Chapter 1

 

“So tell me again who is this guy we are meeting and why he has to come?” Johanna said.

“Because he is really cool and wants to meet you. He is really nice, don’t worry you’ll like him. But be warned he is a little, uh, odd.” Katherine looked both ways before crossing the cross walk. It was something she always did. Johanna supposed it was from all those years living in a small city. She wasn’t used to the hustle and bustle of Chicago.

“Odd? How so?” Johannah took her friend’s arm and led her so they could cross before the light over head turned green again.

“He just seems, oh I don’t know, old fashioned. He is very polite, but dresses too formally. That is why after we see the museum we are going to give him a make-over. Well,” she looked at her friend who dressed all in black with heavy make-up and an overall punk/goth look, “Mostly I will be giving him a makeover.”

“Who exactly is going to be paying for this?”

“He is.”

“So he knows about this plan of yours?” Johanna gave her friend the raised eyebrow.

“No, but he is super rich though.”

“Oooh, Is he single?”

Katherine playfully punched her best friend, not to hard though because she knew that she bruised easily, “I don’t know. Why would you care anyway?”

They reached the art museum and walked through the front door, “Because he is rich?”

“You are such an idiot.”

“Don’t I know it? Now where is this friend of yours?”

“Ummm,” Katherine scanned around the room. She found him and pointed to someone, “There he is.” She raised her voice, “Marvin! Over here!”

“I thought his name was Maranwë? As weird of a name is that.”

He came over, “And it is. Most people find it tedious to say hence I am usually called Marvin. I take it you are the famous Johanna?”

“Um, I wouldn’t call me famous, infamous maybe.”

“Either way you think of yourself it is a pleasure to meet you.” He took her hand and kissed it.

Katherine giggled, “See didn’t I tell you?”

Johanna rolled her eyes as Marvin asked, “So what are we planning on doing today?”

Katherine answered, “Well, I thought we would look around the art museum for a little while and then we are going to give you a make-over.”

Johanna looked at her watch; it said it was about 1:04. When Katherine looked at art for a little while it ended up being more like 3 or 4 hours. She wasn’t really a fan of art. She was a writer. Did she really want to be here for that long? No.

“Kate? I have a couple of errands to do so why don’t you two stay here and do whatever and call me when you are done and we’ll meet up.”

“Sure, is that okay with you Marvin?”

“Of course. Why wouldn’t it be?”

“Okay see you guys later then.” She gave a quick hug to Katherine and kinda waved at Marvin and walked off.

As she walked down the street she thought of him. He was a very strange person. He wore a fancy peat coat with dress pants and dress shoes. His blonde hair was slicked back and his nose was small and his eyes were grey and beady. He was tallish and slim, but you couldn’t really tell if it was skinny slim or muscular skinny slim. He also seemed too refined, he even had what sounded like a slight accents of some sort. You couldn’t tell what it was except probably European and probably very rich.

She stopped at a coffee shop and got a coffee. The coffee shop was two stories so she went upstairs chose the back corner and sat down. When she came here she thought it would be nice to sit outside and drink, but soon learned otherwise. It was too noisy and the smog made you not want to drink your coffee. She liked this particular place because it had a starbucks like feel to it. It was also one of the only coffee shops in the area that didn’t play music; live, radio, or otherwise. Johanna liked the quiet.

She pulled her book out of her bag. It was Carrie by Steven King. She had read it a million times but it just never got old. She also grabbed her cell phone and put it on the table besides the cushy chair she was sitting on.

 She started reading and thinking about what she was going to do. She didn’t actually have any errands and didn’t want to go too far and she didn’t have a lot of money with her and she couldn’t stay here for hours and hours. It didn’t really matter; it wasn’t a problem that she had to worry about right now. She would read until she got bored and then decide what to do.

  Apparently she didn’t get bored of the book because the next think she knew Johanna’s phone was yelling out ‘Faces’ by Scary Kids Scaring Kids. She looked at the time as she answered the phone with a ‘hello’. It was 3:47.

“We are done. Where are you?”

