This choice: Keith wanted to fool someone--here's his chance! • Go Back...Chapter #12Coffee With A Fake by: Masktrix   “Uh, sure,” you manage to say, words tumbling out with more than a little nervousness. Seth’s stare continues to be almost blank as he takes a seat, squeezing in next to ‘Jenny’, setting it down and, with a smile, passing it to Cindy.
It takes every ounce of self-control not to leap away from the table and sprint for the exit. A glance at Keith reveals he must be feeling pretty much the same thing – his body is rigid, almost paralysed in fear, and it only stiffens further when Seth briefly brushes against Jenny’s arm. Any attempt at getting into character seems to have vanished as his lizard brain slips into panic mode, leaving a weird and alien expression on Jenny’s face.
Your brain is scrambling for something to say. “I wasn’t planning on staying long,” you say. “Just wanted Jenny’s advice on a few things, is all.”
“Oh?” Cindy says, cocking her eyebrow. “What kind of things?”
“You know, ah, guy, kind of things.”
“And you thought Jenny would be the best person to ask?” Cindy gives a look that manages to wrap up a painful combination of curiosity and sympathy. “Why don’t you share? Maybe I can give you a different perspective. Two heads are better than one, right, Jenny?”
Jenny Ashton appears frozen. But then so does Seth Javits. He’s got that look in his eye, and you know exactly what it means: accepting Cindy’s invite was to bring the pain. Nothing will happen now, of course. But you’ve interrupted his day, and his plans, and he’s going to use this as an excuse to break every bone in your pathetic little body.
“Uh, Jenny? Hello?” Cindy gives a wave. Jenny is still petrified.
You deliver a sharp kick under the table.
“Wha! Uh. Right. Yup. Yes. Of course.”
For a moment, Cindy’s attention diverts, and there’s a brief look at Jenny – the kind of lightning-fast girl look that only ever spells trouble. It almost plays out in slow motion: [i]Are we cool? Why are you being so weird? Is it Seth? Is it me? What? What about me?[/i]. Worse, it’s clear that Jenny is giving practically nothing back in the exchange, which only makes Cindy’s brain rattle even faster and harder in whatever doom spiral it’s managed to cook up.
You want to scream. To tell Keith he needs to snap out of it and start acting like Jenny, before this blossoms into some hideous incident and the real Jenny Ashton ends up getting into some stupid girl-war with Cindy. To do something other than stare, fixed and rigid, and the swirl his drink.
Then, after what might as well be eternity, the last person you’d ever expect to help you finally pipes up.
“So what’s the issue with Prescott, Jenny?” Seth Javits says, voice never raising or wavering, just cold and level as he maintains his murder-glare at you. He’s going to kill you. Both of you, and Keith too, if he ever finds him. Purely because he’s being forced to sit here and deal with whatever this is all about.
“Will’s got a girl problem!”
“Oh god, not Lisa, again?” Cindy says, with a roll of her eyes, the tension snapping like a guitar string to the face. You begin to feel cold, as the attention now focuses on you. You want to cave in, implode and vanish. Javits’ look of raw contempt is writ large on his face, so much so for a brief moment you imagine whipping the mask off and revealing Keith in his crossdressing glory as a better victim for torment.
“No!” you blurt, defensively.
“No, shit, naw,” Jenny – Keith says, scrambling equally. “Fuck-naw, nothing like that.”
That gets a brief glance from Cindy. Not exactly a Jenny Ashton phrase.
“Nothing like that,” you confirm, diverting attention back across the table.
“OK,” Cindy says. “Then like what?”
You gulp. ‘Jenny’ looks helplessly to you, as all the attention on the table shifts and you try and claw your way out of the hole Keith’s landed you in. You manage a cough, and a glance around the table.
“C’mon,” Cindy says, that blond cheerleader smile the only one free from tension around the entire table. “We’re all friends here, right?” She reaches over, and puts a hand on yours. The death-stare from her boyfriend would say otherwise, but Cindy doesn’t seem to have noticed it. In fact, the only thing she seems to have picked up on is that Jenny Ashton is standoffish with her. You can only imagine how that’s going to come back and bite you all in the ass.
“Uh, well, OK,” you stammer, desperately trying to think about anything that you’d have to say to Jenny Ashton, or any girl for that matter. Worse, all that’s dancing around your head is Keith’s faux-girl fakery, and comments about pretty unicorns… quickly followed by how badly you want to pound Keith into the ground. You try and think about on whatever else is going on.
Eventually, your mind conjures up two semi-reasonable lies. First, there’s the video with Mark Hollister and Carlos Montoya. The idea was you just talking about movies you like, but maybe you could try and make that a ‘girl problem’. You’re sure it’s just about vague enough that you could bullshit your way into some reasonable explanation. All you’d need is for ‘Jenny’ to have the presence of mind to refuse, and it’d be the end of the drama.
The other isn’t so straightforward: that you’ve got some hitherto unknown cousin coming in from out of town. If the mask with Jenny works like this, you’re pretty sure that the mask with the you–Stephanie Wyatt hybrid will do just the same. It wouldn’t be too hard to pretend that you were hoping to get Jenny to show your ‘cousin’ things to do around Saratoga Falls. With any luck, you wouldn’t even need to prove it with the mask, and Cindy and Seth will take you at your word. And if they don’t, well, at least you know you’ve got a girl disguise you could fall back on. Better still, it's a sure-fire way to get some payback on Keith for landing you in this spot.   indicates the next chapter needs to be written. |
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