The Book of Masks (Vol. 2)

A Disastrous Date

Previously: "A Tale of Two Eavesdroppers" 

There's a silence from the group, then a confused conversation breaks out. Lisa's voice rings out clearly: "This is pointless, and I'm leaving." No one asks her to stay, and a minute later you glimpse her stalking away. Then you hear Carson: "You're basically one of us now, so I'll tell you." But though you lean in to listen, his voice drops so low you can't make out the words. He buzzes this way for awhile, with the occasional word from James. Will's voice rises at one point: "So what have you heard?" He sounds incredulous.

"Oh, this and that. You don't want to hear it when they've got female company up there being, you know, female company," says Carson.

"And the fucking jock talk is pretty boring, though sometimes hilarious. Jesus, the testosterone practically drips through the floorboards," says James.

"But the best stuff is when Chelsea is on the rag," Carson says. "Oh man, some of the things she says to Gordon when she gets mad at him. It's always about her, and all the things she does for him, and how he doesn't appreciate her."

"Fuck, he appreciates her for exactly what she's worth," says James. "Gordon might have muscle tissue where his cerebral cortex ought to be, but he's not a moron where she's concerned."

"And listening to her talk about her friends." Carson laughs. "Gordon doesn't even say anything about that, just lets her go on and on, blah blah blah. I'd love to see the expression on his face, he's probably so bored by it. But come on, we've told you about this stuff, and we'll show you how to get in if you want. But what did he do to you?"

You tense, wondering what "Will" is going to say. It's pretty clear that Carson and James have found a way to eavesdrop on Gordon and Chelsea—that's got to be the big secret they were talking about at the IHOP—and you can't imagine what Gordon is likely to say in reply to it all.

And it does shock you when he only says, "Nothing. He, uh, carried me out to the portables and he slammed me against the wall of one of them. And then—" Silence. "Then he shoved me into one of the portables."

A long silence. James, when he speaks, sounds very intense. "Really? Because if he did something really, uh, illegal to you, Will—"

The following silence sounds very uncomfortable. And then you only know someone spoke because Will explodes: "No! Oh, Jesus!" Then a strange, soft sound, followed by a loud bark by Carson: "Hey, quit it! You— Goddamn it, Will!"

"Get the fuck away from me," Will yells. "Cocksucking sons of bitches!" More of those soft sounds, which you now recognize as body blows of some kind, accompanied by more yelling by Carson and James. You retreat to a corner behind another shelf, and peek out. Carson and James, moving at a near run, retreat, with James nursing the side of his head. From Will's direction comes a long, choking stream of curses. You edge away, down the side wall, and find a hiding spot, where you sit for ten minutes before carefully venturing back out. You think you make it outside without being spotted; certainly you don't spot anyone you know.

* * * * *

You spend a sleepless night worrying about the morrow. What will your replacement do at school? How will he act? Will he even show up?

You decide that you'll play it cool with him, treating things as though they're normal, but being patient with him if starts acting like he did last night with James and Carson. You get to the school early, and hang around close to the parking lot watching for your truck. It doesn't pull in until about five minutes before the bell would ring. You saunter out to meet him. "Cutting it kind of close this morning, aren't you?" you ask with what you hope is a careless insouciance. Will just gives you a dark look and mutters something.

You gamble on bringing up the subject of Carson and James: "Unless you especially wanna hang around with Jenny or Paul, let's just go off the two of us at lunch, maybe with Tilley. I've been seeing too much of Ioeger and Lamont lately."

He looks over at you sharply. "Why do you say that?"

"Huh? 'Cos it's true?" You affect a blank ignorance of any other possible reason. "I ran into 'em at IHOP yesterday. They begged some notes off me and were pumping me about— Well, about you and Black yesterday. Fuck 'em for being nosy."

His eye is hot, and his lip is curled back, and he shows his teeth as he breathes through his mouth. It's not a look you're used to seeing on your friends' faces, and you doubt it's one you often show them.

"So I figure they might try asking you about it, and I kind of figure you might not want them to."

His eyes narrow. "Why?"

