Tiffany pulled off her wig as she opened the side double doors, lifting her face to the now cold night air. Her hair fell about her shoulders like a heavy curtain, which she quickly swept up into a bun, her shoulder and back muscles pronouncing themselves against the night.
She went to the banister of the deck, and Jack saw her hands working in front of her mouth. She placed her wig and vampire teeth on the banister and stood still. She was shaking a little, and she tried to hide it. Her body slouched a little, unlike her.
Jack stopped a ways behind her, closing the doors behind him. He closed his eyes for a moment, trying to calm his erratic heartbeat, trying to bring down the excitement he felt from touching her, something he'd been waiting to do for a lifetime…
He turned to face her with his hands in his pockets. Waiting.
His eyes were wild on her, failing to slow his heart's maddening rhythm. He pushed his hair back, and took a deep breath.
He wanted her so damn badly.
That kiss...
But when she didn't say anything or move, he came back to reality and stepped up to her side. Her face was very pale, her eyes closed, and her lips were slightly parted as she took shallow breaths.
His breath and brain came to a halt, but before he could speak - she dropped like dead weight.
He swept her up into his arms without hesitation, thankful she dropped backwards instead of into the stone work. He turned and strode easily, quickly, across the deck and around the corner of the house to the backyard patio.
"Stay with me," he said, a slight urgency under his voice as his eyes scanned the backyard. It was empty of people; everyone was inside dancing.
He laid her down carefully on one of the couches they'd been at earlier, and he opened the cooler beside it. He was surprised his movements were so sure, not shaky, as he pulled out a water bottle and opened it. He took the blouse Tiffany had discarded earlier off the chair next to him and wet it.
He placed the wet cloth on her face with his right hand, and felt the pulse at her neck with his left...slow.
She barely breathed for a few moments, and he realized he had been holding his own breath. He said her name twice. She came to with a little jump, opening her eyes and looking around like she couldn't see.
Memories came to him, painful and familiar...he pushed them away.
"Tiffany," he said evenly.
She opened her eyes and found his. He watched as pleasant surprise blossomed over her face, melding from confusion to soft comfort. She looked at him for a long time as her breathing deepened, and he wondered who she saw…
"...am I dreaming?" Her voice was slow and dreamy.
He watched her looking at him. He was leaning over her, his right hand still holding the cloth to her face. She shifted her head, resting against his hand like a pillow.
"No," he answered gently. "Ya jus' ovaheated. You'll be alright."
"No," she said. "I know I'm dreaming..." Her lips gave him a sweet contented smile.
"Why's that?"
"Because you're here."
His brows furrowed a little, reading her glassy eyes, warm like the oceans he's never seen before, somewhere on a white beach, warm in the sunlight that broke into thousands of pieces on the water. She looked so beautiful.
He wondered if she was too intoxicated to discern from reality...but something was strange, something was underneath. A knowing. It made goosebumps bloom all over him.
She looked at him like she had loved him for a lifetime.
"Do you know who I am?" he asked carefully, every inch of him on edge.
"Of course," she whispered. "The one from my dreams." And then she fell asleep.
….
Mush and David stood at the doorway of Honey's room with their mouths slightly gaping.
Glass lamps, framed butterflies, rich tapestries of velvet and thin shimmering fabrics hung all around the walls, feathers and shells on side tables, crystals and stones of every shape color and size everywhere, big throw pillows on a huge square mattress that lay on the floor in a corner under the window, comfortable and inviting enough for anyone. Forest green, mustard yellow and gold, plum...all these colors painted a forest within her own room, a sanctuary. The double window opposite the door overlooked the front of the house, Brooklyn neighborhood houses.
Honey had brought them to the second floor, the other doors in the hallway closed. She removed the suit jacket from her costume, rolled up her sleeves, and turned to see them taking in her room.
She laughed warmly, "come in, come in, make yourselves comfortable. This is a safe space." She kicked off her heels.
