"Don't blame me. The Society should have paid more attention in Econ 101. Currency must be scarce."
"In their defense, they probably didn't think anyone would be crazy enough to buy this many copies of Monopoly. What are you gonna wear?"
"Nothing."
"Wow, bold move."
I laughed. "I didn't mean I'm going nude. I meant I'm not going at all."
"What? Why?"
"So many reasons." I held up a finger. "One, my vow of reclusivity." I held up another. "Two, getting raped by Frankie does not appeal to me. Or worse, I might rape him." I shivered at the thought of what I had done to Dr. Lyons. I held up a third finger. "And finally, I have my first day of work tomorrow. I'll go to spin class with you, but I'm coming home immediately after." I still wasn't entirely convinced that I would terminate my contract, but I definitely couldn't go tonight. Not the night before my first day of work.
"Why do you need to be home early? You hardly ever sleep."
"Who said anything about sleep? I was just planning on sitting here all night mentally preparing myself to interact with humans. And to wear pants. And a bra."Going back to work is going to be the worst.
"And that's exactly why you need to go meet Frankie. It'll get your mind off things. You're going to make yourself sick if you sit here all night stressing."
Sick?!Being sick in general was terrifying. Being sick on a workday was even worse. But being sick and missing thefirstday of work? I couldn't even fathom it. I had kept a perfectattendance record throughout all of high school. Well, almost. One time I felt awful but went to school anyway. Before the first bell rang, my homeroom teacher sent me to the nurses because I looked so pale. I made it about ten steps into the hallway before I barfed into my hands and all over the floor. Needless to say, I was not allowed to stay.
"You look like you're actually considering my point."
"I was. But I decided you're wrong. I'll be nervous all night, but I won't actually be sick. No bacteria or viruses can get me in here. But if I go out tonight..."
"What happened to the enthusiasm you had for the Society when you tried to seduce Dr. Lyons?"
"That's kind of the point. What if I try to seduce Frankie too?” I still had no idea what had come over me. Dr. Lyons was just a poor innocent bystander. “I've already proven I can't control myself." I was a menace to society.
"Yes you can. But the wonderful thing is that you won't have to. Frankie is clearly a part of the Society. You've read through all the rules. You know how it works now. The black envelope came, just like it was supposed to. This is definitely a wish."
"Yeah, it came. And I slipped on it. I can't even receive mail without making a fool of myself. If I'm not careful, I'm going to be known as the clumsy redheaded rapist. Now, would you help me off my ass?"
Chastity grabbed my arm and helped me up, but halfway through her face lit up and she dropped me. "That's it!" she said.
Ow."I have no idea what you're about to say, but I don't think I'm going to like it."
“I remember everything.”
“What?”
“I must not have blacked out completely. Maybe I grayed out. Either way, I remember everything about Raven Black now.”
Oh wow.“We found her?” I really was a good stalker. Crap, did this mean I had to hand over my membership to her? Because now that I couldn’t be part of the Society I for sure wanted to be. Damn reverse psychology!
“No, silly,” said Chastity. “It’s you. You’re Raven Black. Right before you signed the contract there was this little paragraph about what you wanted to be called. You could go with your real name, stick with the randomly assigned name Raven Black, or choose a new one. You went with Raven Black and decided to wear a disguise.”
“Really?” I definitely didn’t remember that. “So the invitation really was for me?”
“Yeah. Oh! The wig! We must have gotten it as a disguise. It's perfect. By day, you'll be innocent little redheaded Ashley Cooper. But by night, you'll be Raven Black, the raven-haired seductress."
Interesting.If I wore the wig, I’d be unrecognizable.I could do whatever I wanted and not get in trouble. Well…not everything. I’d still have to learn how to stop inappropriately touching men."Somehow I actually don't hate that idea." Raven Black really did have a nice ring to it. And whatever awkward things I did as her wouldn’t matter. Because no one would know it was me. I started smiling. This was the perfect situation for me. Incident #1 and #2 started to fade away. Raven Black hadn’t done those things. She wasn’t awkward. She was so smooth.
"It'll be like Clark Kent and Superman,” said Chastity. “Only in this case, Supermanreallyloves dick. #NotHisKryptonite."
"And now you're making it weird."
"Okay, okay. Fine. Superman is only moderately interested in dick. And thanks to the rape protection in his contract with the sex club, he doesn't have to get any dick he doesn't want."
