Contents

Copyright

A Taste:

1: New Costume

2: Suspicions

3: At the Con

4: Meet Cute

5: Temptations

6: Snoop

7: Rendezvous

8: Caught

9: Apologize?

10: Morning After

11: Apology

12: Accepted

13: Masquerade

14: All F*@!ed Up

15: More Apologies

16: Late Night

17: Confession

18: Do It Right

19: Date Night

20: Friendly Wager

21: Build Day

22: Get It Right

23: One More Chance

24: Decisions

25: Realizations

26: Charity

27: Throwdown

28: Six Months Later

Wait! There's More!

More from Mia Archer

1: Mysterious Stranger

2: A More Mysterious Stranger

3: Digital Sleuthing

4: Creative Writing

5: Comfort

6: Waiting Game

7: Digital Date Night

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More from Mia

Cosplayed

A Lesbian Romance

By Mia Archer

Copyright 2016 Mia Archer

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Individuals pictured on the cover are models and used for illustrative purposes only.

First digital edition electronically published by Mia Archer, August 2016

Let your fantasies come true with Mia Archer…

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A Taste:

I moved up to the arcade machine and shivered as I put my hands down on the familiar old controls.

Those controls were the same, but my hands had gotten a hell of a lot bigger since the last time I played. Still, it was like unexpectedly running into an old friend from when I was a little kid. I smiled as I watched the demo screen running.

“Do you and the arcade cabinet need a moment alone?”

I turned to see Hailey smiling as she carried two beers over and placed them on trays installed on the side of the arcade cabinet. Huh. I didn’t remember anything like that from the old days playing this game. Then again I hadn’t been old enough to drink.

“What are you talking about?” I asked.

“You were looking at this arcade cabinet the way I’m hoping you’ll be looking at me by the end of the night,” Hailey said.

I winked. “Who’s to say I’m not looking at you like that right now?”

“Trust me, I’ll know when I get a look like that. That was pretty fucking intense,” she said.

“I have a lot of good memories playing this game,” I said. “I used to be pretty good when I was a kid. I could beat anyone who challenged me.”

Hailey arched an eyebrow. “Really now? That sounds like a challenge to me.”

“Maybe it is,” I said.

“Want to make it interesting?” Hailey asked.

“What did you have in mind?”

The question was hardly necessary. I knew exactly what she had in mind. It was the same thing I had in mind.

“How about loser has to kiss the winner?”

I grinned at the almost-echo of what that guy had said. The big difference was that I wasn’t interested in that guy and boy was I interested in what Hailey was offering. I grinned and stuck my hand out. Hailey took it and we shook on the bet.

“It’s a deal,” I said.

There’s an ancient and wise piece of advice that floats around in geek culture: let the Wookiee win. I was also aware that there was a lesser known corollary to that rule when it came to dating. It was a good idea to let the hot girl you were interested in win every once in awhile if you were really good at a game.

I briefly dated a girl at the beginning of college who thought she was really good at Smash Bros. She only learned otherwise when things started going south between us and I stopped pulling my punches.

Something told me Hailey wouldn’t be interested in being treated with kid gloves in a game though, and the rules were that the loser had to kiss the winner so I figured it was sort of a heads I win tails you lose situation. Which is to say I didn’t pull any punches. After a couple of rounds Hailey finally threw her hands up and took a long drink.

“Okay, I get it,” she said. “You’re like some weird Jedi master when it comes to this game. Uncle.”

“So where do I go to collect my winnings?” I asked.

“They have some booths in the back of the bar for people who want a little quiet time. At least more quiet than it is out here with all the arcade machines,” Hailey said. She held out her arm. “Care to join me?”

“Do I!”

1: New Costume

Hailey:

“Come on Hailey, you can do this,” Jake said.

I turned and gave him an irritated look. He put his hands up and took a step back.

“Hey! I’m just trying to offer some moral support here. I know you’ve been having trouble with this piece,” he said.

“The reason I’m having trouble is because certain people keep bothering me while I’m trying to put this last bit of paint on,” I snapped back at him.

“Fine,” he said, crossing his arms under his chest and sticking his lip out in a pout that didn’t look good on him at all. “If you’re going to be like that then I’ll just stand over here where I won’t bother you.”

I rolled my eyes. Jake could be such a drama queen sometimes. Still, he was pretty cool aside from that. He was like the straight BFF all my girlfriends had warned me about. As though the fact that he was straight meant he was going to jump out of the shadows someday and try to have a relationship with me.

If they knew anything about Jake they’d know how ridiculous that was. I gave him a smile to let him know I wasn’t too annoyed with him and went back to the important work in front of me. I took a deep breath as I looked at the costume piece that had become my Everest.

“Come on Hailey,” I muttered to myself. “You can do this.”

“You can do it,” Jake said.

I shot him another sharp glance and he made a motion as though he was zipping his lips shut. Good. He knew when to be quiet. I looked back at the bikini bottoms made out of foam that was made to look like metal armor. Even up close it looked pretty damn good, if I said so myself. Just as good as all the plastic and fiberglass stuff I read about online that were way out of my price range.

I stuck my tongue out of the corner of my mouth as I reached in with the fine brush to put on the finishing touches. If I screwed this up then it was going to mean hours of work taking me into the middle of the night. Hours that I didn’t have considering I had to be up bright and early in the morning if I was going to be there to get my convention badge before the rest of the crowds.

I suppose that’s what I got for waiting until the very last minute to put my costume together. Stupid procrastination. Of course I was procrastinating by studying for exams that I was behind on because I’d been spending so much time learning how to heat foam and form it into fake costume armor.

I was getting distracted. The last thing I needed was distractions at a moment like this. I glanced over to Jake. He’d been the chief distraction. If I didn’t need someone to see the finished result and provide a second pair of eyes then he probably wouldn’t be over here at all, best friend or not.

I leaned in close and squinted. This detail work was the most important part of a Warrior Angel costume and I was not going to screw it up. I was not going to have another sleepless night.

I drew the line and sighed in relief. Perfect. It better be perfect considering this was the seventh time I’d worked on this particular piece. There was always something wrong, but this time it worked.

I leaned back in my chair and took a look at the full costume. The whole thing was on a mannequin torso with a very heavily weighted metal base so I could work on the costume without worrying about smudging stuff on my table. It was a real pain in the ass trying to put a costume like this together in my tiny apartment, but it was worth the effort.

The bikini bottoms looked exactly like metal armor. A testament to the wonderful paint job I’d done. The bikini top was the same. And the wings. I’d spent so much time gluing fake feathers together so they looked absolutely perfect, but now it felt wonderful as I looked at the results of my handiwork and thought of all the fun I was going to have when I go to the convention center.

“That looks amazing,” Jake said.

“Thanks,” I said. “I think I did do a pretty darn good job.”

“Do the wings do the thing?” Jake asked. “I know you talked about doing it, but it was so much work.”

“Just you wait and see,” I said.

“Come on Hailey. You’re going to make me wait until tomorrow to see everything?”

I shook my head and giggled. “Silly. Why do you think I invited you over here?”

“To provide moral support?”

“No! I need someone to see me in the full thing and tell me if there’s anything I’m missing. I’ve spent so many hours putting this costume together that I can’t look at it with fresh eyes. You’re fresh eyes.”

“How fresh do you want me to get with you?” he said with a cheesy wiggle of his eyebrows.

I rolled my eyes and smacked him. The smack turned to a push as I moved him out of my bedroom that had become an impromptu costuming studio in addition to being the place where I slept. Alone.

I frowned. Best not to think about that. I was too busy with school and this costume to think about dating right now. Ms. Right might be out there, but I didn’t have the time to look let alone date.

“Come on,” he said. “You’re really kicking me out of the room?”

I paused at my door and arched an eyebrow. Fixed him with my best “are you fucking kidding me?” look which was pretty good. I’d had a lot of practice using it on him since we met at freshman orientation four years ago.

“Fine,” he sighed. “Try not to take too long. I’ve got a lot of other hot dates lined up tonight, you know.”

“I’m sure you do,” I said. “Now get your butt out there and wait.”

I closed the door and locked it for good measure. I didn’t think he’d try to get in here without my permission, but you could never be too careful. Jake could be a little weird for a guy who knew for sure I was into girls and he didn’t have a snowball’s chance in hell.

I stared at the costume on the mannequin an then looked at some of the reference photos I had up on my laptop. I’d pored over these photos constantly since I decided to put together this project and I knew everything was perfect, but that didn’t stop me from looking one final time to be absolutely sure.

When I was done with that annoying habit I turned to the costume and gave it a once over to see if there was any paint running anywhere. The stuff was supposed to dry quick to avoid that problem, but you could never be too sure.

Finally I checked to make sure there weren’t any obvious cracks or warped spots. One of the problems with using heated foam rather than a mold was it was a heck of a lot easier for imperfections to make their way into the costume. I found a couple but decided they were small enough that I wasn’t going to worry about them.

I might’ve worried about them if the convention wasn’t tomorrow morning. Right now it was way too late to care.

It was time for the moment of truth. Time to try this thing on. Time to see if all the time I’d spent in the gym this year making sure I could fit into this damn costume when the time came was going to work out. That gym time had been a hell of a lot more annoying than actually putting the costume together.

I quickly slipped out of my clothes and pulled the bottoms and top on. I paused to give myself a look in the mirror. It looked pretty damn good if I did say so myself. Just like something from the Battle Gear Angel Squad manga, anime, and movies. I knew they used materials that were pretty close to what I was using to make my own costume, though fans had taken it to extremes and put together costumes that were way nicer than anything that featured on the show. Some of the gear work and steampunk stuff was particularly hard. It was completely ridiculous to think that wings that allowed for flight could be powered by a portable steam power generator, but I guess that’s why it was firmly in the realm of fantasy.

Besides, it looked fucking awesome.

“You’re going to kill it tomorrow,” I said.

I did a quick twirl. Yeah, all that time in the gym really had pulled off. I looked and felt better now than I had in ages. Not to mention I was stronger than ever thanks to all that exercise. And it was good that I was stronger than ever.

I turned to look at the wings. They were attached to a halter that I’d put together myself. I really hoped they wouldn’t fall apart the moment I strapped them on for the first time. That would mean the second most difficult part of the costume was falling apart around me, and I wasn’t in the mood for that kind of disappointment.

“Let’s do this,” I muttered.

The wings were the most awkward part. I unstrapped and had to do a little dance and wiggle around the room to get them on. I even knocked a lamp off of my dresser and it went crashing to the floor.

A knock on the door. “Hailey? You okay in there? Do you need my help?”

It occurred to me a little too late that maybe I shouldn’t have locked the door after all. What would happen if I’d cut myself on that lamp or something and I was bleeding out on the floor with no way for Jake to get in here and help?

That didn’t happen though.

“No, I’m fine,” I shouted. “I’ll be just a minute!”

“If you say so,” he muttered through the door.

I finally managed to get the wings on with a little bit more wiggling around. I made sure to avoid the lamp that had shattered on the floor. The last thing I wanted was to open the door and have Jake looking in on me bleeding out of my feet like I’d just tried to save Nakatomi Tower or something.

I brushed the glass aside and went over to the door. Unlocked it and then went to stand next to my bed where I thought I’d have the most impact when Jake stepped inside. I even struck a little pose that was exactly like my character in Battle Gear Angel Squad. One of the gears almost popped off and I frowned. I was going to have to get out some hot glue to fix that and pray that the fix stayed.

The door squeaked open. Jake stuck his head in. His eyes went wide.

“So what do you think?” I asked.

“Holy shit,” he said. “That’s incredible Hailey!”

I giggled. “Glad to hear you like it. But seriously, you don’t see anything wrong with it?”

“I mean I don’t watch that show unless you force me to, but it looks fine from where I’m standing,” he said.

I decided to ignore just how “fine” it must look from where he was standing. He was looking me up and down with an intensity that definitely didn’t feel very friendly, but he didn’t make a move either so I didn’t say anything.

I did a quick twirl. “You’re sure there’s nothing wrong?”

“Absolutely sure,” Jake said. He licked his lips and I decided it was high time I distracted him with something other than me standing in my bedroom with a fake costume bikini.

“How about the wings?”

I reached behind me and pulled a lever attached to a metal frame I’d put together for the wings. Damn this thing was heavy. I was starting to wonder if I’d be able to make it through a full day at a convention with all this stuff on. I wondered how the people I saw online managed it.

Obviously I hadn’t done enough working out if I was having this much trouble. I needed to do more squats.

As I pulled on the lever I felt the wings moving out. I’d tested this a couple of times while the halter was on the mannequin, but this was the first time I’d tried it out while I was wearing it. I hated that I was doing a test run this close to the convention, but it couldn’t be helped.

From the way Jake’s eyes went even wider it seemed he appreciated the work I’d put into this almost as much as he was appreciating the work I’d put into my figure prepping for this outfit.

“Damn. Those really open up just like that?”

I looked to either side and smiled at what I saw there. Yeah, this was damn impressive. The wings were spread out with a span that went out eight feet. Not exactly practical for walking down the hall at a convention, but it would look really nice if I found a nice out of the way spot for people who wanted to take pictures.

“I thought you’d like it,” I said.

“I really like it,” he said. Again his eyes moved up and down my body and this time it was getting to the point that I really felt uncomfortable. So I made a shooing motion to get him out of the room.

“Okay. First test run is good. Now get out of here so I can change back into some more comfortable clothes,” I said.

“Are you sure you don’t need any help getting out of that thing?” he asked.

I fixed him with a dirty look and he shook his head. “Not like that, Hailey. I was just thinking about all the noise in here. It sounded like you were having a lot of trouble getting into that thing. I figured you might need some help getting out.”

“I’m fine,” I said. “I’ll have to learn how to get it on and off on my own anyways. Now go.”

Jake paused at the door and looked the costume over once more. “You’re going to be a hit at the convention tomorrow. I just know it!”

“Yeah, well I can’t wait to see what you put together!” I replied.

Jake smiled and put a finger to his lips. “You’ll get to see it tomorrow. Promise.”

I rolled my eyes. Whatever he was working on had to be pretty damn impressive if he was being this secretive. We’d been going to this con for the past three years, but this was the first time we’d both gone in costume.

I couldn’t wait! A weekend in a kickass costume with my best friend. It was going to be awesome.

2: Suspicions

Zoey:

I looked at the bank account and then back to the spreadsheet I was using to track all the charitable donations we got at our last big event. No matter how many times I tried to reconcile what we should’ve had and the number that was actually in there I couldn’t get it to match.

I let out a frustrated growl. This was not my night. I knew I was forgetting something somewhere. I’d forgotten to add something in, and that meant I was going to have to go through the whole damn thing again.

We really needed to just bite the bullet and hire an accountant to do all this stuff. It was getting to be more than I could handle on my own.

“Something wrong honey?” Natalie asked.

“Nothing too huge,” I said. “I just know that we got more money than this at the last event we were at. I can’t figure out where a few hundred dollars went.”

Natalie came over to where I was hunched over my laptop trying to get the numbers to match. She wrapped her arms around me and I closed my eyes and indulged in a moment of enjoyment. I liked it when she got up close to me like that. I could feel her breasts pressing into my back which was always a distraction, and then there was the captivating mix of scents that was Natalie.

I loved it. I loved her.

“Come on Zoey,” she said. “Don’t worry about that stuff right now. You probably forgot to add something in somewhere. I’ll go over it in the morning and it’ll all be fixed, you know how forgetful you get sometimes.”

I sighed. She was right. It seemed like whenever I did this the numbers were always off and then Natalie had a look at it and magically everything was figure out and balanced. Which was about what I should’ve expected considering she was the math major and now she worked with this kind of stuff all day at her job, but I liked to try and help out.

I reached up and took her hand. “I guess you have a better feel for this stuff than I do. I’m used to corporate crap and this charity stuff is definitely more small business.”

“That’s okay,” Natalie said. “You know I’m doing this business stuff all the time to keep the old photography business afloat.”

“I guess,” I muttered.

I still thought it was ridiculous that the numbers always came out wrong there. If I didn’t know any better I’d almost think someone was cooking the books, but that wasn’t possible here. Natalie and I were the only ones who touched this and she wouldn’t do something like that.

“Come on,” Natalie said. “There’s no point trying to balance the books until after the convention this weekend anyways. Just think about all the fun we’re going to have and all the money we’re going to make for the Children’s Foundation. Don’t worry about spreadsheets. That’s what you do at work.”

I smiled and leaned back into Natalie. Once more she did have a point. A very good point. I spent my entire day at work moving numbers around in spreadsheets and it was always a pain in the ass to come home and have to do the same thing in my free time. Still, it was worth it to use our costumes for some good. And thinking like that only made me want to figure out what was wrong with the books, damn it. I pulled up the spreadsheet again.

“I know I’ll find it if I just keep looking…”

I felt a hand on my own. I looked up and blinked. Natalie was right there staring down at me.

“I said you didn’t need to worry about it. I’ll take care of it later. You know you suck at math stuff Zoey,” she said.

I didn’t like her tone, but I also didn’t want to start a fight right now. So I sighed and closed out the spreadsheet. She was right that I was never good at math stuff. I should listen to her more often and stop worrying about handling all this stuff.

Thinking about that reminded me of arrangements for the weekend.

“So did you ever hear back from the hotel about whether or not we get a comped room?” I asked. I’d already reserved a room for myself, but I could still cancel at the last minute if they decided to give us one.

“About that,” Natalie said, pulling her arms away from me.

Uh-oh. I didn’t like the sound of that. I didn’t like the sound of it one bit. That was the tone of voice Natalie used when she was about to say something I didn’t like. It felt like she did that sort of thing a lot these days. Especially right before a convention. I spun my chair around and stared.

“What now, Natalie?” I asked. I held up a hand before she could say anything. “No, let me guess. They were willing to comp a hotel room, but only for one person, right?”

Natalie smiled. “How did you know?”

I rolled my eyes and suppressed the urge to let out a growl. That would only lead to an argument, and the last thing I wanted was to go into another convention with an argument hanging over us.

“Because it’s the same thing that happens every time we go to one of these conventions?” I asked.

Natalie moved across the room and threw herself down on the couch. She fixed me with an accusing stare that I’d come to know oh so well. I could feel the winds of the argument whipping around me as it approached. It was as sure as the thunderstorms that rolled through here announcing themselves with gusts and dark clouds gathering above.

Only here the dark clouds were Natalie looking pissed off.

“We’ve been over this before,” she said. “I’m the one who runs Cosplay Angels and that means my name is the one people see when we’re organizing these things. Besides, it’s only fair. You can totally afford three nights in the hotel with your job and I can barely make ends meet with the photography business!”

