Janelle
October 4th, 2007. 5:56 a.m. Okay, Janelle. You got this. You can do this. You got your running shorts on, hair in just the cutest ponytail, and a sports bra that is way too small, but it gives me amazing cleavage so it's all worth it. Yuko picked this outfit for you. No way in hell will Will be able to resist you. I look in the mirror and… wow… uh… geez… I really look like I’m just going to pop out at any time… Maybe I should just ditch this. It would make running ha-
“Hey, Janelle.” Will knocks on my door. “Are you ready to go? I need to leave now. Gotta get the extra warm up time in.”
“Coming!” I immediately make for the door and open it. “Sorry for making you wait. Let’s get going.”
“Uh.” Will looks down at me. “Are you going to be okay in that? It’s a bit chilly outside.”
“What are you implying?”
“Nothing.” Will glances away before turning towards the hallway and pauses. “Let’s get going.” Oh my god his voice even cracked. Jackpot.
We stretch for a little outside the dorm before running. I can’t cramp up mid-confession. I would just die from embarrassment if that happened… No. Wait. Maybe I could get a cramp ‘by accident’ then he’d have to take care of me and maybe even carry me around. Okay, yeah. Definitely going with that.
Will starts talking, but avoids looking at me. “Is it okay if we go down to the Tech lab after our run? I want to test out some things.”
“Absolutely.” You can’t avert your gaze. I’ve asked Angela what anime you watched and binged it all last week. I know exactly how to get you.
“Good. Let’s get going.” Without even looking at me, Will breaks into a brisk jog.
I try to jog just a little bit in front of him so that I’m in his peripheral vision. Wow this is immensely uncomfortable and painful. Bear with it, Janelle. It’ll be worth it soon enough. Just have to wait five minutes before I try Plan #1.
Five minutes later. Commencing Plan #1. I begin to slow down, but that’s okay. I’m now jogging right beside Will. Oh no… The park terrain’s getting sooo uneven. I might just trip and stumble.
“Whoa!” I stumble forward.
“Janelle!” Will reaches out for me and catches me like the gentleman he is. “Are you okay?”
I bring my hands around his nice, big bicep, pull him close, and engulf as much of his arm as I can in my cleavage. “Y-yeah… Thanks for catching me.”
Will looks down at me. I can see his eyes begin to wander. “You have to be careful going uphill, especially when the soil’s still wet from the dew.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.” I smile and look into his gorgeous blue eyes. His arm is so warm. I need to keep it next to my chest for just a while longer.
“Are you okay?” Will tries to keep focus. “Can we keep moving?”
“Yeah.” I nod and let my fingers slide against his arm as I let go. “Let’s keep going.”
We run for about ten more minutes. I’m starting to lag behind. The good news is that I won’t even have to act since I’m genuinely in pain. “Wait! Will… I need a break… Can we catch our breath for a little bit?”
“You get one minute.” Will stops and turns around.
“Thank you…” I bend over, put my hands on my knees, and press my boobs together with my elbows. This is one of the secret techniques Yuko taught me. This has to work. “Hah… hah… hah…” Crap… I can see a little areola. No. No. This is good. I look up to see his face. “Sorry… Thank you for giving me a break.”
“You know… breathing’s a lot easier when you put your arms above your head and stand up straight. Just sayin’.”
Oh my god. His face is so cute. He’s so embarrassed. His normally pale cheeks have grown pink. I can see his arms begin to tremble ever so slightly. Yuko, you are a god.
“Hoo.” I stand up straight and make sure to adjust my bra while he’s looking at me. C’mon. Ravage me out here already. No one else is here. “Thanks for waiting. Let’s keep going.”
“Right.” Will nods and we finish our run around the park in twelve minutes. The whole time, he runs ahead of me slightly. I can’t tell if he’s trying to motivate me or just avoid my boobs. He can’t hide from them forever. We eventually finish our run by the Tech lab and get some drinks from the vending machine. I get a cola. He gets water. “Are you ready to go to the Tech lab?” Will asks completely free of sweat. “Or do you need to shower first?”
“Nope. I’m good.” I lie and open the cola and ‘accidentally’ spill some on my cleavage while taking a sip. Oh my god that feels weird. Don’t like this. It will be worth it though. I hope. “Aw shoot.” I look down and let some cola fall from my mouth. “Dammit… this was my favorite top too…”
“Do you need a towel?” I catch Will’s eyes wandering again. We trade glances for a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of a second. I love catching him glance. It makes me feel so powerful.
