Strange Beings

.Teatime.

Harry's face was priceless when we walked into room sixteen that evening. We were met with yet another pretty girl, who sat next to #1 on one of the beds. There was a small table set up with paper cups of steaming green liquid in between the two beds, so Harry and I sat down across from them. I could feel the jitters radiating off him.

"I don't believe I've introduced either of us," #1 said. "I'm Victoria, this is Kate." Kate was more thin than her wide-hipped counterpart, but she still looked like she could hook a man in two seconds flat. It seemed like she had gotten Harry hung up on her within a fraction of a second.

"Harry, Jacob," he said in a daze. The girls giggled, and he nearly lost it.

"So," I started, trying to get straight to business without letting the wrong head get any ideas. "We were sent up here by the landlord downstairs to talk to you two about something rather important to us."

"Which would be?" the soft voice of Kate responded.

"It seems that our friend has disappeared, and she may have stayed here in the past week."

"What's she look like?" A little bit of me died when Victoria spoke again. Her eyes played a dangerous game, or perhaps it was just my imagination.

I pulled up the photo on my phone. The both seemed to recognize Macy.

"Yeah, she stayed here for a night. Said she had to meet up with a Stockman."

"Do you know where she went?"

They remained silent, giving one another curious glances and having a silent conversation among themselves. I sent a look to Harry, and he appeared incredibly starry-eyed.

After a full minute, Victoria and Kate both turned their eyes back to us.

"We do, but . . ." Victoria drew her words out, breathing across the top of her steaming cup. "Well, doesn't everything come at a price?"

Kate's slow voice crept from her lips. "The question is, how much does the information of this friend of yours's whereabouts matter to you?"

"It matters more than anything," I rushed. Harry nodded his head in agreement.

Sparks lit fires behind their eyes. Kate stood and took Harry's hand, tugging lightly on his arm. "Let's go to my room," she whispered. And he did. They disappeared through the door, which Kate was careful to close behind her.

Victoria's eyes came back to me, and there was something in them that made my gut. She rose to her feet, moved the tea table off somewhere else in the room, and again, when her eyes met mine, the weak knees feeling spread to the rest of me. Fucking caveman urges.

I kind of just sat there, but soon enough, she was walking toward me at an agonizingly slow rate, until she was standing next to me at the bedside.

"I'm glad that girl matters so much to you," she said, her syllables flowing together like honey.

And then, she raised her hands to my face, her fingers tracing my neck and my jaw before I felt her mouth on mine. I felt two tugs in my stomach, one toward this being I don't know, and one away, to Macy.

But this, I reminded myself, is the only way to Macy.

She pushed me back onto the bed, the springs squealing beneath our weight. She straddled my hips, pressed her body into me as she kissed me, touched her tongue to mine.

Pretend she's Macy.

The thought was half despicable.

I did it anyway.

When Victoria pulled my jacket and shirt away from my torso, she was Macy. And I was Jacob Durante, pulling Victoria's shirt off of Macy's abdomen. It was Macy who unbuttoned my pants, and I who took the condom she offered me and put it to good use.

In my mind, I'd had sex with Macy Nell Kingston, and there was no better false anecdote.