With the light amount of agonizing I dealt with at the trunk of Lizzy’s car over my past road trips, it was odd that my latest one didn’t have anything odd happen. Given that the first road trip I went on involved Lori nearly being shot, us finding a kid who we took in as part of the family, meeting a guy who could control time, and needing to escape from a collapsing cave, I was a little on edge for the Las Vegas trip. Turned out there was just a lot of nothing between our little town in Nebraska and Sin City.
After about twelve hours, Lizzy needed to rest, and I offered to finish the last leg of the trip. I didn’t have my license, which made Lizzy think I had no idea how to operate a car in the slightest. Fortunately, I had gotten some practice in with Shelly before our lives got all weird for us. It was enough that I was pretty confident I could pass the exam for my license, and now that we had the income to get another vehicle, it was one of the first things on the table for me once I got out of the McLeod mess I was in.
Despite my insistence that I could do the rest of the drive, even telling Lizzy to give my sister a call to confirm how much I’d practiced, she still hesitated to hand the wheel over to me. When I mentioned that we shouldn’t lose out on any time, Lizzy finally relented with a dramatic sigh. It didn’t take too long for her to fall asleep after I started driving, so my skills behind the wheel must have done a little bit to impress her.
Julio didn’t have much of an opinion on the matter, or much to say at all during the trip. Every time I tried to engage him in some light, quiet conversation, he wasn’t all that interested in talking. I found that a little odd. Sure, we’d never been best friends or anything like that. It wasn’t like the kid shied away from being the center of attention, or at least near it, every time I’d seen him before. He was a teenager with cool powers who wanted to show them off. In the back of Lizzy’s car, he became all sullen and brooding.
I decided to take it as a sign I was being blessed. Given my inexperience driving, especially in a major city, not having to juggle the road and a conversation might have been for the best. It would have been a real downer on the trip if we started out with a totaled car because I lost focus for a few seconds. That forced me to keep my eyes on the road and not worry about much else.
I gently shook Lizzy awake when I got us parked at the hotel. “Hey, we’re here, and we arrived in one piece.”
“Huh? Ugh. Let me sleep some more.” She turned away and rested her head against the window. Muddled lights from the city broken up by passing cars danced across her face.
“There’s a bed in there to sleep on. Also, you have drool all over your face. How does someone even get bedhead without moving their head at all when they’re asleep?”
“I’m a woman of many talents,” she mumbled, fishing for her seatbelt buckle. I sighed and helped undo it for her, which seemed to please the tired lady. “Thank you.”
I opened the door and gasped. “What the hell? It has to be at least ninety degrees out here. It’s already ten! How is it still so damn hot out?” The comfort of the air-conditioned SUV nearly brought me back in, but with the hotel right there, I just sighed and went to collect the bags. I could already feel the sweat forming under my arms.
“That’s why I wore a T-shirt and shorts.” Lizzy rubbed the sleep out of her eyes and straightened her hair out as best she could. “Do I still have any drool left on my face? I want to get us checked in and I don’t need to look like a doofus doing it.”
“Nope, you’re good.” I gave her a thumbs-up and nodded toward the hotel. I was able to wrangle my stuff and Lizzy’s, but I had trouble getting Julio’s. “Hey, are you able to grab your bag? My hands are full here.”
“All those muscles and you can’t even get that. You’re the worst butler.” His tone was light and his eyes had a certain mischievous glint in them. It was nice to see a little more life back in the guy, though I had a sinking feeling that bringing a kid to Sin City might have been a bad decision. “No worries, thanks for getting us here in time.”
He followed Lizzy inside the hotel, never taking his eyes off the city that sprawled out all around him. Our hotel wasn’t some five-star beauty right on the Strip, but it didn’t look too shabby, and we were within walking distance of just about any Las Vegas attraction we could want. Even I felt a little energized by the air of chance, and a bit of danger, in the city around me. I had to resist the urge to see how much cash I had on hand—and could potentially lose playing games I had no idea how to play—before I joined up with everyone inside.
“We have a room on the top floor, so enjoy the view, boys.” Lizzy folded her arms over her chest and smiled, looking a little smug, as I walked inside the lobby. She handed us each a keycard, grabbed three bags of chips from a stand in the lobby, and waved for us to follow. “The room has two beds and a pull out couch, so you guys won’t have to worry about getting cooties from me or the struggle of having to share the bed with another boy, the horror.”
“You mean we won’t have to worry about you snoring in our ears or kicking us when you flail around at night.” Julio yawned, suddenly looking much more tired than he had out in the parking lot.
“Since you want to talk trash, you get the pullout couch, you little gremlin.” Lizzy took him in a headlock and they both shared a laugh that echoed down the hall. I felt a pang of jealousy that I wasn’t sharing a nice moment with my own team.
