Daniel Abraham - Inside Straight

It caught him in the chest. His force field bloomed, but he was knocked backward. So I powered up another bubble of that same size and weight and let it go. It staggered him as well. I could feel my clothes getting looser, but I didn’t think about that. What mattered was keeping him off balance.

Golden Boy took yet another one in the chest. I felt my pants and panties slipping, and I decided to hell with them. I let them slip down to the ground then kicked them away. Now I had only my T-shirt on. It was long enough. And Golden Boy had steadied himself again.

I powered up another bubble and flung it at him. But he was ready this time, and it only made him stagger back a little.

I cast bubble after bubble at him, each progressively bigger and heavier than the last. But he came at me inexorably, like the tide moving in, until I couldn’t make big bubbles anymore. I was almost back to my normal size. When I looked up, he was closing on me. I fired one last desperation bubble, and it popped against his chest like it was made of soap and water.

Golden Boy reached out, and I thought he was going to toss me like he’d tossed Tiff, but he just took my chin in his hand and lifted my face up.

“Nice try,” he said. Then he patted my cheek. “And you’d be real pretty if you keep that weight off.”

“You lose.”

Like I said, the worst words in the universe.

The only good thing was that Drummer Boy would be going home instead of one of the original Diamonds.

The ride back to our secret lair was silent. Tiffani seemed oddly calm, not pissed the way she usually was when we lost. Drummer Boy hadn’t even made his usual snide remarks at me. Of course, I was thin now. More to his taste, I suppose. I was still wearing just the oversize T-shirt. My hoodie was covered in paint, and my pants were way too large to bother putting on. Luckily, a size XXL tee made a perfectly fine minidress.

Ink met us at the front door. She told us we had an hour before Discard, then pulled me off to the living room. “There’s something you need to see,” she said, flipping on the TV.

She’d paused the TiVo on CNN. My heart sank when I saw the graphic. American Hero Contestant Famous Model. There were side-by-side pictures of me. One was from a Vogue cover I’d done the year before and the other one was my American Hero headshot when I was at my most bubble-ready.

“Shit,” I said.

“Do you want to see the rest of the story?”

“Ooooo, I do!” DB grabbed the control from Ink.

“… Hero contestant, ‘The Amazing Bubbles,’ turns out to be none other than Michelle Pond, a well-known model whose private feud with her parents became tabloid fodder when she filed for emancipation at age fifteen.”

DB flopped on the couch and looked from the TV to me. “I thought you were just trying to be all Goth and spider-farmerish with that black hair.” He gave me the once-over. “So, are you a real blonde?”

I wanted to punch him.

“How on earth did this get out?” My voice quavered.

“Someone leaked it,” Ink said. “But, you know we’re going to show today’s challenge footage on the show. It would have come out then, anyway.”

I nodded. I had realized when I couldn’t stop Golden Boy and had bubbled down to my real size that someone would figure it out. In a way, I guess I was relieved.

“Pond’s agency, Cavullio International, has informed CNN that Pond’s appearance on American Hero violates the terms of her contract with them and that she is no longer with the agency.”

My mouth dropped open. I’d been with Cavullio since I was eight. I’d brought them massive amounts in fees. The sons of bitches.

“Bad break,” DB said. To my amazement, he wasn’t being sarcastic. He sounded genuinely sorry.

Tiffani came in and watched some of the report. She gave me a little pat on the back. “It’s going to be okay. Aren’t there plenty of other agencies out there?”

She was right. I just couldn’t believe that my entire life was coming apart on CNN. “We’ve got Discard,” I said woodenly. “I’m going to go take a shower.”

Digger Downs was our judge for this Discard. I wished it was the Harlem Hammer again, but the judges were rotated. Downs wore a nice brown pinstripe suit that he managed to make look rumpled and seedy. The makeup department had tried to make him look less dissipated, but it hadn’t worked.

“Looks like the Diamonds lose again,” he said as we sat down. “And then there’s the drama of Bubbles here. Or should I say Michelle Pond? I see you’ve gone back to your roots.”

I gave him a look that I hoped would turn him into cinders. Unfortunately, it just made him giggle. “Yes, Mr. Downs,” I said with an insincere smile plastered on my face. “I have gone back to my natural hair color. It did take a while to wash out that spray dye. And thank you for noticing.”

It actually felt good to have that dye out of my hair, but Digger made it seem almost pornographic. What a creep.

He gave a ratty smile to Drummer Boy. “So, Drummer Boy, how do you feel about your new team?”

“They suck,” he replied. “But I didn’t exactly do great in the challenge, so I don’t want to be unfair to them.”

“Are you worried that as the newcomer to the team, you’re vulnerable?”

DB shrugged. “You never know how these things are going to work out.”

I had to admire his coolness. It was obvious that his head was on the chopping block. He’d been beyond stupid in the challenge, and he wasn’t a real Diamond.

Digger dealt out the cards. Once again, Tiff pulled her choice out immediately and laid it facedown in front of her. Drummer Boy also made his selection quickly. I pulled DB’s card out and put it face down.

Jetman was the only one who hadn’t pulled a card yet. I saw him looking at the three of us and I was baffled by why this was difficult for him—unless he was breaking the Diamonds alliance. I hated to think that. He slowly pulled a card out and slid it across to Digger.

Digger collected the rest of the cards and shuffled them. He cradled the small deck in his hand. “Time to see who stays and who goes,” he said.

He flipped the first card over and placed it on the table. The Amazing Bubbles. My pudgy face smiled up at me. Figures , I thought. No doubt, Drummer Boy would like me out.

The next card was flipped. Drummer Boy. He frowned, but what did he expect? “One-to-one so far,” Digger said.

He turned the third card. It was Tiffani. I looked at Jetman. He gave me a calm, steady look. Had he really voted for Tiffani? Or had Drummer Boy voted for her? Had he voted for me? All I knew was that Tiff and I were voting for DB. Then Digger flipped the last card.

The Amazing Bubbles.

“And the pair takes the lady out,” Digger said.

My hands began to shake, and I slipped them into my lap. I knew I must look shocked, and I was.

“Tough luck, Bubbles,” Digger said. “So, will you be going back to your modeling career now?”

I pushed away from the table and stood up. Everything seemed to be moving in slow motion. I could almost feel the cameras zooming in on my face. They would want to see the pain.

Jetman came around the table and hugged me. He whispered in my ear. “I voted for Tiffani, Bubbles. She made an alliance with DB. They wanted me with them, but I wouldn’t play ball. Screw the metagame. I won’t play like that.” He squeezed me tighter. “And I knew you wouldn’t believe she was stabbing you in the back.” He let me go then. I stood there like a deer in the headlights.

Tiffani had betrayed me.

Drummer Boy was shaking my hand. “No hard feelings, Bubbles. It’s just a game.”