Chapter #43A Meeting of Three Fakes by: Seuzz   From the outside, the Saratoga Falls Municipal Library looks like a drum with projecting shoeboxes attached on either end. The central hall is a vast, open-aired atrium flanked on three sides by desks and computer stations, surrounding a periodical section (vastly diminished in content since the old days, your sourpuss pop grumbles). The back wall rises to a second-story parapet with study tables. Your eyes goes to the latter as you enter, and sure enough there's Fairfax at one of the tables, watching the entrance. He visibly hesitates, then waves tentatively after you've already spotted him.
"You're early," you observe as you drop a heavy backpack on the four-top he's squatting at.
"You're on time," he replies. "Mike and— Mm." He shakes his head. "Eva and Jessica are probably going to be late."
"Off being incest-y with each other? You should've seen them at the complex when they came out together." You slouch into a chair.
"I don't want to think about that."
"No?" You grin at him. "I thought that's what guys liked to fantasize about. 'Specially when it's twins."
"Do you fantasize about that?"
"Well, no. But I get the appeal, and I bet Mike and Carlos do." You return Fairfax's gaze with an even one of your own, but you feel your smile sour when you see the thought inside his eyes. "I'm talking about me, not Stephanie, when I say that."
"Mm." He shakes himself. "Well, let's talk about you and Stephanie." He folds his hands and leans across the table. "So you were telling me you think you've got all her memories already."
"Sure. Memories. Personality. Instincts. Haven't tried putting a basketball through a hoop, but—" You shrug. "I know who she's got a crush on," you continue, and hunch up, "and I know what it feels like to have that crush. I mean—" A light sweat breaks out on your back as Fairfax's eyes focus with a laser-like intensity behind his black frames. "I don't just know who she's got the crush on. I'm getting the butterflies and the shakes that go with it. Which is pretty—" You gulp down a quick shot of oxygen. "Well, it's pretty goddam awkward, is what it is."
"And this isn't a person you've got a crush on?"
"I'm not gay," you retort. "Neither's Stephanie. I ran into him—okay, it's Marc Garner, that's who she's got it for—"
"Eva and Jessica's brother?"
"Yeah, anything wrong with that?" you retort before you can stop yourself. Your face feels hot.
"No," Fairfax stammers. "It's just kind of a— Kind of a coincidence, isn't it? Stephanie having a crush on the girls that we—that Mike and Carlos—" He licks his lips.
"It's a small world, Fairfax," you reply, and you're very conscious of the chill you've put in the retort. "Anyway, Stephanie likes hanging out with them because it gives her a chance to be close to— And what I was saying a minute ago was, I saw Marc earlier today at the complex when he dropped Jessica off. I didn't get caterpillars crawling all over my skin when I saw him then. Unlike now, when just thinking about him—" You scratch your elbow and dodge Fairfax's face.
"You— I mean, she's got it that bad? I wouldn't have guessed that," he adds when you nod. "I'd've thought— Well, never mind."
"What?"
He hesitates, and his expression turns cagey. "Are you sure it isn't a displaced affection for, uh, one of his sisters, that Stephanie is—?"
You lunge, grabbing him by the head and slamming his forehead into the desk. He cries out.
"You keep those remarks to yourself," you hiss, and jab a finger at him as he scowls back. "I'll tell you one thing, and that's that Stephanie has no idea people have been saying that kind of stuff about her."
"Well, if this isn't Stephanie I'm talking to," Fairfax says as he rubs his forehead, "I'm pretty sure it's not you, Will. So tell me what happened after you got Stephanie to the complex. I'm very curious to know how you prepped this mask so that you got into the impersonation so quickly."
* * * * *
There's not much to tell, since the material was laying around just waiting for you to use. Really, the only thing you did yourself was seal up the mask, but even that used the stuff that the other guys had already prepped. Fairfax is still tugging his lip thoughtfully when you hear twin giggles coming up behind you. You don't even have to turn around to see who it is.
Eva and Jessica, arm in arm and leaning against each other, come staggering over. Their identical mouths are distended by identical grins, themselves identical to the grins they were wearing the last time you saw them. They are still awkward on their feet, and instinctively you look down to see if they are in heels. They aren't, and you catch yourself staring at them with hard skepticism as they totter over. If you'd seen them like this at Catherine's party on Friday, you'd have thought they were only two shots away from being falling-down drunk.
