Chapter 16: Monday Afternoon, 1:26PM

They parted, each to her own vehicle. Alaina shoved her wallet into her school bag. If I’d known I was going shopping, I would’ve brought my hoodie so I had a pocket. Or at least a smaller bag. I hate having to bring this giant thing in with me.

The mildly-annoyed girl saw a light blinking on her phone. Probably just Ay. She checked her messages.

Handsome Asshole: Hey, everything okay?

Handsome Asshole: You need help?

Handsome Asshole: Alaina?

Ay: ur bf is soo cute when hes worried abt u lmaooo

Handsome Asshole: Just talked to Ayanna. Sorry, got a little worried. Hope it goes well! See you around 5:30.

Alaina grinned widely and wrinkled her nose. I guess I should probably change his name in my phone now. I feel bad for forgetting to tell him earlier. She started typing out a reply. Appt went well. Sorry I forgot to tell you. I’ll make it up to you later. She paused. Do I need to make it more cutesy? Her finger hovered over the delete button for an agonizingly long moment. No, I’m just gonna be me. She pushed send, then put her phone back in its alcove and belted in.

Time to do some grocery shopping.

Alaina picked up a fourth head of romaine lettuce and inspected it. Finally, one that looks halfway decent. She stacked it next to the kale and bell peppers she’d already put in her cart.

Next stop, blueberries. She wheeled over to the fruits. Argh, it’s so hard to even find a good tub of them when they’re out of season like this. Why can’t [Farmer] Classes and the like be more useful?

I need to get some chicken, too...

She hit the send button on her phone, then started her car.

I know I’m supposed to be there for the Monday student council meeting, but Ms. Perez is already gone, and I really just don’t feel like it today. We don’t have any business anyway, so it’s not like Ms. Gossip or Mr. Can-We-Maybe-Be-Done-By-Two-Thirty-I-Have-Band-Rehearsal are going to complain if they suddenly have a free afternoon. I can message Ron a quote to pass on to the paper when I get home.

Alaina smiled. Nothing I can really do to prepare for dinner tonight, so that means I’ve got the afternoon off, too. A free afternoon all to myself. I haven’t had one of those in a long time. What do people even do when they have that much spare time?

Whose car is that? Alaina pulled into the driveway of her house and parked in her usual spot in the turnaround. There was an unfamiliar car parked in front of the unused garage door: a nondescript, tan sedan which looked to be older than her own car but somehow seemed more well-maintained and cared for.

She got out of her car and frowned. Did one of the neighbors park here? I don’t really know any of them that well, but I guess it’s not a big deal? Maybe they talked to Mom first. Whatever. Maybe I’ll finally start the third book in that series I was reading last year.

She put her phone back into her school bag and slung it over her shoulder, then walked around to the back of her car and grabbed her shopping bags out of the trunk. Ugh, kind of heavy. I wish I could make myself infinitely strong like Mom. She set the bags on the ground and closed the trunk, then hobbled towards the house holding the handles of her two thick, padded shopping bags with both hands. Her shins banged against the bags with each step as she held them in front of herself, hunched over slightly. At least the handles aren’t hurting my hands anymore. She started up the walkway leading to the front door. Yeah, this Class definitely—

The storm door opened, and Laura Jansson stepped out, back-first, towing a giant suitcase behind her with both hands. After she set one sneaker-clad foot on the concrete stoop, she froze.

Alaina stopped and stared, dumbfounded.

Laura turned around slowly, a terrified expression on her flawless face. Her lips trembled.

“What the fuck are you doing here?” Alaina snarled. Is she fucking robbing us now?

The blonde girl dropped the handle of the suitcase. “I’m sorry!” she wailed as she frantically retreated back into the house, stumbling over the suitcase in her haste.

Alaina stormed after her, carefully kicking the suitcase back through the doorway and shutting the front door. “Laura, what the fuck!” she shouted, her chest heaving. “Get the fuck out of my house! You hear me?” She spotted their key-holding fake rock on the floor where it had been dropped and ground her teeth together.

The sounds of sobbing caught her attention again and drew her into the kitchen where the door to the adjoining bathroom was closed.

“NOOOO!” Laura screamed loudly enough to make Alaina wince. “GO AWAY! IT HURTS!” She sobbed.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, and I don’t really care,” Alaina said, scowling. This girl is fucking crazy if she thinks I’m just going to leave her to walk out with whatever else she’s got stashed in her pockets. She set the shopping bags on the island and dropped her school bag on the floor next to the doorway to the atrium. “I’m tired of your shit, Laura!” She called with increasing volume as she walked towards the bathroom door, shouting the last words. “You hear—”

Laura screamed again. “No! Stop! Don’t—” She screamed once more, louder than either of the other times.

