Here it is... chapter five! Sorry for the delay... Oh, and can I just remind everyone to please vote for a Missing You title in the poll on my profile? Thank you, to the 10 people who have already done so. :)
Side note - totally reformatted and updated and stuff! How awesome is that?
Anonymous Reviews:
Sara-san: Thanks! I hope this made you happy again. :) And I hope that the happy-dance exercise is appreciated. But, I mean, happy-dancing is always great. :) ...And really. He's totally NOT in love with her. No, I mean it. He's totally not in denail. Uh-huh. ...lol, he so is. But it's so much fun! Thanks! I love making people laugh! And yeah. Jess didn't introduce him, which was evil, and for which she should be punished. Gr. ;) Hey, I can't wait either! And - really? I'm an awesome possum? That. Well, that just made my day. :D
ipod: Thank you! How can you not love the Wilkins? They're just so cute... Well, see, I have a plan for that. But Rob is a little stubborn. And emotionally freakish. And in denial. And a guy. So, it's just a little difficult. But he'll admit it. He will. Trust me. :D And hey, no prob looking it up. I didn't actually get the link, for which I feel guilty, but I tried, and maybe you'll be able to find it from there. Let me know if you do, yeah? :)
writer'sblock7777: Woo-hoo back atcha! Yup, I seem to be going a chapter a week here, don't I? Oh, BTW, you forgot to log in. ;)
Do you have any idea how embarrassing it is to have to ask your mother to pretend to be a high-school student named Joanne on the phone – just so you can talk to your girlfriend?
Very. Very is the answer. Very, very, very humiliating, especially when she's just become enlightened on the Jess-hasn't-told-and-isn't-planning-on-telling-her-parents-about-me-any-time-soon front and is trying to be sensitive. At least I didn't have to tell her myself. I would much rather just not call Jess than do that. Because even if I know it's true, like hell am I going to admit that my girlfriend is ashamed of me. I wouldn't have even asked her in the first place, but I'd already called once and Jess's mom answered, so I had to hang up without saying anything.
No, very isn't extreme enough. Excruciatingly humiliating, is more like it.
But, can you believe it, she actually did? She didn't even say a word about it, either. I mean, she listened through my entire long, halting, excruciatingly humiliating speech about it – and she didn't say a word. She couldn't stop herself from giving me that pitying, worried look she'd given me at the mall, but even so. She just nodded, and said, "Okay."
Have I ever mentioned how freaking much I love my mom?
Anyway, so I called and then Mom took the phone and asked for Jess, saying that it was Joanne. I guess I'm lucky that Mrs. Mastriani didn't recognize her voice from the mall, but my mom's one of those people whose voice sounds very different over the phone.
And then Mom smiled at me, squeezed my shoulder, and walked out of the kitchen to give me privacy.
Again: Wow.
I took the phone, and immediately began to pace. It's a habit of mine. When I'm on the phone, I pace. Yes, I tend to do it more when I'm nervous or upset or talking to Jess, but I do it other times too. Really, despite what my mom sometimes intimates.
But this time, even I have to admit, I was nervous because of Jess.
Well, can you blame me? After that whole scene at the mall… plus her neighbor was dead. That had to make a person upset. And, you know, it was probably too cold, what with the surprise snow that had made most of the roads unfit to drive on, so she was going to say no…
Okay, so it was mostly the mall thing. Well, I'll admit it: I was hurt. I really was hurt by how she had acted – but I have this annoying, and really weird, thing about Mastriani: I can't stay angry at her. You won't believe how often and how hard I try, but I just can't do it. Plus, her horror at the thought of her mom knowing who I am meant that I got a pretty nice photo of her, so it wasn't all bad.
Oh, yay. I'm rejoicing about my fortune in practically stalking my girlfriend (even if I refuse to admit she is out loud) who refuses to tell her parents that I exist even though she says she loves me.
That last sentence was really sad.
Anyway, I had a point and it was that I wasn't mad at Jess. In fact, I was more worried about whether she was mad at me – after all, I hadn't told her about my uncle's wedding, which I know pissed her off. I don't even know how I managed to call, I was so worried - and maybe I shouldn't have called. Because, you know, it was directly opposite to my goals, even if I wasn't quite positive what they were right now. I was sure that they stated that calling - and therefore encouraging - Jess Mastriani was officially a Very Bad Idea. But I didn't care. I was nervous, yeah, but I was still calling.
