“It’s three,” Mal said.
“Three? Really?”
“Yup. Three. I’m sure of it.”
“How’d you get that?”
Mal explained, and she put it down on paper. He was great at this sort of thing, but Jacqueline had a hard time with it. She tapped her pencil against the textbook, picked up the compact, and kissed the mirror. “You know,” she said, “I should probably learn how to do this stuff on my own.”
The boy in the mirror smiled. “Why? Once I get out of here, you won’t need to think of algebra ever again. We’ll go far away, where nothing can hurt us.”
So you keep saying, Jacqueline thought. Mal was certain he’d found a way to escape the mirror, and yet there he still was, trapped. “It’s complex,” he’d said. “I’m not positive how it works yet. But I will be.” For long lengths of time he disappeared into the ether to do his “research.” She was growing frustrated by it.
Jacqueline hadn’t been to school since the party at the Cottard estate, and with Mitzy at work, she was left home alone for ten long hours every day. Mal was absent from the mirror during that time, so she wiled the hours away doing the homework her teachers sent home and watching daytime television.
The boy in the mirror gazed up at her, and Jacqueline sighed. The hopefulness of her potential life with Mal was always tempered by fear. Was running away with him even something she wanted? Was fifteen old enough to start an adult life? Was Mal even real, or was her psychosis starting to manifest itself?
Jacqueline jutted out her bottom lip, ignoring her doubts and trying to solve the next equation herself. Moments later, a loudly rumbling engine shook the house.
“What’s that?” asked Mal.
“Don’t know.”
Jacqueline went to the window and saw an old black Toyota driving away while four people bundled up against the cold approached the house. Jacqueline’s heart hammered in her chest.
“Oh no,” she whispered.
“Who is it?” asked Mal.
“No one. I’ll be right back.”
She hastily kissed the mirror and raced down the stairs, leaving Mal behind. The doorbell rang when she was halfway down, and she heard someone giggle outside. She reached the door and opened it just wide enough to see through. There stood her friends.
“SURPRISE!” they said in unison.
“What’re you doing here?” Jacqueline asked.
“Just dropping by,” said Annette. “Teacher in-service day. No school.”
“Oh.”
“You gonna invite us in or not, chica?” asked Olivia.
“Well, I’m kinda grounded.”
Neil pressed his face to the screen door. “She here?”
“Who?”
“Your aunt.”
“No.”
“Then what’re you waiting for?” laughed Olivia.
“Please?” Ronni said quietly.
Jacqueline was dumbstruck, and Olivia made the decision for her, inviting herself in. Neil was on her heels, Annette and Ronni followed. Annette hung behind as the other three wandered into the hallway.
Olivia shouted over her shoulder: “Jackie, I’m thirsty. Gonna check the fridge. Si?”
“Uh, okay,” she said, though Olivia would’ve done it even if she’d said no.
“Sorry,” Annette said. “We thought you might be lonely.”
“I told you Mitzy said no friends.”
She gestured to the hallway. “They insisted.”
“How’d you get here?”
“Olive’s sister drove.”
“Oh.”
“Don’t worry. She’ll be back at five to get us.” Annette nudged her. “C’mon, Jackie, brighten up. We came to see you.”
“Doesn’t seem like it,” Jacqueline said as Olivia, Neil, and Ronni rifled through the kitchen.
“Well, they’re a little stoned,” sighed Annette.
“Stoned? Great.”
“Oh, they’ll be fine,” Annette said. “Get some food in them and they’ll chill.”
“Okay.”
“You wanna stay here in the breezeway, or go have some fun?”
Jacqueline cracked a smile. “Fun sounds good.”
In the kitchen, she made her friends Bagel Bites and served them lemonade. Neil had brought his X-Box, and he set it up in the living room. For the next hour they sat and laughed and played Assassin’s Creed, passing around the controllers. Jacqueline turned down the chance to play; she was more interested in watching her three stoned friends. They giggled constantly, and Neil and Ronni wore permanent grins. Olivia would rant in Spanish and then hold her hand over her mouth when she realized no one understood her.
