strangetomato | Strangetown: Chapter Nineteen

Warnings: language, sexual situations, drug use

Chapter Nineteen

Part Two

Jill Smith was feeling pretty good about herself. She was on top of the world.

Her encounter with Ripp had been wonderful, even if it had been rudely interrupted by Johnny. It had gone much better than she had expected. Much, much better. She had obviously prepared for the possibility, and hoped that she would be able to kiss him or make some sort of contact with him, but she hadn't really believed that it would happen. Well, maybe she thought he would brush up against her as he stood up from the table, or something, but definitely not that. Not what had actually happened.

She wondered what would happen next. Would she hear from Ripp? Had he been serious about her coming to see his band play? Maybe he would give her a call. She kept one ear waiting to hear the phone ring at all times.

She settled in for an evening bubble bath to get a little privacy, so she could better think about it all.

Jill had been playing and replaying her kiss with Ripp over and over again in her mind. Every detail was precious. It wasn't as soft and romantic as she'd imagined, but that was just a silly little girl's fantasy, anyway. The truth of the matter was far more exciting. Limbs searching. Tongues meeting. Sharp intakes of breath, almost whimpering with desire. Rough stubble leaving burn marks on her face. The feeling of him, ready and wanting her, pressed against her body.

It made her feel like a real woman. That's what it was like to be with a man. You had to expect some roughness.

But he had been gentle too. Also very gentle, cradling her in his arms.

Jill sank down into the warm bubbles and played out one of the many variations of how she imagined it may have ended, if only her stupid prudish asshole of a brother hadn't showed up.

"Jill, are you finished in there yet?" It was Buck. He was waiting outside the bathroom door, and his knock jolted her back to reality.

"Ah - Almost... just give me... five more minutes, okay?"

He made an affirmative sound, and left her to sink back into the warm water and her fantasy. She closed her eyes and let it wash over her.

After she had dried off and dressed herself, she returned to her bedroom, where she found Buck patiently waiting for her.

"Enjoy your bath?" he asked.

"Yes." She giggled. "Why, yes, I did."

He furrowed his brow in confusion, unsure of how to react to this random girly weirdness from Jill.

"So, why the smile, Jill?"

"Oh, nothing..." She grinned mischievously. "I can't tell you."

"Why not?"

"It's a secret."

"You can tell me! It's just me, Jill." Buck got up from the bed.

"It's a secret, Buck." She looked away, bashfully, which was odd for Jill. "That's the whole point. I'm not going to tell you my secret. It's private."

"I thought we didn't keep secrets from each other, Jill."

"Well, this is different." She paused. "It's bigger. A real secret. I'm sure that you have things that you keep from me like that, am I right?"

"Well, yeah... I guess I do."

"Of course you do." Jill was thinking about the one obvious secret that he might be keeping. The big unanswered question. She went silent for a moment, as she gave that some thought.

"You know..." She said, with a grin. "I might be convinced to tell you mine if you tell me yours."

"Errr, I don't know about that." The smile vanished from his face completely.

"Oh, why not?" She pleaded. "It would be fun. I wouldn't mind telling you, if you told me something in return. It's only fair, Buck."

"Well, maybe..."

"Oh, come on, Buck! Don't be such a wuss." Jill socked him with her tiny fists. He just laughed, since she had all the force of a gentle summer breeze.

"Okay." He sighed. "But not here. Can we go somewhere private?"

"My bedroom isn't private enough for you?"

"Your parents might come in..."

"Wow. Your secret must be better than I thought, Buck." She laughed. "I know! Let's go to your house. It's completely empty. We can have all the privacy we want there. You wanted to feed the fish anyway, right?"

They arrived at the Specter estate just as it was getting dark.

"Well, here we are," Johnny said, "Now what?" Ophelia silently surveyed the courtyard for a while before speaking.

"Well, I suppose we should go inside, and see if Olive is here."

"God, this place is fucking creepy."

"Are you scared, Rippy?" Johnny mocked, "I can hold your hand if you want..."

"Fuck you, Johnny. You're scared of this place too. Don't try to tell me you aren't."

"I'm not a frightened little girl, like you are."

Ripp snuck up behind Johnny and jumped at him. "Oooo-ooooo! Ichabod's gonna get you!"

Johnny yelped with fright.

"Oh, did I scare you, Johnny?" He laughed, "I'm so sorry!"

"It's not funny!" Johnny yelled.

"It's pretty fucking funny from where I'm standing."

