by JL Bryan
“I don’t care about any of that! And there ain’t no town left to have an opinion. Daddy, this is my life. And I like him a lot.”
“You don’t think it hurts me to say this?” he asked. “It hurts me plenty. I wish you could do what you want. I wish you could go and date boys like a normal girl. I wish you could get married, have normal life…” His voice broke. He stopped and cleared his throat. “And Jenny, if you’re going out, don’t go drinking. You might stumble up, touch somebody—”
“Oh, please!” Jenny forced a laugh. She opened one eye, and sure enough, he was sitting in his recliner, can of Pabst in his hand. “You’re really going to lecture me on drinking, while you sit there getting drunk?”
“I’m talking about careless.” He walked into the kitchen and started banging things around. The sounds scraped across Jenny’s brain, driving her headache deeper into her skull. “You ain’t like other kids,” he continued. “You got to be real careful—”
“I know!” Jenny screamed. “For the hundred millionth billionth time, I know that! That’s all I ever think about. Do you have any idea what it’s like for me, every second I’m alive?”
“To be honest, Jenny, I really couldn’t imagine.”
After a few minutes, he brought her a plate with his own favorite hangover food, toast and overeasy eggs, black coffee. He set it all on the coffee table in front of her. The eggs looked like they were sweating grease onto the plate.
Jenny ran to the bathroom and threw up again.
Ashleigh’s cell phone woke her with its incessantly cheery ring. She and Cassie had barely managed to stay awake as they sent the younger kids home from the lock-in. They’d driven straight to Ashleigh’s house in Ashleigh’s caramel Jeep, and had collapsed on her bed without bothering to remove their costumes or make-up. Cassie still slept beside her, undisturbed by the ringing phone, her arm draped over Ashleigh’s stomach, face nuzzled against Ashleigh’s, sucking the intoxicating energy from Ashleigh even in her sleep. Ashleigh shoved her away, and Cassie rolled aside without waking.
The phone stopped ringing, but started again by the time she dug it out of her overnight bag. It was Seth.
“What do you want?” Ashleigh snapped.
“We need to talk, Ashleigh,” he said. He sounded very serious. She didn’t like the tone.
“That’s right, Seth. I’ve got a couple things to ask about what you did last night.”
“Now,” Seth said. “I’m in front of your house.”
Ashleigh hung up and ran to look out the window behind her bed, which looked out onto the driveway and the cobblestone walkway in front of her house. Seth was out there leaning against his car.
“Shit!” Ashleigh smacked Cassie’s leg, and Cassie jumped.
“Ow!” Cassie rubbed the red patch where Ashleigh had slapped her. “That hurts! Bitch.”
“Get up. Seth is here.”
“Here? Now?” Cassie sat up, rubbing her eyes and yawning. “What time is it?” she asked through her yawn.
“Almost twelve.” Ashleigh recoiled when she saw herself in the mirror. Her hair jutted in every direction. Her face was still stark white, and the smeared gold and red glittery makeup around her eyes and mouth looked more like a melting clown than any kind of angel. This would never work for a confrontation.
“Want to clean up first?” Cassie stood behind her, not looking much better, her angel wings bent.
“We don’t have time.” Ashleigh would have been happy to make Seth wait an hour or more, but she was pissed off and in a hurry to put him in his place. She walked into the bathroom. “Just fix the makeup and gel down the hair for a minute.”
Ashleigh worked on it, covering everything with white and then refreshing some red on her lips. When it was Cassie’s turn, Ashleigh grabbed her cell phone and queued up the picture of Seth kissing Jenny Mittens, so she could whip it out at the proper dramatic moment, preferably when Seth denied everything.
The image made her ill. Even the follow-up pic, of Jenny yarfing on herself, was cold comfort. Why did Seth have to choose the most horrible girl in school? It was very inconsiderate of Ashleigh’s reputation. He could at least have shown taste.
She looked out the window again. Seth stood by his car, arms crossed. There was something she did not like in his pose. Something defiant.
“He’s going to break up with me,” she said.
