Malia

by P. S. Power

  He spoke first, his voice a bit lower than she remembered it from school. Deeper and, she had to admit, a bit sexier. Not that it was hard to do that. In school she’d honestly never even thought of him that way, which seemed off to her now. One whole person had bothered to pay attention to her in a friendly and polite way and she’d repaid that in kind. Instead of by asking him to go and do something with her. Even if they’d only been friends, having someone that way would be better than only having a little girl who showed up in the mirror every few weeks.

  Plus, she was pretty certain that one of the side benefits of having a guy friend was that they’d be willing to put out if you asked nicely enough. It was an intriguing enough idea that she decided to try that out with Nick, even if he decided that dating her for real was out. She could see that one as being possible. Having a sex friend who was a little out there wasn’t as big of a deal as a wife who couldn’t track reality most days. Probably, at least.

  He locked eyes with her, face tilted down, while looking up. It was dramatic seeming.

  “Hey! You look incredible.” He made a point of examining her, his eyes skipping over the scar on her cheek, as if it wasn’t there at all. He lingered on her blue eyes, for about ten seconds, instead.

  A move that left her feeling gooey inside. Like a little teen girl on her first date. Her answering grin probably looked three shades of awkward, given that.

  “You aren’t looking too bad yourself. I like the hat.” That was white, with an actual silk band around it. A brown thing that didn’t have a feather in it or anything like that, though it could have without seeming too out of place. It was an old-fashioned style, without seeming to be fake cowboy, like so many guys in the area affected. A lot of the boys, even in high school, had driven pickup trucks as well. That hadn’t changed just because they’d managed to graduate.

  As if they worked on the ranch, in their hours away from the steel plant.

  There was a tip of the hat then, a single finger on the brim, the tall man smiling at her, managing to look young and a lot older than she felt, at the same time. It was something in his eyes, Jessica thought. A hint that something ancient and wise lived there. Until he spoke.

  That kind of ruined it. Even if it was in a cute way.

  “Well, you know, it was do something like this or show off my abs. I actually have those, but I figured it would seem a little less like I was desperately grasping if I actually wore a shirt to this first meeting. You know, so that we have something to talk about later? Speaking of which, how did your new cult meeting go last night? Did they tell you the secret handshake or anything?”

  She was the one who had mentioned that to him in the first place so his knowing about it wasn’t exactly a miracle. Even if she had to wonder, thanks to all the speculation, if he was behind the spying anyway. She also recalled getting a sense that he’d thought that part was a game. An excuse not to meet with him, the day before. As if she’d have avoided that, in the normal course of things. Now she kind of wished that she had. At least if her parents weren’t lying to her and people might be actually after her using their pet demons or whatever it was they had going on. Hallucinations or hauntings.

  If she hadn’t met the people the night before, she had to think that there probably wouldn’t have been a creepy dream rape and that Malia might not have come back. Not that she’d hated seeing her old friend. After all, she remembered her really well. The flashbacks ensured that part of things. The girl being in her mirror occasionally didn’t hurt either, even if they hadn’t been having heartfelt talks for a while. That would have been much better than the anal rape hallucination of the night before. Then, she could also do without the flashbacks at all. Hopefully she wouldn’t be having one of those that night. At least, if she did, she had to hope that it wouldn’t throw Nick off too much. He knew she had some kind of fits, after all. He’d seen it happen.

  Shaking her head, she sighed.

  “Nope. Nothing fun like that at all. They didn’t even kill a chicken in my honor. We should go. Also, who exactly did you murder, in order to steal their car?” The thing was amazing, after all.

  A sports car of some sort. Sure, she didn’t know what those things were called, other than nice, but this one made the cut that way. It wasn’t an old relic that had been reworked in his garage, either. Given that Nick wasn’t exactly from vast money, as far as she knew, it seemed out of place. She’d sort of assumed that he might own a rust bucket or even something small and practical. This was neither of those.