"Who's not afraid of this place now, Johnny?" Ripp smiled as he continued to haunt Johnny with a terribly over-acted ghost impression.

"Okay! God!" he yelled, "This place scares the shit of me. Are you happy now?"

"I really fucking hope you brought a spare pair of panties."

"Shut up! One of us should go in there with Phi, don't you think?" He made a motion towards the door, which clearly stated that it would be him, and not Ripp.

"So, what? I get to stay out here and play with the fucking ghosts?"

"Look around... maybe there's something out here that will be informative to us."

"You took the easy job."

"Well, if Olive is here, it's not the easy job."

"Whatever, dicksmack."

Johnny hurried to catch up with Ophelia.

Ripp stood in place, hesitantly, but then felt a creeping sensation, and decided it was best to keep moving. He didn't want to give a ghost the opportunity to scare the piss out of him.

It was already too late for Ophelia to avoid a confrontation with a ghost.

"Are you okay, Phi?" Johnny asked as he caught up to her. She hadn't screamed, but he could see that she was in some emotional distress.

"Yes. I'm okay." She had been used to seeing ghosts when she lived here, but had forgotten just how frightening it was in the time since she had moved out on her own.

"Shall we go inside?" They opened the door and cautiously stepped inside to have a look around.

Ripp was talking to himself, mostly as a way to keep himself from being afraid, and complaining about how pointless it was to search around the courtyard. He was convinced that he wasn't going to find anything. Besides maybe a good haunting or two.

"How weird, Johnny." Ophelia said. "There doesn't seem to be any sign of Olive, but it does seem like someone has been here, doesn't it?"

"The bed was slept in. Or it seems that way."

"Yeah. It's so unusual. And Olive would have made the bed. She was always so strict about that. And the bathroom is a total mess. Not like Olive at all..."

"Yeah, it looks like Ripp was trying to give himself a shave in there, or something. Water everywhere... everything knocked over. If there's a big slimy clog of hair in the drain, then I'm saying it was definitely Ripp."

They continued walking across the house to where Ophelia's bedroom was.

"This place is definitely deserted," Johnny declared, "There's nobody here, Phi."

"But what about the mess and all that... " She wasn't convinced. She still had a feeling about it. "Someone's here, Johnny. Or they were. We have to keep looking."

"It's so weird being in your bedroom again," he said, looking around the familiar room. "It reminds me of when we first started dating."

"Yeah..." She smiled.

"It was always easier to do things over here, where nobody was really watching us." He said, as he pulled her closer. She smiled.

"Remember how we used to..."

Johnny nibbled his way along the length of her neck.

"Johnny... stop it." She protested, but her smiled betrayed her.

"That's not what you used to say..."

"Johnny... we should go make sure that Ripp is okay out there." Ophelia said. "It's not a good idea for him to be by himself."

"Okay."

Outside, Ripp was standing in the cemetery.

"Ripp? Did you find anything?"

He walked over to Johnny. "No, there's nothing here to find."

Johnny turned to Ophelia. "Looks like we're not going to be able to do much else here."

Behind them, Ripp screamed. It came out a lot higher and girlier than he would have liked. His friends both spun around to see if he was okay.

"Fuck!" he cried, "Could this place be any more fucking haunted?!"

"Are you okay?" Johnny asked.

"Well, I didn't piss myself, so I'd consider that kinda fucking okay, but I think my life was probably shortened by a day or two. Nothing too, too important..."

"Well, not to be an asshole about it, but that's what you get for trying to scare me earlier..."

"You're right, John. You are kinda being a fucking asshole about it."

"Really, Johnny..., " Ophelia scolded, "He could have died. It's not funny."

"I know," he said, "You're right, Phi. I'm being an idiot... I'm sorry, Ripp."

"It's okay, John. But can we please just get the fuck out of here now? Before I really do piss myself?"

"It's too dangerous here with all of these fucking ghosts about..." He said, grabbing Johnny tightly by the shoulders for leverage. "We should get Ophelia home and safely tucked into bed."

Johnny felt Ripp's arms shaking, and he knew that Ripp was really the one that needed to be tucked into bed with a night light left on. Ophelia was as tough as nails when it came to this stuff. She was hardly the one to worry about. He, also, wouldn't be sleeping alone in his own bed that night. Not a chance.

There was a sound in the distance, like mumbling, or groaning.

"Do you hear that?" Ophelia asked.

"Yeah, what was that? More ghosts?"

