Case 36: Courter in Yellow

Everything Ends in Smoke(51)

Dipper POV

California was fucking with my head. Even as I lay on the couch, curled into Bill's side. Rebecca Swiney didn't exist. That much only took an hour to dig up and prove true. She'd only been in classes at Gravity Falls high school for 2 years, before that she didn't exist. Her family was nothing but names on paper, then the man who came in could have been anyone. Rebecca's school didn't turn up anything, none of her classmates had badges in their possession nor had any of them heard of another student on campus giving them out. Her boyfriend, a real dude to our surprise, had stated he only heard rumors but didn't actually see her get it from someone. Nothing about her lead back to who she'd been before, it was simply blank. Her father however, going off the thought that the man who came in was James Legon, trailed back to California. The same way all of the Fourth Circle did, and Yellow. Leo had been the one to suggest going to San Francisco to talk to the detectives from past cases in person. My head felt like it was still swimming.

Bill's fingers curled mindlessly into the hair at the nap of my neck. I was surprised and happy that he'd answered my text, let alone invited me over. I thought at the very least I would have gotten a hearty "screw you."

"Bill." I muttered. His hum in response reverberated in my ears, the flick of a lighter met with the smell  of smoke.

"Would you like one?" Looking up he held a cigarette to his lips, taking a long drag I could feel in the rise of his chest.

"I don't need my own if you don't mind sharing?"

He smiled around the smoke, "Of course not," he held the end to my lips. I hadn't smoked since I was a teen. He laughed as I coughed on my first try, pulling the cigarette away in favor of his own lips. We lay together, my head in his lap sharing the smoke. Bill lit a second, his head hit the back of the couch and he sighed exasperatedly. I sat up, "What?"

"Oh nothing, I'm just thinking." He closed his eyes, blowing a puff of smoke up and in my face.

"Don't think too hard, you might hurt yourself." Someone like him does too much thinking all the time, he should take a break every now and again.

He laughed anyway, "No not like that, I'm just mulling over a decision." One eye peeped open, "I think I've come to the end of it, all I have to do now is wait."

"Pretending to be all dark and mysterious I see." I laughed taking the smoke from him for myself.

"I'm not pretending." His hand now free curled around my hip.

"What is your decision then?" Inhaling deeply, reveling in the warmth that filled my mouth and lungs.

"I'll tell you later. As it so happens I had dinner plans with Pacifica later. I'm sure with one text we could turn it into a double date." His eyes lingered on my lips. "Or I'm sure I could cancel."

"I think a dinner with the four of us would be fun, you should ask her." I looked around for a place to discard the end of the cigarette. Bill plucked it from my fingers and dropped it into an ashtray I'd only noticed before in passing.

What else had I just written off before?

"Do you know a James?" The words slipped as calmly as they could from my lips, my brain leaping over itself at the mere idea of having asked it. I didn't have a plan, I didn't have a reason.

He thought for a minute, with a soul piercing look that made me think he'd stuck his hand in my chest, "No, at least I don't think so. Why do you ask?"

Shrug it off. "Oh, just Mabel's rambling. I still haven't met everyone in her circle so I'm just trying to fit it all together."