“Morning, kiddo!” I stuffed another bite of honeybun in my mouth while Megan tried to eat her bowl of cereal, her excitement nearly making her knock it off the dining room table. “How are you doing? I miss you so much.”
“I miss you! I get to play with Ryan today. We’re going to play video games, eat pizza, play kickball, eat tacos, watch movies, eat candy, and then we get to have a sleepover. It's going to be the best!” She had to wipe some stray bits of cereal and milk that had been running down her chin. Her messy grin was infectious. “We’re going to have so much fun. I’m going to read him one of my game reviews. He said he’s learning to read now.”
“I think that sounds like a whole lot of food and a whole lot of fun. You better not get sick when I’m not there.” I wagged my finger at her, but she just grinned more. “Is Rebecca there?”
“Yeah! She’s right here.” Megan handed my surprised fiancée the phone. In the distance, I could hear her rustling with something. “I gotta get ready to go to Ryan’s. He doesn’t like it when I’m late. Love you!”
“Love you too!” I yelled back. I noticed Lizzy smiling out of the corner of my eye.
“Hey, babe,” Rebecca said, turning the phone around in her hand and trying to peer around to see more of me before smiling shyly. “Sorry, I'm still getting used to this video chat stuff. It’s so cool that I can see you from over a thousand miles away.”
I pulled the phone a little farther away from my face so she could see a little more. “How’s it going there? How’re you doing? I miss everyone there so much.”
“Same old. I miss your cooking. Oh, and you. I miss you too.” Her face flushed and she shuffled in place. “It’s nice to see your face and hear your voice again. I know it’s not like it was with the Sentinels...”
I was thankful for that. Focusing so much on driving to Las Vegas helped push the separation out of my mind somewhat. I knew the reality was that I could die at any moment. I could get hit by a random drunk driver, even in our gated community, just getting my mail or throwing out the trash. I could be struck by lightning rolling up the car window in a thunderstorm. I could have a random heart attack caused by a missed and undiagnosed medical condition. Those were all things that could happen if Heather, McLeod, or any other evil people didn’t get to me first.
I knew being gone—essentially dead—was beyond difficult for everyone who cared about me. I didn’t want to make anyone feel worse by not doing a video chat with them to let them see I was alive and well.
“I’ll try to be in touch as much as I can manage. Sorry I missed you last night. I was just so tired from the trip. I’ve never gotten used to those long car rides.” I wasn’t going to bring up that, despite the surge of energy I felt from seeing her and Megan, I was still feeling exhausted. Thankfully, once I went to sleep, I wasn’t woken up again until my alarm went off even when sharing the room with two other people.
“Don’t sweat it. Lizzy kept us updated, so give her my thanks.” Relaxation kept her loose and smiling.
“You’re welcome!” Lizzy yelled, happy to make her presence known. “I’ll bring your man back in one piece, promise.”
Rebecca laughed and set the phone down for a second, giving me a great view of our kitchen’s ceiling. “Let me get back to helping Megan get ready. She’s been dying for this sleepover and it looks like she’ll explode if she doesn’t get to Ryan’s soon. She said he gets upset when she’s late. She just likes to be on time, or early, so she can play more and boss him around. Talk again soon?”
“Absolutely. Love you.” I couldn’t tell if she was still watching the screen, so I waved at the camera in case she was.
“Love you too! Stay safe and have fun, but not too much fun now.” I saw her hand pop up and wave goodbye. To help spare her the tech trouble, I went ahead and ended the chat so she didn’t have to fumble around trying to hit the right buttons.
I set my phone down and stretched my neck. I looked out the window, disappointed by how Vegas looked during the day, the melancholy of being away from two of my favorite ladies in the world not helping. I wasn’t a fan of desert scenery on the best of days, so seeing it without the tacky lights just made everything look ugly and lifeless to me. At night, there had been this feeling that bordered on being magical in the warm air. The chance that someone could win big or lose it all gave the city a certain energy and buzz to it.
“You two are just the cutest.” Lizzy took a sip of hot coffee from her mug and scrolled through her phone. “I’ve never seen two people show their love for each other on their faces like you two. Jeez, not even my parents show it like you guys.”
“She does give me the warm fuzzies,” I admitted. “I felt so bad for her when I first talked to her, and it wasn’t like I was in the best place to be a great, supportive new friend when she needed one. I’m so happy she’s adjusted as well as she has. I don’t want to imagine what it must feel like to be ripped away from your daughter and to know she’s passed away.”