  He waved at it.

  “My grandpa got it for me, if you can believe that. For my eighteenth birthday. That… We aren’t really that close. I mean, my mother and he talk, but he and I don’t exactly chat. Not enough for something like this. Still, there at the party, he handed over the keys, as if we were tight. I should claim that I earned it myself, but it came out of the blue. I wouldn’t be able to afford the insurance on it, except that he paid for that, too. I plan to get something more boring, soon. I spend half my class time worried that someone will steal it from the parking lot.”

  She could see that. Still, it was nice and they were both dressed up, so it fit, more or less. They looked too young to be in it, of course. A car like that needed a silver haired middle-aged man in the driver’s seat. Possibly with a nineteen-year-old girl, of course, so that part might fit, if anyone bothered to notice.

  Nick didn’t make her come up with a clever way to ask when they should leave. It was nice of him, since small talk wasn’t really her thing. Being good at that kind of skill took practice, which her life hadn’t really afforded her. Not so far. That didn’t get her out of trying her best, though. At least if she wanted her first date to work out at all.

  Thankfully, she more or less knew Nick already.

  “You mentioned him. Your grandfather? He just like, showed up one day… Um, I want to say junior year? It was one of the only times you actually bothered to do more than sit near me and mutter hello.” That was really why she recalled it. In the four years of school, that had been one of only a handful of times that anyone had bothered to just talk to her at lunch. It was one of the benefits of being the weird girl, she had to suppose. She’d been given a lot of time to read and do homework, while she ate.

  Nick nodded.

  “Yep. Same grandfather and everything. Grandpa Joe. Like the kid from Willy Wonka had? I didn’t know that you’d remember that. Anyway, we should go. I have a table reserved and everything.” He winked at her. “Which is ridiculously hard to do at King’s. I had to bribe the manager with a ride in my car. On the good side, I’m pretty certain he’ll put out, if the whole thing with you falls through tonight.” He winced then, though didn’t mention why.

  Jess smiled at the words.

  “Good thinking, having a back up plan like that. Um… So, you like guys? As well, I mean. At least I hope that’s the case, since otherwise the whole thing with dating me tonight is… Strange.”

  There was a snort then.

  “Heh. Okay. No, not at all. On the liking men part of things. It’s just not me, you know? We should go, since we kind of need to fill the space at the table, or someone else will. I meant that part.”

  She hurried then, climbing into the car a bit less than gracefully. Anyone with a camera or a desire to see what her thong looked like would have had a great view of it above her white stockings just then. The seats were so low to the ground that it managed to feel fast, even before they took off. When that happened, she had to glance at the speedometer a few times to make certain they weren’t speeding through the city at a reckless pace. They weren’t, going more or less the speed limit.

  They didn’t talk a lot, for the first two or three minutes, then Nick, a little awkwardly, cleared his throat.

  “So, um, King’s and then back to my place? Or we could go do something else. Walk by the river? Go to Make Out Point… That’s a little too high school, isn’t it?” He sounded serious though, as if she were g
oing to judge him on that.

  They’d only been out of school for a year or two, after all.

  “That could be fun. Maybe next time? We should go to your place first. Not to… Um… This is awkward, isn’t it?” She didn’t know how to start, though there was a nervous laugh from the driver’s seat.

  Nick, kept both hands on the wheel, tensing enough that he seemed worried.

  “You mean that you aren’t really coming home with me to get some, on the first date? We covered that. No pressure. We can just watch television or a movie. You’ve seen Caligula? It’s a classic.”

  She hadn’t, but recognized the name from her reading. That particular Roman emperor had been a nut case in a way that few ever really managed. It was a combination of crazy, wealth and power.

  “See, that wasn’t really where I was going at all. I’m willing to try some things, but, well, I’m the weird girl that everyone hated in school, so you know, I wasn’t kidding when I’d said that I’d never been on a date before. That means I’ve never… well, done anything. Not unless dry humping a teddy bear counts?”