Alaina stood in front of the wooden bathroom door. She’s crazy. She’s actually crazy. Will, I know I said you had great taste in girls, but Laura’s nothing like Tiff or Kay. She’s not sweet, she’s not cute, she’s not fun. She’s really, really attractive, I’ll give you that, but it’s pretty obvious which head you were thinking with last night and the whole time you were dating her.

“Please, just let me go,” Laura moaned weakly.

The sound banished her thoughts and brought her anger roaring back. Alaina leaned forward, preparing to pound on the door.

“Nooo!” Laura shrieked. “Let me go! Please! I promise, you’ll never, ever see me again! Just let me GO,” she screamed the last word before breaking into sobs again.

“I’m trying to get you to go!” Alaina shouted back. “If you’re trying to leave, why the fuck did you run back into my house!”

“Because you were in the way!” Laura wailed. “Why do you hate me so much!” She sobbed. “I only teased you a tiny bit Friday night! You even have Will now!” She fell into indistinguishable gibbering between anguished sobs.

Alaina frowned. What the fuck does being in the way have to do with anything? I wouldn’t have stopped her if she’d run back to her car—assuming she left all our stuff behind. “Stealing from us counts as not doing anything?” she called. She slammed her hand against the door. “I can’t believe you’d pull this shit after how Mom looked after you! How much of our stuff did you fit in the suitcase, anyway?”

“I never stole anything!” Laura howled. “I’m not a thief! I just wanted to get my stuff and leave!” There was a thump from inside the bathroom before she lapsed into crying again.

“You’re not a thief?” Alaina yelled, her rage burning hotter. “Only because I fucking caught you, ungrateful bitch!” She stomped over to the suitcase. “What was it? Jewelry? Clothes? Our laptops?” She tugged the zipper open before she flipped the top half up, hearing Laura’s sobbing grow increasingly intense.

Clothes spilled out. Lots of clothes. A beat-up old laptop with its lid covered in cute animal stickers slid off the top, revealing a small, sky-blue stuffed cat that was missing an ear. Jammed in next to the cat was a worn, slightly wrinkled photo. Packed at the bottom end on top of a light rain jacket was an old-looking stethoscope that was missing an earpiece.

Alaina stared.

She hesitated, then knelt down and tugged the photo out of its spot. Pictured in it was a family of four standing in the short, concrete driveway of an off-white, two-floor house with clay roof tiles. Two girls, the brunette significantly taller than the blonde and neither older than early teens, stood in front of a middle-aged-looking man and woman. The taller girl—clearly recognizable as Laura—had her arms around the shorter one, and all four were smiling brightly at the camera.

She stared at the photo for a moment, listening to Laura’s sobs in the background, then stuck it carefully back into the suitcase. A piece of clothing slid off the top of the remaining pile, and the bottom of a paperback novel poked out with the name S. Tremaine in a flowing, cursive script along the cover.

What the fuck.

“Can ... Can I go now?” Laura called in a timid, raw voice. “Please? I promise, you’ll never see me again. Ever. Okay?” She hiccuped, then sniffled loudly. “I just need my stuff, and then ... I’ll disappear somewhere. I don’t know what I did to you, but I’m really sorry.”

This is like, all the clothes I’d imagine Laura owning. Why does she have them all in a suitcase? Alaina stood up slowly, then turned to look back at the bathroom. “Laura,” she called, “where would you go if I did let you leave?”

“I don’t ... know,” Laura said, her voice cracking on the last word as it changed into a hiccuping sob.

“Why don’t you go home?” Alaina asked.

The other girl was silent for a while, so Alaina walked back to the kitchen and started putting away the food she’d bought. She sat in the kitchen chair nearest the bathroom door once she was done.

“I can’t,” Laura said in a quavering voice after another minute.

“Why not?”

“I...” She sniffled, then started sobbing quietly. “I just can’t, okay? Just ... Please, just move a little farther away so I can go.”

Did she run away from home or something? There’s definitely no houses like that one in the photo anywhere around here. I feel like I’ve seen that kind of construction before, though. The roof especially ... Ugh, this isn’t my problem, I just want her gone already. “Why do you need me to move?” Alaina asked in an annoyed tone. “I won’t stop you if you leave, I promise.” I’ll even help you re-pack your suitcase to get you out of here faster if I have to.

Laura shrieked, and there was another muffled thump. “It hurts too much!” she moaned after another minute of sobbing. “Please, just ... Just go to the other side of the house or something, I’ll be—”

“What hurts?” Alaina interrupted.

