The Book of Masks (Vol. 4)

Shadowing Sean

Previously: "Party of Five, Chapter 18" 

Wednesday comes and goes without any PM from Sean. The silence leaves you anxious and angry. I spent ten days writing that goddamn story, you fume to yourself. If the cocksucker doesn't take the bait, then fuck him. I'll use his face to get the stuff from Salopek, and I'll get him in trouble while I'm there!

But angry as you are—and hurt, too; you put a lot of work into that story, so why doesn't Sean at least send you a PM congratulating you on it—you hold off on doing anything yet.

Instead, you take to shadowing Sean at school.

* * * * *

It's not hard, not when you've got a copy of his brain that you can wear to Westside. Not only does it give you knowledge of his schedule, it also tells you how he gets around the school, so you can shadow him directly in the hallways.

So on Thursday youduck into Current Issues, which your friend Keith has, and nod at Sean with pretended surprise when he comes loping in to settle himself beside one of his friends from the wresting squad. Then you return to your own first period, giving Laurent Delacroix, the wrestling team captain, a quick side eye when you enter.

After first, you trail Sean toward the gym, where he has wrestling practice, but have to veer off early for your own Film class. There's no one in that class that you and Sean share as acquaintances, but in your Career Planning class you are startled to recognize Ryder Hillberger, who is a thug playing on the JV football team. On your way to English you make a deliberate circuit into the math wing, and watch as Sean comes out with two football/wrestling friends, Ethan Nieves and Chris Ratliff. You narrowly avoid bumping into the horrible Steve Patterson, who is also in the Statistics class Sean just left, and glimpse Scott Bickelmeier, a football player to whom you are indifferent, but whom Sean hates like death.

In English you have Laurent again, along with two football players who (like Ryder and Scott) Sean lumps into the "enemy" camp: Blake O'Brien and James Bridges. Class is boring, and during it you idly daydream about the lunch Sean is sharing with friends: Eli Anders, Marcus Johnson, and Devin Haney, along with Devin's girlfriend Bonny Trask and a bunch of her girlfriends.

Including Haley Flanagan, a basketball player whom Sean has a small and secret crush on.

Most of these troop off to Psychology I after lunch, and you dawdle in the hallway to watch them go in: Sean, Ethan, Marcus, Eli, Devin, and Haley. But also Scott Bickelmeier. In fact, Sean seems to purposefully clip Scott in the shoulder when they meet at the doorway, and without apology brushes past to stop at the drinking fountain while Scott, flushing hard, goes into the classroom.
Scott you see next in your own Calculus class, which he shares with fellow assholes (that's Sean's judgement) Brian Kelly, James Bridges, and Roy Nelson. The latter is someone who bullied you your freshman and sophomore years, but has seemed to forget you since. Cameron Huber, the quarterback, and his girlfriend Anne are in the class with you: these are friends of Sean's, and you do your best to eavesdrop as they talk about the coming weekend, to see if Sean's name figures in their plans. But it doesn't, so far as you can hear.

Meanwhile, you can guess that Sean, in Creative Writing, will be relaxing with two guys who wouldn't seem to share his clean-cut, student athlete style: the scruffy Darrell Parson and the slacker Connor Davison. But he grooves with them creatively. He may also be bantering with Reagan Hackett, a chubby girl on the volleyball team who (he fears; or maybe he flatters himself) flirts openly with him, but in whom he is not much interested.

Then comes your study hall and Astronomy, while Sean has football practice for two periods straight. You know what the latter is going to be like: Team Huber vs. Team Carstairs. You can't help flinching grimly when you imagine some of the fights that might break out, with Sean in the thick of them.

* * * * *

That was Thursday. Friday morning you shadow Sean again, but give up after lunch. It seems pointless, and leaves you feeling like a stalker.

So when things go down, it's totally unplanned. Last period:

Dumbass that you are, you forgot your Calculus book at home, so at lunch you borrowed Keith's copy from him. (You and he share the same teacher, but have it different periods.) You are just coming out of Mr. Kowalski's class after having returned it to Keith when you bump hard into Ryan Shuler, who is just coming in. His phone flies from his hand and bounces off the floor.

Ryan Shuler is one of the basketball players. He's not tall—maybe a shade taller than you—but he's got bulging muscles all over, and he has a bad reputation for using them. His nose and cheeks flush hard as he glares at you.