"No, it's just…" Mush looked at a beautiful crystal orb on a pedestal on one of the tables. "Beautiful…" He looked up and admired all the different kinds of lamps and lanterns that hung above them, some casting moving lights and shadows on the vaulted ceiling.
Honey watched David looking at her books on the tall dark bookshelf next to the bathroom door. He seemed to be looking for something in particular…
"What do you wish to know?" She asked as she pulled a short circular wooden table to the middle of the rug covered floor, throwing pillows around it for seats. She sat down, and the guys followed.
Mush and David looked at each other with blank expressions. Honey raised an eyebrow, waiting patiently...trying not to giggle at them.
"We…" David started, and ended. He hadn't planned this far. Pot and alcohol swam around in his brain, keeping him in a calm stupor.
"What about a past/present/future reading?" Mush offered. "Some...insight into...some current situations."
David stared at him, and Honey nodded appreciatively.
"Always a good place to start…"
She leaned back for a wooden chest next to her bed and pulled it to her side, her face drawn with seriousness and respect as she began removing crystals. She placed them in a shape on the table, a star, and pulled a small cloth bag from the chest.
"Now," she began as she removed a deck of cards from the bag. "The deck flows like a story, from beginning to completion. It is two parts: the major and minor arcana. The major arcana cards are like big neon signs, calling you to pay attention to whatever it is they're trying to tell or reveal to you...overarching themes of your life."
The guys nodded, like children listening to a bedtime story...
"The minor arcana is made up of four suits, each carrying different elements: Cups for water, Pentacles for earth, Wands for fire, and Swords for air. They can represent people in your life, choices, events. They flesh out the big story.
"Now," she continued, looking at them intently. "Readings can have more than one meaning, or they can be blunt...and sometimes a card you think is for you can actually be for someone else..."
She set the deck in front of her. "Do I have your permission to read for you, gentlemen?"
"Yes," they both responded, feeling like they had just given away a sliver of their souls for agreeing.
But she pulled out a bundle of dried herbs and a box of matches from the chest. "Sage for cleansing…" she lit the bundle and wafted the smoke over them with a large feather, maybe a hawk's. She wafted it above her, over the table, over the cards. She let the sage burn in an abalone shell, lit a black and white candle ("For protection and cleansing," she explained), and then she sat still with her eyes closed.
David and Mush watched her without a word or a glance at each other.
"We come to ask for insight, guidance, and truth," she said gently. "In all that was, is, and will be."
With her beautiful hair around her beautiful soft face, her rich smooth voice, in this room of warmth and earthy spirit, Mush smiled to himself, content to look at her in her room, her personal space. Her passion.
She opened her eyes and met his, a slight lift on the corners of her plush lips. He shivered a little, nervous excitement flowing through him.
She went to work. In smooth motions she fanned the cards out in front of her effortlessly, blew on them, gathered them, and knocked on the deck with her knuckle.
She pushed the deck to the middle, between David and Mush.
"Whoever would like, take the cards and shuffle."
David motioned for Mush to jump in, and Mush swallowed before taking the cards, half expecting them to bite him.
The cards were worn and old, used many times. They were dark green with shiny gold line work framing them. He didn't dare turn them over to see the images on the other side.
"While you're shuffling…" her voice dropped lower, slower, and relaxed them further, the smell of sage clouding their minds. "Put your intention into the cards...what do you want to know? What does the Universe know? And will she use the cards to tell you?"
David's intense blue eyes were glued to her, wondering if she was messing with them...if she knew something they didn't.
She met his gaze and his spine relaxed, seeing the gentle sincerity in her hazel eyes, beautifully framed with long dark lashes like a doe's.
"Your questions-and answers- are safe with me," she vowed.
Mush shuffled once, twice, three times and set them back in the middle of the table.
She took a deep breath. "Split the deck 3 ways, and tell me which order you'd like me to place them."
He split three piles, calling out their order.
She stacked them accordingly and asked, "top or bottom?"
He paused for a moment, meeting her eyes. He almost smirked, but he kept his composure.
