Cheer-Stained: One Week In Westbridge

4: A Simple Twist Of Freak

"Are you sure you don't mind walking me?"

"Nah," Sabrina said with a slight shake of her head. "My place is only a couple blocks over, it's not a major detour."

"Crap, now I'll be worried about you getting back okay."

She laughed. "Libby, we're talking about Westbridge - you know, crime rate of negative four? I'm sure I can survive."

"Okay, okay. No need to make me sound like your mother any more than I already do."

"If you really sounded like my mother, you'd be speaking Swahili or something."

I stopped dead in my tracks. "Your mother's Swahili?!"

It seemed like millennia and yet no time at all passed between the restaurant and the motel; we had decided to leave when Mr. Wong himself came out and told us they generally discouraged guests staying longer than three hours. On the way home, still more tales were told, more laughs were shared, and despite frostbite setting in, I generally felt more comfortable in my own skin than I had since that perfect day at the end of Junior year. Finally, we got to the lobby of Sitanzp Inn.

"Well, I guess this is it."

"Yeah," she said, swinging her arms. "I guess I'll see you arou-"

"Sabrina?"

Her eyes flicked up. "Hmm?"

"I forgot to thank you for one more thing. The yearbook."

"Oh, yeah," she said, her frost-kissed cheeks glowing. "It took me forever to wheedle an extra copy outta the yearbook committee; those guys can be so tight-fisted!"

I tried to laugh, but it came out as a hacking fit; probably the frigid air starting to get to me. She patted me on the back until I could continue. "I mean, the letters were great, but that - it was all the memories I could never get back, and you found a way to send them to me in one neat little package. It, uh... it meant a lot to me."

"Ahh, it was nothing." She tends to do that - brush off grand gestures of kindness like they took all of five minutes to pull off. "I'm just glad you didn't already have one. But I am curious..."

"About...?"

"What did you look like in your schoolgirl uniform? I bet it was adorable!"

My nostrils flared.

~ o ~

I heard a knock on the door. "Yeah?" I yelled, trying not to let shampoo drip into my mouth.

"Libbs, T.Q.'s bitching about leaving on time, and I know it won't make any difference, but he asked me to tell you to hurry up."

"Tell him to go hurry himself!"

"That's what I figured." A pause. "I could come in there and help you if you thought it'd speed things along."

"Oh yes," I called in my most sarcastic tone. "Maybe trying to keep your hands from wandering into forbidden territory will cleanse me faster."

"Why keep them from wandering?"

"Just get back to packing, Sir Libido McHornypants."

Several minutes later found me racing out the door, shoving one boot on as I hopped. It was already almost ten, and while normally I wouldn't care what T.Q. wants, I should've left the restaurant earlier than I did and therefore was solely responsible for us being so late. Trust me, here - nobody can wake me up when I need my beauty rest.

Milnot was just collecting the money to pay for our rooms when a Vista Cruiser (of all the cars on the planet) swerved its way around the building, screeching to a halt two inches in front of Adymm's guitar case. We all gasped, and I gasped more when I saw who got out.