"Dude, go after her," Cara had said. But you just shrug and slump. It all seems pointless. You'd already stuck up for her. And it would probably just be really weird between you, after the way she caught you at the lockers with Lisa.
Cara doesn't repeat herself. Caleb says nothing. You slouch, gripping the back of your neck with both hands and staring at your own feet. Several times during the ensuing, lengthy silence, you come close to going after Chelsea. But it just seems easiest to do nothing.
Finally, Cara speaks. "Okay, I think I see how it works. If you guys made up something like it says-- And if you put the thing you made here--" She touches the page. "Yeah, that's probably what happened."
"What happened, Joe?" Caleb asks.
"It's not important, Frank," Cara says. "Just the asshole who made the book being an asshole. Nothing to do with these guys."
You glance at your erstwhile "friend," and find him gazing skeptically back at you. "You're being mysterious, Joe," he says, but holds your eye.
"Then would someone go get Chelsea," Cara says. "If we're going to be friendly about this, we should talk about it when we're all together."
Caleb snorts, and clambers to his feet. "Chelsea!" he yells down into the gym from the doorway. "Chelsea!"
"She's probably in the changing room," Cara says. "Go get her."
"The girl's changing room?" Caleb asks.
"Oh, for the love of--!" Cara throws the book aside and leaps to her feet. "I'll get her, then. The novelty's half worn off anyway." She charges past Caleb, who flinches back.
You reach over to recover the book, but with two quick steps Caleb is next to you and pulls it away. "Jesus!" you explode. "It's not like--"
"Watch your fucking language," Caleb snarls. "And it's not like I don't trust you, Prescott, but--"
"I don't care if you do or don't," you yell back. "What do you expect me to do, use it to turn you into a frog?"
His eyes briefly blaze, and then with a snort he drops the book back into your lap. "Knock yourself out, then."
You glare at him, then bend over the book. This fucking book. It's been nothing but trouble since you'd found it. Angrily you flip through the pages--the meaningless pages--and massage your temple with the heel of your hand. None of writing makes any sense, and you barely look at it as you turn page after page. You come to the last spell--the one whose page had been torn--and turn to the next one. It's just more of the same kind of thing. But you don't want to look at--let alone talk to--the other guy in the room, so you just stare down at it. The lettering swims in and out of focus.
Eventually, you hear footsteps, and look up to see Cara and Chelsea returning. Chelsea's eyes are red and her complexion is blotchy. You try not to stare, but you've never seen her looking this upset. She had been in such complete possession of herself during that talk in the coffee shop with the Durrases. But now-- Why do her nerves seem so shot?
She doesn't look at you, but just sits back down, holding herself erect. The others join her (and you) on the floor, and you grimly hand the book back to Cara.
"Okay, the way I figure it," Cara says, "is that you guys actually did perform that spell, even though you didn't realize it. It wasn't a real spell, just a kind of test. The guy who made the book tore that page himself. The clues are in the spell. That last line." She underlines the passage with her finger. "Use me to solve me, it says. So you make up the strip, like the book says, and then you use it to-- Well, it makes a copy of the book itself. You slip it onto the torn page, and it causes the page to regenerate. That's all. You guys managed to pull it off, but never noticed."
"Yes, because I--" Chelsea exclaims, then sags. "Oh, what's the point? Because like I said, we just kind of gave up." Braids of golden hair fall across her face, and she doesn't tuck them back.
Caleb grunts. "Well, I guess that makes sense. Pretty amazing coincidence, though."
You glance up, expecting Chelsea to scream something at him, but she doesn't move. You want to scream something at him, but you lost the moment by looking at Chelsea instead. "The whole thing's been a lot of coincidences," you mutter instead.
"What do you mean by that, Prescott?" Caleb asks.
You can't help but give him a dirty look. He looks like Caleb Johansson, but he keeps talking and holding himself like someone much more masterful. It makes the whole scene wrong, and brings home to you just how bizarre your situation is. There is not one person in this loft that you either knew or ever talked to only a few scant weeks ago. "Pfft, I dunno," you admit. "Just sayin'." You shrug. "Like, why did it have to be me that found it?"
