Project X

The Way it Began: Rose Gold

CHAPTER SEVEN

ROSE GOLD

Eventually we realized we were backtracking, heading back in the direction where we found Dom- somewhere around Northern-Central Texas. When Dom realized where we were going, she asked if we could stop to say hi to her mom. I was wary of us using time we may not have to make a detour, but ultimately I couldn't say no. If I knew where my mom was right now, and had the opportunity to stop by, I probably would too.

We had her signal to the van that we were taking a detour. We'd quickly discovered that Dom's abilities gave way to a very efficient system in which we literally just wrote messages on paper and she would just stretch it back until she could hand it to them through the window, and if they had a message for us they would beep their horn two times very quickly and she would reach back to take it from them. Sydney and Irwin also very quickly took advantage of said system to trade snacks back and forth, which Dom kept claiming was annoying but whenever they asked she would just sigh, roll her eyes, and do the deed regardless. We also had a backup system, for if we were in a populated area, that basically just involved using hand signals to indicate how many exits before we pull over.

From where we decided to make the stop, it would be about another six hours to reach our destination. We ended up stopping twice on the way there, the first time at a random MacDonna's on the side of the highway, because Syd chugged three RockBulls and then twenty minutes later started screaming that he had to pee. He went in empty handed and full-bladdered, and came back out ten minutes later with a bag full of chicken sandwiches and someone else's sunglasses on his face. At this point I felt I knew better than to ask how, apparently Irwin didn't.

"Um, how and when did you get the food, buddy? Don't you, like, not have money?" Syd lifted the sunglasses so Irwin could see him roll his eyes as he tossed me the bag,

"Dude, invisible, remember? I can make anything I touch invisible, too. Have you really not noticed yet?" I opened the bag, and there was a sandwich inside for each of us, "Lunch is on me, by the way."

"Not that I'm not appreciative," Irwin told him, accepting the sandwich I held out to him, "But did you seriously just walk into the kitchen and put together six sandwiches and somehow nobody even noticed anything weird?" Syd took a bite of his sandwich and replied casually,

"Uh, yeah. Have you never met a fast food employee? An actual poltergeist could slap them in the face and they would just ask if it wants fries with that. They're dead inside. We have that in common. Also I can't be perceived unless I want to be. I could literally slap you in the face and you would have no idea what just happened."

"Okay, but what about the sunglasses?" He asked,

"Dude at the counter was being rude to the girl taking his order, clearly didn't know what he was trying to order, and called her a 'dumb little bitch' when she tried to help him figure out what he was talking about. I might be a thief, but, even I know you don't mistreat customer service workers. So, after I finished with the sandwiches, I kicked him in the ass and stole his sunglasses. Dude didn't even know what hit 'im. Oh, also I stole his wallet." He held up a worn down brown leather wallet, "Slipped front counter girl a fifty out of it. Dude's kinda packin'." Kai looked like she was struggling with some kind of motherly instinct,

"Part of me really wants to reprimand you, but most of me just kinda says fuck that guy." She shook her head, "Let's just get going before he comes out to see a group of kids lording his wallet around like some kind of trophy."

We piled back into our vehicles and took off, stopping the second time a couple hours later for gas. Syd insisted on paying with his loot. He pulled all the cash out of the wallet (He wasn't lying, dude was kinda packin'. It was all 50's and 20's with a couple 100's mixed in), put it in his pocket, and casually dropped the wallet in the parking lot on his way into the store. I watched him walk up to the counter, lay down cash for the pumps and then give me the thumbs up to start pumping. By the time we finished, he'd come running back out of the store excitedly carrying some bags of chips.