The Book of Masks (Vol. 4)

Trading Confidences

Previously: "Breaking Bread with the New Girl" 

"Thanks for coming out with us," you tell James. You squeeze his forearm. "But this was enough for me tonight. I'll probably just gonna go hang out with Yumi, though. I wanna talk to her about how things went."

James hides his disappointment by glancing back at the table. "So that was a date?"

"For them two." You squeeze his arm again. "Thanks again for coming along."

His mouth is all twisted up when he rounds back on you. "So this was a favor I did for you?"

"Uh ... Yeah?"

"Can I ask you to do me a favor?"

You fight the urge to swallow hard. "Well, sure. Any time. Like what?"

"Like turnabout? Like, if Carson goes on a date and he wants someone along you'll come along with me?"

"Huh? Oh. Sure!"

"Because you never know." James's glance turns satiric and knowing. "If Prescott can get Yumi out on a date, Carson could still find somebody, right?"

"Sure. And you could too." You pinch the front of his pullover, but he only rolls his eyes.

"Come on," he sighs. "Can we wrap things up back there? You say you're exhausted, and I'm about to cut my arm off and bleed all over 'cos I'm so bored."

* * * * *

So you all part, with James going off in one direction while Will gives you and Yumi a ride back to the school. Yumi flinches a little when you grasp her by the arm after he's driven off, but she looks relieved when you ask if you can follow her back to her place.

Then she fusses around inside her car until you pull away in yours, which is okay, because you intended all along for her to follow you to her new home.

Yumi's mother has a few sharp words for the girl she thinks is her daughter, about getting her weekend homework done before she's allowed to go out and goof off, but you jump in to answer that that's what you've been working on all evening. "You owe me," you mutter to Yumi as you pull her toward her bedroom. Out of the corner of your eye you watch as she gives her room a quick frightened glance over from the doorway before following you in.

You brought your school bag in with you, so you dump it on the floor and suggest that you actually get some work done. "Besides," you add as you spread out some math homework, "I want to talk to you."

"About what?"

"Dur! About Will! Come on, get some work out so we can talk."

She is very slow to comply, and sorts through her books as though they are new and strange to her—which they are—while you fiddle impatiently. Once you've each got some paperwork in front of you—you with Calculus, her with some English—and can pretend that you're only gossiping casually while doing schoolwork, you look up at her from under a lowered brow and put it directly. "So. Will. Are you interested?"

"I don't know," she says, sounding mulish and resentful.

"Come on, Yumi. Who are you holding out for? It's no one who would have asked you out, because he'd have asked you already and you'd have said yes."

That's another one of those jibes that would have earned you a pop in the jaw from the real Yumi But this one just gets a queer look on her face. "Well, who do you see me with, Jenny? I mean," she adds with sudden animation, "you are my best friend!"

Wow, way to be totally subtle, Chelsea, you think.

"I could see you with lots of guys," you tell her, not wanting to push her too hard toward your beta. You grin. "Tell me some of the ones you'd like me to say I could see you with."

She makes a face. "Just pretend there's no one," she retorts. "Tell me who I should be holding out for."

"I don't know, Yumi." You roll onto your side with a groan. "You never talk about things like that. There have been guys who've asked you out, though. Right?"

She hesitates. Then with a wicked smile she says, "Not as many as you probably think."

"No?"

"No." Now she turns onto her side. "I think I scare them off."

"You can be pretty scary," you cautiously agree. Where is Chelsea going with this? you wonder.

"Oh, yeah!" she says. "You know, I like to tell myself that I just don't like taking shit from people. But, you know—"

She breaks off. Then her eyes widen at a thought, and the corners of her mouth twitch. "I'm really insecure about myself," she simpers with a kewpie smile.

Oh God. "No."

She nods. "But for true." The smile fades and her gaze goes distant. "I've got so much pressure on me. You know, Chinese tiger mom and all that."

Yumi is Japanese, Chelsea. She'd disembowel anyone who called her "Chinese."

"I mean, you heard my mom out there," she continues. Her tone turns cramped and hectoring. "I get that all the time. She makes me feel like I'm just not good enough, that I just don't deserve happiness. I think it really affects my self-image and self-confidence." She nods.