Johnny and Ripp both attempted to seem less frightened than they were, and walked around to investigate. Ripp looked around the corner of the building.

"Whoa! Over here, you guys!" he exclaimed, "Who the fuck it this?!"

"What's wrong with him?" Ophelia asked.

Nervous Subject was convulsing on the ground, his legs twitching and kicking around, and making some terrible, terrible sounds.

"He's... he's coming down off something, think." Ripp said. He hadn't exactly witnessed something this bad firsthand, but he wasn't without some knowledge on the matter.

"You mean, like a drug?!"

"Yes, Johnny! Like a fucking 'drug'." Ripp made the quotation marks with his fingers as he said it, mockingly.

"I would say some type of sedative. And probably something pretty fucking strong too. Like maybe a narcotic of some sort."

"I'm not really impressed that you know that."

"Johnny, everybody knows shit like that! They teach it in school!"

"Well, you seem like you know an awful lot about it, Ripp." And since when did Ripp pay attention in school? Johnny knew that Ripp's bandmates were pretty hard characters, and he had his suspicions.

"Do you want to fucking shut up for a second so we can try to help him, or what?!"

"What can we do, Ripp?" Ophelia asked, "We have to do something!"

"Well, the obvious solution, at least for now, would be to get him some more drugs before he bites off his fucking tongue or something!"

"How are we going to do that?!" She asked.

"We can't do that!" Johnny cried.

"Well, it would keep this from happening, Johnny! But you're right... we can't do that. We don't even know what he's been on."

"Ummm, and also - we don't have any drugs to give him, RIGHT, Ripp?!" Johnny glared at him.

"No, we DON'T, Johnny!" Even if he did have anything on him, Ripp wouldn't want to pull it out in front of Johnny. He also really didn't have anything. He hadn't touched anything evenly remotely like a drug since the other night. It had been a bit too much of a good thing, especially the next morning.

"We have to call someone for help!" Johnny said. "We don't know what to do, and he clearly needs help."

"Wait, Johnny! I don't know..." Ophelia was afraid. She wasn't sure that it was a good idea to bring someone into this situation until they knew what it was.

Nervous was aware of them standing there, observing him, but he wasn't sure if they were real or just more of his visions. They weren't really all that familiar to him, like the rest had been. Though, there was something about the girl. His mind wasn't focusing, tumbling from one disturbing thought to another, but he did recognize her. That little girl. But she wasn't a child anymore. It didn't make sense. Wasn't she supposed to be dead?

"Who the fuck would we even call?"

"My Mom's a nurse."

"We can't call your fucking mother, Johnny!"

"No!" Nervous yelped, causing them to jump. "D-D-Don't..."

"You don't want us to call anyone?" Ophelia asked him, as calmly as she could.

"N-N-Not... s-s-safe."

"See, Johnny? We can't fucking call someone!"

"Why isn't it safe? She prodded him. "Are you in some other sort of danger? What can we do to help you?"

Nervous made what seemed to be a nod, though it was hard to tell for sure, with all the twitching that he was doing.

"Who the fuck are you anyway?"

"N-N-N..." He couldn't get it out, but then it came out suddenly, all at once. "N-Nervous Subject." And he again tried to say something. "P-P-P... P-P-P-Pascal..."

"My uncle, Pascal?!"

"Well, you fucking heard the man, Johnny! How many Pascals do you know?"

Johnny picked up the phone and dialed his uncle's number.

"Hello?" Vidcund's abrupt voice answered.

"Uncle Vidcund - it's Johnny."

"Johnny?! What do you - What is it?"

"Can I speak with Uncle Pascal, please?"

"He's not feeling very well right now, Johnny. Can I pass on a message?"

"It's important. I really need to speak to him." Vidcund relented and put Pascal on the phone.

"Hi Johnny." He said, quietly. "This is a surprise. We don't hear from you that much..."

"Uncle Pascal... this is going to sound really weird, but I need you to come over to the Specter place - Don't say anything to anyone, okay? There is a guy here that asked us to call you, and he really needs some help. We're not really sure what to do." Pascal froze.

"A guy?! Who is he? What does he look like? Did he tell you his name?"

"He said his name is Nervous Subject." Pascal dropped the phone and ran out the door.

Elsewhere, another phone was ringing.

"Fuck." Ajay said, and pulled back from Erin for a moment. "Work again. They never leave me alone." She moaned underneath him.

"It might be important." Erin said, out of breath.

"They can wait... we're almost there, right?" They resumed their business.

