by Martha Woods
But it still felt kind of weird to be staring over her shoulder like that, so he moved back to the bed and let his back sink into the mattress.
“What do you want Jamie?” She asked, fingers still tapping on the keys, “Did you make it to class on time? I was late for mine, but it was just a lecture so bleh, you know?”
“I thought lectures were important?”
“They’re important most of the time, but my lecturer likes to talk just to hear themselves talk, plus they wrote the book that we had to buy this semester, that just pisses me off.” Hitting the enter key and spinning around in her chair, she leaned her elbows on her knees and cupped her cheeks in her hands, looking him up and down and raising an eyebrow at his near glow. “What happened? You look happy.”
“I got invited to a party,” He said, smiling as he pulled out the slip of paper, “One of the football players said they were looking for new players, so he said that I should come along. I didn’t want to at first, but then I remembered what you said about making more friends so I figured, why not, you know?”
“One of the football players?” She asked, “Since when are you palling around with football players?”
“I don’t know! It was just kind of random, he handed me his number and told me to think about it, so I think I’ll go! Do you wanna come with?”
She tapped her finger along her chin, humming in thought, “When is it? I’m working tonight so that’s a no-go.”
“Tomorrow night, I think, I was gonna call and ask about all the details soon.”
“Tomorrow night… yeah, yeah I think I can do that. Is it just a regular party or…?” She looked at the blank stare on his face, chuckling to herself and shaking her head. “Let’s just say it’s a regular party, that’ll save us a lot of time. Do you have anything that you’re going to wear?”
“Uh… maybe you could help me out there? I don’t know what I should wear to this, I’m supposed to look good right?”
“You look good normally.”
“Normally I wear like, hoodies and pants, I don’t think about it much. Last night I came over not even wearing pants, don’t think I forgot that.”
“Alright yeah that’s a fair point.” She clapped her hands together, grinning widely and laughing, “Alright fine! I’ll help you play dress-up and give you an outfit that’ll really have everyone pulling at their collars, sound good?”
“Dunno if we need to go that far but… screw it, yeah sure!” Jamie laughed, relaxing against the covers and patting his hands against his stomach, “This is gonna be fun, I’m actually looking forward to this!”
Rachel nodded, though her expression sobered as she leaned closer and reached out towards him. “You know if it gets to be too much we can just leave too, no shame in that. I like parties and they can get to be a bit much sometimes, so don’t worry about looking lame, ok? Just come and talk to me.”
“Will do,” He replied, throwing a lazy salute and smiling, “You too, you’re the one whose gonna be helping me with all this too, I’ve got your back if anything goes bad.”
“Goes bad… the parties not gonna get crashed by like… aliens or whatever.” Patting his thigh, she got out of her chair and moved towards the bathroom, looking over her shoulder and tilting her head. “You wanna go get something to eat after this? My treat.”
“Yeah, yeah that sounds good,” He said, nodding in agreement, “I’ll just be waiting here.”
She smiled, closing the door behind her and turning the shower on. On the other side of the door Jamie was still staring at the door, wondering just why that smile was making his heart skip a beat, and why his cheeks were heating up like they had that morning. A question for another time as far as he was concerned.
But very much one he wanted an answer to.
“So when you said that you were paying, you meant that you were taking me to your work so that you can get a free meal?” Jamie leaned his chin on his hand, one eyebrow raised as he scanned her from the other side of the table. “Gotta say, I feel a little betrayed.”
“Oh quit whining, I’m lucky to actually get free meals here, most people who work this kind of job don’t get that and I’m gonna take advantage as long as Cliff is on staff.”
“Cliff?” He looked back at the kitchen, waving at the smiling cook. “Oh right him, I’m guessing it’s not a company benefit then?”
“Oh god no,” She laughed, “They’d rather see me starve, Cliff makes sure all of us are properly fed so long as the asshole manager isn’t in.”
“Well, guess I can’t complain about that then. Do I still get to eat for free?”
“That you do,” Cliff said, grinning and placing two plates next to them, “I know it’s pretty late in the afternoon now, but who doesn’t enjoy pancakes at any time of the day right? Y'all just let me know if I can get you anything else.”
Cliff went to walk away, before something strange pinged in Jamie’s mind and he looked up at him. “Hey Cliff, were you working last night?”
“That I was son, why’s that?”
“You mind if I ask you a couple questions about the Trashman once I’m finished here? I don’t wanna bother Rachel with it anymore, and I figure you might have seen something she might not’ve?”
Cliff stroked his chin, smiling and nodding his head as he said, “Sure thing kiddo, long as you let me make you two some waffles as well, I’ve got some juicy information and I don’t want either of you going hungry!”
“Uh… y-yeah, sure thing Cliff,” Jamie said, nodding slowly as Cliff turned and walked away. Glancing back at a confused but amused Rachel, he whispered, “Is he always so… folksy?”
“Yeah, part of the charm of this place honestly. He’ll cook you a meal that’ll make you want to burst and he’ll do it all with a smile, he’s the reason I got the job here after all! Just asked him if they were hiring and he came back two minutes later saying that I had the job, I didn’t even have to ask for it really.”
