Chapter Six
"Hey, I don't have a choice in the matter, it's a two way deal right? You protect me, I protect you." She says and I smile.
I glance over at Cassie and see that she has yet to look away. Its been maybe three hours since we left L.A. and I know that we've got a long more time to be traveling. "You aren't really from L.A. are you?" Cassie says and I sigh.
"No." Jewels says and Cassie nods her acceptance at this fact. "We're both from New York." She says and I grab onto her hand. She doesn't look exactly comfortable, but I don't know that there's anything I can do about it. She leans back against the seat and doesn't say anything for a little while, so Cassie turns her gaze to me.
"Why were you in L.A. then?" she asks.
"When I was little, my mom raised me and my older sister, but by the time my sister moved out I was ten, and Mom's career had just opened up really, so she pulled me out of school, and we left, but we still pay for the house, so when we go to New York we can stay there. We've moved around every two weeks or so since then, and that's how we ended up in L.A." I say not looking at her.
"What about school?"
"She hired me a tutor." I say looking down.
"A real ass of a guy." Jewels says, taking my hand and I smile a little bit at this. She turns to me. "So do you wanna stay at your house of at my aunts?" she asks.
"Sure.I mean, its about a half hour drive outside of NYC, if you don't mind taking a taxi." I let the sentence trail off, aware that it doesn't matter to me.
"Yea, that sounds good to me."
"So your mom's at your house in New York then?" Cassie asks. I cringe a little bit.
"Nope. She said we could go there until she gets done in L.A." I lie and sneak a glance at Jewels to see her nod in agreement. "I need to go to the bathroom, you?" I ask Jewels. She nods and stands up holding out her hand for me to take. We walk down the rickety compartment to the restroom and go inside. Its not exactly what I would call large, but it'll work. I lean in and kiss her, letting go all of the problems I had been having back in the train car.
"How far are they riding with us?" Jewels asks, nodding her head towards our compartment.
"All the we go that far I mean." I pause for a moment. "She's kinda nosey huh?" I question and start to wash my face.
"Yeah, I guess she maybe she's just bored, I mean, I know I would be bored if I was traveling with a lout like that." she smiles at my reflection and I laugh a little bit before drying my face and hands on the rough brown paper towels.
"Yuck, I smell like cardboard." I say in disgust as I throw the paper towel away.
"I have some lip gloss. It's strawberry and I'm sure it would be absolutely delectable on you." I laugh again a little bit and reclaim her hand as we exit the restroom and make our way back to the compartment. "Have a nice nap?" she questions sweetly to Brad who yawns in response, and then gets up to sit on our side of the to Jewels. She glances around and then spots Cassie. "Mind if we sit with you?" she says as she pulls on my hand. And Brad looks disappointed. But I smile, glad that she chose to sit with me. She pulls me close and plants a kiss on my lips. "You're right, you do smell like card board." She says giggling as she reaches into her pocket and pulls out a small tube of strawberry lip gloss. I smile and reach for the tube, only to have it pulled out of my reach.
I glance questioningly at her and she smiles for a minute before pulling me down onto the ground as she sits cross legged in front of me. "Okay, go like this." She says and opens her mouth slightly. Then she starts to put the lip gloss on for me. Which I think is totally unnecessary, its not like I don't know how to put on lip gloss. "There." She says with finality as she finishes up. I glance up to see that Brad has moved back to sitting by his sister. Jewels pulls me up so that we're sitting on our side again. She sits in the corner for a few minutes just looking out the window, while I watch her. Then I start to feel tired again and I lay down, gently setting my head in her lap and propping my knees up so that they make a mock mountain shaped blob that I can barely see. I glance up at her and see a tear run down her cheek, and my hand slowly reaches up to wipe it away.
"Tell me a story?" I ask as she glances down at me.
She smiles reluctantly and starts. "When I was ten, and Sarah was about one and a half, I used to take her to the park, only once a month or so, the one time a month that 'Dad' would get drunk. I would take her away from it and just push her on the swing. This one time, it was winter, kinda snowy outside, and the jacket that Mom had bought for Sarah for the winter was white, and so were her pants. Well, I sat down for a minute to tie my shoe, and when I looked up I couldn't find her. I called out to her for about five minutes before I glanced around and noticed a snowball that hadn't been there before. I laughed so hard as I ran over and tackled the little ball and my sister popped out, with a handful of snow and launched it at me. She had some arm for a little kid." She said smiling at the memory. I closed my eyes as I felt her hand start to run through my hair. And I fall into a light sleep, but I can still hear Brad when he starts to whisper to his sister.
"How come you didn't tell me they were dykes?" he sounds pissed, like she should have told him that neither of us would be interested in him. She doesn't say anything, but I guess that she shrugged. My brain drifts off and the next thing I know I'm sitting with my sister in our house.
"Joanie, how long are you going to be at school?" I ask pouting. She's braiding my hair for her graduation ceremony, and Mom is making me wear this purple jumper with a turtle neck t shirt that's white and purple. I pull on the turtle neck, stretching it.
"Sarah, stop! Don't pull on that, it wont fit right." Joanie orders me.
"It's too tight! I can't breath!" I say tugging on it harder. She ties up the braid and turns me around. "I don't want you to go!" I pout at her and cross my arms over my chest.
"I won't be gone long. And I'll be back at Thanksgiving and Christmas." She says to me. Only she doesn't come back at Thanksgiving, and if she does we're not here, we were Chicago. And we didn't go home for Christmas either. A week after Joanie leaves John comes. I've talked to Joanie maybe one time on the phone since she left, but she says that she comes home sometimes since she lives so close to it. I feel my chest tighten up as I start to cry that I don't want her to go. And then we're walking out to the car, and then I wake up. I haven't moved from the spot where I was and I see that Jewels is glaring at Brad and still playing with my hair, and that Cassie is looking down at her hands, looking kinda ashamed. I sit up and move closer to Jewels.
"What's going on?" I whisper into her ear.
"I'll be right back." She says and gives me a kiss on the cheek before she walks out of the compartment.
"Okay, so what did I miss?" I ask no one in particular.
"So, are you a dyke or do you swing both ways?" Brad asks with a sneer on his face.
"I don't see how my sexual preferences are any of your business." I say and cross my arms over my chest.
"Aw, c'mon Babe, level with me. I know the girl you're with is only into the girl on girl scene, but what about you?" he asks, leering at me. I manage to stifle the urge to barf in his face and stare at him for a moment.
"You know, you're right. I should "level" with you. Here's the deal. You don't hit on I wont hit on you." I say sweetly before I get up to leave the cabin. I run into Jewels in the hallway.
"C'mon, I got us a sleeping cabin." She says as she leads me away from our old cabin towards a new part of the train and a new cabin. It has two twin beds in it and that's all. I sit down on the bed. "I'll go and get our bags." She says with a wink and leaves. And I lay down on the bed, sprawling all over my bed, and breathing a sigh of relief.