  She looked away, so didn’t see him respond to that part of things. It wasn’t as if she were a stuffed bear fetishist or anything. Ted had been the only guy that would pay attention to her for years, so one thing had led to another. That was all.

  Rather than mock her, Nick made a rather happy sound then.

  “Right. I forgot about that. No one really hated you, back in school, you know that, right? Well, Tiffany Milner did, but no one else did. You were just, I don’t know, the one that they avoided. There were rumors about you. Um… About you killing people and stuff like that. Only, no one around here ever went missing or anything, so that was clearly bullshit. I think it’s just a small group kind of thing. Someone has to be the outsider, for the rest of the group to feel safe and secure in their place.”

  She looked over at him then, his eyes sensibly locked on the road.

  “Yeah. That. I did kill a man, once. Kind of. At least the knife was in my hand. A serial killer had tried to murder my babysitter. He was beating her, so I snuck up behind him with a kitchen knife. At least that’s the story. I don’t know if there was more to it or not. I was five, so, you know…” She didn’t claim not to remember it. Mainly because she didn’t recall if she’d told him about that already or not.

  He simply nodded.

  “I know. I mean, I read about it, online. Talked to a few people about it, too. Back in the day, not last night. Frankly, I don’t really care what happened then, except that I wish it hadn’t. You were five. No matter what happened, it wasn’t your fault. Which, really, we should hit a better topic, before you associate being with me and bad memories. So, Halloween is coming… Do you have any plans for it? We could get together and egg some houses if you want. Tiffany Milner has a new place I hear, with some friends of hers. Out on seventh? The one that seems like it’s about to fall down? I guess they get a great rent on it.”

  The roads were almost empty, since they lived in a small town. Five thousand people didn’t lead to a constant level of traffic that was hard to negotiate or anything like that. Even on a Saturday night. As she looked out the window, a gentle rain started to fall.

  She didn’t look over at him, or admit that she’d already hit Tiffany’s house six or seven times before she’d given up her egging and other tricky behaviors. She’d been with the girl every year in school, for the whole time the state had required her to go. Tiffany had never once gone out of her way to be so much as civil, even though Jess had tried to do her part the whole time. Half of what she’d gone through in school could be laid at the feet of that particular girl and her friends.

  A thing that, on some level, Nick seemed to understand. Probably because he’d been there too, even if Jess hadn’t really thought of him that way. It was, it seemed, her mistake. At least she felt like the first ten minutes of their date was going well enough so far.

  She kept waiting for him to stop the car and throw her out. If that happened, hopefully it would be at the restaurant, since they had a phone there she could use. Not that her cell wasn’t in her purse. It was comforting in a way, in case Nick abandoned her.

  They actually pulled up in front of King’s Burgers, the big blue and white sign lit up, since it was dark out already. When they got out of the car, which was parked directly in front of the place, where it could be seen through the giant windows the whole time, they went in.

  To find that there actually was a table, a tiny two-seater, along the far wall, with a real placard on it, that said reserved. That and a lit candle. It was in a red holder, but didn’t seem to be making any smoke. There was also a bottle of wine, in an ice bucket.

  She smiled at the whole thing, feeling oddly special and only slightly embarrassed as the young families looked over at them. A few older people smiled on seeing them settle into place as well. As if they understood something that the others there might be missing.

  Which, even being a bit new to the dating game, she understood herself. In the normal course of things, with another girl, Nick was probably getting laid that night. Sure, he was also trying too hard and had set the bar a little too high, right off the bat, but she felt ready to give him a shot already, even if she didn’t know what the heck she was doing in bed.

  A familiar tingle tried to start then, between her thighs, causing her to think of the night before, ruining what should have been a marvelous moment. She hid that, what was going on inside of her, behind a soft smile. She was good at that kind of thing, after all.

