Blind (10 page)

ED PUSHED HIS POTATOES FROM ONE side of the plate to the other, then pushed them back again. They were genuine American fries. Prepared as only a diner could make them. Crispy at the edges, soft in the middle, and guaranteed to contain enough grease to lube a four-speed transmission. So why couldn't he work up an appetite to eat them? He scowled down at the brown fries. Any girl who could keep him from enjoying a plate of potatoes and grease was a girl to be avoided.

A cold breeze ran through the diner as a handful of breakfast latecomers slipped inside. Ed glanced at them, looked back at his food, then raised his head again. In the group of people milling around the counter was a face that Ed didn't expect to see in such a bright, early, and artery-clogging situation. Heather Gannis.

Ed raised a hand and started to call her over, then he hesitated. Was it really Heather? The face looked basically right, only this girl had sunken cheeks and dark circles under her eyes. Heather's hair usually looked as though she were ready to do a shampoo commercial. Swirl left, swirl right, big shower of Chestnut Brown Number 37. But this girl had hair that was definitely on the “before” side of any before-and-after ad.

It wasn't until the girl turned toward Ed and gave a weak smile that he was absolutely sure it was Heather. He waved. “Hey,” he said. “Looking for a seat?”

Heather dropped her purse onto the table and sat down on the chair across from Ed. “Morning,” she mumbled. Her eyes were half closed. She opened them long enough to glance at Ed, then let them close again.

Ed wasn't sure what to say. He understood that no girl was ever prepared to hear, “Wow, you know, you look like total crap,” as constructive criticism, but that was certainly what Ed wanted to say. Not only did Heather look like death—she also looked
wrong.
While he was no expert, he was pretty sure that her striped green-and-yellow pants did not go with her fuzzy red sweater. And her hair wasn't just flat—it was uncombed. The whole situation gave Ed a bad feeling. It was as if the zero-fashion-sense spirit of Gaia Moore had taken over the totally style-driven body of Heather Gannis. From the look on Heather's face, the transplant wasn't going too well.

“Are you hungry?” Ed asked. He couldn't remember Heather ever eating the diner's grease-drenched breakfast fare, but she sure looked like she needed something.

Heather shook her head, her eyes still half closed. “I only came in for some coffee.”

Ed managed to wave down a waitress and get
Heather a cup of steaming black coffee. Without pausing to add any milk or sugar, Heather snatched the cup in both hands and took a long gulp. Ed half expected her to scream—the diner kept their coffeepot at a temperature that Ed estimated to equal that of the surface of the sun—but Heather only paused long enough to take a breath, then went back to swallowing coffee. Finally, when the cup was nearly empty, she opened her eyes and looked down at the chipped mug with a scowl.

“This stuff is terrible.”

“Then why are you drinking it?” asked Ed.

Heather stared at the empty cup. “I need something to get me going.”

“I thought you were more of a caffé latte type,” said Ed. “Don't you usually do your coffee consumption over at Starbucks?”

Heather lifted the cup and slid the last of the coffee into her throat. “I needed something stronger this morning. Besides.” She paused and wrinkled her nose. “All my friends are over there, and I don't really want to deal with them this morning.”

“I understand,” said Ed. He gave his cold potatoes another shove across the plate. “Glad I'm not one of those friends of yours.”

“Oh, no, Ed.” Heather put down her cup and levered her tired eyes open to look at him. “You know you're my friend. You're more important to me than,
well, than any of those people down at Starbucks.”

Ed was almost as surprised as he had been by Heather's appearance. Since he had gotten together with Gaia, there hadn't been many warm and tender moments with Heather. And since he had broken up with Gaia, there hadn't been many moments with Heather at all. Ed wondered what other expressions of love would come from this Strange Bizzaro Heather. “Are you sure you're okay?”

Heather nodded. She held up her cup to catch a refill of coffee, then downed half the cup in another gulp. “Yeah, I'll be fine.” She stifled a yawn. “Just fine.”

“Okay,” said Ed. “Good to hear it.”