“That’s… really lucky,” He said, cutting off a slice of his pancakes and popping the forkful into his mouth, humming in delight as the syrup lit up his taste buds and coated the inside of his mouth, “And these pancakes are awesome!”
“I told you, he’s a good part of why people like this place. Just don’t ask him to make you coffee, he still hasn’t gotten the hang of it.”
The minutes slid by easily, broken up only by the scrapes of their knives and the hums from their throats, pancakes disappearing from their plates and syrup being mopped up, white plates almost spotless by the time they leaned back in their seats and breathed a contented sigh. “Now that was good,” Rachel said, “Still want to complain about the venue?”
“Wouldn’t dream of it,” He said, “I’m gonna have to come back here on my own sometime, maybe I’ll actually pay for the food next time.”
Glancing around and seeing that the diner was almost empty, red vinyl seats bereft of any patrons aside from the occasional trucker off in the far corners, jukebox sitting alone, undisturbed and remarkably clear of country music. “You think now’s a good time to ask him those questions?”
“I think it is,” Cliff said, sliding two plates of waffles in front of them and slipping into the seat on the other side of the booth, “Now come on, lay it on me. What do you want to know?”
“Well… Rachel already told me that it was some guy out the back there digging through the trash, I was wondering how long he was actually doing that for?”
“Hmm… She came back and told me that there was something out there, but I didn’t go out for a while so… I’d say that he was digging through that one trash can for about an hour or two? Give or take?”
Rachel looked up in confusion, wiping at the side of her mouth with her napkin, “I thought that you went out there right away?”
“No, don’t you remember? Dennis spilled his coffee, so we had to spend a while mopping it up? We didn’t end up going back out there for at least an hour, I remember that pretty clear
ly.”
“Well he was definitely digging through the same can, he looked like he hadn’t moved at all.” She placed her hand over her mouth, brow screwed up as she tried to think everything over. “That’s… weird.”
“You’re telling me, then he looked up at us with those weird… raccoon Terminator eyes, wasn’t moving or nothing, just staring at us like he was thinking about digging through us next. Kept standing like that until Dennis came out and flashed his gun, then it just took a step back and jumped over the back wall, the damndest thing I’ve ever seen, I’ll tell you that much.”
Jamie nodded, dabbing at his mouth as he pushed the now empty plate away from himself. “You mind if I look at the alleyway? Maybe it was just looking weird because it was the night, I’m sure it’ll all look normal now that it’s day.”
“Sure thing kid, but once you see what the alleyway actually looks like… well, you’ll have one hell of an image in your head, I’ll tell you that much.”
Getting out of his seat and following the two of them along, Jamie looked through the kitchen and the back office as he passed through, swearing that he could hear something through the doors but seeing nothing. Cliff was right, as soon as they stepped through the back door and into the back alleyway he indeed had more questions than he’d come in with, and first and foremost had to do with the back wall now right in front of him, at least fifteen feet high and covered with razor wire at the top.
“That’s the wall that he disappeared over?”
“That it is,” Cliff said, slapping it with his palm, “Walked right back and jumped over it like it was nothing, ain’t seen anything like it.”
“What is he Spider-Man? That’s not… that doesn’t seem possible.” He walked over to the wall, jumping and trying to get any sense of purchase with his hands. There was none to be found, just smooth brick and the promise that even if he made it up he would have to content with the razor wire, and given that there was no blood or anything to be found on the top of the wall he could only contend that the Trashman had sailed completely over. “Shouldn’t be possible…”
Truth is, Jamie knew very well that it could be possible, he just didn’t want to consider it. He’d grown up around people that were capable of some truly incredible things, hell if he tried that wall would prove no challenge at all for him to scale, it wasn’t out of the realm of possibility that someone else could as well. But he wasn’t normal, and neither were the people that he grew up with, which could only really mean one thing.
There was something like him in town, and it had been here long enough to make a name for itself. Inadvertently, even if he hadn’t meant to, he’d stepped into someone else’s territory. And now he was wondering if he’d stepped into the alligator pen or the petting zoo, and he had no way of knowing until the Trashman decided to pay a visit to him, if he even knew that he existed.
“Now do you believe me?” Rachel asked, leaning against the wall with a self-satisfied smirk, “Told you that this shit was too crazy to deal with, I thought it was just some tweaker but then you said the Trashman and I thought ‘Ohhhh shit that makes so much sense’, you know?”
“Y-yeah,” He gulped, nodding and walking back towards the diner, “Hey Cliff… do you mind if I come back here some night, maybe see if it’s here again, just to make sure that everything’s going to be alright?”
“Well sure kid, you knock yourself out!” Leaning close, making sure that no one else that worked at the diner could hear, he whispered, “Want me to put you down as temp help so that you can get some money out of it?”
“Yeah… sure,” Jamie said, nodding along and running his hand through his hair, “Rachel, when are you working again?”
“Tonight,” She said, now fully concerned for him, “Are you alright Jamie?”