And, despite my nervousness, I got this weird feeling when I heard Jess's voice, saying, "Hello?" A kind of… little warm tingling.
Oh, shut up.
"Mastriani," I said by way of greeting.
"Oh," Jess said, "Hey." I briefly considered being offended by the way Jess had greeted me; it almost seemed like an 'Oh well, I guess I can talk to you' sort of thing, except that I knew it wasn't. I could hear the smile in her voice over the phone.
"Listen, about tonight," I said, probably coming off as much more calm than I actually was. "You still want to do something?"
I solemnly swear that I did not hold my breath.
Jess seemed very annoyed by this question, immediately beginning to babble: "What do you mean, do I still want to do something? Of course I still want to do something. We're going out, right? I mean, aren't we?"
Whoa. To say I was taken aback by Jess's apparent panic that I didn't want to go out with her would be an understatement. Saying I was pleased would be, too. "Well," I said, still surprised, "I don't know. I mean, yesterday at the mall, you seemed to wig out a little."
And there's another one. Although, Jess seemed to disagree. "I did not wig out," she insisted. "That was not wigging out. That was just… I mean, come on. That was weird. I mean, your mom, my mom. Whatever."
It would have been less weird if you'd introduced me properly… Well. Actually, it would still have been weird. But even so. And who was she trying to kid, anyway? Jess had, most definitely, been wigging out.
But I wasn't really eager to get into an argument about it right now. So I just said, "Right," in what I am sure was a less-than-convinced voice. "Whatever."
"But of course I still want to go out tonight," Jess said eagerly. Or urgently. I wasn't really sure which. "I mean, if you want to. Go to dinner. Or a movie."
A movie? Would they even be open today, what with the snow? And exactly where could we get dinner? Mastriani's was most definitely out. See, this was why I didn't ever take her out on 'normal' dates. Well, this and the fact that I preferred just going on long rides on my Indian, and going to Chick's, more than I did movies anyway.
I could lie and say that I was considering this, and that was the reason why I said, "Well…" the way I did, stretching out the word so that it sounded like I wasn't sure what my answer would be… but as I said, that would be lying. The truth is, I was just messing with Jess.
Hey, I think I deserve a little fun! It had been highly gratifying to hear how worried she was about me canceling, and I just couldn't resist. Besides, it wasn't like I didn't plan on saying yes. Eventually.
But, before I got the chance to have some more fun with the situation, Jess said, "Hold on. I've got another call," and I was left with a quietly beeping phone.
Hey! She wasn't supposed to do that!
However, after the first couple of minutes of being annoyed, my thoughts started to drift to who the other call might have been from. It was obviously for Jess and probably important of interesting, because otherwise I know that she would have absolutely no qualms about making them wait while she talked to me.
So, my ego asked, who the hell is more interesting than me calling about a date?
Well, my jealous/maybe a tad insecure side replied, it's probably another guy.
But who would call Jess? As far as I knew, Mark was still in jail, and no other guy had expressed any interest in Jess for some time, except for…
Oh, no. If he had actually called her, I was going to be very angry – at both him and his sister. He was supposed to be scared away already.
I started pacing again, faster than before.
It wasn't like Jess even liked Skip anyway… But her mom did, and I know that she spent a lot of time with him over the summer, and maybe she…
God!
I put down the phone on the table and stared at it. For a minute, I considered just hanging up, but what was the point? Jess would just call back anyway, and then she would want to know why I hadn't waited for her to finish with her other call. And what would I tell her then?
Hell, I didn't even know if it was Skip who had called her!
But if he had, he was going to be sorry…
Suddenly, the low beeps I could hear from the phone stopped, and I quickly put it up to my ear. I started to say, "Hey," when I realized Jess was already talking, and I stopped to listen.
Her voice was really faint – it sounded like she was holding the receiver away from her ear – and she obviously wasn't talking to me. Plus I just heard the end of a sentence: "-not all right."
"Mastriani?" I asked, and then when she didn't answer, I repeated myself again, louder. "Mastriani!"
There was a pause, and then I heard her again, more clearly, like she was holding the phone properly. "Hello?"
