A/N: Hey guys, I'm SOOOO sorry for the long wait. But...there is good news! I just finished my last installment of my other story that I was working on for what seemed like ages, and so now I have my hands free to devote my time solely to this beautiful piece. LOL...So thankyou for your endless patience, I know I must be wearing you guys out, but...I love you and I hope that makes up for it. Hahah...(If not, here...have a popsicle) :D
Word of the Day: Condom - Noun meaning: Something I don't feel comfortable explaining on the internet to your virgin ears. FYI, I pick all of these words at random, so...I literally opened my dictionary with my eyes close, flipped to a random page, and went down with my finger on said page until I felt like stopping. Only then did I look. Out of all the words in the dictionary, I was drawn to this one. Now what does that say about me, children?
Chapter 8: Apparently, I Just Contracted a Disease
Blair's POV
"Oh my god, you have fucking tits!"
The words hit me like a slap in the face. A face that was flushed with sheer embarrassment. Not only had Mikey just discovered my secret, but he had also seen my boobs. I was in the middle of trying to decide wich side of the situation was worse, when I realized that it didn't matter.
"Oh my god, you have fucking tits!"
The words echoed through the room, ominous and final. Diminishing and self-explanatory. I hung my head. I had failed. What had been going so well had all just crumbled to pieces in a few short sentences yelled out in shock by my no doubt mentally scarred roommate. Realizing that there was no point in just standing in the middle of the room with no shirt on, I flung a random t-shirt I found in my dresser on and commenced to standing in silence for a few moments.
After awhile, I realized that Mikey had no intentions of coming back into the main part of the room by himself, so I cautiously padded over to the corner that ensured his concealment. "Mikey..." I said quietly, poking my head around the corner. He stood in the far reach of the room by the wall, his back facing me and his arm up so that it formed a blindfold across the upper part of his face. He remained silent. I sighed loudly without meaning to. "Mikey come out from there. It's not like I'm going to hurt you."
"Nope...nope..." Mikey muttered, sounding slightly less than sane. "This is not real. I'm dreaming...You don't have tits. You don't have tits. You don't have tits." He seemed to be trying to convince himself that everything he had just seen had been a figment of his imagination. "Gerard must have spiked my coffee. No...this is a prank...This is a prank you and Gerard set up because Gerard was pissed that I wouldn't share my coffee."
He abruptly turned around in a half accusatory, half "you-got-me" manner. He started to laugh, though I could detect a hint of nervousness burried in the sound somewhere. "Yeah...good one you guys. Where's the hidden camera?" He started examining the walls and ceiling corners, looking for anything that resembled a lense. I shook my head.
"Mikey...there's no hidden camera..." I said dejectedly. I knew there had only been so long that I could've kept my little facade up. The thing was...I wasn't PREPARED to have felt this much dissappointment regarding my failure. I mean...I knew this was important to Maggie, and that I had let her down but...I couldn't help but feel that that was only half of the source of my anger at myself. Was I going to miss this? Waking up every morning in a St. James dormitory, Mikey dozing with his little coffee can? And then going down to breakfast with everyone else, laughing and joking all day long and making fun of Kirk and his gap?
Ray coming to the rescue with edible food, cool as a cucumber and filled with pride? Frank being his mischevious self, wreaking havoc through the school building all day long, and tormenting teachers along with any one else who annoyed him? And Bob being absent-minded, wandering through the day in complete nonchalance, not caring about the next lesson, and always ready to goof around? Mikey spazzing out just going down the stairs, struggling to suck in a puff in from his inhaler and being the butt of all jokes that poured out of our mouths. And Gerard...mysterious and fascinating in every aspect of his being. With a darker side that resided under his mesmerizing hazel eyes...
There was no doubt that I was going to miss this now that it was over. I felt my eyes tear up a bit. "Mikey...there's no hidden cameras. This isn't a prank." I said yet again, watching him wander about the room.
"Where did ya get the fake boobs? Must've been the costume shop, huh? So you've been planning this for awhile, haven't you?" He eyed me suspiciously, managing to ignore my explanations that this was no prank. I sighed heavily.
"Mikey...this isn't a prank. It's not fake boobs." I told him as calmly as I could muster. He went on with his assumptions, though, despite my efforts.
