Stay Gold - Tobly McSmith Page 0,69
of a cheer outfit and you had your own secret polyester prison?”
He stands up and faces me, all serious. “Aren’t we all in polyester prisons, hypothetically?”
I look at his body again with my new knowledge. His chest is completely flat. I have never once thought that he had boobs. Not even manboobs.
“For real, those things can’t be healthy to wear?”
He pounds his chest like King Kong. “Me tough.”
“There must be an operation. If they can get bigger, they can go away.”
He steps closer to me. “There’s a surgery. I found a good doctor in Dallas.”
“Let’s go now,” I suggest. “We are getting so much done today.”
“It’s expensive. Too expensive. But I need to get it soon. I can’t spend another summer in these binders. In this body. I need to get it done. That’s why I took the job with Ted London, but it’s not enough. Not even close.”
“How much more do you need?” Maybe I could help.
“Twenty-five thousand dollars.”
Never mind.
“Your parents won’t help?” I ask. I’d like to think my parents would help me.
“Not a chance,” he says. “Who cares? I don’t need them. I’m going to postpone college until I can afford the surgery.”
“You can’t do that,” I say, all of a sudden incredibly invested in Pony’s studies.
“Georgia, want to go somewhere?”
“This sounds suspicious.”
“Do you trust me yet?” he asks.
“No,” I say.
“Great, let’s go.”
Fifteen minutes later, we pull into a run-down strip mall with a smattering of busted cars in the parking lot and a few shady characters walking around. “Pony, you really are going to kill me,” I say, accepting my fate.
He points at the sign in front of us, and I read it out loud. “Ralph’s VR World?”
“Virtual reality,” he says proudly.
“Are you kidding me with this?” I’m not into video games. They have never been my thing. I didn’t dip out on the second-to-last pep rally of my life to spend the afternoon in a desperate minimall wearing a dirty headset shooting CGI zombies.
Pony can tell I’m not happy. He laughs. “Will you just try?”
“Fine,” I say, getting out of the car. I will go with the flow, but if I get pink eye, then Pony is a dead man. We walk in, and the front desk guy stands up.
“Ponyboy!”
“Ponyboy?” I whisper to him.
“Don’t worry about it,” he whispers back.
“Hey, Ralph! This is my friend Georgia. Georgia, this is Ralph. He owns this place!”
Ralph corrects Pony: “Co-manage.” He is short and round, wearing an baggy SpongeBob shirt that has been washed too many times and cargo shorts. The small amount of hair left on his head is dyed light blue with black roots. All in all, Ralph is endearing.
“Hi, Ralphie. I am very happy to be here,” I say with enough sarcasm that he thinks I’m sincere, but Pony knows I’m not.
“Ralph,” Pony says, putting his hands on my shoulders, “we’ve got a VR virgin here!”
These guys have no room for virgin jokes.
“Cool beans,” Ralph says, then heads over to the headset wall.
I’m silently questioning my life choices when Pony says, “Why do you immediately shut something down because it’s different?”
“That’s not true.”
“Face it, Georgia, you live life in the comfort zone. Time to step out of it.”
“With VR and Ralph?” I ask a little too loudly.
“With me,” Pony says.
Ralph leads us to the room that Pony rented (très romantic). It’s the size of a big closet. And smells like socks. The walls are white, with nothing on them but a flat screen with tons of wires branching out across the room. Ralph places the headset on me. The goggles cover my eyes, and I’m transported into another world. He places a controller in my hands and shows me how to work things.
“Pony?” I say, totally disoriented.
“I’ll be right behind you,” he says. “Push the button, and you’ll be immersed in a quick video. Try to have fun!”
OK, I can do this. Comfort zone? That’s ridiculous. What does Pony know about me? I lift my hand, push Start, and instantly transport to a medieval castle with drawbridges and a moat. I’m shook by the realness. I walk into the castle, one massive room with impossibly high ceilings. It looks like a cartoon but feels like I am there. Inside a freaking cartoon.
A prompt starts flashing: WALK NOW. I move my legs in place, probably looking like a total idiot as the walls fall away. I’m in a meadow now. Hundreds of butterflies fill the air. They fly so close to me that I duck backward.