Breaking Masks

by Josh Aterovis

  “Do you like him?”

  “I wouldn't be dating him if I didn't like him.”

  “Do you love him?”

  I hesitated. “I think...I think it's a little early to be talking about love, but...I think it's safe to say I'm falling in love with your brother.”

  “That's exactly what I was hoping you'd say.” I heard the grin in his voice over the phone.

  “Does that mean I passed?”

  “I think so.”

  “Great! Hey look, as much as I hate to do this, I really need to go. I overslept this morning and now I'm late for class.” I paused. “Speaking of which, shouldn't you be in school?”

  “I should be.” He snickered. “I guess you could say I played hooky today. I told Dad I was sick so he let me stay home. I had to stay in bed and act like I felt bad until he finally left for work. Whenever one of us gets sick he turns into Nurse Nightingale. I thought he'd never leave so I could call you. I figured it would be best if I called when he wasn't around. If he was here, you'd have two interrogators instead of one, and I figured you could wait awhile before you met the parental unit. We'll put off that torture as long as possible.”

  “I hope he's not that bad!”

  “He's not. He's a really great dad. But knowing him, he'll be planning your wedding before you get to your first month's anniversary.”

  I laughed. “Sounds like my Mom. They should meet. Now, I really do have to go. I hope you don't get in trouble with your dad.”

  “I won't...as long as he doesn't find out. Hint, hint.”

  I laughed again. “He won't hear it from me.”

  “We're all good then?”

  “We're good. So...yeah. Feel free to call me anytime. Do you want my screen name? You can instant message me too.”

  “Sure!”

  We swapped information and said our goodbyes. I hung up and rushed to the shower before the phone could ring again. As I stood under the hot spray of water, I thought about Charlie and what a cool kid brother he was. Kody was really lucky. I didn't have that kind of relationship with my one remaining brother, Dashel. I rarely saw him, and since we hadn't grown up together, we weren't very close.

  Thinking about Dash made me remember Mom's strange phone call, and her strangely subdued reaction to my good news. Mom's hunches were seldom mistaken. If she felt something was wrong, then I must be missing something. I felt my mood slipping down the drain with the soap I rinsed off my body.

  What could be wrong? Could it be Foster? Things weren't great there, but they were better than they were. He was more of an annoyance than anything. I was doing fine in all my classes. The only nastiness lately had been that brief encounter with Becca in the Coop. Becca! That had to be it. I had a sudden need to hear Kody's voice. I shut off the water, hastily wrapped a towel around my waist, and charged back to my room.

  I threw open the door and ran smack into Roy's huge chest. He and I both yelped as we leaped apart, and somehow my towel flew off in the process. I dove after it, my face aflame, as Roy thoughtfully turned his back to give me some semblance of privacy.

  “Hey Jake,” he said as if we'd just met out on the quad.

  “Hi, Roy. I, uh, didn't expect you to be in here.”

  “Yeah. Sorry about that. Didn't mean to scare you. But hey, it's not like you've got anything to be ashamed of, ya know?”

  “Roy, I'm going to try very hard to forget you just said that, okay? Let's never mention it again.”

  “I'm just sayin'...”

  “Roy. Never speak of it. Ever.”

  “Okay.”

  “What are you doing here anyway?” I asked as I pulled on a pair of boxer briefs.

  “I didn't see you around this morning and then Kody ran out of class. I knew you guys spent the weekend together so I thought maybe you'd know why.”

  “Kody left class?” I stopped in the middle of pulling on a pair of jeans.

  “Yep, right in the middle of class. He just jumped up and ran out.”

  I finished pulling on the pants and opened the drawer where I'd stashed Kody's phone number.

  “What are you doing?” Roy asked.

  “I'm going to call and see if he's home.” I dialed the number and listened to it ring several time with no answer.

  “No answer?” he asked when I hung up. I shook my head no. “He could be around school somewhere.”

  “Yeah, I'm sure it's nothing.” I wasn't sure though. Coming on the tail of Mom's vague warning, Kody's disappearing act had me a little worried. Was he sick? If so, what if it was serious—so serious that he couldn't even answer the phone? “Maybe I should walk over to his apartment and check.”

  “Don't you have class?”

  “Yeah, but I've already missed one this morning, what's one more?”

  “I'll come with you.”

  “No, that's okay, Roy. You don't have to miss class because of me. Is Kody in your next class too?” He nodded. “Then if he's there, tell him to get in touch with me somehow. Okay?”

  “Sure will, Jake. You really like him, dontcha?”

  I smiled, despite the gnawing feeling of worry growing in my stomach. “Yeah, I really do. I think I might even be falling in love with him.”

  “Wow.” Roy's face grew pensive. “Do you think someone could ever love me?”

  I stopped and just looked over at my large friend. It was easy to forget that he had feelings just like everyone else. “Yeah, I'm sure you'll find the right girl someday, Roy. What about that girl we saw you with yesterday?”