“Yes please. Do you want to clean me off?”
“What?”
Crap crap crap crap I didn’t mean to say that. Why do I even try to lie… Fire’s shooting off the top of my head like a freaking stove! Calm down! Calm down!
“I said ‘yes please. Can you please give it to me to clean it off?’”
“Okay just making sure.” Will’s lip trembles as he tosses the towel to me. “Let me know when you’re done.” he turns around.
“You don’t have to turn around, you know.” I wait to dry myself off. “I’m not taking my bra off.”
“Oh. Okay… then it should be fine.” Will turns around.
I begin bouncing and squeezing my chest all over while I dry it. Definitely going to have to shower after this.
“Nevermind. I’m going to the lab.” he turns and bolts for the lab. “I’ll be in Lab 5. Come in when you’re done.”
I finish drying myself off and follow after him.
I jog off into the Tech lab. The lobby’s a nice dark blue, and the attendant looks half asleep behind the desk. “Is Lab #5 open? A friend of mine named Will should have checked into it already.”
The attendant yawns and looks at his computer. “Yup. He’s in there right now. Go down the hallway there and make a right. It should be the sixth door on the right.”
“Thank you.” I nod and run down the hallway. On my way, I can’t help but glance into each and every one of the heavily bolted and protected windows I pass. Someone’s stabbing some dummies with icicles. Another person is making a bunch of clones of themselves. Another student is turning into slime and filling the room. This school is weird. Five minutes later, I manage to find Lab 5. I peek around the corner of the room and see Will praying silently through the window. Aaaw relax, Willy. It’s not sinful if we get married first.
knock knock
Will breaks out of prayer and immediately opens the door for me. “Ah, thank you, Janelle.”
“Thank you for opening it for me.” I enter the room and he closes the door behind me. “Why did you want to go to the Tech lab so early?”
“I noticed my bamboo sword wasn’t quite cutting it…” he pulls out a whip from his back pocket. “I wanted some company while I try out a new technique. Plus I thought you could use some more practice with your Tech. Little bit of practice never hurt anyone, right?”
“Right you are.”
“Good.” Will nods. “Now get into the spectator box. I gotta set up some dummies.”
I look around the room and see it completely covered in soft, but strong blue foam. If one were to peel back the foam, you would see plates upon plates of steel. Well, it looks like steel. It’s most likely made from some ultra-obscure material that I can’t pronounce. All along the walls are collections of various dummies, weights, and gymnastics gear. Adjacent to the door is a chamber of plexiglass and steel with a couple of steel folding chairs in it. I get in it and lock myself in. “Alright, Will. I’m in. Do your thing.”
“Roger.” Will gives a short salute and finishes putting the dummies of various heights in places across the room. He then unwraps his whip and gives it a nice loud crack against the wall.
Something inside me awakens upon hearing the whip. “Oooh. Where’d you get that whip?”
“Called Da a while back about how my sword kept breaking on the job, so he mailed me my whip.” Will ran his finger against the length of the whip and swiped it across the room away from me. One by one, dummies began to fall apart.
“Whoa… Why didn’t you just use that whip from the beginning? That seems like a way more effective weapon.”
“Because swords are cooler!” Will wraps the whip back up and makes it dull once again. “Plus it’s harder to hurt people by accident with a sword.”
“Oh yeah… that would be bad.”
Will puts the whip on the ground and begins putting the dummy parts into the recycle chute. He then goes over to a console by the door and begins fiddling with it. “You can come out now. Ain’t gonna cut you in half.”
“Cool. So, what about my Tech do you think needs work?”
“You remember when you just incinerated all those bugs?”
“Yeah.”
“I want to see what else you can do. Can you only spray fire out of your hands?”
“Well… that’s what I’m most comfortable doing. I can make explosions with a snap, but I have trouble aiming and don’t really know how to control the intensity of the blast either, so I just don’t snap.”
“You wanna work on that? I can help you turn into a regular Mustang.”
“I don’t know what that means, but sure. Let’s go.”
“Excellent.” Will punches some commands into the console and some ceiling panels shift open. Targets supported by beams begin to descend from the ceiling and begin moving slowly, but erratically throughout the practice room. “Think you can hit one of those?”
“I can try…” I take a deep breath. “Get into the box first.”
“Right away.” Will locks himself into the box and pulls out a small notepad and pen from his pocket. “You can start.”
