A Crack in the Mask

Broken Rules

The next night...

"It's blocked." Jay groans as he drops his chin to his chest in defeat.

"Again?" Mal frowns as she bends over his shoulder to glare at the screen. "That's like the sixth site." She rolls her eyes.

"It would seem this one didn't like the words we were looking up." He glares before he hits the back button.

"Great, was it trauma or-"

"You know, when I run into a problem with blocked sites, I always consult the vast encyclopedic volumes we have available."

Jay and Mal jump at the interruption, turning to find Doug who'd silently crept up on them.

"Shouldn't you be stalking Evie?" Mal bristles before she glares at Jay.

"I mean hate to say it but, same." Jay crosses his arms. He turns a glare on Mal, who was supposed to be on the lookout.

Doug shrugs, "Think what you will. But right now she's in chemistry making up a test the teacher unjustly believed she might have cheated on in her first week."

Mal can't help her smirk, "Heard you were tutoring her." She snorts, "What's up with stalkers being overly helpful?"

"Maybe it's a 'goodness' thing." Jay shrugs as he turns back to the screen and starts typing chemistry questions into the roogle.

"Or maybe it's an awkward thing?" Doug supplies. "Here." He scoots Jay's chair outta the way. "Excuse me." He kneels in front of the keyboard and pulls up several tabs that looked like the shit Carlos had taken to messing with lately. "There." He hits enter. "I made your password for this computer rotten, and the username wicked all lower case. It… Won't work on all the computers, but this one's now blocker free." He stands up.

Mal and Jay furrow their brows as they look at each other before they look up at Doug.

"But… I don't…" Mal pouts her bottom out slightly, "I mean why help us?"

"Maybe, put in a good word to Evie, for me? I might not be a prince, but I can be pretty useful." He responds with a kind smile.

"Sure thing man." Jay nods before he stands and offers his hand.

Doug's eyes widen as he trips over himself to shake his hand, "Oh. Well, sweet. I will let you two get back to whatever it is you were doing."

"Appreciate it." Mal smiles awkwardly.

"No problem." Doug beams, proud of himself as he walks away with a lot more confidence than he'd approached them with.

"He won't talk about what we're looking at," Mal starts strongly, but her voice rises, "right?"

"Nah, I think he's got it bad for E." Jay snickers, "Poor bastard. But, he's not wrong… Look." He slides back out of the way so Mal can see the tabs he was now able to pull up.

"Huh." Mal goes back to hunching over the computer, her eyes roaming the first open tab her stomach twisting into a tighter and tighter knot with every word. "Kay…"

Jay sighs, "This is bad." He, he couldn't imagine. Like, he knew awful things happened on the isle all the time, but not to his people.

He raps his knuckles against the edge of the table roughly. Not to T. His knuckles rap the solid wood harder.

But something had, and there hadn't been able to stop it because he just couldn't face the truth.

The truth? An angry sneer curls his lip.