Chapter #41Conversations That No One Wants to Have by: Seuzz   You've already got a mask of Jessica; if you tried using Lin or Yumi as a face you'd have to make up a new one. So you steel yourself for a scene with Lisa and march over to where she and Jessica are sitting.
They're sitting in a sunny patch of ground, cross-legged, facing each other with a spread of food on paper bags between them. Lisa is in a baby-blue dress—a color that complements her hair and skin while Jessica is in a tube top and distressed jeans. Lisa's expression is one of vague concern; Jessica's is unreadable behind her sunglasses.
You've always felt more abashed around Jessica than around Eva, notwithstanding the similarity between the sisters. Maybe it's the way she wears her hair in a short bob instead of long curls like Eva: it gives her a sassier appearance and makes everything she says a little more cutting, a little more personal. At least, she seems cutting and personal when you're around, like her filter goes down to a lower setting when she sees you.
Lisa spots you coming before Jessica does, and that look of vague concern clears up into an equally vague smile. "Hi Will," she says. Jessica shifts her head to look up at you, but her expression continues to be opaque.
"Hey girls," you reply, and after giving Lisa a quick smile thenceforth avoid her eyes. You kneel beside them in a way that you hope conveys that you don't mean or want to intrude in on them long. "Hey Jessica, do you have some time to talk? Uh, later?"
She must have just taken a bite from the apple in her hand, for she sucks on something before replying. "Like when, later, and for how long?" she says.
"I'm not sure. It depends on— At least two minutes, but maybe twenty. Or more." Even though her eyes are hidden, you find you can't look directly at her. "I wanted to talk to you about Caleb."
"What about him?"
"About him and Eva."
She sucks on that piece of apple a little more, chews it slowly, swallows. "Yeah, okay. After school? Library?"
"Sure. Thanks. It won't be for very long," you blurt out. "I've got to be home by— I've got something I have to do, so I won't take up much of your time."
Jessica just nods curtly, and you feel that you've been dismissed. Slowly you rise again and, still avoiding Lisa's face, walk awkwardly off. You don't know what's worse—the conviction that they have only a few words to spare for you behind your back, or that those few words are almost certainly completely negative.
I won't take up much of your time, you told Jessica. But if it goes off right, you'll be taking up as much as a day of her time.
* * * * *
You go looking for Connor afterward, and find him sitting with Carson and James and Jenny and Paul, in the company of Keith. He looks very relaxed, splayed out next to them, and nods at you when you drop down with them to rapidly gobble your lunch. He's talking in a much lazier and more confident way than Caleb is wont to, and Carson and James seem to respond to it, for they reply in similarly lazy and confident tones. The scene leaves you feeling out of place, as though you've crashed in on a party to which you weren't invited and to which you don't belong. Keith seems to feel the same way, because he slouches next to you with his mouth hanging open in a querulous stare when he's not stuffing it with a baloney sandwich. You fidget all through the meal, and react with muted, one-word answers when one of the others pokes you with a question or comment. The sense of being an uninvited, junior member of this league of geeks is only accented when the bell rings, and the guy who looks like Caleb gets slowly to his feet, kicks you lightly in the knee, and tells you to trot along with him. "You talk to anyone?" he asks.
"Yeah, Jessica." You tell him of the appointment.
He frowns. "You've got a four o'clock curfew."
"Like I don't know that."
"And I don't know how we can do anything in the library. You should have asked her out for coffee."
"I have a curfew," you remind him.
"We could have worked around that. We've got masks, and partners outside of school." He glances around with a worried expression. "Well, I'll think about it, figure something out. Keep your phone on, and if I can't get something set up, try to work it so Eva or Jessica will talk to me. To Caleb, I mean."
You part for your separate sixth period classes. Only three more hours to go, and if you were hyper-aware of your surroundings during the morning, during the afternoon you are so distracted and anxious that you hardly know where you are for the balance of the school day.
* * * * *
You get a text near the end of last period—Astronomy—and peep at it furtively when you have a moment: It's from Connor, telling you to get Jessica out to the parking lot, to your truck, when classes let out. At first you're inclined to argue—you set it up for the library, dammit!—but then reflect that Jessica is more likely to go with you if she thinks you're on your way out the door and so won't be wasting her time. It's a bitter thought: another reminder that not many people want to waste their time with you. You'd pass on the message to her immediately, but you don't have her cell number, and you don't have her schedule. So you go to the library to wait.
And you wait and you wait and have lots of time to reflect on what a bad spot the library would be for getting a mask onto a person. It was hard enough at the municipal library, where you had hidden corners and private nooks for doing an ambush. But the school library is an open floor filled with tables and chairs all of which are visible to each other, and many of which are filled with people trying to do some last minute studying or gathering for post-school socializing.
You loiter near the front, checking the time. You don't have a lot of leeway, and you wish you knew what Connor had planned, for then you could have something solid to worry about. Instead, you can only worry about all the ways that things could go wrong because you don't know what you're supposed to do except maneuver Jessica out to your truck. Oh well, at least the time will give you an excuse to lead her out there, since you will have to be taking off soon.
But where is she? Connor texts, asking where you are, and you have to text back Waiting for jess. That gets no reply. You're about to text asking where he is and what he's doing when the door finally flies open and Jessica hurries in. "Hey Will," she says brusquely. "Can we make this fast? I have to—"
"I have to be somewhere too," you blurt out. "Walk with me to my truck?"
She thinks a moment, then nods. You fall into a quick pace down the hallway leading out past the gym and to the parking lot. "So what do you need to ask me about Caleb?"
"Is Eva pissed at him or something?"
She sighs deeply. "Just tell him to leave her alone."
"Is he bothering her?"
She doesn't answer for a moment, not until you've passed a cluster of other students and are in the clear again. "You know he had that study session with her last week, right?"
"I might've heard something about that."
"What did you hear?"
"He told me he had a study session with her."
"And that's all?"
"Yeah."
She says nothing, and you say nothing either until you're in the parking lot. "Did Caleb make a pass at your sister or something?" you ask.
Bad question, for she stops in her tracks. "Do you think he would've?" she bluntly asks.
"Walk with me to my truck," you say, and she follows. "I don't picture Caleb as the kind to make a clumsy pass," you continue. "But he has the impression that Eva is pissed at him, and he wants to know why."
"Well, ask him what happened that night, and see what he says."
"What am I supposed to hear him say?"
"See if he mentions Geoff showing up while we were there."
"Geoff? Mansfield?" Your heart pounds hard, twice. This is the first confirmation you've gotten that your ambush has set off ripples in the Garners' group.
"Just see if he tells you anything about Geoff and anything that happened with him."
"So what am I supposed to tell him about Eva?"
You've reached your truck by this point, and can't help glancing around nervously. There is a screen of cars on either side of it, but you seen no sign of Connor, either in his own face or in Caleb's. You lean against the side of your truck, and the tension almost makes you sick.
Jessica sighs impatiently. "There was a weird scene with Geoff, and Caleb should have seen it, but he's acting like he didn't. Which is an asshole thing for him to do if he saw it. So I don't want you to be disloyal to him or anything, but—"
While she's talking you hear a shuffling and scraping nearby, but keep your eye concentrated on Jessica. And—you know not how—you keep your face in neutral when Caleb's face looms up behind her, and reaches around to smother her with a mask.
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