I look back at him and nod before turning to the targets. Deep breath. Deep breath. Don’t mess up. Boys are watching. I extend and raise my arm and hold my thumbs over a moving target. Dammit… my depth perception is worse than I thought… Do I need a new prescription? Inhale exhale. Inhale exhale.
Snap
Boom
A small explosion no larger than my hand appears on the wall way behind the target. Blue flame stays on the wall, but doesn’t spread. I feel just a tad chilly, but I’m fine. Why did it go so far? And why the hell was it blue? Maybe… maybe if I bend my elbow a little bit…
snap
boom
A small explosion manifests in front of the target and just floats there as a red fireball. Okay, good. I can confirm that the distance depends on how much I bend my arm, but why was the first explosion blue and the second one red?
I glance over at Will and see he’s taking notes.
Aw damnit damnit damnit! I can’t mess this up! I have to get this. I’ll look super cool.
I relax my arm a little bit more and begin tracing a moving target with my thumb before snapping once again.
snap
boom
A white flame the size of my head erupts where the target used to be only a moment prior. It stays in place just like the red fireball.
My skin starts to turn a little pale. “Damnit damnit damnit!” I stomp my foot and the fireballs erupt into huge explosions and engulf the floor in flame. A horrible, horrible chill engulfs my body. My breathing turns erratic. My legs buckle under my own weight. I see all pigment evaporate from my skin. I stick out my lower lip and see that it has turned blue. I can barely move… but I have to… if I don’t recollect the flame… I will die.
Will begins to exit the cage, but I yell. “Will! S-stay w-w-w-where y-you a-a-are…” My stupid teeth won’t stop chattering.
“No! Janelle! I won’t let you put yourself in danger!”
Stupid boy… if he won’t stop, I just have to beat him to the flames… I begin to breathe quickly and scramble towards the flames. Well, scramble’s a bit much. It’s more like a painful, awful crawl. My limbs feel ready to shatter if I move too quickly. It feels like cold metal rods have plunged into my wrists and shot up into my shoulders… Almost there… You can do this… I don’t care if I can barely feel my heartbeat… I won’t be a burden…
Will finally escapes the box and begins sprinting towards me. Just as he’s about to touch me, I throw myself into the fire and begin absorbing it back into me. The temperature of the room rapidly decreases as the fire is sucked back into my skin. My muscles relax, pain evaporates from my body, and pigment returns to my flesh. I look up at Will and force a smile. “See? I told you I had it.”
“You idiot.” Will bends down and helps my upper body off the ground. He cradles my head and back like the good boy he is. “What the heck were you trying to pull off?” he looks too worried to be mad… but I wouldn’t mind if he was mad at me. I bet he’s hot when he’s mad.
“I told you I had it covered. I know my Tech better than anyone else.”
“Fair enough…” he sighs. “Are you feeling okay now? Do we need to tape a bunch of heating pads to you?”
“That… actually sounds like a good idea.” I grunt. “I should start doing that outside of missions…”
“That sounds wise.” Will nods. “Can you stand?”
“I think so…” I start to get up, but ‘accidentally’ pull too much on his arms for support and send him tumbling down on top of me. I have him right where I want him. His legs are right above mine. His hand just barely missed my boob. His chest is pressed against mine. His other hand is right next to my face. I’m pinned to the floor. Come on. Do it. Do it you coward.
“Oh my gosh, Janelle. I’m so sorry.” He looks down and immediately starts looking me over for bruises. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah. I’m fine.” Do it do it do it do it do it do it. Hurry!
Little sprouts of fire shoot out from my soles and steam shoots out of my ears. Hurry! Take me before I burn you!
“That’s good…” He smiles and gives a sigh of relief before standing up and offering his hand to me. “C’mon. Let’s get going.”
Fine. Guess I’ll do it. “Do you want to go out?”
Will pauses for a sec and looks at me like a dog trying to find the source of a noise. “Where to?”
“Dinner, movie, horseback riding, anything you like.”
“Like… a romantic going out or just a friendly going out?”
“Romantic” God, he’s so stupid. I love him.
Will’s face lights up ever so slightly and he helps me up. “I would like that. Want to go tonight?”
“Yes please.” Fire surges from the top of my head and scorches the ceiling, but I don’t care. I get up and hug him tight. He smells so good.
