Thank you to everyone who read/favorited/followed this story. I really appreciate the support. You guys make me feel validated.
And a big thank you to witchbaby300, incitanemxx, Sunflowers in Moscow, shinelikegold, NBaptiste, Lady Shagging Godiva, Phaex, Zeroko, and casscass09 for reviewing.
Disclaimer: I don't own Misfits, but wouldn't it be cool if I did.
Chapter 10 – Gag Reflex
The next day, Izzy overslept. That happened to her sometimes, ever since she was a kid. If there was something genuinely terrifying or anxiety-provoking going on in her life, her body would sort of shut itself down and she would sleep soundly for something like fourteen hours straight. Alan with his little robot obsession had referred to it as 'powering down' and had taken to sticking pencils up her nose while she was unconscious. Usually it served as a pretty good coping mechanism—dull the pain, block out the noise and all that—but given the fact that she was on a deadline this time, it was a pretty fucking big inconvenience.
"Shit, shit, shit," she kept chanting as she flew around the room, flinging things into her bag and tripped over her own feet while pulling on her shorts, shoes, and socks. Wrenching open one of her cabinet doors, she shoved a piece of dry toast in her mouth and began pulling back her hair while running out the door. The bread only temporarily stemmed the steady stream of curses trying to force their way out of her mouth as she ran—or rather sprinted—to the community center.
She didn't have the breath to say it out loud while she was running, but her profane mantra continued in her head all the way to the community center. They were going to dig up the bodies. It wouldn't happen today, though. She had spent over an hour the previous night scouring the internet for construction projects and timetables across the Estate, and they had at least 36 hours of freedom left. They were still wading through a giant quagmire of shit, but they might at least be able to make it to the other side. They would be dirty and stinky and probably more than a little bit traumatized, but they might just make it, and that was something. And before she passed out on that dirty, old mattress of hers, it occurred to Izzy that if there was one thing to be thankful for, it was the inefficiency of government-run projects. For once the bureaucracy was working in her favor.
When she finally got there, she practically skidded into the locker room and collided heavily with the giant wall of metal, giving rise to a loud clanging noise. Izzy swore under her breath and rubbed at her shoulder as pain blossomed and radiated up her arm. That arm had been dislocated so many times, even the slightest impact could result in agony. Izzy winced as she probed the area with her finger, feeling around the edges of the socket. She would be okay, but that was definitely going to bruise.
"Would you chill out?" a voice said from around the lockers. Rolling her shoulder to work out the pain, Izzy groaned and turned to see Alisha glaring at her in the mirror, smacking her gum. The girl cocked her head to the side and rolled her eyes at Izzy, her expression oozing disdain. "Ya almost made me smudge my mascara."
Izzy let out a derisive snort and glared back. After the events of the previous day between her and Curtis, any sort of sympathy Alisha had accrued in Izzy's eyes had evaporated entirely. "That would be a real tragedy, now wouldn't it?" she muttered, folding her arms across her chest. "We'd have to alert the authorities for that one."
Alisha bit at the inside of her cheek and narrowed her eyes at Izzy muttering 'bitch' just loud enough for Izzy to hear. Izzy ignored the jab and quickly grabbed her jumpsuit out of her locker. "Where are the others?" she asked while pulling the orange fabric over her legs.
"The roof," Alisha replied shortly. "Now will ya let me finish up here, yeah?" She looked Izzy up and down, taking in her messy ponytail and slightly sweaty face, and curled her lip. "Some of us actually give a shit about what we look like."
Izzy let out a light laugh. For a sociopathic, rapist slut, Alisha did seen awfully comfortable judging other people. It was by all the wrong criteria, but still. Izzy sprinted up the stairs, taking two at a time, and burst through the door to the roof. Kelly and Simon at the very least would be interested enough to
"So I think that we should probably take the time to discuss how royally fucked we are right now."