"Pick it up, cocksucker," he hisses. "And it better not be broken."

Normally, you would have meekly bent and picked up the phone—or have bolted for the nearest exit. But you're still wearing that copy of Sean's mind: a fact you don't remember until well after things have started happening.

So instead of complying, you ostentatiously kick the phone away and snarl silently back at him.

He grabs you by the front of your shirt and shoves you against the door frame. You punch him in the side of the head—a blow that would have meant more if you'd had Sean's muscles to go with his instincts. As it is, Ryan just winces, blinks, and turns white with fury. Froth shows on his lips.

Things might have gone really bad except that Mr. Kowalski is only a few feet away, and he steps up quickly. "What's going on here?" he demands. After a fractional hesitation, Ryan drops you. But all his teeth are showing in a grin of anger as he searches out your face, and you know that he is memorizing it. Without answering the teacher, he shuffles back into the hall to get his phone. You don't bother to step aside when he squeezes through the doorway, but watch him swagger in to his seat, and hold his eye after he's thrown himself into it.

As you withdraw, you catch a fleeting glance at Laurent Delacroix, who is also in that class. He is looking at you, covering a gaping grin with his mouth as his eyes dance with delight.

And so cocky and juiced with testosterone do you feel that not until you are in seated Astronomy do have the inevitable Oh shit! moment. You feel Sean's disgust as your own sense of fear settles like a bolus in your guts.

So after class, at your locker, you nearly come out of your skin when a heavy hand falls on your shoulder. You whirl expecting the worst. But it's only Laurent. His grin is friendly, but his teeth are very white and his jaw is strong, and his gaze is unflinching.

"You're gonna need a bodyguard starting Monday," he tells you in a laughing tone. "Nice job, though."

"You mean Ryan?" you ask. You fight the shakes that threaten to envelop you.

Laurent snickers. "If you're lucky, he'll only duct tape you to the gym ceiling." He glances back at Alec "Brownie" Brown, who has materialized behind him. Brownie's grin isn't quite so mirthful as Laurent's, but his eyes glint with the same amused admiration. "Like you and me did to that one kid back in middle school?" he says to his friend.

"Oh yeah!" Brownie laughs.

"It's gonna take more than just him to do it," you retort.

"Then he'll do something else to you. See you around, man." Laurent claps you on the shoulder again, ostentatiously cranes his neck to look up at the ceiling, and with a final wink-and-grin swaggers off, Brownie loping along behind.

* * * * *

You are still wearing that metal band when you get to Salopek, and you don't have time to take it off (as you usually do), so it's like Sean is double-tag-teaming you at work. Though he is his typically relaxed self, he is also all business, and doesn't even ask about your day at school. Meanwhile, the Sean inside your head is yelling at you for feeling like such a pussy. Angry at both of them, you lash out uselessly in the only way you can think of: "I nearly got in a fight at school," you blurt out of nowhere.

Sean looks up from the floor-mounted engine block he is patiently disassembling. "Oh yeah?" he says before returning to his work.

"Yeah. Ryan Shuler. Bumped into him as I was coming out of Kowalski's classroom. We nearly got into it."

"Kowalski stop it?"

"Yeah. But Shuler's gonna come back for me."

"Well," Sean says, "some things can't be helped."

Fucker, you think, so fucking calm. You can't help resenting him, even though you understand why he's acting this way. It's because he doesn't see any point in trying to baby you with sympathy. A man's gotta fight his own fights: that's Sean's attitude.

Still, it does surprise you when he asks, "You got plans this weekend?"

"Um ... no, not yet."

"Well, lemme know if you wanna do something." And that's all he says.

Plans for the weekend. You turn the phrase over in your head, there at work, and at home afterward.

You doubt Sean would want to do something alone with you. He'd probably just invite you to tag along if and when he did something with his own friends. But why would you want to do that?

Because maybe I could copy one of them into a mask, the answer comes in a shock. Then use the mask to lure him away from Salopek. If that stupid story didn't work to get him away from Salopek, maybe that would.

But that might be too complicated. You can afford to wait until the start of next week.

Or maybe you should just charge in with the mask of Sean and get it done.

Next: "Making the Most of Your Friends" 

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