The King of Connecticut

"Joey, are you okay?" Kayleigh came rushing over in a panic.

"I'm fine" Joey picked himself up from the floor and shook as much gunk from himself as he could manage "I'm not sure I can say the same for this suit though"

"I'm just relieved you're not hurt. Come on, let's get out of here"

"That slime smells really strongly of fish" Joey grimaced, sniffing his sleeve as the two reporters began their journey back to their desks.

"I'd noticed" Kayleigh admitted "At least there's a shower in the office"

A smile played on her lips for a moment, as if she was weighing up whether it was too soon to make a joke about this. She decided it wasn't.

"You know, if that really was a truth serum, people will probably believe anything you say from now on!"

"Yeah, right" Joey chuckled. If anyone else had made that gag right now it would probably have pissed him off, but he was happy to play along with his favourite person's joke "Actually, I just remembered you owe me five hundred dollars"

"Shit, you're right. I'm so sorry!" his friend pulled her phone out and logged into her banking app.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm going to pay you back right now, before I forget again"

It looked like she was actually going to do it, too

"You don't owe me anything, Kayleigh" Joey told her quickly.

She stopped and looked confused for a second.

"You're right. I don't know what I was thinking"

Joey observed his colleague for a moment or two to determine if that had been some kind of joke. If it was, he was sure Kayleigh would have broken into a laugh by now, rather than looking baffled by her own behaviour. He decided to try something with the next person they encountered.

"Excuse me miss, your hat is on fire!"

The middle aged woman walking past let out a yelp and threw her expensive looking, and completely unlit, headgear onto the pavement, before running back in the other direction as fast as she could. Kayleigh then rushed over and stamped on it several times until it was completely destroyed.

"Great save Joey!" she sighed with relief once she was satisfied the hat was no longer a threat to anyone "That could have gotten nasty!"

"Yeah, yay me" Joey replied in deadpanned bemusement.

A little while later, they chanced upon a men's clothing store, the kind that was way too upmarket for the likes of Joey.

"Hang on, I just need to swing by here for a change of clothes"

"Really, you had a lotto win you forgot to tell me about?" Kayleigh quipped as she nonetheless followed.

"Good afternoon, sir" the snooty shop owner spoke with polite disdain as he eyed Joey up and quickly found him wanting as a potential customer "Were you planning to buy something? We really aren't a browsing shop"

"Actually, I'm the King of Connecticut. I don't usually pay for my attire"

"I'm so sorry you're Highness, I didn't recognise you" the man bowed, visibly mortified by his apparent faux pas "Please, select whatever you like from this store. It will be my honour to gift it to you"

"Holy shit, you're the King of Connecticut? You kept that one quiet" Kayleigh gushed as the pair perused thousand dollar suits together "I mean, I love being friends with you and all, but should you really be hanging out with me? And working for the local paper?"

"I'm not really the King of Connecticut, there's no such thing" Joey whispered "Just play along with me, okay?"

"Right, of course. I must have lost my mind for a moment there!"

By this point, Joey had seen enough to know that propaganda serum was the real deal. Finally, he had a story that was not only big, but had the potential to make global headlines. However, it was a story he would be keeping to himself for now.