Vivian
October 4, 2007. 8:56 a.m. Alright got a tummy full of cereal. Hair somewhat presentable. Pajamas washed. Hand on the door handle. I’m ready to go to class.
eeeerk
I hear a door behind me open up and I turn around. I see A.D. come out of his room. He looks better rested than I think I’ve ever seen him. He doesn’t have that curry or sweat stank either. “Hey, A.D. Glad to see you back here.”
He walks right past me, gets some protein shake from the fridge and begins chugging it.
“Sooo… Sejong says you’ve been doing some late night missions on the side. Need some help? I could go for some basic missions. Been cramped up in here too long ya know?”
A.D. looks like he’s about to spit out the shake, but swallows it and lets out a small chuckle. “No thanks. You’d be a liability.”
“Aw come on. I know I’m not as athletic as you, but I can hold my own just fine.” I karate chop the air a few times and grin. “You and I both know that.”
“Oh that’s not what I meant. All the missions I’m taking require the target to be taken alive. You kinda suck at that, so I don’t want to risk anything.” A.D. chucks the empty shake bottle into the trash can before heading back to his room.
“Dude. Don’t be a dick.”
“Don’t murder children.” A.D. smiles before closing his door.
“That’s not how you treat a teammate!” I raise my voice before leaving the room and carefully closing the door behind me. Don’t wanna wake Yuko up.
Yuko
October 4, 2007. 5:24 p.m. Dorm room. Vivian’s helping me zip up my dress. It is not going well.
“Come on!” Vivian has her hand pressed against the zipper. “Press those girls in!”
“I’m already pushing them in as hard as I can! It don’t feel good!”
“Wait.” Vivian puts her hand on my desk and grows my dress a size. “Sorry. Forgot I could do that.” She zips up my dress no problem and I breathe comfortably.
This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.
“Are you sure you aren’t making my boobs bigger?” I turn around and glare at Viv.
“What?” Viv grimaces. “I wouldn’t do that again without your permission.”
“You sure?”
“Don’t you trust me?” Viv raises an eyebrow.
“Well… eeeh…” I grit my teeth. “Yeah. I trust you. A little.”
“That’s all there is to it then.” Viv picks some lint off my shoulder. “Be good, okay?”
“Okay, mom.” I roll my eyes. “You sure you don’t wanna come along? You’re turning down free pasta.”
“Yeah, but it’s the fancy pasta… I can’t stand fancy things. I want the greasy gross pizza and chips Angela’s bringing.”
“Your loss.” I shrug and open the door. “I can think of at least three fancy outfits that you’d look sick in.”
“...” Viv pauses and glances at the floor for a sec. “I mean… if you’re the one picking out the outfits, I’m sure it wouldn’t be too bad.”
“Let’s go shopping tomorrow. How’s that sound?”
“Sounds good. No mornings though.”
“Attagirl.” I smile and close the door behind me. On my way out the door, I see Angela and Sejong chilling on the couch with a bunch of games and pizza boxes. “Yo, Angela, you sure you’re not going?”
“Nah dude. Sorry, I can’t. Sejong insists on getting his ass kicked in.”
“You’re not going to beat me with 12!” Sejong shoves a piece of pizza into his mouth.
“Shut up and help me set this up.” Angela swiped a piece of pepperoni off Sejong’s slice and began setting up the controllers.
“Don’t you and Josh have a thing going on?” I ask. “This’d make a good date night.”
“Is that any of your business?” Angela sounds like she’s about to kill me, but because she’s five foot nothing, she looks more like a third grader threatening to bash my kneecaps in.
“Alright, alright. Forget I asked. Ciao.”
“Ciao.”
I get down to the parking lot and see Josh, Will, and Janelle all waiting outside an Aegis van. Josh has his usual sickass getup, Will looks like his dad just dressed him up to go to Church, and Janelle… well… wow. Just, titties poppin’ out all over the place. She’s just hugging Will’s arm all up in there. It’s a cute frilly black dress that looks way too small at the top. I mean I can’t say anything cause I always have the girls out and proud, but it’s just weird seeing Janelle’s chest. Not that I’m complaining. She looks very nice. Hell, everyone here looks bitchin tonight. Josh has the bad boy hotness going. Will has that dorky hotness thing going. And I’m going to get in the car before I get caught looking at Janelle’s chest. Why am I looking so much? They’re just titties. I look at mine all the time. Chill. You’re overthinking.
“Sup, guys.” I hug Josh.
“Eeey, Yuyu.” Josh gives me a firm hug before letting me go. “Damn, you’re looking fine.”
“Don’t I always?”
