Jacie let out a deep breath, visibly relieved. "I'm not. She sort of invited herself along, anyway."
"Good," Gwen announced. "Now, Jacie give Nina your portion of the rent. Katy, go warm up the beast. We'll pick Nina and Jacie up next door after Mr. Gossler gets paid." She beamed a smile at Audrey. "And, Audrey, you'll never guess who I'm meeting at the game!"
"Not Malcolm Langtree," she squealed excitedly.
Katy and Audrey were shuffled out the front door with Gwen chatting happily the entire time and literally pushing them along.
Jacie dug into her jeans' pocket and pulled out a several twenties. She held out the bills. "I figured you'd need this today."
Nina took the money. "Thanks." For some reason, her feet seemed rooted to the floor.
Jacie was equally uninterested in moving from her spot right in front of her friend. Eventually, however, she conceded that they'd better go or Gwen would come back in and have their hides. "I'll get my gloves. I think it's going to be cold tonight." Jacie made a move for the closet but was stopped by a warm hand on her shoulder.
Nina audibly swallowed. "You… um… I mean, if your hands get cold, you could just snuggle close to me." Her heart began to pound and she just kept talking, needing to get this out. "I'm really warm… and… warm, I guess." Her eyes begged Jacie to understand what she was feeling. "Or you could use one of my gloves and I could use the other or I could rest my hand on yours or I could just be close to you," she babbled. "Or–"
"We could share?" Jacie asked quietly, looking deeply into Nina's eyes, seeing something she hadn't seen before, and letting every bit of love she'd tried so desperately to hide bubble up to the surface and overflow.
The room grew as still as the night, and in those few seconds of electric silence, something profound passed between them. Something that stripped their hearts naked and laid their souls out bare. It was a bone-deep understanding that broke through the questions and doubts and, in that one powerful moment, gave them both more courage than either knew they possessed.
Nina smiled tentatively. It was either that or burst into tears. Her mind was awhirl with scary and wonderful possibilities, and she blew out a long breath as she tried to calm her shaking hands. "I'd like that, Jacie," she whispered, hearing the hoarseness in her own voice and marveling at her own braveness. "I'd like to share. A lot."
As it always did, Jacie's smile reached her eyes, warming them, just a split second before it bowed her lips. And this one was the most beautiful smile that Nina had ever seen. "I'd like that too." Her heart skipped a beat, and she reached out and took Nina's hand, twining their fingers together. "More than anything."
* * *
Present Day
Rural Missouri
Audrey shook her head in wonder. "God," she whispered. "Gwen is totally screwed up! I used to think you were the most cracked among us. How wrong I was."
"Gee, thanks." Katherine gushed sarcastically. After another few moments she whispered, "I can't stand it anymore! Now she's still telling her shrink about her clothes and hair!"
"She finally got a cashmere sweater. I wonder if it was blue like she always wanted."
Katherine sneered.
"Maybe that's cathartic for her," Audrey said quietly, not really believing what she was saying but hoping it would pacify her antsy cousin.
"Maybe there's a gun in her bag and I can end our suffering."
Audrey gave her a silent shove. "You're not allowed to shoot me!"
"Not you, stupid. Gwen." Her fingers shaped a pistol. "Bang." She smiled blissfully. "Then nothing but silence."
"Oh." There was a pause while Audrey nibbled her bottom lip. "Ten more minutes and I might be your alibi."
"I can't make it that long!" Katherine whined. "Look." She held up her fingers, though it was too dark to see much more than the outline of them. "My nails are chewed to the bone."
Audrey stretched her legs out, stifling a groan. She whispered, "You just want a cigarette."
Katherine blinked. She hadn't even thought of that until now, and the craving swept over her with such intensity that she swooned at the idea of all that lovely nicotine melting into her bloodstream and infusing her body.
"I'm making a break for it," Katherine announced boldly.
"No!"
Ignoring Audrey, Katherine jumped up and flung open the closet door.
Gwen shrieked and dropped the phone on the bed, clutching a pillow to her chest.
At the sound of a blood-curdling scream, Audrey covered her face with her hands. "Oh, shit." Then she sprung out of the closet on Katherine's heels.