When the clock ticked past noon, Jacqueline and Annette made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for the crew. Then Olivia asked if there was a place they could light up without being seen.
“Light up?” Jacqueline said.
Olivia pulled out a joint. “Duh.”
“Oh. Back porch. Stay close to the house so my neighbor can’t see.”
“You up for a go?”
“Uh, maybe?”
Jacqueline was nervous, but she joined her friends outside anyway. Olivia flicked her lighter and lit the joint, taking a deep inhale, holding her breath, and then coughing. She passed the joint to Ronni.
“Got it…from mi hermana,” Olivia said between hacks.
Neil went to pass the joint to Jacqueline, but she declined. Annette said no too. Neil shrugged, handed the half-smoked joint back to Olivia.
“So,” said Neil after his own coughing fit died down, “what’s the story?”
“The story?”
Smoke curled from Olivia’s nose. “You know, the party,” she said, jutting her chin at Annette. “Rumors been goin’ around, and this one ain’t talkin’.”
Jacqueline cringed.
Annette squeezed her hand in support. “Don’t be pests,” she said.
“No, it’s okay,” Jacqueline said. Annette mouthed, you sure? Jacqueline nodded, then closed her eyes and told the tale from the beginning.
“No shit,” muttered Neil when she finished.
Olivia wrapped an arm around her. “Lotta balls going over there dressed like that. Kinda wish I could’a seen you.”
“It really wasn’t that impressive,” Jacqueline said.
Annette smiled at her knowingly.
“We heard you slept with the whole football team,” added Ronni.
Jacqueline groaned.
“We didn’t believe ’em,” laughed Olivia. “Half maybe, but not the whole team.”
Everyone but Annette chuckled.
Neil cleared his throat, his eyes developing a faraway look. “But seriously, what about Jordan? Did he really punch Todd?”
“I guess. Didn’t see it. I was out.”
“Oh man,” said Neil. “They’re saying he beat Todd so bad he had to have facial reconstruction. I didn’t really believe it, but he hasn’t been at school since either. Oh, and there’s another rumor too.”
“What’s that?” Jacqueline asked.
Olivia grinned. “The Sowingers are moving. Like, soon.”
“Oh,” said Jacqueline. Surprisingly, she felt a pang of disappointment, followed by a moment of self-hatred.
“So, you talked to Jordan since that night?” Neil asked.
“No.”
“Why not?”
Jacqueline shrugged. It wasn’t that she didn’t appreciate what the handsome boy had done for her, but she heard just about enough about him from Mitzy every day. “That’s the kind of boy you should shoot for,” and all that.
“Um,” said Annette, “I think Neil’s trying to say we’re glad you’re okay.”
“Oh yeah, um, that’s it,” said Neil. “When you didn’t show up for school, we got pretty worried.”
“Yup, thought the worst,” Olivia said. “Your aunt press charges?”
“She tried. The cop who came to the house said there wasn’t much we could
do, though. He said since I never actually got touched there wasn’t any evidence, and it’d be a waste of time. So Mitzy dropped it.”
“Was she pissed?” asked Ronni.
She nodded. “Oh yeah.”
“You must’ve gotten reamed,” Neil said.
“Not really,” Jacqueline said. “She was mad that night, but the next morning she was all nice and stuff. Had lots of talks. It was weird. I think she thought it was traumatizing for me or something.”
For the first time in a while, Annette perked up. “It wasn’t?” she asked, a squinty-eyed look of disbelief on her face.
“Not really. I don’t remember a lot of it. And besides, I’ve had worse happen.”
The words came out before she could stop them, and Jacqueline froze. For a moment she felt the urge to retreat inward again, to seal out the world, but she fought it. She’d had enough of running.
“You don’t have to…” said Annette.
Jacqueline hugged her and kissed her lightly on the cheek. “I know. But you know what? Enough secrets.”
“Ooh, Jackie’s gonna talk,” said Neil.
“I will. I promise. But not out here. It’s freaking cold.”
