My Three Cousins

Chapter Thirteen

That night once everyone was asleep, I snuck to Helen's room.  She was dressed more like Joan than I had ever seen.  She wore black ripped jeans and a sheer black shirt; her hair was curled, and her makeup was done much darker than it had been earlier in the day.  She took one look at me then went to her closet.  I was wearing the high waisted jeans that I had ran out of the boutique in after we were attacked, so she handed me a black crop top that looked more like a bralette.  I put it on and was instantly nervous by how much of me was exposed.  I tried to cross my arms and cover up the fact that it didn't fit me quite the way it was supposed to.

Next, she put make-up on me and instructed me to "shake out" my hair which just made it seem messy to me, but she approved it.  Then she slid open her window and we climbed out and down the side of the house.  "You're nineteen why are we sneaking out?"  I asked.

"Because you're not," she said with a laugh.  The car was parked farther down the driveway than usual and she explained she had put it there after running errands today so Joan wouldn't hear us pull away.

As we drove down the road, she blared the kind of music that would make my mom turn up her nose and rolled the windows all the way down.  She drove without reference to the speed limit and seemed to be talking to me, but I couldn't hear a word over the music.  She drove past all of the places I had already been, and through the sleeping town.  Between towns we hit a long road and she turned the music down just long enough to say, "let's see what this can do."  We then took off at speeds nearer to 100 than to the 55 mile an hour speed limit.  I held on to the door handle until my knuckles turned white and started to wonder if this was just a secret attempt to kill me.  Just as I became certain we'd die she whipped into a parking lot attached to a small building in the middle of nowhere.

The building had motorcycles out front and people in leather vests were standing by the door smoking cigarettes.  The sick feeling in my gut told me instantly that I had no interest in going inside but Helen already had her seatbelt off and was digging in her purse.  She pulled out two small pieces of paper and handed one to me.

I looked down to see the worst fake ID I had ever seen.  "This isn't going to work," I said pointing to my new identity as Addy Sun aged 24.  "Did you just print these at the library?"  I wiggled the flimsy card to illustrate my point.

"No," she rolled her eyes at me and climbed out of the car, "trust me it will work."  Once out of the car she started heading to the door, leaving me no choice but to follow her.  When we got close, the men smoking started to whistle at her and she smiled back at them.  I felt my hands start to sweat in fear as she walked up to the bouncer.

"Nope," he said, taking one look at me.

She reached out and sat a glowing hand on his shoulder, "we have IDs, don't you want to see them?"

"Sure," he said, his voice coming across dreamlike.

She held out hers, not taking her hand off of him, and he nodded.  She then motioned for me to do the same and he waived us both through.  Once inside the bar a few people looked at us in disbelief, but they left us alone.  "Helen, what are we doing here?" I asked, worried, and feeling guilty I had just let her use her power on someone when I knew how much I hated it that she used it on me.

"We're getting a drink," she said, pointing to two guys sitting together whispering at the bar.  Both of them intimidated me but Helen walked up to them with no fear.  She immediately began flirting.  Even though the men were old enough to be our dads, they were receptive.  "Now who wants to buy us a drink?"  Helen asked in a voice still dripping with flirtation.

Both men signaled for the bartender.  "Two vodka crans," Helen whispered in the man to her left's ear.  As she leaned over to do so, I watched the man on her right look down her shirt.