"Uh, well," Nicki stammered, suddenly regretting mentioning this to Megan at all, "At the, y'know, party?"
"What party?" Megan's brow wrinkled up. Nicki briefly felt bad. Her teenage antics had put those first few wrinkles on Megan's face. Megan shook her head dismissively, "I thought you were- - nevermind. What about Katie?"
"She was at the party!" Nicki said excitedly. "I didn't recognize her, but she came up to me while I was alone."
"So what happened?" Megan made a hurry up motion with her hands, "Where has she been for the last three years? Why did she leave?"
"Well," Nicki bit her lip, "She didn't really get into that."
"What?" Megan shook her head in exasperation, "What was she even doing there? Didn't people wonder where she was? Didn't they ask her even if you were too drunk to think of it?"
"I wasn't drunk," Nicki quickly lied, feeling a brief stab of guilt and a simultaneous flush of shame that she hadn't gotten more information out of Katie/Keith, "But there were a lot of people nearby and it wasn't the sort of thing I wanted anyone listening in on."
"I thought she came up to you while you were alone?"
"Do you want to hear this or not?!" Nicki snapped. Both she and Megan were suprised by the sudden, almost violent anger in her voice.
"Fine, okay," Megan made a placating gesture and sat on the end of the couch closest to Nicki's chair, "I'm sorry. A lot of this was my fault already, but I'm just as pissed off at that bitch as you are. Just tell me."
"Katie isn't Katie anymore," Nicki threw up her hands in confusion, it was all so weird talking about this like it was somehow normal, everyday, commonplace, "She's Keith now, a guy, my age. She doesn't have the medallion anymore, but she knows who does have it and wants me to get it for her, shit, him."
"Katie's a guy now? Oh my God," Megan shook her head, dazed, not even bothering to keep track of her pronouns, "Why does she need you to get it? Why can't he do it?"
"Because the person who has it stole it," Nicki comforted herself that she was in fact telling the truth now, or at least she hoped so. Katie/Keith hadn't given her the full story yet, "That's why Katie is stuck like he is- - and the person who took it would recognize him, so he wants me to try."
"I don't know," Megan frowned worriedly, "It sounds dangerous. If Katie is a guy and he's afraid to steal it what does he think you can do?"
"Thanks for the vote of confidence, Aunt Megan," Nicki scowled. She always called her former girlfriend "Aunt" when she was treating Nicki like the girl she was.
Nicki decided not to tell her about the other part of Katie's plan, seducing the man who stole the medallion. She would be against it from the start and, besides, what did Megan know about seducing a man? Back when Nicki had been Mr. Nick Masters she had done most of the pursuing.
"So what now?" Megan asked, her voice tired.
"I've got Katie, I mean, Keith's phone number," Nicki shrugged, "Maybe I should call him."
"Hah. It's been a long time since called any boy," Megan broke off in mid-sentence.
There was a knock at the door.
