A few songs later, Cass left the room and Robyn walked over to Jeisa.
"Is Cass already leaving?" Jeisa asked, a little disappointed that Cass hadn't asked her for a ride home.
"Quick bathroom break." Robyn replied.
Jeisa was a little embarrassed by the relief that flooded every part of her, down to her fingertips. She was totally whipped, still on that exhilarating ride towards the brick wall. Why was it so hard for her to let this go? Cass was nothing but straight-girl heartbreak!
"So, when did you two get together?" Robyn asked, breaking the silence between them.
"What?"
"You and your girlfriend, Cass," Robyn clarified. She took a sip of warm ginger, lemonade, honey tea that she'd walked over with. "How did you meet?"
"She's not my girlfriend." Jeisa said with a shrug. The pain from those words hurt more than she'd thought they would. She hadn't verbally confirmed the fact, and now that she had, she knew that she had to stop this foolishness. Tonight was the last time she'd indulge in this harmful game. There were so many other important things to focus on, like sniper dude and Robyn's mother, the police captain. They were connected to those WMDs somehow and Jeisa had to figure out how.
"Really?" Robyn questioned. She turned to Jeisa with a raised brow. "Does she know that?"
Before Jeisa could answer, Cass walked back into the room with something in her hands. Something very familiar to Jeisa. Jeisa stood up from her chair, her heart speeding up and stomach dropping as she watched the raven-haired, green-eyed beauty.
There was no way Cass had just done that!
Cass made her way to the little stage where the DJ stood and asked him to stop. Groans rumbled through the room. Cass then walked over to the small stage where the Head Ranger had spoken earlier in the night while welcoming everyone to the party.
"I know, I know," said Cass from the mic that had been set up there. "But don't worry. We have a special treat tonight. You might not know her because she's made it her job to blend in with shadows, walls, and wall plants, but I guarantee that you won't forget her after this."
Jeisa's pulse skyrocketed, and her ears turned flaming hot as she looked across the room to the crazy girl that she was absolutely crazy about. Cass had that look in her eye that she usually did when she was carrying out her favourite hobby of tormenting Jeisa.
"This is Jeisa!" Cass announced, pointing to Jeisa and beckoning her to join her. "And she'll be playing either a saxophone or a tiny, misshapen guitar. Not really sure what it is. I just grabbed this from under the passenger seat of her truck."
Amid some laughs, Cass raised Jeisa's saxophone backpack.
For the last week, Jeisa had been driving to the mental institute every morning to play, before heading out to the woods for their patrols.
At Cass' encouragement, everyone was now clapping and looking at Jeisa. Jeisa inwardly groaned, but outwardly smiled wide. Two could play this game. She made her way to the podium, took the backpack from Cass, and set up her sax.
She then took the mic.
"Hi. Like Cass said, my name is Jeisa, and... it's a saxophone. I haven't yet mastered misshapen guitars, but that's next on my list." she said, her voice slightly shaky. Laughter rippled through the crowd. "I hope you like this."
Jeisa narrowed her eyes at the smug look on Cass' face, placed her lips on the mouthpiece and watched in absolute satisfaction as Cass' jaw hit the floor. Cass froze in place, right against the wall at the back of the room, while listening to the piece that Jeisa had decided to play.
In that whole week that they'd worked together, Jeisa and Cass had agreed that the one in the passenger seat was both DJ and navigator. That was how Jeisa had come to learn that Keane's 'Somewhere only we know' was the most played song on Cass' music playlist. This song meant something special to Cass. Even now, as Jeisa played through the chords, she could see Cass lips moving to the song's words, a wistful smile and gaze on her face as she leaned back onto the wall behind her. Jeisa read the lyrics that quietly slipped out of Cass' lips, and it secretly broke her to see the raw emotion on her face. It took everything Jeisa had to keep centred and keep playing the song without rushing across the room to hold Cass in her arms.
After completing the flawless song cover, Jeisa placed her saxophone on top of its backpack, then dropped from the podium and walked over to Cass at the back of the room. Cass' eyes were shining with unshed tears. They stood only inches apart. The crowd had broken into loud applause and calls for an Encore, but Jeisa barely heard any of it. To cover the awkwardness, the DJ was back to hyping up the crowd again after the applause for Jeisa's performance had died down. Everyone went back to the dance floor, ignoring the pair as they hollered at the high tempo dub step sound that was now spewing from the speakers.
Cass had a wobbly smile on her face that pulled at Jeisa's core.
