Reapers Kiss

connected

One shot, sevenTEEN stitches, and two painkillers later I lay wrapped in a purple comforter, smooshed down into big fluffy pillows. Sleep rolls over me and I don’t realize I’ve passed the threshold from waking to sleeping, and then the dream starts, as it had before...

I can’t see anything, but I can hear voices. It is cold here, wherever here is. I try to get closer, but the darkness is swallowing me. It seems like I can never get closer. The more I try, the farther away the voices seem to be. It’s like diving into a pool of india ink, all black and suffocating. I can’t see my own hand in front of my face.

“Jess. Jess...”

I can hear Rorie’s voice calling for me in the distance.

“Wake up, Jess! It’s just a dream!” I shoot up, Rorie yelps and hits her elbow on the the end table. “Ouch!” we both said.

“Yeah, at least you only have to deal with it for a few seconds!” I say, as I arrange myself on the couch. These pillows are great for a nap, but they make sitting on the couch a little difficult. Rearranging them is especially difficult, thanks to the twinge I get as I use my freshly dressed arm.

“Mmmmfff... it doesn’t make it any less uncomfortable,” Rorie retorts.

I roll my eyes, probably a little too theatrically, “Yeah, yeah, yeah.” I try to make light of the situation as dark thoughts roll over my mind like a wave. I throw a couple of jabs at the pillow next to me in frustration and to try to shake away the anxiety. “I wish..,” I trail off and take a deep breath, it escapes in a shudder.

“Hell, Rorie! Why can’t we be normal?” and you can’t miss the longing in my voice. Rorie is about to reply and I silence her with a wave of my hand. “You don’t have to say anything. I know we have talked about this like, a million times. I just don’t understand! We know other twins, and they don’t share anything like us.”

“They might feel it if the other is upset or happy, but come on now! With us it’s intensified 100 fold.” Rorie looked amused, and frustrated as she eased herself down onto the other end of the couch by my feet. I can totally relate.

“I know, Jess, and we will figure it out,” Rorie pats my leg as she tries to deliver this platitude either convincingly or with compassion, I can’t tell which.

“I’m sure we’ll be able to figure this out, too,” and as I say it I give her a look that said she was out of her mind--with juggling classes, work, and homework, when exactly did she think this would be worked out?

When a topic of discussion gets too hot, or I get a little too uncomfortable, I do what I like best-- I change the subject...

“What I was trying to figure out is what happened to you today? You are never late for class, let alone skip a class! And you were beyond scared! I ran out of class like a lunatic!”

Rorie looked as if she had practiced what she was about to say. “It was really silly if you think about it, I thought I left my chem papers home, and I thought there was a test in my foreign languages class.”

“That's why you were freaking out so badly, Rorie?”

“Yup,” she said.

I looked at her skepticaly, thinking ‘Suuure, I’ll believe that when hell freezes over. Why is she lying?’ Jess wondered. “H-e-l-l-o! Earth to Jess,” Rorie is yelling at me.

“Sorry. What were you saying?”

Rorie shook her head in a way that clearly said a lecture was about to start on how I need to pay attention more, to look interested in the person speaking with me, it’s a sign of disrespect to zone out during a conversation, and then something that sounds an awful lot like wa-waah, waaaah, blah, blahbitty blah, yak, yak. “Not now,” I warn her off in a tone of voice that lets her know that I know what’s coming. Rorie just glares at me, so I fall back on my all time ‘fall-back face’--I give her tired, sappy, woe-begone puppy eyes. This is a long reliable technique that I know works, and although I hate playing weak, sometimes you have to woman up and do what you gotta do.

Rorie deflates, so I start talking before she has a chance to work herself up again. “I’m sorry that I zoned out, I really am. What did you need to tell me?”

“Hmmmmm, well, I - I just can’t remember… Oh, no, I think I may have forgotten”, the statement dripping with such sarcasm that I am amazed my ears haven’t started smoking as they burst into flame.

“Ha ha, very funny,” I reply, quite the come-back-kid I am some days. I reach to the left were Rorie is vegged out and nudge her, “come on what were you gonna tell me. she tapped her finger on her chin pretending to think about it. “Welll mmmm I better, I don’t need you getting fired” she said. like it was nothing “Fired!” I Blurted out “Work called, I just nodded I didn't have the energy to figure out or even think about why are boss would be calling she was more of deal with it in I could not even finish my thought process at that moment I was just too exhausted to care.

You and Gabe are supposed to go in an hour early tomorrow.” I just nodded again sluggishly.

