Chapter #48Not That There's Anything Wrong With That by: Seuzz   You pound your fist against the wall, right next to David Johnson's head.
"We can find a way to fix things," you say in a voice that rumbles up from the soles of your feet. "But it's a problem, and you're going to make yourself part of the solution."
He refuses to be daunted. "Sure," he shrugs. "How?"
"Maddy is going to get together with some of her friends this afternoon to talk about your case. You help make sure that they get together."
"That was the plan!" he insists. "I was going to--"
"And you're going to get help. Because you're a fuck up. We wouldn't be talking if you hadn't come up with this fucked up way of-- Because, listen!" You hit the wall again, and he shuts his mouth. "We need to stop this rumor you've started, get the genie back in the bottle. If we don't--" You jab a hard finger in his chest. "If we don't, then David Johnson is going to come out of the closet, and in a really big way. You've sucked off guys before, Lynch. Patterson had you doing that. But you had a female psychology to help you then. But this time, you'll only have Johnson and yourself to make it convincing and enjoyable."
David pales and swallows.
"Hey!" a voice calls, and you look over your shoulder. Kyle Lakewood is frowning at you. "There a problem over here, Durras?"
"Back to class, Johnson," you tell David, and clap him on the shoulder. He trudges away.
Kyle draws up. "What was all that about?" he asks, and his voice and eyes are hard.
"Johnson did something really stupid, and I was telling him it was stupid. That's all."
"Oh yeah?" Lakewood's tone is skeptical. "What was it?"
"You haven't heard? Good, you don't want to hear."
"Pushing people around isn't--"
"I wasn't pushing him around, Lakewood. You don't want to make this your business."
"You don't want me to make it my business," he retorts. "I thought you'd noticed by now, the 'tough guy' act doesn't go down good around here."
He holds your eye, and you hold his. But you're the first to relent. "It was just tough love, Kyle. Really. I don't like it when guys fuck themselves up--"
"It's a free country. We can all go to hell our own special way."
The bell rings. "Well, I've got my own special hell to get to," you say. "I'll catch you around."
* * * * *
After Spanish, you pull Maddy aside for a private conference behind one of the wings.
"Get your friends together tonight," you tell her. "You know, Alyssa and Tina and them, not Joanna and Sarah." You're not sure you trust Carrie to get the difference. "Get them out to your house. Me and Joe will show up with some masks--"
"We're going to make masks of all of them?" she squeals.
"Keep your voice down. Yeah, that's exactly what we're going to do. Get you in good by giving you control of that whole group."
"Ooo!"
"We're giving you a lot of power in the school, Carrie," you say. "You're going to have to use it wisely, listen to Joe and me. The first thing you're going to have to do is bottle up this silly rumor about David Johnson being gay."
"But he is! He told--!"
"He's just confused! I had a little talk with him before class. There was a misunderstanding, that's all, and your group is going to have to make sure that no one gets the wrong idea about David."
She puts her hand on her hip. "You think there's something wrong with being gay?"
"Maybe there's nothing wrong with being gay, but there's something wrong with people thinking a dude's gay when he isn't. And David isn't."
"Why are you suddenly so concerned about David?" she asks.
"Where's Sarah?" you retort.
"I dunno. Probably in P.E. It's sixth, and she--"
"I mean your friend, the real one, not the fake we left in her place."
"In that case, I think Dana has-- Oh!" Her eyes widen.
"Exactly. Sarah likes David. A lot. That's why she wanted to switch with her sister--"
"Which is all kinds of squicky!"
"--because David likes Dana. He does, doesn't he?"
"I dunno," she says truculently. "Sarah thinks he does, but if he's gay--"
"He's not--!" You shove down the urge to throttle her. "He's not gay. He just said something that got misconstrued."
Her eyes narrow. "Are you thinking about-- Oh my God, are you thinking about using a mask on David, so that--"
"Just make sure some of your friends show up at your house. Leave the complicated stuff to me."
She continues to stare at you narrowly, but nods. As with David, you clap her on the shoulder to send her on her way. Fucking girls, you fume to yourself. It was a mistake putting someone as smart and as dumb as Carrie inside someone who was is as smart and as dumb as Maddy. Smart enough to see the worst possible conclusions to leap to, and stupid enough to leap to them.
