Chapter 75: Friends react...

"I'm off work and home all alone. What're you up to?"

"Uh, just leaving my friend Drew's house. Me an' him an' our friend Taylor were just hangin' out. Playin' Xbox. Chillin'." Jason adjusted the cell phone earpiece as he walked down the steps from Drew's apartment building and headed for his car. The residential street was quiet and deserted, with the odd fog that had rolled in now lifting.

"Taylor? That girl from the party?"

"Yeah."

"She'd better not have any designs on you." Britney's voice was more playful and affectionate than jealous, but Jason hadn't known her long. He had no idea if she was psycho or not. Nor did he have any experience with psycho girls. Or sane ones, for that matter...last weekend aside, of course.

"Oh, I think she's got her plate kinda full right now," he said. His eyes were wide at his own understatement. The truth of it was that Taylor had wandered over to Drew's place sometime after sunset looking for someone to talk to. A year older than the rest, naturally graduated earlier. It was easy for Jason to forget that Drew, having been pretty popular himself, had hung out with Taylor much more than he or the other guys had... but not so much that Drew was normally (or even remotely) the first person Taylor turned to when she needed bro counseling. In fact, Jason had never imagined Taylor would need bro counseling at all, but apparently Drew had a penchant for discretion that Taylor had learned to count on.

Specifically, Taylor was looking for someone to hear her wide-eyed, breathless, can't-believe-I-just-did-that confession of her lesbian demon sexcapades. She just came over asking if she could hang out with them, looking a little tired and bewildered but also hotter than hell. Then she found a spot on the couch to lie down and dropped the bombshells about her weekend while she stared up at the ceiling as if she had completely lost control of her internal monologue. Drew's game character died instantly as turned his head toward Taylor in shock. Jason had it worse; his game controller fell right out of his hands.

Petty or not, Jason found himself feeling a little irked that someone had already one-upped the glory of his double-blonde loss of virginity. That was a couple of hours ago, though, and the phone call from one of his guides into the rampant awesomeness of sex had him feeling much better already.

"Feel like coming over here?"

"Um. I was headed home, actually."

"Aw. Come see me, Jason. I'm lonely and scantily clad."

"You—um, what?" Jason blinked. He stopped in his tracks.

"I already talked to Brittany. She won't mind if I steal a little one-on-one time. I'm sure she'll want you all to herself at some point, too."

His sensibilities quickly went into all-out war. He had already caught hell over all this just yesterday from his parents. Yet Taylor's unexpected too-much-information dump had Jason feeling more than a little anxious. He wasn't going to call either of the Brits tonight; he didn't want to blow it by looking desperate, and he couldn't figure out whether or not one would be offended if he called the other first. But Britney had just resolved all that.

"C'mon, Jason. I haven't been able to think of anything but you since you went home. Get over here and unleash the beast again."

That made up his mind. He had just inserted the key into the slot on his car door, smirked at the horrible symbolism there, and then heard the thump and the curse from down the block.

Jason looked over. That was Alex's building. That was a limousine. And that was quite plainly a limp body being thrown into the trunk. He quickly crouched down. Through the windows of the parked cars, Jason made out a couple of the individuals – one in a cowboy hat and duster, another in a pin striped suit with an old Thompson machinegun in one hand, another with a longsword strapped to his back – all getting into the car. He made a point of remembering the license plate number while they got in.

Jason jumped into his car, started the engine, and pulled out with a gutsier turn than he would ever make under any other circumstances. He hauled ass after the limo, slowing only to look up at the side of Alex's building to note that, yes, his window was smashed out. Like that wasn't more than suspicious enough for him.

"Britney, I gotta go," Jason said firmly.

"What? What's wrong?"

He was following men with guns who had just kidnapped or killed one of his best friends. He had no experience with this sort of thing. He didn't know where it would lead, or what the hell he could possibly do about it, or what he would be able to do if they spotted him. There was a lot wrong right then.

"I'll tell you later. Look, I swear to God, there's nothing I want to do more than come over and hit that like the hammer of Thor, but right now I just can't, okay? I'll hook up with you and wreck you as soon as I possibly can, alright?"

There was a pause. Jason kept his eyes on the road, but as he drove he realized to his horror what had just come out of his mouth. His jaw dropped at his own sheer stupidity. The hammer of Thor? Wreck you? Who says that!? Jesus fucking Christ, why would I actually say that?!

The line was silent for a long moment. Finally, he heard a single word: "...Promise?"

************

"How come we never hung out that much before?" Taylor asked aloud. She still lay on the couch in Drew's living room staring at the ceiling.

Drew himself sat on the arm of the couch near Taylor's feet. "You and I did hang out in high school, girl. Ain't the first time you've been on the therapy couch."

"No, I mean everyone. I always liked Wade. I always liked Jason. And Alex was... I mean, I just didn't want to date him back then, but of course I liked him. Of course he was my friend. Maybe my best friend, now that I look back on it."

"You're here now. We all love you. An' it sounds like whatever you and Alex got going on is fine for the both of you. The three of you," he corrected teasingly, swatting her foot.

Taylor put her hands over her face, laughing a bit. "God, I'm a total skank."

"Hey, if you're a skank, we're all skanks."

"Oh, whatever," Taylor said, waving off his comment. She stared at the spackling on his ceiling for a moment. "Do you... I don't know how to ask this..."