"I dunno. Do you? They've got lots of experience with Black and them, maybe you do wanna talk to them. But they can be kind of jerks about things, and they kind of pissed me off yesterday while talking about you."

He stares at you as you a little longer. "That's fine," he says. "I'm sick of them too." He starts trudging toward the school.

"Oh, how was your date last night with Lisa?"

"Fine."

"You make any progress with her?" You nudge him. "Is Mansfield yesterday's news?"

He says nothing for minute. Then: "We got interrupted and she left. I don't care."

You stop cold. "You don't—?" He stops and stares dully back at you. You resume walking. "Well, shit, man. If you wanna talk about it at lunch—"

"I won't want to."

"Yeah, it's a tough life," you casually observe.

* * * * *

Lisa coos and giggles at Geoff before and after Walberg's class, which would royally piss you off if you didn't have much bigger worries about the guy slumping in the chair the next row over. Walberg speaks sharply to him once, but Will just shrugs and slumps lower in his chair. After first period you give him a little nudge toward his second period class ("Hope you do better in Hawks's Film class") and go to Caleb's AP Calculus.

James is in there, and he's got a big purple bruise on his upper cheek. "What happened to you?" you ask. It must be from Will last night, but you can hardly believe someone with your old body has the capacity to put that kind of mark on someone else.

"I ran into someone who didn't want to run into me," James says without looking at you.

"It wasn't Gordon Black, was it?"

"Pff. No. And I don't want to talk about it."

Gelding's Chemistry is next, and you're really dreading it, for it will be the first time you've been to it: on Monday you skipped, and on Tuesday and Wednesday Caleb took it back over. But something intervenes before then.

You go looking for Will, so you can prod him toward the Career Planning class you've got third period, and you've just glimpsed his head in the mass when he abruptly vanishes. There are some shouts, and a girl shrieks. You push forward, fighting a crowd that suddenly wants to be far away from where you're trying to get. When you break through, you see Will, pressed against a locker, with Jason Lynch grinning at him. "—teach you to talk nice to women folk," Lynch is chortling.

That's bad enough, and your sphincter tightens. But then comes the real surprise.

Will goes very red in the face, and launches a blizzard of blows at Lynch: sucker punches to the face, rabbit punches to the torso, even a knee to the groin. Lynch falls back—clearly shocked—and Will chases him, shoving him so that he trips over another student, landing on his back. Will drops atop him and with his fist tries turning the baseball players' face into hamburger.

Luckily, at that moment a larger figure leaps in: Chris Ratliff, one of the football players, and a very big guy. He yanks Will back and closes him in a bear hug, and he kicks Lynch away when the latter tries to get up. Mr. Gelding, whose room is nearby, comes out, yelling hard. You backpedal, not wanting to get caught up in it all.

But you only get about ten feet down the wing when you run into a monolith of muscle: Gordon Black.

He seizes you and hustles you outside.

* * * * *

"We can't let him out now!" you yell. In the back of your head you recognize how ridiculous it is that you're screaming at Gordon Black. But the front of your brain recognizes him as Caleb. And you're back in that silly portable, so you're both safe.

"A guy who looks like me just tried punching Jason Lynch's head through the floor!" you continue. "And Gordon knows that Chelsea gave 'Gordon' a blow job yesterday, and that James and Carson have been eavesdropping on him! We're all dead if Gordon gets his body back. Especially me!"

"Then you can continue as Gordon," Caleb yells back. "Take it, all of it, 'cos I don't want it!"

"You gonna take over 'Will Prescott's' life?" you demand. "'Cos I'm not, not until—"

"Let Gordon keep it. You just take over his spot and let me go back to being—"

"And what's wrong with Gordon's life? It can't be worse than—"

"His dad! And Chelsea! And Patterson! I had to fake pulling a muscle this morning because these stupid mitts of his—" He waves his arms about. "I don't know how to run them. And maybe you don't care if Gordon fucks up your academic work, but you can't keep fucking up mine!"

Then the door opens and a cheerful voice sounds. "Ay! Guys," exclaims Dane Matthias. "I thought I heard voices. You hangin' out here this period? Cool!"

* To continue: "Deep Disguises" 

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