"I mean...they were pretty elaborate. Must've been expensive. For a second there, I actually thought-"
"Mikey! They're not fake! They're real! As real as any other girls! You wanna know why? Because I AM a girl! A girl who made a stupid mistake thinking she could pull this off! But she was wrong, and now she's in deep shit..." I stalked over to the bunks and plopped down on the bottom one, my head in my hands. I felt like pulling my hair out, I was so frustrated with myself. The room was consumed with complete silence, but I could hear that the hallway outside was now bustling with activity. Probably the rest of the boys coming back from the dance to retire to their dorms.
Why couldn't Mikey have waited just ten more minutes? Just long enough for me to at least pull a shirt on. But by some mysterious force of terrible luck that seemed to follow me through whatever I did, I always ended screwing something up. Life is such a bitch. A tear slipped out from the corner of my eye and I wiped it away harshly. I heard the quiet sound of soft footsteps and looked up to see Mikey creeping out into the main room to lean against the wall farthest from me. It was as though I had some sort of diseas, the way he avoided me. Like he was stepping into a room with a leper.
"Are you really a girl?" He asked skeptically folding his arms. I rolled my eyes.
"Yes, Mikey...You just saw my boobs. What other proof do you want?" It came out sounding a bit irritated, but he didn't seem to take offense. He just looked completely confused as to what to do now. He hurriedly reached into his pocket, pushing his black Zorro cape out of the way, and pulled out his inhaler.
"Holy shit...you're a girl...Shit, shit, shit..." He took a deep breath from the inhaler, and then slid down the wall until he was sitting limply, looking up at the ceiling. I watched him plop down and looked around the room awkwardly as he processed. Finally, it got too tense to bare, so I slid off of the bunk and walked cautiously over towards him until I was a safe six feet away. I, too, sunk down and sat cross-legged on the cold floor.
"Mikey?" I said quietly, cocking my head to the side and waving my hand to grab his attention.
"What the hell are you doing here?" Mikey didn't phrase the question as an angry one, but a genuinly curious one. " I mean...why would randomly decide to dress up as a guy and attend St. James? Do you have some sick sort of fetish." He looked at me with a suspicious eye, glaring, but not meanly.
I snorted humorlessly. Just sort of amused at his assumptiopn. "No, I don't have a fetish...It's just...It's-It's kinda hard to explain." He rolled his eyes.
"Oh, don't give me that bullshit. Of course it's hard to explain! I just found out my friend was a freaking undercover girl!" Again, he didn't seem angry, per-se, (I doubted that Mikey gets seriously angry very often) just sort of desperate for a straight answer. I sighed loudly again.
"Well, I don't know...It just started out as a favor to a friend. I wasn't even really supposed to interact with anyone, I just-I got wrapped up in the moment and the...the everything." I was, for once in my life, at a loss for words. Then I realized that Muse was still playing off of the speakers. I reached over and pulled my Ipod off the dock, cradling it in my palm.
"What sort of favor involves you impersonating a guy?" So now he was really interested. Oh well...anything to delay the blow of him telling the other guys.
"The sort of one where she needs me to help her get information for a newspaper article she's writing..." I turned my purple ipod around and around in my hands, not able to look up. To tell the truth, I was a bit ashamed of my predicament. The sort of guilt you feel, like getting caught with your hand in the cookie jar.
"She's writing an article about St. James? What about...the bad cooking? What sort of dirt could we possibly have? We're just a bunch of snotty rich kids." I finally looked up. He was waiting eagerly for me to answer his question, still fully clad in Zorro attire.
"Mikey...can you take that freaky mask off? I can't talk to you seriously with that thing on..." He rose his eyebrows.
"I don't know...I spent the last three days talking to you with your little costume on. I think you can handle ten minutes of conversation." He said spitingly. I gave a short laugh, supposing that he had a point, and proceeded to answer him.
"Well, she get these ridiculous theories all the time. And her latest one is that your little Headmaster, here, is raising the grades on his student's test scores to get a better reputation so that people will come here and he can haul in cash by the bucket fulls." I thought back to that fatefull day when Maggie, herself, had explained this all to me. And now, here I was, relaying this information to little Mikey. "I guess I'll never get to know the truth about that, now..." I trailed off.
"What are you talking about?" Mikey asked suddenly. I looked up and he was staring at me with a puzzled expression, as though I had said something that didn't click with him. "What do you mean you won't be able to figure it out?" I stood there in silence for a minute, not getting why he was so confused.