  Faking it. Pretending that the life she lived was the same as what everyone else had going on. It wasn’t the truth, most days. Then, she hadn’t been aware that her parents were into magic and summoning evil entities, either. That being the case, it was just possible that everyone had things going on inside that she didn’t really understand. That could level the playing field on strangeness a lot.

  Looking at the boy, who was a man, at least legally speaking, she nodded.

  “Okay. You win this round. Is that champagne?”

  Two glasses, made of real crystal it seemed, were pulled around. Then he took up the bottle, holding it by the neck and cradling the bottom with one hand, presenting it to her.

  “The finest sparkling white grape. I’m not old enough to drink. Besides that, we couldn’t have it in here anyway, even if we were. This is a family establishment and more importantly, they don’t have a license to serve alcohol.” There was a shrug, as if she might find that part too lame. “They asked about it earlier, when I brought the bottle in. Luckily, this is inside the rules.”

  He clearly felt like his attempt was a bit boring, instead of incredibly charming, which it actually was.

  “My favorite.” That part was a lie. At least she didn’t know if she liked it or not. She’d never had any before. At least not that she could recall. Her parents didn’t drink at all, so getting fake booze, for the holidays or something, had never seemed that important.

  Both drinks were poured, with minimal spillage. Then, because it was King’s, they had to go and stand in line, to order their food. There was a lull, so they didn’t have to wait long or anything, even if it had to be the rush hour. The place was busy, but not so much that anyone tried to steal their table while they were away.

  She got a small fry, a single cheeseburger and a diet Coke. Nick had a King, large fries and a milkshake. On their way back to the table, he grinned.

  “I can afford more than that, you know that, right?”

  She nodded, not actually having that down at all. He went to the same community college that she did. If he worked at all, it hadn’t come up. Then, she didn’t, so part of her mind filled in that he might not either. Instead of bringing it up, she just settled at the table, waiting for their names to be called.

  “You get that this is the most food I’ve had in a week, right? At one sitting, anyway. It… I’m not anorexic, but I forget to eat. Sometimes.” That was more
or less the truth. She was, by her way of thinking, a bit too skinny. Not at the level where people thought it was an illness. At least they didn’t mention it to her face.

  Nick simply shook his head.

  “Forgetting to eat? Nope. I don’t believe that one. Aliens? Sure. Bigfoot… Of course. Forgetting to eat? That does not seem likely.” He smiled then, making it into a game.

  The kind of thing that had to be done when you weren’t certain the other person was on the same page you were. Meaning she was probably being too serious, for a first date. It was supposed to be about getting to know the other person, she thought.

  “Right, then. So, Nick… Tell me your secrets. Do you work? I know you go to school. Um, what’s your favorite color? Also, I don’t know, your favorite movie?” She ran out of things to ask about, almost instantly.

  Thankfully, he was good at talking.

  “I work processing insurance claims, at Farmers, over in Ebbers? It pays pretty well. Especially for a first job. Honestly, it’s enough that I could make a career of it, if I wanted. I don’t hate the work, but I kind of want to do a bit more with my life, hence doing school at the same time. Besides, soon our A.I. overlords will take over and then jobs like that will be gone. I like blue, dark blue, and I have a soft spot for the first Avengers movie. What about you?”

  She nearly froze then, sipping at her grape juice to buy time.

  “I’m weird, for a living, so there’s that. I like pink, but don’t tell anyone about that. I know, it’s girly. Sue me.” She grinned then and shrugged. “I barely watch movies. You mentioned Caligula? That sounds…” She shrugged. “Honestly, I only know about him from reading. He sounded insane. I think it was syphilis?”

  A few people looked over, though Nick just nodded.

  “That sounds right. The movie is… A bit adult. I won’t explain what’s in it, right now. Kids in the room and all that. Anyway, you don’t do movies? So, that really is weird. You know to fake it when I show you something though, right? Otherwise… Well, movies are one of my favorite things.”