Gwen's eyes were round as saucers as she scrambled off the bed. "Jesus! Katy?" Then she looked at the slightly disheveled woman standing behind her. "Audrey?" Her voice was rising with each word. "What in the–?"
"Surprise," Katherine yelled, pasting on a happy face.
Audrey looked blankly at Katherine, who elbowed her in the boob. "Surprise," she coughed, rubbing her chest.
"Happy birthday to you," Katherine crooned ridiculously. "Happy birthday to you."
Audrey joined in slightly off key.
Gwen looked at her friends as though they'd lost their minds. "Are you two drunk?
Pretending they hadn't heard her question, Audrey and Katherine soldiered on. "Happy birthday, dear Gwe-en. Happy birthday to you."
Gwen blinked, still in shock. "This is a surprise party?"
Katherine smiled broadly. She was actually going to buy it! "Yes." She nodded once. "Yes, it is."
Gwen picked up her phone and placed it to her ear. "No, you don't have to call the police, Doctor. I'll have to call you back." A beep sounded as she pressed "off." Then she walked over to the closet and looked inside. Her bags were right were she left them. "If this is my party, then where are Nina and Jacie?"
"Uh…." Audrey looked at Katherine, her mind blank and her face showing it.
"Uh…" Katherine looked back at Audrey and began to panic. "Audrey forgot to invite them," she blurted suddenly.
"What?" Audrey screeched, not liking that she'd been made out to be the stupider of
Dumb and Dumber
. "I'm the one who forgot?"
"Yes," Katherine answered confidently. "Yes, you did." She focused on Gwen and made a clucking sound. "God, she can be so dense. Uncle Allan swore she was the milkman's." She stepped away just in time for Audrey's claw-shaped hand to whiz past her.
"Okay," Gwen said with exaggerated slowness, more convinced than ever that the cousins were indeed three sheets to the wind. She looked around the room. "So what do we do now?"
"Gifts!" Katherine shouted. "A party should have gifts." She turned to face Audrey, knowing that Gwen couldn't see her face. "Or did you forget those, too, Audrey?" She stuck her tongue out.
Audrey's face turned a lovely shade of red, and she vowed on the spot that her revenge would be sweet. "Uh…. A gift." The actual gift she'd brought was in her bag in her room. But that's something she would have brought to a real party. "Katy has the gift in her pocket." She smiled evilly. "Don't you remember, cuz?"
Katherine paled.
Gwen smiled. If they had a gift, then maybe this was their sad attempt at a party. After all, they hadn't had years to hone their social skills at St. Louis' finest country club. "So, what's my present, Katy?"
Katherine closed her eyes and gave a mental sigh. Then she whirled around and dug into her pocket, hoping that something would be in there. Quickly, she grasped the contents and dropped it into Gwen's outstretched hands, a little surprised she'd gotten so lucky.
Gwen looked down at her gifts. Her face was totally blank. "Oh, you shouldn't have, Katy."
Katherine blinked. "I shouldn't?"
Both Katherine and Gwen peered with interest at Gwen's upturned palm.
Gwen held up the first item. "A Tic Tac." She lifted an eyebrow and then made a delicate sniffing noise. "Wintergreen. My favorite."
Audrey snorted.
"Ooo…" Then Gwen lifted a tiny brown pill and held it up to the light. "A birth control pill from…" she squinted and read the expiration date. "1999. How thoughtful."
This time Audrey snorted so hard she began to choke. "Don't you ever do laundry?" she coughed.
A flush worked its way up from Katherine's neck to cover her entire face.
"And finally," Gwen began again, "the
piece d'resistance
. One dollar," she poked through the coins, "and seven cents." She smiled valiantly. "Now I can get that Diet Pepsi I've been saving up for."
"The money part was from me," Audrey inserted, enjoying Katherine's misery.
"Of course it was," Gwen allowed. "Only someone as thoughtful as you could have known that I was secretly saving the state quarters and didn't have Georgia yet."
Wordlessly, Audrey ran around Katherine and pulled Gwen into a solid hug. Then she reached out and grabbed Katherine's hand and yanked her out of the room.
When she was alone, Gwen sat back down on the bed, looking at the items in her hand in bewilderment. What had just happened? And what had they heard her tell her therapist? She couldn't decide whether to be more or less suspicious of her friends after their bizarre behavior. It was all too much to consider. Gwen closed her eyes. "I think I'm going insane. No," she corrected firmly, "I know I'm going insane." She shrugged, "But what the hell," and popped the Tic Tac into her mouth.