“No way,” Cassie said. “Not for Jenny Mittens. You’re crazy.”
“Look at him. He’s not crawling over for an apology. He’s ready to fight.” Ashleigh glared at him. “I do not get dumped. Especially not for her.”
“So dump him first,” Cassie said.
“No way. Have you seen our selection of boys in this town?” Ashleigh asked, and Cassie snickered. “Besides, if I drop him now, then Jenny freaking Mittens will have him. That cannot be allowed. Imagine what people would think of me?”
“So the plan is…”
“Recapture him. Make him forget her.” Ashleigh was staring holes into Seth’s form below.
“How do we do that?” Cassie asked.
“Just trust the master,” Ashleigh said. “All you need to do is answer the door.”
Ashleigh went down the back stairs, because the big front stairs in the foyer could be seen from the tall glass windows around the front door. Ashleigh’s house was full of open spaces, two-story rooms, and giant picture windows. Even the staircases jutted out way out into empty space before finding their way back to the floor.
Seth preferred to hang out at her house, instead of his, because hers was full of light and air. Seth’s house was like a musty old tomb. You felt underground even when you were upstairs. Ashleigh liked that Barrett House was huge and full of expensive things, and that everybody called it Barrett House as if it were some important historical site. But she hated to be there, especially after dark, especially when there was nobody else in the house but her and Seth. If Ashleigh ever married Seth, that house was headed for some major renovation. Ashleigh would take down all the creepy-dead-ancestor pictures, to start with, and put up something nice, like a collection of ornate mirrors, or maybe a fancy painted portrait of herself.
Ashleigh crept through the dining room and waited behind the folding slatted doors, which opened onto the side of the foyer.
Cassie walked down the front stairs, taking her time, looking annoyed, making sure there was plenty of opportunity for Seth to see her and get focused on her, if he was looking into the house through the front windows.
As Cassie reached the foyer floor, Ashleigh stepped through the dining room doors and into the front corner of the foyer. She slid along the wall until she was beside the front windows, as far as she could go without Seth seeing her.
Cassie opened the front door.
“Come inside!” she called to Seth, who remained out on the cobblestone walk. He hadn’t even come up the stairs to the front door.
“Tell Ashleigh to come out,” Seth replied.
“Not happening,” Cassie said. “We look like crap.”
“I don’t care.”
“It’s not about you. Do you want to come in or not?” Cassie said. “Because I’d really like to take a bath and go back to sleep. So just get out of here. We don’t want to see you, and I don’t feel like listening to you two fight anyway.”
From her position just inside the front window, with her back against the wall, Ashleigh heard his shoes clomp across the cobblestones and up the stairs. Cassie stood aside to let him in.
“Where is she?” Seth asked. He was looking up the front stairs. Ashleigh crept up behind Seth and laid her hand on his bare neck. She willed her energy to flow strong and bright, then imagined arrows tipped with sharp red hearts striking all over his body.
The muscles in his back relaxed and he slumped as the defiance drained from him. Seth turned to her, his eyes half-closed, his mouth drooping in a goofy, drugged smile. She laid her hands on both sides of her face. She had him, but now she had
to keep him.
“Ashleigh,” he sighed. “You’re so beautiful.”
“I know,” Ashleigh said. “But what do we do about you? I mean, Jenny Mittens? Really, Seth? Why her?”
“I…” Seth’s eyes shifted away. He worked his mouth slowly, and he looked like he was struggling to remember something important. “I…think…I like…Jenny…”
“Sh.” Ashleigh covered his mouth. “You can apologize later. I’m just glad to see you. You missed a crazy night at the lock-in.” Then she kissed him, pushing her power into him through her tongue. She turned her upper body a little from side to side, rubbing her tits on his chest. His hand slid around Ashleigh’s waist and squeezed her ass through her gown.
As they kissed, her hangover dissolved and she felt fresh and awake. He always had that kind of effect on her, one of the main reasons she wanted to keep him. You could see people light up when he shook their hands. She suspected he had a little of her kind of power, though obviously much weaker, and he was too dumb to put it to use effectively. For that, he needed Ashleigh’s guidance and direction. Ashleigh found him very useful. Trained properly, he could be a powerful servant, maybe even in a husband sort of role.
