Because now I want you to go back into DMs and tell everyone what I told Steve, that I've never even talked to Brendan, let alone dropped my pants, bent over, and pulled my ass-cheeks apart so he could—"

"Oh, fuck you, Jack!" Hermione spins around and storms off back toward Brianna's front door. "I didn't mean that and you fucking know it!" she screams before slamming the door behind her.

Next: "Oh the Drama" 

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