“Hell yeah.” Josh nods.
“Can I have a smoke? Pwetty pwease?”
“No. Not till after dinner. It’s bad luck to smoke before dinner.” Josh hops into the driver’s seat.
“That true?” I ask Will.
“I ain’t aware of that.” Will shrugs while refusing to look me in the eye.
“C’mon everyone.” Josh bangs the side of the car door. “Reservations aren’t good forever.”
I take shotgun while Janelle and Will take the backseat. I look at them through the rearview mirror and Janelle seems waaaay more into this than Will does. Not that Will looks like he’s having a bad time or anything. He looks like he’s happy to have a good dinner while Janelle looks like she’s about to get married. I have a bad feeling about this. I’ve seen that look in her eyes. It’s the look that says she’s already planned the names of their first four kids. Hang in there, Will.
We get to Vinny’s and get seated at a nice booth on the corner towards the end of the restaurant and I immediately check out the drink menu. “Yo, Joshi. Any mixes you could recommend? I kinda want to try something besides vodka tonight.”
“Ever have an old fashioned?”
“No.”
“I’ll get ya two. You seem like you can handle it.”
“Hell yeah.”
A scrawny waiter walks up to us clasping his hands together. “Why hello again, Mr. Dominguez. What will you and your friends be having for dinner tonight? Might I suggest our Dinosaur Steak and Eggs?”
“Heh, cute name.” Josh chuckles. “Why’s it called that?”
“Because it comes from real dinosaurs, my friend.”
A portal opens up somewhere between the waiter and the bar and a scruffy, burly, blood-drenched man falls out of it wielding a comically large skewer of meat like a club. He looks like he belongs on the cover of some pulp barbarian fiction novel.
“Ah, Jim. You’ve returned. How goes the hunting?”
“HOO HOO HOO OOGA BOOGA!!!” He throws the meat club onto the ground, beats his chest like a gorilla, and jumps back into the portal.
The portal closes behind him, the waiter picks up the meat club, and business resumes in the restaurant like nothing happened.
“So would you like to partake?” The waiter presents us with the meat club. “Doesn’t get more fresh than this.”
Josh’s face turns dead serious and he leans towards the waiter. “Is that a real time traveller?”
“Oh, yes. I even visited the Cretaceous period with him last Wednesday night. It was as dreadful as it was fascinating.”
“So you have a time traveller on your payroll… and you have him procuring dinosaur meat.”
“Yes.”
“You could rule the world with that kinda muscle on your payroll!”
“Jim doesn’t want to rule the world.” The waiter shakes his head. “He wants to hunt dinosaurs.”
Not gonna lie… that meat does look pretty damn good.
“How’d the DOH not crack down on you guys yet?”
“Thanks to Jim.” The waiter chuckles and waggles his finger. “You can outsmart a time traveller all you like, he still has all the time in the world. Our arrangement is quite symbiotic. We get protected from the Feds, Jim has a place to sleep and eat after a long day of hunting dinosaurs. Win win for everyone.”
“Uh huh…” Josh blinks. “Just give me the usual platter, but mix some dino meat in there.”
“Of course, sir. Of course… My sister thanks you again for the generous loan.”
“Don’t worry about it.” Josh rests back in his chair with his hands behind his head. He’s got such a delicious disgusting grin. “Now get us some garlic bread, would ya?”
“Right away, sir.” the waiter bows before dashing towards the kitchen.
I haven’t seen Janelle’s hands above the table since we sat down. Don’t like that.
Josh’s grin evaporates into sheer terror in an instant and he ducks underneath the table then hides under the tablecloth.
“Josh!” I whisper. “What the hell are you doing?!”
“Just pretend I’m not here! Please!”
“Why?”
“Look at the entrance...” he sounds ready to cry.
I look back at the entrance and see a bald woman in a frilly, opulent, bright pink dress surrounded by an entourage of 5 men and women in suits. The dress doesn’t suit her at all, but I ain’t going to comment on it. She looks ready to kill everyone in the room and has a sick scar on her face. Looks frail as all hell though.
“She an ex or something?”
“You could say that… Name’s Faust...” Josh whimpers. “Now shh! Slide a plate of spaghetti under the table when it comes. Oh, and two meatballs!”
“Got it. Now shut up.” I look back at Janelle and Will while occasionally glancing back at the woman. She and her entourage walk past our booth and sit in the booth right next to us.
While the night continues to get worse, Janelle and Will still look like they’re having a wonderful time. I just kinda sit with my arms folded waiting for the food.
