Sex (18 page)

Freaked

She pulled Gen into the apartment and slammed the door shut, locking both locks and dragging Gen through the living room. “You're going to be fine now. Don't even sweat that asshole. I'm going to deal with him.”

“I don't know, Gaia,” she said, speaking in that same near whimper Gaia had heard over the phone. She collapsed on the couch and pulled her cigarettes out of her pocket. “If you'd seen his face, you'd be freaking out, too.”

“You can't smoke in here,” Gaia said. Cigarette smoke made her thoroughly ill.

Gen froze with her lighter nearly to her cigarette and gave Gaia the remotest glimpse of a pissed-off look. But her expression snapped back to distraught almost instantly. “I'm just kind of freaking out here,” she explained. “Maybe a half of one…?”

“I'll get us some doughnuts.”

Gaia ran to the kitchen and grabbed a box of doughnuts and two sodas from the fridge. She ran back to the living room, handed Gen her soda, dropped the doughnuts on the coffee table, and collapsed on the couch next to her. “So what happened?”

Gen was incredibly fidgety. Tapping her feet, scratching at her face, flipping her hair back a thousand times. It was pretty scary how nervous a smoker could get
without a cigarette. “He was just … everywhere I turned, you know? In the park, whenever I ate…. I tried to hop a few subways around town, and he was
still there,
looking like he wanted to cut my goddamn throat, you know? I mean, I don't get scared of much, but his look was
scary,
Gaia. Seriously scary. I mean, if I go back out there tonight … I don't know. I just don't know….”

“Well, maybe I should go out there and look for him,” Gaia said. “I bet he followed you here, too.” She got up from the couch, but Gen grabbed her arm, flashing her that same disturbing look of worry.

“No, don't go, okay?” Gen asked quietly, averting her eyes. She was obviously embarrassed to be looking and sounding so needy. Gaia tried to skip over it as quickly as possible.

“Okay, but we should do
something,
you know?” Gaia insisted. “Trust me, I know how this stuff works. If we don't send a serious message to him right now, then you're never going to be safe out there. He's just waiting for his moment now.” Gaia hated rubbing it in—how totally right all her warnings to Gen had been—but this was as vulnerable as she'd probably seen Gen in the brief time she'd known her, and now was the time to hammer her point home. “You're going to find yourself alone at the wrong time, in the wrong place,” she stated. “And then you're dead.”

“I know,” Gen agreed, looking even more nervous. “That's why I thought … No, forget it. Forget it.”

“What?” Gaia asked. “You thought what?”

Gen dropped her head down slightly and watched herself fiddle with her fingers. “Well, I thought, maybe … since he's out
there,
you know … maybe I'd be cool in here.”

“You are,” Gaia agreed. “You're fine here.”

“No, I mean … I thought maybe I could stay here, you know, tonight. It would be just for one night,” she added quickly. “I mean, I could totally figure something else out after that.”

Gaia had two very quick thoughts. One: She couldn't believe Gen would let herself be that needy right to Gaia's face. She was obviously very seriously scared. Two: If Gen stayed in that house, then Natasha would go completely insane when she got home. She would become irrevocably freaked out.

That was a good enough reason right there.

But Gaia wouldn't have said no, anyway. Protecting Gen from Casper had become much too big a priority for her. In fact, it was one of the few priorities she had left, besides avoiding all humankind.

“Don't be a freak—of course you can stay here,” Gaia said, looking Gen in the eye. “You just can't do drugs if you're going to be in my house.”

“I thought it wasn't your house,” Gen pointed out annoyingly.

“Whatever.” Gaia sighed. “No drugs, okay?”

“Okay,
no drugs,” Gen said. “Well …
thanks.”
She
jumped out of the couch with a huge, long sigh of relief.

“No problem.” Gaia smiled.

“So …” Gen looked around the apartment slowly. “Where do I sleep? 'Cause I don't know about you, but I am freakin'
burnt
from this day.”

“Yeah,” Gaia agreed. “Me too. Let's hope tomorrow's not quite so unfortunate. Come on.” She grabbed Gen's arm and pulled her into the bedroom.

