Everyone's Favorite Girl (3 page)

"No, you haven't . . . you know."

"Fucked you."

She nodded.  "You try though."

"When?"

"At night.  The first night after they take you away."

"So tonight then.  That's when I'll try it."

"I suppose."

"Have we had this conversation before?"

"Yes."

"And I still tried it."

"Yes."

"You wouldn't let me, I guess?"

She bent my leg up so she could work on my calf muscle.  "I didn't refuse you," she said, staring down at my knee.  "I know I belong to you.  I know I have to do what you say."

"So what happened?"

"I'd rather talk about something else."  Her tone had changed, now more dismal than ever.

Even in my state, I felt I'd hit a nerve and willingly allowed the conversation to shift focus.

"Where's Kate?"

"Probably still with the others.  You said it's always Mr. Shriver, Sean,
Patton--"

"I mean where is she
living
, Flora?  Jesus."

"She's staying with Sean."

Flora's grip loosened a little on my calf.  Her one and only expression of discontent.  This was as vengeful as her golden little heart could get.

"In the dream--or whatever it was--Kate was moving in with Patton."

"And taking me with her," Flora said.

"So it's the same thing every time."

"Basically.  It changes a little here and there.  Almost like they're tweaking the story, trying to perfect it."

"And then what?"

I didn't expect her to answer.  She knew as little as I did.  We were both blind to Mr. Shriver's ultimate purpose.  Was he trying to convince me of this dream reality permanently?  Why?  Certainly not to curtail my time with Flora--if he wanted that, he could just kill me.

"Tomorrow will be better," Flora said.

"For you, maybe."

"Your head will clear up.  You'll cool off.  The . . . irritability remains.  It tapers off. 
A little less each week, though."  She shook her head.  "But tomorrow will be better."

"Sorry I'm such an inconvenience."

This time she looked up at me, lower lip quivering.

"Melissa, I'm losing you."

"Now you know how it feels.  I've been losing you since the day I bought you.  It could be over tomorrow for all I know."

Flora burst into to tears and climbed out of the pool.  I turned around too fast and gritted my teeth against the pain, watching Flora skitter naked and dripping wet into the corridor, covering her face with her hands.

"Does this happen every time, too?" I called after her.

~ ~ ~ ~

I dozed off in the Jacuzzi, and when I awoke I felt somewhat refreshed.

Standing up proved somewhat difficult, but I managed--luckily, since Flora had left me to my own devices.  As I stepped out of the water, the cold air resurrected the soreness in my legs and back.  I dried quickly but stiffly, threw on a robe, and made my way back to the room, where I found Flora lying face-down on the bed, pouting like a little kid.

"Flora, get up.  We can't waste any time.  I only have a week before they take me again."

She jumped up immediately and, neglecting to offer me a little help, plodded over to the couch.  I had to start holding onto things halfway across the room.  My legs felt shaky and hot, while the rest of me was freezing.

It occurred to me that my current condition was similar to Kate's condition in the dream.  The only difference, of course, being that Flora had
helped
Kate.

I'm resenting the real Flora for the actions of the fictional one.

Even still, merely recognizing the fallacy in my line of thinking didn't abate the feeling that came with it. 

Flora was sitting on the far end of the couch.  I took the opposite end, noticing the stereo system had been smashed to pieces.  Someone--Flora, I assumed--had cleaned up the debris and placed all the speakers back on the shelves, but the cloth facings were ripped out of each one.  The stereo itself had a crack going down the middle and the digital screen was busted.

"Who did that?"

"You."

"Why?"

"I tried to play Beethoven."

"I like Beethoven."

"That's why I played it.  I made you breakfast and put on
Fur Elise
to wake you up to."

The song she had played at the party the night Mr. Shriver captured all those businessmen and politicians.

Flies on a sticky strip.

For some reason that
did
irritate me, though right now I was more worried about the stereo.  With no alcohol, no weed, and no Libido Drug, our modes of entertainment were dwindling fast.  This really
was
starting to feel like prison now.

I studied what I could see of the room for any other changes--or anything else I'd
destroyed.  A small table near the stereo system was missing its glass top, but otherwise things appeared to be normal.

"Tell me everything I don't know," I said, killing the silence.

Flora shifted around to face me, drawing her feet up on the couch and hugging her legs.  Her nightgown was bunched up between her hips and her stomach, draping wide-open.  Between her ankles I could see her underwear.

Distracting even for a part-time lesbo like me.

"You want details or just the important things?"

"The important stuff."

"Okay, first off, there's no more crawling through the air ducts.  Sean sent a couple of guys in here and they bolted a big heavy grate over the vent."

Not a surprise.  I'd known I was surrendering my privileges to Clifton's labyrinth the moment I gave up Judy.

Judy who was now participating in my brainwashing--and maybe even orchestrating it.

Flora continued: "The phone only dials out to the service desk, so the only person we have any contact with is James."

Now that
was
a surprise.  Not the phone restrictions but that James was still serving us.  After discovering him to be Sean's puppet and spy, I figured they would have replaced him with someone else.

"I'm hungry.  Let's order food."

"I'm still full from breakfast," Flora said.

"Does that mean I have to get up and hobble my ass across the room to get the phone?"

"You
do
need the exercise," she said, getting up and crossing the room.