"Just do it," Drew shrugged helpfully.

"Do you get jealous?"

He blinked. "Of what?"

"Alex. I mean, look at what he's got. He's slept with three women this weekend alone. Four, apparently, if you count whoever he was with Friday afternoon after class. And Lorelei's loaded and devoted to him and she's just so... she's amazing, you know?"

"Shit, you'd know that better than I would, apparently. Skank," he grinned. "Who the fuck else has he been with?"

"Some goth chick from North Seattle. And he got it on with Jocelyn at the party."

Drew's eyebrows shot up, and then he laughed. "Okay, now I am jealous. That bastard."

"I'm serious! You didn't know? He didn't say anything?"

"I think Alex isn't the kind to brag about this stuff. I mean, yeah, he had one motherfucker of a shit- eating grin when he first showed up with Lorelei, know what I'm sayin'? But he ain't one for giving play-by-plays. You've told me and Jason a lot more than he has." Drew gave her a teasing grin. "But it ain't like we didn't know there's other girls. You haven't seen the angel, either. Damn. Just damn."

Taylor looked over at him. "Is she prettier than Lorelei?"

"Hell, I couldn't tell you that one way or the other. That's like comparing... I don't know. They're both just so hot it's ridiculous."

"But you don't get jealous? I mean, all that, and you don't feel any envy at all? Not the other guys?"

"Well, I guess there's envy and there's jealousy. I mean, any guy who looks at that woman and doesn't wanna hit that is, like, one hundred percent gay, right? I mean like not even a little bit into girls. And yeah, I guess it'd be cool to have a girl who wants you to think with your jock first and your head second, but... man, you didn't see him when we were drivin' around with that demon guy in the minivan. I mean, Alex had this look on his face like he was just fucked. He was like, 'That's it. That's what I get to do from now on. Just hella crazy guys kickin' my ass an' an' tryin' to take my girl an' all my friends getting' hurt.' That's gotta be some heavy shit there."

"See, that's what I mean, though. You defend him. And look what he's got."

"Look what I got, though. We told you earlier about the pool hall. I mean, the only complication there is figurin' out how to tell it to our parents and family and make sure it don't look dirty, but man... four days ago I felt like I'd never be able to afford to go to college. Now I've got that licked. Hell, I'm probably gonna finally buy a car or move out of my mom's place here. Maybe both, if I keep workin'. An' Jason's talkin' about maybe selling me his share if we can figure out how to swing that fairly, 'cause he doesn't want to be in business with friends. Says it's bad juju."

Taylor nodded. "I didn't mean money, though. I mean women. Sex."

"Hey, Alex and Jason were the ones who could never pick up. Sherri's all over me, and I gotta tell you, it ain't like we ain't havin' a good time. You can tell me Alex has greener grass and more of it, but I wouldn't know, 'cause I'm busy takin' care of my own. And Wade... man, he ain't even been lookin' for a girl, but I think he picked one up the other night."

"I know Trish. She's a sweetheart."

Drew nodded. "I think Wade's just lookin' for someone to talk to after all the shit he's been through. So no. No jealousy there. And, Jason..." he tried to go on, but just laughed.

"What?" Taylor grinned.

"Jason... oh, man, that fool. Taylor, you aren't the only one who's been..." He gave up trying to talk and laughed more.

"What? Tell me!" Taylor said, nudging his leg with her foot.

"He went home with two of those blonde Britney girls from the party."

Taylor's eyes went wide in shock. "Jason did?"

"Yeah," Drew nodded. "He came over earlier and plopped down on the couch just like you did like he was still in shock. I mean I guess those girls are freaky. He's all blown away, his hickeys haven't all faded yet, and he's getting texts from both of 'em like crazy. An' his parents found out like immediately, like one of 'em slipped her panties in his pocket an' they fell out when he got home an' his parents flipped the fuck out. So he drops all that on me, and then finally we're like cool and shit, and then you come over an' plop down on the couch, and I'm just like, 'Oh, what the fuck now,' know what I mean?"

The thought gave Taylor a good laugh. "Wow, I saw those two. They were hot."

"No shit. He showed me a couple of the pics they sent him. Nothin' nude, but freaky."

Her eyes went wide with interest. "Did he share them?"

"No, but I bet if I asked him," Drew suggested, reaching for his phone. As he did, it went off with the chorus of "Pretty Fly for a White Guy."

"Oh, hey, speak of the devil," he chuckled. Drew flipped the phone open. "Yo' momma so dumb she-–" he fell silent as Jason barked at him. Then his face grew very serious.

"What is it?" Taylor asked.

"Someone just grabbed Alex," Drew scowled. "Maybe Lorelei, too. Jason's following 'em."

"Oh shit," Taylor gasped. "Wait. Did he see them? Were they all dressed in black?"

She was loud enough that Jason heard her over the phone. Drew listened and told her, "Yeah, said they all looked like a costume party for emo kids."

"They're probably vampires," Taylor thought aloud.

"Dammit." Drew blinked. "What?"

"We gotta get after him!"

"We're on it. Jason's following. We can't exactly call the cops for this. We're gonna call Wade and get him–"

"We'll call him on the way," Taylor said, already up and grabbing her jacket.

"Wait, on the way? What? You're coming, too?"

"Last I checked, you don't have a car," Taylor said firmly.

Drew looked up at her for a brief moment. Arguing with her was obviously pointless.