Into the house they went. The frigid air must have done something to Olivia, Neil, and Ronni’s buzz, because they didn’t seem spacey in the slightest. They sat on the couch across from Jacqueline, hands in laps, attentions rapt. Annette kept a hand on her knee. Jacqueline took a deep breath.
“Like I told you, I’m an orphan,” she began.
Jacqueline told them as much as she dared to: her five years wandering between various group homes; her fights in other schools; her foster parents, both the good and bad. She revealed the two prior attempted sexual assaults, about Billy and Tyler, about the Korvaks and what she’d thought of as her last chance at happiness. She talked about her battles with depression, the times she’d wanted to run away or kill herself.
Each of her friends listened intently. When she told the story of the Gelicks, Mitzy’s arrival, and how she’d fought off the pastor that very night, everyone stared at her, wide-eyed. When she told them the Gelick’s history, they gasped.
“Whoa,’ said Neil.
Ronni wiped tears from her cheek. “He get arrested?”
“Dunno,” said Jacqueline.
Annette looked at her sidelong. “You never checked?”
“Nope. In case you can’t tell, I don’t deal too good with…y’know…past stuff. Better I don’t know.”
“I’m fascinated,” said Neil, pulling out his smartphone. “I’ll Google them. What’s the name again?”
“Please don’t,” said Jacqueline. She didn’t want to know what kind of pain little Sarah was now going through.
“But—”
“She said no,” snapped Annette. Neil sheepishly slid his phone back into his pocket. Jacqueline mouthed, thank you.
“Anyway, that’s a hell of a life,” said Olivia. “I get it.”
“Get what?”
“Why it took you so long to talk about it.”
Annette squeezed her hand. “It must’ve been hard. We’re here for you. You’re Otaku. You’re part of the family.”
“I know,” Jacqueline said, grinning.
“Is there anything else?” asked Ronni.
Of course there was. She hadn’t told them about her father and what he’d done, nor that she still thought about Todd occasionally, and those thoughts weren’t always bad. But she thought she could feel pride anyway. She’d faced her fears and opened up. She’d let people in…
Her train of thought screeched to a halt and she bit her lip. An idea wormed into her mind.
“There might be one more thing,” she said.
“What?” asked an excited Neil.
“I’ll be right back.”
Jacqueline shot to her feet and dashed up the stairs, where Mal was waiting for her on the bed amidst her homework.
“What’s going on?” he asked.
“Listen,” she said, “I know what you’ve said about showing you to people, but I gotta do this.”
“Do what?”
“Next time I open the mirror, act like you’re frozen. If I open it again, do the same thing. But if you don’t feel my hands on you, don’t show up at all. Got it?”
“Jackie, I don’t know what—”
She snapped the compact shut and rushed back down the stairs.
“C’mon now, you got us,” said Olivia. “Spill it, amiga.”
“Okay, here goes.” Jacqueline held the compact out before her like a game-show model. “Anyone know what this is?”
“A broach!” shouted Neil.
Annette elbowed him. “Doofus. It’s an old makeup case.”
“That’s right!” said Jacqueline. “To a regular person that’s all it is, but in the hands of a master magician it’s a prison. I’ve trapped one of my old boyfriends inside.”
Ronni giggled into her fist, Neil and Olivia guffawed, and Annette looked on with interest.
“Here, let me show you,” Jacqueline said. She thrust the compact out toward her friends with one hand and flipped it open with the other. She closed her eyes and held her breath.
No one else said a word.
Jacqueline turned the compact toward herself, and Mal winked at her. She then shut it and looked back at her friends, who were all staring at her like she had six heads.
“So what did you see?” she asked, heart racing.
“A picture of a boy with white hair,” said Annette. “Why?”
“A picture?”
“Yeah, a picture. He was making a funny face.”
Jacqueline opened the compact again, and sure enough, Mal had his face all screwed up, his fingers thumbing his nose so it looked like a pig’s, one eyebrow held higher than the other. “This boy?” she said, showing it to them again. They all nodded. Relief flowed through Jacqueline’s body. She handed the compact to Neil, but Mal never moved a muscle. His control was amazing.
