“Do you mind if I delete this?” she asked, reaching towards the keyboard.
He smacked her hand back.
“Ow!”
“Why would we delete it?” he scoffed.
“Well, you’ve seen it a hundred times already.”
Probably more, she refrained from saying.
“Have you even sent it to Troy and Jesse?” she pressed. “To the football team? To YouTube?”
He said nothing.
“This is my favorite part,” he giggled.
Jesse licked Troy’s nipple. Devon writhed in delight.
“No pretending you’re not a fag after that,” he sneered.
“I suppose not,” Liza said quietly, drawing herself to her full height and stepping back.
She regarded Devon, and then the Creation. It was surrounded by cat litter. It reeked. Surely a relationship had more to offer than this.
From between her breasts, she pulled out Evan’s phone number. She considered it for a moment, tucking it safely away again. She was tired of Devon, tired of his Creation, and, most importantly, she was tired of being Lezzie Liza. In that moment, her mind was made up.
“You and your boyfriends have fun,” she said to Devon, turning and walking away.
Over his shoulder, still not looking away from the monitor, he yelled, “You’ve got another date tonight!”
Patting her bosom she muttered to herself, “Yes I do.”
It was well past midnight when a jet-black pickup truck pulled into Liza’s driveway. She watched Evan’s hand guiding the wheel with strength and confidence. The beast of a vehicle grumbled to a halt, and he cut the engine. They sat there for a moment, silently watching the buzz of mosquitoes diving into the insect zapper hanging from the sagging awning. He looked at her, and Liza’s breathing quickened. He leaned over and they made out—for the fifth time that night! His tongue was rough and clumsy, but she didn’t care. It made her feel desirable.
He pulled back and smiled at her mischievously.
“So you going to invite me in?” he asked.
She looked to her dilapidated house. Her aunt’s house, actually.
“That’s strange,” Liza said, her brow furrowed.
“What?” Evan said, sliding his fingers under her dress. She let him work his way half up her thigh before smacking his hand.
“The TV’s on,” she said.
“Maybe you forgot to switch it off,” he said.
She shook her head.
“Someone’s in there, on the couch.”
Evan’s body tensed all over.
“I’ll go check it out,” he said.
“No! My aunt must have called in sick for her overnight shift,” Liza lied. “Now probably isn’t the best time to meet her.”
“That’s cool,” he whispered, nuzzling her neck, “I know somewhere else we can go.”
She reluctantly pushed him back.
“I really have to go check on my aunt,” she said, about to get out of the truck.
“Wait!” he said, hopping out and rushing around to open Liza’s door.
“My Lady,” he said, taking her fingers and helping her down. It made her heart race. Finally! He moved in with his tongue aimed at her mouth, and she was careful to keep her lips closed. The poor boy had no idea how much danger he was in.
“I don’t want my aunt to see,” she explained.
“I had a real nice time tonight, Liza,” he said.
“Me too,” she beamed.
She stared at his strong shoulders in his letterman’s jacket as he got back in his rig, and waved as the truck pulled away. Her smile quickly cracked when the headlights disappeared down the street.
She marched for the front door. There was no need to unlock it. The handle and lock had been reduced to metallic putty, and the door itself stood ajar.
“Devon!” she called, stepping inside.
From the hall she had a clear view of the couch, but it was now deserted. The TV played black and white reruns of The Addams Family.
She took a tremulous breath.
“Devon?” she called. The entire house shook from the force of her voice.
She opened her mouth a third time, and a hand closed tight around it.
“Now, now, Liza,” he said, “we wouldn’t want you waking the neighbors.”
Liza’s breathing grew hard. He was going to kill her, probably do to her what he’d done to his own mother. What would it feel like to be permanently melded to the couch, where she spent so much of her time, the remote merged with her hand forevermore? She waited for his fingers to sink into her, but instead he shoved her into a chair.