“You do!” Laura yelled in a shrill voice. “Even with a wall between us, it’s like something stabbing into my brain over and over—like something’s clawing my head apart! I don’t understand! What did I do to make you hate me this much?” She hiccuped. “Was it ... If it was what I did to Will, I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry!” she yelled in a voice tinged with despair. “I wasn’t thinking clearly! I know it was wrong! I didn’t want to be forgiven, okay? I just wanted to disappear...” she started to cry again.

“Laura, you sound a little crazy, you know,” Alaina said. That’s an under—

“I’M NOT CRAZY!” Laura screamed. “I’m not!” She went completely silent for a time.

Great. I went from having a free afternoon to trying to negotiate Will’s crazy ex-girlfriend out of my bathroom. Why can’t I just have a single day anymore where something totally bizarre doesn’t happen?

“Maybe I am,” Laura continued after a moment in a quiet, somber tone. “Mom and Dad ... They never came. I kept hoping they would, but...” There was another thump. “I figured, you know, I’m their daughter. They wouldn’t really do it. After a couple weeks, it’d blow over and things would go back to...” She sniffled. “It might be legal, but they’re not bad people—they wouldn’t actually stick to it, not if I was in trouble.”

She sniffled again, then cleared her throat. “Hey,” she called. “Your mom’s the type to lie to patients, right? She said she didn’t talk to my parents—that they didn’t pick up. She said she couldn’t reach them or Ceci on her phone. She lied, right?”

Alaina blinked. I guess I don’t really know much about her bedside manner. Why would she lie to a patient, though? “Why would she lie about that?” she asked after a moment, echoing her thoughts.

“Because...” Laura sniffled, and there was a pause before the sound of a nose being blown came from the bathroom. “I think she did talk to them,” she said. “She’s really good, you know, maybe the best I’ve felt. I can tell when people are lying to me, but with your mom there was nothing, not even the tiniest hint that she was saying anything but the truth.

“She was, though. I was thinking about it all day today.” Laura’s voice broke, but she pushed on. “There’s no way my parents wouldn’t have answered the phone on a Sunday morning. They always sit around reading the paper with the TV on until noon. She talked to them!” Laura sobbed. “She told them, and they didn’t want to come! They didn’t want to see me! I thought for sure ... But...” She started to cry again.

Why would Mom lie about talking to her parents? That doesn’t sound like something she’d do. Alaina frowned. “But why, Laura? Mom’s not someone who would lie right to a person’s face.”

“Because she was being kind,” Laura said after another minute of bawling, sounding exhausted. “She’s been so kind to me all weekend, and even though I can’t feel anything from her, I can still tell how much she cares. She even sat up with me most of the night on Saturday trying to talk to me, even after I...”she trailed off. “I never did apologize to her for that,” Laura said, sounding mournful. “It just hit me so hard. Hey, could you tell her for me? Tell her I’m sorry. For everything.”

Alaina’s eyebrows speed-climbed up her forehead, and she shot to her feet. “You’re not going to like...” An image of Laura lying face down on the bathroom floor, blood seeping from her wrists, stuck vividly in her mind, causing her heart to pound.

“What?” Laura called in a suddenly-mocking voice. “I’m not going to like, kill myself in your bathroom?” She laughed, a creepy laugh that rose in pitch the longer it went on. “Would it even bother you, Little Miss Perfect?” Her voice was mocking. “Sure, I know you’d turn on the tears and make a sad face when the police came or when you were at school—just for appearances, of course! But would you really even care beyond thinking about what type of cleaner to use to get the last traces of the girl you hate so much off your floor?” She laughed again, cutting it off with a sniffle. “That’s our Little Miss Perfect, though: all pretty and perfect on the outside, bored and disdainful on the inside.”

That’s eerily accurate. Almost as if...

A memory she’d forgotten in the span of the tumultuous weekend surfaced.

“He said his last girlfriend had the [Empath] Class,” said Mom. “He said that she only had some very minor abilities: she could vaguely sense emotions...”

“You’re an [Empath],” Alaina said softly.

Laura was silent.

“You’ve been... feeling my emotions?” Alaina said, following along with the thought.

There was a quiet thumping sound from the bathroom. “He told you, did he? I shouldn’t be surprised; you’ve gotten him really wound up over the past couple weeks. Little Miss Perfect, you two kiss yet or are you saving that for after marriage?”

“Stop calling me that!” Alaina said through gritted teeth.

“What? Little Miss Perfect?” Laura laughed again, the same wrong-sounding, creepy laugh. “Am I wrong? Maybe a little peck on the cheek now and then to keep stringing him along? Has he seen you naked?” She paused. “Why are you getting angry?” the [Empath] asked, sounding curious. “Are you mad because someone finally knows who you really are? I thought you’d be more embarrassed and flustered since you’re obviously a virgin.”