“Yeah, and I bet all the contacts and sessions you’re going to have this weekend won’t help you at all with the cost of a room,” I muttered.

“Come on Zoey,” she said. “That’s not fair and you know it. It’s not my fault you can’t do actuary work or whatever it is when you’re at a convention. I’m a photographer, that’s what I do. Besides, you know people are going to be coming and going at all hours for pictures and charity stuff.”

All of her arguments certainly made sense from a certain point of view. There was just one problem. A deep and lingering suspicion that had been growing inside me ever since the last convention. A notion I had that not all was right with the way Natalie was using her position as the head of the organization and her comped rooms. I shouldn’t have said anything, this was a conversation to have after the convention was over, but I couldn’t help but open my mouth and blab.

“And I suppose the fact that you always seem to get the prettiest girls up to your room for those private photography sessions has nothing to do with it,” I growled.

Damn. If I could take the words back I would’ve. I didn’t like getting confrontational. It wasn’t my style. If everyone in the world could be friends I’d be perfectly happy. But the words were out there, and from the way Natalie was staring it was obvious she thought they were a huge betrayal.

“What are you talking about?” she asked. “Because I know you’re not giving me shit for running my business. Are you seriously going to pull the jealousy card?”

I figured that was a rhetorical question. I’d already pulled the jealousy card and laid it out on the table. I figured now that I’d said something, now that my frustration was out in the open, there was nothing for it but to forge ahead.

“So what if I am?” I asked. “Is it really all that crazy? I see the way you flirt with other girls at these conventions when you think I’m not looking. I see who goes up to your room with you for your private photo sessions, and isn’t it funny how you never seem to get paid for those sessions?”

“What are you insinuating, Zoey?” she asked, her voice suddenly quiet and angry.

Oh boy. This was really getting into the sort of territory I liked to avoid. My hands were clammy and my mouth was dry. I really wanted to avoid getting into a fight before this convention. Why did I have to open my big mouth and rock the boat?

But again, the boat was already rocked, and anger was starting to take over where good sense and my desire to avoid conflict usually stepped in. So I opened my mouth to say even more stupid shit. Besides, this is something that had been festering for awhile now. It actually felt kind of good to get it out there.

“I’m saying that maybe you’re not charging for what you’re doing in your room because charging for that sort of thing could get you arrested,” I said.

There. It was out. I thought she was cheating on me. I’d tried to ignore the signs. I’d tried to be nice about it. To give her the benefit of the doubt. Only this was the third convention in a row where she’d mysteriously figured out a way to get a room all to herself even though we’d been dating for a couple of years. Fool me once and all that.

It only took a moment for the explosion to hit.

“I can’t believe you would accuse me of something like that!” Natalie shrieked. “I’m busting my butt trying to run my business and keep this charity running and now you’re accusing me of cheating on you? Of whoring myself out? You bitch!”

I started to shake all over. I fucking hated confrontations like this. It was part of the reason why I’d waited so long to have this conversation even if I was pretty sure she’d been doing this sort of thing for awhile now.

I also hated myself for being a coward about it, because that’s what this felt like. If Natalie thought I was cheating on her she’d let me hear all about it. I knew that for a fact because there’d been a couple of times when she said as much.

I tried to measure my voice. I needed to sound calm here. I needed to avoid getting too heated, because that was only going to make her more angry. I held out my hands and imagined I was a lion tamer or something trying to soothe a vicious beast.

Because let me tell you, Natalie could be one hell of a vicious beast when she got like this.

“Look Natalie, I didn’t want to turn this into an argument or anything,” I said.

“Well you sure as hell fucking sucked at that!” she shouted back. Tears were starting to come to her eyes. Damn it. I hated it when tears came to her eyes. I hated thinking that I’d caused someone to get that upset. Why did these arguments always have to spiral out of control like this and leave me feeling like the asshole?

“Look, all I’m trying to say is that from my point of view it seems a little suspicious that you’re always getting a room to yourself. Why can’t we share a room?”

“You think it’s suspicious?” she asked. “You’re accusing me of this stuff when you flirt with anything with a pretty smile and a cute ass that comes by our booth at these conventions?”

Now that brought me up short for a moment. Flirting with other girls? What the hell was she talking about?

“Natalie, I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said.

Her nose and chin went up. The tears were still threatening, but she didn’t sound so sad or upset now. No, she sounded aloof. Like she was the queen of the room and she knew she was winning the argument. Hell, she might even be right. She had a crazy scary way of turning these arguments around on me, which was another reason why I’d never liked getting into them in the first place.

“What about that cute redhead at the last convention? The one with the Battle Gear Angel Squad T-shirt you were gushing about? Don’t think I didn’t notice the way you were looking at her!”

I shook my head. I remembered the girl. It would be difficult not to remember a girl like that. As evidenced by the fact that Natalie had no trouble remembering her either. Especially considering she’d spent the entire time that girl was at the booth trying to push me aside and get in a few words.

“I’m sorry Natalie, but that’s just not how I remember that at all,” I said. “You were the one pushing me aside and trying to flirt with that girl.”

Anger flared behind her eyes for a moment. “Well that’s not how I remember it. I remember you being all over her and I had to try to get in between the two of you just to get your attention!”

“I was talking to her about the charity,” I said. My voice cracked. I was having a harder time keeping it together. She was trying to keep me from that girl? Ha. That was a likely story. I saw the way she stared at the girl’s chest the entire time. She hadn’t spared a second look for me that night.

“Besides. I don’t know if you remember, but that girl was there with her boyfriend. I didn’t have a chance with her,” I said.

Natalie raised a triumphant finger. “Aha! So you admit that if she didn’t have her boyfriend there then you’d be all about trying to get some special time alone with her!”

My mouth fell open. I couldn’t think of any other response to that. Was she really still trying to turn this around on me?

“That’s not what I said at all Natalie, and you know it. I was just talking to people who were interested in donating to our charity. You’re having girls up to your room behind closed doors!”

“I don’t see what the difference is,” she said. “Both are business transactions. It’s not my fault that I have to do mine in a hotel room in private. If you’re going to overreact like this then maybe we should think about sleeping in separate rooms permanently.”

I mean technically Natalie had a separate room that she was supposed to be sleeping in over at her parents’ house. She claimed she was living there while she tried to get enough money to really build up her business, though I didn’t see her moving to get out of there any time soon which probably had a lot to do with her practically moving into my place but not paying any rent.

That just made me even more angry.

“Yeah, well if that’s the way you feel then maybe you should just go back to your place for tonight and we can both sleep in separate rooms.”

Natalie blinked at that. Looked around at my small apartment as though she was being boxed in or something. She looked back at me and she tried to say something but I held up a hand.

“We can talk about the rest of this at the convention tomorrow. Remember we’ll be sleeping in separate rooms, so you’ll have plenty of time to think about whether or not you want that to become a permanent arrangement.”

Suddenly Natalie smiled. It was like flipping a switch. She moved across the room, slinked across the room is more like it, and she was on me in an instant. Pressing against me. Getting up close and personal and distracting me in a major way. I noticed the tears were gone too. Almost like she was flipping a switch.

“Come on Zoey,” she said. “You don’t have to be like that. We don’t have to be like that. This is all just a big misunderstanding.”

I closed my eyes and shivered. With her this close to me I really wanted to believe that this was all a big misunderstanding, but I had a difficult time really and truly believing it. There was too much circumstantial evidence, and there was the fact that she’d been ready to throw our relationship away right up to the moment I showed a bit of backbone and told her to get the hell out of my apartment.

Well this routine wasn’t going to work on me tonight. I put my hands on Natalie’s waist and she let out a purr that went right between my legs, but I resisted the urge to give in. Not tonight. Not like this.

I gave her a firm push away. I opened my eyes and saw the surprised look on her face. A surprised look that turned to anger in a flash.

“Fine. If you want to be a bitch then be a bitch,” she said. She turned and stormed for the door. Right before she slammed it shut I decided to twist the knife just a little.

“See you tomorrow at the convention,” I called after her.

The door slammed shut in answer. I let out a long breath that I didn’t even realize I’d been holding. One thing was for sure. This was going to be one hell of a weekend off at the convention.

I just hoped I could find a way to prove once and for all that Natalie really was doing everything I’d just accused her of, because otherwise I was going to feel like a first rate ass.

3: At the Con

Hailey:

“Oh my God, would you look at that girl?”

I turned in time to see a couple of guys who looked like they were maybe old enough to be in high school looking at me. All of them blushed and turned away when they realized I was looking at them and I couldn’t help but grin. It was really weird. I figured I’d be super self-conscious walking around in this thing. It was way less than I ever wore out in public. Yet here I was and I felt confident more than anything.

It was like putting on the costume was putting on more than plastic armor. I was putting on social armor that had my anxiety melting away. I’d heard other cosplayers talking about this sort of thing happening when they put their costume on, but I never thought it would happen to me.

It was a good feeling though. A really good feeling. I just hoped the crash wasn’t too bad when I was out of costume later. For now, though, I was fucking invincible and no one could touch me.

I smiled and waved at the guys as they went past. I hadn’t gotten that kind of attention from guys when I was in high school. Sometimes it was nice getting the validation of being a late bloomer even if none of those guys had a chance in hell.

I turned and continued through the mall food court. I’d parked under the mall because all the parking garages near the convention center were full up and I wasn’t going to pay some of the ridiculous prices they were charging anyways. Luckily I could park and walk to the convention center through the convenient tunnels they’d set up between all the places downtown so that commerce could continue even in the cold winter months.

As hot as it was outside right now I was glad for those tunnels. It went both ways with air conditioning in the summer keeping things nice and cool.

“Those jerks,” Jake said, glaring at them. Not that it did any good considering none of them were looking at us now anyways.

“Why are they jerks?” I asked.

“They shouldn’t be talking about you like that,” he said.

“Awesome costume!” some girl passing by said. She was in a Battle Gear Angel Squad T-shirt so I knew she was my people. I smiled and gave her a thumbs up even as I dodged around a crowd of people wearing their convention badges who almost ran into me.

Even with my wings pulled in that could have been bad. I hadn’t thought about how difficult it would be to walk around with the damn things in a crowd. Like, say, the sort of crushing crowds that show up for conventions.

Oops.

Meanwhile I heard some cat calls. I turned around in time to see another group of guys dressed in business suits who really should’ve known better. I extended my arm as though I was going to wave at them and they started hooting and hollering again like they were a bunch of monkeys screaming, but then I flipped them the bird and the hooting stopped before they could get to the hollering phase.

“Why don’t you assholes shut the fuck up?” Jake shouted at them.

They frowned but didn’t say anything. They were probably out at the mall getting breakfast before they went to whatever tower they worked in, and the last thing they needed was to get into a fight before work.

“You should really control yourself,” I said as I grabbed Jake’s arm and pulled him back into the crowd. Having him right next to me like that had the added benefit of keeping people from bumping into me on that side.

“What are you talking about? Did you hear the way they were talking about you? That isn’t cool,” he said.

I rolled my eyes. “Maybe it isn’t cool, but I had that in hand.”

“Flipping them off is having things in hand? Guys like that need to know they can’t treat girls like that,” he said.

“Please. They could’ve kicked your ass if they wanted to. You need to watch about running your mouth like that or it’s going to get you in trouble someday.”

Jake settled into a sulking silence after that. Which was just fine with me. I didn’t need him getting into a fight, and not because I was worried about him getting the crap kicked out of him. If he wanted to pick a fight and get in trouble that was his business, but I didn’t want my costume ruined as collateral damage in a fight like that.

Probably best not to mention that to him though. He might take it personally or something.

“Hey! Mind if I get a picture with you?” a guy asked.

Jake glared at the guy but I gave him a warning glance and that was enough to get him to hold back from saying something. Honestly, I wondered what his problem was. We were here as friends and yet he was acting like a jealous boyfriend or something when he should know there wasn’t a chance in hell I would ever be interested in him like that. He needed to get over this, and fast.

“No problem,” I said, turning up the smile. After all, I was a Battle Gear Angel Squad and that meant I had to be charming and beautiful and ready to defeat evil at a moment’s notice. I hummed the theme under my breath as the guy, he looked like he was only a couple years younger, moved in and tried to hand the phone to his friend.

“No way!” his buddy said. “I want in on this too! This costume is awesome!”

The first guy looked at me and then looked at Jake. I could see the wheels turning in his head. I could also see the wheels turning in his head and it was obvious he didn’t like what was happening. I figured I should defuse the situation before he had a chance to get offended.

I turned that thousand-watt smile on Jake instead. That seemed to calm him down just a bit, but I didn’t think anything of it. He was a friend. Friends helped friends. That’s all this was.

“Would you mind helping them out and taking a picture Jake?”

He glared for a moment longer before shrugging and smiling. He reached out to take the guys’ phones and in a moment he’d snapped two pictures and handed them back. He even did it without grousing or acting too pissed off.

“See, that wasn’t so bad,” I muttered as we continued walking towards the convention center.

“If you say so,” Jake said. “I think that one guy was standing a little too close to you though.”

“Are you serious? Neither one of them could get within a foot of me because of these wings. You seriously need to simmer down.”

“But…”

I wheeled on him and poked him in the chest. He looked down, surprised, and took a step back. “But nothing. You need to stop acting like a jealous boyfriend. I’m here to have a good time, and part of having a good time is people wanting to take my picture. That’s part of the reason I did this!”

A strange mixture of emotions played across Jake’s face at that. Almost like he was hurt. I don’t know why the hell he’d be hurt because I told him I liked people taking pictures of my costume. I also didn’t know why he’d expect anything less. He’d been to these cons before. He knew how much I’d wanted to do something like this for years. I couldn’t understand why he was suddenly getting all weird and hurt about it.

“Fine,” he muttered. “Let’s keep going.”

The only problem? It turned out that saying “let’s keep going” was a heck of a lot easier than actually doing it. It felt like I couldn’t take a couple of steps without someone coming at me and asking for a picture. It was enough to drive a girl to distraction. It was enough to make me wonder if I was ever going to get to the convention center the way people kept stopping me and holding up phones. We even got the stink eye from a security guard at one point who looked like he wanted to chase us away for blocking traffic in the mall, but in the end he satisfied himself with looking me up and down and moving along.

Dream on, buddy. He was packing the wrong equipment to ever have a chance with me.

Finally, after what felt like an eternity but when I pulled out my phone to look, no watches for me today since those weren’t part of the costume, it had only been about an hour. Still, an hour to walk from one of the parking garages to the convention center was a long time. I’d made that same walk in ten minutes last year when I wasn’t in costume.

“I’m starting to think you’ll have to take that thing off if you want to actually see anything at the con this year,” Jake said.

“Yeah? What am I going to wear? In case you didn’t notice this foam armor is the only thing keeping me modest right now,” I said.

“We could always get you a T-shirt from the dealer hall or something. I’m sure they have plenty of clothes in there that won’t draw as much attention.”

I stopped at the end of the line leading to ticket pickup. Then a convention worker came up to me and pointed. I turned and realized that I’d moved to the end of a gap in the line the convention workers had created so traffic going back and forth in a cross hall wouldn’t be interrupted. The actual line to get tickets stretched off as far as the eye could see and then around a corner.

Damn.

“Why are you making such a big deal out of this anyways?” I asked. “I’m not going to put on some crappy con T-shirt that hasn’t been washed. Not when I spent so much time putting this outfit together.”

“I just think people should treat you with respect,” he said. “Is that such a big deal?”

“It is. Now cut that crap out. You’re my friend, not my mother. If I wanted someone lecturing me about wearing this thing I’d call her and show her what her daughter is wearing out in public. Then again it’s not like it would be that much worse on top of her still being upset over the whole lesbian thing.”

Jake gave a nervous laugh at that. “Yeah, that whole crazy lesbian thing.”

I grabbed his arm. “Come on. We have our tickets and we have a whole convention ahead of us. Let’s go have some fun!”

As soon as we stepped through the doors into the dealer hall I reached out and pulled my wings back in. I’d had them out for some photos, but as I saw how narrow the halls were I realized there wasn’t a chance I was going to risk getting them caught on something and destroying the whole thing.

“Good idea,” Jake muttered.

We moved through the halls and once more I was filled with a familiar feeling of euphoria. There was just something about these conventions that I absolutely adored. It was the sure knowledge that I was surrounded by my people. I was surrounded by friends who could hold an intelligent conversation about whether their favorite bald captain on Star Trek was a bad ass who fought shape shifters from the Gamma Quadrant, a calm diplomat who exuded cool confidence, or a guy who wore a hairpiece and banged green alien women.

It felt like I was coming home whenever I walked through the doors to the dealer hall. The only difference this year was that I was getting a hell of a lot more attention from people walking the halls than I had in years past.

“This is going to be awesome,” I said.

“Yeah, this is going to be pretty fun,” Jake replied. “I always forget about that con ambiance until I get here and see everything.”

“Excuse me? Would you mind taking a picture?”

I turned to see a family walking up with a little girl who was in her own Battle Gear Angel Squad costume. Thankfully it was one of the more age appropriate costumes from the series that had been put together for little kids on the Cartoon Network and not the more adult one that I was wearing. I smiled as she came up and held my arms out to give her a huge hug, but I was careful to avoid hitting any part of her costume. I really didn’t want her to hit any of the more intricate parts of my costume. The gearbox on the front of my top in particular had taken forever to get working and I hated the idea of it breaking while I was out here on the convention floor.

I could get used to this sort of attention. Much better than some of the attention we were getting back in the mall. Then again most people in the convention hall knew how to behave appropriately.

The rest of the morning was a whirlwind of visiting booths, seeing things that I desperately wanted to buy but didn’t have the money for because I’d just spent a ridiculous amount of money I didn’t have putting together this costume, and stopping what felt like every five feet to have more people take our pictures.

At least Jake wasn’t acting like a whiny jerk about it now that we were in the dealer hall. I didn’t think I’d be able to handle the busy morning if he was.

Finally after several hours that seemed to go by in the blink of an eye my stomach rumbled as a crowd of girls in Battle Gear Angel Squad T-shirts thanked me for standing still long enough to take a picture. I was about to ask Jake if we could get food somewhere when one of the girls stopped me.

“So are you with that charity thing or something?”

I cocked an eyebrow. “Charity thing? What are you talking about?”

“They have a booth over on the other side of the hall,” the girl said. “All of them are dressed up like you. Y’know the wings and the steampunk bikini armor vibe. I figured you were out getting attention for them or something.”

I stared over to the other side of the dealer hall where she’d pointed. I hadn’t made it over there because I’d constantly been stopped by people asking for more pictures, but I was interested in making my way over there now!

“I had no idea there was anything like that, but you bet your butt I’m going to check it out now,” I said.