The response this sweeping declaration received wasn't exactly what Izzy had expected. In that there was absolutely no response at all. Simon and Kelly weren't even there yet. Curtis was lying on the couch with one leg dangling off and an arm thrown over his eyes to shield his eyes from the sun, looking like he was in the throes of the world's worst hangover. After the trauma that was yesterday, who could really blame him? And then Nathan…..his face was scrunched up, his body was contorted, he was making strange grunting noises—
"Is he having a fit or something?"
"Shut up, Ginger!" Nathan shouted, snapping his fingers at her, but his eyes never left the bottle in front of him for some reason. "Men working here, best keep to yourself."
Izzy's eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "Wha—"
"He's tryin' to figure out what his power is," Curtis mumbled, arm still over his face.
"Constipation is a power now?" she asked, walking up to them and collapsing in the chair opposite Nathan. "Well, alert Marvel comics because I think we found them a new X-man. We could call you 'Faecus'. That's got a good ring to it—"
Curtis's shoulders shook with silent laughter and Izzy smiled a bit as well when the door burst open a second time revealing an incredibly flustered looking Simon. "We've got a problem," he said anxiously. Izzy nodded. Apparently she wasn't the only one in on their impending doom any more.
"Would you shut up!" Nathan exclaimed waving a hand at him. "I nearly had it. I swear with the two of you always interrupting it's like trying to have a wank while I was still livin' with my mum. I nearly had it that time."
"What's he doing?" Simon asked in a voice that sounded even more confused than before.
"He's tryin' to smash a bottle with his mind," Curtis's voice responded. The noises coming from Nathan's mouth became louder and more strained, causing Curtis to sit up and look at him with an expression of slightly disgusted disbelief. "I think he's gonna shit himself."
Izzy smirked and pulled her knees up to her chest. "Probably wouldn't be the first time."
Nathan finally let out a frustrated growl and kicked at the table, sending the bottle flying away and causing it to shatter on the ground in a million tiny glistening shards. "Man, this is bullshit!" he shouted.
"We've got a problem—" Simon to tried to repeat, but he was once again cut off by Nathan's tantrum.
"I've got a power, I know it!" the mad Irishman exclaimed angrily. "I can feel it in my balls! It's like a soft vibrating," he continued turning to Curtis. "You get that, yeah?"
Curtis looked back at him with a blank stare. "No."
"They're going to dig up the bodies!" Simon finally managed to get out.
All the sudden the two others wheeled around, suddenly at attention. Izzy on the other hand sat back in her chair and propped her feet up on the card table in front of her sighing heavily. "Penny drops," she muttered under her breath.
"Their building an environmental monitoring station under the flyover," Simon continued, having everyone's full attention for once.
"That sounds made up," Nathan responded, looking at Simon with suspicion and this time only a little bit of mockery. "Are we actually supposed to know what that thing is?"
"It measures the carbon monoxide coming from the exhaust fumes of the cars on the flyover," Izzy said, standing up and moving to stand next to Simon—a gesture of solidarity or something. She rubbed at her forehead in frustration. "I always knew global warming would manage to fuck me over," she mumbled bitterly. "I just never expected it would choose such a round-about way of doing so."
Simon nodded enthusiastically and almost pathologically from his position next to her. "When they dig up the foundations, they'll find the bodies," he whispered conspiratorially. He leaned in and gave each of them a piercing look. "We have to do something or we'll get caught."
"I think we're all in agreement about that one," Izzy said, nodding some more. "The only question is what."
"How is it that the two of you know about all this," Nathan asked accusingly, pointing between them. "Are you having some kind of secret, illicit affair or something? 'Cause it's like I told you before, love. Time to raise your standards."
Izzy smacked his hand out of her face for what felt like the hundredth time. How was it that she actually enjoyed his company? If you looked up 'twat' in the dictionary, his picture would be right next to the definition and the name 'Nathan Young' would make an appearance in the list of synonyms.
"Stop dicking around for like 24 hours, will you?" she responded. "This is kind of a serious situation. We're all in this and you—" she waved her finger in his face "—you won't fair well in prison."