"Well...the cat's out of the bag, Mikey. It's kind of all over. My secret got out, and now I have to pack my bags." I stood up and walked over to my dresser, starting to pull clothes out of the drawers and pack up. Mikey hopped to his feet and hurried over, grabbing my wrist to stop me from shoving the tie I was holding up into my bag.
"Who says I'm going to tell anybody?" We stared at eachother, me in complete awe, and him in sincerity.
"Well...you are, aren't you?" I prodded, curious about the words that were about to follow. He laughed.
"Hell no! This is WAY too interesting. No way I'm gonna rat possibly the most exciting thing that's ever happened here." I was shocked. He wasn't going to tell anyone? He thought this was INTERESTING, not disturbing? He didn't feel betrayed and lied to? Used?
"You-You're not going to tell." He nodded fervently, and then stopped, thinking.
"Well, on ONE condition." Oh great...so now he was going to make me his slave for life or something. "No more lying. I want complete truth out of you the rest of the time you're here, got it?" I nodded eagerly. Anything to get him to keep his mouth shut. Suddenly his eyes went keen. I felt awkward as he eyed me. "By the way...what's your REAL name? I'm guessing it's not Mason." I shrugged.
"No, it's not. But...I'm not gonna tell you what my real name is. You might accidentally call me it, and then everyone would be like 'WTF?'" He groaned.
"Come on...I'm not THAT stupid. I think I can handle it." I shook my head. He paused and thought for a minute before saying uncertainly: "It's not...Blair, by chance, is it?" I froze, turning around to look at him.
"How'd you know?" He shrugged.
"It's written on the back of your ipod. I thought it was, like, your girlfriend's name, or something. Obviously, I was wrong." I turned my ipod over, and sure enough, my name was written on the back in black permanant marker. I had done that almost two years ago when I had gone to camp so that in case I lost it, I could identify it. I had totally forgotten about it in regards to this whole scheme. Just not something I had thought about.
"Huh...I'll have to be careful about that. I guess, if anyone asks, it IS my girlfriend's name..." I muttered absentmindedly. When I looked up from the purple device, Mikey was staring at me.
"God, this is weird..." he said, still staring. "I can't believe you're a girl! I mean...I always thought you were kind of...of..."
"Gay?" I suggested, having no objections about it. If I had met somebody like me, I would have questioned their sexuality as well.
"Well...yeah..." Mikey blushed. "I mean...I didn't have a problem with it. I'm not homophobic...But...wow. I would've never guessed..." He trailed off in awe of his discovery. I sighed. We looked at eachother for a long minute before realizing that he was standing so close to me. We both backed off, clearing our throats awkwardly and looking away from one another's eyes at all costs.
"So ummm...I guess, maybe I should leave you in here to...erm...get dressed?" Mikey asked tentatively, fingering his inhaler nervously. I cleared my throat.
"Umm, I'll just go to the bathroom and change. That's what I've BEEN doing, anyways..." I tried to let a little bit of a casual tone enter my voice, but it came out sounding strained. Well THIS was awkward... And suddenly we were both bustling around the room, grabbing what we needed so that we could change into our pajamas. I was hurriedly tossing aside a blazer in search of my t-shirt when there was a knock on our door. We both froze and looked up from what we were doing like two deer in the woods who had just heard the howl of a hungry wolf. The knocking continued, this time a little louder.
"Hey, guys, come on! Let me in! It's Frankie!" I could hear him bellowing outside the doorway, pounding his fist into the thick door to get us to open up. I gulped.
"Should I let him in?" Mikey whispered frantically, dropping the deoderant he had been clutching. It hit the floor with a clatter and rolled under his dresser. Neither of us paid it any attention to it. I tried to think quickly.
"Yeah, sure..." I said, trying to remain calm. Frankie would think something was up if we didn't answer. But then I remembered something. "Wait, no!" I called out, trying to grab his elbow as he turned the corner to the door hall. He stopped where he stood and looked at me in confusion. "I don't have my bandages on!" I said urgently.
"What?" he hissed, not knowing what I meant by bandages. Of course he wouldn't, Blair, why are you always so stupid in bad situations?
"I mean...I need the bandages to tape down my...boobs. Otherwise...you can see...everything. And I mean EVERYTHING." His face scrunched up in disgust.
