The Book of Masks (Vol. 4)

Jessica Has Plans

Previously: "Ambushes and Ambushed" 

You've spotted Laurent gesturing to you, and he's seen that you've spotted him, so it's not like you can duck him. You grit your teeth and prepare for the worst as he saunters over.

"Hey Jess," he says, and you feel your nerves tighten: "Jess" is a nickname that only your family gets to use. "I was wondering if we could go someplace, hang out for a little while. Talk," he adds in a meaningful tone.

There's a friendly smile on his face, but also an undercurrent of gravity. Okay, this is serious, you think. "What about?" you ask.

"Some stuff going on with you."

Hmm.

Your fear is that he will want to talk to you about masks and shit, but this makes it sound like it's something else. Maybe he's also heard about your upcoming date with Luke, and has something to say about it?

Or maybe he does want to talk to you about Marcos. You don't want to risk it.

"Sorry, I got plans," you reply, and squint around him, as though searching for someone very important. "In fact, I'm waiting for them."

"Well, I wanted to talk to you about—"

"Hold that thought," you interrupt, and dodge past to run up to Lin Pol. "You gotta help me out," you murmur in her ear after catching her by the arm.

"What?" she says.

"You gotta help me out. Give me a ride home."

"What happened to Eva and Marc?"

"Just give me a ride home!" you insist. "And pretend like that was our plan all along!"

She looks mystified until she sees Laurent approaching, and then the penny finally drops.

"Hey, text me about whatever it is," you tell him as you pull Lin along toward her car. He sighs with obvious aggravation, but lets you go.

"What's going on with you and Laurent?" Lin wants to know as you hurry away.

"Nothing. He was just wanting to talk to me about something I don't want to talk about."

"Yeah?"

"I think it was about Luke Richardson."

* * * * *

You haven't talked to Lin about Luke and Friday night yet, even though she's also a cheerleader and a good friend. But of course she's heard all about it and wants details. By this time you've told the story enough times that it's almost a formula: How you hung out with him at Josie Holden's "study party" and he asked you out to Maggie's party. Lin is enthusiastic: She doesn't know Luke well, she says, but she's always liked him and she's heard great things about him. "Oh this is so exciting!" she squeals.

You're just turning into Acheson when you spring a last-second request on her: "Oh, do you mind if we stop someplace first? I gotta talk to someone, and I think his phone is off or something." She accedes, but doesn't ask who it is until you've directed her to his house: "Will Prescott," you tell her and hop out of the car before she can react. "This'll just take a few minutes," you tell her through the car window. "Mind waiting?" She shrugs and remains behind the wheel. Huh, you can't help thinking. I guess she's not a big enough fan of me that she wants to get out and say hi.

Your mom answers the door, and it gives your stomach a very queer turn to have her look at you like a stranger. "Hey, is Will around?" you ask her as calmly as you can. "Just for a minute?" you plead when she tells you that he's grounded. She grimaces, but tells you to wait. You hop lightly on the balls of your feet, and fidget.

He looks crooked and unkempt when he appears in the foyer: Hair sticking out at odd angles from under his cap, and his t-shirt looking like he put it on backwards and inside out. His shoulders and elbow jut out. "Hey," he says with a light sneer as he settles himself against the door frame. "I'm grounded, so I can't talk."

"What happened to your phone?"

"M'dad confiscated it. I got in trouble last night."

"What did—? Never mind. Keith gave me your message."

"Oh yeah! Is that what you're here for?" He puts out his open palm.

"I don't owe you eighty dollars!"

"You owe me a lot more than that, dickface," he murmurs through frozen lips. "Besides, it's my money I'm asking you to bring me."

"Well, what do you need it for?"

"My business."

"Jessi—! Will!"

"Jessica!" he mewls back in a nasty parody of your voice.

"Son of a bitch, I—!" You glance back over your shoulder at Lin, and flash her a tight smile as she watches, unsmiling, back. "Look, we got a problem. I think Marcos told Laurent about that talk he had with you, and he's trying to talk to me about it. Also, Marc's noticed that your gear is gone. He thinks I took it."