The phone kept ringing.

"I'm going to kill whoever is calling." Ajay said as he stormed off to answer it, uncomfortably adjusting himself as he went.

"Hello?!" He said. "Ummm, yeah... she's here."

"That's weird." He said. "It's for you."

"Hello?" She answered, cautiously.

"Oh, hi... Circe. I didn't expect to hear from you."

"Yes, of course I heard the news. I'm not an idiot, you know. I do watch the news. Yes, I know that wasn't what you meant... nevermind. What do you want?"

"What... really?! No... are you sure? Well, what do you want me to do? Right now? Well, I was kinda in the middle of something... but okay. I'll be there."

Erin hung up the phone.

"I have to go..."

"Not so fast." Ajay moved up to her and grabbed a good handful.

"I'm not through with you yet."

Inside the empty Grunt home, Buck and Jill wandered around, nervously.

"So, here we are... nice and secret." Jill said, with a nervous laugh. "So, who goes first?"

Buck said nothing. He just looked straight ahead, like a deer in the headlights.

"Okay, I guess it will have to be me. God, this is hard..." She shuffled around a little, not looking him in the eyes. "My secret is that... I think I'm in love."

"You are?" Buck held his breath.

"Yeah, I'm in love." She blushed. "With Ripp."

Buck said nothing.

"I know... it's a little weird, since he's your brother, and we're best friends, but..." She noticed the look on his face. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing."

"Okay..." She said. There was obviously something wrong, but if he didn't want to tell her, what could she really do? She was sure he'd tell her if it was a really big deal. Maybe he thought it was a bad idea, just like Johnny did. Well, she didn't want to hear that. What she wanted to hear was Buck's secret.

"Well, tell me your secret."

"I can't."

"Sure, you can." She said. "C'mon, Buck! It's only fair."

"Well, Jill..." He said. "I'm in love too..."

This was it, she thought. He's finally going to tell me.

"... with you." He said, with his quiet, shy voice.

"What?"

"I'm in love with you, Jill."

Pascal looked at Nervous Subject's shaking body, and his eyes looked back at him with a frightened look in them. They had gotten him up and onto his feet, but he remained unable to communicate.

"How long as he been like this?" Pascal asked Johnny.

"We don't know, but he was like it when we got here."

"What is he even doing here?" Pascal wondered.

Ophelia had been wondered that very same thing since they had found Nervous, and she had a feeling that she knew the answer. She didn't know if she was being completely delusional, but she spoke her thoughts.

"I think..." They all turned to look at her.

"I think he's my cousin."

"Your COUSIN?!" Johnny exclaimed, "That can't be right..."

"Olive had a son. He was taken away..."

"Ummm, no offense, but he doesn't really look like he's related to you, Phi," Ripp said.

"I know that! He doesn't. But why else would he be here?"

"He could have just wandered here, Phi."

"Olive had a son. It wasn't just a rumour. I heard my parents talking about it when they didn't think that I was listening. He would have been about our age, maybe just a handful of years older. This Nervous Subject seems to be about that age, doesn't he?"

"Well, yes," Johnny said, "but I can't see how that -"

"No, she's right." Pascal said. They all stopped and looked at him.

"Or you very well might be right, Ophelia. He was being kept by the Beakers as a test subject. From what I've gathered, they took him in when he was a teenager, and he had been in the foster system before that, as far as I know, but he was off the records."

"And now he's here... and Olive is missing," Ophelia said.

"And Loki Beaker is dead," Johnny added.

"Yes, it seems like an odd series of events," Pascal mused.

Ophelia didn't think it was as much odd as it was disturbing. Ripp looked at her with concern, because he knew what she must be thinking. She spoke. "Look, Pascal. I don't think we should let anyone know that he's here. For his own safety. He said as much himself."

"I agree. Circe Beaker is still out there too, and we don't know what happened between him and the Beakers during that fire. I really doubt it was a kitchen fire like they said."

"Yeah. Like fuck it was," Ripp added.

"I'll look after him," Pascal said, "And I'll keep it to myself. I can say that I'm at work. I keep odd hours anyway. Vidcund won't get too suspicious."

"I can come to help you on the weekends," Ophelia offered, "I don't mind."

"Yes, that would be great, Ophelia." Pascal put his arm around Nervous' body and attempted to support much of his weight. "For now, we need to get him into bed. I'll run back to the house to grab a couple of things. I'm not sure if there is anything we can really do to stop this from happening, but we can minimize the damage, at least."