"Okay...that was more information than I needed to know..." he cringed. I refrained from laughing at his goofy expression.
"Guys? What's going on in there?" Frankie called from outside, resuming his hammering on our already abused door.
"Just a second!" I called out, my voice cracking under the pressure of my anxiety. "Just turn around so I can get them on..." I hissed at Mikey, dodging to my suitcase where an extra pair of my bandages was burried in the clutter. I dug them out quickly, holding them up and gesturing for him to spin around. Mikey obeyed, covering his eyes as well.
"Hurry up..." he muttered anxiously. I shushed him and told him I was going as fast as I could. And I was. But, see...the problem with that is that my hands kept fumbling and dropping the bandages in my rush, letting them slip and unwind faster than I could tighten them around my torso.
"What are you guys doing in there? If I come in and find you guys fucking eachother's brains out, I can assure you, I will be VERY disgusted and probably vomit on your floor. So...if you want to save yourselves the trouble of mopping up my puke, I suggest you tell me now if you're engaging in sexual behavior so that I can come back later." He said this all very straightforward, probably meaning to be funny. Of course, we were both so frenzied that we forgot to respond.
"Um...you guys aren't REALLY fucking in there, are you?" Frank asked nervously. "You know I was joking, right?"
"Relax, Frank. We're not having sex." Mikey finally said. "Are you almost finished, already? He thinks something's up." I finally groaned in frustration.
"Goddammit! I can't figure these stupid things out! It's hard enough having to do them when I'm not on a time limit! Shit!" I cursed as quietly as I could manage in my anger, trying desperately to get the ropes of bandages to cooperate with me.
"Oh for God's sake, let me." Mikey finally said. He walked over to me hurriedly, with his eyes pinched halfway shut as though afraid of seeing something, and then he began to wrap me quickly up, finally finishing the job with the safety pin I handed to him. I looked around for a shirt, not finding any that were easily accessable. Mikey frantically ripped his own shirt off over his head and stuffed me into it. Then he shoved me towards the door so that I could open it.
"Hi!" I said, out of breath and red in the face when I opened the door to a very confused looking Frankie. He had taken off his nerd costume, but his hair still remained slicked back, and his nerdy glasses were still perched on his nose.
"Umm...is this a bad time?" he asked, craning his neck to see over my shoulder to where Mikey was leaning, shirtless, up against the wall. I saw him give a small, awkward wave. "'Cause...I can come back later if you guys are...busy..." He looked back and forth between me (looking ruffled and out of breath), and shirtless Mikey behind me.
"Okay...I know what this looks like, but I swear to you...It is NOT what you think." I reassured him as he glanced back and forth. He nodded with raised eyebrows.
"Umm...well, I guess I just wanted to talk to you about something, Mason." He finally said. I was momentarily confused by his abrupt change in character, but I quickly recovered and told him he could come in. Mikey was cramming his arms into his pajama top so that he didn't have to walk around shirtless the whole time. "Are you wearing Mikey's shirt?" Frankie asked when he caught sight of the top I was wearing, which would normally have been paired with Mikey's Zorro costume.
"It's a...long story." I said, trying to close the subject. Frank seemed to get the message. He was smacking on a piece of gum, occasionally blowing large, pink bubbles until they burst with loud 'POP!' s. This continued for a couple of minutes, Mikey reclining on the bed so that he didn't seem involved, me rubbing dust off of the dressers, and Frank standing in the middle of the room, chewing gum. "So...you needed to talk to me about something?" I supplied, hoping to help him progress in the conversation.
"Yeah...The thing is, though...I'm not ENTIRELY sure how to start..." He looked to me almost as if in need of help. I, however, had no idea what he was remotely thinking of. Therfore, I could supply no form of assistance.
"Well, um...it's might be helpful if you start from the beginning, but..." I gestured rather sarcastically for him to continue. He rolled his eyes and shook his head.
"Alright, alright...I get the point. But...you have to promise that anything I say will not offend you, 'cause really, I don't mean anything by it, okay?" I stared at him in puzzlement, wondering what exactly he was going to say that would have such great effect on me. I leaned back against the bed post and folded my arms, waiting for the news. He sighed, big and deep...pondering. "Okay...well, I think I know what's going on here." I gulped, feeling a nervous sweat break out across my forehead and stick up my palms. I rubbed them unconciously, looking at Frank in concern.
