Synopsis: Things take an unexpected turn when Allison is faced with a decision and an offer she might not be able to refuse.

“That…was amazing…” I said as I laid in my bed staring straight up at the ceiling. “I’ve never done that before…it was my first time.”

“Yeah,” Remy said, scrolling through her phone and looking at Amazon listings. “I could tell.”

“Was it good?” I was genuinely curious actually.

“Uh…yeah, yeah it was pretty good,” Remy nodded.

Our door burst open and Brianna strode in, fully dressed, which was such an odd thing at 7 in the morning, and sat on the bed bedside me.

“Um, excuse me,” I said to her. “We’re having SEX in here.”

“Yeah, one of us was,” Remy said, completely unphased by my sister’s sudden appearance.

“Okay listen,” She said as she pulled out her phone. Three days ago when you gave your speech in front of National I uploaded the video to my Facebook and left it on public, use a hashtag, #AllisonsPledge…I didn’t expect it to go anywhere but it um…it went viral.”

“So what do you mean?” Remy said, rubbing her eyes as she sat up, keeping the white sheet over her chest. “You mean like a few hundred shares, right?”

“No…” Brianna said. “More like three hundred thousand…and climbing.”

If I’d been drinking anything I’d have spit it out right there. I sat up like a shot, my eyes wide.

“WHAT?!” I practically screamed. “Who would care enough to –”

“Yeah but that’s not all…the comments are mostly positive. I mean yeah you have your typical transphobic crap but for the most part it’s solidarity. I didn’t expect this to happen; I was just sharing it so my friends could see. But…it gets even better than that. People are flooding the AG Facebook page with comments and I hear they’re getting all kinds of emails. It’s a storm. It’s a literal storm.”

“I don’t understand,” I said. “How could this have happened?”

“Easily,” Remy said. “The AG board doesn’t know how the internet works and they didn’t know what they were getting into when they tried to check off that ‘equality’ box. They didn’t realize that they’d have to actually follow through and it’s killing them.”

“Yep,” Brianna confirmed. “The ACLU made a statement about it, along with a lot of other human rights and pro-LGBT groups. Everyone’s pissed and it shows.”

“I mean…it’s great,” I said. “I’m glad you got so many…comments. Imagine posting original content that you poured your heart and soul into and only getting five or six comments. That’s why I don’t write fiction. But seriously, this…what does this mean for us?”

“Well,” Remy said thoughtfully. “It does mean that AG might come begging for you back. It’s not out of the realm of possibility. If that happens then I strongly recommend that you say no.”

“Agreed,” Brianna said. “It’s going to be tempting to have that sense of sisterhood back, but you don’t want the price it comes with – unless you really want AG to own your soul. Dunno if you’re into that.”

“You mean am I into a bunch of women owning me?” I said, half joking. They both looked at me, Remy raised an eyebrow.

“Maybe just one,” She said, a very serious look crossing her face.

“I can live with that,” I whispered. She grinned.

“You two are just…ugh…wow…” Brianna said, shaking her head. “Okay, so unless you want this thing to lose momentum, we have to figure out what we’re doing next. I talked to mom and she suggested that you make a video explaining what happened, like everything. Tell them how you ended up in AG, and how they built you up, and explain how they completely let you down the moment Stephanie did her…thing. There are a lot of people out there who want to know the full story and there’s a lot of speculation going on. Do you think you’d be up to doing a video right now?”

“I mean, I guess…” I looked over at Remy who nodded.

“It’s not like there’s anything special going on here,” She said.

“Alright so…what do we do?”

“Well,” Brianna said, standing up. “First you need to get up, then we need to do your makeup, get you made up perfectly. You need to look really, really good for this. Like perfectly passable, which you always are but I want to make sure we get it right. Your speech is good, but we do need to work on posture. You need to make smaller movements, do you think you can do that?”

“Yeah…I think so…I guess,” I said, feeling a little confused. “Can you show me what you’re talking about?”

“Yeah,” Remy said. “We can help but first let’s get you made up and you think about how you’re going to say it. Remember when you speak it can’t sound rehearsed, you need to make it sound natural. That’s very important.”

“Come on,” Brianna said, “Up, up, up!”

They walked me to the bathroom and patiently waited for me to finish showering. By the time I’d finished Remy had already brought me one of my dresses – a simple baby blue scoop neck with brief sleeves. I was dressed and made up within half an hour and Brianna had gone to fetch her digital camera. This was a little more nerve wracking than speaking to the AG board; if I understood this right, I was going to be addressing the entire world, not just a few people. Well, if we were being honest I already HAD addressed the entire world, hadn’t I? At least in a way.

“We should do this in the kitchen,” Brianna said. “Better light out there. Plus she can sit at the table.”

