Unbreakable (17 page)

"God dammit, Katherine Schaub, don't you make me rifle your pockets!" She did her best not to, but a tiny smile flashed across Audrey's face before it was covered up by a suitably outraged look. "Cough it up."

Katherine's body suddenly went totally limp and tears filled her eyes. "I can't believe you're manhandling me like this. We're grown women, for God's sake. What's the matter with you? You're hurting me!"

Audrey's jaw dropped and her heart began to hammer. "I– I– I'm sorry. I–" She instantly let go of Katherine, only to find herself flipped onto her back with Katherine straddling her chest.

"Sucker!"

"Argh!" Audrey struggled wildly. "Asshole."

"I've been pulling that one on you since kindergarten." She paused, nearly being bucked off. "Whoa! Hehe. You'd think you'd have learned by– wah!"

Audrey succeeded in throwing Katherine off her and scrambled to grab the woman who was desperately trying to crawl away.

Frances continued to watch them with wide eyes.

"Gotcha." Audrey used her greater mass to hold down Katherine, her knees pinning her by the chest, her arms holding Katherine's wrists to the floor. Her chest was heaving and her dark curls were hanging in her face, sticking to skin now glistening with perspiration.

"Lemme go, you cow," Katherine sputtered, straining against Audrey's grip and thinking this beat the hell out of Pilates any day.

"Yeah, right." Ebony-colored eyes narrowed. "You're in for it now."

Katherine froze. She'd heard that tone of voice many times before. "I am?" she squeaked.

"Oh, yeah. I have a 13-year-old boy. I've seen, heard, and smelled things so disgusting my toes curl just thinking about them."

Katherine's eyes bugged. "Uh oh."

Remembering one of Katherine's favorite and totally repulsive childhood tricks, Audrey gathered a large glob of spit in her mouth and began to slowly push it forward.

"Shit!" Katherine screamed, redoubling her efforts to escape.

Frances was transfixed on the unlikely scene playing out before her. "Sweet Jesus," she muttered, now quite glad she'd never had any children. Even 40-year-old ones.

Audrey nearly choked to death on her own spit when she began to laugh, and no one in the room heard the front door open over the sounds of her gagging.

"Stop, stop!" Katherine's head thrashed back and forth. "I'll do anything!"

"Wasn't that your reputation in high school, Katy?" Nina, with a bag slung over her shoulder, calmly stepped over both women. She turned to Frances. "Rooms are upstairs?"

The stunned woman nodded mutely.

"Save me, Nina," Katherine begged. "Puhleez!"

Nina's body shook with laughter, and she forced herself not to turn around as she ascended the first few stairs. "My son told me that if you spit up just as the other person is spitting down, you can fling their own spit back on them along with yours."

Frances looked horrified and began wringing her hands at the inevitable.

Audrey slurped back the tail of saliva that was beginning to dangle from her lips. "Oh, my God! Gross!" She jumped off Katherine, not willing to have such a disgusting event occur. "No fair telling her that, Nina. For once I had her right where I wanted her."

"You've been wanting to spit on me?" Katherine squealed, eyes dancing with naughtiness. Despite everything she was going have fun this weekend.

Nina turned around and grinned impishly at her friends. "Hi, guys."

Katherine and Audrey ran up the stairs and threw their arms around her into a group bear hug that threatened to crush the air out of all their lungs. Just being in the same room together was a little uncomfortable, like something was out of place and yet familiar. And Nina decided that being reunited with people who knew so much about your past, knew so many intimate details about what shaped you from the girl you were into the woman of today, was a little scary and a lot wonderful.

Nina cleared her throat, emotion welling within her. She looked at them both, love showing clearly in her eyes. "It's so great to see you both."

Katherine and Audrey could only nod their agreement. When Katherine sniffed a few times as though she was actually going to break down and cry, Audrey rode to the rescue, knowing how much that display of emotion would bother her cousin. "You said you have a son, Nina?"

Nina beamed. "Robbie. He's 9."

A million other questions danced on the tip of her tongue, but Audrey settled for saying, "That's so great. I always thought you'd be a wonderful mom. "

Frances breathed a sigh of relief that things appeared to be getting back to normal.

A few other words were exchanged before Katherine wondered out loud. "What did you get Gwen for her birthday?"

"Hemlock," Nina answered immediately, resituating her bag on her shoulder.