“Oh, shit,” Gen laughed the second she stepped into the bedroom. “What the hell is this? You live in the girlie bedroom from hell.”

“I
know.
Shut your mouth.”

“Yes, I agree,” Tatiana yelled from her bed. “Shut your mouth!”

Gen looked over at the bed and threw her hand over her mouth. “Oh, no way,” she moaned, looking back at Gaia with heartfelt pity. “You share a freakin'
room
with Princess Prissy Bitch? You live in the girlie room from hell … with the
girlie girl
from hell?
Bah-hahaha…”

Gen dropped to the floor, laughing hysterically at Gaia's misfortune. Her mood had certainly improved since Gaia told her she could stay.

Tatiana sat up in her bed and gave Gen a look of purely murderous intent. “What is she doing in this house?”

“She's going to be staying the night,” Gaia said.

“What are you talking about?”

“You heard her.” Gen laughed. “I'm staying the
night.” Gen affected the look of a concerned mother. “Oh, don't be scared, Princess Prissy Bitch. Gaia will protect you from me.”

“Yeah, right,” Gaia muttered. “That'll happen.”

Tatiana looked up to Gaia with a piercing stare. “Gaia … please tell me this is not serious.”

“Go back to bed,” Gaia said. “Just go to sleep.”

“Gaia, you make a terrible mistake if—”

“A mistake?” Gen shouted. “A
mistake?”
She made a move toward Tatiana, but Gaia held her back.
“You're
the only mistake around here,
bitch.”
She turned back to Gaia in a huff. “Gaia, we don't really have to sleep in here with Princess Prissy Bitch, right? Tell me there's somewhere else we can sleep. Someplace
private”

Gaia gave Tatiana one last hateful glance. “The den,” she said. “Let's sleep in the den.”

“The den,” Gen agreed. “Definitely the den.” She gave Tatiana a menacing stare as she backed out of the room. “Who knows?” she whispered tauntingly. “Hopefully when we come back to this room … Princess Prissy Bitch will have magically disappeared.”

Memo

From:
G

To:
L

Connection has been secured. Invitation exchanged. Expect company within three hours.

Memo

From:
L

To:
G

Three-hour ETA understood and confirmed. Proceed to level-two2 infiltration and report on results.

Each moment of the last ten minutes had only served to inform her of what an absolute imbecile she was when it came to people.

fetal ball

“WHOA, SLOW IT DOWN THERE, buddy.” Heather giggled uncontrollably. She gripped Josh's arm as though she were hanging on for dear life. “I told you to take it slow.”

Ungiggly Gaze

Heels and drinking, Heather. Heels and drinking. Mental note: Next time you drink… sneakers. Big ones. Big flat ones.

Josh stopped in the middle of East Fourth Street and placed his arm around her waist to help hold her up. “I'm sorry,” he said, laughing. “I didn't realize just how slow was slow.”

“Sloooow.”
She pulled on the lapels of his coat and gazed up at his eyes. “I like to take it
real slooooow.”
She tucked her head into his chest, collapsing into another long laughing fit. “You know…,” she squeaked, as if she were just about to make an earth-shattering scientific discovery. “I think… I'm drunk.” Then she gave in to the giggles again.

“Yeah, I think you might be right about that one.” Josh grinned. “I think I might be, too.”

“Mm-hmm.” Heather nodded. “Yeah. That sounds about right. What the hell was in those Pink Poodles? And more important… how many did I have?” More giggles.

“Well…” Josh considered. “I don't know, and… I don't know.”

“Mm-hmm, yeah, well… I am
pretty damn sure…
that I'm drunk.”

“Yes, indeed,” Josh agreed, swaying slightly from side to side with Heather as they tried to make it down the next block. “We need to keep walking. The fresh air… That's going to solve our little problem.”

“Yes,” Heather agreed. “Walking. Yes. But you just remember, Josh Brown.” She stopped him in the street and grabbed his lapels again. “I am now drunk. And you have to take care of me.”

“Always.” He smiled.