Josh
October 4th, 2007. 6:12 p.m. Vinny’s. I’m currently trapped under a table hiding from Faust. I hear her servants approach our table. If it wasn’t for Yuko’s thighs, I’d deepthroat my gun here and now.
“Ey. Don’t mean to interrupt your dinner,” I hear a dull voice above the table. “But have you seen this man?” A Faust servant unfolds some paper.
“Can’t say I’ve seen him.” Yuko replies.
Just as Will is about to talk, Yuko kicks him in the ankle. “Uh… ooh…” his voice must’ve gone through at least three octaves. “May I see that picture? My eyes ain’t too sharp.”
“Sure. You okay?”
“Yeah… just some stomach gas.” Will pauses. “Nope. That boy don’t look familiar to me at all.”
“What about you?”
“Hmm. Nope.” Janelle replies. “Never seen him either.”
“I see… Sorry to interrupt. Enjoy the rest of your evening.” Faust’s servants walk away and begin stopping by every table at the restaurant and asking the same question. This is going to be a long night… At least I have Yuko’s thighs to appreciate… Let’s see what color she’s wearing. She has ‘Fuck Off’ written on her inner thighs. She… really comes prepared don’t she? Maybe Janelle’s thighs will be less- and she’s rubbing Will’s groin with a level of finesse that suggests she’s done this before.
I just wanted some nice pasta. I don’t deserve this.
Yuko
October 4th, 2007. 6:24 p.m. Vinny’s. The food and drinks finally get here and I start digging in. Meanwhile, Josh’s ex has returned to her table and began sipping away at some white wine. Two glasses of amber alcohol with a bigass ice cube in the middle of them are slid next to me. Bon appetit. I slam down the first drink. Oof- Ack- Ock- That’s… That’s a strong one… Aw yeah I feel it spreading through my chest. My eyes start to water and my nose begins to drip. Yeah… that’s the good stuff… I wipe my nose on my napkin and begin digging into the pasta. Will begins to pray. Janelle gently pecks at her plate.
“Psst. Yuko.” Josh taps my thigh. “Slide me a plate will you? And some water?”
“You got it.” I do just that.
“Thank you…” I begin to hear the faint sound of slurping under the table.
Janelle puts down her fork and puts her napkin on the table. “Yuko, can you take me to the restroom? I need to talk to you about something.”
I pop a meatball in my mouth. “Sure.” I wipe my mouth and follow her into the restroom. “We’ll be right back, Will.”
Will gives a thumbs-up before he begins eating.
We get into the restroom and holy crap it’s nice. Weird long sink, a shelf full of mints, gum, and candies. Hot towels by the sink. Big pristine mirror that stretches up to the ceiling. Smells better than the food too… It reminds me of home.
Janelle checks the stalls and finds that there’s no one else in the bathroom. She then turns back to me and starts poking me in the shoulder. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”
“Excuse me?”
“Don’t play dumb. You look like you’re about to burst out of your top. It’s been distracting Will all night. Could you please cover up?”
“Are you serious right now?” I can’t help but laugh.
“Why are you laughing?” Janelle looks more pissed by the second. “I’m being serious.”
“Are you sure? Imma give you one last chance to be joking.”
“I’m dead serious.”
“Ohohoho… oh no… You’re just being stupid then.”
“No. You’re being a whore. Cover up or sit at a different table.”
I rub my temple. “Janelle… I just want to have some good pasta. This night’s already weird enough with Josh’s ex in here and you wanking your choir boy off under the table. I don’t need this right now.”
“How did you know about that?!”
“You just told me. Congrats, dumbass.”
“You take that back!” Janelle moves to slap me, but I grab her hand and twist her wrist.
“Janelle. Please just chill. You sound like a highschooler right now.”
“Just cover up! You’re ruining my date night!” Fire engulfs her arm.
I pull away and wash my hand under the sink. “Ack dammit! You really want to get into a Tech fight over a guy with a concave ass? This is what you want to do with your night?”
“I want to have a wonderful first date, but I can’t do that with those boobs distracting him!”
“Wait… when you say first date, do you mean first date with Will or ever?”
“This is my first date.”
“PffftHAHAHA!” I hold my stomach. “Okay, now everything makes sense. That’s why you sound like a virgin.”
“You take tha-” Janelle engulfs her hand in blue flame and winds up a slap, but I just push her into a stall with my voice. She gets slammed against the wall and falls butt first onto the toilet. The fire on her arm dissipates and the toilet flushes under her.