"Yeah?" You feel a giggle bubbling up inside you.

"Uh huh. A lot of the time when I'm being nasty— Look, I'll admit it, Jenny, I can be a total bitch. Right? You can tell me, I know it's true. Anyway," she continues when you don't reply, "me being a bitch, that's usually me chasing away happiness. Because I don't deserve it." She presses her lips together primly, and nods again.

"Wow," you say after you've half-suffocated yourself by stifling the giggles. "That's a pretty, um, amazing confession to just drop on me."

Fright shows momentarily in her eyes, then she screws a smile onto her face and grabs your arm in a claw-like hand.

"Oh, I'm just teasing. Or am I? It serves you right for asking me about all the boys I've turned down."

"Alright, you got me. I won't ask about them. But what about Will?"

"Oh. Well. Will." She shrugs and avoids your eye.

"Guys like Will can sometimes surprise you, you know. Creep up on you. One day they're just the dumb guy you've known since middle school, and then the next day they're this hot biscuit, and you're just now noticing it because you were thinking of them as, you know, like—"

You falter as Yumi turns back onto her stomach and scoots up at you with a smile.

"That sounds like something that's happened to you, Jenny," she says. "Who was it?"

You feel yourself blushing. "No one."

"Bullshit. You can't talk about something like that if you haven't, you know, felt it!"

Has Jenny felt this way? Jesus, you think with a sudden stab of surprise. She has!

"Okay, fine," you tell her. "But it's no one in particular. It's with lots of guys, and it's not like—"

"Who?" she insists. "Name one."

Prickles of horror break out all over you. "Truth or Dare?"

She stares, then bursts out laughing. "Sure! Truth!"

"Okay, one name. But that's all." Yumi nods impatiently. "Okay. Cole Parker."

"When?" She grins eagerly. "When did you notice he's—?"

"Start of the year," you reply. "It was weird, and that's how come I noticed it sometimes happens the way I said it does, that they just kind of creep up on you. 'Cos, you know, I saw him over the summer, over at Eva and Jessica's, and didn't think anything of him. You remember, you were over there with us lots."

She nods.

"Anyway, so I've known Cole since sixth grade. He was a goofball, always acting like he was high, like he'd busted a lungful behind the school. Like he thought being stoned on weed made you cool so that's the way he tried to act. Then, you know, Jesus." You shake your head at the memories you're pulling up. "Then in middle school he totally did start doing weed. And he got tall and lanky, and his hair all exploded out so he looked like a frizzy lollipop. So I still thought he was, like, a goof. Because he was." You shrug.

"So how'd he change?" Yumi leans forward eagerly.

"Well, he got onto the school soccer team a year or two back, and he cleaned up his act. I think Marc must have helped straighten him out or something. But it still didn't change him as far as I was concerned. Until—"

You squirm under Yumi's gleeful stare.

"So I was looking in one of the classrooms at the start of the year, looking for someone, and there was this hot guy"—inwardly you choke on the words—"sitting up near the front of the room. I don't know what made him seem so hot. Like, something about the way he was sitting, like he owned his space. And he caught me looking at him and he just nodded and he said 'Hey Jenny' and that's when— God, it's so crazy to think it happened this way, but I swear to God it did. But that's when I realized it was Cole. He just seemed so different I didn't recognize him for a moment. But then I realized he'd been looking like that even when I saw him up at Eva and Jessica's."

Yumi looks like she's about to burst with glee. "So why didn't you notice it when you saw him there? That he was—?"

"Oh." You sniff and shrug with embarrassment. "Well, it was at Eva and Jessica's house when I saw him, and he was with Marc, naturally. And, you know, everyone looks like a goofball next to Marc."

Yumi gapes, then bursts out laughing, and she only laughs harder when you tell her to shut the fuck up.

* * * * *

You stay as late as you dare, so that Chelsea can go straight to bed while minimizing contact with Yumi's family. In the morning she should have Yumi's memories, and then she'll be alright.

But when the next morning dawns, it's to a text from Jessica: help us w deanna today.

* To help the guys out with Deanna: "Birthday Surprises" 
* To meet up with Yumi: "The Misplaced Girlfriend" 

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