The way he said
always
left Heather melting, swooning, and most likely a few inches off the ground—if she'd been able to feel her feet, she could have been sure.
“Really?”
she mused, playing the romantic lead in some old sappy movie.
“Always?
You promise?”

“I promise,” Josh nodded.

The way he'd answered was far more serious than Heather's jokey question, and it left them locked in a most ungiggly gaze for what felt like half an hour. Heather gripped his lapels, and Josh's arms held her waist to keep her from falling. She pored over his face from this delectably close distance. He was more beautiful the closer she got.

“You know what?” he murmured.

“What?” she whispered.

Josh suddenly lifted Heather's entire body. She let out a series of giggly hoots and squeals, not having expected
this at all. He swung her around to the building on their left and pressed his body closer to hers, leaning her up against the wall. Heather's heartbeat quadrupled.

Josh lowered his head and let his face graze hers from all sides as she continued to hold tight to his lapels. “Is this okay?” he whispered.

“Yes,” she uttered, barely able to breathe as his hands slid under her coat. Each hand felt twice the size of her waist as he ran his fingers along her skintight dress. She let out the slightest gasp as he surprised her again, suddenly pulling her waist closer to his, even though their bodies couldn't really have gotten any closer.

She let go of his lapels and lifted her arms higher, wrapping them around his neck and clasping her fingers as she pulled his head closer. She could really no longer accept having his lips anywhere else other than against her own.

He leaned down and kissed her deeply, letting the passion of his kiss press her body more firmly up against the wall. God, this was every bit as good as she had dreamed it would be.

“Listen,” he whispered, kissing her ear between words. “We should go somewhere. Do you want to go somewhere?”

“Uh-huh,” she said. “Yes. Anywhere. Where?”

He cupped her face in his hand and kissed her again, leaving them almost no time to breathe—not
that Heather could breathe anymore with him touching her like this. “My dorm is too far,” he said.

“My house is out,” she whispered, leaving out all of the details.

“Ugh,” Josh grunted with short-breathed frustration, dropping his head against her shoulder. “There's
got
to be somewhere close,” he said. “Because I'm going
crazy
here.”

“Me too,” Heather breathed.
“Close.
Close is good.”

Josh pulled his head away for a second and looked in either direction down Fourth Street. “I've
got
it,” he said

“Where?”

“The park,” he said. “Washington Square Park—it's right up there.”

Heather suddenly felt the slightest bit of nausea mix in with all the thrills that were coursing through her body. The park? Ugh. She knew it was close, and
God, yes,
did she want someplace close, but that park? Did it have to be
that
park? She hadn't been in there at night since her attack. Of course she hadn't. How could she possibly go in there at night?

“I don't know….” She wavered.

“No?” he asked, leaning in and kissing her again. “You're sure? It's perfect.”

His kisses were every bit as good as all his other unbelievably perfect qualities, and thinking about anything other than his body was next to impossible, but still… “I know it is, but…”

“Oh God, your attack,” he remembered, pulling back

Heather nodded.

“You've never been back there since?”

“Not at night,” she said.

“Well,
let's go,”
he said with his confident smile, grabbing her hands. “Heather, that there is one of the most beautiful parks in New York City and some group of assholes have ruined it for you. Let's go in there right now and
un
-ruin it. Let's go in there and do something
unforgettable.”
The way he said
unforgettable
sent a shock of warm sparks down her spine. “Then you'll have a perfect new memory to replace the old horrible one,” he said. He leaned in and kissed her firmly on the lips. “Come on, we'll do it together. Let's reclaim that park and make it
ours.
Besides, I told you… I'm taking care of you tonight. Nothing bad is going to happen to you as long as I'm around, Heather. Nothing.”

She absolutely adored his total assurance. His total enthusiasm. It was so childlike and completely… fearless. That's what she loved about Josh. He just wanted what he wanted, and he followed all his impulses. It was so inspiring when he was around. Everything seemed so much simpler, so much less daunting and intimidating—so much more possible. It made Heather feel stronger. It made her want to do and say what
she
wanted, too.