“Hmm…” said Nigel. “Are you certain?”
“My wig is black. And not curled. Or powdered.”
“Try this,” said Tanner. He pulled a silver bracelet out of his pocket and handed it to me.
“Okay, but I don’t know how that’s going to help.”
“Just try it on. You need it anyway now that you’re a novus member. Initiates just wear black, novus members wear silver. And veritas members wear gold.”
I looked at his wrist. He was just wearing a black watch. “And what are you?”
“What do you think I am?”
“I assume you’re veritas. Or is there something higher? I know you have some fancy badge that lets you order other members around, right?” He’d used it months ago at Club Onyx to make Angel and Diablo stop flirting with me.
“You should really put that bracelet on and change. We’re getting pretty close.”
Gah!I hated when he ignored my questions. But if we were close, then he was right. I needed to change. And fix my makeup. I slid the bracelet on and then opened up the mirror and…
“How…?” I gasped. Somehow, my hair was jet black.
“Pretty cool, huh?” asked Tanner. “It’s some new tech I’ve been working on for the CIA.”
“The CIA?” I slid the bracelet off and my hair changed back to red. And then I slid it back on and my hair turned black again. “Whoa.”
Tanner smiled. “Now you don’t have to worry about your wig flying off.”
“Thank God. That was one of my biggest fears. You don’t happen to have one that magically changes my clothes?”
“Magic?” asked Tanner. “Who said anything about magic? That bracelet is 100% technology. It’s filled with microchips and things.”
“It was just a figure of speech. But now I’m kind of suspicious about it actually being magic.” Seriously, why was he acting so weird about it?
Tanner laughed. “Fine, you caught me. It’s a magic hair-changing bracelet.”
I hit his arm. “Oh, right. Just like your flaming genie penis?”
Nigel gasped. “You told her!?”
I shook my head. “You two are ridiculous. I know you just said you had a flaming penis because I accidentally set Matt’s penis on fire.”
Tanner laughed.
“It’s not funny! It was one of the worst moments of my life.”
“Worse than it was for Matt?”
I didn’t want to think about that. “But he said he was okay. He is, right? I mean, he must be. He has a baby.”
“Don’t tell me you’re stalking him too?”
“I’m not stalking Matt or you or anyone else. It’s just important to follow through with these things. You wouldn’t understand because your dick has never been set on fire so you don’t need to be checked up on.”What am I even saying right now?A blue sign in the distance caught my eye. “Hey, there’s a gas station coming up! Let’s pull over so we can all change and avoid being tossed into the brain-eating-amoeba-filled lake.”
“Great idea,” said Tanner. “I just hope the floor in the bathroom there isn’t too slippery.”
“Slippery? Oh God. Why would the floor be slippery?” I flashed back to my time in the Starbucks bathroom. Andthe puddle.
“I can think of a lot of reasons. Someone might have missed the toilet, or maybe changed some diapers on the floor…”