Katherine whistled through her teeth and hissed a low-pitched, "Damn." She was glad she wasn't Gwen.

"That sucks." Audrey sighed aggrievedly, pushing her thick hair out of her face and straightening her shirt. "Now I'm going to have to take mine back."

All three women shared grim smiles and trotted up the stairs, Katherine taking a few extra seconds to retrieve her own mammoth suitcase before trailing after Audrey, the wheels of her case thumping loudly on each wooden step.

Gwen had said anything could happen this week and Frances groaned as she entered the kitchen. "How could I have known she meant that literally."

*  *  *

Late Spring 1981
Hazelwood, Missouri

"You know, I wish that I had Jessie's girl!" Katy crooned loudly, the stereo of her brown, dented, '72 Chevy Impala blasting at full volume. She pulled up in front of Jacie's house, the summer wind ruffling her freshly permed bob. She tapped the horn, the only thing besides the radio that was in good condition on the car she'd gotten a few weeks before.

Jacie ran out of the house with her sneakers unlaced, a towel in one hand, and a bottle of bug juice in the other. "Hi!" She smiled and wedged into the backseat, crawling over Gwen to slide in between her and Nina.

"Hi, Jacie," Nina greeted brightly, bracing her hand against the doorframe as Katy pressed hard on the gas and they all were flung backwards.

Jacie frowned. "Watch it!"

"'Cos she's watching him with those eyes. And she's lovin' him with that body, I just know it. And he's holding her in his arms late, late at night," Audrey screeched off key.

The car jerked and this time they were all rocked forward.

"Jesus Christ!" Nina gasped. "I think we ran over something."

"That was just a pothole and Audrey's singing voice," Katy cheerfully informed them as she pulled onto Charbonier Road.

Audrey turned to face Nina, her massive hoop-earrings clanging against her neck as she moved. "Do you think I sound like a wounded animal when I sing, Nina?"

Katy, Gwen, and Jacie promptly answered, "Yes."

Audrey made a face at her cousin. "I wasn't asking you, tin grin." She'd had her braces removed last week, while Katy was still sporting hers. And she gleefully rubbed it in whenever possible. "I'm asking Nina."

Nina's eyes widened. She was trapped. "Well… Uh… I-I-I–"

"You haven't stuttered in years, Nina," Katy reminded her drolly.

Nina sighed. "Well, maybe you don't sound exactly like a wounded animal."

"Like one in heat then?" Jacie supplied, lighting a cigarette and waving out the match.

Katy began to wail like a bloodhound as she reached over to poach a cigarette from her friend. "Jessie's grrrrrrri–arhroooooooo!"

"Shut-up, Katy!" Audrey gave Katy a vicious pinch right on the boob.

"Ouch! Fuck!"

"Ahh!" Gwen and Nina screamed as the Impala swerved into the ditch, kicking up an enormous cloud of dust and spraying gravel in all directions.

It took a full 7 seconds for Katy to regain control of the car and ease it back onto the road. "Don't do that, Audrey!" she spat, rubbing her boob with one hand, her cigarette hanging limply between her teeth.

Audrey's skin was pasty and she nodded her agreement. Boob pinches at 50 miles per hour were definitely out.

Jacie breathed an enormous sigh of relief that was echoed by the entire back seat. With slightly trembling hands, she lit another cigarette and exhaled slowly. Acrid smoke wafted into Nina's face and she waved her hand around furiously, trying to help it make its way out the back window. "I wish you wouldn't smoke," she said, wrinkling her nose in disgust.

"Why?"

"What do you mean, why?"

Jacie shrugged. "I mean, why do you hate it when I smoke? I only smoke every once in a while, so I'm probably not hurting myself physically. And Katy bogarts most of the pack, anyway. Surely a little smoke can't be that bad?"

"Gag me with a spoon, Jacie, it's totally grody! It is bad for you and you smell like an ashtray. And… and…" Nina's hands flailed as she tried to think of another reason.

"And Jerry won't want to kiss you," Gwen broke in, her teeth still rattling from their latest near-death experience with Katy driving.

"Oh, Jerry can kiss me all right. He can kiss my ass!" Jacie plucked her cigarette from her mouth and glared at it, irritated that she was considering throwing it away just because Nina had said she didn't like it. But it didn't take much self-convincing that it was easier to talk without one in her mouth anyway. She passed it up to Katy, who murmured her thanks and unrepentantly slid it into place next to its twin.

