Cassel: Wakey, wakey, bitches, meeting in two minutes in my room.
Leland: If I have to arrive in two minutes, you’re really not going to like what I come wearing, but I’m really going to like what Jackson comes wearing.
Cassel: Don’t make me vomit. I’ve gotten no sleep and just ate candy all night. I’m already on the verge.
Ellis: We’ll be there!
Leland: What an overachiever.
Ellis: And we’ll be dressed, unlike the creeper next door.
Leland: Hey, when did you get sassy?
Henry: Let’s make it one minute. I have something to say.
Leland stares at his phone. “That’s not good. Like Cassel doesn’t concern me at all, but the second Henry wants to say something… it’s concerning.”
“It really is,” I say as I get out of bed and head over to the bag we’d brought in case we ended up staying overnight. I open it and pull out the clothes that were packed inside before staring at them with a raised eyebrow.
“This is what you packed me?” I ask.
“Yeah, why?” Leland asks before I hold up the shirt that’s so tight my nipples have been known to show through it. It also doesn’t help that the bottom half is made of fishnet. I’ve worn this shirt one time in my life, and it was for a Halloween event Leland dragged me to. I was forced to stop and pose in front of The Fence for far too long before we were even allowed to leave the property.
Leland gazes at it for a long moment before going, “Looks good to me.”
“Youpacked this?” I ask, positive that there’s no way he did.
“Uh… yeah… I just… missed seeing your tum.” He smacks my stomach for extra effect before I see him pull out the shirt he “packed for himself.” It’s a Christmas shirt he’d gotten last year that he wasfartoo ecstatic about casually wearing around the house which says “Ho, Ho, Ho” and has a graphic of Sasquatch dressed as Santa bending over another Sasquatch. I couldn’t fathom anyone willingly made that shirt and am still convinced he had it custom made just to fuck with me.
Even though it made Leland giggle, he wouldn’t wear it out and proud in public.
“So that’s the shirt you brought… on our investigation?” I ask.
He pulls out the purple and yellow striped pants that go with a Halloween outfit that, surprisingly enough, matches the one I’m currently holding up.
“I know this seems like maybe… I didn’t pack the clothes, and that maybe I just… I had to secure the house, so I had to have Tavish pack for me,” Leland explains.
“Secure… the house? Withwhat? Your tower of guns and your blow-up doll?”
He merely smiles at me while he puts his shirt inside out so it at least looks semi-normal, like he wants to rub it in my face that I donothave that option with my shirt. Then he pretends like his smile will be enough to make me forget his blunders.
“Why were yesterday’s clothes normal and these ones so ridiculous?” I ask.
“Maybe he wanted to make us lower our defenses. And he probably knew that if we thought the clothes were normal, we’d take the bag with us someplace where we’d have no option but to wear what he packed.”
With a sigh, I scavenge around for yesterday’s clothes, knowing that I willnotbe waltzing out with my belly buttonandnipples on display.
“Jackson, come on, it’s fine. Everyone here has seen you naked,” Leland assures me.
“When?Why?How?”
“Remember that private naked photo shoot with The Fence we did?”
“NO! No, I sure don’t remember that.”
“Weird,” Leland says, and out the door he heads. I find my clothes from yesterday and pull them on before walking out to meet up with them. The second I’m through the door to Cassel’s room, Tavish cocks his head.
“How peculiar. I sure feel like you wore those clothes yesterday, Jackson. Where are the clothes Leland packed ya?” Tavish can’t even contain his grin.