Alaina’s mind went blank, and she sat back in her chair absently. “I’m obviously what?”

“You don’t have to lie to me,” said Laura, her voice taking on the same mocking tone as before. “It’s not like we’ll ever see each other again after today. Wouldn’t it be nice to not have to pretend for once? I bet I was your first French kiss the other night, wasn’t I? Glad I could make it memorable for you.”

Alaina started to laugh, and the anger she’d been building up since she’d spotted the other girl that afternoon fizzled out. “Wait,” she said between peals of laughter, holding her stomach. “You think...” She had to stop, doubling over as she gasped for breath. “Laura, I can’t even—” she lost track of herself as she laughed, squeezing her eyes shut until she felt a tear rolling down her cheek. “You think I’ve been blue-balling Will?” She shook with laughter at the idea. I have a fucking Class that’s made for sex and she thinks I’m a fucking virgin? I can shoot tentacles out of my vagina! I lived on Will’s cum for half a day over the weekend. The thoughts only made her laugh harder.

“Why is that so funny?” Laura called, sounding confused.

“I don’t even know where to start,” Alaina said, reduced to giggling. “Fine, if it’ll get you out of here faster, we’ll do it your way. The first time Will and I fucked, it was in school a couple weeks ago. He came into the SC office, bent me over my desk, and fucked me so hard that I spent the rest of the night in a daze and even went to bed early. The second time, it was in a stairwell in a public building, and I came so hard that I passed out. Last Monday, we were on our way out for the night, and I made him pull over on the highway so I could go down on him because I got too horny. Should I keep going, or do you feel how honest I’m being?” She continued giggling at the absurdity of the notion. A virgin [Onahole]!

Laura was silent.

“Laura?” Alaina said with a grin once the laughter had finally died out. “What’s wrong? Don’t tell me you’re feeling jealous?”

“No,” Laura said in a sad voice. “I’m...” There was a thump. “I’m so stupid. I ruined everything, didn’t I?” she said softly. “I tried telling myself at least I was stopping you from harassing Will, that at least something I did to him last week wasn’t so awful I should be dead.” Another thump sounded, then a sniffle. “I’m sorry, Alaina,” she said, followed by more sniffling. “I know you won’t believe me, but I wish I’d never done it.”

“Why did you do it?” Alaina asked. It’s been driving me crazy all week trying to figure this out. Well, maybe not crazy, but...

“I don’t...” Laura trailed off. There was another sniffle, and then a rustling. “I don’t want to ruin anything else for you. I’m just going to leave.”

The doorknob turned.

“I thought you said you weren’t going to leave as long as I was right here,” Alaina said.

The door opened, and Laura shuffled out. Her eyes and nose were red and puffy, the rest of her face splotchy. Her lips trembled when she spotted Alaina, and she looked down, hugging her arms under her chest. “It’s ... It’s not as bad as before. Thanks, um ... I guess thanks for hating me a little less?” She gave a half-smile, half-grimace, her eyes flicking up, then she shambled towards the doorway.

Alaina felt her chance at closure slipping away. I can’t let her leave without telling me. She can run away to wherever, and I won’t care, but this Is going to eat at me for the rest of my life if I can’t figure it out, especially if she didn’t tell Will. She took a deep breath and steeled herself, then stood up. “Wait,” she said, taking a step towards the atrium.

Laura looked back at her warily, already crouching down to re-pack and close up her suitcase. “Curiosity? About what? Don’t you want me to leave?”

“You’re just going to disappear somewhere?” Alaina tried. “Don’t you want to talk to Will again before you go? He’s—”

“No,” the older girl pressed her lips together tightly and shook her head. “No. I can’t. I don’t ever want him to have to talk to me again. Not after what I did.”

“But last night—”

“Last night was way more than I deserved,” Laura said, turning back to her suitcase and holding one side down with her knee while she tried to zip it. “He said he didn’t remember anything at the hospital, so I ... I agreed when your mom invited me over to make things right with him. I didn’t expect that would make you hate me so much, though. Then—”

“I don’t hate you because you came to dinner,” Alaina said, crossing her arms and leaning against the doorframe. “I hate you because of what you did to Will. I hate you because you deliberately paraded him around in front of me the rest of the week. I hate you because you made him fuck you on my desk. But mostly, I hate you because when whatever Skill you used wore off, you tried to kill yourself because you couldn’t deal with him not being in love with you anymore. And even after all of that, I hate you even more because he still cares about you somehow.”