“I have a lot of respect for you to be able to handle that. It’s a lot, especially since all of us are still basically kids. Well, that’s what Mom and Dad keep telling me we all are.” Lizzy finished up her coffee and rinsed out the mug in the kitchenette. “I think almost anyone would turn tail and run in your spot. They’d go find someone with less baggage and a history that’s not so tragic.”
“Not much I can do about it. The day Lori told me I had superpowers was the day that the world essentially got flipped upside down on its head.” I joined her by the sink and started washing the mug, as well as a couple of plates they must have eaten on after I went to sleep. “I felt like if I was going to run away from her, I’d have run away from all of this. Granted, my life would be significantly more peaceful without you weirdos in it bothering me early in the morning. Oh well, I’ve gotten used to it.”
“I prefer to be called a ‘life enhancer’, thank you very much.” Lizzy took out her phone again and frowned. “I better start getting ready for the concert.”
“Isn’t it at night?” I dried the dishes and left them out on a towel to finish.
“Yes, but I want to get there early, and it’ll take me a bit to get ready.” Lizzy pulled her outfit out of her suitcase. A leather—or pleather, more likely—black jacket, a black tank top, black stiletto boots with heels as tall as me, and some black pants that were probably the same pleather her jacket was. She held up the pants, which had some shine to them. “You know, these are the only black clothes I own, so I thought this outfit was destiny for a punk concert. I’m a little worried. I haven’t worn these pants since I was sixteen.”
“Those, uh, look pretty small. Are you sure you’re going to be able to get those on?” We both shared a grimace. Mine came from the fact that I’d asked a girl if she’d be able to fit into pants she brought, hers likely from the prospect of having to try to put them on. “Seriously, I wouldn’t be able to fit into something I wore three or four years ago.”
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“Only one way to find out.” Lizzy shrugged and gathered her clothes. “If you hear me yelling profanities from the bathroom, that’s just what it’s like for me to put on pants. I’m glad Julio isn’t here for this.”
And boy, yelling profanities was spot on. It wasn’t long before I heard her swearing up and down at the pants that just refused to fit like they used to. Judging by her yelling, even when they fit, they weren’t exactly cooperative with her. When she started pleading with them to fit, and I was worried she was going through the 5 stages of grief, I knocked on the bathroom door to ask her if there was anything I could help with. When her only response was foul language directed toward her pants, I just went back to my bed and played around on my phone. I made sure to send a few prayers that she wouldn’t stumble and crack her head open on the toilet bowl or something.
Finally, the door swung open, and Lizzy came out breathing like she just run a marathon. Her hair was a mess and sweat ran down her face and arms, her face red as a tomato. To her credit, she did manage to get the pants on, but I wasn’t sure if it was worth it. Her hands were fidgeting with the seat of the pants and she looked royally pissed. I wasn’t overly thrilled to be the only other human being in the room with a woman who looked like she was about to transform into a raging tornado because of some pleather.
“Whatever asshole decided the default shape for women’s underwear needed to be two triangles put together, when what said underwear is covering is not triangular in shape, is not being punished enough for their crimes.” She kept trying to adjust the back of her pants, grunting with effort. “Seriously, I didn’t think the saying about someone getting their panties in a bunch could be applied so literally.”
“Are you okay?” I dared to ask, knowing it could open a can of worms.
“Technically, yes. Everything’s just bunched up and I can’t move anything. I get why Lori was so agitated with her pants in the witch costume she got for the yacht party.” She sighed and leaned against the wall. “I guess finishing up puberty hit me harder than I thought. These are way tighter around the hips than I remember. Starting to do squats with a butt that was already filling out naturally probably didn’t help either.”
I cleared my throat to avoid chuckling at her. “Can you walk? Will you be able to walk in your shoes?”
“Eh, it’ll be fine.” She lifted up the hem of her tank top slightly to show off her belly and the upper part of her hips. “Be honest, how bad am I muffin topping in these things? I can’t really tell from my angle.”
It felt like a trap. I was hardly an expert on the fairer sex, and even I knew that agreeing when a woman had a muffin top was probably a bad idea. It seemed like the equivalent of telling a lady that she’d put on a few pounds unprovoked, pointing out a very prominent pimple on her forehead, or that she had some visible upper lip hair. There were just combinations of words in the English language that weren’t good things for a guy to say.
Sighing, I figured she wasn’t going to rip my head off and throw it out of our hotel room’s window. “I mean this in the nicest way possible, but you look like a sausage that’s being stuffed. Seriously, you're not overweight at all, so is that going to be okay for your circulation?”
“Best not to think about that. I’d say there’s no chance I’m getting these off again, so I might need you to cut them from the leg up for me.” She twirled her fingers around each other. “And I need you to do something you’ll probably hate me for.”