“I was worried sick about you,” he spat. “You just go out and don’t come back? I tried calling…”
Liza tried to process the fact that she was still alive, and that Devon actually sounded like he cared.
“My cell was turned off,” Liza said, trying to sound defiant.
“I noticed. And for what? To go out with some dickhead jock?”
“He’s not a dickhead,” Liza said. “He pays attention to me.”
“I pay attention to you.”
“He likes my body.”
Devon opened his mouth and snapped it shut.
“You need to come home,” he growled.
“I am home,” Liza countered, “Or hadn’t you noticed?”
“This dump?”
“Yes,” she said. “Not all of us come from money. How are the mortgage payments going on Mummy’s house, by the way?”
“Yeah,” he muttered, “like this place is paid off.”
“Actually,” she said, “it is.”
“So this is it.” He waved around. “This is what you want your life to be like? Dating some lame jock who’s going to get old and fat, probably turn into a drunk, your ankle chained to the stove as you pop out a couple of kids?”
“I’d like to have a baby, actually.”
“That is such a frigging cliché,” he shouted. “Liza, this isn’t you.”
“You never bothered to find out who I actually am,” she yelled. The force made Devon stagger back a step. “I like Evan,” she continued. “He likes me. And I have friends, too, real friends.”
“What, like Mandy, who thinks you’re a dyke? Or Chad, who’s buffed himself to such a shine you can see your reflection in his pecs?”
“You don’t know them the way I do,” she replied, her nose raised haughtily, though truth be told she’d barely spoken to the boys, and he had a point about Mandy. But Evan, Evan had never done her wrong. Devon, on the other hand…
“You can’t be serious,” he scoffed. “The whole point of you hanging out with them was to gather information, and instead you what? Learn some bull crap moral lesson?”
“It’s done, Devon,” she said, outwardly calm even if inside she trembled at the finality of this decision. “We’re done. I don’t want
to be part of your twisted, lonely life.”
“Just like that?” he huffed. “After everything we’ve done together? Everything we’ve shared?”
“Devon, just go.”
“I don’t think so.”
He ran at her, hands extended.
She let go a demonic shriek. The sound wave sent the TV smashing into the wall and Devon flew backwards, crashing into the front closet. The clothes rail fell on top of him, burying him under a worn winter jacket, along with a few overalls with the name Madge stenciled on the front breast pocket.
“Get out,” Liza ordered. “And if you ever try to lay one of those hands on me again, I’ll scream so hard your head will pop.”
“You need me, Liza,” he protested.
She opened her mouth threateningly and he scuttled out the door. Liza looked at what was left of the door handle. It was mash from Devon’s touch.
What if he comes back while I’m sleeping?
She grabbed her keys from where she’d dropped them and went out to her aunt’s old pickup truck. Ten minutes later it was pulli
ng in behind a yellow VW Bug. Mandy nearly exploded with glee when she opened the door.
“I knew you’d be back,” she cried. She grabbed Liza’s hand and dragged her upstairs to the bedroom, prattling the entire time, “I have got the best hemp granola recipe ever! We are totally playing Martha tonight.”
“Mandy, this is serious,” Liza said as they sat on the bed.
“Oh my Goddess,” Mandy said, “are you allergic to hemp?”
“Mandy!” Liza snapped, making the entire room shake.
After everything that had happened that night, Liza desperately needed a friend, an actual friend, one she could really talk to, and she was tired of playing lesbian wet nurse. Before that damn bottle
of Etienne water she didn’t speak to anybody about anything, but now that she’d gotten used to opening up to Devon, everything just wanted to spill out. No wonder people were constantly vomiting up personal information.
“I’ve been keeping things from you,” Liza said, “and I can’t anymore. You know that guy Devon in our class?”
“Yeah, yeah, vampire guy.”
“Right,” Liza agreed. “Well…”
“Shh,” Mandy said, holding her finger up to Liza’s lip, “not another word. I get it. I’ve seen you guys talking on the sly.”