"Mastriani, it's me," I said, kind of annoyed by now. "Remember? You put me on hold."
"Rob." She sounded like she'd forgotten all about me. Just who had called her? "Rob. Yeah. Sorry. Look, I can't go out tonight. Something came up."
Oh.
I swallowed heavily. "Something came up," I repeated slowly, no longer pacing. Just… standing there. That whole... little warm tingly thing, from earlier? Yeah, that was gone.
"Yes," Jess said. "I'm really sorry. It's Seth." - Who the fuck is Seth? jealous/insecure Rob piped up - "The cops couldn't get to him, and there was a shootout, and now one of them is in critical condition, and those people still have Seth, and I've got to find him before they kill him, too." Oh. Okay. Seth was not an issue then, was he? But…
Wait. Wait a second here. It was a psychic thing.
That might be the first time I ever thought Thank god about that.
"Whoa," I said, "Slow down. Who's Seth?"
Jess sounded distant and odd, even though I was pretty sure that she was still holding the phone properly. As she spoke, I realized what her voice was reminding me of: over the summer, when that bitch Karen Sue had told her that Shane was dead, and she went into shock. And also, more recently, when she'd dreamed about where Heather Montrose was, and she'd been totally in a daze…
Great.
"Dr. Krantz thinks there's a connection," Jess said, not really explaining anything. "A connection between Nate, Seth, and the synagogue."
I had no idea what had happened to the synagogue, but at the moment I didn't care. I was much more concerned with Jess, and - "Wait a minute. Dr. Krantz? When did you talk to Krantz? Was that him just now?"
"I'm sorry, Rob," Jess said, sounding tired and still distant. "Look, I've got to go – "
I just interrupted her. "What's the connection? What does Krantz say?"
Silence.
Okay, now I was getting seriously worried. "Mastriani!" I snapped, "What's the connection?"
"It's the symbol, okay?" Jess said, sounding put-upon. "The one that was on Nate's chest. It's the same thing that was spray-painted onto the headstones at the synagogue."
Well, that helped me know what had happened at the synagogue a little, but… "What does it look like?" I asked. "The symbol?"
I was getting a hunch – not even a hunch really, just a feeling – that I might know what was going on. Maybe.
"Jeez, Rob," Jess said, now sounding distant, tired, and annoyed, "You were there in that cornfield with me, remember? Didn't you notice what Nate had on his chest?"
I swallowed, brief memories of the guy lying there flashing up into my head and making me feel sick. "No, not really," I told her quietly, running a hand through my hair. "I didn't… I didn't actually look. That kind of thing… well, I don't really do too well, you know, at the sight of…"
I couldn't say it. I just trailed off. But Jess seemed to get my meaning, because she sighed and when she spoke her voice was softer – and telling me what I'd wanted to know.
"It was this squiggly line. With an arrow coming out of one end."
I pictured that in my head, trying to remember why it seemed so familiar. "An arrow."
"Yeah," Jess agreed, "An arrow."
And then, just like that, it hit me. I knew what the symbol was, which meant that I knew who was behind this, which meant that I knew what was going on – and it made me sick.
But I had to be sure. "An M?" I asked Jess, "The squiggly line. Was it shaped like a M, only on its side?"
Now Jess was starting to sound annoyed again. "I don't know. I guess so. Look, Rob, I don't feel so good. I gotta go – "
I barely even noticed, shocked by the proof that I was right. I was right. I was right and this was – oh, this was big. In a bad way.
I interrupted Jess yet again. "It's not an arrow."
And just like that, Jess was back. The tiredness and distance was gone from her voice (although she still sounded a little annoyed), replaced by alertness and curiosity. "What do you mean, it's not an arrow?"
"Jess," I said, knowing she'd realize just how big this was, if I was using her first name, "I think I might know who these people are. The people who are doing this stuff."
I could hear Jess suck in a breath in shock across the line, and then she spoke: "I'll meet you at the Stop and Shop," she told me, "Come pick me up."
"Mastriani – " I tried, but it was no good. Jess was back in control now, and no longer passively listening. "Just be there."
And then she hung up.
"Shit!" I swore, hanging the phone back up and continuing to pace, hands in my hair. This was… These guys… Jess…
"Shit!"