* * *
Rural Missouri
Present Day
"Nina," Jacie mumbled to herself, "where are you?" She tugged the collar of her jacket higher and stepped over a damp, decaying log. A quick check of the house had yielded nothing. But all the cars were still there, which meant Nina hadn't gone home.
Jacie stood at the edge of the back lawn, where the rock-covered path split in two. She closed her eyes, drew in a deep breath, and thought of Nina. She homed in on the persistent sensation in the bottom of her stomach, a sensation borne of their kindred spirits and mutual undying love, trusting that feeling to be her guide. Twenty minutes later, cursing, dirty, scratched, and with her jeans wet from the knees down from taking a detour through the woods, she headed back to the fork in the path so she could go the other way. She vowed never to watch Xena or read Missy Good again.
It wasn't long before she could smell the river, dank and lush. The sun had gone behind thick clouds and the early evening sky was heavy and gray. There, on a knotted wooden bench that overlooked the river's banks sat Nina, tossing stones into its slow-moving depths.
"What took you so long?" Nina said quietly, not bothering to turn around when she heard rocks crunching under sure footsteps. Ker-plunk. A pebble disappeared beneath the murky surface.
Jacie dropped down beside her and picked up a stone from the pile that now sat between them on the bench. "I didn't know where you'd gone," Jacie answered simply, scraping a blade of wet grass from the stone with her thumbnail.
Nina nodded, her eyes still on the water. "When we were kids and would play hide and seek you found me before anyone else. Always." For the first time, she turned and looked at her friend, sucking in a breath at the sight of the painful-looking black-eye she'd given her. Tenderly, she reached up with chilled fingers and traced the swollen flesh. "I thought you were magic."
Jacie quirked a bittersweet grin. "No magic, Nina. You were the only one I ever looked for."
Fall 1982
St. Louis, Missouri
T
HE THROBBING BASS of the stereo rattled the dingy windows of the two-story house, and Nina wrinkled her nose at some unidentifiable, raunchy smell that wafted in her direction. The house was being rented by a friend of a friend of a friend of Katy's, and word around campus was that this annual bash was legendary.
The girls had arrived several hours earlier, intent on unwinding and celebrating the momentous occasion of completing their first month of college, but were disappointed to find that most of the guests were strangers. Still, there was beer, although it had grown warm as the evening progressed. And there was a selection of food that consisted of more than just Doritos and pretzels, a rarity at student gatherings. They were quickly encouraged to stay and enjoy the festivities.
A skinny man with a long nose, so long it resembled a beak more than any human nose, bumped into Nina as he tried to shoulder his way past her.
"Hey." She flicked a dollop of beer suds off the arm of her shirt. "Ugh. Gross."
Still juggling four dripping plastic cups of brew in his hands, he glanced up at her and smiled, obviously pleased that his unintended victim just so happened to be a pretty co-ed. Unconsciously, he straightened his back and opened his mouth, but before he could say a word, Nina caught sight of Gwen's flaming red hair and began to weave her way through the throng of drunken partygoers. "Gwen," she said loudly, her voice not carrying over the music, laughter, and occasional shriek from an unknown source. Her eyes fluttered closed as the thumping at the base of her skull rivaled the beat of the music. Adding to her misery was the intermingled smell of hops, perfume, cologne, and sweat. That, or the seven chicken wings drenched in an indistinguishable sauce that she'd recently consumed and then washed down with two jumbo lukewarm beers, was making her sick to her stomach.
Nina held up one hand and waved, hoping that her friend would spot her. "Gwen!"
The taller girl paused in her conversation with a small group of students from her French class and glanced around, trying to locate her caller. When she spotted Nina, she motioned her over. "Here!"
"Hey." Nina smiled at strangers as she joined the group. A little green around the gills, she waved off the offer of another beer.
"This is Nina Chilton, one of my roommates," Gwen introduced politely.
"Nina!" the group chorused back in greeting.
Nina chuckled. It was clear that every last one of them was as drunk as a sailor on a three-day pass. She tilted her head up to speak directly into Gwen's ear in an attempt to be heard. "Let's find the others and go."