And to her surprise, it wasn't fear or concern that she saw in Nathan's expression. He broke into a giant shit-eating grin. "It's because I've got a beautiful face, isn't it. Look at you being all worried about my beautiful face."
Izzy swore inwardly and slammed the heel of her hand into her forehead. Of course that's what the take away message would be for him. Not that it wasn't true or anything—she was fully aware of how attractive he was—but it wasn't exactly the priority here, now was it?
"Yes, Nathan," she said glowering at him, her voice dripping in as much sarcasm as she could muster. "It's because you have a beautiful face."
He strode over to her and draped his arm over her shoulder. "I knew it. You want me."
Izzy squeezed her eyes shut. "I don't care if it's your wanking hand," she threatened, "it's coming off." But the threat didn't work. He just moved his arm so it looped around her waist and pulled her closer to his side.
"Oi!" Curtis hissed, leaning in close. "Can we focus here?"
Just then, the door to the roof opened suddenly, causing the four of them to jump apart in a way that probably looked more than a little bit suspicious. Luckily the person on the other side was Alisha, who had finally finished applying her makeup. She looked at the lot of them like they were complete idiots, raising her eyebrows at them.
"Probation worker's here," she said shortly through smacks of her gum before turning back down the stairs.
Curtis let out a loud, frustrated groan and slammed his fist into the metal of the door, causing a loud clanging noise. "What the fuck are we supposed to do?"
"Well for now we go do the usual community service bullshit," Izzy said in a calm voice. "We don't draw any attention to ourselves. Then we buy a bunch of first-class tickets to Venezuela."
Simon looked at her in confusion. "Why Venezuela?"
She shrugged her shoulders. "There's no extradition treaty with Venezuela—Look I'm not being serious here. I've been told I use sarcasm as a defense mechanism, but this clearly isn't the time. So let's walk downstairs in a calm fashion and sort the crap out of some clothes."
The atmosphere in that main hall shifted radically from what it had been the day before. There were no happy squeals or fashion shows and Izzy most certainly did not reprise her rendition or 'the robot' in any of the truly atrocious clothes. They were just sitting there in silence and sorting through clothes. They were doing exactly what they were told. Except for Kelly, of course, who hadn't even bothered to show up this morning. Great fucking timing on her part.
Now that she thought about it, the lot of them were being so well-behaved, it was probably raising suspicion rather than dispelling it. At least Nathan was wearing a giant bra, so something was vaguely normal. Trying to get back in form, Izzy grabbed the top-hat Curtis was wearing the other day and plopped it on her head. Now all she needed was a monocle, and she would have a right smart ensemble.
"We need to move them," Curtis hissed under his breath, breaking the unofficial code of silence that had seemed to establish itself.
Nathan let out a disbelieving laugh. "How? Where? Are you out of your mind?"
"If we leave them there, they'll find them," Curtis continued, gesticulating wildly.
Nathan stared at Curtis like he was an idiot. "Oh, whereas diggin' 'em up and wandering around with them—that's a real low-risk strategy."
"Well if you got a better idea, let's hear it."
"Yeah, I do actually, Nathan replied, leaning in close. "Why don't you rewind time and stop us killing the probation worker in the first place."
"You show me how I works and I'll do it!"
"Hey, hey, hey," Izzy broke in, throwing clothes in both of their faces. "Let's tone it down before I overdose on testosterone. We need to brainstorm, not rip each other's heads off." Curtis pressed his lips together and nodded in reluctant assent, but Nathan opened his mouth wide. Izzy slapped her hand over the gaping hole in his face and shook her head. "If you don't have anything productive to say, then shut the fuck up. Then maybe you'll live to be a dick tomorrow."
Nathan narrowed his eyes and then Izzy felt something rough and wet pressing against her hand. "Ugh!" she cried, ripping her hand and wiping it on the clothes in front of her. "Did you just lick me?"
Nathan smirked back and nodded. "It's okay to admit that you liked it," he replied, blowing her a kiss.