* * * * *
"I need you to be your most charming, Joe," you tell him as you pull up in front of Maddy's house shortly after dinner. You don't like the pile of cars that are already there, and worry about what "Maddy" and "David" will have been telling the others; your only solace is that after you get the masks in place, it won't matter what has been said. "You need to get the girls off alone. Breathe in their faces and then get the masks on them." You pat the rucksack that has the masks and golem sealant. You'd spent a frantic afternoon securing supplies with Straussler's stolen credit card, and polishing up masks and making mind-bands. Even with Joe's help, you'd only got two done.
"Does that include Johnson?" Joe asks. "I hear he's gay, and I can't help it if I'm sexy."
You just snort. "I'll draw Maddy off first-- Shut up." Joe bites his lip to suppress the snicker. "I need to get some of Carrie's hair so we can-- Oh, fuck, why am I explaining things to you?"
"Because it helps to talk to someone who's actually smart?"
"It was a rhetorical question. Come on."
Your heart falls when you step into Maddy's den, where the hens are all perched around a David Johnson who looks rather put upon. There's four of them: Maddy, Tina Branson, Mandy Simpson, and Natalie Dawkins. Not enough masks to go around.
Joe drops to his knees behind the couch and puts his mouth close to Tina's ear. He whispers something, and she squeals. You chuck your chin at Maddy. "Hey, sorry to barge in, but I got this project--"
"Oh, right!" She hurries over. David rises too, with a hopeful expression, but sits back down when you glower at him. "Have you got it in here?" She puts her hands on the rucksack.
"I'll show you out-- Joe, don't get too entertained. We're not gonna be here long."
"Will you make up your mind?" he demands.
"Just remember what I said out in the car." You draw Maddy into a hallway. "We need a place where we can do the masking," you say.
"How about here?" She opens a door; it leads into a walk-in linen closet, and she turns on the light.
"Good as any place." You squint around, and put the sack on a shelf. "Now, I need you out of that mask."
"How come?" she asks in alarm, and puts her hands to her cheeks.
"'Cos I need some of your hair, Carrie, your real hair. It's part of the spell."
"Oh. Okay. But I don't know how much good this'll do. David is being really weird."
You groan. "Like how?"
"He's not making any sense. Like, he says he's interested in experimenting, and then he says he's not gay, and then he says he catches himself checking out other boys, but then he--"
Either Lynch is being very good at play-acting sexual confusion, or he's even more of a fuck up than you figured. "We'll get him straightened out," you assure her.
"How?" she asks darkly. "With a mask?"
"Leave that to--" You put your arm around her shoulders and grab her brow with the other hand. She grimaces as you utter the magical words and tug. Carrie Carmichael sags into your arm, and you drop her to the floor.
You snip off some of her hair with your teeth, throw it into the sealant tub, and set it on fire; you pray there's not a smoke alarm nearby.
You put the mask back onto Carrie, but before you can revive her, your cell phone rings. You curse as you note the ID. "Yeah," you brusquely answer.
"Frank, this is Dana," she says. "Is this a bad time?"
"Kind of. I'm in the middle of--"
"I want to talk to you about David."
You tense. This could be good news or bad news. "What about him?"
"There's this rumor going around school that--" She takes a deep breath, and the rest of her words come out in a rush. "He's supposed to be in love with me, Frank! And there's this rumor that he's telling people that--"
"Don't pay attention to gossip, Dana. Er, Sarah."
"But if he's telling people that he's-- Do you know what I'm talking about?"
"I've heard the same rumor, and it's bullshit."
"How do you know?" she plaintively wails. "He was acting all weird today, and--" Her tone grows very doubtful. "You had him out at your house yesterday. Did you do something to him?"
Damn these girls for being so perceptive. Or paranoid. Maybe the thing to do is confess that David Johnson is not himself, that he's been temporarily replaced, but that you're fixing things. The alternative is to tell her a story--a story that might not jibe with what "David" has been telling Maddy's friends.  indicates the next chapter needs to be written. |
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