The elevator ride felt like it took hours and my limbs started to feel heavy from finishing the rest of the drive. I hadn’t realized how tense I had been the whole time behind the wheel until my body realized it could relax, the dangers of being rear-ended being substantially lower on the top floor of a hotel. Accounting for the time zone difference, my body was telling me it was midnight and I seriously needed to be sleeping. The tiredness was starting to hit me suddenly and I was beginning to worry if I’d even be able to make it to the room. How much of a social faux pas would it have been to just slide down the wall of the elevator to fall asleep on the floor? It was Vegas, plenty of drunk people had to have done that before.
The ding from the elevator arriving on the twentieth floor did give me the second wind I needed to get to the room before I allowed myself to fall asleep. When the door to our room was opened by Lizzy, I fell face-first on one of the beds. I didn’t move the comforter on top or take off my shoes. It just felt so nice to be in a soft bed after spending nearly eighteen hours cooped up in a vehicle. Credit to us for making it through the entire drive without wanting to kill each other.
Julio muttered something about hopping in the shower before anyone else could claim it, which was fine by me. There was some movement on the other side of my bed. Peeking up, I saw Lizzy stretch her legs, and pull an envelope out of her backpack.
I shoved my face back into the comforter. “No, whatever you’re doing here, go away. I’m tired and this is my space. You have your own bed.”
“Hm, can’t really hear you there, but it sounded like you said you’d love to look at these with me!” Lizzy patted me on my head and I groaned. “You’re such a good guy! I’m so glad I adopted you into my little circle.”
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I leaned back against the head of the bed next to her, rubbing my eyes. “What’s in the envelope? If it’s a cash bonus for helping you with this, I’m down for that.”
Lizzy’s face went a little red and she fidgeted with the envelope. “Well, you know how we’re kind of like superheroes?”
“I don’t really consider myself one, but yeah, I can see how we’d be seen that way.” I dreaded the idea of the public believing I was any kind of superhero. I was tired after driving for a few hours. I was no hero.
“I thought it might be fun to have some costume concepts drawn up for me, so I sent this lady a few pictures of me, and commissioned her to draw up some costume ideas.” Lizzy turned away and looked toward the window like she was worried I was about to start laughing at her. The sound of Julio turning the water on startled me, much louder than I had been expecting, Lizzy completely ignored the noise. “She was really sweet and even sent me high-quality prints because she thought it was such a cool opportunity. I haven’t checked them out yet, so I thought it’d be fun to see what you thought. You know, after hurting McLeod, you are our resident superhero now.”
“Huh, that sounds a little fun. If my identity wasn’t public thanks to the Glendale fiasco, I think I’d do the same thing.” I leaned in a bit closer while she flipped open the top of the envelope and pulled the first of the prints out.
“Oh. My. God.” Lizzy's eyes went wide, an uncharacteristic blush coloring her face. She dropped the first print and put her head in her hands. “How did this happen? I can’t even look at this!”
When I saw what dropped in her lap, I started cracking up. “Wow, that’s really something. How kind of her to send you a print for that. I hope you frame this and put it above your bed.”
“I didn’t give her any rules or restrictions, so maybe it’s my fault she did this. You know what? No, this is not my fault. Not my fault at all. I thought she’d give me some clothes!” Lizzy held the first print up again and sighed. “The purple and white colors are right at least, but what is this? This neckline goes down to my damn knees, the sides are completely cut out, and somehow my cleavage could hold up a Christmas tree. I don’t know where the support for that is coming from because there is not a damn thing in this costume that could give the girls any kind of lift. I should not have to tell a woman that boobs hang from the chest, not the collarbones. She should already know that! And I can walk in heels just fine, but I don’t think I’d want to fight crime in some killer stilettos.”
I had to get my laughing under control while Lizzy kept frowning at the print. I felt for her, but I couldn’t help but feel like this whole thing was intentional. As nice as the coloring was, and outside of the exaggeration about the costume's neckline, I had to agree with Lizzy’s assessment. The overall design just wasn't acceptable for a superhero in real life. Maybe the artist she had commissioned thought she was doing some kind of cosplay or was getting a costume together for a Halloween party. After all, I couldn’t see Lizzy revealing to some random woman she had never met that she had an Anomaly.
“Oh, well, I can at least wear a bra in this one. Lucky me. Shame that this costume is a thong leotard with even worse heels. I hate thongs! I don't even wear them as underwear! If I don't want my ass flossed under my pants, why the hell would I want my ass flossed for everyone to see?” Lizzy was spot on with the second print’s revealing costume. “Nothing screams ‘practical fighter’ quite like having my entire ass out, being graced with the world’s worst wedgie, topped off with shoes that’d break my ankles. I can’t believe I paid for these.”
