Crossed Up
I’m sitting on some bleachers, overlooking a wide grassy field, idly tapping at my phone when I hear the clanging of feet on metal.
“Hi.” Minnie takes a seat next to me. She’s ready for our investigation.
“Sup.”
Well, I say investigation, but I don’t really know what we’re going to do. I can’t imagine walking up to some lacrosse players and saying “hey, do you remember if this girl ever existed or not?” is going to yield helpful results. There are evidently some people who remember Taylor, but the pattern of who can and can’t remember is making less and less sense the more I learn. After Val pulled the whole forgetting act I genuinely have no idea what’s going on anymore.
I suppose the only real hope for this investigation is somebody remembering, or at least being able to remember some discrepancy that would point us in the right direction.
A group of girls steps out of the changing rooms 50 feet or so away from us, and begin to walk towards the open field, ready to begin their practice. The lacrosse team is here. It’s a large group, 16 girls in total, and suddenly I’m feeling a little self-conscious about what Minnie and I are doing. Going and interrogating them for seemingly no reason about a person they definitely won’t remember? Yeah, that was a great idea, me.
I turn over to Minnie to tell her that I think this is a shit plan and that we should do something else, but where she was sitting is now vacant. The heavy sounds of feet on metal as she awkwardly makes her way down the bleachers and towards the lacrosse team pull me out of my thoughts.
Well, if she can do it, I definitely can.
I stand up and follow her down. I didn’t expect Minnie to be leading the investigation, but here we are. The lacrosse team sees us walking towards them and breaks, letting one girl step forward. She’s tall. Maybe 2 or 3 inches shorter than I am. She has a bit of a darker skin tone, about the same as a cappuccino. As I walk closer I can see the clear definition of the muscles on her arms, which are left bare by her jersey. She takes a few more steps towards us, then cocks her hip to the side, letting her fist rest on it.
Minnie and I reach talking distance at the same time.
“Can I help you?” She's speaking to me with an obvious tone of displeasure. Always good to leave a positive first impression.
“I was just wondering if you remember there ever being a Taylor on your team?”
“This again?” she takes a glance at Minnie, who despite her earlier courage, hides behind me.
She continues, “Neither I nor anybody on our team knows who you’re talking about. She’s never been on our team. Ever.”
“Never ever?”
“... Yes? That’s what I just said.”
“Hm. Maybe a physical description then? Tall, green-hair, mean?”
“Someone being mean isn’t physical.”
“In this case, it definitely is.”
“Look, I seriously have no idea who you’re talking about, and you’re wasting our time. Could you just leave?”
I’m ready to peace out when a blonde girl with long curly hair steps out of the group of girls a few feet behind the one I’m conversing with. “... She had green hair?”
Upon hearing that, excitement wells in my chest. “Yes! Do you know her?”
“No, but it was the weirdest thing. I was walking home with… someone a few days ago and I saw a girl exactly like you’re saying. She looked like she was drunk off her ass, but I only saw her for a split second before she just… disappeared.”
That sounds like our girl.
“She just… disappeared?”
“Into thin air.”
Minnie stiffens as she clings to my back.
I respond, “Was there anything else?”
“... No. That’s all that I remember.”
The darker-toned girl rejoins the conversation, clasping her hand on the blonde girl’s shoulder from behind. “Jess, are you seriously doing this right now?”
The blonde girl angrily whips around. “I know what I saw, Tia! She was right there, and… it was like she knew me! Something weird’s going on!”
The darker-skinned girl, evidently called Tia, lets out a sigh then speaks to Minnie and me. “Look, None of us know who Taylor is. I talked with the team after she,” Tia points a finger at Minnie, who has peeked out from behind me, “cornered me and asked the exact same question. None of us know anything, including Jess.”
the blonde girl, Jess, looks agitated by this, “Are you saying that I’m lying?”
“That’s exactly what I’m saying. I don’t think you’ve said a single true thing since you joined the team.”
A chorus of lacrosse-girls rings out,
“Remember her Canadian boyfriend?”
“Wasn’t he European?”
“Back in elementary, she told me that she had a pet unicorn.”
“I remember that! When I asked to see it she said they put it down because it got rabies.”
There’s suddenly a cacophony of teenage girls bringing up every time that Jess has ever lied, and her face gets redder and redder the longer it goes on.
After a few more seconds, she breaks, and storms off to the locker room.
Tia shakes her head, but wears a grin, and calls out, “See you tomorrow!” Which is met by a backward middle finger from Jess.
Well… that was interesting.
“Thank you for your time, Tia. Sorry for bothering you.”
She responds with a slight nod and I start to walk away, with Minnie’s hand still firmly attached to the back of my shirt. Even if the testimony is somewhat unreliable, it’s better than we had before. If Jess can be believed, it really does look like Taylor got spirited away.
From behind, I hear Tia call out, “Alright girls, coach isn’t feeling well, so I’m in charge, and you know what that means!”
A chorus of groans loud enough to shake the earth erupts from them.
"Get those skinny legs on the track!"
It's times like these that I'm glad that I don't do sports.