Jake walked up and smiled. “I heard your stomach growling there. Want to head out of the dealer hall and get something to eat? I could go for some junk food right about now.”

“Maybe in a minute,” I said. “That girl was talking about a booth filled with people dressed in costumes like this. I have to see this.”

“Are you sure? I was hoping we could have a nice quiet lunch. Maybe talk about a few things,” he said.

If I wasn’t so distracted I might’ve noticed the hitch in his voice and that might have saved me a lot of trouble down the line, but I was too distracted. It took me the entire morning to make my way across half the dealer hall, but I was determined to make it to the other side in a few minutes rather than a few hours.

“Come on Jake,” I said. “We’re running through the crowd and we’re not stopping for any pictures. There’s a booth that I have to see over there.”

Jake sighed and rolled his eyes. “Fine. One last place and then we’re going for lunch?”

“Sure,” I said, not even really paying attention to what he was saying. My stomach rumbled again, but hunger could wait. Goodness knows I’d gotten used to it dieting to make sure I could fit into this costume.

I was a girl on a mission right now. Food could wait.

4: Meet Cute

Zoey:

I leaned against the table and looked down the hall in either direction, but Natalie was nowhere to be found. Damn it. She said she was going off to get a snack and she’d bring something back for me, so why the hell had she been gone for a half hour?

I knew why I thought she’d been gone for a half hour. I imagined her running into some girl she liked and convincing said girl to go back to her private room the convention had comped for her so she could have a “private photo shoot.”

I itched to go up to that room and pound on the door to see what was going on, but there was no guarantee she was actually up there. That could just be my paranoia talking, and then I’d look like a first rate asshole if she came back to the booth with food for me and I was off in the hotel staring at her.

Besides, someone had to be down here at the booth holding down the fort if she was going to be off in the dealer hall doing whatever the hell it was she was doing.

“Fearless leader still isn’t back with my pretzel?” Cassie asked.

I turned and smiled. Cassie was a pretty girl, and she always rocked her Battle Gear Angel Squad costume even if she hadn’t gotten around to putting together her wings yet. She was also, unfortunately, as straight as an arrow and married to a very nice doctor who she was head over heels for.

Didn’t mean I couldn’t enjoy looking at her though.

“She’s not back with my soda either,” I groused.

“How much you want to bet she’s out there trying to find new recruits for her photography sessions?” Lisa asked.

“Come on Lisa,” Cassie said. “Zoey is right here. Do you really have to bring that up?”

I turned and fixed them both with an irritated glance. “Come on. She’s not doing that stuff. She’s just taking pictures.”

“Sure she is,” Lisa said before disappearing behind our booth to grab some more fliers about the children’s charity we were raising money for at the convention.

Cassie reached out and patted my shoulder. I knew she meant it as a friendly gesture, but for me it was simply a reminder that I hadn’t felt a touch like that from Natalie in a long time. I wondered if she was touching someone else like that even as I was down here manning the booth. It was irritating that I felt the urge to stick up for her with our friends even when I pretty much agreed with them.

“It’ll be fine,” Cassie said. “She’ll be back in no time and she’ll have a good reason for being gone this long.”

“Yeah, sure she will,” I replied, not really believing it. From the way Cassie grimaced and tried to look busy rearranging pamphlets it must’ve been pretty fucking obvious that I didn’t really believe it.

I turned and looked at the convention. I used to like these things. Natalie had pretty much stolen that from me. I hated that she’d done that. That I spent my time worrying about what my girlfriend was off doing more than I worried about having fun with my friends.

Damn her.

“Excuse me, but what is Cosplay Angels?”

I closed my eyes and forced a smile on my face. I might be irritated with Natalie, but that was no excuse for me to give less than one hundred percent when it came to raising money. This charity was about a hell of a lot more than my social life, and I needed to remember that. We were doing good work, damn it, and I wasn’t going to let a potentially cheating girlfriend get in the way of that.

I turned to give my usual canned answer and stopped where I stood.

“Holy shit,” I said.

The girl standing in front of the booth in one of the most impressive homemade Battle Gear Angel Squad costumes I’d ever seen blushed and looked down at my words. I meant it, though. She was seriously sporting a costume that rivaled some of the stuff I’d put together back when I was first getting into the costuming scene. Back before we built a vacuum forming machine so we could fabricate our own plastic parts. The intricate gear work on some of her stuff was impressive, and I wanted to know how she’d put together this steampunk wonder all on her own. It didn’t look like she had any of the familiar kits that were available online, and I should know because I’d helped create a lot of them.

And the girl in the costume. “Holy shit” applied to her as well. She was perfect. I’d grown used to seeing girls running around in practically nothing with wings attached to their backs. It was part of the costume. Only there was something about the cute innocence that this girl brought to her costume that had my tongue on the floor.

I closed my mouth. It wasn’t polite to stare. She probably wasn’t even into girls. Statistically speaking it was far more likely that she was dating the bored looking guy standing next to her who kept looking around as though he’d rather be anywhere but standing in front of our booth.

He wasn’t even ogling me or the other girls in the booth. Then again if I got to walk around with this hottie all day long I probably wouldn’t be impressed with any of the girls in our booth either.

“Um, uh…”

I was stammering. I wasn’t stringing sentences together to make pretty words. I needed to bring this under control. I needed to say something.

“I’m Zoey?” I asked.

Damn it. Why did I ask her if I’m Zoey? She smiled again and then she did something that made my heart stop. Her eyes ran up and down my body. With interest. That wasn’t the look of someone who was checking out my costume. That was the look of someone who was checking me out. Someone who liked what she saw.

I felt my skin tingling. Could this girl be into girls? Could she be into me?

Of course there was one problem with that even if all of the above was true. I had a girlfriend. A girlfriend who I was pretty sure was cheating on me every opportunity she could get, but I was still in a relationship. Flirting with this girl would mean I was doing exactly what Natalie had accused me of in our last big argument.

Professional. I needed to be cool and professional.

“Are you okay?” the girl asked.

“Sorry. I was just so impressed by you…. Your costume. Yeah, that is pretty good work. Did you make that yourself?”

The girl positively beamed at the compliment. “Yup! I spent way too much time putting it together, and thanks! It means so much hearing something like that from someone in an outfit like yours. Did you vacuum form those?”

“Sure did,” I said with a grin. I was also relieved. Talking ship meant I could escape from the awkward moment where I’d been caught checking her out. I could always lose myself in a conversation about building costumes, and it was a welcome diversion right now let me tell you. “We have our own vacuum forming machine and we use it to do costume runs whenever someone joins the group.”

“That’s so awesome,” the girl said. She leaned forward and rested her arms on the table. That had the double effect of giving me a very nice view of her cleavage while also giving a nice view of her ass to anyone who happened to be walking by. I noticed a couple of guys noticing the view, including her friend who was really noticing it if you catch my drift, and I felt a stab of jealousy that they got that view and I didn’t.

Damn it. I was really losing it here. I shouldn’t be drooling over some girl who wasn’t my girlfriend.

“Those wings are also pretty nice,” she said. “How did you do them? Do they move?”

I shook my head. “No. We just glued feathers from the craft store to a metal frame that we keep close in. Looks like you did the same thing?”

The girl smiled and stood up. I pouted just a little. I didn’t want to lose that lovely view she’d just given me. And had there been a twinkle in her eye when she did that? Almost as though she knew exactly what she was doing. I suppressed a shiver.

“Something like that,” she said. Then she did something that astounded me almost as much as the sight of her figure and her costume. She reached behind her and pulled on something and right before my eyes I saw her wings expand out as though she was in flight.

“Damn,” I breathed, and this time it was for the costuming accomplishment and not for how she looked, though that was still nice too.

“I’d be happy to show you how to do it,” she said. “The mechanism is actually pretty easy to put together now that I figured it out the first time.”

“I might take you up on that,” I replied. “That’s so incredible that you were able to pull something like that off!”

“Took a lot of time, but it was worth it,” she said. “Even if I can’t really use it in the convention center without worrying about someone ripping my wings off.”

I rolled my eyes. “I know that feeling. But I didn’t quite catch your name?”

The girl jumped and shook her head. “I’m so sorry! I’m Hailey. Nice to meet you Zoey.”

She held her hand out. I regarded it for a moment like it was a live wire. I felt like touching her might be dangerous, but it would also be rude to not shake her hand. So I reached out and made a connection. I tried to ignore the way a shiver ran all the way up my arm and into the core of my being at the touch. I barely managed to suppress it.

That would look odd. I didn’t want to look odd in front of her.

“And who is your… boyfriend?” I asked. I didn’t want to sound too much like I was fishing for their relationship status even though that’s exactly what I was doing.

Hailey giggled. “This is Jake. Not my boyfriend. Just a very good friend.”

I giggled and grinned right back at her. Though I also couldn’t miss how Jake seemed less than happy to be referred to as just a friend. It was pretty fucking obvious that he wanted to be more than that with this girl.

Not that I could blame him. It was a feeling I could identify with.

It really was a shame. If I wasn’t taken then I’d certainly consider being interested in this girl. I was taken, though. I was in a relationship even if it wasn’t exactly a happy relationship. It was a relationship, though, and I wasn’t going to violate that. I wasn’t going to do what I worried Natalie was already doing to me, even if there was a small voice in the back of my head whispering and telling me that I was totally justified.

I stomped on that little voice. That wasn’t who I was. Plus it would lead to another huge blowup argument and that wasn’t what I needed right now. I looked Hailey up and down again and shook my head.

I needed to focus. She asked what Cosplay Angels was. That was something I could focus on.

“Right, so you wanted to know about Cosplay Angels,” I said. “That’s pretty easy. We’re a group of girls who love Battle Gear Angel Squad, because who doesn’t love Battle Gear Angel Squad?”

“Totally,” Hailey said.

I noticed that her gentlemen friend, Jake, raised his hand behind her. Apparently he didn’t like Battle Gear Angel Squad but he was more than happy to hang out with his bestie when she was in a Battle Gear Angel Squad costume. Again, not that I could blame him. The way she looked I’d want to spend as much time around her as I could too.

“So you just dress up in costume and come to conventions? Why get a booth then? Isn’t that expensive?”

I grimaced. Finances weren’t something I wanted to think about. Especially since I never got around to figuring out where that numbers discrepancy came from. I still needed Natalie to double check my math because that was going to really bug me otherwise. That wasn’t helping here with this cute girl’s question though.

“We have a booth because we do a lot of charity work,” I said. “There are a couple of children’s charities in the city and we raise money for them at conventions. The costumes are just a way to get people’s attention.”

“I bet you get all sorts of attention in those outfits,” she said, not being at all subtle about looking me up and down again. I thought I heard Cassie suppress a laugh behind me.

Damn it. I didn’t need witnesses to this. It was bad enough that I felt giddy around this girl in a way I hadn’t felt with Natalie in forever. I was trying to keep this on the up and up.

“Yeah, well, you know how it is. I’m sure you get all sorts of attention in your costume too,” I said.

That sounded dangerously close to flirting. Dangerously close to the sort of thing Natalie had accused me of doing at the booth. I needed to stop this fast. Flirtatious was not how I should be acting with a pretty girl who was rocking the ever loving fuck out of her costume.

“I’d hope so,” she replied, locking eyes with me. “After all, what’s the point of putting a costume like this on if you’re not getting all the right kind of attention.”

I swallowed. I was having a hell of a time keeping it under control. There was something about this girl that drew me in. Something about that cocky confidence that reminded me of, well, me. Back before I got with Natalie, at least. I’d been less of a social butterfly since then, of course.

“Right, well we are always looking for new people. Especially people who are able to put together a kickass costume and do new things that we haven’t been able to figure out. I’d have to run it by a couple of people, but with something like that I’d say you’re in,” I said.

Cassie snickered behind me. I tried to tell myself that I was letting her in so easily because of her costume. Because she seemed cool. Not because she was flirting with me and making me feel alive in a way I hadn’t felt in some time thanks to stupid Natalie and our relationship which had been circling the drain for awhile now.

I could tell myself that all I wanted, but I knew deep down that it wasn’t true.

“I might be interested,” Hailey said. “You could help me out with getting some genuine plastic armor and I could show all of you how to put together these wings.”

“Yup, something like that,” I said. “We help people with the costumes anyways, but I’d be willing to throw in some free plastic armor if you show us how you did those incredible wings!”

Hailey leaned in again. She showed me that incredible view of her cleavage which I tried very hard not to be too obvious about staring at. She was staring right at me, after all. I got the distinct feeling that she was watching me for any sign that I was watching her. Her friend was busy watching from behind. Lucky bastard. He could stare all he wanted without worrying about getting caught. Though from the way Hailey’s eyes followed mine and she smiled I figured she might be well aware of what was going on back there.

That smile was killer. Those eyes were pools I could get swept away in.

Dangerous games. So very dangerous. I licked my lips.

“We’ll need some contact information from you, of course, but we’re all local so it’s not too difficult to get together for costume builds and…”

“So does that mean you’re asking for my number Zoey?” Hailey asked.

I’d like to say I had some smooth line after she left me with such an obvious opening, but it felt like my entire brain had been short-circuited by the sexy girl in front of me smiling up at me with that naughty stare.

And I didn’t get a chance to think of anything to say either. No, someone appeared right next to me and practically shoved me aside.

“Hello! And what might your name be?”

I turned to the side and blinked in astonishment. It was none other than Natalie, back from wherever the hell she’d been for the past half hour. Of course she’d show up when there was a pretty girl at the booth for her to hit on.

I’d like to say I stared in disbelief, but I could more than believe this coming from her.

“Um, Hailey?” Hailey said. She seemed on edge all of a sudden. The playfulness was gone from her face and she took a step back and crossed her arms so more of her was covered.

Yeah, she didn’t like Natalie moving in on her any more than I liked Natalie moving in on her. Which was fucked up considering Natalie was my girlfriend. I felt like I was more upset that she was getting between me and Hailey than I was upset that she was hitting on a girl right in front of me.

Damn it. I saw her first, but I didn’t want to cause a scene. So I stared between the two of them and tried to figure out which one I was more annoyed with.

I was pretty sure the answer was “my girlfriend.”

5: Temptations

Hailey:

The girl leaned in even closer and I pulled back from her again. If she kept this up for much longer then she was going to take a spill over their table and take the tablecloth they’d draped over it right along with her.

I looked over towards Zoey, but she was hanging back. She also had a look on her face like someone had just run over her favorite cat and then served it to her in a roadkill stew. Wow. I don’t think I’d ever seen someone going from flirty and fun to pissed off that quickly before.

It had to have something to do with this girl. I didn’t know who she was. I didn’t like the vibe I was getting from her. I really didn’t like the way she was looking me up and down as though I was a piece of meat.

There was something creepy about that look from her. With Zoey it seemed like she was genuinely happy to see me. With this girl it seemed like she’d be genuinely happy to bed me and that was about it.

I wanted nothing to do with it, so I turned to Jake.

“Weren’t you saying you wanted to get some food?” I asked.

“You bet your ass I was,” Jake said. “You ready to go?”

“But you can’t leave yet! Not when the leader of Cosplay Angels is here to chat with you!” the girls said, a hint of desperation coming to her voice. “Come on. Don’t you want to hang around and chat for a minute?”

I wanted to leave. My stomach rumbled reminding me that I was hungry too. Jake wasn’t the only one who wanted to find some grub. It was time to get the hell out of here. This little charity thing had seemed promising, but if it involved putting up with this girl then I didn’t want anything to do with it.

“That’s okay,” I said. “I think we’re going to go get some lunch. It was nice talking with you.”

It was a simple enough plan. Get the hell away from this booth and get some food. Never go back to this part of the convention hall again even if this booth was home to the intoxicating and mysterious Zoey.

The only problem with that plan was this new girl was right in front of me as I turned to leave. She practically leapt over the table to get there which was impressive considering the heavy costume she was in. It was a wonder she didn’t catch something on her wings and cause the whole thing to go tumbling down around her.

“Come on, stay and chat awhile,” she said. She held a hand out. “I’m Natalie, by the way. I also do professional cosplay pictures if you’re interested in something like that.”

“Um, that’s nice,” I said. “But I’m not really interested in paying for something like that. I don’t have much money after putting this outfit together.”

I glanced over to Zoey again. She’d crossed her arms under her breasts and I found it distracting the way that pushed them up. She was so pretty, and cool. Not like this Natalie girl who was pretty but giving off one heck of a creepy vibe.

Not my thing at all.

“That’s not a problem,” Natalie said. “Trust me, it would be on the house if I did a photo shoot with you. Totally worth it for such an awesome costume!”

Zoey looked really angry. She was glancing between the two of us and I couldn’t for the life of me figure out why she was so irritated. Was there something I’d done? Was there something going on between her and this Natalie girl?

It couldn’t be. There was no way there was something going on between the two of them. Couples didn’t act like this. Zoey had been flirting with me hardcore even if she hadn’t come out direct, and this Natalie girl was being more than direct with me.

No way they were together. Not a chance.

“Look, I think it would be a good idea if I headed out. My friend and I really need to get some food,” I said.

Natalie stuck her lip out in a pout. “Are you sure about that? I’d love to stay and chat with you about joining the group.”

“I already talked about that with Zoey,” I said. “I’m good, trust me.”

“Oh really? You already talked about it with Zoey? That’s interesting.”

Natalie turned to look at Zoey an again I had the distinct feeling I’d just stepped into the middle of something. They were staring at one another like two angry cats growling from across the room. If these costumes came with tails they’d be lashing right about now on both girls.

“Yeah, interesting,” I said. “So I’m going to be going now, but it was nice to meet you.”

It wasn’t, but I figured it was nice to be nice. Besides, I figured if I had my way I wouldn’t see her again. She gave off a weird vibe.

“Well fine, but before you go I absolutely have to get a picture with you in that awesome costume! I can’t believe you made it yourself!”

Before I knew it she was right next to me wrapping her arm around me. She looked over her shoulder.

“Zoey? Could you be a dear and get my phone? It’s in my purse under the table. I have to have a picture!”

There was a pause. I heard someone slamming around behind me. Whoever was doing the slamming around obviously wasn’t happy. I wondered what the heck was going on to piss her off so much.

Natalie turned to me and grinned. “Don’t mind her. She’s been stuck at the table all day and I was a little late bringing her a snack. She’ll be fine soon enough.”

That sort of made sense. My stomach growled again. I could certainly sympathize with someone wanting to get some food in them.

Zoey rounded the corner and moved to hand her phone to Jake. Jake, for his part, didn’t look all that happy to once again being relegated to taking pictures for me. I wondered what his problem was all of a sudden. He didn’t have any problem taking pictures when other people came asking.