"Bottom."
Her eyebrow jumped slightly in pleasant surprise, and she pulled three cards from the bottom with her left hand, all face down.
David watched Honey intently as she turned the cards over, again with her left hand. David and Mush couldn't tell the differences, names, or meanings of the images of the cards, but they could tell by her expression that she was very interested and curious.
"Hmmm…"
She pulled a fourth card from the bottom and placed it up right under the other three. Her concerned expression deepend.
She pushed the cards to the middle for them to see. They moved towards them eagerly, and she leaned forward on her elbows too. "Contradictory...and a warning."
Mush looked up, and she pointed to the first card with a long slender finger, her long nails painted black.
"The Tower," she stated and held up the card for them to see the image of a burning broken tower of stone, people falling from its turret, lightning in a storm. "One of the least welcomed cards in a reading...Gloom and doom. It predicts sudden heartbreak, grief, destruction. But it also illuminates, brings enlightenment after the heartbreak...However, it's in your past position." She looked up to meet Mush's gaze, "it's already happened."
Mush shuffled eagerly in his seat, a million thoughts swirling around in his mind. But he fought to stay focused. She went to the next card and held it up. Children with gold cups.
"Six of Cups in your present...Interesting, because it reads almost backwards...at present, you are surrounded by those from your past, with very strong sentimental bonds of love. They ground you."
She watched the young men for a moment, seeing something pass between them as they looked at each other, confirming.
She put the card back down and picked up the next. "Three of Swords." David and Mush looked at the bright red heart pierced by three swords.
"Betrayal. A painful truth will come to light."
"And...that's the warning?" David asked carefully. "It's in the future position…"
"Or in the present." Honey's eyes glinted almost darkly, holding their gaze. "Someone isn't who they say they are."
A crack of lighting from the sound machine sounded in the hallway, and David jumped almost a foot off his pillow. Mush didn't look any better, but paler.
"What about the fourth card?" he asked. His expression was worried from this information…
She held up the last card, bright in color. "The World, the final card of the Major Arcana...If you take the right steps, follow your intuition and face your challenges...you will be met with reward, love, everything you've ever wanted in life. A cycle or journey will come to completion."
She smiled warmly but the darkness still touched her bright hazel eyes with suspicion. "It's one of the best cards to receive in a spread, especially in a future position...but, fate can and will always change...it's up to us to respond accordingly.
"But, I'm curious…" with furrowed eyebrows she drew another card from the bottom, looked at it, and laughed as if she confirmed something. She turned it around for them to see.
"The Fool. The very first of the Major cards, the start of a new journey, wild young and free. Life is a quilt of paths, circles ending and beginning again, tying us together. The Universe is trying to guide you to what you seek."
…..
Jack didn't call for help, didn't leave her to find her friends. He stayed by her side, kneeling beside the couch, watching her. He must have been there for twenty minutes trying to decipher what she had said, before stopping his thoughts entirely just to be there next to her.
He jumped when Boots appeared next to him.
"Holy shit - where have ya been?"
Boots looked at Tiffany, "I've been busy on your behalf...what 'appened? She ok?"
"Overheated," Jack answered in a low voice, remembering their sweaty bodies dancing. "What'd you find out?"
Boots pulled out his phone, touched a few things on the screen, and turned it around to show Jack.
"Doesn't Jazzi look familiar to you?"
Jack studied the photo on Boots' phone - a framed photo of Tiffany and the girls from somewhere in the house…Jack eyed Boots with both appreciation and mock disapproval.
"You've been sneaking around the house this whole time?"
"Unnoticed," Boots said defensively. "Like I said, I been working on your behalf, Cowboy. Somethin' 's up with these chicks."
Those warm eyes did stir something in him when he first saw her.
"I dunno," Jack said uneasily. "But we're gonna find out."
Tiffany stirred on the couch and both of them shut up.
Her eyes fluttered open and she groaned a little, closing them again.
"Easy," Jack murmured. Boots snuck away without a word.
