Basic

by E. J. Mara

  Jen high-fived her and I just stared at the two of them, utterly lost as to what they were talking about.

  Jonathan must have gotten it because he smiled and laughed.

  I tried to ignore the butterflies that started to flit around in my stomach at the sound of his laugh.

  “So,” Kimberly said, sounding businesslike. “As you can see from this list, in this phase of the operation, our goal is to locate Farrah. We need to find out where she is and if she’s alive.”

  That gave us all pause.

  I imagined us stumbling upon a dead body and a cold chill ran down my spine.

  Actually, it wouldn’t just be a dead body- it would be the Duncan’s daughter. It would also be the co-worker of those nice ladies at the physical therapy place. It would be a real person who’d been murdered.

  Kimberly was right. We had to find Farrah, one way or another. She deserved that much from her community.

  “So, the one person who knows what happened to Farrah is the butt plug who kidnapped her, Timothy Dawes,” Kimberly said. I briefly wondered why she was so obsessed with using ‘butt plug’ as a derogatory term. “That means we need to find out what he knows and the only way we can do that is by-”

  “No way!” Lindsey suddenly exclaimed. We all looked at her, her eyes were glued to the typed plan as she said, “Kimberly, this says you want us to sneak into the guy’s house. That can’t be right, is it?”

  “Oh, it’s a hundred percent right,” Kimberly said, lifting her chin in defiance. “We need to find out what Timothy knows. But we’re not the police, so we can’t interrogate him. The only thing we can do is snoop around his place and watch him. That’s where you come in.” Kimberly turned to Jonathan.

  He nodded and pointed to the typed plan she’d given him. “I saw that. You want to use some of our miniature cameras and mics.”

  “Just one of each,” Kimberly said. “Can you get those for us?”

  Jonathan nodded. “You can borrow them. But I’ll need them back at some point, so my dad doesn’t notice missing inventory.”

  “This is a good idea,” Jen said. “But how are we going to get into this dude’s house? The ol’ brick through the window? Make it look like a robbery?”

  “I was thinking we could send the prettiest of us as an Avon lady,” Kimberly said.

  Lindsey scrunched up her nose. “But he’s a dude. So, unless he’s into make up he’s not going to have any reason to let an Avon lady in.”

  “Yeah,” Jen said. “I say we just wait until he’s gone and we throw a brick through one of his window. I’ll even do it. I don’t care.”

  Jonathan put his arm around her. I looked away.

  Kimberly shook her head. “I don’t want to add breaking and entering to our ‘we’re all going to hell for this’ list. I want to at least get into his house legally. Maybe we could… sell Girl Scout cookies. Everyone likes cookies, even sociopathic butt plugs.”

  “What’s with you and the butt plug references?” Jen asked, laughing.

  I couldn’t help but grin and heard myself say, “I was thinking the same thing.”

  Jen glanced at me and smiled, a little hesitantly.

  I shifted in my seat, uncomfortable but thankful that she’d smiled.

  “Oh!” Lindsey exclaimed, her eyes widening and her face lighting up. “I have an idea! My mom’s a real estate agent. Right? And she’s really good at her job. Like, that’s how we’re rich.” She laughed and then waved this off. “Okay, but anyway, when I was a little kid, before she made it big I remember she’d sometimes drive through fancy neighborhoods and stop by random houses and ask people if they were interested in selling their house for, like, a ton of money. And they’d let her in and talk to her. That could totally work!”

  I thought this over and found myself nodding.

  I turned to Kimberly and said, “A sociopathic butt plug might be allergic to Girl Scout cookies, but I bet he’s big on money. If someone poses as a real estate agent offering him over a million bucks for his house, he might let them in.”

  Kimberly bit her lip thoughtfully. She glanced at Jonathan. “What do you think?”

  He nodded. “It could work. He’s probably greedy, so offering him money is probably way better than offering him lipstick or thin mints.”

  “I still think one solid brick through a back window would take care of it,” Jen muttered. “Simple, effective, and if he comes home while we’re there, the brick becomes a weapon.”

  “It bothers me that you sound like you’ve done this before,” Lindsey said, her eyebrows going up.