She wrinkled her nose in response. "You do realize that I've been handling people's used knickers, don't you?" The smirk instantly fell from his face and was replaced by a disgusted expression. He made a strange noise and began frantically wiping at his tongue with his hands. Izzy rolled her eyes and tried not to laugh. "You've been handling them as well."
The ridiculous display was cut short and Simon leaned in to speak. "We need a car."
"Have you got a car?" Nathan suddenly asked, immediately forgetting his unhygienic adventure. Simon gave a small shake of the head indicating no. "Well that's great," Nathan continued, rounding on him. "Maybe we should call a cab. Better make it a seven-seater!"
They all fell into complete silence as the sound of a door closing rang out from somewhere behind them. Izzy wheeled out to see Kelly walking in wearing dark sunglasses and a cap, looking more closed off than usual. And for some reason she kept touching her hair. Izzy looked at her with concern. "Are you alright?" she asked, pulling the hat off her head and throwing it across the room.
"Where have you been?" Alisha demanded loudly.
Kelly reached up and touched her cap again. "I had ta go 'round docta's."
"Yeah," Nathan said loudly, "well while you were getting your smear test—" Izzy smacked him upside the head at that point "—don't hit me! While you were havin' your fanny cleaned out, big shock! We found out the bodies were about to be dug up!"
"They're building an environmental monitoring station under the flyover," Simon clarified.
"Sounds like bullshit, right?"
"Can you steal a car?" Alisha asked suddenly, making Curtis wheel around and ask the same.
Even with the glasses on, Izzy could tell Kelly was glaring at them. "Y'all fuck off!" she spat bitterly, heading over to the table marked 'SHOES' and throwing a pile of them across the room so she could sit down.
"Alright touchy." Nathan stood suddenly and placed his hands on hips, making the whole bra-ensemble thing he had going on look even more ridiculous than usual. "This really is complete shit. We're a bunch of young offenders and not one of us knows how to steal a car? That is pathetic!"
Izzy's mouth immediately snapped shut and she became very interested in the clothes she was sorting through. She knew when it was time to keep her mouth shut.
"Look," Alisha said in exasperation. "We can borrow my dad's car."
Time for a sigh of relief. Izzy figured this probably wasn't the best time to mention that she actually did know how to steal a car. Max—that old foster brother of hers, the one that had taught her to fight—he was a pretty damned good mechanic and had taught her most of what he knew. She wasn't a professional, not by any stretch of the imagination, but she knew enough to work in his garage for a couple of summers. And she knew enough to be able to hot-wire a car. But there was no way she was going there if there were other options available. With her luck, she'd get caught inside of five minutes.
"Right," Curtis spat venomously, suddenly turning to Alisha, " 'cause you're banned from drivin'—yeah that makes sense, huh, that you bring the car."
"Aw, you're like a whiny little bitch!"
"Guys, guys, guys, come on! We need to work together here!" Nathan said, clapping a bit like he was talking to a couple of kids. Which, essentially, he was. He moved next to the squabbling pair and put an arm around each of their shoulders. "Think of it as a team-building exercise, huh! I'm feelin" this! Are we feelin' this?"
The both of them shoved his arms away and marched off, muttering 'prick' under their breath, leaving Nathan there looking vaguely disappointed. Then his gaze moved down to Izzy who was still sitting there, folding clothes.
"How about you there, Ginger?" he asked, pointing at her enthusiastically. "You ready for some team-buildin'?"
Izzy stared back blankly. "Just don't ask me to any 'trust falls', because I don't trust a single fucking one of you."
He slapped a hand over his heart and gave her a pained expression. "Ouch!"
Izzy tried not to smile, but she couldn't really help it.
(*)*(*)*(*)*(*)*(*)*(*)*(*)
Izzy really had no idea how the lot of them were actually going to manage to fit in that tiny car. It was like watching the clown car when she went to the circus with Mrs. Ainsley as a kid. Every time a clown approached, she would think to herself that there was no freaking way it would manage. But they did every single time. Then again, the clowns didn't have any corpses to dispose of.