"Hi Stephanie," Eva sing-songs as Jessica giggles. "We heard that you were going to be here."
"I heard the same rumor about you guys. Sit down and stop embarrassing yourselves."
"We're not embarrassing our—" Eva starts to protest, but Jessica interrupts: "Scoot over then, Stephanie. Other side, with Philip."
"No. You two sit on opposite sides. You can play footsie with each if you can't help yourselves, but at least you can stop fondling each other."
Jessica's mouth falls open.
"What's your deal, man?" she rasps. "I thought we were getting together to, like, have some fun."
"Not in public, and not like this." You kick a chair out for one of them. "If someone comes along who knows us—" You glance around. "It is a school night, you know, and I don't want to have to tell people you're drunk and that's how come you're—"
"Oh, bite me, Will," Eva snarls, and she drops into the chair next to you. "There's plenty of fucking time later to be 'in character'—" She makes elaborate air quotes. "We got all fucking day tomorrow and the rest of all semester—"
"You got all semester to check into the Donna, too," you retort, "and have fun with each other where no one can catch you."
"Yeah, you'd know all about that kind of thing, wouldn't you, Stephanie," snaps Eva, while Jessica says, "How do you know about the Donna?"
"Everyone knows about the Donna," you say, choosing to ignore Eva's ugly insult. "If they didn't before, they sure as fuck know about it since Kelsey and Karl started checking in there."
That gets blank looks all the way around. You rub an eye and sigh. "Look, is there any business we need to talk about, because if not—"
"What's this about Kelsey and Karl?" Jessica says. "Karl who? Kelsey Blankenship?"
"See, if we were having this conversation tomorrow, when you've got these girls' memories, we wouldn't have to have it, because you'd know— Oh, forget it." You pull your bag off the table. "I'm gonna take off and—"
"Hang on," says Fairfax, who has been listening to all this with the expression of a man caught in the middle of a surprise artillery bombardment. "Will, you need to calm down, and guys—" He looks between Eva and Jessica. "You need to calm down too. Is Maria showing up later?"
Jessica looks at Eva. "She said she'd show up around eight," says the latter.
"Well, that's why we're here," says Fairfax. He pats his own bag. "Because that's who we're waiting on. And as for Will and his temper—" He gives you a very serious look. "Will has gotten into the impersonation really fast. Something about that mask he's wearing, he's got the memories and, I guess, Stephanie's personality pretty quickly. So if you could just—" He pats the air between you. "If we could all just chill." He trails off.
You shrug stiffly and drop the bag to the floor. "What?" you ask, raising your eyebrows as Jessica stares at you with open-mouthed astonishment.
"Shit, you've already got the—?" she asks. "I mean, you're already—?"
"What my darling twin sister is trying to ask," says Eva, "is it you who's being the cunt, Will, or is it Stephanie?"
Fire courses through your joints, and you tense all over, and only the look of alarm that flashes over Fairfax's face keeps you from punching Mike in his false face.
"If I'm being a cunt, Hollister," you coldly inform him, "it's because Stephanie and Eva and Jessica have been friends for a very long time, and Stephanie's brain is screaming 'Fake! Fake!' as I sit here and look at you two. So from my perspective, no one's being a cunt. I'm just freaking out because you're both so— So—"
"You mean it's an uncanny valley effect?" Fairfax asks.
You do double-take at him. "What? Well, maybe. Sort of."
"So it's a good idea that they not go home until they absolutely have to."
"No, they just need to be less goofy is all." You look between the "sisters," who are wearing very pinched expressions.
"Alright, fine." Eva leans back in her chair, arms and legs splayed out. "So how the fuck do we need to act in order to be less goofy?"
"Let's not get up each other's noses," Fairfax says. "We could all just stand to be a little calmer is all. Will, you could stand to be a little less like Stephanie—"
He drones on some more, with a few words for Mike and Carlos too, but you barely listen. The thing is that you're really not inclined to be "a little less like Stephanie." Either your mind is getting very used to having hers wrapped around it, or it's taking over your—
You jolt upright in a sudden spasm of fear.
Could Stephanie Wyatt be taking over your mind from inside this mask?  indicates the next chapter needs to be written. |
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