Reborn (14 page)

Tears
of laughter streaming down her face, Tanya bends down to carefully pick it up,
pinching it between her thumb and forefinger. She tosses it back inside
Farrah’s special box. In the box there’s also a bottle of lubricant, a black
feather tickler and something else none of us recognize. Carly and Tanya
finally return the box to its spot on the top shelf in the closet, and I
rummage through the last drawer in Farrah’s desk.

“Find
anything interesting on your end?” Tanya asks me.

“Nope.”

No
pet rocks here.

I
plop down in Farrah’s desk chair and reevaluate my strategy. I suppose I could
go through her bureau as well, but I don’t have the impetus anymore. I know I’m
not going to find them there. There probably isn’t anything to find—if they’re
important enough for Jasper to want, she probably keeps them on her person at
all times. The big gold bag she carries looks pretty heavy.

“This
might be something,” Carly says, pulling a red satin bag cinched with a white
ribbon down from the closet shelf. Whatever’s inside of it clicks against each
other as she feels the bottom of it before opening it up. Tanya coaxes the lip
of the bag further open with her finger.

“It’s
just a bunch of rocks.”

“Rocks?”
I dart up from the chair.

“You
sounded way too excited just now,” Tanya informs me.

I
take out one of the stones. It’s oval-shaped, the pale gray surface smooth
under my fingers, except for where there’s a swirly Greek letter “gamma” etched
into the center. The gamma glows a faint white.

“It
looks like some sci-fi thing,” says Carly. “Maybe Farrah’s a closet nerd.”

“It
does look like something out of Stargate,” I muse. Carly and Tanya look at me
strangely. “How many of them are there?” I ask it, but I already suspect there
are three in total: A gamma, a lambda and a phi—

“What
are you guys doing in here?”

Chapter 20

Victoria
pushes the door open a little further and
steps inside. I drop the stone
back in its pouch.

“You’re
going through Farrah’s room,” she realizes, a dumbfounded expression on her
angular features.

“It
was my idea,” I confess hastily. “Tanya and Carly didn’t want to, but I talked
them into it.”

“Please.
You don’t have to cover for us,” Tanya says. She comes up to stand beside me,
hands on her hips. “We were willing participants.” Carly nods in agreement.

“I
don’t care
whose
idea it was…” Victoria’s face is getting red. Any
minute now I’m pretty sure she’s going to breathe fire. She shakes her head.
“Put that back,” she says, pointing to the red bag, and Carly immediately
slides it into its spot on the shelf. “Let’s just get out of here.” She holds
open the door for us and waits for us to march through it before flipping off
the lights.

“I
don’t even know what to say. I am so disappointed in you three.”

Carly
crosses her arms and gives an obvious eye roll. “Sorry, Mom.”

“This
isn’t funny!” Victoria looks around in momentary panic after this outburst. She
takes a deep breath to recover herself. “I know that having Farrah around
hasn’t been easy, but she’s on our side. She needs to know that we’re on hers.”

“On
our side?” Tanya scoffs.

“She
has a funny way of showing it,” I put in.

Victoria
turns her round, piercing amber glare to me. “Look, I know
you
haven’t
liked her from the beginning—”

“Because
she
hates
me for no reason! I don’t trust her.”

“Do
you trust
me
?” Victoria reaches out to clasp my shoulder and give it an
earnest shake, or something. I never find out because I take an automatic step
back as I watch the hand come toward me. I jump, feeling just as startled as
Victoria looks. Her arm drops, her brow furrowing in confusion.

“Of
course,” Tanya says, coming to the rescue. The three of us nod eagerly in
unison.

“Then
please trust that this will all make sense soon. I promise,” Victoria vows,
still looking at me through narrowed eyes. “In the meantime, let’s try not to
piss her off.” She cocks her head toward the now firmly shut door to Farrah’s
room.

Victoria
goes into the kitchen, and I return the master key to its hiding place. I wait
until Tanya and Carly leave for class, then join my big sister at the stove,
where she watches tiny bubbles start to form in a saucepan of hissing water.

“Keep
an eye on Liz,” I tell her. She probably won’t have any idea what I’m talking
about, but I have to warn someone.