Jack only now just noticed the thinning of people inside the house. He looked up and saw Honey and Jade running around with trash bags inside, Spot and Jazzi putting up the liquor bottles.
Tiffany opened her eyes again and looked up at him in surprise. "What happened?"
"You were about ta compliment me on my dancin' skills…" he poured more water on the folded blouse and placed it back on her forehead. "But ya fainted on me."
She put a hand over her eyes, smiling with embarrassment. "I know better than to do too much…"
She winced, her eyes peeking out from under her hand. "I don't know what came over me, in there...I'm not usually so...forward."
She laid there looking at him, remembering… she seemed to warm under his touch. "And I'm definitely not like that at work..."
He smirked, "They'd neva leave ya alone if ya did...I like dancing with you."
He fucking loved it.
"I like it too..." She smiled for a moment before her eyes became a little serious. "I don't know why, but…" she reached up and touched the hair that hung over his forehead, as easily as if she'd always done it. She pushed it back, looking into his eyes. "It scares me," she whispered.
He felt he understood...the intensity, the draw between them. He wouldn't bring up what she had said while she was out of it.
"Me too," he said honestly. The last bit of tension left her body.
She turned her head, looking up to the house, "I should go help, say goodbye to people."
"Can ya stand?"
He helped her up, holding her by the elbows as she found her feet. She stood up, looking up into his face.
"Thank you," she said quietly, her hands on his stomach. "You won't tell the others?"
"Tell 'em what?"
She smiled at him. He let his hands drop from her as she walked steadily but stayed close to her as she went up to the house, putting her blouse back on.
"Where tha Hell have you been?" Jazzi asked loudly with a big smile as Tiffany and Jack came into the kitchen. Tiffany laughed as her friend looked over her with feinted concern. "Still in one piece? No hickies? You kids used protection I hope."
"JAZZI!" Tiffany squealed in shock, grabbing a nearby boom and chasing her friend around the kitchen island.
Everyone in the kitchen laughed and Jack dragged a hand over his face, his lips smiling underneath. Spot elbowed him affectionately in the ribs, his eyes eager.
Jazzi wheeled on Tiffany, grabbing the broom and pulling her closer, "You gotta stay fresh, young lady, if you wanna continue to be THE BEST dancer at NYU."
"Psh, the best dancer in the country," Jade said from the sink. She looked over her shoulder to Spot and Jack. "Y'all don't even know."
Spot glanced up at Jack. "We might have an idea…"
The guys helped clean up, move furniture back, and helped the DJ move his equipment into the van parked on the street in front of the house. Honey, David and Mush came down from up stairs, seeing the house's interior lights chase away the Halloween mood. The last guests left with their shoes in hand, shouting at the girls that they'd see them after the break.
"Have fun on your trip!" a girl said to Tiffany, who closed the front door behind her.
"Fall break plans?" Jack asked casually when she came to help him move one of the den couches.
"We're... going to my mom's in California," she answered in an uncharacteristically flat voice. She tried to smile for him but it didn't touch her eyes. "Gonna go see my favorite ocean for a couple days."
He could see her, swimming in those clear blue waters, snorkeling, in her own little world.
"Sounds nice." His voice was huskier than he'd intended.
"I'll bring you back a shell," she said as if she could hear his thoughts...the sparkle came back to her eyes a little.
They moved the big square sectional couch back to the middle of the den after Racetrack and David swept the floor. Jade removed the protective sheets, revealing the couch's cream leather, and she fell onto it with a huff. Spot jumped on next to her, making her squeal with delight as her body launched upwards, and they fell into a wrestling match of tickling and giggling.
"Oh my god," Racetrack said as he watched in mock disgust. "Someone actually likes him." Boots laughed next to him. Racetrack turned his disbelief to Boots. "'an jus' where tha hell have you been?"
Jade pressed her lips to Spot's, not the first time that evening, and Spot held up his right middle finger to Race.