“What about the couch?” Remy suggested. “It may make her look a little more human?”

“Mmm yeah maybe,” Brianna nodded. I felt like I was being pulled all over the house for the sake of this recording. Were they ever going to let me sit somewhere and get it done?

They spent way too much time arguing over it; there was a knock at the door and the entire thing was cut short, at least for the moment.

“It’s eight in the morning,” Brianna said, annoyed. “Whose at the door?”

“Ugh, I’ll get it,” Remy said. The girl had no shame, she literally walked over to the front door wearing a t-shirt and a pair of panties. She swung it open and I heard her say “Oh…hey”.

Remy walked into the living room followed by another brunette who I vaguely recognized. Her name was Tiffany, I think?

“Hey everyone,” Remy said. “This is Tiffany, she’s the president of Omega Epsilon Beta.”

“So sorry to just drop in like this,” She said very apologetically. “Our house saw the video the other day and we had a quick talk with our national board. Um, first of all, Allison, it’s AMAZING to meet you, I mean, you really killed it on that video.”

“Um…I…thank you ,” I said nervously. About a month ago, when I was still a guy (sort of), these were the kinds of women I would walk by on campus and be terrified to even look at. They were so far out of my league they weren’t even playing on the same field. Now they were in my house, talking to me. I’d just slept with Remy, and according to her I’d been amazing. What was my life?

“It’s we who should be thanking you,” She said, smiling to me. “I…wanted to bring you something.”

She reached into her purse and handed me a card; it was similar to the card that AG had given me about a month ago, but it proudly showed the Omega Epsilon Beta crest and letters. A bid card?

“So listen,” Tiffany said. “I don’t want you to accept this now, I want you to think about it, because joining a house is a huge decision, especially after everything that just happened, but I want you to know why we’re giving you this bid. It’s not because we feel sorry for you, or because we want you as some sort of trophy; it’s all about what you said to Alpha Gamma’s board. Your speech on sisterhood and the bonds that we form in an organization like this…well…I personally along with a lot of the other girls in Omega Epsilon Beta feel that you just ‘get it’. You’d bring something to the house that we desperately need and to be honest, I’m really sorry I didn’t give you a bid after rush week. You’ll have to forgive me; I thought you were just playing a prank.”

“I…I sort of was,” I admitted. “But I guess the joke’s on me now, right?”

Remy snorted a little.

“You don’t have any loyalty or obligation to AG,” Remy pointed out. “Not after the crap they pulled on you. You could do it, I would fully support you.”

“I’d really have to think about it,” I admitted. “I mean…joining another house and all, it’s amazing but, wouldn’t I bring the same problems with me? I don’t want to cause trouble.”

“I really don’t believe you would,” Tiffany reassured me. “We’ve already cleared it with national-“

“It was cleared with national last time,” I pointed out.

“There’s a difference this time,” Tiffany said. “This time all of the circumstances are actually known and there shouldn’t be any complications. We want you because you would be an excellent addition to our house and our sisterhood. Please think about it, okay?”

“I…I will,” I said as I clutched the card tightly. Just as the words left my mouth there was another knock at the door.

“Uh, I’ll get it,” Brianna made her way over and opened the door. “Well…hi.”

She was followed in my four more girls, each of them holding similar cards but each one with different letters and a different crest. One of them looked to Tiffany.

“I guess we all had the same idea,” One of the new girls said, laughing.

“Well now you’ve got options,” Tiffany smiled to me. “And I guarantee this won’t be the end of it. There are ten sorority houses on campus and nine of them are probably coming after you. What you do now is…really up to you.”

After a bit more conversation it was just Brianna, Remy and I standing in the kitchen again. Brianna tapped the camera.

“Come on Miss Thing,” She said. “We’ve got to get your video done.”

I sat on the couch, just as Brianna had suggested and we shot the video. I spoke from the heart, just as I had done at the AG board. I detailed the entire thing from start to finish, even the parts that I was embarrassed about. Yeah, I even told how I had rushed every single house on campus in bad drag. When we were done, Brianna took the video, did a little bit of editing and uploaded it to her Facebook page, setting it to public once again. When all was said and done I couldn’t help but feel the knots overtaking my stomach and I kept wishing that somehow things could just go back to the way they used to be. Wouldn’t it be nice if I could just be back at the AG house playing with makeup? How god damn innocent I had been. But it wasn’t going back; things had been irrevocable changed and my fate, while separate from AG itself was intertwined with Remy’s, Brianna’s, and every girl who lived there. There was far too much riding on my shoulders and I was beginning to feel the weight. One thing I didn’t know, was that the video would amass 2.5 million shares overnight.