“Oh boy.”
“I need you to make sure I don’t have a tear in the back of my pants. These things are not meant to stretch and it was a nightmare getting them on over my ass.” When I opened my mouth to speak, Lizzy quickly kept going, making sure my protests were not to be heard. “The mirror in the bathroom is too high and there isn’t enough space for me to back up to use it. I tried to use my phone, but the photos came out too blurry. Could you just, you know, check for me real quick?”
“Why did I even come with you guys?” I shook my head and looked down at my feet, wondering what my life had become.
“Look, my panties are pink with a thunderstorm pattern, so I really don’t want people to be able to see them.” Lizzy folded her arms and huffed dramatically, blowing a strand of hair out of her face.
“Why are you giving me details?” I put my face in my hands. “I would have done it. I would have helped you out. You know that. I didn’t need the specifics. Why would you even tell someone that?”
“What? You’d need to know what you’re looking for. Wait, they could have aliens or donuts on them instead.” Her tone, barely masking laughter, made it sound like I was the unreasonable one here. “And you’re pretty much my brother anyway.”
“Okay, first off, I think I’m capable of finding a tear in your pants without knowing the details of your unmentionables. And why would you tell your brother that?”
“Well, I’d tell my sister. It’s basically the same thing, I think.” Lizzy looked like she was fighting back laughter at my expense. She turned around and I looked up toward the ceiling, wondering what choices I could have made differently in life.
“Honestly, I’m the first human to make contact with another sentient species, and I’m sitting in a hotel looking for your pink thunderstorm underwear.”
“I will not apologize for liking colorful and fun clothes.” Lizzy giggled. “I will apologize for asking you to do something like this.
There wasn’t a tear in her pants from what I could tell, so she seemed good to go outside of one little issue. “No tear, at least from what I’m seeing, but you do have some noticeable lines if you care about that.”
“Really!?” Her hands covered her backside while she determined if I was lying. Knowing I gained nothing from that, she shook her head in frustration. “Ugh, whatever. Some VPL is better than a rip, I guess.”
Lizzy sat down to put on her shoes before throwing her jacket on. “How does everything look? Do I look like I belong at a punk concert? Do I look cool, edgy, and gritty?”
“I’ve never been to a punk concert, so everyone there could be dressed like a Victorian noble and I wouldn’t know the difference.” Getting a better look at her, I didn’t think she’d look out of place. “I know you said you don’t own a lot of black, but the color suits you.”
“I think it should work. I’m hoping it’s not too flashy.” Lizzy adjusted the jacket and lifted the collar up. “With how high and drunk I’m expecting everyone to be, I fully believe that everyone there is going to ogle everything in a miniskirt or a push-up bra, so I want to blend in as much as I can.”
Lizzy started going through her suitcase. I was glad I wasn’t needed anymore, so I went back to checking my phone. The concert was still a few hours away, and there wasn’t anything I needed to do. What should have been a relaxing feeling quickly turned to restlessness and agitation. I felt like I needed a problem to solve, not to be relaxing in a hotel room on my phone.
“Oh, no, no, no. Please tell me I didn’t forget them. Oh, I'm so screwed.” Lizzy was flinging everything from her suitcase. Shirts, shorts, underwear, and socks were going everywhere. One of her shirts landed right on my head.
“What’d you forget?” I tossed the shirt to the pile of other shirts, shorts, and underwear that she had started to put back together.
“I, uh, I might need you for another favor that you’ll probably hate.” Lizzy nervously pushed her fingers together and laughed. It was a broken sound that bordered on someone choking. “Remember how you asked if I had everything before we left? Well, I thought I did, but it turns out I forgot something important.”
I sighed, already having an idea of what could get a girl so panicked in such a short amount of time and have her feel like it would end up being a favor a guy would hate. “Pads or tampons, what brand, and is there any kind of specific size or something you need?”
Lizzy cocked her head in confusion. “Wait, what? Hold on a second, how’d you know?”
“From when I was twelve to eighteen, I was raised by a woman who worked herself to the point of exhaustion, even when that time of the month didn’t agree with it. It’s not the first time I’ve had to make a quick trip to a store for this. A couple of times when Shelly was sick or overworked, she needed a hand.” I handed my phone over. “Here, type everything down so I don’t forget, and I’ll grab it for you.”
Lizzy sniffled and her bottom lip quivered. “You’re such a good guy! Julio would never do this. Braden might, but you’re the best.” She typed out everything she needed, handed it back to me, and I had my excuse to get out of the hotel room and get a few minutes to myself.