"You did take it."

"He thinks you—Jessica!—took it! Anyway, he knows it's gone and he's freaking out because he doesn't know where it is or who's got it!"

He peers down his nose at you and sucks on a tooth. The expression on his face makes you want to punch him.

"I think I can talk my dad into letting me take a jog around the block tonight," he says. "I'll aim for seven-thirty. Meet me over by the old school. You know." His lip curls. "The basement where you and Caleb and Keith used to hang out."

It gives you a shiver to hear your doppelganger refer to something only you would know about. It reminds you that "he" knows all about you, inside and out.

"Alright," you grumble, and turn to go.

"Bring that cash, too," he calls to your retreating back. You shiver again.

* * * * *

Lin asks what you wanted to talk to Will about, but you only tell her it had to do with homework. She then suggests that the two of (and Eva, and Marc if he wants) get together to study tonight, but you tell her that you're already behind on account of last night's study party, and that you can't afford another one.

Eva is at least courteous to you, though she has almost nothing to say to you. Not that you were expecting her to say anything, even though you got a text from James saying that he had asked her out, and that she had declined to go to the party. You order him, in reply, to ask her out on a coffee date after school tomorrow. He doesn't reply to that, and you make a mental note to haul him into the girls' restroom tomorrow for another conference explaining what you expect of him.

Dinner is muted but undramatic, and after helping to clean up you tell your mom that you have to run a short errand over to someone's house. You then collect four twenties from Jessica's cash stash and drive out to the old elementary school.

Acheson Community Center (as it is now called) is a mouldering pile of brick and masonry built almost a hundred years ago (or maybe more) a few blocks from your house. A few years ago—before you were born—part of it was remodeled into a community center. But most of it is closed off. The only open part is—or at least was—an old basement.

You had found it last year while wandering around the neighborhood: a door at the bottom of a short stairwell, its top barely peeking out over the top of the grass. You were in a destructive mood, so after fiddling around with the padlock, you went home long enough to fetch a crowbar, and jimmied the lock off. On the other side of the door you found a basement smelling of cold grease and old metal, stacked up with old school desks, tables, sinks, gym equipment, and castoff bookshelves and cabinets. You'd shifted some of it around to make a kind of fort, then replaced the padlock with one of your own. A few days later, when checking back, you found your padlock still there, so you'd played around inside a little more, than brought Caleb and Keith out. For a few months the three of you would hang out there, smoking a little weed and drinking some whiskey, but doing nothing worse. Gradually you had forgotten about it, and haven't been back out since before the start of summer.

Will is nowhere around when you drive up, but he pops up from the stairwell as you get out of your car. "Hey!" he calls. "I can still get in here!"

"The fuck would you want to get in there for?" you squeal back.

"I was just checking," he snorts. "Could be useful, still," he adds, seemingly to himself. "You bring my money?"

"Yes. What do you need it for? You're not buying me a new game, are you?"

"Don't be a dumbass." He locks the basement up, then turns back to you. "I'm gonna make some masks, and I need to buy supplies."

"What? Jesus!"

"Yep! And that's how we're gonna get'cha outta trouble with Marc."

"What trouble?"

"You told me he thinks you took that stuff. And that he's all paranoid."

"Okay, yeah."

"So we'll make some new gear. Another mask and mens thingie. Then you can sneak it back into his bedroom. I even still got the plastic bag he was keeping them in."

"But he'll still know it had been gone, that someone—!"

"Just put it back someplace weird, someplace he mighta hid it but forgot he put it there. I found it behind the sheets stacked on the top shelf of his closet, so as long as you don't put it there, it'll be fine."

"But what good will this do?"

"Christ, think about it! He'll just think he misplaced it." He puts his hand on his hip, and for a moment he looks, in pose anyway, like Jessica Garner. "You don't want him thinking that someone took it and is wearing it, Will."

You see her point, and give in. "Well, if that's all you want to make masks for—"

"Oh, that's only part of it. We're gonna make copies of some of the guys."

"What?"

"Yeah. And then we're gonna do to them what they were doing to me!"

Next: "Minding Jessica's Business" 

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