“Okay.
I will,” she says without looking up at me. I drum my fingers on the counter,
reading the back of a box of granola, but she doesn’t say anything else, her
eyes never leaving the pot. Finally I go back out into the living room. I guess
I’m being paranoid—Victoria probably didn’t even notice my reaction earlier. A
pang of guilt curdles my stomach. This is
Victoria
, my big sister, my
friend. Of course she doesn’t like me in that way. Even if she did, she knows
I’m straight. Still, I can’t seem to silence the whispered memory of Jasper’s
casual observation:
I think she has a little crush on you…

***

While
everything this morning happened very quickly, the afternoon drags on. Endless
rainfall pours from a steel gray sky. At four thirty I return to the house
after my last class, shaking out my leopard print umbrella before going inside.
My purple rain boots make squelching noises on the hardwood floor. I tug them
off and leave them by the door. I head upstairs for some big-little bonding
time with Victoria before our board meeting, to make up for earlier today. I
knock politely on the half-closed door and peek around it only to find out
everyone is already there—even Liz.

“Did
we change the time?” I ask uncertainly, closing the door behind me.

Victoria
shakes her head “You’re fine. Today is all about you,” she adds as I sit down
on the bed next to Carly. “What do you need us to do for Friday?”

“Oh,
right,” I say, opening my notebook on my lap and uncapping a pen. “So, my
committee is decorating the venue in shifts from one to four Friday afternoon.
Carly and Rachel said they could drive—” A wide-eyed look of alarm from
Victoria makes me stop.

“Rachel
won’t be able to drive,” Victoria says cryptically.

“In
other words—she didn’t make the cut,” Tanya explains.

“Farrah
wants to help out in any way she can,” Victoria assures me. “I’ll let her know
we need another driver to shuttle committee members that afternoon.”

I
nod helplessly and move on. “I think we have everything we need, actually. All
of the decorations are ready to go. We’ll give out wristbands here before we
get on the bus.” The distant chime of the doorbell sounds from downstairs.
“We’re going to have the sisters line up and put on blindfolds, and then each
guy will take the blindfold off his date.” When the doorbell rings again, we
give a collective sigh.

“I’ll
go,” Tanya says, getting up and whisking out the door. A beat later, my phone
vibrates beside me on the bed.

“Oh,
shoot,” I say. I look up. “That’s Jimmy. We’re going to dinner, but he got here
early.”

Victoria’s
shoulders heave in an annoyed sigh, but I can’t tell if it’s because of the
interruption downstairs or because she’s jealous I’m going on a date with
Jimmy. “The only other thing is I want to make sure every sister has a date.”

“I’ll
personally double check with everyone, but I’m pretty sure everyone has been
set up,” I tell them. “Well, except for me,” I add as an afterthought.

“I’ll
get on Tanya’s ass about that. Alright. It’s already been a long day, and I
don’t really want to be here anymore, so this meeting is over.”

Everyone
murmurs gratefully and files out of the room. I brush my hair quickly in front
of the mirror in the hall and retouch my eyeliner and mascara before going
downstairs. Tanya sits with Jimmy on the couch, talking at him while he nods
intermittently.

“Oh,
there she is.” Tanya hops up. She gives me a wave from the stairwell. “Have
fun.”

“You
look good,” Jimmy says, his eyes admiring my skin-tight leggings and the black
high heels I slipped on upstairs.

“Thanks.”
I glance out the picture window. “It finally stopped raining?” Jimmy nods. We
go outside to the truck and take off for The End.

When
we enter the bustling bar, it’s packed with the same offbeat crowd; this time
with a little vegan hipster mixed in with the Goths and glam punks. Jimmy and I
sit at a table tucked away in the corner. Our server walks up to us.

“Hey
Emmett,” Jimmy says.

“Hey
guys.” Emmett is short and thin and wearing what looks like a pair of women’s
jeans and a snug plain black t-shirt. His spiked hair is dark except for a
shock of blonde in the front. “Do you know what you want to drink?” He has a
hesitant, coy way of speaking.

I
glance at the back of the menu. “I’ll have a lemon drop.”

“A
gin and tonic, please,” Jimmy tells him.

“Awesome.
I’ll bring those right out for you guys.”

“Thanks,
man.”

Suddenly,
a body with long legs and spindly arms drapes itself over the chair between me
and Jimmy. Peter groans dramatically and buries his head in his arms on the
table.

“I’m
so glad you guys are here,” he says, the table muffling his voice. His head
pops up again, his careless blonde hair sending a shower of water droplets onto
the table. His silver shirt and pants are stained dark with water. “I’ve had a
bloody terrible day. My art professor nixed my idea for my semester project
this morning. I wanted to rehearse for tonight but all of the practice rooms on
campus were taken, and
then
I got caught in a monsoon when I—”

“Really
sorry to hear that,” Jimmy interrupts him, “but we’re supposed to be having a
date here, so would you mind taking your dramatic monologue elsewhere?”