  Jen shrugged. “Maybe.”

  I looked at Jen carefully. Between her Little Mermaid red hair, huge blue eyes that sometimes looked green, her perfect body and her bad-girl vibe, she was intimidatingly sexy. After just one kiss from her, she’d probably ruined all other girls for Jonathan.

  It was dumb of me to crush on him.

  He had Jen, the hot girl who threw bricks through bad guy’s windows. He didn’t need me.

  My heart slowly sinking into my stomach, I returned my attention to the conversation, which had continued without me.

  Lindsey was saying, “… I can get some real estate brochures from my mom so she looks authentic. And she’ll need a briefcase. I have one she can borrow. And a suit. Does anyone have a business suit? A sexy one?”

  “I’ll get one from one of my mom’s closets,” Kimberly said. “Trust me, she won’t notice.”

  “We keep saying “she” about whoever’s going in,” Jonathan said. “I don’t mind going.”

  “No,” Jen and Kimberly said in unison.

  Jonathan looked offended. “Why not? I could pass as a real estate agent.”

  “Because I don’t want you alone with a crazy murderer,” Jen said matter-of-factly.

  Jonathan glanced at her and blushed as a shy smile crept into his features. Jen planted a slow kiss on his lips.

  My face and neck burning, I looked down at my paper, pretending to read it.

  “And I don’t think you realize how many people know you and your dad, Jonathan,” Kimberly said. “This guy might have gone into your store one day and seen you. I think more than half the people in Sunnyville have, and you guys have memorable faces.”

  “He sure does,” Jen said in a sexy voice.

  I kept staring at my paper.

  “Besides that,” Kimberly said. “It’s better if it’s a hot girl. Someone a guy can’t say no to.”

  That’s when I realized Kimberly was going to ask Jen to do it. I didn’t know if I was jealous or relieved. Probably relieved.

  “So, Libby, then?” Lindsey said.

  “Huh?” I frowned and looked up at the sound of my name.

  “Yeah,” Kimberly nodded, briefly meeting my eyes. “Libby, if you’re down- we could really use you for this.”

  “But I’m not…I…you…”I stammered. “Didn’t you say hot?”

  Realizing what I’d just blurted and how pathetic it must have sounded, I blushed furiously and tried to remember how to smile and act nonchalant while Lindsey and Kimberly snickered at my reaction.

  Jen didn’t laugh, she just examined her nails and Jonathan looked down at his paper.

  Eventually, Kimberly took pity on me and stopped cackling to set a gentle hand on my shoulder and say, “Libby Hollister, you have the biggest boobs I’ve ever seen.”

  I wanted to die. Instead, I smiled and pointed out the obvious, “But you’ve never seen them.”

  Kimberly laughed. “Not seen as in seen. But they’re you know, very present. And you have such a sweet angelic face. I know you don’t realize it for some weird reason, but that combination makes you insanely hot.”

  “Yeah,” Lindsey chimed in. “Nearly every day some rando dude from school stops me and asks me to give him your number. It’s getting annoying.”

  I looked from Lindsey to Kimberly. Were they pranking me?

  But, considering the seriousness of Farrah’s situ
ation, and how determined Kimberly was to rescue her, I doubted she’d use this as an opportunity to prank someone.

  Besides, I trusted Kimberly.

  “Well…” I shifted in my seat. “You Texans have a weird definition of insanely hot. But, thanks. And sure, I’ll do it.”

  Kimberly broke into a grin and offered me her fist. I gave it a bump with my own.

  “You’re the woman,” she said, excitement in her eyes. With this, she turned to Jonathan, who was still looking down at his paper, and said, “So, we need that listening device and mini camera from you. I’ll provide the suit. And, Lindsey, you get us the real estate brochures and the brief case.”

  “Got it,” Lindsey said.

  “When is this all happening?” Jonathan asked, his voice low.

  “I was thinking, tomorrow,” Kimberly said, looking around the table at us. “What do y’all think? Are y’all good with that?”

  I was nervous just thinking about going to Timothy Dawes’ house. But I nodded my agreement and said, “Tomorrow’s good.”

