Ch. 13. The Swap

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Micah twirled around in the dress in front of the mirror. I decided to call it a win. Taylor was only here for a few hours and would be long gone on a plane before she showed symptoms if we were lucky.

"Ok, Tiffani sent me to be your personal assistant since I wrecked your dress in the first place. Let's get that off you quick." I reached for the zipper of the dress and Micah slapped my hand.

"Not so fast. If Taylor's wearing it, you can bet I'm getting pictures in it first. I'm taking tonight to the bank. My social media platform is about to skyrocket thanks to this dress and your wino problem. Grab my phone. We're gonna shoot every angle before I take this off."

As I clicked the button with Micah's phone taking her picture in dozens of poses while listening to her criticizing me for picking bad angles and horrible lighting I felt my annoyance grow to epic proportions.  At that single moment in time I wanted to forget the poison and just plain strangle her with my own two hands. She was a ridiculous diva and as much as I hated to say it, worse than Tiffani.

I noticed sweat forming across her forehead and around her hairline and those thoughts of strangling her were squelched. I frantically tried to talk her into taking the dress off.

"You're sweating. Taylor isn't going to want to wear a sweat dress. Let's get you out of it. The whole thing will be a bust for you if she doesn't end up wearing it."

Micah shot me an annoying glare but it was overpowered by my visions of poison seeping into her body right in front of me. She sat in a chair and fanned herself, taking a break from the Olympic photo shoot. I sat in the floor, my arms tired of holding up her phone and my heart about to explode at watching her playing in a poisoned dress.

A knock at the door ended our stare down and a guy in a headpiece yelled. "Time for Taylor to get dressed. It's almost show time. Her plane leaves in three hours."

Micah stood and tuned her back to me so I could unzip the dress. I was so panicked my hands shook. "Better lay off the drink a little, or have another. You look like you have a disorder." 

Without even thinking of gloves I wrangled the dress from her and wracked my brain trying to figure out how to ruin it before it ended up on Taylor Swift. In one nanosecond swoop the headpiece guy grabbed me and ushered me into the room where Taylor sat waiting.

"Hey, I'm Taylor. I don't think we've met. I've got my own people but you can hang around if you want. Thanks for bringing the dress. It's so pretty isn't it?"  She oozed sweetness and my stomach rolled over as I swallowed a burning acid filled lake of bile. She may not be an artist I followed but I could not be responsible for killing Taylor Swift.

"It's alright. I'm not really a Victorian fan, it's a bit overkill in my tastes. I sort of thought you'd wear red."  It was a shot, and the best I had. The only thing I knew about Taylor was that she went through guys like Harry Styles went through hair product, quick and plentiful, and that she had a signature album called Red.

"Red was last year. Cute that you knew that. Want me to sign something for you?" She asked. I looked at her big doe eyes and in a moment of horror thought of how much her last signature would be worth. Right before I thought about how incriminating that would look.

When she took off her robe I bit my tongue until I tasted blood. It was all I could do to keep myself from bursting into uncontrollable laughter. From her neck to her thighs she was covered in a tight form fitting nude colored spanx outfit. 

The relief washed over me like a wave and I felt myself sway. Headpiece man grabbed my shoulders and ushered me from the room. "Sorry, no fainting in here. It upsets Taylor. Thanks for being an epic fan, it's a huge boost to her ego when people fall out but she gets so worried she can't perform."

He pushed me out the door and I quickly made my way down to the bar and got myself a large glass of wine; this time to drink. I deserved it. The smile on my face couldn't have been bigger.

Heels clicked behind me and I spun around to see a very smug Tiffani followed by the robots.
"I'm guessing you saw the suit. Pity, worrying the way you do is one of my greatest forms of entertainment."

Her face was stone like and I wanted nothing more than to smash it in with a bottle. I opened my mouth to respond when Micah came into the room. "I've double my Instagram followers and I'm trending on Twitter. By the time this night is over I will be a shoe in for Queen, not that there was any doubt. And I have you to thank."

She eased her arm around Tiffani who put on a killer smile. "That you do. You're about to be immortality remembered as the girl who borrowed a dress and loaned it to someone else, you must be so proud. Be careful 'friend', fame can be a deadly game."

With that Tiffani snapped her fingers and the robot girls and I followed her out of the room
leaving Tiffani standing at the bar.

For a brief moment I was awestruck. Tiffani was cold and calculating but she had balls of steel and her mind was quick.  Taking her from the top was going to be difficult, necessary but difficult.

The crowd in the house filed outdoors as the music began. Drinks flowed, people danced, and food was everywhere. For a few songs I relaxed and enjoyed the moment. Here I was, a nobody, standing in a beautiful backyard just inches from Taylor Swift and probably the envy of teens everywhere. If I could forget the stress and the killing and Tiffani this may be one of the highlights of my life.

We danced and smiled and laughed and Mindi and I made sure to snapchat the crowd #Tiffani. It was an epic night, right up until out of the corner of my eye I saw Micah collapse on the patio. "Diva down" I whispered turning to tell Tiffani who had already vanished into the night.

As I moved to the fringes of the gathering crowd around Micah, I could hear headpiece man taking control. "Nothing to see here folks. People faint all the time when Taylor's around.  Somebody get her out of here, quick before Taylor notices."

Micah's date put his arm around her and took a selfie of himself with his arms draped around her and his hand cupping her breast. As they made their way to the car my stomach finally gave up the bile it had been holding, red wine and sushi balls landing with a splat in the plant by the window.

Tiffani appeared out of nowhere looking smugly out the window at her competition,
"God, that's disgusting. Clean that up, it's a fake plant you moron. And make sure you don't let Taylor take off with that dress. That girls a kleptomaniac."

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Thank God for spanx! Taylor will live to sing another day. I'm not so sure about Micah, but casualties and Tiffani go hand in hand. Which is why I'm about to do something insane. I can't be the next rise of the body count. It's on!

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