“Oh come on Zoey,” Natalie said. “Don’t make her friend take the picture. You don’t mind, do you?”

Zoey paused. Turned to look between the two of us with a look that screamed that she very much did mind taking a picture of the two of us. She stiffened and looked like she was about to say something, then thought better of it and held the phone up.

“Whatever you want Natalie,” she said.

I tried to smile, but it was difficult. This was all so awkward. This girl was coming on so strong, and Zoey seemed so angry about it. I wanted to be anywhere but here between the two of them, but no one stopped to ask me what I wanted.

Then I got an even bigger surprise. I figured I’d be safe standing next to another girl, but obviously I was wrong. I felt Natalie’s hand moving down behind my wings and she cupped my ass!

My eyes went wide and of course that was the look Zoey caught as she pulled Natalie’s phone up and took the picture. At least the flash didn’t go off this time. I was starting to feel like I was going to go blind from all the flashes that had been going off in my face all morning long.

Natalie looked over at me and winked. She also ran her tongue along her top lip in a gesture that wasn’t lost on me. I shivered and felt a little dirty because she did that, but at the same time I wasn’t about to say something and let everyone know that she’d just been copping a feel.

Zoey appeared and it wasn’t lost on me how she put herself between me and Natalie. She looked almost territorial, though I couldn’t tell if she was trying to keep Natalie away from me or me away from Natalie. She kept looking between the two of us as though she suspected something, but if she did she wasn’t saying anything.

“Okay Natalie. You’ve had your fun. Now we have work to do,” Zoey said.

“You’re damn right we have work to do!” Natalie said.

She stepped away and walked over to their booth. I let out a relieved sigh. It was over. She wasn’t going to bother me any more. Zoey gave me one last look that was difficult to read and then she followed Natalie back over to the booth as well. I thought it was over. Zoey seemed to think it was over. I could go eat lunch and forget all about this.

I turned and moved back down the dealer hall as fast as my legs could take me. Only I heard the sounds of someone coming up behind me. Fast. I also heard the sound of sandals smacking against the ground and then against someone’s feet. Almost exactly like what my own sandals sounded like.

I squeezed my eyes shut and prayed that it wasn’t that girl coming up again. Jake looked over his shoulder and frowned. That was all the confirmation I needed.

“Looks like she’s not giving up yet,” Jake said.

“Damn it,” I growled.

“I could threaten to beat her up or something,” Jake said with a lopsided grin that didn’t look entirely joking.

“Don’t bother,” I said.

“I could threaten to break part of her costume? That would be enough to send her running I’m sure,” he said.

I tapped a finger to my lips. He had a point. That would be enough to get me running. I’d spent so much time building this costume that I didn’t want to think about breaking it. If someone threatened me I’d run from them as fast as I could go with this monkey suit strapped to me.

Which admittedly wasn’t very fast at all. I couldn’t walk fast enough to get away from whoever was following us, for example.

Damn it.

“Hey! Wait up! Hailey!”

I paused and turned around. There was no avoiding this girl. She came up with a huge beaming smile on her face, though it reminded me more of a shark than a pleasant grin.

Still, it was nice to be nice. I figured this girl was the least of the weirdos I’d have to put up with before this day was over. So I forced my camera smile on my face and tried to act interested even if it was the last thing I wanted.

“What’s up?” I asked.

“Someone wants a little something is what’s up,” Jake muttered under his breath. Thankfully it was low enough that there was no way he could be heard in the busy dealer hall.

I hoped.

Natalie reached us and handed a card over. I looked down and saw that it had her contact information on it along with a picture of her in her costume on one side and the Battle Gear Angel Squad logo on the other side. The thing looked like it had been done in cheap image editing software with someone who was way too happy to use lightning bolt effects.

“What’s this?” I asked.

“Flip it over,” she said, her voice coming in gasps from the short distance she’d run. There was a surprise. Usually you had to be in pretty good shape to wear one of these costumes. I should know.

Maybe she was one of those lucky bitches who had a genetic predisposition to looking awesome without setting foot in a gym.

I flipped the card over. There on the other side was her name and a three digit number. I looked at it in confusion for a few moments. That wasn’t the email or phone number I’d expected, but then again that information was helpfully included on the other side.

“What is this?” I asked.

“It’s my room number,” she said.

My face screwed up in… something. I wasn’t sure how I felt. Disgust? Disbelief? Anger? A part of me was also a little intrigued, this was a hot girl in an awesome costume after all, but for the most part I was annoyed more than anything else. What kind of girl did she think I was that she could hand me her card with her room number as though I’d be willing to hop right up there for a booty call?

“Are you…”

Some of that irritation must’ve broken through because she held a hand up to stop me before I could really get good and pissed off. Tell her what I thought of her trying to get me to go up to her room.

“Just wait and hear me out,” she said. “I know I came on a little strong back there. I’m sorry. I do that when I see something I really want.”

I paused and mulled that over for a second. It was better than how she’d been acting before, but I still felt a little uneasy. Still, she was apologizing and I figured that was a good first step. Not that I had a chance to do much other than stand there listening to her because she kept right on going.

“We’re having a little party up in my room later tonight around seven. I’d really like it if you could be there. Maybe see me when I’m not acting so crazy because of everything happening here on the convention floor. I’d really like to see you there,” she said. She finished with a big smile that was dazzling, but I was still on guard.

I looked down at the card and back up to Natalie. If this was a guy I’d be really creeped out right about now, but it wasn’t a guy, was it? This was a girl who was part of a costuming group who seemed cool enough. My mind went to Zoey again and I felt the beginnings of a blush that I stomped down on. Zoey. She might be at a party they were hosting. I held the card up.

“So a lot of people from your group are going to be at this thing tonight?” I asked.

“Sure are!” Natalie said, her grin never faltering.

I tucked the card into my waistband. I had the room number memorized anyways so it’s not like I needed to hang onto it. I thought about the opportunity to see Zoey again. I thought about how if this girl was so obviously hitting on me like she was right now that probably meant I’d read the situation wrong. She wasn’t dating Zoey.

Which meant I’d really like a chance to talk to her again.

“I’ll think about going,” I said. “No promises. I’ll have to see what’s happening at the convention.”

If anything Natalie’s grin got even wider. She moved forward to hug me but I held a hand up. I didn’t want to risk ruining my costume getting up close and personal with her. I might be willing to take that risk with Zoey, but not with this girl.

“I’ll see you tonight,” I said. I turned and walked away as fast as my feet would carry me in my getup. Which wasn’t very fast, but Natalie didn’t make any effort to follow me this time around.

Good.

“Someone has a crush on you,” Jake said.

“Shut up Jake.”

“Come on. She wants you all alone up in her room! Bow chicka bow wow!”

“I said shut up Jake. Besides, you heard her. They’re having a party up there.”

“Uh-huh. Hailey and Natalie, sitting in a hotel bed. F-u-c…”

“I said shut up Jake!”

Snapping at him seemed to be enough to finally get through and shut him up. We walked the rest of the way out of the dealer hall in silence, and for a wonder no one tried to stop us to ask for a picture. Maybe the look on my face was enough to send them running.

The entire time I couldn’t stop thinking of Zoey though. I really wanted to see her again, and I hoped she’d be at this party.

6: Snoop

Zoey:

I took a sip from my soda. I wasn’t supposed to have this stuff. It was terrible if you were trying to watch your figure, and I felt like ever since I decided to put together this costume that’s all I did whenever I decided to eat something.

I didn’t care. I needed caffeine. I needed carbonation. I needed high fructose corn syrup delivered in a mixture that sent all sorts of fun chemicals running a merry chase through my brain even if other parts of my brain were screaming at me that this soda meant another twenty minutes on the treadmill the next time I was at the gym.

That wasn’t until Monday though. Three full days away. Future me could suck it. Mama needed her caffeine. Now.

“Hitting the stuff a little hard, aren’t you?” Cassie asked.

I hit her with the old stinkeye. She held her hands up as though I was about to hit her or something. Not that it would come to that. There was a shortlist of one woman I’d like to slap upside the head right about now, and Cassie wasn’t on that list.

Cassie looked away.

“That’s what I thought,” I muttered.

“You don’t have to get mad at me,” she said. “I’m not the one who was hanging all over that girl you couldn’t stop eye fucking earlier.”

I hit her with the stinkeye again, but it didn’t really do anything for her this time. She rolled her eyes instead.

“Come on. It was obvious to all of us at the booth that you had the hots for that girl. It’s not like it’s a bad thing. With the way Natalie has been acting around you…”

“Natalie has been fine with me,” I said.

The look on Cassie’s face told me exactly how much she believed that. I didn’t know why I even said it. Why did I feel the need to defend stupid Natalie when everyone knew she was probably cheating on me?

I was just adding to my humiliation.

“Why don’t you say something to her?” Cassie asked.

“Like I haven’t said anything?” I asked, pointing my soda at Cassie and nearly causing it to slosh over the edge. I didn’t know why the convention center had some stupid rule about not putting a cap on drinks, but it made carrying them around damn inconvenient.

“What have you said?” Cassie asked. “Because if I was dating some guy who was disappearing into his hotel room with random hotties all the time…”

I let out a disgusted noise. I wasn’t sure if I was disgusted with Natalie or with myself though. I kept running over what happened at the booth. Wondering if there was something I could’ve done different.

I could think of one big thing I could’ve done different right off the bat. I could’ve had Cassie or Lisa handle the meeting with Hailey. I could’ve told her I couldn’t help her the minute I realized I was flirting with her.

I could have totally not been everything I’d accused Natalie of doing in the big argument we had before we came out to this convention.

“I’d give a pretty penny to know what you’re thinking about right about now,” Cassie said.

“Believe me, you don’t want to know,” I said.

“Really? Because I bet you’re thinking about that pretty young thing at the booth today.”

I fixed her with a glare that did absolutely nothing to her. She grinned as though that glare was all the proof she needed.

“I knew it! You have a thing for that girl!”

“Do not,” I muttered.

That was the thing though. I couldn’t decide if I was more angry that Natalie was so obviously flirting with that girl right in front of me or that she’d gotten in the way. I’d been surprised with the force of the jealousy that hit me when I saw the two of them together, and it wasn’t jealousy that another girl was flirting with my girlfriend.

Stupid Natalie. Why did she have to be such a bitch? I suppose that I was even thinking of her like that should’ve been a big red flag that things were already over, but I wasn’t thinking straight.

“So what if I did think that girl was cute?” I asked. “It’s not like anything is going to happen. I don’t even have a way of getting in touch.”

“Yeah, but I bet Natalie does,” Cassie pointed out, much to my annoyance. “I don’t think it was a coincidence that she went running after that girl, and even you can’t deny that.”

I decided to ignore the dig. I also decided to ignore how right Cassie probably was. Natalie had disappeared and been back in a couple of minutes, but she had to be talking to that girl even if the convention crowds had made it impossible to see what she was doing.

Even if she denied it up and down when she got back to the booth. It was right around that time I decided I needed to storm off and get some caffeine, and Cassie had come right along with.

“I’m not asking Natalie for another girl’s phone number or anything,” I said. “That really would be the end of things.”

“Is that such a bad thing?” Cassie asked.

I took another sip of my drink rather than answer the question. It was something I’d been turning over in my head for awhile now. Well before I met that Hailey girl and found myself thinking about life after the end of my relationship with Natalie.

I suppose it was a sign of how close things were to being over between us that I’d be so interested in Hailey in the first place. Not that anything would ever come of it.

Besides, there was still a part of me that felt like I should give Natalie another chance. There were also parts of my brain screaming at me that I was being a fucking idiot and I needed to cut my losses and run. That I was being a pushover because I wanted to avoid confrontation.

“I don’t know Cassie,” I said. “I can’t help but wonder if maybe I’m just jumping at shadows. What if I’m just being a little crazy and irrational about the idea of Natalie out there with other girls?”

“I don’t think you’re being irrational at all,” Cassie said. “But if that’s what you need to think to keep things going in your life then you do you. I’ve already told you how I feel.”

“I know. You’ve told me plenty of times, actually,” I deadpanned.

“I’m just saying. You’re already the one doing all the administrative work for the group. Might as well be the one in charge instead of letting Natalie prance around and use your work as an excuse to hit on girls at cons.”

“You’re not helping,” I said.

“That’s not what you’re going to say when you and Natalie break up. You’ll come crawling to me crying and telling me how I was right all this time and you never should have doubted me.”

“You’re awfully confident,” I replied.

“Yup.”

I sighed. She might be right, but for right now I was going to do what I always did even if I hated the idea of doing what I always did. I was going to go back to the booth and play nice. Act like there was nothing wrong. Act like I was happy to be there with Natalie.

I was going to pretend we were a happy loving couple. I was going to be the peacemaker.

Though I did wonder why it seemed like I was always the one who was playing the part of the peacemaker. Why was I always the one who was bending over backwards to make sure everything was all right?

“Um, excuse me but I was wondering if I could get a pic…”

“Do you mind?” I snapped.

I looked up and found myself face to face with a very surprised looking guy with thick glasses and an even thicker waistline. The surprise lasted for just a moment before he sneered at us.

“What’s your problem? You wear an outfit like that you should expect some attention baby,” he said.

“First off I’m not your baby, tubby,” I said. “And second off can’t you see that I’m sitting here trying to have a conversation with my friend and enjoy some time off? Go bother someone else who’s wandering the convention hall.”

“Fuck you too, bitch,” the guy said. He turned and stormed off at what was probably a brisk pace for him.

“Damn,” Cassie said. “That was a side of you I’ve never seen before.”

“Sorry,” I muttered.

“No need to apologize. I’ve wanted to yell at someone like that for years now. We are sort of trying to have a moment here.”

“Yeah, but I still shouldn’t have snapped at the guy like that,” I said, my natural desire to people please taking over. “I should find him and apologize.”

“Good luck with that,” Cassie said. She looked at the river of people moving around us. “You’re never going to find him in this crowd. Even a guy that big can get lost pretty easily.”

I blushed and looked down. I shouldn’t have snapped at that guy even if he did deserve it. My annoyance with Natalie was starting to show through and I didn’t like it.

“So are you about ready to head back to the booth?” Cassie asked.

“I guess I don’t have much choice,” I said. “Might as well get back there and face the music.”

I was all about trying to be the best girlfriend I could be until the crowd parted as we headed for the booth and I got a good look. Lisa and Sierra were at one end of the booth talking to a couple of guys who were busy staring at the girls’ tits, but it looked like they were also getting their wallets out to sign up for the charity raffle we were running so that was good.

My eyes were only on Natalie though. She stood next to Thea, a pretty redhead, but for a surprise she wasn’t trying to flirt with her or anything while I wasn’t around. It was nice to know that she was at least decent enough not to try that with other girls in the charity.

What Natalie was doing was bad enough though. She had her phone out and her nose was buried in it as she tapped away. I frowned. Why would she be tapping away at her phone?

Even more suspicious was the way she quickly put the phone away when she saw me approaching. I thought about just asking her outright who she was just texting, but didn’t. That would go against the whole nice girlfriend thing I was going for. I was going to be all sunshine and rainbows for the rest of the day if it killed me, so I smiled and gave her a kiss on the cheek that she didn’t seem all that interested in but I told myself I was worrying over nothing.

I kept the sunshine and rainbows up for the rest of the day. I tried to be a doting girlfriend, but I also tried to give her space when she was talking with other girls about the charity. I didn’t want to seem like I was being paranoid or trying to crowd her out or anything.

Everything was cool. There was absolutely nothing wrong. If I told myself that enough I almost believed it.

Almost, but not quite.

Natalie kept looking at her phone. As though she had somewhere to be. She sure as hell hadn’t told me about any appointment, but I had a pretty good idea of where she’d be going. So much so that I wasn’t even surprised when she looked up at me and smiled.

That was the smile she used when she was up to something. When she thought she was going to pull a fast one. It took every bit of self-control I had not to laugh in her face. I could tell what she was going to say before she said it.

“I have an appointment up in my room here in a few minutes,” she said.

“Oh yeah? You didn’t mention that before,” I said.

I had to play this cool. I tried to sound like I was curious. Nothing more. I didn’t want her to think I suspected anything. If she thought I suspected something then she might start trying to cover her tracks.

I wanted her to think she was getting away with something right up to the moment that the trap sprang around her and she realized she’d gotten away with nothing.

“You know how it is,” she said. “People are asking for pictures all the time at these things. They want everyone to see professional photos of them at their best.”

I’d seen some of the pictures Natalie took. Truth be told they didn’t look all that professional. Which was probably part of the reason why she was still picking up odd jobs at conventions rather than working on her own, but I wasn’t going to say that now. I was Zoey. I was sunshine and rainbows. I avoided conflict, and wading into conflict might tip her off.

“Well you have fun up there,” I said. “I assume you’re going to use the room they comped to the organization?”

“Sure am,” Natalie said. She leaned in and kissed me on the cheek. She was so preoccupied with getting the hell away from the booth that she didn’t even seem to notice that I didn’t react to the kiss. I stood there and let her brush her lips against my cheek, but that was the extent of my participation.

Not that it surprised me that she was oblivious to my feelings. It wouldn’t be the first time. With a little bit of luck this might be the last, though. A plan had been forming in the back of my mind ever since I saw her texting and I was almost ready to pull it off.

“I’ll see you later,” Natalie said.

“Sure thing,” I replied, perhaps with a little more conviction than usual. Not that Natalie noticed that either. She was off in her happy little bubble where she was off to have a “photo shoot” or something and she thought she was getting away with it.

We’d see about that.

“Are you really going to let her get away with that?” Lisa asked.

I turned to her and grinned. “Get away with what, Lisa?”

“Stop playing like you don’t know exactly what’s going on,” Cassie said, coming up on the other side. “She’s been hiding in her phone all afternoon. It would take an idiot to not see what’s going on.”

“Well the way she’s ignored what Natalie is doing all this time…”

“Shut up Lisa,” Cassie snapped.

Lisa turned to me and arched an eyebrow. “Seriously though. We’re sick of this shit. She’s never at the booth and the money is always off when we’re done with these charity shindigs and she makes us pay out of pocket for the booth space.”

I blinked. “She what?”

“You didn’t know? She always says we came up short and we need to help her pay. Something about not being able to pay for the booth out of direct charity earnings for tax reasons or something.”

This was news to me. Judging by the even more annoyed looks that passed between Lisa and Cassie it seemed like they were realizing just how much they’d been had as well.

“There’s no rule like that,” I said. “And I’ve noticed the money is coming up weird too. I always have to give it to Natalie to fix it.”

“So the books are always weird and then they always get magically fixed when Natalie touches them?” Cassie asked.