Audrey turned to face the backseat again and leaned forward interestedly. This almost qualified as something juicy and she couldn't believe that it was coming from Jacie. "What happened? You guys have been dating since Christmas. I thought things were going just fine."

Scowling, Jacie crossed her arms over her chest. "Things were fine, I guess. Until he made it his life's mission to get into my pants."

Nina gaped. "What?"

"Well, duh, he is your boyfriend," Gwen laughed.

Nina's face began to flush, but she bit her tongue to keep from blurting out what she was thinking.

"Yeah," Katy piped up, "Jerry's cute and he's a guy. What do you expect?"

"I expected him to keep his paws to himself," Jacie shot back. "I had to wrestle my way out of his Mustang last night and I broke up with him on the spot." She brushed her hands together as though she was wiping off something repugnant. "No more Jerry."

"That bastard," Nina seethed, losing her battle with her temper as her gaze darkened. "Wait till I see him in homeroom on Monday." She began plotting his demise.

"Noooooo!" Gwen cried, startling everyone. "I thought you and Jerry were going to go to Prom together. Peter told me he was sure that Jerry was going to ask you… eventually."

Jacie snorted. "Eventually? After I put out, you mean."
I never should have agreed to go out with him.
"And not that I'd bother to go to something that lame anyway, but the prom isn't till next spring. So get a grip, Gwen. I'm sure you'll try to set me up with a half dozen losers before then."
And this time I'll use my brain and say no.

"But Jerry has his own car."

"Katy has her own car." Jacie spread her arms wide and tried not to burst out laughing. The car smelled like a combination of smoke, cheap perfume, and mildew and the seats were so torn up that occasionally a spring popped out and nailed you right in the rear.

"Jerry's car is not a piece of crap," Gwen pointed out.

"Watch it, Gwen." Peeved, Katy pointed at the redhead. "You can always walk home." Then she thought about the last time she'd actually filled up the gas tank and hoped they all wouldn't be walking home.

"Sorry, Katy, but it's true. Besides," Gwen couldn't help but try again with Jacie, "Jerry's on the football team. He's going to be a starter in September," she whined, not understanding how Jacie could just give up on her boyfriend because he had dared to try and kiss her. She enjoyed kissing her boyfriend and last weekend he'd even, at her insistence, worn a tie to dinner at her house. Boys could be trained, at the very least.

"I'm sorry about Jerry," Nina said sincerely, resting her hand atop Jacie's. She licked her lips and softly admitted, "I never liked him much anyway. You can do way better."

For a reason completely beyond her own understanding, Nina had taken a dislike to the boy who wanted to spend so much time with Jacie. It wasn't that there was anything wrong with him… exactly. He seemed to genuinely like Jacie, but that still didn't change the fact that he wasn't good enough for her.

Nina let relief wash over her. Even though she was livid at what he'd done in his Mustang, she was thrilled to have an actual reason to think that he was a dick. After all, that meant she wasn't just being irrational.

Jacie looked down at their hands and swallowed hard. She felt more in that simple, loving touch from her best friend than she had in the dozens of sloppy kisses she'd endured trying to be a "real" girlfriend, as Jerry had put it. But things weren't supposed to be that way, were they? It was all so confusing that it was starting to give her a bellyache. But even amidst her inner turmoil, she couldn't help but hope that Nina decided to leave her hand there for the rest of the short trip. "Thanks, Nina."

Their eyes met and each smiled, well aware of the emotions thrumming between them.

"Almost there," Katy announced, making a final turn down the dirt road that would take them to their secret spot alongside the Missouri River. They whiled away many a summer afternoon at that spot, and they all had bronzed bodies and sun-lightened hair to show for their effort.

At Katy's words, the girls began stripping off their t-shirts and wiggling out of their shorts to reveal their swimsuits beneath.

Audrey threw her shirt over her shoulder, hitting Gwen squarely in the face, and the tall girl responded by tossing the shirt out the window of the moving car.

"Gwen!" Audrey moaned, looking longingly after the bright orange garment. "I loved that shirt."

"We'll get it on the way back," Katy promised, slowing down and turning off the main road as she headed for a thick stand of trees.