Everyone met up at the entrance to the community center in the complete darkness. Izzy always wondered why were there weren't more streetlamps in the Estate. It was always so dark at night it had to be conducive to crime, but that night she didn't mind it quite so much, seeing as she herself was in the process of committing a crime. And probably violating multiple health codes.
"So what are we gonna with them do when we dig 'em up?" Alisha asked anxiously as the loaded up the car with all the shovels and blankets Nathan had nicked from the community center storage locker.
"We—we weigh 'em down and toss them in the lake," Curtis answered with a strange sort of enthusiasm in his voice. Izzy nodded in approval. That might work, but it shouldn't be in the lake right outside the community center. There may be something to be said for 'hiding in plain sight', but in her opinion that really didn't apply in the case of murder.
"No, man," Nathan replied, shaking his head vigorously. "We do that and you know what happens next week? The council are all like 'let's drag the lake'! It's so predictable."
"So we bury them somewhere else," Alisha added.
"Aw come on!" Nathan complained, groaning and throwing his head back in frustration. "Enough with the diggin' and the buryin' already! I am not cut out for this sort of physical labor, man. If I wanted to work this hard, I'd get myself a fuckin' job!"
"I wasn't aware that word was in your vocabulary," Izzy said through a smirk, making Nathan shrug his shoulders in response.
"You come up with somethin' then!" Curtis shouted at Nathan. He was clearly beginning to get more than a little bit frustrated.
Nathan paused and pursed his lips, deep in thought. Or at least in thought. And then an expression of dawning realization spread across his face. "We boil them in a bath of sulfuric acid!" he declared, pointing at them all dramatically. "Serial killer-style!"
Izzy rolled her eyes and slammed the trunk shut. "Wouldn't work, sulfuric acid's not strong enough for that. We'd need hydrofluoric acid."
"Okay," Nathan said, nodding quickly while the rest of them . "Why can't we do that then? It'd be like magic. Poof! All evidence gone and we're free and clear."
Leaning on the open door of the car, Izzy stared at him with disbelief, and a little bit of amusement. "Access to hydrofluoric acid is more highly regulated than access to guns. And the fumes would kill you in a minute."
Nathan blinked at her. "So we'll call that Plan B, then."
They finally all made into the car, and Izzy somehow managed to find herself sitting on Nathan's lap. What was stranger, though, was that she didn't seem to mind so much. He hadn't even tried to grope her. Was that an insult?
Simon stuck his head in between the two front seats and looked around at everyone. "We could store them in the community center until we decide what to do with them," Simon said in a quiet voice.
"Oh, great!" Curtis drawled from his position next to Simon. "The community center's a brilliant idea! 'Cause they have a special room for storing rotting corpses!"
"There's a disused storeroom upstairs," Nathan suggested. "I've got a key. We can keep 'em there."
"Why have you got a key?" Kelly asked, speaking for probably the first time that evening.
Nathan paused for a moment. Izzy could feel him looking around at everyone in the car, hopefully looking for some kind of escape from the trap he'd set for himself. Izzy looked around too, and saw nothing but expectant faces. He sighed heavily. "I nicked 'em because I'm livin' in the community center, okay! Happy! Big secret revealed!" He was quiet for a bit, but the vulnerability lasted about half a second. "This is a sweet ride!"
Alisha snorted and started the engine and the six of them rolled off.
Nobody talked much during the whole digging process. At first Izzy figured it was because of the magnitude of what they were doing. Then it was probably because the physical labor was fucking exhausting. And soon enough she was completely certain that it was the foul odor of decay that was filling the air. It was like they had fallen victim to some sort of weaponized gas. But at least the smell meant that they were that much closer to the whole thing being over. One thing was for certain, though. Izzy was definitely going to be burning the clothes she was wearing, both because they were probably evidence now and because the stink would probably never, ever leave them.
