Picturesque

Chapter 18: London Fog

"I don't know if Marty would approve of this," I told Jo as she stood in my room and boldly shuffled through the closet where I had hung my small number of clothing. After a day spent at Manor Farm, when I thought she would disappear at dusk again for another two weeks, she followed me into my room and stated with the upmost certainty and assurance that I was accompanying her to a club with her friends.

"Why not? You're an adult," she said as her hands landed on a dress hanging on a hanger, contemplating momentarily before the hanger squeaked as she pushed it away to look at the next one. The day of riding made her hair loose and frizzy, and she had changed into a pair of jeans with a green striped shirt and a black leather jacket. The forest green in the shirt made the olives in her eyes pop, but I bit my tongue to keep from telling her so.

"Yeah, but, I'm also his employee. I don't think he would approve of me...fraternizing with his daughter in such a way, especially at a nightclub."

Jo stopped and slowly turned her head to me. It was the first time I had ever seen her wear makeup. She went heavy on the eyeliner, sort of like how Katie did. But where Katie's eyeliner was sharp, fine lines, Jo's was smudged and ashy. I could hear my mother's voice in the back of my head saying she looked like a Halloween costume.

Jo ticked her tongue and grinned. "Becks, what kind of people fraternize with each other?"

My mind was blank—I was strung up on the way she called me Becks so casually as if we had met in kindergarten and been friends for a lifetime.

"Friends," she answered for me, turning her head to the other side. "And what was the sole and primary obligation in the deal we made to each other?"

My face heated. "We're not friends."

"Exactly!" she cheered. "No fraternizing here, no siree." She turned her attention back to my clothes, and I could breathe again. I remembered earlier that day, being on Willow with her, my hands around her middle. She had felt so lean and strong in my arms. I wondered if she even noticed how close I held her.

"There's just nothing here. Come on." She stepped forward and grabbed my hand, something that both she and Holly had a habit of doing. I'd lost count of how many times I had been tugged around by my hand since I'd been with the Donnelley's.

Yanking me out of my room, she led me down the hall to her own room, which made me realize I had never even seen the inside of. As she opened the door, I was a little taken aback at how messy it was. The walls were painted pale blue, and a white bed with its blankets discarded was pushed up against the wall by the window. Clothes were scattered all around, among other things like papers, bottles, and cigarette packs. A lamp was lying on the floor by the wall, a scratch on the wall's paint just above. I wondered if that was the cause of the crashing sound I had heard when Katie was yelling at her in here that night.

Jo went to her closet and started sorting through until she pulled out a pair of deep red pants, tossing them towards me. I caught them against my chest, feeling the heavy fabric on my fingers. Before I could look back at her, she tossed something else to me that hit me straight in the face.

Pulling the fabric off my head, I saw that it was a shiny pink blouse. "My mother gave that to me some years ago. Obviously, I'd never worn it."

"Is it your mission to give me everything pink?" I referred to the pink bathing suit she had tossed me down at Hermosa Beach.

"I don't like pink. You look good in it though." She started kicking around some shoes before pulling out a pair of black flats. "It matches your lips."

Instinctively, I brought my fingers to my lips. She hadn't even glanced at me after throwing the shirt at me. How'd she know it matched my lips? Did she look hard enough sometime before? I found myself forgetting the own color of my lips.