Jack sat on the back of the couch, arms crossed and relaxed, as he watched Tiffany and Honey in the kitchen, pulling out some mugs and a teapot. He could only see Honey's face and the emotions that passed over her as Tiffany spoke to her in a quiet tone; Honey looked concerned, then intrigued, smiling as Tiffany ducked her head in shyness. Tiffany said something else, and a sadness crossed Honey's eyes. She reached up to tuck a strand of hair into Tiffany's loose bun, her fingers gentle on Tiffany's face.
Jack looked away to give them privacy.
"Who wants hot cocoa?" Jazzi asked the room as she went to the kitchen to the other two girls, wrapping her arms around Tiffany's shoulders from behind.
"Me," Boots said with a yawn. "Wake my ass up so I can drive these jackasses home."
"You guys are fun," Kiki said as she bent over backwards comfortably on a section of the couch. "Not like the dudes we usually meet." Racetrack sat next to her and she looked up at him with a big smile.
"And definitely not like the dudes we meet at work," Jade said from Spot's chest, both of them laid out with their feet on the giant footrest in the middle of the couch, which also served as a table.
"We're jus' old fashioned," David said easily, leaning against the fireplace. He exchanged a sneaky smile with Spot.
"And interesting," Jazzi said as she came to David with two mugs. "Tell me more about your new job with the Times...one of my professors writes feature pieces for them sometimes…"
Jack looked up to see Tiffany with two cups of cocoa. She handed him one and stood close to him behind the couch, almost touching the insides of his thighs. The others were lost in sleepy yawning conversations, laughing at each other. Mush had gone to Honey in the kitchen.
"Thanks," Jack said in a low voice, smiling easily at her. "So...maybe I could call ya, while you're gone."
She looked up from her mug, her eyes bright. Was she blushing?
"You better," she said.
Jack's left hand was resting on his leg, and he barely moved his thumb to stroke her thigh as soft as a butterfly's wing. He felt the energy from her in response, felt her lean into him slightly.
They noticed the room had fallen quiet. Jack turned and saw everyone's eyes on him and Tiff, the guys cooing at them, the girls squealing at Tiffany with girlish excitement.
Jack looked back to Tiffany, seeing the dead annoyance in her eyes. "Drunken idiots."
They laughed, and she reached up again, brushing his hair back with her fingers. Her nails combed over his scalp and for a moment he thought he'd be undone, imagining them on his back...
Tiffany recalled herself a little, leaning back as if to stop herself. "We'll be back Friday, if you...want to come by Saturday night, for Halloween."
"Movie party?" Honey said from the kitchen, loud enough for the group. Everyone agreed excitedly as Mush passed around more cookies.
Jazzi turned off a few lights, placing them in a relaxing shadow, and sat down on the footrest in the middle. "A pajama party…I like it."
"I have just the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle PJs for it," Mush said as Honey sat next to him with two cocoas. He put his arm around her and she leaned against his chest obligingly. "This is one comfortable couch…"
"Don't get too comfortable," Jade announced unconvincingly from Spot's chest. "We've got practice in the morning."
The girls groaned and the guys laughed.
"Jade never lets us have any down time," Kiki complained playfully as Racetrack stood from his seat next to her to collect the empty mugs.
They talked over each other as the guys made for the door, shouting thanks and teasing one another, kissing one last time... Racetrack kissed Kiki's hand, and she surprised him with a kiss on his cheek. Jade wrapped her arms around Spot's neck, just a couple inches shorter than her, and gave him a deep kiss.
Honey kissed Mush for the first time, parting from him slowly with an easy smile on her lips. He looked star-struck as he walked out the door backwards, not wanting to look away from her.
Jack turned at the threshold to see Tiffany leaning against the door.
"I've made my decision," she said coyly. "You're not a murderer."
He chuckled, "I did 'ave plenty of chances tanight."
"I hope to give you more…" she smiled at him, and at the sight of her standing there…
He leaned forward to kiss her on the cheek, but she turned instead, kissing him.
After a moment, he pulled away unwillingly, her smile disappearing behind the door.