“Yeah, yeah I’m fine. Just… wasn’t expecting to see anything about the Trashman, that’s all. Kind of throwing me for a loop.” Taking a deep breath, he covered his eyes with his hands and leaned his head back up to the sky, exhaling and letting every ounce of his worry tremble in his chest before it pushed out. “Sorry about that, kind of hit me weirdly then. Do you mind if I come by tonight?”
“It beats walking here alone in the dark,” Rachel replied, placing her hand on his shoulder and frowning, “You sure that you’re ok?”
“Yeah…” He said, uncovering his eyes and blinking a few times, before looking at her and smiling, “Let’s get back to the dorm, we’ve still got a few hours to kill before you have to be back at work right? Let’s watch a movie or something.”
She nodded in agreement, nodding thankfully at Cliff and taking Jamie’s hand. He looked down, raising his eyebrow in question and opening his mouth to ask her what she was doing, before she silenced him with a shake of her head.
“You looked kind of freaked, so I’m going to make sure that you don’t walk off into traffic, ok? Now come on, let’s get back home.”
And thus their walk continued, the image of the two of them holding hands as they walked down main street certainly not helping the possibility of rumors by any means, but they had long made it clear that they didn’t particularly care for any sort of retelling of the events of their nights together. So long as they could feel comfortable with each other, however that ended up being, that was good enough for them.
And right now, they wanted to feel comfortable curled up on a bed watching another cinematic atrocity, with a few coffees between them as they watched the hours drift by, taking them closer and closer to something that Jamie had a feeling would shake something in his world.
“You’re sure about this one?” He asked, “I thought we watched a vampire movie last night?”
“We did, but there’s like… literally millions of these shit movies, eventually we’ll find one that’s the worst.”
“Last night,” He said, “Last night we found the worst one, like, not even a competition.”
“Oh ye of little faith, you really don’t think that I showed you the worst one that I’ve ever seen, do you?” Rachel patted his cheek, grinning viciously as she walked over to the window. “I swear, sometimes I watch one of these and it makes me want to rip my eyes out, that movie last night? Didn’t even come close to that.”
“Wonderful,” He groaned, rolling his eyes, “I’m so happy that your idea of us hanging out together involves capital punishment. Why don’t we ever watch a good movie?”
“Because it’s like… way more fun to watch you squirm and hate everything, it’s such a nice change from how you normally are,” She laughed, “Now shut up and get comfortable, I’m going to torture you for the next few hours with bad acting, and you’re going to have to just deal with that.”
“I want you to know that I hate you.” Pushing himself up onto the bed, he watched her closing her blinds as the light started to die outside, still wondering about that feeling that he was getting whenever he looked her way. He wasn’t stupid, he had a fairly decent idea of what it was, but he didn’t want to be that guy, falling for your best friend was a pretty express ticket to not having a best friend anymore, no matter how you played it. In his brief moments of actually paying attention to the other people in the dorm he’d seen it happen more times than he could count, sometimes they made back up, sometimes they didn’t, and he was none too keen on the idea of testing out how they would fare.
“So like, why were you so freaked out today?” Rachel asked, slipping onto the bed next to him and tapping the play key with her toe, “I barely ever see you get that freaked out anymore, was Trashman really that scary of an idea?”
“It’s nothing, it’s…” He sighed, “It’s stupid, don’t worry about it. I’m just being worried over nothing.”
“No no, come on, tell me,” She said, “You can’t have a freak out like that and not expect me to have some questions, that’s not fair. I promise I won’t laugh so… come on, just tell me.”
Pinching the bridge of his nose between his fingers, he leaned back and asked, �
�Are you sure that you won’t laugh at me?”
“I mean, I can’t promise that I won’t laugh at all, but I promise it won’t be at you.” Patting his shoulder, she turned him to face her. “Come on, you trust me by now right? Would I really lie about something like that?”
“I suppose you wouldn’t,” He said, “Fine. I guess I was just kind of freaked out because… because it reminds me of some of the people that I grew up with, you know, before I came out here?”
She nodded, but didn’t say anything, letting him continue on at his own pace.
“Seeing that wall, and hearing that he’d just managed to jump over it like it was nothing, it made me think of a couple people that I knew that could do exactly that, I used to be able to do stuff like that once upon a time, and it’s just been so long since I even thought of them once that I… just kind of froze up. I didn’t ever tell you about them, did I?”
“No,” She answered, shaking her head, “I always wondered, but I didn’t want to ask, just in case you didn’t want to remember them. Was it… bad?”
“Most of the people that I knew were fine, one of them even helped pay for me to come here long after we stopped talking, that’s no real deal. I guess it’s… it’s more the things that we did back when I was a kid that screw me up, all the…” He froze, squeezing his hand into a tight fist and clearing his throat. “Sorry, it’s just… been a little while, but I figure it’s about time that I tell you.”
“You don’t have to if you don’t want to!” She said quickly, the movie now long forgotten, “Don’t tell me this just because you think you owe it to me, you don’t! I only want to hear it if you want to say it.”