My shoulders slumped. I was starting to realize just how ridiculous this all was. Just how much Natalie had apparently been cheating all of us all along. I didn’t want to believe she would steal from our charity, but I had a feeling if I went back and looked at the backups of all the spreadsheets I kept at conventions and compared them to the “updated” spreadsheets she gave me I’d find just that.

I was mad before, but now I was good and pissed off. I could believe she would do something like that, but easily beliving it didn’t make me any less angry about it.

“That’s it,” I said. “This is over. Now.”

“Attagirl!” Cassie said, smacking me on the back.

“We’ll be waiting here for you when you get back,” Lisa said. “We’ve talked with all the girls, and as far as we’re concerned Natalie is through.”

“Yup. We’re all rooting for you,” Cassie said. “Even the girls who couldn’t make it today.”

I took some solace in that. There was a part of me that had worried breaking up with Natalie would also mean breaking up with Cosplay Angels. It was nice to know I’d get to keep them in the breakup.

I stormed through the convention center and back to the hotel. For a wonder I didn’t get a single person stopping me and asking to have their picture taken. Maybe there was something about the look on my face that told them they needed to steer clear. Whatever it was, I had the quickest trip ever from the convention floor to the hotel lobby.

The guy working the counter didn’t try to hide that he was checking me out. I ignored it in turn. I was so used to people checking me out when I was in this thing that it had become second nature to screen it out. Like a bad smell that you got used to.

“Can I help you?” he asked.

I got an idea and leaned forward on the counter. That had the effect of doing exactly what happened with Hailey earlier and I could feel my breasts pressing together. I could also feel plastic from the costume pressing in and pinching me in a couple of unwelcome places, but the pain was temporary and I’d use any weapon I could get.

I wasn’t sure if this plan would work, and it would help if this guy was good and distracted while I tried to con him.

“I’m a representative from the Cosplay Angels charity. We have a room comped with you guys as part of the convention,” I said.

The guy licked his lips and stared at my chest for another beat before he realized I was done talking. He shook his head and tapped at his computer. Looked back at me and smiled.

“We do have you in the system. How can I help you?”

“Well I lost my room key over at the convention center and I was hoping you could provide me with another one?” I asked.

He paused. The hint of a frown played across his features. Only a hint, though.

“Usually we require some ID or something…”

I decided to go for broke. I leaned down even more and squeezed my shoulders together which had the added benefit of squeezing my tits together. His mouth fell open and he stared openly. No subtlety there at all.

“Come on,” I said. “Would anyone be walking around in a ridiculous costume like that who wasn’t part of that group? You can look me up on our website if you want. You’ll see me right there. I have lots of pictures. Lots.”

I didn’t have to tell the guy that he didn’t have a chance. All I had to hope for was that he’d be distracted by the sexy long enough to give me what I wanted. I figured it was about time I got something out of people checking me out in this getup.

“I suppose you’re right,” he said with a grin. He tapped some more and pulled out a hotel keycard. Handed it over. “And y’know if you’re not busy later maybe…”

“Thanks! You’ve been great!” I said as I pulled away from the desk and headed for the elevators.

When I stepped on he was still staring after me. Still had that goofy grin on his face too. Even if he didn’t get the date he was hoping for something told me he’d be checking out our website and getting what he needed from the pictures we had posted on there. Whatever. I had what I wanted.

I couldn’t help but feel a little nervous as the elevator doors closed and blocked out the lobby. I was finally going to catch Natalie in the act, and while I was giddy and excited at the idea there was also a part of me that was upset at what I was about to find.

The elevator dinged as it carried me higher and higher into the hotel and closer to destiny.

7: Rendezvous

Hailey:

I stepped off of the elevator and wondered if I was even in the right place. I’d been to a few convention parties before and they were almost always the same. A bunch of people moving back and forth between a bunch of open doors with music and laughter filling the hall.

Not the kind of place you went for a little peace, rest, and relaxation. I always felt sorry for the poor bastards staying at the hotel who weren’t part of the convention.

My costume rattled and shook back and forth as I made my way down the empty hall. Not at all like the party halls I’d been to. There wasn’t a single door open and it was ghostly quiet. Though come to think of it it was a little early for a party. Usually they didn’t start until after ten, and the really good ones didn’t get going until after midnight.

Again, it probably played hell with the sleep schedules of anyone who was here for business or a family vacation or something.

I stopped in front of the room and looked down at the card Natalie gave me earlier. I wanted to make sure I was even in the right place. The door was closed and I didn’t hear music on the other side. I didn’t hear a bunch of people on the other side. Everything was eerie and quiet.

I almost thought that if I turned and looked back down the hall I’d see two creepy twins staring at me or something. That was ridiculous though. I knocked on the door and waited.

Finally there was the some sound from the other side. As though someone was scrambling around in there. Only one person, though. I frowned again. If this was a party then there should’ve been a lot of people in there. Why was I only hearing one person?

The door flew open. The only person standing there was Natalie. My frown deepened. Why was I only seeing Natalie? She was breathing hard and she’d changed out of her costume. She was in a tank top that didn’t cover her stomach and plunged down to reveal a lot of her cleavage. Something that might’ve distracted me if this was any other person. She also had on shorts that were so short they left nothing to the imagination. Again something that might’ve been distracting on anyone else.

She looked me up and down and I shivered, but not in a good way.

“Hailey! So glad you could make it!” she said. “Come on in.”

She motioned for me to step in but I stayed rooted to the spot. Something was telling me that going in there would be a bad idea.

“Where is everyone?” I asked. “I thought you said there was going to be a party or something?”

“Oh yeah,” Natalie said. “There’s going to be a party. You’re just the first to get here is all.”

That voice in the back of my head was still telling me this was a bad idea, but I ignored it as I stepped inside. After all, this girl was the head of a costuming group. It’s not like she would do anything stupid. At least that’s what I told myself. We could talk about their charity work or something while we were waiting for everyone else to arrive.

Everyone else including Zoey. I hadn’t been able to get her out of my head all day long. What I really needed was to talk to her again, and if I had to put up with this Natalie girl for a little while so I could talk to Zoey then that was a price that was worth paying.

Maybe.

Natalie popped down on a bed. It was the only bed in the room. Okay then. Maybe she had the place to herself. The windows looked down on the city. Natalie patted the spot next to her on the bed, but instead I went over to the window and looked down at the convention center. I could see people in costume walking past and smiled thinking of all the good memories that were being made here this weekend.

“That costume really is amazing,” Natalie said. “I’ve never seen someone do a steampunk Battle Angel getup on their own that looks that good. How did you put together those moving gears in the chestpiece?”

I jumped. That came from right behind me. I wheeled around, careful not to move too fast and catch my wings on the window, and stared. She was right there. I shivered again. Again, not in a good way.

“Um, thanks?” I said. “It’s not nearly as good as some of yours.”

“I don’t know,” Natalie said, reaching out to run her hand along a shoulder strap. “Something like this that you put together all on your own with no help? That’s pretty damn impressive.”

I stepped to the side to get out of her bubble. That also pulled her hand away from my shoulder strap which was just fine with me. I moved to the other side of the bed and stared at Natalie. I had a very bad feeling about this, and that voice in the back of my head was screaming at me to get the hell out of here already.

Normally something like this might be a little exciting. Meet a pretty girl, get invited up to her room, see where things took us. There was something about this that felt slightly off, though. That was the only way I could think to describe it.

“Oh come on Hailey,” Natalie said, moving across the room towards me undaunted. As though she didn’t realize I was trying to get away from her. Didn’t realize or didn’t care. “I don’t bite. I promise. I’ll be a good girl, unless you want me to be bad.”

I barked out a laugh. I couldn’t help myself. Who talked like that? Honestly?

It didn’t seem to be what Natalie was hoping for, though. She frowned and looked angry for a moment. Only for a moment though and then she had it under control again. Barely.

“I think you might’ve been under the wrong impression when you invited me up here,” I said.

“I wasn’t under the wrong impression at all,” Natalie said. She was positively slinking across the room now. Her hips were moving back and forth in such an exaggerated way that I might’ve thought she needed hip replacement or something if she wasn’t so young.

I thought about Zoey. I’d really hoped she would be up here, though it was starting to look like that wasn’t in the cards. I had a feeling no one was going to be coming up here. It was just me and Natalie, and something told me that was exactly how she wanted it.

“There isn’t anyone else coming, is there?” I asked. “There never was a party.”

Natalie reached me and I backed up again. Right until I hit a wall. I winced as I heard the familiar rustle of my glued-on feathers hitting that wall. That couldn’t be good for them. Then again having this Natalie chick practically dry humping me wasn’t good for me either. I really needed to get the hell out of here, and fast.

The only problem? I didn’t want to pull away from her because I worried that would ruin the costume. Damn it. Stuck between a wall and a horny place.

“Um, this really isn’t my thing Natalie,” I said.

“Oh come on Hailey,” she said. “I know it might be a bit sudden, having a hot cosplayer like me hitting on you, but trust me you’re so worth it. I figured we could talk about your costume and maybe your future in the organization.”

I laughed again. Again I couldn’t help it. That was so ridiculous. As though I should be honored that she was grinding against me instead of squicked out. This girl really had a high opinion of herself if she thought that was going to be enough to get me all hot and bothered. I reached out to push her away, but that involved touching her and she seemed to take that as encouragement. She grabbed my hands and pressed them against her stomach.

Tried to get me to go a little north of her stomach, but I held my hands firmly in place. I was not going there, thank you very much.

“I really need to go,” I said. “This is not what I signed up for when I came up here. I was hoping to run into Zoey…”

“Forget about Zoey,” Natalie said. She leaned in to kiss me and I moved my head aside. I giggled again which wasn’t the best thing. She seemed to take that as meaning I was enjoying this which couldn’t be farther from the truth. It was just so ridiculous.

It was also proof that someone’s hotness definitely didn’t have anything to do with how interested you were in them. Because Natalie was smoking, but I didn’t want anything she had on offer.

“Come on Hailey,” Natalie said, a hint of desperate pleading coming to her voice. “I know exactly why you came up here. You want to talk about your future with Cosplay Angels, and it’s going to be one hell of a future if you play your cards right!”

I pulled away from her and for a miracle I managed to escape without ripping any of the foam from my costume off. That would’ve pissed me off both because it meant my costume was broken and because she’d probably take that as another opportunity to get a little too handsy, and she was already taking too many of those opportunities for comfort.

I backed up but this time my legs hit something soft and I plopped down on my ass. Right on a bed. Damn. Of all the places I didn’t want to be right now. I really hoped sitting on the bed wouldn’t fold the bottom part of my wings the wrong way. Then I’d be really pissed off instead of mildly annoyed.

Natalie’s eyes flashed when she saw me on the bed and I could tell that she was getting the complete and utter wrong idea about why I sat on the bed. In a flash she was on me again, throwing her legs around mine and lowering herself onto my lap.

“That’s more like it,” she purred. She tried to lean in for a kiss again and I put a hand on her chest and held her in place. Barely. It was tough to keep my balance on the bed while also keeping enough leverage to keep her off of me and keeping my costume from being crushed. If she’d pushed me back on the bed on top of my wings then I really would’ve cut a bitch.

This girl had her life hanging in the balance and she had no fucking idea.

“Look Natalie. I think you’ve got the wrong idea about what’s going on here. I’m not interested in anything like that.”

“Oh yeah?” Natalie said, pulling back and staring at me with sudden anger that surprised me. “You certainly seemed interested enough when you were hitting on my girlfriend!”

“What? What are you talking about?” I asked. “Who was your girlfriend?”

“Zoey. You were all about her, weren’t you? But you don’t care about me. That’s just like her, hitting on girls at these conventions and trying to keep them all for herself. Well I’m not going to have it,” she said.

Talk about a confusing moment. They were girlfriends? What the hell? I was so confused, so caught up in the moment, that I let my defenses down for the briefest of moments. The briefest of moments was all she needed though. Before I could react Natalie moved in.

“If you’re going to be a home wrecker why not be a home wrecker with me rather than Zoey?” she asked.

And then it happened. She pressed her lips against mine and I felt… Nothing. It was like the times I’d kissed a boy. Maybe it was the crazy, but there was something about this girl that didn’t do it for me.

I was more pissed off than anything else. Both because she was being so forward and because she was leaning into my costume and on the verge of breaking something. I wanted to smash her face just like she was about to smash the costume I’d spent so much time working on!

I put a hand on her and she smiled as though she thought I was getting handsy for a reason. Well I’d show her. I did have a good reason, but it had nothing to do with feeling her up. I gave her a good shove and she stumbled back a few steps with a pissed off look.

“What the fuck was that for?” she shouted.

“You’re crazy lady!” I said. “What makes you think I want to be a home wrecker with anyone, let alone you?”

“Oh I know you want to be,” she said, her voice a purr as she moved forward again. The pissed off look was gone to be replaced with a seductive stare. Like I said, she was fucking crazy and I didn’t want anything to do with her.

The only problem? She was on me again before I could do anything about it. Her lips moved in closer and I found myself wondering if she’d pulled this sort of thing with other girls who were interested in helping out with her charity. If she had then this was one charity I didn’t want anything to do with. What the fuck was her problem?

“What the fuck is going on here?”

Damn. Saved by… something? That voice sounded familiar, but it was really loud and really high pitched. Like a shriek. Natalie’s eyes went wide and she turned to the door. I followed her gaze and blinked in surprise.

Zoey stood right there looking very pissed off. Not that I could blame her considering what was going on. She’d just walked in on her girlfriend trying to make out with a complete stranger. If I was in her shoes I’d be pretty pissed off about the circumstances too!

“Zoey!” Natalie said, jumping off of me like I was a hot stove or something. I was just relieved to have her off of me. “This isn’t what it looks like. I promise!”

“Isn’t what it looks like?” Zoey shrieked again.

I winced. We were in a hotel, after all. There were probably people all around who were trying to enjoy their vacation and now there was an episode of Jerry Springer happening right down the hall. Zoey plowed right on, screaming at the top of her lungs. At least the screaming seemed to be directed mostly at Natalie and not at me. I could be thankful for the little things.

“What the fuck do you think telling me this isn’t what it looks like? You’re up here trying to make out with some girl you just met! This is exactly what I said you were doing and now I caught you! I caught you and you can’t deny it!”

Okay then. It looked like they were about to have a lovers’ spat, and the last thing I wanted was to get in the middle of something like that. I really didn’t want to get into a cat fight or anything like that. Especially when I was in my costume. I was going to go berserk if it got ruined because this crazy Natalie girl pulled me, unwillingly, into the middle of her failing love life.

I did feel a pang of regret for Zoey though. She was pretty. She’d seemed pretty nice. It was a pity she was with the crazy girl, but I guess that sort of thing couldn’t be helped.

So while they were busy yelling at each other I took the opportunity to stand and slip past them. It was a sign of just how pissed off they were at each other that I could slip around them in my costume with the wings and everything, but they were so busy laying into each other that they didn’t seem to notice as I moved past.

Good. I was terrified one of them would reach out and try to rip off my wings or something.

I breathed a sigh of relief when I made it into the hall. I was amazed that people weren’t sticking their heads out to see what the heck was the problem. Their shouts echoed down the hall even after the door closed behind me. Then again I suppose just about everyone in the hotel this weekend was probably at the convention right about now.

I needed to get back to that convention though. I was still stunned and I started shaking as I made my way to the elevator. I couldn’t believe I let myself get stuck in that situation.

I was well rid of both of those crazy girls, but I couldn’t help but feel a flash of disappointment that I wasn’t going to have a chance with Zoey now. It was a damn shame, but them’s the breaks.

I hit a button and the elevator dinged. Their shouts still echoed down the hall until the doors shut and I’d gone down a few levels. Whatever was going on in there, it wasn’t pretty.

8: Caught

Zoey:

I was so fucking furious. I couldn’t believe this.

I mean I could believe it. I’d suspected something like this was going on for a long time now. Only now that I had the proof right in front of me? I was furious in a way I hadn’t ever imagined I could be. I was so angry that I wanted to scream and I didn’t give a fuck who heard me out there in the hall.

For once in my life I didn’t care if I was making a scene. I wanted to make a scene. I wanted the whole hotel to know the bullshit Natalie was putting me through. I wanted to drag her out and scream at her in the hotel lobby. I wanted to drag her through the convention center and yell at anyone who might care to listen about what a cheating whore she was.

Not that I thought anything like that was actually going to happen. No, we were going to have it out here and that would be the end of it. Even if public humiliation was the least she deserved for what she’d put me through.

I leveled a finger at her and she went cross-eyed looking down at it.

“I’ve caught you red-handed this time. You can’t try to weasel your way out of it or make me think I’m crazy. You were trying to get with that girl and you know it! You can’t deny it this time around!”

“Come on Zoey,” Natalie said. “You know it’s not like that. I was just getting her posed for a photograph!”

She put her hands on her hips and actually had the gall to look like she was pissed off. I couldn’t believe it. I’d caught her and she was still going to try and turn this around on me. Act like it was somehow all my fault. The only thing that kept me from launching myself across the room at her in that moment was the knowledge that it would probably ruin my costume if I did, and I didn’t want that.

“If anything I should be the one mad at you! How did you get in here? Did you lie to someone at the desk to get up here because you were paranoid? How crazy do you have to be, Zoey?”

Yup. She was really going to try and pull that. I took a deep breath and reminded myself that punching her wouldn’t be worth potentially breaking my costume. No matter how tempting it was.

“You don’t get to pull that bullshit now,” I said. “I was standing there long enough to hear everything you said. About how if she was going to be a home wrecker she might as well be a home wrecker with the right person. You weren’t posing her for a costume picture. You were trying to get it on with her!”

I didn’t know what made me more angry. That she was cheating on me or that she was trying to cheat on me with Hailey. There was something about that girl, even after I’d caught her literally in bed with my girlfriend. That was enough to give me pause, to make me wonder what kind of girl she was that she’d willingly come up to Natalie’s room like that, but I couldn’t help but blush when I thought about her.

I was also mad at myself for acting like that when I thought about her. Damn it. I needed to get that girl out of my head and concentrate on the relationship that was crumbling down around me.

“You saw all of that?” Natalie asked.

“All of it,” I replied. “You’re not lying to get out of this. You’re not convincing me that I’m somehow to blame for you being a bitch and cheating on me. How long has this been going on, Natalie?”

Natalie lowered her head and I heard her start to sniffle. I rolled my eyes. Again I was having trouble believing this even as there was a part of me that could very much believe she was pulling this. Getting mad at me didn’t work. Trying to convince me that I was somehow the asshole in this situation didn’t work. Now she was going to turn on the water works and hope that was enough to get me to come crawling back to her.