The three of them helped Pascal move Nervous Subject into the house, and they tucked him into bed.

Pascal looked down at him. He was so relieved that he was alive, and relatively free from harm. The relief was mixed with worry about his current condition, but Pascal was confident that Nervous would be okay.

Poor Nervous. His pale bare scalp looking so betrayed and exposed. Pascal knew that Nervous had been so proud of his mohawk, even though he never said so. He could tell by the way he used to run his fingers through it every so often. It was one thing that was all his. And the Beakers had taken even that away. Pascal cringed at the thought of what he must have gone through with the Beakers and then the fire, but that was all behind him now. Now, Nervous Subject was safe. Pascal would see to that.

He'd stay there through the night, just to be sure. He outlined a plan of action in his mind. How he could be back in time to wake Mint and send her to school, and them return before too long to check on Nervous again.

Nervous didn't seem to be registering much, but his eyes met Pascal's, and a brief recognition passed through them. He even seemed to smile, just a little.

With Nervous safely in bed, Pascal ran back to his house to get some supplies.

Ophelia looked down at Nervous Subject. Was this man really her cousin? She hoped so. If he was, that made him family. She thought she had lost all of her family members. Well, except for Olive, but with relatives like her, Ophelia would gladly go without. But Nervous... he might be someone that she could finally call family.

He wasn't like Olive. She could tell. There was something very different about him. Something special.

He was a good person.

"I'm so embarrassed!"

"Oh Buck, don't be embarrassed..."

"I want to die now. Spilling my guts, just to have you wanting my brother instead?"

"Buck..."

He fell back onto the couch, devastated.

"I'm so stupid! Why did I think you would want someone like me?"

"Don't say that, Buck! There's nothing wrong with you. Any girl would be lucky to have someone like you."

"But not you..."

"Well, Buck. I've never thought about you like that. I..." She took a deep breath. "Of course I like you. I like you more than anyone else in the world. I'd rather be with you than any other person. I just thought..."

"You thought I was a fag, right, Jill?! Just like everyone else."

"Don't say it that way, Buck."

"God, Jill..."

"Look, I did have my suspicions. It's not like there's anything wrong with it."

"No, but I'm not gay, Jill! Why does everyone -"

"Buck, it's just that you never mentioned girls."

"I didn't mention guys either! It's because I don't care about other girls... just you. That's why I didn't talk about other girls, Jill." All this time, he had thought he was being completely obvious. Too obvious.

"Buck, I'm sorry." How could she have been such an idiot? Jill felt so terrible, and so mean, for telling Buck about Ripp now. She should have forced Buck to tell his secret first.

"I know." He frowned. "You're sorry because you're not interested."

"No. I mean that I'm sorry for not paying attention."

She took his hand. "You're my best friend, Buck. And I should have noticed."

Could she feel more than that for Buck? She didn't know. She hadn't given it much thought. She had always thought of Buck as someone that was separate from sexuality. If she had thought it was a possibility, would she have developed feelings for him herself? She really wasn't sure.

But she would find out. She felt like she owed him at least an effort. She owed Buck at least that much.

So she kissed him.

There, in his abandoned family home, Jill Smith kissed Buck Grunt for the very first time.

It felt different from when she had kissed Ripp. It wasn't as thrilling, like a release after a long build up, but it did feel warm and soft and comforting.

It felt like a beautiful idea that had occurred to her out of nowhere. Like finally realizing the way to answer that essay question on a final exam that was worth 30 points. Like she had found that the answer had been given away in the wording of the multiple choice questions.

It felt like her favourite song being played on the radio when she least expected it.

It felt right.

"Jill..." Buck sighed. "You didn't have to -"

"I wanted to."

"What about Ripp?"

"Forget about that," she said, "It isn't important. I'm an idiot."

"But you said -"

"Look, I don't know what I'm talking about. Who the hell knows what they're really feeling? It's so confusing. I just... I just know that I want to kiss you again."

So she did.

She kissed him, more deeply this time, opening his mouth with her lips. She explored his mouth, tentatively, and he responded by doing the same. Carefully, and thoughtfully.

It felt even better the second time.

"Jill..." Buck sighed. He was about to tell her exactly how beautiful and miraculous she was, and how he had loved her since the moment he first met her, and how he wanted to be with her every moment of every day for the rest of his life, but instead, he just smiled.

"Shhh...," she said, "We can talk about this later."

She moved him back to the couch.