“You have?” Liza asked.
“Liza, I can turn invisible. I know what’s going on.”
“You do?” The thought filled Liza with horror. Who else knew? The police?
“Liza,” Mandy sighed, “you were experimenting. I get it.”
Liza thought of the Creation; an experiment indeed.
“You don’t think it’s weird?” Liza asked.
“It would be weird if you didn’t experiment,” Mandy assured her. “I mean, being a lesbian, wow! Not exactly something you turn your back on. So you wanted to be sure. You fooled around with Devon. No big. I saw Chasing Amy.”
“Mandy, I’m not talking about…”
Liza’s words cut off. She looked down. Mandy was stroking her thigh.
“I’ve been thinking about what you said at the mall today,” Mandy explained, her fingers inching their way up Liza’s skirt. “And you’re right. I’ve never been with a woman. So if I’m going to do this lesbian thing, then I’ve really got to do it.”
Her nail hooked under Liza’s underwear.
“Oh God,” Liza cursed in panic.
“Goddess,” Mandy corrected. Her other hand began to clumsily caress Liza’s breasts.
“You don’t have to be coy anymore,” Mandy said. “Our love dares speak its name.” Liza did the only thing she could think to do. She began to sing. “Hush little baby, don’t say a…”Mandy lurched forward, her mouth swallowing Liza’s, choking the melody away with a full-on lesbo kiss.
Chapter 20
The next morning at school, Liza was pulling her geometry textbook from her locker when she was suddenly grabbed from behind. She panicked, and readied to blast Devon with her voice before he could unleash his power on her.
She stared into Evan’s face and clamped her mouth shut.
“You okay?” he asked.
“You scared me,” she choked.
“You haven’t answered my text messages,” he said.
“I’ve been busy?” she replied uncertainly.
“Well, un-busy yourself. We’ve got a game tonight. You should be there to cheer me on,” he said. His hand brushed her thigh ever so slightly.
“I…I don’t have anyone to sit with,” she said nervously.
“Sit with your pal Mandy,” he said as Mandy stopped next to the pair.
“Is this jerk bothering you?” Mandy asked.
He kissed Liza on the cheek. “Gotta go! Remedial English calls.”
Mandy planted her hand on her hip.
“He just won’t give up. As soon as some guys see a pair of dykes together, all they can think is threesome.”
“Listen, there’s something I need to tell you,” Liza said.
“Yes, there is,” Mandy said. “Why’d you take off this morning? I got out of the shower and you were gone. I was worried sick.”
“I’ve been getting that a lot lately,” Liza said. “It’s just…”
“You freaked, after we…” Mandy rolled her eyes and then gave a wink. “It’s cool. I was a little weirded out myself. I mean, wow! Talk about female energy.”
“Yeah, not really what I wanted to chat about.”
“Best not to ruin it with words,” Mandy nodded. “It’s too pure.”
“Sure,” Liza agreed. “So, tonight—I know you quit cheerleading and all, but do you want to go to the game with me?”
“Yes!” Mandy replied, just a little too excitedly. “I mean, whatever.”
“Great. And there’s one other tiny little thing,” Liza said. “I’m not a dyke.”
“We’ve been over this…” Mandy shook her head.
“I’m into Evan,” Liza pressed. “He’s into me. And for the record, he’s not looking for a threesome. You’re not his type.”
Mandy struggled for something to say.
“See you at the game tonight!” Liza said brightly, sauntering away.
Chad Lenwick stood outside.
“I can’t believe it’s come to this,” he said.
His feet teetered over the edge of a stone wall, ready to take the plunge of no return. The wind gusted up from below. He had no one. Not his father, not Troy, not Mandy, not even little Gibbie. This was it. He felt a faint wave of vertigo from the oblivion waiting at the bottom of this inevitable fall.
“Chad!”
It was Mandy. She always knew when he was teetering on the verge.
“Don’t do it!” she begged.
