“Friends,” Camille said.
We got back to the apartment late.
Kristen and I went to the master bedroom, and Camille took her own.
“Jim?” Kristen said softly once we were in bed together.
“Yes?”
“Cammy and I… you know…”
I nodded at Kristen softly said, “Yes, I know.”
“I never felt it like that. I mean, it’s not the same as you and me. It’s just… different.”
“I figured that.”
“Cammy said you sent her into the shower the other day.”
I continued to nod, rather than answer her directly.
“She said that she and Lynette both had a crush on me for a long time.”
Camille told me about Lynette, the captain of the cheerleading squad. I shrugged, and said, “When I told her to go into the shower, I didn’t consider how you might react.” This had been bugging me.
“I was shocked, but at the same time…”
“Curious?” I asked.
“Yeah. We didn’t do much, other than touch. We still haven’t. You told her that if she soaped my breasts then I’d be hers!”
“Isn’t that true?” I asked.
Kristen gave me a wry smile. “We still haven’t done anything. I’m still a bit scared.”
I hadn’t known that.
“I’m confused,” Kristen admitted.
“I understand.”
There was a few moments of silence. I reached over and pulled Kristen into a hug.
“Kris?”
“Yes?”
“Cammy is feeling really bad about her sister. She doesn’t know the entire story, and it isn’t pretty. I’m sorry that I mentioned her sister’s best friend, but Debbie blurted out that name and then clammed up.”
“Do you think Debbie killed her best friend?” Kristen asked.
I looked at Kristen, a bit surprised that she had put all this together. “I think she may have done something to cause her friend’s death.”
“Those tickets are scary.”
I shook my head. “You’re telling me.”
In the middle of the night, Kristen shook me to wake me up. “Jim, you know that it doesn’t have to be an either/or situation.”
“Huh?” I asked, confused.
“I’m talking about Cammy and me,” Kristen said, hoping that I would be awakened enough to understand her. “It doesn’t have to be an either/or situation.”
“Of course,” I said, my voice full of sleep.
I kissed my Goddess, and felt tears on her face.
I was tired enough that I fell back asleep very soon afterward.
When Camille woke up the next morning, she seemed bright and cheerful. Both Kristen and I looked at her for any signs that she was thinking about her sister, but that didn’t appear to be the case.
Once I got to school, I realized that I blew off jazz band rehearsal and a part of me understood that I was going to have to have a heart to heart with Mr. Proilet.
I found the music teacher before band class. He raised his eyebrows as he saw me.
“Hello, Jim.”
“I’m sorry about rehearsal yesterday.”
“Not a problem. I was surprised to see Kristen there. I thought that the two of you…”
“I needed to visit somebody yesterday,” I said, truthfully.
Mr. Proilet nodded.
The rest of the class was starting to file in.
There were a number of assignments for my “missed” day of class, and I did them during lunch.
Camille and Kristen purchased a few more (smaller!) dildoes when they made the trip out to Chicago to pick me up, and Camille and Lynette privately offered them to the cheerleaders so they wouldn’t have to be seen as tramps to the other students. Camille and I also “protected” the cheerleaders from Tim. I wished that they wouldn’t accept tickets from Tim, and to the ones that had already been affected by Tim, I made an additional wish that they wouldn’t think too much about the power he had over them.
Despite my attempts to keep the cheerleaders from worrying, according to Camille about half of the girls were still facing Saturday with trepidation.
I still hadn’t come up with a workable solution to dealing with Tim Hawking the next day.
The rest of the school day progressed slowly. During English, when we were supposed to write some essay, I looked up at my teacher and noticed that Mrs. Taylor was glaring at me. I quickly shifted my attention back to my essay and thought about Debbie’s words about that teacher. I also thought about how Will said that he could see my “strange aura” and how he associated it with magic. If Will was sensitive to my tickets, then other people might be sensitive, even if they didn’t know why they felt a particular way.
I decided that the best way to handle Mrs. Taylor was to give her as few reasons as possible to be angry with me.
Back at the apartment, Kristen excused herself to run a few errands. She didn’t invite Camille or me, which was a bit unusual, but it gave Camille and me some private time together.
There were some things about the tickets that Camille just couldn’t discuss with Kristen around, so the opportunity was welcome.
“What do you think about tomorrow?” Camille asked.
“At least the cheerleaders are protected,” I said.
“I wonder if he phrased his wish the same way to everybody,” Camille mused.
“What do you mean?”
“He said, quote, ‘Be ready for me on Saturday,’ unquote.”
“I think he meant it sexually,” I said.
“If he said it the same way to everybody, and they’re protected…”
The two of us laughed. I imagined a picture of the entire cheerleading squad, complete with boyfriends, all brandishing baseball bats with menacing looks at Tim.
“Violence isn’t the answer,” I said, slightly amused at the mental image. I also remembered Debbie and shuddered slightly.
“What he’s doing is rape,” Camille said. “The penalty for rape is severe.”
“We’re not going to be judge and jury, Cammy.”
Camille nodded.
I considered tomorrow’s party again. How would we be able to deal with Tim?
“That creep tried to give Kris a ticket again,” Camille said.
“Oh?” I asked. Kristen hadn’t told me that.
“She didn’t take it,” Camille assured me.
“He’s going to get obsessive about her,” I observed. “Has he approached any of the other cheerleaders?”
“I know he tried to give one to Lynette and Jackie, and he was unsuccessful with both,” Camille answered.
I sighed. How would I react when a bunch of tickets work consistently until, all of a sudden, people start refusing them? I’d try to find out what changed.
How do you get rid of the tickets, as Debbie seemed to have done?
“Can you tell me how to get rid of the tickets?” I asked Camille once again.
Camille didn’t answer, but shook her head.
I sighed.
“Can you tell me about my sister?” Camille asked.
I had agonized the previous night about telling Camille about her sister, but I figured that she deserved to know. I told her most of what Debbie told me, including her comment that she referred to herself as a big prick, a stripper, and a whore.
Camille had tears in her eyes. At one time, she hated her sister for what she did to her. However, she realized that Debbie was in a terrible situation. Her sister was being forced to turn tricks for Vinnie! Camille didn’t confide in me, however, so I wasn’t entirely sure what was going on in her mind. I think my suspicions about Debbie’s best friend Donna also spooked Camille.
Kristen arrived, saw Camille crying, and looked a question at me. I mouthed the word, “Debbie” and Kristen nodded.