Classes zoomed by, and unbelievably it was suddenly 5:00. Gabe and I parked in the back of Thunder-Bolt Tattoo and Body Art. Lucky for me it was my right arm that went through the glass, or I would be out of work for a while.

“Why do you think she wants us here early?” Gabe asked.

“Who knows,” Jess said. “Maybe we’re gonna get a raise!” and then she did a little shimmy and shake in the parking lot, and began singing “We be rollin’ in the money now”. When she stopped, she was laughing so hard she doubled over, holding her stomach trying to breathe. “Ya!” Jess gulped a monsterous breath, and started over--

“Yeah, right and I’m gonna switch teams,” Gabe leered, dripping with sarcasm.

Jess gazed at him with horror on her face, then her lips tilted at the corners. A huge grin emerged, like she could not hold it any more, then she blurted out, “There’s a better chance of that raise!” He shrugged with easy grace, and they started to laugh. “Gabe you don’t think she's gonna fire us!”

“Do you?”, he suddenly looked surprised.

“Yeah, um-- NO!” Jess guffawed. “We are way too ah-MAY-zing at our jobs, and underpaid, I might add.”

“She’s not gonna fire us,” Gabe says with his hands firmly on his hips, and glaring at me like I’m off my rocker for even suggesting such a thing. “OK then, let’s go do this!” He nods at Jess, and walks off ahead, stops abruptly at the glass doors and bows “Ladies first.” I can see his frosted blue eyes sparkling with laughter peeking through long dark bangs.

I arch my eye and give him a look that speaks volumes. I swing the door open hard and almost smack him in the face, while a look of horror passes over his features, and is instantly broken as he smirks at me. “Tsk, tsk, tsk,” is all he says as he mockingly pantomimes disapproval. I can’t help but grin, and as I spin around to enter the building, I nearly plow through our boss. Shelly is tall, pretty, and has a mane of curly, long, red hair, and a spitfire temper to go with it. She doesn’t wait for us to fully enter when she begins to hector us.

“Okay ladies, I called you two in early today because both of you have been asked for specifically. To do some tattoo work, quite a bit of it actually.”

“But wiat-- there’s a catch!” blurts Gabe.

“Always the suspicious one aren’t we?” leers Shelly with a sarcastic bite. She gave Gabe a look that told him to keep his mouth shut, and in two seconds she would explain, “Well, here's how it’s gonna go.

“They’re bringing in sketches of what they want you to ink and if you don’t screw this up-- you both are looking at a raise.” Shelly delivers this last bit of news with her head quirked forward, and wears an expression on her face as if offering a carrot to a very hungry donkey.

“Thank you, Shell! All mighty purveyor of ink and raises,” I proclaim as I flourish my arm and bow low. turning toward Gabe, I wriggle my fingers at him, “See, I knew we’d get a raise, and your teammates won’t need to get you a new uniform.” Gabe snorted.

“I don’t even want to know,” says Shelly, and her expression says even more. She walked out of the room shaking her head, when we thought we were in the clear, her head pops back to announce “They will be here in less than an hour, so you might want to pretend to be professional and set up your chair and don’t worry ladies I know the tattoos are above the belt and small so it should not take you two long at all .”

It took 2.5 seconds to get ready. Jess knew what was coming avert avert avert “OKAY! what the hell does she have up her sleeve, she was way too peppy the snark was there but Peppy shelly scares me. Me to gabe said. Jess trys to talk about anything but what happenend the day before she tryed to ask him what he thought they were going to tattoo, “Nice try” Gabe said. “You were like a whirlwind today. Well devastation not successful dam, Jess knew this was coming she just turned and started placing the ink color in alphabetical order she was still frustrated from her little chat with her sister, Did you and Aurora discuss anything?” Gabe asks with enough emphasis to let me know he knows we didn’t speak of anything of substance.

I bite the inside of my cheek to avoid screaming in frustration, take a deep breath and blow it out. “Yeah, we talked.” “Ok then turn around and spill, stop messing around with the thing a majobber.

“What the hell happened yesterday!”Gabe asked.

I plopped down in my chair, which decided to start rolling across the floor, and stared at the ceiling. “I have no clue. She gave me this huge spiel about leaving papers home, and a test in her foreign languages class.”

“I’m guessing you aren’t buying it,” said Gabe, eyebrow raised he stuck his foot out to stop me from coasting into him.

I looked at him and pointed at my forehead sharply, “Do I have ‘i***t’ tattooed up here?! She was freaked the hell out, and it did not have anything to do with school.”