Chapter Five: The Real Me

"Bailey!" a cheery voice called through the house. "Hello, Mrs. Roberts."

Bailey's mouth dropped open, the comb she'd been using to pick the tangles out of her hair froze with her hand, and she stared into her vanity mirror, watching shock flare into her own eyes. It had just been a single conversation last night. Long, but one. The hope at making and keeping a friend had long since drifted away, but now this? Bailey could feel the spark coming back.

She clutched her stomach as it churned. It was almost like déjà vu. It had happened before, someone trying to befriend her. They would make the effort, but after a while give up. Bailey was awkward, couldn't hold interesting conversations mainly because she never knew what to say, and when she did talk most of the time it didn't make sense. Then there were those other times. Those lucky guessing times. That's what really kept people away. The exception had been the other night. Bailey hadn't said anything awkward or strange and if she had, Gwen hadn't minded. She hadn't thought Gwen would come to her house before school though.

Bailey worried her lip. She couldn't help but wonder, when Gwen realized Bailey's strange ability to know things before they happened, how long it would be before Gwen dropped her like a bad habit? When she gave up on her, just like her other friends had.

After what had been going on with her father, Bailey didn't know if she could handle it this time around. She hated going through the motions. It wasn't like she wanted to be this way, she just was. The reality was why should she bother making friends when they inevitably disappoint? Why bother taking the chance of being hurt?

"Bailey," Gwen called out again. "We're going to be late!"

The sinking feeling in her stomach made her not want to go downstairs at all. She hated that she was so afraid. It was almost disgusting to her. Bailey listened to the melodic clear voice of Natalie Grant, realizing she couldn't agree more with her. "What a mess I've made of my existence," Bailey whispered, trying to ignore the tremor in her hands as she set the comb down.

She stood up, reaching for her hair accessories. Quickly copying the same hair do she'd had the other day before walking to the door. Bending down she reached for her book bag, hauling it onto her shoulder and clutching the strap to her chest. She took a deep breath, feeling the dread spreading through her.

. It was a stray thought she normally wouldn't let herself think, but it seemed to be recurring since she'd thought it the other day. Even though she was afraid from a past experience, she somehow knew that things this time be different. How different was the question.

"Hi! I hope you don't mind that I came to pick you up." Gwen practically attacked her as Bailey galloped down the stairs. "You're right on my way to school so I figured it would be a great opportunity to get to know each other more."

Bailey blinked away the images of her and Gwen laughing in front of a pool. It was happening again that magnetic pull she'd initially felt when she'd first seen Gwen. Bailey was even day dreaming about them in a pool. How ridiculous was that? But she knew she and Gwen were meant to be friends. Meant to know each other. She felt it with such a certainty chills slipped up her arms.

How strange...and repetitive.

"It's fine. Thank you," Bailey mumbled. "Breakfast?" She offered lamely.

"Actually, I was thinking we'd stop by Starbucks, get a muffin and a Java Chip Frap. It's absolutely to die for."

, Bailey smiled inwardly.

When they walked outside Bailey nearly did a double take at the expensive metallic gray Bentley gracing their new driveway.

"Lord, is that yours?"

Gwen chuckled and gave a nod as she jangled the keys, "Birthday present."

Bailey wanted a birthday present like that, but the truth hurt. She'd only gotten her drivers license a few months ago and there was no way she'd get a new car that soon. Besides, it wasn't like her mom had the money and she definitely wouldn't ask her father, even if that money should've been hers.

"Do you have your driver's license?"

Bailey's interest sparked at the question and she turned her devouring gaze towards Gwen. "Yes."

Gwen wiggled her eyebrows at her and tossed the keys at Bailey

Her eyes widened as she barely managed to catch them. She licked her bottom lip, eyeballing the fancy push button key. "Is this legal?"

Gwen laughed heartily. "What kind of question is that? No, it's probably not legal. I'm barely seventeen, so you're definitely not covered on my insurance, but who cares?"

Cautiously, she leaned down to peek through the tinted window. "Is it stick shift?"

"Automatic."

Bailey felt slightly disappointed. She wouldn't have as much control with automatic.

"You know how to drive stick shift?" Gwen asked curiously.

Bailey nodded. "My-" she stumbled over the word 'dad'. "My wouldn't let me drive anything else until I learned stick."

Gwen tilted her head, a curious glint in her eyes. "You don't like your father?"

"What makes you say that?" Bailey asked, as she opened the driver's door and slipped in.

Gwen shrugged. "Maybe it was the way you spat 'father.'"

It was a conversation she wasn't ready to have with someone she barely knew. Even if Gwen was different, so she made it simple. "Let's just say, men who cheat should be castrated."

"What about women who cheat?"

"The exact same."

Pulling her seat belt across and buckling herself in, Gwen smiled widely. "I think we're going to get along just fine."

Once they pulled into the parking lot of Starbucks, Bailey felt like she immediately wanted to just skip it, but she still found herself exiting the car with Gwen. It was fairly crowded and considering the town didn't have a whole lot of people that was saying something. It looked like all the students from the school had migrated to the coffee shop.

"Who's this?"

Those words were thrown with disgust and a bit of curiosity from behind a black Mercedes as they passed it to get closer towards the front entrance.

"Rajah Lithgow and Harper Grim." Gwen supplied under her breath to Bailey before plastering on the fakest smile Bailey had seen. "Raj, darling, how are you today?"