“Cut the bullshit, Natalie,” I snapped. “That’s not going to work on me either. I’m not putting up with your bullshit anymore. I’m done.”

Natalie looked up at me and she was more angry than anything else. It occurred to me at that moment that she wasn’t upset about our relationship being over so much as she was upset that I was the one ending it. That would be a blow to her ego. In her mind she should be the one dumping me even though she’d been the one out there cheating on me.

In Natalie’s world everything was about Natalie. Everything was about fitting the narrative she’d built. I’m sure after I left the room she’d start coming up with reasons why I was the bitch in this situation for leaving her ass even though she was the one who brought this on herself.

Luckily I wouldn’t have to be around for that. I didn’t give a fuck anymore. She could say whatever she wanted and I wouldn’t be around to hear it. I turned for the door.

“What do you mean, Zoey?” she asked.

I turned back around. I was letting myself get drawn in, but I couldn’t help it. I was so mad that I needed to lash out at her. I didn’t care if lashing out at her would draw me into an argument that would only leave me more upset than I already was.

“I mean it’s over between the two of us,” I said. I took a step forward and she took a step back. “We’re no longer an item, and it’s a damn good thing we’re staying in separate rooms because otherwise you’d be out on your ass right about now!”

Natalie’s eyes narrowed. She stuck her chin out and I could feel it coming. That was her angry look. Usually I didn’t like it when she hit me with her angry look, but again, I was over everything. It was like I had a shield of anger that was protecting me from my usual desire to make peace. To make sure that everything was okay between the two of us.

I was going to have a hell of a time when that anger subsided.

“Fine. If you’re going to be like that then you’re out of the group! I don’t want people like you hanging around with us and hitting on poor girls who come up to the booth. I saw how you acted with that girl before I swooped in to stop you! I was just getting revenge for how you were acting!”

I shook my head. And there we were at the rationalization she was going to use to make her the good guy in this scenario. She wasn’t a cheater. She’d swooped in and taken a girl from me before I had the opportunity to cheat on her! Talk about fucked up, but it was exactly the sort of narcissistic crap I’d come to expect from my recent ex-girlfriend.

Again, I was so glad I didn’t have to deal with that anymore.

“You can tell yourself whatever you want about why you got dumped Natalie,” I said, surprised at how calm I was. “That doesn’t change the fact that you’re the one who’s been bringing girls up to your room and doing who knows what with them. That doesn’t change the fact that you jumped on that girl when you saw me talking to her. I wasn’t the one who did that, you did.”

Her mouth worked and she actually seemed on the verge of tears. Real tears this time around, and not the crocodile tears that came out whenever she thought she was in trouble. Or maybe she was still trying to make me feel bad. It wasn’t going to work if that’s what she was going for.

“You also don’t get to kick me out of the group,” I continued. “I’m the one who has access to the website. The finances. All the social media stuff. All you do is fuck off at these conventions and find girls to cheat on me with. Do you know what that makes me?”

“What?” she asked, tears actually streaming down her cheeks now. I think she knew where this was going.

Good.

“That makes me the person in charge of the fucking group. Not you,” I hissed.

That got her attention. The anger was back, but she was still crying. I hated that I was so happy about her crying. I shouldn’t take pleasure from someone else’s misery, but considering the amount of misery she’d put me through lately I couldn’t help it.

“You can’t do that to me! The girls won’t…”

I made a chopping motion that cut her off mid sentence. “I already talked to the girls at the booth and you’re out of luck. They’re just as sick of your shit as I am. No one likes doing all the work while you swish around acting like you run everything. As far as we’re concerned you’re the one out of the group. Immediately.”

I could see the gears turning in her head. I could see the exact moment it dawned on her that not only was she about to lose her girlfriend, but she was also going to lose the group she’d been a part of for so long. It was also pretty damn obvious from the horrified expression on her face which of those two meant more to her.

It would’ve hurt, but at this point I couldn’t be surprised by anything from her. If she’d been cheating on me for this long and pulling this same routine with other girls then it’s not like I could be that upset that she was more terrified of losing the group than she was of losing me.

“Come on Zoey,” she said, a hint of pleading coming to her voice. “We could work things out. All those other girls meant nothing to me!”

I cocked an eyebrow as the fury started up again. Any inkling of sympathy I might have felt for her disappeared as she all but admitted that she’d been with other girls.

“Other girls? So you’re admitting that you’ve been cheating with other girls? That this wasn’t a one time thing?”

Her mouth opened and she let out a couple of short coughs that almost sounded like she was trying to get something out. Almost. The problem was I’d already heard enough. She’d admitted to fucking around on me, and that Hailey wasn’t the first girl it had happened with. That was confirmation enough for me. We were done.

“That’s it,” I said. “I’m done. I’m hurt that you took something away from me that I thought I loved, so I’m going to take something away from you that you loved. You don’t get to come to our events.”

“You can’t do that!”

Yeah, the panic was really setting in now. I almost would’ve felt sorry for her except for the part where she’d treated me like shit, gaslit me forever, and acted like a stupid costuming group was more important to her than our relationship.

If it was more important to her then I’d use that to twist the fucking knife.

“I can do that,” I said. “I’m the one who has all the access to everything. I’m the one who did all the real work while you were out hitting on other girls. And I’m not dealing with it anymore. I’m done, and we’re done.”

I probably could have really turned the screws on her and insisted that she get the hell out of the room since it technically belonged to the group and not to her, but I figured I’d throw her at least one bone. Besides, getting her out of the room would be more trouble than it was worth.

I slammed the door shut behind me and stalked down the hallway. I was still furious. I wanted to lash out at something, but Natalie was back there in the room and it’s not like I was going back there for round two.

And yet. I still wasn’t entirely mad at Natalie. I’d had my suspicions for long enough. Getting mad at her for cheating on me was like getting mad at a shark for eating a delicious fish. It was who she was, and I’d known that for a long time and put up with it.

No, I was still more furious that any opportunity I might’ve had with that Hailey girl had gone up in smoke because of Natalie. Because I’d been lying to myself that there was still a chance with Natalie and because of the subsequent blowup that caused her to run away.

It was a damn shame, but I suppose it was just one more thing I could be mad at Natalie about. It was already a pretty damn long list. Still, it was a pity I was probably never going to see that girl again, because I had a feeling I wasn’t going to be able to get her out of my head any time soon.

9: Apologize?

Hailey:

“So then she just threw herself at you?” Jake asked.

He leaned forward and seemed to be hanging on my every word. Almost as though he was less a concerned friend and more like he was interested in every salacious detail of the mildly involuntary girl on girl action I was subjected to.

“Pull your tongue up before it brushes the table,” I said. I also threw a fry at him for good measure. He ducked just in time and it landed harmlessly on the plastic booth behind him.

“Hey! Can’t blame a guy for enjoying a good story,” he said.

“I know exactly what you’re enjoying about the story you perv,” I said. “And I don’t appreciate you drooling over my trauma.”

Jake fixed me with an “are you fucking kidding me?” look. I managed to maintain my serious look for the space of a breath before my face cracked in a smile. A moment later I was in a fit of giggles.

“Okay, so maybe it wasn’t so traumatizing,” I said. “It was still creepy though. I’ve never had a girl come on that strong before. It was sort of ego stroking, but it was weird.”

“What I wouldn’t give to have a hot girl in one of those costumes come onto me,” Jake sighed. He looked at me with what I took as a significant glance.

“Dream on buddy,” I said. “Because that ain’t happening.”

Jake shrugged. “Again, can’t blame a guy for trying.”

“You’re not trying. You’re dreaming,” I replied.

“Excuse me, but that costume is incredible!”

I squeezed my eyes shut. It was a male voice. Not exactly someone I wanted to talk to right about now. They’d been bothering me all day long. Even when I was making my way from the hotel lobby back to the convention center to meet up with Jake and it was pretty obvious that I’d just suffered some trauma and I didn’t need people bothering me. No one had taken the hint.

I opened my eyes and looked up to the guy. A little voice whispered that I needed to be nice, but I stomped down on that little voice. After everything that had happened to me today I was ready to bite someone’s head off, and it didn’t help that I was trying to enjoy a nice dinner with my friend in a quiet hotel restaurant and people were still coming up and asking for a picture.

“Are you blind or something?” I asked.

“What are you talking about?” the guy asked.

“Can’t you see that I’m sitting here trying to enjoy dinner with my friend? What the hell is your problem?”

The guy looked pissed, but I figured that wasn’t my problem. He was coming up and bothering me and that’s all I cared about.

“What’s your problem? You’re in a costume. Aren’t you supposed to want people to take your picture? You wouldn’t be wearing something like that if you didn’t want it!”

I rolled my eyes. “Oh my God, did you really just say that? Do you realize how creepy that sounds? Now get the hell out of here before I have my friend here beat you up.”

Jake looked up at the guy and made a show of cracking his knuckles. I had to hide my smile behind my hand. He’d been waiting all day for me to set him loose like that, and a part of me thought he might actually go so far as to try and hit the guy or something.

“Easy Jake,” I said.

“What?” he asked, trying to look all sweet and innocent and not doing a very good job of it. “I wasn’t actually going to hit the guy or anything.”

That conversation seemed to be enough to scare the guy away though. When I turned back to keep giving him a piece of my mind he was gone. I sighed in relief. I really wasn’t in the mood to deal with people asking for pictures. Not right now. Not after everything that happened today.

“You’ve been waiting to do that all day, haven’t you?” I asked.

“And you must really be pissed off if you’re getting that angry at a guy asking for a picture,” Jake replied.

I sighed. “Maybe I am. Maybe I shouldn’t even come back here tomorrow. I’ve had a hell of a day, and tomorrow I’m going to see those girls. You can’t avoid them.”

“Come on, it’s not like it’s that bad,” Jake said. “You have a whole convention you can go to without worrying about running into those girls.”

“So?”

“So go enjoy the whole convention and don’t worry about running into those girls.”

“I know, but you just don’t realize how creepy the whole thing was. I thought that girl was weird, but I didn’t think she’d invite me up to her room just so she could hit on me!”

Jake shrugged and leaned back in his booth. “Again, you’re talking to the wrong person here. I’d love it if someone dressed like you hit on me.”

He grinned and made a little shooting motion with his hand. I resisted the urge to throw another fry across the room. Barely.

“I get it. You think I’m hot in this outfit. Doesn’t mean you have a chance,” I said. “You know I’m into the girls.”

“You never know,” he said with a grin that said he wasn’t going to give up on this. It was a good thing he was joking. I’d had to end at least one friendship in the past with a guy who thought I wasn’t completely serious about being into the ladies. As though his magical dick was what I really needed to completely switch my sexual orientation.

The prick. Literally.

“Okay, so the point is I’ve had a weird convention so far and now I have to avoid that half of the convention center,” I said. “I guess it’s not so bad though. I could be careful about avoiding those girls or something. Maybe if I worked around their booth.”

“Did you ever think about just apologizing to the one girl?” Jake asked.

“What do you mean?”

He shrugged. “Seems to me that there’s only one girl in that situation who really has a reason to be mad at you. The one who thought you were trying to steal her girl. Why not just apologize and avoid the awkward?”

“Yeah, that’s just the ticket. Knowing my luck I’ll go over there and run into that other girl. The crazy one.”

Jake fixed me with a look that could only be described as “are you fucking kidding me?” I held his gaze for the space of a couple of moments before I had to look away.

“Yeah, you’re right,” I said, knowing what he meant without him saying anything.

“Damn straight I’m right,” he said. “There’s not a chance the crazy girl is still going to be hanging around after all that. You need to go apologize to that other girl and get this off your chest, because there’s no way I’m avoiding half the convention center just because you got in the middle of a lovers’ spat.”

“Fine, you jerk,” I said. “I’ll go apologize. Though I don’t really think I even have something to apologize for.”

“Yeah, you might not be at fault here, but I bet that girl doesn’t feel that way. Besides, you’re going to have to apologize to someone if you still want to be a part of that group,” he said.

“What makes you think I’d want to be a part of that group after everything that just happened?”

“Easy. I know you too well. I can see that look in your eyes. You’re pissed off that you won’t get a chance to hang out with them and get a kickass new costume or whatever it is they promised you.”

I stuck my tongue out at Jake, but I figured I’d let him go right on thinking I was upset about not being a part of the group. It was better than the truth, which was a lot more complicated. No, the real reason I was so upset about everything that happened didn’t have anything to do with getting kicked out of a group I’d never been a part of.

It did have everything to do with that Zoey girl, though. I couldn’t stop thinking about her. How pretty she was. How nice she seemed. How I was drawn to her even after she got pissed off and ordered me out of that hotel room.

I couldn’t shake the feeling that we’d had something in the few minutes we’d been chatting. That was a fun flirty conversation, and it had been awhile since I’d had anything approaching a fun flirty conversation with another girl. Maybe it was precisely because it had been awhile, but whatever the reason I couldn’t get her out of my head.

Which was probably the big reason why I was going to go over and do an apology in the first place. I couldn’t get her out of my head, and I figured that meant I had to try and talk to her one more time.

Even if there was a damn good chance she was going to tell me to fuck off. Which I probably deserved even if it had been that Natalie freak hitting on me and not the other way around.

I pulled some cash out of my chest armor. The funny thing about wearing armor like this is it was difficult to hide money and ID anywhere, so I ended up hiding it in the one spot on the costume where I could be guaranteed to know if I was about to lose something. Unfortunately that had the added effect of drawing eyes to my tits every time I went to get some money or a credit card.

Like right now. I looked up and saw Jake staring right at my chest.

“Hey buddy,” I said. “Eyes up here.”

He looked up and shrugged, though he didn’t apologize. I rolled my eyes and shook my head. He was almost as bad as that Natalie girl sometimes. I couldn’t wait until I was out of this costume so he could get out from under whatever spell my body in a skimpy bikini seemed to have cast on him.

“So you’re leaving right now?” Jake asked.

“Well yeah,” I said. “I need to get over there and talk to that girl, don’t I?”

Jake looked down at his phone and then back up to me. I followed his gaze and arched an eyebrow. What was he on about? He held the phone up and I saw the time. Six thirty. Then it dawned on me exactly what it was he was on about.

“Damn,” I whispered.

“Yup,” Jake said. “You’re not getting in there tonight. The dealer hall has been closed for a half hour now.”

“Maybe if I wander around the hotel or go to some of the after con events?” I said.

Jake shrugged. “You could try that, but it’s only Friday. You’d be better off trying the Masquerade Ball they’re doing tomorrow.”

I shivered thinking about all the fun I could potentially have with Zoey at a masquerade. The sort of fun that I wasn’t going to have because I’d been pulled into the middle of her fucked up love life, damn it.

“Whatever,” I said. “I’ll just go out to their booth first thing tomorrow and make my apologies.”

Still, I couldn’t help but feel a little excited at the idea of apologizing even if I was trying to sound disappointed. I didn’t want to give Jake the wrong idea about my intentions. A part of me figured I’d go up to their booth and she’d tell me to fuck off, but there was another more whimsical part of me that hoped we’d have a conversation that would lead to something more special.

Yeah, it had been way too fucking long since I’d had anything close to a relationship if this was the kind of fantasy world I was living in.

“I think I’m going to head up to my room for now,” I said. “It’s been a long day and I’ve had a lot happen.”

“Are you sure? I still needed to talk to you about something,” Jake said. “I was hoping while we were having dinner, y’know.”

I paused and sighed. “Does it really have to happen right now? I’m kinda out of it right now.”

Jake looked into my eyes for one long moment then shook his head and sighed. “I guess it’s not that important right now. Not if you’ve had a long day. We can talk about it some other time.”

I grinned and reached out to squeeze his hand. “Good. I’m going to get out of this thing and relax. It’s going to be another long day with all this stuff on tomorrow, after all.”

Jake’s grin returned. He gave me a quick once over as I stood and readjusted my wings. The kind of once over that was almost as bad as what Natalie had done earlier.

“I’m looking forward to it!”

“I bet you are, you perv,” I said as I tossed down enough cash to cover the bill and a tip. It wasn’t a small amount of money. These conventions weren’t cheap!

I turned and walked out, and tried not to think about Jake’s eyes on my ass. At least I could take some comfort in knowing that his view was partially blocked by the wings getting in the way.

Even as I walked out I couldn’t help but feel a bit excited. The sooner I got to my room the sooner I could relax, sure, but that also meant the sooner I could drift off to sleep. That excited me because I very much wanted it to be tomorrow so I would know exactly where Zoey was and I could talk to her again. Even if it was for an apology that would probably wind up being a disaster.

At least it was talking to her.

As it was I felt a jolt of excitement followed by disappointment every time I rounded a corner in the hotel and saw a new crowd of people from the convention. Every time I did that there was a chance I’d run into her, and every time I came up short.

Whatever. I could wait until tomorrow. That was when the magic would happen.

Maybe. Okay probably not, but a girl could hope.

10: Morning After

Zoey:

“So there’s seriously no Natalie today?” Heather asked.

“Nope, absolutely no Natalie here today or tomorrow,” I said.

“Are you sure?” Sierre asked from the other side. “It’s not like her to just skip one of these things even if…”

“Trust us,” Lisa said. “There’s not going to be any Natalie here today or any other time. After everything that went down yesterday I’d be surprised if she ever shows her face at one of these conventions again.”

“I just can’t believe it,” Thea said. She was sitting on a folding chair in front of our table. “She’s just always been there. It’s so weird to think that she’s not around any more.”

“I know. Talk about fucking luck!” Heather said. Then she put a hand to her mouth and looked around again as though she wasn’t sure of herself. “Shit, I shouldn’t have said that. Are you sure she’s not hiding around here somewhere?”

Cassie rolled her eyes and let out a disgusted sound. “Are you serious? You think we’re pulling all of this as some sort of loyalty test or something?”

“Natalie’s done crazier things,” Heather sniffed.

“Would we go along with it?” Cassie asked.

Heather looked around at all of us as though she was seriously questioning that. I picked up a paper talking all about our charity work, balled it up into a crumpled mess, and tossed it at her. She batted it out of the air and stuck her tongue out at me.

“Fine. I believe you. It’s just hard to believe you finally got rid of her, even with all the…”

She stopped and put a hand to her mouth again. Her eyes went wide and her cheeks colored. It was always really easy to see when she blushed because of her pale freckled skin. She was a cutie, but one hundred percent straight which was a damn shame.

“You mean all the times she cheated on me?” I asked. “It’s okay. You can say it. I realized what an idiot I’ve been all this time.”

Heather looked down. “Well still. It’s not nice to say something like that,” she said.

“Don’t worry about it,” I replied. “I’m rid of her and that’s that.”

“Good,” Thea said. She leaned back in her chair and she had a satisfied smile on her face.