“Whoa, that’s lifelike,” Neil said.
“Shut it,” Jacqueline told him. “Then open it again.”
Ronni and Olivia leaning into him to get a closer look when he did as instructed. Neil opened the compact, then flipped it shut and opened it again, shaking his head. “Where’d the picture go?”
Jacqueline took the compact back from him, shut it, and then opened it. There was Mal again.
“Wow,” Ronni whistled.
“I told you,” Jacqueline said. “He only shows up for the magician.”
“So can you make him do more than make a funny face?” asked Annette.
Jacqueline snapped the compact closed and tucked it into her pocket. “Unfortunately, no,” she said. “Maybe I’m not a master magician after all. One trick can get pretty boring.”
Everyone laughed.
For the rest of the day, they played video games and laughed, until it was time to clean up. Olivia’s sister showed up at five to bring her friends home. Mitzy walked in the door soon after, none the wiser that anyone had been over. She seemed tired and hadn’t brought home dinner. Jacqueline decided to leave her be, eating leftover takeout from the fridge.
Jacqueline went upstairs to her room afterward and stared out at the burgeoning night. Her world suddenly seemed much brighter. She’d told her friends about her life and they hadn’t flinched. For the first time ever she had proof Mal was real. His promises of happiness were really possible. She opened the compact and the boy stared back at her, smiling.
“I love you,” he told her.
She held the warm compact up to her face and whispered, “I love you too.”
CHAPTER 31
Hannah Phillips watched the football team exit the locker room with one foot propped on the wall. The players each looked at her on their way by, most smiling with tired eyes. Hannah waved, and one of the boys blushed and hurried on his way. A couple bowed to her. Normally, Hannah would’ve soaked in the royal treatment, but she was in no m
ood.
The last player exited, and it wasn’t Drew. Hannah pursed her lips, straightened her blouse. He won’t avoid me today. I won’t let him.
She stormed across the hub and through the locker room door. Bleach and sweaty socks assaulted her nostrils, which pissed her off. Voices chatted from down the hall and she went toward them, her stylish flats sliding on the wet tiles.
She passed the group shower and three rows of blue lockers before she found Drew, showered and dressed, kneeling over the bench in front of his locker. His friends Kurt and Yoel were with him. All three stared at a stack of papers spread out on the bench.
“Whoa,” Yoel said. “That’s freakin’ crazy.”
“No kidding,” said Drew.
Kurt shook his head. “Dude, I remember this.”
“Me too,” said Drew. “Todd even said she looked familiar.” He grinned.
“You sure you want to do this?” asked Yoel.
“I’m sure,” Drew answered.
Kurt furrowed his brow. “When’ll she be back?”
“Next Monday,” said Drew. “That’ll be the day.”
“We’re gonna have to be careful,” Yoel said. “We only got a few minutes before the bell rings. No one can see it was us.”
“Ah hell, I kinda want them to know.”
“Yeah, sure, but if a teacher catches us…”
Hannah cleared her throat, and Kurt and Yoel started, their knees nearly sliding out from under them. Drew hastily grabbed the stack of papers, his face scrunching up as he looked at his girlfriend.
“Hannah?” he said. “What the hell?”
“Have you seen my boyfriend?” Hannah asked sarcastically.
“I’m right here.”
“There you are.” She planted her hands on her hips and stared at him. The two others nervously shuffled.
Drew snorted. “Guys, give me a little bit, ’kay?”
Kurt and Yoel quickly left the locker room, avoiding her gaze. It made her feel powerful, like something to be feared. Like a Valkyrie.
Drew straightened the stack of papers and stuffed them back into the folder. “What’s your problem?” he asked. “It’s not like we didn’t sit together at lunch.”
“That was five hours ago,” Hannah said. “Haven’t seen you since. You ignoring me? Tired of me? What is it?”
“It’s nothing,” Drew said defensively. “I got things on my mind.”
Boy in the Mirror Page 20