Janelle gets up and charges at me; this time without using any fire. That’s good. She hasn’t gone completely off the deep end. We get into a fight. Well, I wouldn’t really call it a fight. It’s more like me desperately trying to avoid another lawsuit. I really really want to punch a tooth or two out, but I’ll just settle on some shin kicking and hair pulling for now. Don’t want to leave anything she can use as evidence.
Janelle tries to punch my throat, but I grab her arm, bend it behind her, and push her against the wall. She is a bitch to restrain. Feels like she’s been training.
“Janelle. Calm down already.”
“No! Let go of me!” She manages to pivot, elbow me in the ribs, and is about to tackle me when we hear the door to the bathroom open. I look around the corner with the mirror over the sink and see Faust walk in.
I bodycheck Janelle and send her flying back to the wall.
“Bitch!” she grunts and holds her stomach. “Let me get one hit in!”
“Ssh!! You idiot!” I slide up against her and hold my hand to her mouth. “Some-”
Faust turns the corner and looks at us with a blank stare. No anger. No confusion. No disgust. Just… blank. I don’t like it. It’s a whole new level of resting bitch face.
Janelle and I look towards her. Janelle looks like a deer in headlights. My hand is covered in slobber and bite marks. Only one thing to do.
I take my free hand and plop it onto Janelle’s titty. “Can we help you?” I ask Faust.
I see a hint of disgust creep across Faust’s lips before she turns, kicks open a stall, and begins dumping major ass. Seriously, it sounds like salsa being shot out of an overclocked lawnmower.
Janelle raises her hand to hit me, but I just put my finger to my lips before booking it out the restroom and back to the table. Unfortunately, Janelle follows me.
I resume eating and Janelle puts her hands under the table again like the slut she is.
“Psst… Yuyu…” Josh whimpers.
“What up?”
“Is she gone…?”
“Yeah. She’s in the bathroom blasting major ass.”
“Okay good… I need to go to the bathroom.” Josh begins to shuffle out from under the table.
I see Faust stomp out of the bathroom and I promptly kick Josh back under the table.
THUMP
“Ow! Yuko! What the hell?!”
“Shut up! She’s back already!”
“Can’t you distract her or something? I really have to go.”
“Here.” I down the second old fashioned and lob the glass under the table. “Piss in this then.”
“I can’t do that! That’s unsanitary.”
“Then hold it in.” I kick him again.
“Hey.” One of Faust’s escorts taps me on the shoulder. “Please be quiet… Lady Faust is eating right now.”
“Sorry. I’ll pipe down.” I brush off the escort and turn back around to my table.
Will has since finished his spaghetti while Josh slides his empty plate back up on the table. Janelle is more focused on rubbing up on Will than eating her food. She even has the bang me eyes and everything.
“Is everything okay?” Will asks.
“Why ask?” I try to fix my hair.
“I heard you yell in the bathroom. Is something wrong? Did you injure yourself? If you injured yourself, Janelle can always patch you up. She’s an excellent nurse.”
I lock eyes with Janelle for a sec. I could be that bitch right now. I could just ruin her evening. I could be completely honest and tell Will that she’s an insecure little crap and attacked me in the restroom. I’m not going to do that because- ah who am I kidding? I’m not above that.
“Nah. Janelle just went a little craycray and attacked me.”
Janelle looks like she just crapped herself. Good.
“W-what?” Will’s mouth falls open. “Janelle, is that true?”
“Well.. uh… Yeah, but it’s because she’s been distracting you from me the whole night.”
“You think I’m distracted from you?” Will looks like he’s trying to keep his brain from falling out his ears.
“Are you not? You keep looking away towards Yuko the whole night.”
“I was glancing at the bread plate so that I could get bread. Yuko and the bread plate are in the same direction.”
“O-oh…” Janelle’s eyes go wide and her mouth finally shuts up.
“I really do not think this behavior is appropriate for a 30-year-old.” Will takes a sip of water then shakes his head. “What part of this made you think it was okay?”
“I-I… I don’t know… Just… just this night is not matching up with what I had in mind.” Janelle holds Will’s hand and Will allows it.
“I could say the same.” Will sighs. “Apologize to Yuko. She doesn’t deserve this.”
“Of course.” Janelle gives him a quick peck on the back of the hand before turning to me. “Sorry...”
