Moose's battered old Ford Thunderbird zipped down a dark residential street overhung with criss-crossing tree branches, so Jillian knew they must be getting close to her old neighborhood, no, her real neighborhood. Of course, that prompted one to question exactly what was real since the stone had the power to re-write reality itself. Technically, the Farber house was her real home now and Jillian was just trying to get back to her previous home from the previous reality. Damn, a guy could go nuts thinking about this crap for too long. Luckily, or not depending on your perspective, she didn't have to think about it for too long. Moose was driving way too fast for Jillian's comfort, especially since they hadn't spent the whole get together in each other's company so she had no real idea just how much beer the big guy had put down.
"Jesus, Mike! Slow down," Jillian quickly struggled into her seatbelt. The strap was an uncomfortable intrustion between her breasts, over the one and under the other, but Jillian felt immediately safer, "The last thing we need is to get pulled over by the cops - - or worse."
"Okay, sorry," Moose let off the gas some, coasting down to a more reasonable speed, "I just knew that this is what you wanted to do tonight, and we got sidetracked, so I was trying to make up some lost time is all."
"Oh," Jillian was a little miffed that she had totally misread Mike almost all night, "Well, that's great, Mike. Thank you, seriously."
"Not a problem. We'll be there soon," Moose took Jillian's tiny hand in his big paw and gave a soft squeeze, "I like it when you call me Mike. An' I'm glad you stood up to Sarah - - about your name, I mean. Can I call you Jill too?"
"Moo - - I mean, Mike, that was just something I said to Sarah. No one calls me Jill, I don't think anyway," Jillian was so taken aback by the question that she didn't completely notice that when Moose released her hand he rested his own on the lower half of her left thigh just above one bare knee.
"Well, I like it when you call me Mike," a brief, wistful expression passed across Moose's face, quickly replaced by his more familiar sullen glower, "Sarah was the one that got everybody calling me Moose way back in elementary school, you know that? Don't let her stick that Jelly Bean shit on you too."
"I won't," Jillian said with more resolve than she actually felt. She didn't want any of this shit to stick; womanhood, membership in the Farber family, the friendship with Sarah. Instead of dwellng on it she decided to deliberately lighten the mood, "So those were your friends, huh?"
"Yeah, I mean we hang out with lots of people, but that's pretty much the original Brew Crew," Moose chuckled and shook his head, "I'm glad you got to meet all of them. Ike and Biff are crazy, right?"
"I was less worried about Ike and Biff than I was Tiffany," Jillian said dryly, "I had to cozy up to Sarah so she would protect me from her."
"Why?" Moose looked a little alarmed, but tried hard to sound only casually interested, "Did she say something to you?"
"Not really," Jillian watched the streets go past as they took the back way to the Gibson's neighborhood, "Just the usual bitchy girl stuff!"
"Hah! Yeah, that sounds like Tiffany," Moose nodded his head good naturedly.
"Slow down," Jillian instructed and was pleased to note immediate obedience, "We're almost there. Two more streets. Turn right on Holyoak, okay?"
"Got it," Moose turned off of Ackworth onto Holyoak, "But she didn't, you know, threaten you or anything?"
"Who? Tiffany?" Jillian was distracted now that she was so close to where she hoped she might find the stone, "No, why? Sarah shut her down pretty quick after she called me a beaner or something."
"What?" Moose couldn't help it, he laughed, "A beaner? You look like Kim Kardashian!"
"Oh my God," Jillian growled, "Would you please just shut up?"
"Sorry," Moose rolled his eyes, "Anyway, Tiffany got a little weird on me, which is why we broke up. If she bothers you just let me know and I'll take care of it."
"I can take care of myself just fine," Jillian huffed. She might not have been a physical powerhouse as Jon, but Biff and Stever and the rest had never tried to beat the crap out of him like they did with other social outcasts. She doubted she was a total pushoever just because now she was a girl.
"Fine, but watch your back," Moose laughed, "Tiffany might look like a powder puff, but she broke a vodka bottle over my head once."
"Slow down," Jillian interrupted, "This is it!"
"If I go any slower, we'll be parked," Moose gestured toward the spedometer.
"Just cruise by. I want to see if the lights are still on!" Jillian gave the hand on her thigh an encouraging pat.
The lights were indeed still on. Front porch. Living room. Mikey's bedroom upstairs. Not Zoe's room though. Lights out and, weirdly, the window open. Jillian figured she snuck out, though she wasn't sure how. The window wasn't above the front porch and no trees came close enough to get down that way. Jillian felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand up. She had no idea how or why she knew it, but somehow she knew this meant Zoe had the stone - - and she was using it.
"Okay, good, well, not really, but - - just go on up ahead, take the next left," Jillian pointed it out, "then another left immediately after."
Now they were on the service road that ran all down the back of the residential street the Gibson house fronted on. The view back here was less picturesque. Fenced in back yards not much bigger than dog pens, back porches and steep narrow sets of back stairs, trash cans waiting on the garbageman, tiny covered garages and ramshackle woodsheds. All in all, a good place to lay low and see what happens.
"Okay, that's the back of my house right there," Jillian couldn't keep a stray note of excitement from her voice, "Let's stop here and kill the lights."
"What then?" Moose whispered, getting into the secret mission spirit of things.
"We watch and we wait," Jillian murmurred.
"Kind of exciting, huh?" Moose sounded like a little kid.
"Yeah," Jillian broke off what she was about to say, noticed Moose's hand massaging her naked thigh, but didn't stop him. She wasn't sure why, but the big guy was right. "It is. Exciting, I mean."
Moose and Jillian locked eyes. Each of them felt like they should say something, but neither knew exactly what or how. What were they even doing out here? They couldn't see Zoe's window from here and if the stone was inside the house they should be trying to find a way in, not hiding out back here. A minute later, they young couple was kissing.