Actually just about everyone at the booth had a satisfied smile on their face. It was amazing. If I was being totally honest then deep down one of the reasons I’d been reluctant to break up with Natalie was that I worried leaving her might mean leaving the group. It was a fucking relief to know that the girls were all siding with me.

I looked past them to the rest of the dealer hall. We were allowed in an hour early for setup so we got to see all the magic being set up before it happened. Across the way there was a creepy bearded guy selling pictures of scantily clad anime babes who looked just a little too young to be that scantily clad. Down from him was a girl selling soap that was made to look like various geeky things like d20 dice or old video game cartridges. There were crafts and artists and people like us in costumes.

In short, it felt like home. I’d always felt more at home at conventions like this than I did out in the real world. Here I was with my people even if I was a geeky daywalker who could pass for normal when I was out there in that real world.

“You doing okay?” Cassie asked.

I looked over to her and sighed. I thought of everything that happened the night before. The shouting. The arguing. Hotel security eventually showing up and telling us that we were bothering the guests and we’d have to leave if we couldn’t keep it down.

That had been an embarrassment and a half, but at the end of the day I’d done what needed to be done. I was free. No more Natalie running my life. No more Natalie ruining my life. No more Natalie making me feel miserable or like I was the one who was wrong when she was the one out tomcatting around.

“Yeah, I think I’m going to be fine,” I said.

“Really? Because you look like the kind of person who has some regrets,” Cassie said.

“Yeah, I might have a few, but what can you do?” I said.

“If you need to talk let me know,” Cassie said.

Regrets. I thought of Hailey. She’d been so pretty and so innocent and nice. Flirtatious, too, which was something I was a little rusty at considering that I’d been with Natalie for awhile now. It was a damn shame she got caught in the middle of all that nastiness, because she’d been a cutie.

Now she was a cutie who probably didn’t want anything to do with me though. If she had been interested I was sure that interest was well and truly gone by the time she saw the beginnings of that screaming match. I knew it probably wasn’t her fault what happened, but I’d been so mad at the time that I’d lashed out at anyone and everything in my path.

Including Hailey.

Oh well. Collateral damage. One last thing to blame on Natalie. A relationship that probably wouldn’t have happened regardless of whether or not that shouting match happened.

I needed to get my mind off of all that nastiness, and it felt like the best way to do that was to focus on work. Or the charity, considering I wasn’t getting paid to do this. I was paying quite a bit for the costume and the booth, actually.

I clapped my hands together. “Okay girls. It’s not like this booth is going to prepare itself! Cassie, I want you to go around the dealer hall and make sure all the people we handed out flyers to yesterday still have those up. Thea, I need you to do a check of all the Battle Gear Angel Squad stuff we’re raffling off tomorrow and make sure none of the stuff got up and walked away. Sierra, you’re responsible for getting our costume triage unit up and running. Make sure we have enough hot melt and sewing supplies to last us through the day. Lisa, I want you to make a run to the vending machines outside the convention center and get us some caffeine that doesn’t cost an arm and a leg, and don’t stop for pictures. Heather, you’re going to put all our props and stuff out on the table and make sure it looks nice. Natalie…”

I stopped and looked around in a panic. I got into the swing of barking out orders and it just came out. Damn it. I didn’t mean to bring her up. They all turned and looked at me as though they were expecting me to blow up or something.

“Sorry,” I said. “I guess I got a little carried away. Natalie, wherever the fuck you are you can burn in hell for all I care.”

Everyone laughed and cheered. They kept doing it just long enough that I had to clap my hands again to make sure they got to work. It’s not like all this stuff was going to take care of itself, after all.

Once they were all off doing their thing I sank down into one of the free folding chairs. I’d been so focused on giving all of them something to do that I hadn’t left anything for me to do. That was probably a good thing though. We had a half hour until the dealer hall opened and I needed some time to sit down and veg out. Really forget about all the bullshit that had happened yesterday.

I really hoped I didn’t make any more slips like I did with Natalie just a minute ago. I still couldn’t believe all that. That I’d actually caught her. That she’d tried to act like it was all my fault. The bitch. If I…

“Having fun staring off into space?”

I shook my head and looked up at Cassie. I smiled. “As a matter of fact I was until you so rudely interrupted me.”

“Well it’s a good thing I did. You need to be up and at’em soon. The hall opened a couple of minutes ago and people are streaming in.”

I blinked. I glanced around the dealer hall and sure enough the place was already starting to fill with a ridiculous Saturday crowd. Even early in the morning it looked like more people than had been here at the height of traffic yesterday when there were still people at work so the crowd was thinner.

“Damn. I just spaced out for a half hour thinking about how much I hated Natalie,” I muttered.

“I can see where that would be tempting, but it’d be nice if you came back to reality for a little while,” Cassie said. “We’ll need our leader, after all. Besides, I’m pretty sure I saw one of your distractions making her way over here when I was on my way back.”

I frowned. “What are you talking about? Is Natalie…”

But Cassie wasn’t giving anything away. She put a finger to her lips and grinned. “Spoilers.”

“Seriously Cassie,” I said. “I don’t have time for this stuff. What are you…”

Someone cleared her throat behind me. Not Natalie. I’d recognize Natalie’s sounds anywhere. There was only one other distraction I could think of who would be standing behind me clearing her throat, though, and I almost didn’t want to turn around. If I turned around then there was a chance it wouldn’t be Hailey, and the ridiculous hope that flared inside me would be all for nothing.

I turned around, not daring to hope that it could actually be here. My heart leapt when I saw Hailey standing there with an uncertain smile on her face. As though she wasn’t even sure if she should be standing there.

Given how I’d acted yesterday I could totally see where she might be a little hesitant to even talk to me.

“Hi,” she said.

“Hi yourself,” I replied. I grinned. I couldn’t help it. It was ridiculous after everything that happened, but I was so happy and relieved to see her standing there. It meant that I hadn’t chased her off with my bullshit. I hadn’t scared her away by blowing up at Natalie while she was standing right in front of me in that hotel room.

I was so relieved to see her there, even if I had no idea why she’d be standing there. Not after everything that happened. I needed to apologize for the way I’d acted. For being such a jerk.

The only problem with that plan was that she beat me to it. She opened her mouth, took a deep breath, and the words tumbled out of her mouth.

“So listen, I know I’m probably the last person you want to see right now but after everything that happened yesterday I had to come by here and at least talk to you for a minute. I wanted to apologize for everything that happened.”

I blinked. Okay then. I guess she was going to beat me to the punch and apologize before I got a chance to apologize. I guess that was okay as long as we were getting everything out in the open. Not quite what I was expecting, and I wondered why she felt like she needed to apologize since it was obviously Natalie who’d pulled all the bullshit yesterday. Still, it was a conversation starter that didn’t involve her yelling at me for being such a jerk.

That was one reason why I worked so hard to be so nice to everyone around me. I knew what I was capable of when I really got mad so I worked overtime to be sweet and nice and to keep everything under control.

There was no need for that now, though. I was so relieved to see Hailey standing there. So happy that she’d come to see me, even if it was for a bullshit apology that I didn’t quite deserve considering how I’d acted.

I opened my mouth and then realized I had no idea how to respond to all that. What did I say? That I had a major crush on her? That I was the jerk? That she didn’t need to apologize? That I wanted to go up to my hotel room with her and have the world’s most intense makeout session?

Stupid short-circuiting brain not knowing what to say at the right moment!

11: Apology

Hailey:

Something was supposed to happen now. I got my apology out and she was supposed to either tell me to fuck off or embrace me in a big hug and tell me everything was going to be okay and all was forgiven. What I hadn’t expected was for Zoey to stand there looking absolutely flummoxed as though she didn’t know what to say.

Damn.

Well I’d already taken the initiative of coming out here to apologize to her. I figured I might as well continue to be a little daring. Fortune favors the bold and all that, though I hadn’t been all that bold in my dating life lately.

Maybe that was part of the problem. I was feeling a little bold now, though, for whatever reason. Maybe it was being at a convention where I was surrounded by my people and I didn’t feel like the awkward dorkasaurus that I was when I was at school. Maybe it was the confidence boost that I got from seeing everybody staring at me in my costume.

Whatever it was, I did something that was very out of character for me. I reached out and touched her hand even as a part of me was screaming that this was a terrible idea and it was all going to end in tears.

I tried to ignore that voice. It was hard after listening to it for so long, but somehow I managed. Barely.

Zoey’s reaction was immediate. She jumped as though she’d been hit by a live wire. She looked up at me and for a moment her expression was unreadable. The voice telling me this would all end in tears grew louder. I’d gone too far. She didn’t like this. It was all going to come crashing down around me and she was going to start screaming at me the same as she’d been screaming at her girlfriend yesterday.

Even with all those fears running through me I couldn’t help but look around one more time for any sign of Natalie. I didn’t see her skulking around the booth anywhere. I really hoped that meant she’d gone from girlfriend to ex-girlfriend last night.

Finally Zoey smiled. I let out a sigh of relief. Maybe this wasn’t going to end in total disaster.

“Y’know I should hate you right about now,” she said. “After all, you were all alone up in that hotel room with my ex yesterday.”

Well then. Talk about a couple of sentences that sent me on a roller coaster. She should hate me. That wasn’t good. I didn’t want her to hate me. I wanted her to like me. I very much wanted her to like me, damn it. Then there was that bit about the whole ex-girlfriend thing. That was promising. Ex-girlfriend meant she was on the market, though it was probably too soon to be thinking about that sort of thing.

Stupid. I was thinking with the brain between my legs. I needed to stop doing that. It was going to get me in trouble. That sort of thinking got me in trouble yesterday when I went to that fishy party invite. All because I thought Zoey might be there.

“So you hate me?” I asked, dreading the answer.

Zoey sighed. Shook her head and then locked eyes with me. That was an intense gaze. The sort of look that made me want to take a step back. Except I felt like I was glued to the spot. Taking a step back meant I’d lose the oh-so-distracting contact of her hand, and I wasn’t going to do that.

This might be the only time I got to touch her like that, and I was going to hold onto that moment for as long as I could.

“I can’t be that mad at you,” Zoey said after a pause. “After all, I have a feeling Natalie probably got you up there by lying through her teeth and from the way she was begging you when I walked through the door it didn’t seem like you were exactly going along with her or anything.”

Another relieved sigh. She didn’t blame me. At least not entirely. Though I still felt like I needed to clear a few things up. After all, I didn’t think any of the blame should fall on me. I was as much a victim of that crazy girl as Zoey was.

“I’m glad to hear that,” I said, and then the words started spilling out. I wanted to be vindicated, damn it, even if I was kind of falling all over myself. “She invited me up there saying your group was having a party or something and I’d never been to a real convention party before and it was with people who were into the same thing I was. Then I got there and it was just her and she was all over me even when I told her I wasn’t interested and suddenly you were standing there looking pissed off which really pissed me off because the whole reason I went to the party in the first place is because I thought I’d get another chance to talk to you!”

I took a deep breath and winced. Did I really just let all that word vomit spill out? Not only that, but did I really just tell her that the only reason I went to that party in the first place was because I thought I’d see her? I was acting like an idiot. An idiot with a crush.

I darted my eyes up to Zoey, wondering how she’d react. For a surprise she was laughing and shaking her head.

“That sounds just like Natalie,” Zoey said. “Y’know I really have to thank you. I’ve suspected she was doing something like that for a long time now, but it took yesterday and seeing her alone in the room with you to finally get the proof. Proof I never would’ve gotten if I wasn’t so…”

Zoey stopped and shut her mouth. A blush came to her cheeks and now she was the one looking away from me.

“If you weren’t so… what?” I asked, suddenly very curious what she was so embarrassed to say.

“Jealous,” Zoey whispered.

“Jealous of me with your girlfriend?” I asked. I was confused. How could she be jealous that I was going up to a hotel room with her girlfriend if she didn’t even know that we were in a hotel room together until she walked in on us?

“She was jealous that Natalie was up there alone in that room with you doofus,” a girl said as she walked past with a pile of papers. She was dressed in a Battle Gear Angel Squad costume that looked pretty similar to the one Zoey was wearing. Zoey turned around and fixed the girl with a look that was the embodiment of the phrase “if looks could kill,” but by then the girl was on the other side of the booth pointedly ignoring both of us.

“You were jealous that your girlfriend was hitting on me?” I asked. I felt butterflies rising in my stomach. Could it be that this girl was interested in me? Like really interested in me? The thought was full of possibilities, and I liked it in a way that I hadn’t liked her girlfriend hitting on me.

Funny how that worked.

“Look, the point is I knew Natalie has been stepping out on me for awhile now even if I didn’t want to admit it to myself. Seeing her with you yesterday finally gave me the push I needed to figure out for sure that she was a cheating piece of shit.”

“Um, glad I could help?” I said.

“Yeah, you did help,” Zoey said. Our hands were still together. Odd. I’d been so caught up in our conversation that I hadn’t realized we were still making that contact. Yet there was a strange warmth running through my body from the point where we held that contact. I shivered. I didn’t want that contact to end, even if I knew that it had to soon enough.

“It does feel weird though,” Zoey said.

“What does?”

“Being single,” she said. “I’ve been with Natalie so long that I don’t know what to do with myself now.”

Her eyes darted to me. Maybe I was imagining things, but it seemed like they ran up and down my body in a quick look. I shivered again. If that look meant what I thought it did then she had a few ideas of what she could do now that she was single. That or I was just indulging in the world’s worst case of wishful thinking ever.

“Right, well I’m still sorry about everything that happened. I’m sorry I was the reason you guys broke up,” I said. I felt like my nose was going to start growing at any time because that was one hell of a lie. “I know that means I probably can’t be part of you group now so…”

I honestly didn’t know what to say after that. I’d come over here and apologized and Zoey didn’t bite my head off which I figured was a good thing. She’d heavily insinuated that she might be into me which was a very good thing, but for some reason I couldn’t bring myself to make a move. To seal the deal, as Jake would say.

It felt so wrong even if I knew it was right. She just got out of a relationship with another girl. I barely knew her. I’d seen that scary side of her where she was yelling at her ex-girlfriend and it hadn’t been pretty even if she was very pretty otherwise.

Yeah, there were a lot of good reasons to not say anything. So instead I did an awkward little nod that was more cringeworthy than anything I’d ever done back in middle school when it felt like just about everything I did was cringeworthy and turned to walk off. I could’ve kicked myself as I walked off.

Pretty girl hitting on me. I should talk to pretty girl. See if pretty girl wanted to go out sometime. See if pretty girl had the same sign as me or something even though I didn’t go much for all that astrological bullshit.

Instead I was walking away. Like the awkward dateless person I was. I deserved this. I hated myself. I wanted to turn around but couldn’t bring myself to for some reason.

Honestly, what was I expecting? I’d been caught in the middle of some Jerry Springer level drama getting stuck in between those two girls. If I thought she was going to run up and say she wanted to take me out on a hot date then I had another thing coming. That was the sort of thing that only happened in cheesy romance movies or novels, and even then it only happened to straight people.

No, I was going to do what I always did. Walk away from something that might be good because I was afraid. The self loathing was going to reach epic levels by the time I got to the dealer hall exit, because there wasn’t a chance in hell I was going to stick around here and risk running into Zoey again after pulling that level of awkward. I might not even emerge from my hotel room for the rest of the weekend the way things were going.

I really needed to find Jake. I didn’t want to deal with him checking me out in my costume armor, but at the same time I really needed a familiar face right about now and he was my friend after all.

Damn it. Why did I have to be such a spaz?

12: Accepted

Zoey:

Well that was rather… abrupt. One moment we’d been chatting and I thought things were going pretty well between us. The next moment she’d wheeled around and she was heading towards the entrance to the dealer hall as though she couldn’t get there fast enough.

Fuck. And I thought things were going so well, too.

I’m not sure why I was thinking that though. I mean she’d come to apologize but after seeing me blowing up at Natalie yesterday it was hardly surprising that she wouldn’t want anything to do with me. She’d seen the part of me that was the big reason why I always tried to be so nice to people.

As an ex had once told me long ago: “you get scary angry sometimes Zoey.”

I closed my eyes and tried to count to ten. It was something that was supposed to help with those moments when I got “scary angry.” It was something I’d done for as far back as I could remember, and it helped sometimes.

Not that it helped much now. I was so furious with Natalie. I was still furious at her for cheating on me, of course, but in this moment more than anything I was furious with her for reaching out of the past and ruining any chance I might have with this girl in the present.

“Well that went really well, didn’t it?” Cassie asked.

I jumped. Wheeled around and pointed a finger at her. “I’ve told you not to do that to me. You know I hate it when you sneak up on me like that!”

Cassie shrugged. Obviously that wasn’t her problem. “What am I supposed to do? Wear a bell or something so you can hear me over the sound of all the people at the convention? No thanks.”

“Sorry,” I said. “I’m not mad at you. I’m just upset about…”

I trailed off. I wasn’t sure how to even broach the subject. I’d been with Natalie for so long that it still felt like a betrayal to even think about getting with another girl. Of course that only caused a bit of anger to come rising up once more. Natalie sure hadn’t felt bad about thinking about getting with another girl, after all.

“Seriously, what’s wrong?” Cassie said. “Upset about that girl getting away?”

“Why should I feel guilty about being into another girl?” I asked. “Natalie didn’t feel guilty at all, but every time I think about even talking with someone new I get this feeling like I’m cheating on her.”

“You probably feel that way because you’re a good person and Natalie was a cheating piece of shit, and had been a cheating piece of shit for awhile,” Cassie said. “Everyone knew it. You knew it. It just took you a little while to admit it to yourself.”

“Don’t pull any punches or anything Cass,” I said. “Not like I’m in an emotionally vulnerable state or anything here.”

Cassie shrugged. “Doesn’t seem like you need anyone sugarcoating anything right about now. What you need is some truth.”

“Like the truth that Natalie was cheating on me? Why didn’t you tell me what was going on when that was happening?”

“We did try to tell you a couple of times, Zoey,” Cassie said with a frustrated roll of her eyes. “We told you at every con that you needed to break up with her already. Don’t get mad at us because you weren’t ready to listen to the truth.”

I stuck my tongue out at her. “Oh yeah? Well why do you have to be such a smartass bitch now?”

“Because that’s my job. It’s also my job to tell you when you’re being an idiot, and you’d better listen to me now because I think we all know where not listening got you the last time around.”

“Fine, oh great and powerful wise one,” I said. “How am I being an idiot now?”

“You’re letting that girl get away!”

