Chapter Eight
Terrified. Fi had me in her wrap. I was hypnotized by her, and she—she was hypnotized by herself, I think. Or something else. She didn't seem like herself; it was as though some outside force was controlling her. But not completely.
She took me a lot of places. A bar. Other places. I don't really remember. She dragged me into a taxi that brought us to a house I had never seen before. "Who lives here?" I asked. No answer. There was a change in Fi. She had said a few words to me, and she was addressing me as "Annie", but something was gone. This felt like it should have been fun. It wasn't fun.
And soon, we were on the porch. Fi rang the doorbell of this strange house and a few moments later, it was open just a few inches, held by the chain. And in this doorway was a face that was not unfamiliar to me at all. The face belonged to Jack.
"What are you doing here?" he snapped, clearly annoyed.
"Look, Jack, I'm sorry I was a jerk and all but Annie and I need to crash here tonight," Fi explained in a voice that didn't sound sorry at all.
Jack stood there, apparently thinking it over. Finally, he sighed and closed the door to unlock it, and finally opened it fully. Fi pushed her way by him but he stepped aside without a word. I threw my belongings onto the couch and Fi walked right into the kitchen.
"I want to make pancakes," she said in a whiny voice.
"In the morning," I shouted over to her. God, she was starting to give me a headache. She was never like this! What happened? I just wanted some sleep.
"I want them now."
Jack began to walk up the stairs. "There's some pancake batter in the cabinet next to the fridge. And everything else is in the refrigerator. Just don't make too much of a mess," he added sleepily.
Fi shrugged and walked back into the living area, where I was trying to straighten out the covers on the pull-out sofa bed. She stopped in front of the CD player and grabbed about five CDs off the top, flipping through the cases rapidly. A look of disgust became evident on her face. "What is this?"
Jack, who had just reached the top step, turned around and walked back down. "What is what?" he asked, his patience obviously thinning.
"This!" Fi shouted, holding up the CDs. "You've got five copies of the same CD!"
"I—I bought it a few times by accident!" Jack said defensively. "What's wrong with that?"
Fi smirked. I could see that she was happy to have made Jack upset, and this upset me more. "Just forget it," I cut in quickly. "Let's just sleep."
"You want to appear so tough, don't you, Jack?" Fi taunted him. "You sneer and curse like there's no tomorrow. Mr. Tough Guy. The one everyone's so afraid of. You wanted to be so much better than me, didn't you?"
"STOP IT!" I screamed, covering my ears, which did nothing to block out the voices.
"But look at this!" Fi held up the CD. "Five copies. You've probably got much more hidden around the house. Mr. Tough Guy listens to—" she glanced down at the CD. "Ugh, I can't even say it."
I looked up at Jack, who had been silent for quite a while. He looked as though he could fall apart, then and there, any instant. "Please, just stop," I said, my voice quivering, but I knew I'd get the same response.
"Look at Jack," Fi said in a mocking tone, "with all his 'cool' punk-metal-rap and his other shitty music… and look at this." She looked down at the CD again, and chuckled lightly. Then she gave Jack the same glare she had been giving him ever since she found the CDs. "And everybody knows—everybody knows—that you have SheDaisy's CD. What they don't know—is you like it."
Jack turned and ran up the stairs. "I'm going to bed!" he shouted over his shoulder. Fi laughed at him and threw the CDs back onto the CD player. I could hear the plastic cases crack and so could she, but she didn't care. I pulled the covers over my head and prayed that, by some miracle, Fi would be gone in the morning.