"That was absolutely perfect." Cass whispered, her hands clasped to her chest. "Well played Jeisa. Well played."
Jeisa smiled, gazing into those watery green eyes. She saw sadness in them. She also saw need. And fear. Jeisa had struck a chord. She was only dimly aware of all the people behind her whooping and revelling in excitement. For a moment, it was only Jeisa and Cass. And Cass was letting her in, even if it was just a tiny little bit. Her vulnerability snapped something inside Jeisa.
Jeisa carefully placed her fingertips on Cass' cheek, letting herself enjoy the feel of her satin soft skin. She knew that she shouldn't have been trying this, that a rejection now would probably kill her, but she couldn't help herself. There was a tiny flash of surprise in Cass' eyes as she looked up at Jeisa. Cass then lowered her hands slowly from her chest to her sides, but she didn't push Jeisa's hand away, instead moving closer. Jeisa leaned in and very gently placed her lips on Cass' pale pink, slightly parted lips.
For those few seconds, Jeisa was lost to everything.
Cass' cheeks were flushed when Jeisa pulled away from her. Jeisa could see that Cass was flustered. She took a small step away from the ebony haired beauty, not wanting to push Cass any further. Not when she was this raw. This vulnerable. She smiled sadly before walking away from Cass and back to the podium. She packed up her saxophone and left the party.
As Jeisa walked to her truck, only one thought went through her mind. Cass was straight. She'd made that clear over and over again. All Jeisa had had to do was respect that.
So, why hadn't she?
The guilt at what she'd just done hollowed out her insides.
***
"Robyn?" said Jeisa, her voice hoarse.
"Jeisa, we need your help. Cass and I." Robyn whispered hastily from the other side of the phone.
At the sound of Cass' name, Jeisa sat straight up. The room she was in was mostly dark, but she knew it was bright and sunny outside. It smelt musty with a hint of electric smoke. Another warehouse. Damn it. How long had Jeisa been in here? She lowered her phone and stared at the screen. Friday. She groaned. It had been two days since the last time she had been aware of what day it was. She put the phone back to her ear. It was a wonder that her phone was still alive.
"...are you still there, Jeisa?" Robyn was asking.
"Yeah. Yes. I'm here." Jeisa replied, standing up and trying to orient herself. Where the hell was 'here'? "What's going on?"
"First of all, your girlfriend is absolutely insane!" said Robyn with a nervous laugh. "We've broken like fifty state laws and it's barely mid-day!"
"That sounds like a pretty normal Cass day." replied Jeisa nonchalantly. She was staring at a three-foot pile of plastic monster truck toys and trashed plastic wrapping. "And she's not my girlfriend."
"Mmhmm. Right. Anyway, she's worse than I am, and I've got a juvie rap sheet that's thicker than the last Harry Potter. I have got to introduce her to my mother! It'll teach her to appreciate me more." said Robyn. "But back to why I called. I think we're being followed."
"Followed?" asked Jeisa. She grabbed an unopened monster truck box and threw it onto the pile of hundreds of opened boxes that she'd woken up next to. Jeisa knew, without checking, that all those trucks out of their boxes were completely drained of their battery power. "And what do you mean 'Mmhmm. Right.' Did Cass say something about me?"
"She didn't have to say anything. She's been on a bender ever since you fell off the radar after that lame forest ranger soiree. And at this one college party we went to yesterday, she tried to make out with anyone without a phallus who had brown hair." Robyn quickly replied. "And yeah, I'm pretty sure we're being followed. It looks like more of your friends from the forest."
"I thought your mum arrested those guys?" asked Jeisa.
"We had no evidence they were poaching and everything about them checked out," Robyn said. "They claimed that what had gone down was a misunderstanding. That we'd just gotten scared and defended ourselves and they wouldn't press charges against us. In fact, they raved about how good it was that we knew how to stay safe. Apparently, they were trying to ask you and Cass for help with finding a good trail but didn't get a chance to because we attacked them."
Jeisa made her way out of the warehouse with one last look at the pile of plastic and inwardly sighed. She was in a bad state. This was pretty much the same as an alcoholic downing bottles of cough syrup to get drunk. But she couldn't go after the big highs from the mains power. There was too much of a probability that she'd bring the town to its knees. She couldn't risk that.
"That's bullshit!" Jeisa whispered. She stopped next to the broken window she'd finally remembered using to sneak into the warehouse. "Wait... you've been partying with Cass?"