She brought me the phone and I dialed the service desk.  I tried to order sushi, forgetting the menu cutbacks, and James laughed at me.

"Cafeteria food only," he said, chuckling.

"A fucking roast beef sandwich then," I said, "and some fruit."

I wasn't really hungry anyway.  I just wanted to see him.  I wanted to argue, and Flora was too sensitive to scrap with me.

"They cut off the cable," she said as we waited for the food.

"So no TV."

"Nope."

"What the hell have we been doing the past three weeks?"

"Talking."

"About what?"

Strangely enough, Flora's mood seemed to improve for a moment.

"Lots of things," she said.  "Trying to come up with a plan, mostly, but we've really gotten to know each other.  Well . . . I've gotten to know you, at least.  Your memory keeps getting erased, so I have to tell you about myself all over again."

"What's the point then?"

She shrugged.  "There's nothing else to do."

"What did I tell you about myself?"

"Just little things.  Stories from your childhood.  Things that happened in high school.  I like hearing about it.  I've never seen the outside world before."

Now that she mentioned the outside world, I took a moment to ponder the current state of Indianapolis, three weeks removed from the tainting of the water supply.  Was the city falling apart around Your Favorite Girl, Inc., or had order been restored?

Maybe James would give something up.

"I told you a lot about myself, too," Flora said.  "I'd be happy to tell you again."

"Not right now," I said coldly.  She'd grown numb to my rudeness, and finally I was experiencing the slightest hint of shame again.  "Tonight, before bed.  How about that?"

"Sure," she said noncommittally, as though she didn't believe me.

A knock on the door.

Flora jumped up to answer it, eager to get away from me and my callous new attitude.  She tried to open the door, but of course it was locked.

"You forgot to key in!" she called out.

The lock clicked and James knocked again.

Flora opened the door and stepped aside while James wheeled in the cart.

"Why don't you just open the door yourself?" I asked him.

"I've been instructed to unlock the door and wait to be let in."

"Well isn't that fucking considerate?  Speaking of which, can you bring the food over here?  I'm a little incapacitated as I'm fucking sure you're aware."

James was wearing his signature smirk.  Also a suit that, if I recalled correctly, matched the ones Sean's guards wore.

Had the little prick been promoted?

Wheeling the cart over to the coffee table before me, he said, "How are we feeling today, Ms. Reed?"

"Fuck you," I said.  "I see Daddy's letting you wear big boy clothes now."

"A position came open on Sean's security team.  One of the former guards became increasingly difficult to deal with.  Emotional.  I guess if someone bit
my
dick off, I'd have a hard time adjusting, too."

"Did they kill him?"

James's smile widened and he drummed his own chest with his finger.  "They had me do it.  Part of my orientation."

A small part of me rejoiced in knowing Judy had been avenged--both Brian and the
dickless guard were now dead--but at the same time I couldn't stand to see James so satisfied with himself.

"And yet they've still got you delivering food."

"Only to you," he said.  "You're our top priority right now."

"Why?  What are they doing to me?"

He didn't answer.  Instead, he tore a banana from a bundle of them and started peeling it open.  He took a large bite and then stared at it, giggling.

Flora had gone to the kitchen to get a drink.  Now she sat at the table with her head down, an unopened soda can before her.

"You should know better than to ask me questions," James said through a mouthful off gooey, half-chewed banana.  "Abandon hope and your life will get a lot easier."

"They haven't told you shit, have they?"  I smiled when he paused in his chewing.  It meant I was right.  Up to now I'd been disappointed in this little visit.  I wanted to inflict
pain.  "You're in the dark as much as I am," I said.  "Mr. Shriver wouldn't risk giving you information that I might pry out of you."

Making a man feel emasculated is one of the simplest and easy-to-apply weapons a woman has in her arsenal.

Taking the time to swallow, James said, "You're awful confident."

I pressed on.  "He doesn't trust you and he never will.  This is the end of the line for you, James.  All you'll ever be is a glorified errand boy, until one day they decide to replace you.  The Longevity Drug means nothing with Sean's knife in your guts."

He took a step closer to me and spoke in a lower voice.  "You want some information?  I was talking to Sean yesterday.  Turns out, before we kill Flora, we're gonna have our way with her.  Every which way we can think of.  And then we're gonna kill her slowly."

I preferred the version where she went to live with Kate and Patton.  I wasn't mad at her anymore.  All my energy was now focused on hating James and the disgusting way he ate bananas.

"I guess that'll be your only chance to fuck a Favorite Girl, now that they're all dead."

"The pre-production Favorite Girls are still growing up, still turning eighteen," he said.  "Sean said I can have my pick.  In the meantime, I've been putting it to Judy every night.  She loves it."

I sensed movement in my periphery and glanced over to find Flora now staring at us.  This was the first time she'd looked up from the table.

James followed my gaze across the room and waved at Flora.

She didn't wave back.

"Those lips," he said, shaking his head as he turned back to me.  "I bet she gives a blowjob that'll make your eyes pop out of their sockets."

"You'll never know."

"Oh yes I will."

"She'll bite it off, just like Judy."

"Judy," he repeated.  "She's quite the dick sucker herself.  Got a lot of practice in with Brian, turns out.  She told me all about that.  She also told me where to find the button."