“Seth,” she whispered. “I love you. How could you ever want to be with anyone else?”
“I couldn’t,” he whispered back. He cupped her breasts with both hands, and her nipples hardened inside her bra. Ashleigh was ashamed to think how much she wanted him back. He was the only boy she couldn’t dangle on a puppet string, taking or leaving according to her whim. He had the irritating effect of actually making her crave him.
Ashleigh slid her hand down his stomach, to the front of his jeans. He was already stiff, but she made him long and hard with a little caressing.
“Do you want me to play with it?” she whispered against his mouth. She didn’t wait for an answer, but found the zipper and slowly drew it open. Then she reached in and her fingertips touched him. She charged him with her special energy there, and he gasped. He kissed her harder, crushing her lips back against her teeth.
Ashleigh wrapped her fingers around it and pulled it out where she could see it. She stroked her fingertips along it, like petting an animal, then scraped it a little with her fingernails, which made him gasp again. She found herself getting wet and hot while she did it, and cursed herself. She was the seducer, not the victim, she reminded herself.
She wanted to really blow Seth’s mind, break down whatever thoughts he had of (that bitch Jenny Mittens) wandering away from her. She never did more than this for him, using her hand. She wanted to give him more than that now, but she’d never put one in her mouth before, and she wasn’t going to start today just to make a defensive move against pathetic little Jenny.
“Cassie, come here!” Ashleigh held out her hand.
Cassie stood by the open door, chewing her lip and watching them. Now she gave Ashleigh a confused, worried look, but she took Ashleigh’s hand. Ashleigh poured energy into her, and imagined three arrows with red hearts thunking into her back.
Cassie’s breathing quickened and her palm sweated against Ashleigh’s. Cassie looked into Ashleigh’s eyes, lovesick, then at Ashleigh’s large breasts, then at Seth’s bare cock.
Ashleigh laid her hand on the crown of Cassie’s head and pressed.
“Get down there,” Ashleigh said. Cassie sank to her knees on the foyer’s blond hardwood floor. Ashleigh let a current of desire form between Seth in her left hand and Cassie’s head in her right. Ashleigh pushed her head forward, making her take Seth in her mouth. She pulled Cassie’s head by the hair, then pushed it forward again. She repeated this until Cassie was doing it on her own, Seth’s hand gripping her red hair.
“Don’t I always make you happy, Seth?” Ashleigh whispered. “No one else treats you like this.” She started kissing him again. He pulled upward on her gown, and Ashleigh helped him, lifting it until he could lay his hands right on her breasts. He found her left nipple and squeezed and rolled it between his strong, warm fingers, and Ashleigh cried out. She was going to lose her mind if she didn’t do something.
She grabbed Seth’s hand and slid it down her belly and into the front of her panties. She occasionally made him do this, though she really didn’t think he was very good at it, and preferred doing it to herself while watching herself in the mirror. Right now, she wanted him to do it to her, clumsy fingers or not.
She positioned his fingers and moved them in little circles to show him what she wanted. It felt good, using his fingers like little tools she controlled. It felt better then letting him do it himself, and she continued it her way for minute before she let him take over.
She leaned forward, into him, and heard herself sigh. She pushed her tongue deep into his mouth. She slipped one hand under his shirt against his back, keeping him intoxicated with her touch. Her other hand found its way to Cassie’s head to keep her in the energy circuit. Cassie made choking, gagging sounds as Ashleigh shoved her forward, gasped for air as Ashleigh pulled her back.
Ashleigh felt Seth’s body shudder, and she held Cassie’s head in place, making her swallow everything, keeping her there until Seth was done. Ashleigh suddenly yanked hard on Cassie’s hair as her own hips jerked forward, and she came against Seth’s fingers. Cassie screamed in pain.
Ashleigh sighed and leaned against Seth, wrapping her arms around him. Cassie slowly stood, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand, face flushed, dark green eyes glittering.