“I just finished my errands and am only about a block away so I will meet you by the front door in less then 5 and then we can go do what ever.”

Johanna put her book back in her bag and her cell phone in her pocket. As she exited she threw her cup away. She jogged for a little while because she was more than a block away. She was more like 4 or 5 blocks.

When she got there her face was redder than normal. Katherine didn’t seem to notice but she thought that Marvin did. Not that he didn’t anything for her to notice she just knew that he knew.  

Katherine led them from store to store, some of them were second hand stores and some of them were regular retail. It was after about the second one when Johanna spoke up.

“Look at these clothes you are getting him.” She said, “We are trying to dress him like a normal teenager not a Californian surfer.”

For the rest of the day the two best friends argued about what kind of look he should have. At the end of the day though they had gotten him clothes that would make him stick out less and be more like a normal teenager.

Afterwards they decided to hang out a Katherine’s apartment so they could do something about his hair. After about 10 minutes of trying to comb the gel out of his hair Katherine gave him a towel and a change of clothes and sent him to the shower.

Katherine and Johanna sat in the smallish living room. Katherine was on the couch that was in front of the window while Johanna was sitting in the chair on the other side of the coffee table from her.

Johanna never really looked at girls in a sexual way. But if there was ever a girl she would date it would be Katherine, especially right now. Her bright red hair shone in the sunset behind her and her big lips and her bright hazel eyes and her delicious looking curvy body. Katherine had been known however to go on the gay side before.

Katherine saw that Johanna was looking at her so she motioned for her to come over and sit down over there. She did and Katherine pulled her close to rest against her and ran her fingers through her hair.

“You didn’t really have errands to do. Did you?” Katherine whispered in her ear.

“Do I ever?”

“You are really a strange girl.”

Johanna turned around to she was looking her friends right in the face, “Does that bother you?”

Katherine leaned in close, “Of course not.”

They could feel each others hot breath as they came in closer. Their hands wandered up each others bodies to hold each other closer, their lips were barely touching.

All of a sudden Marvin walked in. Katherine blushed while Johanna just backed away, perfectly cool. Marvin’s hair was wet and fell against his face about ear length. His new clothes made him cool his age, which Johanna imagine was about 18 or 19.

Katherine, still blushing, stood up and had him sit in the straight back chair they had taken from the kitchen/dining room.

“Jo would you mind going into the closet by the bathroom and get me my hair cutting scissors?”

After she brought them back Katherine set to work cutting his hair but by the looks of it all she was doing was fixing his bangs and giving him layers.

“So,” Marvin said after a while, “I know lots about Katherine and have heard some about you, but really I don’t know that much so do you mind if I ask you some questions?”

“Uh, no.”

“What is your favorite color?”

“Lime Green.”

“What kind of music do you like?”

“Rock, mostly metal and alternative.”

“How old are you?”

“18”

He paused at this answer, “But I thought you were in the same grade as Katherine.”

“I am I just got held back a year.”

“You two have awfully formal names for your personality. How did that work?”

“We didn’t really name ourselves though, our parents did. If you haven’t noticed though she calls me Jo and I call her Kate sometimes.”

Katherine now interrupted with, “Johanna’s name is worse than mine though. My first and middle name is Katherine Johanna while her first and middle names are Johanna Elizabeth Katherine.”

“You have two middle names?” he asked

“Yep.” She said.

Hours passed with this Q and A game. Marvin’s hair had been finished a long time ago and they were now in the dining room playing card games and eating snacks. Finally Johanna noticed the time and announced that she had to go. Marvin said that it was about time that he had left also. So after many good byes and a few hugs they left.

As Johanna lay in bed that night she was thinking about Marvin. He was definitely an odd child but couldn’t quiet put her finger on why. She wasn’t really sure whether she liked him or not either. He didn’t really talk much, even though Kate has said he talk almost all the time. Johanna put it out of her head. It wasn’t something she needed to think about. What she really needed to think about was an excuse to tell her teacher tomorrow morning about why she had the entire weekend but somehow hadn’t gotten her homework done.