Heather suddenly smiled. “Did I tell you about the guy I'm dating?”

“Coffee-in-the-lap guy?” asked Ed.

“How'd you know?”

“We talked about him in the cafeteria the other day, remember?”

“Oh, right.” Heather chuckled and rolled her blue eyes.

“So, how many times have you gone out with this guy, anyway?”

Heather looked off into space. “Three. Or is it four?”

Ed looked at her and felt a little nervous. Heather's pilot light definitely seemed to be burning low. He glanced at his watch and tossed a buck onto the table. “Look, I need to get to school. You coming?”

“Huh?”

“To. School,” Ed said slowly. “You. Come?”

“Not right now,” said Heather. She took another swig of coffee. “I'll be there later.”

Skipping class wasn't exactly normal Heatherness, but in Bizarro Land…

“Sure,” said Ed. “I'll see you there.” He pushed himself up onto his crutches and wove through the crowd to the door. Once he reached the sidewalk, Ed paused and looked back through the glass. Heather was still sitting there, the coffee cup clutched in both hands. Once Heather had been his girlfriend. Then after the accident they broke up but stayed pretty close. At times Ed had thought of Heather as his closest friend. But the pale Heather Gannis in there drinking coffee seemed like a stranger.

IT TOOK FOUR CUPS OF THE AWFUL, bitter, oily coffee to get Heather on her feet. Even then she felt exhausted.

A day off,
she thought.
My grades are good enough. And one day off doesn't mean I'm falling apart or anything.
She dug in her purse and came up with enough change to cover the coffee, then
headed for the door. If anyone asked, she would say that she was sick. That was true enough. And a few hours in bed would be all she needed to get over this. It was probably nothing more than the beginnings of the flu. She went out onto the street and started the walk back to her apartment.

“Heather?”

She looked up, and her mouth dropped open. “Josh?” Her cheeks warmed in embarrassment.
He shouldn't see me like this. I look terrible.

But Josh didn't seem to notice her appearance. He smiled at Heather and reached out to take her hand. “I didn't expect to run into you this morning.”

“Yeah, I was just going to, urn, school.” Admitting she was going home meant admitting she was sick. And being sick meant no chance to go out.

Josh nodded. “Right. Maybe I should talk to you later. Don't want to stop the education train.”

Heather shook her head, then did her best to cover up the pain it caused her. “It's all right,” she said. “I've got plenty of time.”

“Good. I wanted to ask you about tonight.”

“Tonight?” Heather was glad she hadn't said anything about going home. “What are we going to do tonight?”

Josh gave her hand a squeeze. “Something special. Very special. I have something I want to show you.”

“What?”

“You'll see tonight,” said Josh. He looked at her and frowned. “You feel all right?”

“Sure!” Heather gave the best smile she could manage. “I'm fine.”

“You look a little tired.”

“Just… just didn't get much sleep.”

Josh nodded. “I understand. Here, why don't you take one of these?” He dug into his pocket and came up with a small vial. He gave it a quick shake, and a little white tablet fell out into his hand.

Heather eyed the pill. All at once, she felt tired in another way. Not tired in her body so much as tired in her head. Josh was offering her drugs. “I… uh… I don't take drugs.”

“That's good because I don't, either.” Josh squeezed the little pill in his hand. “These babies are drug-free.”

“Then what are they?”

“One hundred percent all natural,” Josh insisted. “Scout's honor.” He held up two fingers, then three. “Okay, I admit it, I was never a scout. But the tablets are only herbs and vitamins.”

Heather took the white pill from his hand and held it between her fingers. “Like a diet pill?”

“Not even that strong.”

The coffee hadn't done much to help Heather wake up. Maybe a few herbs were what she needed. She raised the little pill to her mouth and swallowed it down.

MEGAN STOOD WITH HER HANDS ON her hips and her pointy chin thrust out. “We have just one more chance to get this thing right,” she said.