“See, Seth?” Ashleigh said. “I’m the best.”
“You are,” he whispered. His eyes were closed.
“And you’ll never talk to Jenny Mittens again.”
“Never,” he agreed.
“Wait, I didn’t get a turn yet.” Cassie leaned herself into Seth’s other side and kissed him on the mouth. She moved Seth’s hands onto her chest.
“Don’t be a whore, Cassie,” Ashleigh said. She heard a car engine in the driveway. “Go play with your own boyfriend. Anyway, my parents just got home from church.”
Jenny had never looked forward to school before. Monday morning, she slid down the window on her bus to breathe the cool, bittersweet scents of autumn. She admired the passing trees in their gradual, temporary dying, the sunset hues in all the leaves. She wondered how she might sculpt an autumn tree, the crooked branches, the rich colors. The trees could make you sad and hopeful at the same time. You knew winter was coming, but you knew it came every year, and it passed and there would be spring again. All the dying should make you appreciate life more, Jenny thought. Knowing she could kill any living thing with a touch, Jenny saw life as dangerously fragile (except sometimes her own life, which until now had seemed cursed and painfully long). The fall trees were living expressions of that, and it was her favorite season.
Jenny climbed off the bus with a smile on her face, and even kept it on for anyone she passed. Most people looked at her, saw her gloves, and then looked away quickly—or, pointed and started whispering and snickering to each other.
She breezed in through the front door and bobbed along in the stream of students until she saw the giant mitten. She stopped in the middle of the hallway and stared at it with growing disbelief. Other people flowed around her, some grumbling at her to move out of the way.
It was a big red mitten, made out of posterboard and hung over the hall like a banner. The words were in stenciled Magic Marker:
MANY MITTENS!
Give back this holiday season!
Donate old MITTENS, gloves, hats & scarves
to needy children!
MANY MITTENS provides for their winter!
Sponsored by Fallen Oak Student Council
Ashleigh Goodling, Senior President
Jenny felt like she’d been punched in the gut. As she walked further into the school, she saw more hanging posterboard mittens. Some said: DONATE TO GET YOUR NAME ON A MITTEN! with an example of a smaller mitten made of construction paper. The examples all read: JENNY DONATED MITTENS! Str
ings of blank construction paper mittens, all different colors, were hung along each of the side halls, waiting for the names of students and teachers to be written on them.
She noticed more of the kids looking at her and pointing or snickering, like the people outside. She was hearing “Jenny Mittens” a lot. The mitten posters naturally spurred talk about her among people, giving older ones an excuse to point out to younger ones the strange girl who always wore gloves, and stir up the various wild theories about why she wore them. Ashleigh had found an innocent way to surround Jenny with a very unwelcome kind of attention, all over school, from now until Christmas break.
Jenny wondered if Many Mittens was even a real charity, or something Ashleigh had created just for this prank, just to torment Jenny. “Many Mittens” even rhymed with “Jenny Mittens.” That little touch had probably been Cassie’s idea.
She’d expected repercussions for dating Ashleigh’s boyfriend, but had not expected them this fast. It was only the night before last that Neesha had seen them together. Ashleigh must have been planning this already, Jenny told herself. Ashleigh hadn’t really come up with the idea, and recruited people to make and hang the mittens, all in one day. If she had, then Ashleigh was much more frightening than Jenny had thought.
She stopped by her locker to trade out a couple of textbooks and drop off her lunch. She closed the door and tried to calm her stomach, which was knotty and goopy in anticipation of seeing Seth. His locker was her next stop.
She had no idea what would happen when she got there. Did going on a date and kissing automatically make you somebody’s girlfriend? If so, did throwing up afterward cancel it out?
She didn’t have any experience, and didn’t have any friends to ask. She thought she understood romantic things well enough when she read them in books, but people in books made a lot more sense than people in real life. With real people, it was all odds and ends, and all you got was what you overheard, and it didn’t sound all that much like what happened in stories. And people who had relationships talked about them in a language that was a little alien to her, since Jenny didn’t have any of the experiences that their words described.