“For what?” I lean forward and rest my elbows on the table and my chin on the back of my hands.
“I’m just sorry! Okay?!” Janelle yells and slams her water glass against the table.
Heads all over the restaurant turn towards us.
crack
I hear a steak knife break in half behind us.
clackclackclack. Faust is now standing right next to Janelle. She stares right at Janelle without blinking. I don’t think I’ve seen her blink once throughout the whole time here.
“I-I di-”
Before Janelle could get three syllables out, Faust clamped onto Janelle’s wrist and refused to let go. Blood quickly began to leak from Janelle’s wrist and stained the floor under us.
“I’m sorry! I’m sorry!” Janelle writhed and struggled in Faust’s grip, but could not break free.
“Come with me.” Faust just dragged Janelle out the door like nothing. Janelle even set herself and Faust on fire, but that didn’t do anything to slow her down.
“Oh thank god.” Josh crawls out from under the table and bolts for the toilet.
Will wipes his mouth and gets up. He makes it about halfway to the door before stopping to sigh and look back at me. “Yuko, come with me. We gotta save Janelle.”
“You mean you gotta save Janelle.” I cut into a piece of my lasagna. “I need to have a nice dinner.”
Will sighs. “Don’t even know why I bothered...” Will sprints out the door.
“I don’t save idiots.” I stay put, take a bite, and feel gooey, kickass cheese filling my mouth. The chunks of dinosaur meat really ties it all together. Savory, yet subtle. Magnificent aftertaste. Not unlike pork. This is the best damn lasagna I’ve ever had.
Will
October 4th, 2007 6:33 p.m. In Vinny's parking lot. Faust is kicking Janelle like she’s a fallen pinata. Janelle’s curled up in a little ball on the pavement. She’s either crying, begging Faust to stop, or begging me to save her. It’s horrifying. I never want to hear or see any of this ever again. Faust’s entourage runs up and forms a wall to separate me from them. I bum rush them and demand they let me through. They surround me.
“Buddy, back off.” One of the henchmen demands. “You gotta let Faust do her business.”
“To heck with that!” I rub my hands all over myself and make every inch of my body and clothes sharp as sharp can be. “I am going to walk to Faust. If you try to stop me and get hurt, that’s your fault.” I begin walking towards the crowd.
“Pfft. Yeah, we haven’t heard that one before.” One of them stretches his arms out and begins to wrap around me like a snake. “I’ll just squeeze the life outt-AAAAH!”
The moment he squeezes his arms around me, they slice apart. Ribbons of flesh, extended muscle, and bone fall to the ground around me. “AAAAHAHAHAH!” The disarmed man stumbles backward and wriggles in a pool of his own blood like a fresh hunt.
“Everyone. I’m begging you. I’m sure your friends and families don’t want any of you to suffer. Leave now.” I continue marching towards Faust. Five of them stand by. Three of them buckle from fear and flee the scene. Faust raises her arm and throws three nickels at incredible speed at them. I hear the wind cut across from me and see the three fleeing people hit the ground. It looks like they all just shut off. No flailing. No bounce. Instant death.
“Faust!” I ran towards her and put myself between her and Janelle. “Stop this immediately! I’ve contacted the authorities. I cannot have a villain such as yourself roam the streets.”
Faust launches a nickel at me, but it splits in half upon hitting me and plunges into the wall behind us.
“You… bitch…” Janelle coughs and stares up at Faust. “I’ll kill you!”
Faust erupts in blue flame. I retreat at least twenty feet just to escape from the heat. The asphalt and cars around Faust begin to melt, but she continues to stand. Her flesh, muscle, and bone all stay intact. She looks more annoyed than anything, as if someone turned the thermostat just one degree too high. Fortunately, police cars begin to encircle the parking lot.
“Boss this is bad! We gotta book it!” An escort calls out to Faust.
The blue flame around Faust begins to flicker out and perish before slowly getting reabsorbed into Janelle. Faust keeps her eyes transfixed onto us and stomps Janelle’s head into the pavement one last time.
Another escort inhales deeply before exhaling a massive cloud of smoke. By the time the smoke clears, the group is nowhere to be seen. I dull my body, bend down, and cradle Janelle. Two black eyes, an entire bruised bicep, what looks like two broken fingers, and a bloody, broken nose.
“Janelle. How do you feel? Can you see me?” I wipe the blood from her face with my shirt.
“D-don’t look at me…” Janelle covers her face with her good arm. “Please… don’t look at me like this…”