"Umm...I'm not exactly sure what you mean..." I blundered out. Mikey had propped himself up off the bed to see my reaction. Obviously, he could sense what was coming as well. Frankie sighed again, struggling to form the words that were apparently so bustling inside his head into comprehensible sentences.
"Well, you couldn't've expected me NOT to notice. I mean...It's pretty obvious that you were...different, I guess. More awkward around us..." He went on, each sentence carefully phrased and articulated at exactly the right moments. I nearly choked on the air I was breathing in, and glancing over at Mikey in distress, I saw that he had also had a similar reaction. He was sucking on that inhaler of his for all that it was worth. I coughed weakly, starting to straighten a pile of Mikey's books like the neat-freak I became in nerve-wracking situations like this.
"What exactly are you saying...Frankie?" I asked tensly, sorting past all the different hard covers, making sure all of their corners matched up exactly, and arranging them in alphabetical order.
"Well...I don't know...I just, I guess...I know why you're always acting like that, if you know what I mean." Frankie hinted pointedly, gesturing to symbolize that he wanted me to fill in the blanks. My throat closed up. Glancing back over at Mikey, I discovered that he had unearthed a box of M&M's and was now looking back and forth between me and Frankie like we were an interesting movie he was wrapped up in. He caught my death glare and gave me a look that said "what am I doing?". Frank caught me looking at him.
"Er...would this be easier if we were alone?" he asked tentatively, thinking that Mikey was causing my nervousness.
"No...actually...he alread knows." I said dejectedly, hanging my head like I had before. Jeese...two discoveries in one night. I felt like a total failure. Frank looked shocked at the news.
"He does? Thank god...that makes this SO much less awkward, you have NO idea! When did you find out?" He directed the last bit at Mikey, who was sitting on the bed.
"Actually, just about five minutes ago." he confessed. Frank's eyes went wide, and he nodded.
"So anyway..." he turned to me, "I just want you to know that I don't have a problem with it. This won't make us any less of friend's than we are now. Doesn't change anything, okay?" He looke at me sincerely and smiled. I rose my eyebrows in surprise. Was everyone just like...Totally okay with me being a girl?
"Wow...seriously? You're not even shocked?" I prodded, not believing that he could be so cool about this. He just shrugged.
"Hey...I have plenty of friends just like you." At this, both me and Mikey climbed to our feet.
"SERIOUSLY?" we said in unison. Frankie nodded.
"Of course...I mean...I don't have a problem with it at all. We're totally cool, Mason. Don't worry about it." Me and Mikey just looked at eachother. What was he TALKING about? "Yeah..." Frank continued, "I don't have a problem with gay people at all. I don't have a homophobic bone in me." He gave a short laugh.
"Wait, wait wait!" I interrupted, "THAT'S what you were talking about?" He looked puzzled.
"Of course...what did you think I was talking about?" I looked wildly around. Thankfully, Mikey came to the rescue...
"Erm...we thought...you were...talking about how...Mason has a...severe medical condition." I paused, turning to Mikey with an expression that clearly said: "Seriously? That's all you could come up with?".
"Woah...really? So...you're not gay?" I shook my head fervently.
"No...nope...straight as an arrow. I defintely like guys...I mean girls! I meant girls..." I stuttered over the whole sentence, probably just screwing myself over in the process. Frank studied us both skeptically for a moment, as though trying to decide if there was anything suspicious going on. Apparently, we passed the test, because he started to talk again.
"So...what medical condition exactly do you have?" My eyes went wide. Why did he have to say medical condition? Why couldn't it have been that I still slept with a nightlight, or that I liked the Barbie movies? Anything...anything else...
"Erm...well, it's a rather complicated disease, you see..." I started, trying to sound like I knew what the hell I was talking about.
"Yeah..." Mikey put in, trying to be helpful, "It's umm...very rare. There's only been seven cases here and in...Sri Lanka." I paused to give him the death glare before continuing.
"Yes...very rare...it's called um...the proper name for it is really very long, but..."
"Well, it's actually called... hesphalum...tidus...syndrome...disease." Mikey finished, awkwardly, trailing away. Frankie's eyebrows rose until they were well under his fringe, looking skeptical.
"Hesphalumtidus Sydrome Disease?" he asked with a flat, disbelieving voice. I glared at Mikey again, who shrugged helplessly.