  For the first time in a while, I looked at Jonathan and he looked right back at me, an unreadable expression on his face.

  “Great!” Kimberly said, slapping both of her hands on the table, palms down. “We’re one step closer to saving a woman’s life.”

  “Go us!” Lindsey said, pumping her fist in the air. But I only saw the movement in my peripheral because my gaze was still locked on Jonathan’s.

  Jen whispered something in his ear and he finally looked away.

  I looked down, consumed by so many emotions I didn’t even know what I felt… I was afraid, excited, worried, and most of all, missing Jonathan.

  Chapter Eighteen

  After our meeting at Red’s, Kimberly offered to drive me home and we spent half of the ride discussing the details of our show-up-at-Timothy-Dawes’-house-like-a-real-estate-agent plan.

  But as we pulled onto the town’s main highway, Kimberly glanced at me and asked, “Libby, what’s the deal with you and Jonathan? Do you like him? I mean, the way he likes you?”

  I sighed and turned to the passenger window, out at the passing scenery.

  “Jonathan doesn’t like me like that. And by that, I mean he doesn’t like me at all.”

  Kimberly snorted. “Well, that’s definitely not true. At all.”

  “It is.”

  “Then, I guess cats don’t like catnip and crackheads don’t like crack. Because when he’s around you he acts like a cat on catnip and his eyes light up like a crackhead’s at the sight of crack.”

  I glanced at my friend, wondering if she’d ever had firsthand experience at seeing a crackhead’s eyes light up at the sight of crack.

  She took my silence as an opportunity to repeat her question. “So, do you like him?”

  “No,” I lied.

  Kimberly switched lanes to skirt around a slow Buick and then glanced at me. “You might as well tell me the truth, since I know when you’re lying.”

  That almost made me laugh.

  If she knew how many lies I’d told her and our other friends, she would have been shocked out of her mind.

  “It’s okay to like someone, you know,” Kimberly said. “Even if you think they don’t like you back.”

  I kept my eyes on the passing scenery, watching the trees as we whipped past them. But my head was full of Jonathan.

  Was it really okay that I liked him so much?

  It didn’t feel okay.

  It hurt. Not just emotionally, but it physically hurt to have so many feelings for someone who didn’t feel the same way about me. He was in my head constantly. Every time I made a joke, I wondered if he would laugh at it. Every time I ate something good, I wondered if he would like it too. Thinking about him made me ache, in every way a person can ache.

  “Have you ever liked someone who didn’t like you back?” I quietly asked.

  Kimberly laughed. “Definitely. Yeah. It’s torture.”

  Surprised, I turned to her.

  I’d expected her to be sympathetic, not to say yes.

  “You mean, there’s a guy out there who actually turned you down? Was he gay?” I asked.

  Kimberly smiled. “No, he’s straight. He’s just… um, not into me.” She shrugged sadly. “That’s the way it goes sometimes. And you just have to do your best to live without the person you want to be with.”

  I watched Kimberly carefully, noting the sadness in her eyes and the way she sighed as she ended her sentiment.

  It was weird to think that someone like her dealt with rejection.

  I thought back to what she’d gone through as a child, her Uncle’s abuse and her father turning a blind eye… she’d been through so much more than I would have ever imagined.

  And yet, she was strong. Strong enough to step outside of her own pain and try to make me feel better when she noticed I was down.

  “I’m glad we’re friends,” I quietly said. “And if I were a guy, I’d be so in love with you.”

  She burst out laughing and gave me a funny look. “If this is your way of coming on to me, I’m very flattered.”

  I blushed and shook my head. “No, I’m just saying, like, whoever that guy was- he doesn’t know what he’s missing.”

  She smiled. “Yeah, he doesn’t. And, you misspoke. You called us friends.”

  My heart nearly stopped and a ball of panic formed in the back of my throat.

  I couldn’t even say anything in return.

  As I kept silent, Kimberly grinned and said, “You should have said best friends.”

  Relief washed over me, loosening the knot in my throat.

  “You scared me for a second,” I confessed. “I thought you were going to say we weren’t friends.”