“Check the next two. Maybe they’re better.” Despite the laugh threatening to break through in my voice, I tried to encourage her while she put the first two mortifying designs away. “Fingers crossed they’re not worse.”
“Dude, they could only be worse if she put me in three pieces of masking tape.” Lizzy shook her head and peeked at the third one through split fingers. Exhaling, she handed me the third one. “This one is better. I can do without the chest window. At least there’s some mesh over it to make it look a little better. I don’t get the tears in the pants with fishnets under them, but since most of me is covered, I’ll take it at this point.”
Lizzy was right, the third one did look significantly better. She had a little mask that covered up her scar, which was her most identifying feature. Her hair was tied up in a ponytail and the colors really suited her. The tears in the pants seemed a little grungy for her personality, and the fishnets weren’t the best looking part of the costume. If I saw a woman dressed like that saying she was a superhero, I wouldn’t have had any trouble believing it.
“Oh, this is the one!” Lizzy tapped the fourth and final print with a huge grin. “Skintight, as expected. I can live with that. None of my butt or chest are actually visible. Still have heels, but I’m a sucker for Mary Jane shoes, so I’ll let those slide. I think I’ll ask her to work with me on this one some more.”
“You went from wondering why you paid this lady to wanting to work with her again in the span of a few minutes.” I took another look at the costume and tried to imagine what mine would have looked like. Since I was already plastered on TV, I knew there was no need to have a costume to mask my identity, but it was still a little fun to imagine.
“I like her work a lot more when I’m not half-naked. Believe it or not, I don’t like to show that much skin if I can help it.” She put her head back against the headboard and sighed. “You remember how I was in a bikini when we first met? That wasn’t even mine. That was my sister’s. I couldn’t find my swimsuit that day, which is a one-piece with shorts for bottoms. I like my looks, and I know where they can be advantageous for me. Because of that, people think I’m going to dress a certain way. Whatever way they think I’ll dress, I won’t do it. I like to be covered up when I can be.”
“I get you. Looks like she took some real comic book liberties with the first two. Honestly, I think the second two have potential there. Working with her to better meet your vision might be worth it.” I handed the print back to her and she put it away. “So, you’ve decided to become a hero? Are you going to go with Miss Modesty as your name?”
“That’d be a PR nightmare. Headlines saying I’m slut-shaming women or that I’m a real hero for little girls. I just want to be me. My Anomaly is based on giving others powers or enhancements with an outside tool, so I have to use physical things separate from my body in a world where people like you or Alex can just club everything like a caveman.” Lizzy pulled out a small container of some kind of makeup and tossed it around. “The cosmetics are my Anomaly’s identity and my career, so I wanted to base my name around it, but I can’t just be Cosmetics or Makeup. That sounds silly.”
“How about Cozy? Sort of a nickname for Cosmetics. No one would have to know but us. It sounds nice and friendly. Knowing it’s a nickname helps keep it better in line with your Anomaly’s theme.”
Her eyes sparkled and she sat up in the bed. “I love it! It’s better than anything I came up with by a long shot. Can I steal it?”
“Well, Rebecca already gave me my hero name, so it’s not like I have it reserved as one I’d use. Feel free, bud.”
Lizzy threw her arms around my neck in a choking hug. “I knew it was a good idea to befriend you! You’re up there as one of my besties.”
“Do you choke all your besties?” I tried tapping out on the bed to signify I was giving up. The woman just held on tighter. “Why are all the women in my life obsessed with hugging me like this?”
“Normally, I only hug other girls like this. You’re just such a great dude that I can’t help myself. Thanks for not laughing at me with this whole costume thing.” Lizzy suddenly frowned. “Well, thanks for not laughing at the things that didn’t deserve it. Those first costumes were some abominations.”
“Happy to help.” The tiredness came over me again. I stretched out my arms and yawned, really wanting nothing more than to go to sleep. Julio was still in the shower, so I gave up any hope of getting one in before bed. There was no chance I was dragging my ass out of bed unless I had to use the bathroom. “Sorry, boss, I think this is about it for me. I have to get some sleep or I’m not going to be able to function.”
Lizzy didn’t protest, moving all her stuff over to her own bed. She shut the lights off in the room, only the faint glow of her phone’s screen providing any light. I buried my face against a pillow, unable to hold back a grin. Lizzy’s costumes being a surprise to both of us made for some great, unexpected fun. I appreciated that Lizzy could be such a great sport about the whole thing. If it had been me, I would have axed any idea of becoming a superhero or wearing a costume right there.
“Night, Ethan. I’ll let Rebecca know we made it safe and sound. You guys can talk tomorrow.”
I muttered some pathetic attempt at thanks before the sweet embrace of sleep pulled me under.