Tom looked at the stack of winter supplies that had come in over the weekend and grimaced. This was going to take forever, and today he didn’t have forever to spend at the hardware store.
“Nobody’s ever prepared for the first big snowfall of the year,” his father said, and as Tom looked out the storefront window he could see that his father was right with his weather prediction. The snow was no longer melting as it hit the ground. It was sticking, and cars were beginning to slide uncontrollably down the hill.
“Tom,” his father yelled as he watched his son drag the last salt bag across the floor, “I told you half an hour ago to use the handcart.”
Tom shrugged. “Sorry, Dad. Do you want me to bring the shovels up from the basement?”
“I told you to do that first,” his father sighed. “Look, obviously you’ve got something else on your mind today. Just go and take care of it. I’ll finish up here.”
“Do I still get paid for four hours?” Tom asked.
“Get out of here,” his father answered.
While this had seemed like the answer to Tom’s prayers at the time, he soon realized that it meant he had no excuse not to go over to Ryan’s house. The walk, a walk he had taken countless times in his life, seemed endless, his feet seemingly heavier with each step he took. Dread. To anticipate with alarm, distaste or reluctance. That pretty much summed it up.
He stopped at the foot of the first driveway past the corner of Maple and Elm, and sighed. Ellie and Jacey were outside, standing on separate ends of the “y” formation the shared driveway divided into, just past the two house structures. Ellie was on the right and Jacey was on the left. Neither of them looked particularly happy to see him.
He was dead meat and he knew it.
“I’m going to have to sweet them,” he said to himself. “Give them a little of the Tom-boy mojo.”
He took his time strolling up the driveway, with a calculated swagger that he knew would say “I am the man and I am in control.” At least that was the plan before he hit a slippery patch of wet snow on the driveway and fell flat on his ass.
“What the hell is he doing?” Ellie asked, moving closer towards Jacey. Part of her wanted to rush down the driveway to see if Tom was all right, but a bigger part of her wanted to clap her hands in delight and laugh herself silly. She settled for a self-serving smirk.
“He’s trying to convince us that we want him,” Jacey replied. “Watch, about half way up the driveway he’ll stop, put his hands on his hips like this, smile, drop his voice down an octave and say, ‘uh, Ladies’.”
“For real?”
“Sha...” Jacey insisted, as she reached down to the ground and took some of the wet snow that had fallen on the ground into her gloved hand, where she easily pressed it into a compact, hard ball.
Tom studied the girls from his new vantage point on the ground. They were like two alien robo-babes. They displayed no facial emotion, but their bodies were poised to kill at the slightest hint of his vulnerability.
He stood up and smiled warily.
“Uh, ladies?” he asked, his voice rising, as he tried to shake the snow from his lower extremities. He was surprised that he had fallen. His white cross-trainers normally had good traction in wet snow, but they were no match for his legs, quivering with anxiety having seen the girls.
Ellie smiled at Jacey. “You were right.”
“Erm, technically no,” Jacey admitted, tossing the snowball from one hand to another. “I went for a statement. He gave us a question. And the voice went up. Two marks off for the British contestant.” She made certain the snowball was as packed as hard as she could.
“Was it just me, or did he sound a little pre-pubescent?” Ellie asked rhetorically. She tried not to notice the imprint the wet snow had left on his ass as he turned briefly to wipe it off. As wet asses go, Tom’s was pretty good.
“Right then, Mr. Williams,” Jacey began, tossing the snowball directly towards Tom’s head, missing him by a mile. “What have you got to say for yourself? I hear you’ve been putting the moves on my bezzie here.” She brushed the traces of snow from the palm of her gloves and sunk her hands deep into the pockets of her coat to keep them warm.
“Well,” Tom pleaded. “You can’t blame a guy for trying.”
“Don’t be so sure,” Ellie answered back, forcing her voice to sound as ominous as she could possibly make it. He did look sincere though, and for a moment she wondered if she was being too harsh with him.
“Look, I’m sorry,” Tom sighed. “I’d like to try to make it up to you two lovely ladies. Just tell me what it’ll take.”
“Actually, Tommy-luv,” Jacey began. “If you really mean it, and you’re not just saying that to try to wiggle your way back into our hearts, you can do us a huge favor and watch Stan. Ellie and I need to go run a little errand downtown and Betty isn’t home yet. I’m supposed to be babysitting, but like I said, there’s summat we just have to do. We’d be ever so grateful if you could take care of him for me, just for a little while.”