All the sudden Nathan started heaving over and over again. Izzy was certain he was going to puke all over the bodies. Fan-fucking-tastic. Because that was what they really needed right now: more bodily fluids. In a sad attempt to be comforting, she patted him on the back a bit. "Just work through it, man," she said awkwardly. "It'll be over soon enough."
He nodded his head and held an arm out. "I'm fine. I'm fine."
And then he stabbed his shovel into the dirt again, but this time it gave rise to a disgusting squelching noise that made Izzy dry heave once herself.
"I've got something," Nathan said weakly, poking at the dirt with his shovel. After a few moments he turned over a severed human hand which had definitely still been attached to a body less than a minute earlier. There was a collective groan that emanated from the group.
"Oops."
Izzy stared down at the hand. It occurred to her that at this point in the decay process, she really couldn't whose hand it was anymore. And then she felt another wave of disgust hit her all over again. Though this time it didn't have anything to do with the smell or anything like that. It was more like self-disgust. Sure she had been thinking about the events of that day all the time, but it was more in the vein of trying to avoid getting caught than it was coming to terms with what she had actually done. Well right now the consequences of her actions were literally waving at her.
Then there was a sort of whistling noise in her ear and another hand—one still attached to a human being—started waving in front of her face. "You all right there, love?" Nathan's voice asked.
She turned around to look at him, and to her surprise there was actual, genuine concern on his face. She gave him a weak smile and shrugged her shoulders. "As good as could be expected I suppose. It's not like I'm in the habit of spending my evenings digging up corpses—usually it's with the telly and a particularly big glass of wine—but I've been meaning to branch out, so…Why do you ask?"
"No reason," he said, suddenly getting a bit defensive. "It's just that you haven't said a word since we left the car, you haven't called me an idiot in at least an hour…..I'm starting to worry about ya."
"I'm fine," Izzy said, continuing to dig. She glanced over her shoulder to get a better look at everyone else—to see how they were doing. "If there's anyone you should be worried about it's Kelly. She hasn't threatened anybody with physical violence all day. I think there's something off with her."
Nathan shrugged his shoulders and continued to dig. Izzy rested her chin on the handle of her shovel and watched him for a moment. "Or you should worry about yourself. Staying over night in the community center with the bodies. What if they come to life zombie-style and try to eat you in your sleep. After the storm….anything's possible, isn't it?"
Nathan's spine went rigid and he stood up straight. "Don't even joke about that man!" he exclaimed in a voice that carried more than a little bit of concern. "I used to have bad dreams when I was a kid."
"Did you wet yourself?"
The glare she got in response roughly translated to 'yes'. Izzy smiled a bit and went back to digging, and she could swear that she saw Nathan smile a little bit too.
After what felt like decades, they finally got the bodies loaded into the car. Kelly, Simon, and Alisha were already stationed in the car, while she and Curtis were at the trunk, forcing the second set of legs into place. Nathan was under the flyover, pushing all the excess dirt back into place.
"We're all set," Curtis said, turning to her and taking in deep, exhausted breaths. "Let's go." Izzy nodded in agreement. She was fairly certain some skin had sloughed off onto her clothes. She was going to need at least an hour-long shower.
"Uh, hello," Nathan said, walking up and waving the disembodied hand. "I think we're forgetting something." He pulled his arm back and sent the hand flying through the air making it land with a loud thwack on the windshield. The loud squeak that emanated from the car was almost enough to make Izzy bust out laughing. Nathan grabbed the hand and walked round to the trunk, shrugging his shoulders in such a bemused way that a snort forced its way out of her lungs.
Curtis rolled his eyes heavily and slammed the trunk shut, making a beeline for the front passenger door. Nathan clearly had other plans though. He grabbed hold of Izzy's hand and quickly yanked her forward. "Come on, Ginger!" he said, wrenching the door open and pulling her on his lap. "Let's blow this joint!"
Izzy looked back at Curtis's face. He was absolutely furious, but for the life of her she couldn't understand why. Unless…..Holy fucking shit. He was still hot for Alisha. She had essentially raped him, and he was still interested. Izzy stared straight in front of her, mouth gaping slightly in disbelief. Maybe some day it would morph itself into some terribly romantic love story, but for right now it was just massively creepy.