  “Jen?”

  “Yeah.”

  He shrugged. “She's nice. I spent the night with her.” I felt my eyes growing wide at that thought. “I don't think she loves me, though.”

  “Well, uh, it's probably a little early for that yet. I mean, how long have you known her?”

  “A few days?”

  “Yeah, um, give it some time, see what develops.”

  He nodded thoughtfully as if Id just given him some deep piece of sage advice. “Thanks, Jake. You're a good friend.”

  I smiled affectionately at him. “I try, Roy. Remember, if you see Kody, tell him to call me.”

  “I will. Later, Jake.”

  “See you later, Roy.”

  He left and I quickly finished dressing before following him out the door. I practically ran down the street to Kody's apartment. I was at the top of the flight of stairs before the door closed all the way, plunging me into darkness. I knocked on Kody's door, waited, then knocked again. There was no answer, not even any sound of movement from within. I tried knocking on Nick's door too, but there was no answer there either. My heart felt like it was about to beat out of my chest. Why are you so worried? They're probably in class, where you should be!

  I stood in the stairwell for a few more minutes, before giving up. I decided to check the Morning Rush before heading back to campus. Max looked up as I pushed through the door and gave me a small smile and a weak wave. “Hiya, Jake.”

  “Hi, Max. Have you seen Kody around today?”

  “No,” she replied as she ambled to the coffee pots to start fresh cups. She placed a hand on her forehead as she walked. “He worked this morning, but I haven't seen him since then. Do I have a temperature? I think I'm sick, and that's the last thing I need.”

  “Uh, I don't know.” I took a closer look at her. She did look a little pale. “Come here.” She walked slowly back to the counter and leaned against it. I pressed my palm to her forehead the way my mom used to do to me, but she grabbed my hand.

  “Not like that,” she said. “With the other side.” She pressed the back of my hand to her head once again.

  “You feel okay to me,” I reported.

  “You feel great to me too, baby!”

  I giggled and snatched my hand back.

  She winked. “Don't worry, I won't tell Kody you were feeling me up.”

  “Are you here alone?”

  “Yeah, but Mike should be coming in soon.”

>   I blushed at the mention of Mike and the scene we'd interrupted the day before. Max didn't even seem to notice. She was definitely not herself. “Well if Kody should stop by, will you please tell him I'm looking for him?”

  “No! You can't leave me! What if I fall over? Who'll come to my rescue?”

  “Um, I'm kind of in a hurry. I need to find Kody...”

  “Yeah, yeah, yeah. Just like all the other guys. You touch me then run off. Fine, go, but now I'm telling Kody you touched me.” She giggled, then gasped and pressed her hand to her stomach.

  “Are you sure you're okay? Maybe I should stay until Mike gets here.” She really wasn't looking all that great.

  “Aw, you really do care! No, you go ahead. I was just kidding. I'm sure I'll be fine. Mike will be here any minute. Go find Kody with a K.”

  “If you're sure... I hope you feel better.”

  She smiled. “Thanks, Jake. You're a good kid. Kody is one lucky boy.”

  I left Max and walked back to campus. I grabbed some lunch, then forced myself to go to my afternoon classes. Sitting in my seat was the purest form of torture I'd ever experienced. It was a complete waste of time. I couldn't tell you a single thing that was said in any class. I was simply going through the motions while my brain was focused only on Kody. Where was he?

  As soon as my last class ended, I rushed back to my room to see if there was any message from Kody. Foster was in the room with his girlfriend. It was the first time I'd gotten a good look at her, at least while she was fully clothed. She looked about like what I would expect Foster's girlfriend to look like. She was thin to the point of anorexia, with a fake tan, bottle-blonde hair, and bright red pouty lips. She was wearing tight jeans and a hot pink tummy shirt that boldly stated “White Trash”. There is truth in advertising after all, I thought.

  “Hey Jake, this is my girl, Fawn.”

  Damn, she even had a stripper name. “Hey Foster. Hey Fawn.”

  “So this is Jake,” Fawn rasped with a nasty little smile that revealed yellowed teeth. She looked and sounded like she was supporting a three-pack-a-day habit. “I've heard a lot about you.”

  “Yeah, well, I've seen a lot of you. Foster, has Kody called here for me since you've been in?”

  “Nope. Kody's his boyfriend,” he added to Fawn, who giggled.

  “Right. Well, if he calls, tell him I'm looking for him. I'll be back later.” I let myself back out of the room with no small relief.

  I ran into Roy in the first floor lobby. He was talking to Erin, who was on duty behind the desk. “Hey Roy, hey Erin,” I greeted them before focusing on Roy. “Was Kody in class?”

  “Nope. Sorry Jake.” Jen entered the lobby just then, distracting Roy's attention. He trotted over to her side, and they started talking.