Tom smiled. Jacey’s idea didn’t seem like such a bad one to him. He could take Stan out of the house and down to the jail where Ryan and the cops could deal with the situation themselves. That would allow him to wash his hands of the whole mind-numbing problem. Sure, jail wasn’t the best place for Stan, but the kid had to learn the cruel facts of life sometime, and now was as good a time as any. Once Stan was out of the house, it would then give him time to be alone with Jacey or Ellie, whoever caved first. The plan made for a perfect afternoon if it weren’t for that one nagging thing he had promised Ryan he would do.
“Did you hear me?” Jacey asked. “Because you’re staring at us like a deer in a headlight or summat.”
“No, I heard you,” Tom nodded, still scheming. “Maybe we can make a deal. I don’t suppose you gals know anything about the art of ... vampire killing? I don’t have my laptop with me, and I’m thinking that maybe you could do me a favor and hit the library along the way and pick up some resource materials for me? I need something like ‘How to Kill Immortals in Five Easy Steps.’ It could be either a DVD or book, I’m not that picky. You would really be helping me out. I need them, and it’s not like I can drag Stan along with me into the occult section.”
“Vampire killing?” Ellie said incredulously, his words piercing her like the tip of a sharp needle. “Is that supposed to be funny? Do you know what you can do, Tom Williams? You can go straight to hell.”
“It doesn’t have to be the occult section,” Tom offered feebly. “You could find Stoker in the classics.”
Ellie turned her back to the two of them, trying to hold back the tears she felt welling in her eyes. There was nothing Ellie wanted more right now than for her mother to poke her head out the window and demand she come back inside to pack because they were going back to the city to live with Tony. He might have been god-awful hairy, but he wasn’t crazy. This whole town on the other hand, no matter how athletic, or cute, or beautiful it appeared upon first glance...was totally freaking crazy.
“Okay, okay,” Tom tried to explain, “Ellie, Ryan told me to tell you he saw your vampire.”
“Really?” Ellie asked, not certain whether Tom was just trying to appease her.
“Yes,” Tom continued, “and I know it sounds totally bogus, but he thinks that the dude is out to get Stan and the only thing that will save the twerp is if Ryan figures out how to kill the vampire before it kills Stan. So, I was thinking maybe you, Ellie, could kind of lead me in the right direction, having had some experience in close encounters of the fangtastic kind.”
“You’re a right plonker, Tom Williams!” Jacey retorted indignantly. “How can you mock Ellie when she’s standing right here?”
“I’m not,” Tom insisted. “Ryan really wants to know how to do it, and he can’t exactly look it up himself right now.” He jerked his head to the left a couple of times, motioning for Jacey to shut-up.
“Oh, and why is that?” Ellie demanded, turning back to fa
ce Tom. “Can’t Mr. Superstar navigate his way through an ISBN catalogue?”
Tom clasped his hands together, raised them and placed them on top of his head, a mannerism he often did when he was verbally frustrated.
“Ellie, I swear to you,” he said, crossing his heart with his right hand, “I am not making fun of you. You know Ryan’s in jail, right?”
“Yes, we know all about it.” Jacey said. “The girl. The pond. We know. It’s all part of why we need you to stay here while we go and do a little shopping,” she sighed. She was getting impatient and Tom’s reluctance to shut up and co-operate was taking its toll on her. A feeling deep within her was telling her she needed to finish her scavenger hunt before nightfall, and nightfall came early this time of year.
“You know what? Forget that.” Tom pleaded, clearly frustrated. “Why don’t we all just stay here? We’ll get Stan to fire up the Lachey’s computer and we can go online and figure this out together. Jacey, you could go online and buy whatever you need and Ellie...you can do whatever you want to do so long as you stop being mad at me.”
“So, it’s okay if I’m still mad at you?” Jacey retorted.
“No. I that’s not what I meant,” Tom pleaded. “Ladies, please. You’re doing my head in.”
Jacey shook her head and started to move towards him. “Sorry, sweetie. Ellie and I need to go right now because,” she sighed, moving close enough to Tom that he could smell her sweet scented cologne in the crisp winter air, “when we get through with our little errand, we will have what we need to come back and make you ... one ... happy ... man.”