"I know it's bullshit and you know it's bullshit, but that's not enough. My mum couldn't keep them locked up." Robyn said. "And it was just a basic college party. Cass wanted to get smashed and get out of her mind and I needed someone to sneak me into a college party. No one looked at me walking in after they saw Cass and what she was wearing. Or wasn't."
Jeisa quashed the bubbling jealousy that set her insides on fire.
"Right. Where are you now?" said Jeisa, digging for her motorbike's key in her pocket. She remembered getting home after the ranger party, showering, pacing around her house restlessly and then deciding to get dressed again, grab her bike and just ride, ending up in the toy warehouse.
"We're at the mall in some kitchen appliance shop. Cass is a few aisles over shoplifting a blender that she says she'll use to make margaritas with all the fruit she just stole from the grocery store," said Robyn, sighing. Then she got serious again. "Jeisa, hurry. I can't take these guys on alone if they come for us. Remember that juvie record? I cannot get into trouble right now. Especially not after that forest assault!"
"Where was that juvie logic when you were attacking me?" Jeisa asked, starting her bike.
"Back then, I was pretty sure I could beat up a Martha Stewart wannabe." Robyn chuckled. Then she went serious again. "Jeisa, we can't stay in this mall. I'm going to convince Cass to leave with me and lead them to a place where we can both take care of them, and maybe figure out what this is all about."
"Okay. Where were you thinking?"
"We'll drive to the spa. I'll send you the location. I'm pretty sure they'll follow us. The place is big on privacy and membership, so they'll struggle to get in, which'll buy you some time. Meet us there." Robyn added in a rushed whisper.
Jeisa's phone dinged, and she looked at it to check the location.
"C'mon! First college parties and now a shopping spree and spa day! Without me?"
"Jeisa!" Robyn was doing that whisper-shout thing.
Jeisa laughed.
"Keep your panties on. I'll see you in fifteen." said Jeisa, hanging up and slipping the phone into her pocket.
*
"I've got five of them out at the parking lot." whispered Jeisa into her phone. The shrill dying-battery sound shrieked into her ear.
"There's..." Robyn started before Jeisa's phone died.
Jeisa cursed and put the dead phone away.
She parked her bike and walked over to the van. The five men had left the van and were ready to head for the spa's entrance. Slight overkill for getting to one girl. Jeisa followed them.
Now, how exactly did one start a fight with dangerous, probably armed, mercenaries? Apparently, throwing a pretty sturdy, DOT certified motor bike helmet at the back of the head of one of them and then running over to drop kick one of his very surprised buddies works. Five against one. Great warmup for tomorrow's class with Coach.
One of the men covered Jeisa in a bear hug from the back and tried to get her off the ground. She smashed the back of her head into his face, which loosened his grip. A sharp elbow hit into his solar plexus had him on his knees. She turned around, grabbed his head, and smashed her knee into his face. He crumpled to the ground, down for the count.
She swivelled on her feet and caught a hard left hook with her lip. The warm, coppery taste of blood tinged her mouth. She cursed. He swung again with a right hook. She caught it in an arm block and hit it away. Then she triple-kicked him, with a low round house kick crashing into the side of his left knee, the second kick ramming into his left kidney and that last high kick smashing into his left temple. She hit his head so hard that he did a complete 360 turn before landing in a heap at her feet as she lowered her foot.
Jeisa looked up from that guy just in time to see a huge boot ram into her sternum! She back-pedalled in surprise and tried to focus through the pain. The large man lifted his other leg and tried to stomp her again. She caught the kick before it connected. Then she turned her body halfway and sent a high back kick behind her, smacking right into the face of the guy she'd hit with the helmet. He'd been trying to creep up on her. There was a satisfying crunch beneath her steel toed biker boot where she'd connected, and his face exploded in blood as his nose broke. That would keep him busy for a while.
She sent her attention back to the owner of the foot she held. She swung his foot away. Then she jumped and front spin kicked the snot out of his face. He looked dazed, but he was still standing. Jeisa lunged forward, collecting the power from her feet and releasing it in a double fisted lunge-punch into the guy's torso. He went flying and slammed to the side of their truck. K.O.
The guy she'd drop kicked at the start was attempting to get up again. He was weaving on his feet. She didn't let him. A quick leg sweep had him on his back. She jumped onto his chest, kneeing his ribs. A powerful jab to the side of his head kept him down. She took her time to stand up. Four down, one to go. Broken nose guy was trying to get her. It was comical. She was almost playfully ducking to the left and to the right as she missed his punches. She decided to put him out of his misery with a roundhouse kick to the back of his knees, then a second kick to the back of his head as he fell.