It didn't take long to get back to the community center. For a second Izzy thought that everything was going to go fairly smoothly, but then they picked up the bodies. The term 'dead weight' suddenly carried a whole new meaning for her. And it just felt so wrong to her that they were carrying dead bodies down hallways covered in motivational posters.
She and Alisha were in front, carrying the body she thought must belong to Gary seeing as it was the smaller one. Curtis, Simon, and Kelly were behind lugging Tony, and Nathan was walking alongside them whistling and swinging his keys around. Izzy shot him a glare. "How about a little more gravitas while we dispose of the corpses," she bit out between heavy breaths.
"Nah, man," he said smirking at her. "Gravitas isn't really my style. I'm more of a comedic relief man, myself."
Izzy wanted to retort, but the body was just so fucking heavy and the stink of it was filling her nose and mouth, making it difficult enough to breath, let alone contribute some witty banter to the mix. They finally made it to that disused store room and Izzy breathed a sigh of relief, only to be sent into another coughing fit as the smell. Nathan quickly unlocked the door and held it open. She nodded in thanks as she and Alisha hauled their corpse through and dropped it unceremoniously on the ground. Izzy bent over at the waist and took some deep breaths while the second body made its way in. She moved to the side as Curtis entered. Kelly was about to enter when suddenly Nathan said, "I like your cap." He grabbed at it, but the cap wasn't the only thing that came off. Izzy barely heard Kelly's strangled cry, because what she saw caused her mouth to drop open in shock.
Kelly was bald. She was completely an utterly bald. Her head looked like an egg, or a cantaloupe, or something else you could buy at the store. She looked wildly between all of them like all those cornered animals in documentary shows and then ran off trying to cover her head with her hands. Not that it helped all that much.
Izzy looked at Nathan who, like her, was standing there in complete shock. The only difference was that he was still holding the hat and wig in his hands. Curtis, Alisha, and Simon all exited the storeroom, staring off after her as well.
"Did you know she was bald?" Simon asked after a few seconds had passed.
"Course not, twat," Nathan bit back. He actually looked really guilty about the whole thing. "Jesus!"
Alisha wrinkled her nose slightly. "She looked like an alien."
"Aw, don't be mean," Nathan reprimanded in a pleading sort of tone, but the corners of his lips were already pulling up into a smile. After a few seconds he couldn't contain the laughter any more and started snickering. "She did, didn't she? She looked like a bald alien."
"Or Patrick Stewart," Izzy added, breaking down into a fit of giggles herself. "You should probably go find her," she said, punching Nathan in the shoulder. "She'll probably be wanting those back."
"Right," Nathan said, waving the hat and wig around. "You know….." He wandered out the door still looking like he was slightly shell-shocked.
The moment he left, a lot of tension began to fill the room, and from the way Alisha and Curtis were looking at each other, it was at least partly of the sexual variety. They glanced at each other, then at Simon, then at her, then at each other again and the whole process didn't look like it was going to end any time soon, so she was getting the hell out of there.
"Soooooooooo," she said clapping her hands together awkwardly, "I'm going to be going…..anywhere else so I'll see you guys tomorrow." She began to head out the door, but saw that Simon was still rooted in place. She reached out and grabbed hold of his sleeve, pulling him after her. "And you're going home. Let's let these two…..birds of some variety, be it love or lust or long, soulful glances work out their own problems."
"What was that about?" Simon asked as she dragged him behind her.
Izzy stopped and gave him a knowing look. "Don't play coy Simon. You might be a quiet one, but you don't miss much. Other than social cues apparently."
He shoved his hands in his pockets. "What do you mean?"
"You know about what happened with Curtis and Alisha."
He shifted on his feet uncomfortably. "I didn't mean to. I was waiting in the locker room and they burst in all the sudden. I was invisible so they didn't see me and they just….well….." He widened his eyes and shook his head a bit to indicate what they both knew they were talking about.