Cara says something in that foreign language that Joe and Frank share. "Yeah, that's a good point, Prescott," Caleb drawls. "Why was it you that found it?"
"I told you already, I found it at Arnholm's."
"But why you, of all people?"
"Well, it had to be someone, eventually, right?" You're vaguely aware that you're contradicting your earlier claim that there was something "coincidental" about your finding it. "It just happened to be me." You stare at Caleb, and are struck at how dark and suspicion-laden his expression has turned. "What?" you exclaim. "I gave it you-- Excuse me, to Caleb right afterward. So it's not like I was looking for it."
Caleb holds your eye. Cara speaks again, and Caleb shakes his head without taking his eyes off you. "Why did you say just now that it was a big coincidence, your finding it?"
"I don't know!" you cry. "You were going on about what a big coincidence it was that we solved that one spell--"
"It is a pretty weird coincidence," he says.
"Well, that's what you say!" You glare at him, and at Cara. "Christ!" You jump to your feet. "I'll be in the girls' changing room if you want me."
But something invisible closes around you, like iron bands, twisting you almost off your feet. "Hang on there," Caleb says, and you twist your head to see him smiling grimly and clenching his fist around empty air. "I don't much care if Chelsea runs off--"
"Let him go, Frank," Cara says. "Let him cool off. There's nothing for any of us to get excited about."
"What about--?" Caleb starts, then closes his mouth with a snap. He jerks his shoulders rather than shrugs, and releases you. "Just don't run far, Prescott," he says, and some invisible, heavy thing shoves you almost off your feet.
You charge from the fuck room with a snarl, and take the steps three at a time down to the gym floor. Instead of the girls' changing room, though, your natural instincts take you into the boys'. There you wheel and dance angrily in place. Why are they suddenly treating you like a criminal? You agreed to work with them. You worked out the arrangements that would let them have the book back. You're the one that has tried to keep Chelsea on board. And this is how they treat you?
You pace the room, your thoughts growing more and more disordered as you growl to yourself. It's not long before you work yourself into a state of exhausted frustration. The only thing you can conclude is that there is something they know, or have recently discovered, that has excited some suspicion in them against you. But what could it be? All you said was that it was some kind of "coincidence" that you found the book.
You lean against the lockers. Well, there is one way of finding out, maybe. You have their masks. You could switch into Joe's again. You weren't inside it very long. Maybe if you rummaged around inside it, you could figure it out. And it's not like they could object. Didn't Joe himself say that he and his brother had nothing to hide from you?
You're distracted by voices from the gym, and go to the entry way to look out. It's Caleb and Chelsea, standing by the main doors, at a distance such that you can't make out their words. But their attitude strikes you. Caleb--Frank--has his arms crossed and is peering down at Chelsea. She's gazing up at him with a pleading expression, and her quiet words seem very urgent. As you watch, she puts a hand on his arm, and raises herself on tiptoes. For a moment you think she's going to try kissing him. But her eyes just widen, and then you realize that she's on verge of crying again.
They hold this pose for a moment. Then Caleb says something and shrugs. Chelsea bites her lip and lowers herself. He speaks again, and she nods. She takes a deep breath, and walks away. He watches her go, until there's the sound of the outer door opening and closing. Then he turns and exits through the main doors.
You're blinking at this mysterious scene when, across the way, Cara--Joe--appears from the girls' changing room. She smiles faintly, and walks the long distance across the gym to where you are. "I thought you said--"
"Are we done for today?" You're feeling very tired.
"Could be," she says. She cocks her head and looks you up and down. "You know, there's nothing that says we have keep sporting these identities."
"You want to go back to being yourself?" You're not startled by thought that Joe would give up being Cara; no, you're guiltily wondering if he has read your thought about dipping into his mask again.
But she shakes her head. "No, I mean that-- I told you earlier that you should go after Chelsea. You and me could switch places. I be Will Prescott, and you be Cara Fuhrman. You'd find that an easier way of getting back close to her."
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