He turned around and saw her running out a door and towards him as fast as she could. This was their favorite hangout place— the view was amazing—so of course she’d known where to find him. His only surprise was that she’d want to find him at all. And yet she jumped fearlessly onto the wall where he stood and grabbed his arm.
“I have to,” he said. “It’s the only way.”
Together they stared at the triple chocolate cookie he held in his hand.
“I just can’t take the loneliness anymore.”
“It’s going to be okay,” she said. “Just put the cookie down, okay? It’s not worth it. Let’s take this nice and easy. I’m just going to put my fingers on the cookie, see? Now on the count of three, I want you to let go of the cookie. One…”
“Oh, just take it,” he said, letting it go and hopping the two feet to the ground. “I’ve got another one in my backpack.”
The rugby team from the nearby college jogged past. The view from here was not just fine—it was damn fine.
She took a ravenous bite and, with her mouth full, she said, “We have to find Gibbie.”
“I don’t think he wants to see me right now,” Chad countered. “Besides, you dumped me, quit cheerleading, and now you’re eating carbs. I don’t even know you anymore.”
She grabbed him by the collar of his pink polo and yanked on it.
“Find him!” she ordered.
He smiled and hugged her tight.
“My Mandy is back!”
At that particular moment Gibbie sat on a stool in chemistry class, drawing a picture of Chad while liquid bubbled in a beaker on the Bunsen burner in front of him. He drew a monstrous metal hunter’s trap around Chad’s head, ready to chomp shut. He admired his work until the pencil was pulled out of his fingers.
It hung in the air before him, and then began to write, all on its own, next to the image of Chad. It then set itself back into Gibbie’s flexed fingers.
He gazed down at what it had written: “Hallway, now!”
“Is something the matter, Mr. Allstar?” his teacher asked.
“I, uh…” He looked back down at Mandy’s bubbly handwriting. “I really need to go to the restroom.”
“Well, turn your Bunsen burner down first.”
His beaker of orange fluid had started to boil over.
Outside the classroom, Gibbie took one look at Chad and appeared ready to go right back inside. He bounced off of Liza’s force field.
“Sorry,” she said, extending her hand and helping him up.
“Chad, I told you…,” Gibbie began.
“This ain’t about me, girlfriend,” he said. “Talk to inviso-girl over there.”
“What?” he said to Mandy.
“Wow, you weren’t kidding. He has gotten bitchy,” Mandy said.
“And you’ve gotten dikey,” he replied.
“Snap,” Chad said under his breath.
“Actually,” Mandy said, “that’s what I wanted to talk to you about. Remember when you said there might be other stuff that we all have in common, and that’s why the water affected us the way it did?”
“Well, it was actually the fluoride isotope in the water, but yeah.”
“Could…” She took a deep breath. “Could sexual orientation be one of those factors? I mean, you’re gay, Chad’s gay, Liza’s a dyke, right?”
“I thought she was dating Evan from the football team,” Gibbie replied.
“How did I go from the first to know everything to the last?” Mandy sighed.
“Look,” Gibbie sighed. “First of all, my big brother’s not gay, okay? He’s the straightest guy I know.”
Chad and Mandy looked to each other knowingly.
“And even if he were, that doesn’t mean Liza’s a lesbian. Gay men’s brains and straight women’s brains have similarities that straight guys and lesbians don’t. If you were right about this whole sexual orientation correlation, my guess is that the guys who were affected would be gay, and the women would be straight. Now, if you’ll please excuse me.”
He gave them a dirty look and went back into class.
Mandy looked ready to cry. “Did he just say what I think he said?”
Chad nodded.
“You are straight!” he said, hopping up and down while clapping excitedly.
She grabbed him by the arm and dragged him down the hallway.
“I quit cheerleading. I cut my hair. I pierced my nose!”
“Yeah,” Chad winced, then tried to find a silver lining. “Look on the bright side, at least you and Liza never made out, right?”
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