Gaia wondered what it would be like to give her lab partner a nice hard shot to that sharp little chin. Just one. She'd probably run into that pesky little problem of being expelled from school, but it would certainly be satisfying. Maybe then Megan wouldn't be in such a hurry to get in someone's face. “You mean I have one more chance since you and Melanie are just sitting on your asses.”

“Well,” Megan said with a sniff, “you are the one that messed it up in the first place. It seems only fair that you get to fix it.”

Gaia thought about pointing out that she had done all the work in the first place, but she didn't bother. Logic obviously wasn't Megan's best subject. Once again Gaia started through the steps of the experiment. Carefully adding the chemicals, one by one, that would turn the invisible DNA into a measurable mass. She was only about halfway through the experiment when Heather came through the door of the classroom, passed a note to the teacher, and came over to the lab table. Megan and Melanie greeted Heather as if she were the cavalry riding in to save the day.

“Thank God you're here!” said Megan. She gave a sideways glance at Gaia. “She's already ruined the experiment once”

“We have to finish it today or we'll get a zero for the lab,” added Melanie.

Heather flashed them both a bright smile. “Don't worry,” she said. “I'll help.”

Gaia studied Heather. The pants and top she was wearing didn't look like they were part of the Gannis Fall Collection. There was a pinched look to her face, and Gaia thought she could detect the remains of dark circles shining through a double layer of makeup. “Are you okay?” she asked.

“Of course,” said Heather. “Why wouldn't I be okay?” She grabbed the lab sheet away from Gaia and scanned the instructions. “How far along are you?”

“About here.” Gaia tapped the sheet. “A couple more titrations and then a little cooking and we're done.”

“If Gaia doesn't ruin it again,” Megan said.

Gaia pressed the tips of her fingers hard against her forehead. What was the caption on that poster in the guidance counselor's office? “Stress is what you feel when you can't choke the living daylights out of the idiot who actually deserves it.”

“I messed up,” she said. “I think we all understand that I messed up. Now, let's get done so I can get out of here.”
Before I'm forced to kill you.
She turned to
Heather again. “So, where were you this morning? And yesterday.”

Heather frowned. “I was feeling a little sick before,” she said. “Not that it's any of your business. But I'm all better now.”

She moved in beside Gaia, and for a few blessed minutes the two worked in silence. As they got down to the bottom of the sheet, Gaia paused again beside the description of DNA. Four compounds. And those compounds could only be mixed in a few ways. Why did that keep sending off little buzzers in her brain?

Gaia was so preoccupied with the note, she barely noticed that Heather and the Heatherettes had started talking. But when something they said caught her attention, she raised her head.

“So,” Melanie was saying. “Are you going to see him again this weekend?”

Heather finished stirring the mixture and turned down the heat on the burner. “We're not waiting till this weekend. We're getting together tonight.”

“You don't mean with Josh, do you?” asked Gaia.

“Of course with Josh,” Heather replied. “Who else would I be seeing?” She grinned at Megan and Melanie. “The next time we're getting together near the school, I'll call you. You need to see this guy. You won't believe how gorgeous he is.”

Gaia gritted her teeth. “Didn't I warn you to stay away from Josh?”

“You did, but…”

“The guy is a freak.”

“Gaia…”

“He's dangerous.”

“Gaia…”

“He's a psycho murderer!” Gaia stopped and realized that she had been talking maybe a little too loud. Maybe a whole lot too loud. Megan and Melanie were looking at her like she was nuts. Nothing too unusual there. Only this time the rest of the room was joining them. The lab seemed momentarily frozen, with everyone staring at Gaia.

Gaia waited until people started to move again, then she lowered her voice and went on. “You need to stay away from Josh if you want to stay alive.”

Heather gave her a pitying smile and actually reached out to pat Gaia on the arm. “It's okay. Josh told me.”

“Told you what?” asked Gaia.

“About how you broke up. I understand, it must have been very painful.”

Gaia shook her head. “What are you talking about? Josh and I were never together.”

Heather continued to play the pity pipe. “I know it had to hurt. Especially when he dumped you.” Heather glanced toward Megan and Melanie as she made this last sentence. Both girls grew wide, knowing smiles.