The Book of Masks (Vol. 4)

Party of Five, Chapter 14

Previously: "Party of Five, Chapter 13" 

"WHERE'D YOU GET THE CHAIRS?"

Tanya shifted her eyes from the book she was only half-reading. Doug had come out of the house and was now standing just behind her shoulder. She had been wondering where he'd got off to.

If he'd driven off during the night, she wouldn't have blamed him. My God, the noises that Susie and Alfie were making! Tanya would have got up and banged on their door, only Scarlett was in the bedroom with her, and Scarlett was keeping her cool. But Scarlett had a boyfriend, and Tanya wasn't anything like ready to do any of the stuff that it sounded like Susie was doing, so she only minded that the noise was keeping her awake. But what poor Dougie—Doug, she reminded herself—must have gone through! It must have been hell!

Scarlett had talked about him last night, as they were getting ready for bed. Be careful with Dougie, she'd said. He's got the itch in his dick real bad. If you send any kind of signal his way at all, he's going to take it like an invitation. So, you know, be careful if you don't want him pushing up close and breathing all over your glasses.

And then she got coy. Do you like Dougie? she kept asking. He is cute, in a dweeby kind of way. At least he's got great legs. Don't you think his legs are sexy? It's from playing soccer when he was a freshman. You two'd go good together, I think, you'd go at about the same speed. Except you'd have to use mace on him to keep him from humping your leg all the time.

So she'd filled Tanya's head with impressions of the junk that she said filled up Doug's head, so that as she listened to Alfie and Susie snap and yowl and play trampoline on the bed, she couldn't stop thinking about what it was like for Doug to deal with those noises.

Well, maybe he was a sound sleeper.

Tanya had done her best to be cool but friendly at breakfast, and she now tried to be the same now. Where'd you get the chairs? Doug asked, and she answered, "From the shed out back."

"There's a shed out back?"

Oh God, it's going to be small talk isn't it? Tanya thought. It was worse when Doug followed up with, "Where's Alfie and Susie?"

"Out taking a walk."

"They gonna go check out those caves everyone's so jacked about?"

Tanya cringed and tried concentrating on her book.

"I can't believe they're talking and hanging out again," Doug went on. "She was so mad at him until yesterday."

"Scarlett had a talk with her."

"That's right," Scarlett said from the other lawn chair. "I just told her that a man has his needs. We all do."

"That's what I always say," Doug said.

Tanya was trying to tune him out—Leave him to Scarlett, she thought—so his words didn't really register until Scarlett said, "Maybe I can help you with your needs, Dougie. I can be very helpful with that kind of thing."

Tanya felt her hackles go up. She turned toward Scarlett.

"We all have our needs," Scarlett went on. "For instance, right now, I really need a mojito." Her lips twitched into a faint smile.

"Coming right up," Doug stammered, and then he was gone.

"You shouldn't tease him like that," Tanya hissed at Scarlett. Not if you were serious last night about what he's going through! she silently added.

Scarlett smirked.

"Don't be jealous, Tanya," she said. "I can help you with your needs too. You seem a little tight."

"Gaah! What is with you?"

"Just trying to help. I helped Alfie and Susie out. I could help you out the same way."

"With how?" Tanya sputtered.

"You and Dougie?" Scarlett purred.

"No!"

"What about you and me?"

"Jesus!"

"Then I guess," Scarlett sighed, "I'll just have to settle for Dougie."

Tanya could hardly believe her ears. "You and Dougie? What about you and Brad?"

"What about us?"

"Um, aren't you going out together?"

"Sure. But a girl can have a little fun, can't she?"

"And he'd be okay with that?" Tanya tried not to shriek.

Scarlett shifted her head to look at Tanya through her sunglasses.

"I'm only talking about up here," she said. "This week. Brad got grounded, and Susie and Alfie are—" She finished the thought with a smirk. "So that leaves the rest of us kind of at loose ends, doesn't it?" She turned her face back to the sun. "Maybe the three of us—"

"Count me out, Scarlett!"

"Just me and Dougie, then. Don't think I haven't fantasized about it."

Tanya's eyes widened.

"I fantasized about it all last night, you know, while Susie and Alfie were— Only it was me and Dougie. Sometimes." Her lips twitched. "Sometimes it was you and me. But mostly me and Dougie."

She lightly clasped one of her bosoms one hand, and plucked at the front of her bikini bottom with the other.

"Oh, Dougie!" she groaned. "Oh Dougie! Yes, Dougie, you're the one for— Mmm!"