“I’m
so sorry!” Peter exclaims, slamming both of his hands down on the table. “I had
no idea! Of course, I can just—”

“It’s
okay,” I insist, casting Jimmy a resigned look. “Stay, Peter. Eat with us.”

“Thanks.”
Peter settles happily back into his seat just as Emmett returns with our
drinks. “Could you get me that raspberry vodkatini thingy?”

“No
problem.”

“Thanks,
love!”

“Are
you guys ready to order or do you want more time?”

We
exchange glances around the table and determine that, yes, we are indeed ready
to order. Jimmy and Peter both request burgers cooked medium rare, and I order
the Cajun chicken sandwich. We get a large basket of fries to share.

“This
looks good,” Jimmy says when Emmett brings out our food. “What?” he asks,
catching my confused sideways glance.

“That’s
exactly the same inflection you used when you told me
I
looked good,” I
tease him before nipping off the end of a hot, salty fry. Jimmy winks at me and
takes an enormous bite of his burger.

Peter
drains the last of his fuchsia colored drink before saying, “So, tell me about
this new boyfriend of Anna’s.”

Jimmy
chokes on his sandwich at the same time I ask, “Anna has a new boyfriend?”

“Uh,
yeah.” Peter’s twinkling blue eyes flicker between me and Jimmy. “She went away
with him for the week.”

“Sh-she
told me she was going on a retreat!” Jimmy sputters.

“I
saw her leave with him,” Peter insists. “Big guy. Kind of looks like a…” He
strokes his smooth chin with his fingers as he searches for a fitting description.

“A
sexy lumberjack?” I reluctantly finish for him.

He
points at me. “
Yes
,” he says as though I’ve just suggested how to unify
the theory of relativity with quantum mechanics. “I didn’t think he was her
type. I thought she had more refined taste.” Peter straightens up in his chair.

“Don’t
tell me you’re jealous,” Jimmy says. “It’s been months since you broke up.”

“It’s
been four months, and
she
broke up with
me
,” Peter reminds him.

“Because
you’re gay.”

Peter
flicks his hand like he’s waving away an invisible fly. “Don’t come at me with
your labels. I like
everyone
. It was the strangest thing,” he continues.
“One minute I hear them talking in her room—”

“Her
bedroom,” Jimmy cries, covering his face with his hand.

“—and
the next thing I know, I walk past her room on my way to the bathroom, the door
is open, but they’re gone. I didn’t hear them go downstairs or anything. It’s
like they vanished.” Peter snaps his fingers. “Poof.”

“This
is bad,” I mutter, but I’m starting to feel the effects of my drink, and it
comes out through a hiccup of laughter.

Jimmy
throws up his hands and brings them back down hard on the table, rattling our
plates and glasses. “So where did they go?”

“Olympus.”
Even though it’s a serious suggestion, the absurdity of it makes me giggle into
my drink.

Peter
thinks I’m joking and picks up the gag. “Atlantis. Space.” We’re both clutching
our sides, laughing so hard we’re barely making a sound anymore. Jimmy just
stares at his half-eaten burger, shaking his head. Emmett comes to check on us,
and I try to recover myself.

“Does
anybody need anything?”

“
She
doesn’t,” Peter chuckles, jerking his thumb at me. “She needs cut off. But can
I get another one of these?” He thrusts his empty cocktail glass toward Emmett.
“Pwease?” he implores in a babyish voice, puffing out his lower lip.

A
pink blush creeps up Emmett’s cheeks as he takes the glass. “No problem.
Anybody else?”

“I
think we’re good,” I tell him, sinking down in my chair and trying not to look
up at Peter, who has wrapped a napkin around his head like a kerchief and is
shouting in a voice a few octaves higher than normal.

“Oh,
please, Mr. Sexy Lumberjack Man! Please take me away from here! My evil,
over-protective brother keeps me locked up in this house—”

“Hey,
Jim!”

Peter
swipes the napkin from his head and lays it back on his lap as someone tall
with the build of a linebacker looms up behind Jimmy and slaps him on the back.
He’s flanked by a group of six or so guys. “You guys going on soon?”

“Hey,
man.” Jim glances at his phone. “Yeah, in about twenty. We should start setting
up,” he adds to Peter.

“You
gotta play ‘Serena’ tonight.”

“Oh,
well—we’re not really taking requests.” Jimmy tries to turn back to the table,
but their fan doesn’t let up.

“Ah,
come on!” he groans.

“I
just don’t really think there will be time—”