When she had wrapped up the last unconscious goon in their own duct tape and stuffed him in their van with his friends, Jeisa picked up her helmet and rushed into the spa building. Mentioning Robyn's name plus a couple of hundred-dollar bills urgently pressed into the receptionist's palm got her inside. She ran around, ducking into rooms and looking around hallways, searching for Robyn and Cass and hoping that she wasn't too late.
"Robyn!" Jeisa called out when she finally found her. "Where are the others?"
"None of them had entered the building yet. That's what I was trying to tell you before you hung up." said Robyn, running to meet her in the corridor. "If you've taken care of the guys in the parking lot, I think that's it."
"Good. And sorry about that. My phone died." said Jeisa. Her heart was racing. Now that she knew Cass wasn't in danger anymore, her technopath urges started wreaking havoc inside her. "I have to go."
"Don't you want to say hi to Cass?" asked Robyn.
"No!" Jeisa quickly replied. She wondered if Robyn knew what had happened between her and Cass. If she knew how awful Jeisa was. Jeisa was barely holding herself together. "I really have to go."
"OK. There's an exit this way." said Robyn, motioning Jeisa to follow her.
The view of Cass in a white knee-high robe, facing away from them as she studied some essential oils on a shelf, met them as they entered the room that Robyn had led them into. Jeisa stopped, her heart threatening to break through her ribs. Cass' long black hair fell to her waist in beautiful contrast against the stark white of the knee-high robe, and her bare legs went on forever in that robe, ending in cute, fluffy white bunny slippers.
Jeisa's thoughts went back to the last time they'd been together. Back to that heart stopping kiss. It was a crash into the brick wall that had completely shattered Jeisa's world, destroying her in a way that she didn't think she would ever recover from. Cass was the one who was supposed to have been the villain of that story. The catalyst to that crash. But it had ended up being Jeisa.
She'd broken into her first warehouse and destroyed her first truckload of toys that night after riding to the warehouse district. In her defence though, no child needed a toy baby doll that can imitate breast feeding.
"Oh no..." Robyn lamented in a monotone voice, dripping with sarcasm, loud enough for Cass to hear and turn to them. "I totally thought that was an exit. Oh, look, it's Cass."
"Smooth." Jeisa whispered, narrowing her eyes at Robyn.
"Jeisa?" Cass walked over to them.
Cass was moving in to hug Jeisa, but Jeisa took a step back. It wasn't just because she hadn't showered in two days while hanging out in warehouses and fighting grown men in parking lots. It was because she was losing it. Even now, she could feel those pesky tendrils snaking out of her fingers towards Cass. She balled her hands into tight fists.
Jeisa took a deep breath. All she had to do was reach out and touch Cass. Reach out and feel that satin smooth skin on her fingertips once more. Reach out, get inside Cass' head and literally blow her mind. And maybe other things if Cass let her. She would make Cass' death the best experience of her life. Jeisa could already imagine how unbelievably exhilarating it would be tasting Cass' soul as she slipped away in her arms. She could already feel it and her fingers were reaching out to...
Jeisa stopped the thoughts and took another step back away from Cass.
"I was just leav..." started Jeisa.
"...leaving to go get ready for her facial and reflexology session." Robyn jumped in. "Can you believe it's at the same time as ours! She was also considering a pedicure after that. Something bright and shiny. Probably some toenail art thing."
"Really?" said Cass with a small smile that had Jeisa's heart back to breaking land speed records. "I never pegged you for a spa girl."
"She's just full of surprises." said Robyn smiling and shuttling Jeisa away. "We're just going to go get ready and meet you there in a few minutes."
"What are you doing Robyn?" asked Jeisa, once they were away from Cass' ear shot.
"We'll go check on the men in the parking lot, interrogate them, figure out what is going on, call my mum, and then you need a shower and a change of clothes. There have loads of free soap in the showers and I have enough credits to purchase a set of sweatpants at the gift shop." Said Robyn. She stopped Jeisa and faced her. "Once you're done with that shower, you'll come spend time with Cass. You're worse off without her than she is. Jeisa, you need this."
The van was gone from the parking lot when they got there, but Robyn didn't seem as bothered by it as Jeisa was. She said the parking lot had cameras and her mother would be able to sort it out. As she called her mother, Jeisa took the teen's advice, heading to the showers and then later joining them for a mani-pedi.