"Er...Yup! H...S...D for short. HSD. Uh-huh...nasty disease, really." I continued in a well informed voice, just going with the flow. I'm pretty sure Mikey could've said that I'd had my balls chopped off in a car accident, and I would've gone along with it. Anything to get away from the subject that I MIGHT possibly be a girl dressed up as guy.
"Yes..." Mikey continued for me, "It um...makes you get these NASTY sores all over your-" Frankie cut him off hurriedly.
"Okay...that's enough information. Sounds pretty bad. Are you okay?" he asked, looking at me as though weary that I was about to collapse and have a stroke or something. I nodded.
"Yup, I'm actually in treatment already, but the medicine makes me really tired, so I need to go to bed now. Bye!" And with that, I started to shove him out of the door.
"But, wait, I was wondering if maybe you wanted to-" he started to say frantically.
"Uh-huh...yup..." I said, shutting the door and locking it before taking a deep breath to let out my anxiety. "Oh my god..." I said aloud, wobbling into the main room. I had had enough for tonight, and for the rest of my life. I felt like I was about to pass out. I staggered to the dresser and grabbed my pajamas weakly, groaning at just the labor of picking up the two thin pieces of fabric. As I walked past Mikey, I glared daggars at him.
"What did I do?" he asked in completely oblivious shock. I felt my eye twitch. What had he done? What had he done?
"Mikey...this whole thing is your fault..." I told him darkly, dragging my shaky hands across my tired eyes. He threw his hands up in the air.
"Hey, I can't help it that you were walking around the room with no shirt on, and I just HAPPENED to walk in." I facepalmed at this point and just hobbled over towards the door, ready to go change. "You going to change into your pajamas?" Mikey called from the main room. I sighed.
"No Mikey...I'm going to go take my medicine for my HESPHALUMTIDUS SYNDROME DISEASE!" I shouted, irritated, before shutting the door heavily and stalking off towards the boys bathroom.
The next morning, I left the room early again to go take a shower. To my great relief, I discovered that the bathroom was completely unpopulate, and that I would have the whole place to myself to sing and dance and do whatever the heck I wanted to. I grinned sloppily at my tired expression in the mirror, and was just setting my pile of shower stuff down on the ledge of the sink, when my phone started to go off. As it was 'Play That Funky Music, White Boy', I knew it was Devon.
"What the hell do you want? It's freaking six A.M." I said, acting jokingly angry, but grinning as I fiddled with a bar of soap I had brought with me.
"That's no way to talk to your father, young Mason. When you get home, you're so grounded!" Devon was obviously enjoying the father role we had assigned him to play. I laughed and continued, truly excited to be hearing from him. It felt like forever since I had heard from either Devon OR Maggie, though it couldn't have been more than a day or so.
"No, but seriously...What do you want? I'm on a limited time schedual, here. Breakfast is in an hour, and I still have to take a shower and get dressed and stuff." I tried to hurry the reunion along a little bit, all though part of me wanted to stay and joke around with him for another hour or so.
"Tsk, tsk...have you forgotten your old friends already? Maggie said you'd made a few new buddies, but she didn't say anything about you forsaking us." I rolled my eyes.
"I'm not forsaking you guys, and you know it. In fact, I miss you. It's been so long since Maggie's slapped my ass, or I've seen you devour a cookie dough blizzard." I fake sniffled. "It brings a tear to my eye." Suddenly, a new voice was talking into the phone, loud and surprising.
"Aww, Blair, I miss you too!" I was puzzled for a minute, wondering where the new feminine voice had come from, before recognizing it.
"Mag? What are you doing on Devon's phone?" I asked, knowing she would normally just use her own. There was a brief pause.
"See...there was a SLIGHT problem with my phone last night..." I heard her say quietly. Devon laughed and started talking again.
"Haha...by slight problem, she means she jumped into the lake with it still in her pocket. We went out there last night, and SOMEBODY just HAD to take a dip." He sighed, "Some things never change, huh?" The unreasonable feeling of being left out filled me, and I felt a frown slide onto my face. I remembered when all three of us used to go down to the lake and build a roaring fire and cook some marshmallows and, oddly, pears over the open flames. Yes, pears. They taste surprisingly delicious when warmed. Yumm...