Izzy pressed her lips together and nodded slightly, trying to think of something to say, but it was difficult to come up with conversation topics when the other person barely says a word. She rocked back on her heels and sighed. "So I think we got away with it. For now at least."
All the sudden his eyes widened and a strange smile spread over his face. All the sudden he started frankly searching his pockets. Izzy furrowed her eyebrows. "What are you—"
Simon pulled a credit card and his smile grew even further. "I got this off the probation worker," he said eagerly showing it to her. "I'm going to go buy an airplane ticket with it and then they'll think he's still alive."
Izzy blinked at him, taken aback slightly. She was genuinely impressed. Maybe she should listen to what he had to say more often. "Simon, that's brilliant," she said sincerely. "Seriously, if we do that soon enough they might even stop looking for him."
Simon started glowing under her praise. "Right. Right, I'm going to do that right now!" And then he took off running down the hallway. Izzy laughed a little bit. It was actually kind of adorable. Like a watching a puppy run while its feet were still too big for its body. Not that she was trying to be patronizing or anything.
After Simon disappeared around the corner, Izzy decided to find Nathan and Kelly to see how she was doing. And of course to figure out what the hell had happened. A bald head could mean a ton of things. On one hand there it could be cancer, and then on the other hand the story could involve a rogue paper shredder. There really was no way of knowing. She searched around the community center for about twenty minutes, but couldn't find them. They really should have each other's phone number, at the very least so that they could make sure to keep their stories straight if the cops showed up.
Eventually Izzy decided to give up the search and wait for Nathan to get back, so she plopped down at the edge of the balcony and let her legs dangle over the edge, kicking back and forth like she was a little kid. When Nathan finally did arrive back, she called over to him from her spot, and he responded to her greeting with a look of extreme confusion. "What the hell are you still doing here?" he asked, climbing up the stairs and sitting next to her.
"I was wondering about Kelly and the whole bald thing," she said, poking him hard in the shoulder. "I looked for the two of you, but you had already gone or something."
"I walked her home." Izzy balked at the idea, which seemed to make him a bit upset. "What?" he demanded, elbowing her in the ribs. "I was tryin' to be nice. Believe it or not I can be nice."
"No I believe you," Izzy said, holding up her hands in submission. "I just wish Simon was there to get the whole thing on tape." Izzy rested her head on the railing and turned to look at him. "So what is it with Kelly, then? Is she sick? Did she get really drunk and shave her own head? Did she fall head first into a giant vat of pre-chewed gum?"
"Apparently it just started fallin' out," he said with a shrug. "She's goin' to the doctors and their going to do some tests."
Izzy let out a low whistle. "That's got to be terrifying."
"Yeah," he said nodding his head. "Especially the bit with the bald fanny."
"Shut up, you prick," Izzy said slapping him on the back of the head and barely concealing her laughter.
"Ow! Stop it!" he shouted, grabbing her wrist and pushing it away from him. "I really don't need two PMSing girls hanging around and slapping me all the time."
"Yeah, well, you're stuck with us for at least another 150 hours." Looked at her and pursed his lips—what she had now identified as his 'thinking face'. She shifted uncomfortably under his gaze. "What?"
"Nothing'," he mumbled. "It's just that…150 hours. That's not too bad. You'll be out of my hair soon enough."
"Big relief, I know," she said standing up. "Now I seem to recall being promised beer."
So there's chapter 10. I really hope you like it. Oh, and I hope you like how Simon is starting to grow on Izzy. She still thinks he's pretty creepy, but she doesn't have that immediate negative reaction anymore. I intend to have them gradually grow into being friends.
Sorry it took me so long to write this. I'm currently working on two very different stories, and it can sometimes be difficult to switch mindsets. That and I got a video editing software and have been going a bit crazy with it.
Please review. I will always post a chapter as soon as I have finished it and will never ever hold you hostage to reviews, but they do kind of inspire me to write and give me motivation.
It Belongs In A Museum