  “Aw,” Kimberly said, her face falling. “How could you even think that? Libby! Oh, my God. You’re, like, my favorite person in Sunnyville! Geez!”

  I shrugged and blushed, embarrassed yet pleased.

  We sat quietly as Kimberly turned into my neighborhood, slowing for the gate at the entrance.

  “Hey,” she suddenly said. “I have cheer practice tomorrow morning. Everyone’s going to be there. Do you want to come watch? It’s at ten.”

  I didn’t have anything else to do so I said, “Sure, sounds good.”

  As we pulled into my driveway, we agreed that she’d pick me up at 9:45 the next morning. I didn’t typically wake up until about 11 on Saturday’s, but for Kimberly I figured I’d make an exception.

  After all, that was what best friends did- they made exceptions for one another. And, for once, I had a real best friend.

  ***

  When Kimberly dropped me off, I’d seen a Prius in the driveway and assumed it was Van’s. Despite his presence, what I intended to do was take Mom aside for a minute and ask her why she’d lied about my Principal calling.

  The question of her lying to me, out of all people, had been nagging at me all day. Sure, we lied to other people about my dad and about what Mom did for a living. But we were in on that together, we did it to support our two-person family. We weren’t supposed to lie to each other too.

  I unlocked the back door and stepped inside to hear the sounds of an argument.

  “You can’t possibly believe that big oil companies have our best interests at heart!” That was Van’s voice.

  I quietly closed the door behind me and glanced in the direction of the den, where their voices were coming from.

  “I believe that they are a business! And they’ve been operating for years, supporting this country in a way no other organizations can!” My Mom wasn’t exactly shouting, but she was loud. “And running a business means being smart, so I trust them to make good decisions in that regard.”

  I listened, shocked, as their argument continued.

  First of all, my mom was arguing with her boyfriend. As a rule Mom never argued with a target.

  Mom always said the male ego is extremely sensitive, and because of it men aren’t emotional
ly capable of being bested by a woman. So, when they are, they either leave said woman or hurt her to satiate their ego and pretend she never defeated them. Mom said this was a huge reason why none of her victims turned her in to the Police. They didn’t want to admit that she’d managed to outsmart them.

  A second reason for my shock was the nature of the argument, it was about politics! Mom didn’t even discuss her political views with me.

  “You’re cute when you’re passionate like this,” I heard Van say, his voice low and flirty.

  Mom laughed and said something I couldn’t quite hear.

  I made a face and frowned, glad I couldn’t hear whatever it was she’d said.

  Well, they won’t be arguing for much longer.

  Deciding that I’d question Mom about lying to me later, I snuck upstairs to my room and decided to put in my earplugs and get some rest before my big day of going undercover as a real estate agent and potentially getting murdered by a psychopath.

  Fun times.

  Chapter Nineteen

  On Saturday morning, Sunnyville High’s football field was a lot more crowded than I’d expected.

  Kimberly and the other cheerleaders practiced slightly off-field and close to where I sat in the bleachers. Meanwhile, the football players were on the other side of the field doing drills and what-not. Jonathan was with them, standing beside the Coach wearing a baseball cap, shorts and a t-shirt while he held a clip board. I hadn’t realized he was an assistant to the football coach.

  I kept trying not to look at him and then accidentally flat out staring at him. Then, I’d get nervous and wonder if Jen was watching me stare. So, I’d glance at the cheerleaders and get bored watching them fake smile and kick their legs in the air until I’d find my gaze drifting back to the football players in search of Jonathan.

  Annoyed with myself, I firmly turned my attention to the band students, who were also on the field, practicing. They were an awkward bunch. Playing off-key and full of braces, gangly limbs, and quite often accidentally bumping into each other- they definitely fell within the nerdiest category of nerd. But the more I observed them, the more I realized that they were incredibly fun to watch. Despite their awkwardness, they seemed happy- laughing and joking with each other more often than they were actually playing music. The most popular kid among them was a tall, good-looking dark-haired boy named Bao Tran. We were in the same Math class, but we never really spoke to each other. He was quiet and I tried to stay out of everyone’s way, which made me quiet too. But in band, Bao seemed to be a different person.