"Yo, are you there?" That's when I snapped back into reality. When I realized that Maggie was trying to get my attention. I nodded, before realizing that she couldn't see me. Only then did I respond. God, I was mentally challenged...
"Yeah, fine. Just thinking. But really, what do you want?" I waited impatiently for them to get to the point, knowing that at any time, somebody could walk in, and I would have to pretend like I was talking about something totally unrelated again.
"Well, why do you think we're calling? To find out about the artical, of course. We didn't put you in a boys boarding school just so you could socialize, ya know." Maggie said rather scoldingly. "So, what have you found out? You HAVE been snooping for me, haven't you?" I cringed a bit. I hadn't been exactly playing Sherlock Holmes as often as I should've been.
"Umm...yup, yup. Totally. I'm just...you know...gathering and processing information. Oh, but I know tons." I lied quickly, feeling guilty that I hadn't been following the plan.
"Oh shit, Blair...you haven't been snooping at all have you?" Maggie sounded extremely anxious all the sudden.
"It's not that!" I said frantically, "It's just...well, I found out that he is in an extreme amount of debt, and that he's been coming up with unusually large amounts of cash to pay them back." My voice sounded just a bit hopeful. As though praying that the information would be suitable. There was a moment of silence from both Devon and Maggie as they processed what I had just informed them of.
"Hmm..." Mag finally responded, "I guess that DOES sound just a bit fishy. Huh...in fact, that's even better than the whole raising-the-grades thing. Yes...just make sure you get enough proof that he's doing this. Oh! I feel just like I'm in the FBI, or something! This is so cool!"
"Hey...you're not the one doing all the investigation stuff. You're just sitting around on your ass all day, calling me at all hours of the morning and night, and begging me for information. I'm starting to think that this is a one-way-beneficient relationship, Mag." She laughed.
"Alright...but just make sure that there's actual HARD evidence. Otherwise, the artical will be flimsy. And hurry up. This is your last day at St. James. We're pretty much out of time." That sentence hit me like a sack of bricks falling from the sky. I gasped.
"What-What did you say?" I stuttered incredulously into the phone, gripping the sink ledge for support.
"I said...try to hurry up. This is your last day. Went by fast, didn't it?" She had no idea. It felt like I had just arrived last night. That I was only beginning my first day. How the hell was I supposed to explain my sudden dissappearance? Was I just gonna have to leave? I could imagine everyone...Bob, Frankie, Ray, Mikey...Gerard, all talking about it.
"Yeah...whatever happened to Mason? It's like he just dissappeared." Someone would say. They would think I betrayed them, just up and leaving like that. I gulped at the thought of having to explain to my newly made friends that I was going to be leaving after only a measly three days with them. There was so much more I could learn about them. All this time, I hadn't realized that Maggie had been talking to me. I zoned in, confused at what she was talking about.
"-so just be careful about that." Was all I caught. I paused.
"Wait...what?" She sighed heavily, obviously fed-up with my spacieness.
"Jeese...why don't you just go ahead and take your shower already, Blair? Your mind's pretty much refusing to focus, right now. We'll talk to you later, kay, kay?" I cleared my throat.
"Yeah...later. I miss you guys alot, by the way." I could almost hear both of them smiling.
"We love you, too!" They cried out in unison. After bidding eachother audieux I hung up the phone with a hollow heart, and a numb throat. I couldn't comprehend that this was coming to a close. It didn't feel right by me. It was just like...I had to abandon everything I had set up for myself here. Like...I HAD been another person for a little while. Mason had become a part of me, and a part of all the friends I had made here. Even the enemies.
I would have to leave it all behind.
I crawled weakly into the shower, and turned it on full blast, hardly noticing that the water was freezing cold. Like ice needles on my skin. I paid it no attention, my mind only focused on that one thought.
I would have to leave it all behind.
A/N: I think I'm tearing, right now... sniffle, sniffle. I can't believe that I'm already starting to wrap this story up. It's like I just started! I feel like Blair did at the end of this chapter. It went by so fast. I think I only have two more chapters officially planned out after this one. Oh god, I'm gonna start crying. LOL...
Anyways, review and tell me what you thought. I want to know, and since I'm not a mind reader...you'll have to share.
P.S. Is anyone else excited for that new movie? Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World? LOL, have you even heard of it? I, being the big Michael Cera fan that I am, am gloriously excited for it. Haha...I hope it's not a dissappointment. That would blow...