“You will?” Tom questioned. Although the thought of Jacey and Ellie making him happy more than appealed to him, he was doubtful that Jacey really meant what his brain told him she was suggesting.
“We will?” Ellie echoed, moving closer towards the two of them. Like Tom, she wished she knew what Jacey was up to. Ellie liked to flirt as much as the next girl, but Jacey seemed to be going beyond flirting on the proposition meter.
“Let Stan sleep,” Jacey continued. “Ellie and I will be gone for about an hour or so, but when we come back, we will rock ... your ... world.”
She smiled with confidence.
Ellie smiled with uncertainty.
Tom smiled through his pants.
“Okay, girls,” he grinned. “I’ll watch the little Lachey for you. You just remember your part of the deal. I will not be happy if you come back empty-handed and suddenly have no memory of this whole conversation.”
“Oh we will,” Jacey said, tugging on the black scarf hanging haphazardly around Tom’s neck. “Remember, I mean. Don’t you worry your pretty little head about that.”
She licked the lip-gloss off her lips slowly and pursed her lips together, sending Tom an untouchable kiss.
He swallowed hard.
Raising her eyebrow teasingly at him, Jacey then turned and grabbed Ellie by the hand. “Come on, girlfriend. We have to go get our toys,” she said saucily knowing it would warp Tom’s mind.
Ellie swallowed hard.
Tom thought he was going to explode right then and there merely from the innuendoes in the air. The two girls promising togetherness, or even just suggesting togetherness, was like throwing two candy breath mints into a full soda bottle and letting it ejaculate itself into the next block.
“Babes,” he breathed softly, “I really have to leave you now, but promise me, promise me, that you’re not just jerking me around.”
Waiting for an answer and not getting one, he tugged on the handle of the steel screen door at the side of the Lachey house, nearly hitting himself in the head when the door easily opened. “Don’t know my own strength,” he mumbled, quickly opening the wooden door and heading inside, away from the two robo-vixens in his own private hell.
“He’s going totally barmy, I swear,” Jacey laughed.
“Was that fair?” Ellie asked, as Tom disappeared inside the house, locking the door behind him. “What you said to him. It so puts us on his level.”
“It’s all in his interpretation," Jacey shrugged. “Not much we can do about that.”
“We’re not really going toyou knowtogether with Tom are we?” Ellie asked timidly. She was surprised that the thought both excited and turned her off at the same time. Particularly since Jacey still hadn’t let go of her hand. She hadn’t had another girl hold her hand since she was in grade school and it felt strangely uncomfortable.
“I’m a bit surprised you’re contemplating it, Ellie. And a bit flattered,” Jacey said, biting her lip and giving Ellie a glance that simmered with erotic bemusement.
“That’s not what I meant,” Ellie insisted, unsure if Jacey was actually trying to pick her up, or whether she was just imagining it. “I mean, you’re gorgeous and everything but...”
Jacey laughed as she started to slide purposefully down the slippery driveway, pulling Ellie along with her.
“Come on, Goth-Chic. We’re not going to have to worry about our sexuality at all if we don’t get done what we need to do. When we get back, remind me to tell Tom he’s going to have to get us some bullets from his dad’s hardware store.”
“Jacey?”
“Silver ones.”
“Jacey! You’re really freaking me out,” Ellie said, pulling her hand back to her own side. The afternoon was getting more uncomfortable by the moment.
“Well, we can’t get those from St. Mary’s,” Jacey shrugged.
“But they’re not on your list,” Ellie noted. She didn’t dare ask where they were going to get a gun. On the one hand she hoped that Jacey hadn’t got that far in her thought process. On the other, she wondered whether Jacey already had a loaded Sig-Sauer in the seemingly endless pocket of her coat.
“Are you okay, El?” Jacey asked.
“Stellar,” Ellie replied. Her mind ran through the past twenty minutes she had spent with Jacey. First she had hated her, then she liked her, then it got a bit weird, and now, now she was thinking that maybe Ryan was right and this beautiful, quasi-religious, possibly bi-sexual temptress was really all of those things and none of those things at the same time. “Spacey-Jacey,” she thought to herself.
But it was nice to have made a friend.
Maybe.