  “Don't tell me you've lost your man already!” Erin joked as I watched Roy with affectionate amusement.

  My mood quickly turned dark again. “I don't know what's going on,” I told her. “Roy said he ran out of class this morning and I haven't been able to find him since. I've checked his apartment and the coffee shop, and now apparently he didn't go to classes this afternoon either.”

  A little frown creased Erin's forehead. “I'm sure it's nothing to be worried about,” she said. I raised one eyebrow. “Okay, yeah, that does sound a little unusual, but don't go overboard. Something could have come up. Just stay calm. He could be back at his apartment now.”

  “That's true. I didn't even call when I was just up in my room.”

  “You want to call from here?”

  “I don't have his number memorized and I definitely don't want to go back up to my room right now. Foster and Fawn were probably getting it on before I had the door closed all the way.” I shuddered at the memory that thought brought up.

  “Her name is really Fawn?” Erin asked in amazement.

  “I didn't ask to see her ID, but that's what Foster said. I'll just walk over to Kody's apartment again. It's not that far.”

  “Okay,” she said with a smile. “If you need me for anything, you know where to find me.”

  “Thanks Erin.” I gave her a quick hug and left.

  I was halfway across campus when I heard a voice call out my name. I spun around to find Becca sauntering towards me with a self-satisfied smirk on her face. “I've been looking for you,” she said as she drew near.

  “I don't have time for this right now, Becca.”

  “Oh, I think you'll want to make time.”

  “Not for you.” I turned and started walking away.

  “After our conversation at the Coop the other night, I did a little research,” she called after me. I slowed a little but kept walking. “It's amazing what you can learn from a simple Google search.”

  I stopped as a cold feeling began to wash over me. I listened as Becca's heels clicked up behind me. She walked around to face me. “Does the name Fenton Black ring a bell?”

  I had a sudden urge to punch the smug expression off her face. I felt my hands balling into fists at my sides. She noticed and her smile grew a little more.

  “I guess it does. I believe he was your former lover...or should I say supplier. Or do you prefer pimp?”

  “You don't know what you're talking about,” I managed to say. My voice was strained. I sounded scared even to my own ears.

  “Don't I? I have the articles to back it all up, actual news articles I printed off the Internet. You can really find out anything about anyone on there. They don't call it the information superhighway for nothing.”

  “Fine, you know I have a past I'm not proud of—so what?”

  “We've barely scratched the surface, Jakie. There's the whole issue of being charged with Mr. Black's murder...”

  “I was cleared!”

  “And the drug overdoses...”

  “I'm clean now!”

  “You were quite a bad boy, and I have all the dirty details.”

  “What do you want?”

  Her eyes suddenly narrowed and the smile vanished from her face. “I don't want anything. I've already gotten what I want.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I had a conversation with your boyfriend this morning.”

  I felt my stomach drop. “You what?” I whispered.

  “I told him everything I'd learned and gave him copies of all the articles. I thought it was only fair that he knew exactly who he was dating. You should have seen his face.”

  “You bitch!”

  The cruel smile returned. “Call me what you want. I said you'd be sorry. Now you are. Buh-bye, Jake.” She turned on her heel and sashayed away, her hips swinging with every step. Part of me wanted to run after her and just beat the crap out of her. The larger part was in a complete panic, however. I had to find Kody. I had to explain to him, try to do damage control. I should have just been honest with him up front. I knew that now, but it was too late. Becca was right, I was sorry. Kody probably hated me now, and I had no one to blame but myself.

  I broke into a full-out run towards Kody's apartment. I ran as if my life depended on it, shoving people out of the way and vaulting over any obstacle that got in my way. Angry shouts and stares followed in my wake, but my only thought was that I had to get to Kody.

  I exploded into his building and took the stairs in giant leaps. I banged frantically on his door, calling his name over and over. “Kody, if you're in there, please open the door! I need to talk to you!”

  Nick's door swung open and he poked his head into the hall. “Jake, dude, are you okay?” he asked with concern.

  “Have you seen Kody?”

  “No, I haven't talked to him all day. I don't think he's in his room.”

  “Fuck!”

  “Jake, what's wrong?”

  “Everything! I have to find Kody.” I ran back down the steps, leaving Nick calling after me to wait. I didn't listen. Tears were blurring my vision now, but it didn't slow me down. I'd finally been given everything I'd thought I'd never have, and then I'd s
crewed it all up because I was afraid.

  I ran to the Morning Rush, but the door was locked when I reached it. I pressed my face against the glass, but though the lights were still on, it was obviously deserted. Where could he be? I didn't know where else to look. I stood on the sidewalk and felt like I was falling. It was all over. One perfect weekend was all we'd had. Kody had heard the truth and it was more than he could handle. Wherever he was, he was avoiding me. He didn't want to see me.