Tanya's eyes bulged, and her breath came in short gasps, but she couldn't stop from staring. Nor could she speak. Scarlett writhed slowly on the lawn chair as she felt herself up.

"Dougie!" she moaned. "Right there, yes, right there!" Her hand slid into the front of her bikini bottom, and began stroking herself. "Oh, Dougie, right there, Dougie, ooh! Oh God it's so big, and I need it, I'm gonna— I'm gonna—!"

There was a sudden crash from behind, and Tanya spun. Doug was standing there, his mouth agape and his hands hanging limp at his side as he stared at Scarlett. A shattered glass lay at his feet.

Shocked almost out of her mind, Tanya broke into a horrified laugh.

Before she could recover herself, two figures in tan uniforms loomed up behind Doug. Their expressions were grim. "Excuse me," said the older of the two, a gray-haired man with a bristling mustache. "I hope we're not interrupting anything."

Tanya sat up smartly as Doug spun toward them in surprise.

"We're from the sheriff's office," the man went on. "Are you staying here?"

"Yes, for the week. Spring break," Doug stammered. "We— I mean, a friend of ours, his parents are friends with—"

"You seen anyone strange hanging around?"

"Strange?" Tanya squeaked. "Like how?"

The deputy hesitated, then said, "I suppose you heard about the prison break last week."

"No sir," Doug said. "I mean, yes, I saw headlines—"

"We've had reports suggesting the fugitives may be hiding out on the island." The man's eyes shifted from Doug to Tanya and then to Scarlett. "You should think about cutting your spring break here short. These men are extremely dangerous."

The deputy behind him—a much younger man with dark, short hair, a trim figure, and a lean face half-hidden by sunglasses—plucked a thin sheaf of photographs from his front pocket and passed them to Doug, who passed them to Tanya after palely studying them. She shuddered at the faces in the photos, especially the one with the scar that ate away half of his cheek.

"If you see any of them, or anyone who looks like them, call the sheriff's office," the older deputy concluded as he took the photos back. "Though we are advising everyone to get off the island just to be safe."

"Yes sir," Tanya said in a small voice. As the two deputies walked off, Tanya turned to Scarlett. To her surprise, the girl was relaxed on the lawn chair as though there'd been no interruption. "Did you hear what they said?" Tanya squeaked.

"Yes," Scarlett sniffed. "Killjoys." Then she said, "The quiet one was pretty cute, though."

Tanya spun back to Doug. "What about Susie and Alfie?" she asked. "They're out— Oh my God, the caves! They're up at those caves, and that'd be, like, the perfect place for those convicts to hide out!"

"Chill, Tanya," Scarlett said. "Susie and me explored those things from front to back yesterday, and there's no one in there."

"But they could have—! Since yesterday—!" Tanya scrambled to her feet. "We have to go find them!"

"Go find who?" a voice called from the other side of the deck. Tanya whirled, and even Scarlett sat up. Alfie and Susie had crept up to the cabin from down the hillside. As Tanya gaped, Alfie lightly vaulted the railing, then helped Susie up and over as well. "Don't tell me you kids were worried about us," he said with a grin as he leaned casually against the railing, his brawny arms folded across his broad chest.

"Oh, thank gosh!" Tanya squealed. "You guys are safe! The cops were just by, there's some convicts loose on the island!"

Alfie didn't react at first, except that the lines around his eyes twitched, and he shot Scarlett a quick glance. Then his grin widened.

"Oh yeah!" he laughed. "A couple of cops stopped me and Susie as we were coming back. Didn't they?" he asked Susie, who quickly nodded. "They sure seemed really worried about those guys and what they might get up to!"

"They told us we should leave the island," Tanya continued. "Guys, I think we should go!"

"Come on, Tanya it's a big island," Alfie said. He sauntered over. "And you got me and Doug to take care of you girls," he said as he leaned over her with a beguiling smile.

Tanya had just time to take in the leering light in his eyes when Susie loomed behind him and locked an arm around his strong neck.

"My little sis is a cutie, isn't she?" she said as she slowly wrestled Alfie away. "But come on, we have to go wash up. And we've got some ... unfinished business ... from back at the caves."

It was like watching a small child try to wrestle a diesel locomotive as she pulled Alfie around the corner to the front door, and all the way he kept smiling back at Tanya with a hungry look in his eye. When they were gone, Tanya felt herself shiver all over.

What is wrong with everyone today? she wondered to herself.

Next: "Party of Five--Side Chapter" 

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"Table of Contents (Vol. 4)" 
"The Book of Masks (Vol. 4)"