Rajah, or Raj, was a gorgeously tall, caramel colored girl, with black eyes that demanded attention. Her hair was wild around her and corn rowed at the top in a zigzagged design. She looked like a predator, graceful and deadly.

"Don't make her repeat herself. She's a bitch today," another girl warned as she rounded the black Mercedes Raj had come from. She seemed pretty average actually, not gorgeous like Gwen and Raj, but clearly beautiful enough to be standing next to her friend. She had brownish black hair with freckles splattered across her pointy noise, something she'd tried covering up with base, and thin pink lips.

"Raj, Harper, this is Bailey, she just moved her from... Indiana was it?" Gwen turned to glance at Bailey for confirmation.

Eh. It was close enough. Nodding, she waved.

Raj clucked her tongue. "Why are you even hanging out with her?"

Gwen glared. "Don't be cunt!" Her tone vibrated with red flags.

It was such a dirty word to have come out of someone like Gwen's mouth that Bailey had to go over the three words again. an't nderstand ormal hinking wasn't a word she'd heard often, in fact, Bailey rarely cursed, so that alone surprised her. And it just seemed for it to be coming out of Gwen's mouth. Bailey glanced at Raj, expecting something mean to come from the girl, but all she did was shrug and walk towards the front doors of the coffee shop.

"Don't let her bitchy attitude get you down. Honestly under all that superficiality she's not a bad person, you just have to look a little deeper," Gwen informed, cocking her head in the retreating girls direction. "Come on, we've got maybe ten minutes before the bell."

They'd quickly gotten their Fraps and muffins before hightailing it to school and within two minutes they were once again exiting the car. Just when she began following Gwen to the front doors, a red and black car pulled into the spot beside them. There was a tiny red oval logo with the word Bugatti in the middle of it. She wasn't much for names and cars, other than the fact that she liked to drive whenever she could, but she had a feeling it was expensive. She couldn't help but stare, feeling the urge to request driving it. She tried to causally peek into the window but the door swung open swiftly, nearly knocking her in the knees.

It was Damien's car.

"Ah, Damien, just who I wanted to see. Bailey this is my older brother Damien." Gwen introduced them by smacking him in his chest.

Bailey smiled shyly up at him. She didn't expect him to not say anything. Maybe a 'hi' or 'hey', but absolutely was a little surprising. He just stared at her. It wasn't like he was undressing her with his eyes either, because he was staring at her eyes.

"Um, hello?" She offered her hand.

He ignored it, cocking his head to the side, his eyes still glued to hers. "Man, you're eyes are freaky."

"Oh," Bailey managed, disheartened by his response, letting her hand drop.

Gwen gasped in outrage. "Damien!"

He cleared his throat and adjusted the strap of his book bag on his shoulder. "Right, well, I didn't mean 'freaky' in a bad way. Just, you know, startling."

Bailey scoffed.

He raised an eyebrow. "Apparently I do." He chuckled, finally looking her up and down like she'd originally expected.

, she'd said it out loud. A filter between her brain and mouth would be needed if this whole 'reinventing' thing was going to work. She'd make a note to buy one.

"Nice to meet you, Bailey." He added before turning away. She watched him nod at a passerby and then high five some blond guy that he ended up walking in with.

"I feel like I need to apologize for that rudeness." Gwen replied, suddenly standing directly beside her. "You have gorgeous eyes by the way. Don't worry about what he said and I'd kill for those long eyelashes, I have to have fake ones. You see these long ones, not real."

Bailey smiled widely. "I never would've known."

Gwen perked, clearly happy with Bailey's statement, "Really?"

Bailey felt herself deflating as she eventually had to part from Gwen. Psychology was her first class of the day and sometimes it wasn't always great having an exciting class at the beginning of the day. Especially if one was tired, thankfully today she wouldn't have to force herself to stay awake and apparently teachers didn't have a problem with students having a coffee in the morning. It almost seemed expected as Mr. Welsh, the psych teacher, also had a cup in his hand as he'd entered. Starbucks had made a killing coming to this town.

The morning announcements finished with the request to pay some respect to two high school girls who'd been found dead two counties over. That seemed to be the beginning focal point of the conversation in Psych class too.

"I'd like to take a moment to discuss those two girls found. Did anyone know them?"

Silence followed his question.

"Well, there's a plus. Still, if anyone would like to see a councilor regarding the issue please do so. Does anyone have a problem with discussing this before we start?"

Everyone shook their heads. Bailey didn't really know if she'd be comfortable with the topic but she supposed psychology was the study of the human mind. She could only assume the teacher was going to question what the killer had been thinking. Granted it wasn't a normal topic, but she gave props to him for using things that happened in real life, that literally hit close to home, to help teach.

"Didn't they go missing like six months ago?" someone called.

Mr. Welsh nodded. "What does that suggest?"

"That the killer maybe kept them alive for awhile," a smallish girl offered.

The girl reminded Bailey of a pixie. Short, straight nose, full lips with clear lip gloss, tiny hands and feet, rather childishly cute with her crazy blonde hair.

Mr. Welsh rubbed the back of his neck, clearly uncomfortable by the thought. Students shifted in their desks having the same response. "That's a rather unnerving thought Kate, but entirely possible."

Unnerving was the word for it.