I looked down the hall formed by all the convention booths. She was getting away, but not at a very fast speed. Even from here I could tell she was having the classic problem of not being able to take more than a couple of steps without someone asking her to take a picture with them. It was a problem I was more than familiar with thanks to my own time wandering the dealer hall in my own costume. I liked to think they were dazzled by all the hard work that obviously went into making the steampunk angel armor from the series, but I was a realist. I knew the real draw was probably that the battle armor was more of a battle bikini and we were pretty girls wearing those bikinis.

I looked back to Cassie. I wasn’t worried that Hailey was going to get away any time soon. I had time to chat with my friend and figure out exactly what she meant.

“What are you talking about?” I asked. “Are you forgetting that I just got out of a relationship? Is it really a good idea for me to go after some other girl when I just dumped one? Isn’t that a really bad idea?”

“What, like you’re worried she’s just going to be a rebound or something? Who cares? This is your chance to get with her, so go for it!”

“I just don’t know,” I said.

“Oh my God,” a frustrated voice said from behind the curtain holding up our group’s banner. Lisa stepped out from behind it and put her hands on her hips. “Would you stop being such a melodramatic bitch about this? Do you want to get to know that girl better or not?”

I stared for a moment with my mouth hanging open. I wasn’t sure how else to react to that. “Um, no?”

Lisa made a shooing motion. “Then get out there and talk to her! It’s not like it’s the end of the world if nothing happens. This is a con. People meet for the weekend and never see each other again all the time. You’re not a special snowflake. This isn’t setting up some grand romance that’s going to last the rest of your life or anything.”

“She’s right,” Cassie said. “You’re way overthinking this. Go out there and have your rebound. It’s not going to kill you.”

“Neither one of you is going to let this go, are you?” I asked.

“Not a chance,” Cassie said. “And if you don’t go now we’re going to track down the other girls and get them to yell at you too.”

I threw my hands up in frustration. “Fine! I’m going. Slavedrivers.”

“Good,” Cassie called after me as I turned to step out of the booth. “And if it turns out she’s not interested in you could you at least talk to her about joining the organization? We do have a spot to fill now that Natalie’s not in the group anymore, you know.”

I wheeled around and nearly caught my wings on a pole holding up a pile of old toys from the ‘90s being sold at the booth next to us. I gave Cassie a double one-fingered salute as I walked backwards away from the booth. Though not for long. Walking backwards in this thing was a good way to have the entire costume ruined by running into someone.

“Love you too!” Cassie called after me.

I wheeled around. This was going to be interesting. Hailey had a head start, to be sure, but I could still see her off in the distance. She hadn’t gotten very far and she wasn’t going to get very far looking like she did in that outfit.

The only problem? The thing I’d failed to take into account when calculating my ability to get to her quickly if I decided to chase after her? Well I hadn’t thought about how I was in the same damned costume and everyone who wanted to take a picture with her was fixating on me in her wake.

Damn. I could see them moving in. Pervy guys licking their lips. Girls smiling and looking at my costume with envy. Guys who thought they were professional photographers because they bought a cheap DSLR camera at the electronics store. It was a gauntlet of people who all wanted a piece of me, and they were all going to do their best to keep me away from Hailey.

I growled and put my shoulders down. It was time to push through the crowds. Phones moved up in front of me on all sides as people asked if they could take a picture, but I went against every instinct honed across going to dozens of conventions in costume over the years and ignored all of them.

I was a woman on a mission. I was going to get to Hailey before she got out into the convention hall and was lost to me forever.

Though even then there was a good chance she’d be stopped by people who wanted a piece of her. Or a picture. Some people around me took pictures without even asking which was a big no no when it came to convention etiquette, but with the popularity of conventions on the rise in the past decade it felt like there were a lot of people showing up to these things these days who didn’t know the rules.

Normally I’d stop and give those sort of people a firm talking to. Let them know exactly what I thought of them taking a picture without even asking for permission. I ignored them this time around though. They could do what they wanted as long as I got to Hailey, damn it.

Ignoring people was working though. I was getting closer and closer. Hailey seemed oblivious to everything but the people surrounding her asking for pictures of their own. So oblivious that when I came up and put a hand on her shoulder she started by responding to me like she would someone coming up to ask for one of those pictures.

“I’m sorry,” she said as she turned to face me. “But I really don’t want to take any… Oh. It’s you.”

My heart fluttered at the way she said “Oh. It’s you.” She didn’t exactly sound happy to see me, but at the same time she didn’t exactly seem pissed off to see me either. I’d take that as a win. It meant I still had a chance, at least.

I hoped it meant I still had a chance.

“We need to talk,” I said.

Four words that could mean so much. Four words that could strike terror into the heart of someone in a long term relationship. Though in this case I hoped they were four words that would result in something more positive than what they usually meant.

“Okay, so let’s talk,” Hailey said, her voice carefully neutral.

I glanced at the people surrounding us. There were a lot of them. It was as though seeing two of us standing together in our costume bikini armor was enough to draw in crowds in numbers that one of us alone couldn’t. I was more than familiar with it. It seemed the more girls we added the more people crowded around, but I wasn’t in the mood for that right now.

“Maybe we could go do this somewhere a little more quiet?” I asked.

“Whatever you have to say to me you can say here,” Hailey said.

Cameras continued to flash all around us. Damn it. This was not a conversation I wanted to have in front of a bunch of cameras. I didn’t want this conversation plastered all over social media, though there was no chance of that not happening now.

I interrogated my feelings on that for a moment. Why didn’t I want this plastered all over social media? Was it because this was a private moment I didn’t want to share with the world?

Or was it because I didn’t want this to get back to Natalie? Was it because I still had the feeling that I was in a relationship with her despite the breakup, and so my fear of pictures like this getting on social media was a fear that my girlfriend who was no longer my girlfriend would see them?

Damn it. I was not going to think like that. I was well rid of Natalie, damn it, and that meant I was going to have this conversation with Hailey even if there were people all around us. Let them plaster it all over the Internet. Let Natalie see this. It would serve her right. The cheating bitch.

“Look, I’m sorry for how I acted back there. Everything is kind of weird for me and I’m not sure how to react to things because of all that, but I think you’re pretty cool and so do the other girls and we have a spot open in our group now so…”

I was babbling. Babbling wasn’t good. Babbling meant I was likely to say something stupid. It didn’t help that I was trying to talk in a whisper, though in practice it was a whisper that was more of a low speaking voice since we were surrounded by the noise of the convention on all sides.

“That sounds a lot like what Natalie said to me,” Hailey said after a long pause. “She talked about letting me in the group too, but she was talking about all the things she wanted me to do to get into the group. Is that what you’re doing now?”

I shook my head. “No! No way! I’m not like that. Natalie was… well she did what she did and I can’t help it, but I can tell you we’re better than that and she shouldn’t have ever tried something like that. The girls talked about it and you’re welcome to join the group if you want to.”

Hailey glanced around at the crowd that had surrounded us. It seemed like no sooner had one person taken a picture than someone else moved in with their phone or their cheap DSLR so they could get a snapshot. And we weren’t even posing. It was ridiculous that people were getting that forward.

“Fine,” Hailey said. “I might consider it. I’d have to hang out with you ladies a couple of times and make sure you’re cool. And I’m never going to an event where Natalie is going to be there.”

I blinked. I figured it would be obvious from our conversation that Natalie wasn’t around anymore, but I guess not. It was also nice to hear Hailey say that. If there was any lingering doubt in my mind that she’d gone up to that hotel room with the intention of getting with my ex-girlfriend rather than my ex-girlfriend luring her up there with impure intentions then that sentence dispelled them for good.

“But Natalie isn’t part of the group anymore.”

Now it was her turn to look surprised. “She isn’t?”

“Nope. Kicked her ass out when I dumped her. She likes to walk around like she’s the big girl in charge of everything, but all the girls like me more and I’m the one who controls the bank account and all the PR stuff so there was never really a question.”

“Huh, how about that,” Hailey said. “So I’d be filling the vacancy she left?”

“You’re absolutely right. If you want it,” I said. “And I can assure you that Natalie is totally and completely no longer a problem.”

I meant that in more ways than one. I really hoped she’d pick up on that double meaning, but I couldn’t be sure. The beginnings of a thin smile did start to spread on her face, though, so I figured that was a pretty good sign. Maybe.

“So is that all?” Hailey asked. She glanced around at the crowd in irritation. It was plain she was ready to get out of here. I was ready too, for that matter. People were so rude at these things these days!

The only problem was that wasn’t all. There was something else. Something personal. Something I was afraid to ask her because there was still that lingering feeling that I was in a relationship with Natalie even though in my mind I knew we were well and truly done. Something I was afraid to ask her because after everything that had happened lately I was pretty sure she was going to say no.

Well, there was nothing for it but to grow a pair and get it out there.

“There is actually one more thing,” I said. “I was kind of hoping that maybe we could hang out sometime? Just the two of us and not with the group?”

Hailey didn’t say anything. She just stared at me and I found myself thinking about how that must sound given everything that happened with Natalie. Especially if Natalie made it seem like joining our group meant jumping in bed with her. I needed to fix that asap.

“Not that I’m saying you have to do it,” I added quickly. “You don’t have to ever hang out with me if that’s not something you want to do. I’m just throwing it out there that I’d like to hang out with you sometime. You seem pretty cool and I’d like to get to know you better.”

I winced at that last line. Talk about a dorky fucking thing to say. The words hung there and I wanted to cringe. With a line like that it would be no wonder if she didn’t want anything to do with me. She maintained that neutral expression for another moment before the barest hint of a smile appeared at the corners of her mouth once more.

“I think I could go for something like that,” she said. “Did you have anything in particular in mind?”

I was so caught off guard that I didn’t know what to say. I’d been convinced she wouldn’t be interested. That she would’ve been so freaked out by everything that happened with Natalie that she wouldn’t be interested in anything I was offering. So I didn’t quite know what to say or have anything planned when she suddenly was interested.

Oops.

I glanced around, desperately looking for something to do. We were at a fucking convention, after all. Surely I could find something in all the stuff that was on offer. My eyes came to rest on a banner hanging over one end of the convention hall advertising the masquerade ball they held every year.

Usually I went with Natalie, but for obvious reasons it looked like I was going to be without a date tonight.

“How about the masquerade?” I asked.

“Isn’t that a little forward?” Hailey asked, the thin smile at the edge of her lips finally turning to a full blown grin and letting me know that she was only half serious. “I mean we only just met and already you’re asking me to a dance?”

“What can I say?” I asked with a shrug. “I move fast.”

“Fine, it’s a deal,” Hailey said.

Needless to say I felt like I was walking on a cloud of air as I made my way back to the booth. I didn’t even care about all the jerks taking pictures without the decency to ask me first.

13: Masquerade

Hailey:

What the hell was I doing here? I felt a little silly. Sure I’d felt a rush of excitement when Zoey asked me to come out to the masquerade tonight, but with every passing hour between her asking me to go and actually showing up at the thing I found myself wondering what I was doing more and more.

There were so many reasons why I shouldn’t be here. Jake wouldn’t be happy to see me here. He wanted to go, and he’d seemed really big on the idea of going with me. I had to tell a little white lie that I wasn’t interested in going to finally get him off my back.

And of course there was the whole thing with Zoey. I wasn’t sure what to think of that. She’d just broken up with her girlfriend the night before. Did I really want to step into the middle of something like that? It felt like it was asking for trouble.

Yet here I was at the entrance to the masquerade trying to work up the courage to actually step inside. It was a bad idea. A really bad idea. I felt the crippling social anxiety that seemed to hit me whenever I was about to do something like this. Social anxiety that was a big part of the reason why I was still single, thank you very much.

My brain whispered to me. They were nice whispers. Seductive whispers. Whispers about how easy it would be for me to turn around and go back to my room. Then I wouldn’t have to worry about finding out what was going on with Zoey. If she was really interested in me or not. I could avoid all the unpleasantness if I wasn’t here to experience it.

No. I wasn’t going to do that. I wasn’t going to think like that, damn it. This might be unpleasant, but at the same time there was a very real chance that this might be awesome. Sometimes you had to deal with some unpleasant stuff to get through the awesome.

Oddly enough I took some comfort from being in costume. I felt like I was a different person wearing this costume. I felt like I wasn’t me. That’s what gave me the confidence to even talk to Zoey like I had earlier. Usually I wouldn’t give a second thought to talking to a girl like her because it went without saying that she wouldn’t be interested in plain old me. It was a confidence boost that started from the moment I stepped into the convention center and people started looking at me like I was something special, and I hoped it was something that would last after I took the suit off and I was back to being plain old Hailey.

I was doing it again. I pushed those thoughts away. It was time to get down to business. It was time to go in there and meet Zoey and see what might happen. Even if there was a chance it would all end in tears like that anxiety was whispering to me.

I stepped inside and it hit me just how much everything looked like an old middle school dance. There were people standing awkwardly along the side of the room staring at one another and there were people in the middle dancing and having a good time. Music pumped through a convention hall room that was about as acoustically sound as a middle school gym which meant there were all sorts of weird echoes moving through the room.

I felt that anxiety starting all over again. A middle school dance wasn’t exactly something I had fond memories of. A memory of Brian Kyle chasing me through the bleachers trying to get me to dance with him flashed through my mind. There were a few guys along the walls who bore more than a passing resemblance to Brian, and it wasn’t a pleasant memory.

He wasn’t the sort of guy I’d be interested in even if I was interested in guys. I’d known even then that I wasn’t. Not that it stopped him from chasing me. He got it in his head that we belonged together because he was the super geeky guy at our school and I was the super geeky girl.

I shivered at the memory. Not fun. I chased it away by plunging into the crowd and looking for Zoey.

Plunging into the dancing crowd looking for Zoey brought up other memories that were both pleasant and unpleasant. Thoughts of Melissa Warren. Achingly beautiful Melissa Warren who was perfect and totally wasn’t into girls. At all.

I knew because of a disastrous late night experience at a church youth group lock-in that ended up ruining our friendship and ruined me on the idea of working up the nerve to ask girls out for the next couple of years.

I shook my head. “Stop thinking about old disasters Hailey,” I muttered to myself. “Time to focus on the now and the hot girl who’s interested in you. You’re not making things up now. Not like with Melissa.”

At least I hoped I wasn’t making things up this time around. It felt like she was really interested in me. A girl could hope.

As I moved through the dance floor I realized that in a way it was nothing like old middle school or high school dances. One big difference was the DJ was playing some sort of remix of the Legend of Zelda theme rather than the usual top 40 crap that had been the bread and butter of DJs at those old dances.

The bigger difference, though, was the people. The kind of people who probably would’ve been wallflowers around the edge of the room back in the day, but here they were out having a grand time dancing with each other. Sure there were still some wallflowers like the ones I saw when I first walked in, but they were definitely the minority.

And there were so many people letting their geek flag fly. It felt good to be surrounded by my people. There were also a surprising number of hotties in the crowd, though I was looking for one hottie in particular so I ignored them when they looked my way. I also had to push a couple of guys away when they tried to get a little too close.

“What the hell is wrong with these people?” I growled.

I had a hard time understanding it. I didn’t think I was anything special. It had to be the costume that was drawing people in. I figured it probably added a couple of points to the old hotness scale. That was the only reason I could think of for all these people staring at me, because I wasn’t anything to write home about outside the convention center.

At least if my dating life was anything to go by.

Still, there were enough people giving me the eye that it gave me a boost of confidence. Maybe it was the costume, minus my wings because I didn’t want them to get ruined in the crowd, but if people wanted to check me out then I was going to enjoy it. Everyone else was letting their geek flag fly and having a great time, so why couldn’t I do the same?

I felt some of my anxiety at even being here in the first place start to melt away. It didn’t disappear entirely, it was still there pulsing in the back of my mind and waiting for an excuse to seize control and give me a panic attack, but for the moment at least it wasn’t in control and that was both new and awesome.

I could get used to this.

“Hey baby! You’re looking good there in that outfit!”

I wheeled around to see a guy who looked more than a little drunk coming up to me. I was surprised that there’d be any drunks at this thing until I saw the glass in his hand. Damn. They let people drink at these things?

I couldn’t see over the crowd to see where the booze was coming from, but as I looked all around me it was simple enough to see this guy wasn’t the only one who was carrying a glass of beer. Some people had clear cups with some sort of glowing liquid. It would’ve been interesting to find out how they pulled that off without violating all sorts of food safety laws. Maybe a glowing LED?

Whatever. That wasn’t important right now. What was important was the asshole standing right in front of me looking me up and down like I was a piece of meat at the market and he liked what he saw.

“Dream on asshole,” I said.

“Come on baby,” he said, moving in closer and putting a hand on my arm.

Okay, I really didn’t like that. It was one thing for this prick to come up to me and act like I owed him something just because I existed. It was another thing entirely for him to put a hand on me. I was not cool with that. I jerked my arm away and it caused his own drink, something traditional that wasn’t glowing like some of the other drinks in the room, to go spilling out all over the floor.

Some of it even sloshed back on his pants, and boy did he not look happy about that. He stared in drunken incomprehension for a moment before turning his attention back to me.

“What the fuck was that all about?” he yelled.

A couple of people turned to pay attention to the altercation, though no one moved in to help me. The assholes. I suddenly felt less secure here than I did at those old middle school dances. I couldn’t count on a teacher swooping in to save me here like they used to when Brian was chasing me through the bleachers.

“You didn’t have to do that,” the guy slurred.

“And you don’t get to put your hands on me without asking me first,” I said.

“Come on. A girl like you dressed like that?” he said.

“Like I said, dream on asshole. I’m into girls.”

Usually that shut the conversation down. On the rare occasion that I had guys hitting on me. Though admittedly it was less rare here at the convention center than it had been other places. Maybe it was the booze. Maybe he just wasn’t good at picking up on signals. Whatever the reason, this guy just wouldn’t leave well enough alone. His grin widened and he held his arms out, sending the last of his beer splashing into the crowd around him and earning a few angry looks.

“Come on baby,” he said. “You might be into girls, but you won’t know what you’re missing until you try it! How about one night.”

I rolled my eyes and glanced at the people he’d just spilled his beer on. One in particular was a guy with a shaved head who looked like he didn’t belong here at all. He looked like the kind of person you might find at a fighting event or something. Not a convention dedicated to all things nerdy. And he looked pissed off.

I waved to the drunk guy. He looked confused for a moment, but confusion turned to worry as the bald guy shoved him to the side. I took the opportunity to get the hell out of dodge. If someone was going to throw down in the middle of a crowd then I didn’t want to be anywhere near where the action was happening.

I couldn’t believe that guy. It’s like he was every negative stereotype about geek culture you could think of all wrapped into one. Hitting on me when I didn’t want it. Touching me when I definitely hadn’t given him permission. Not taking no for an answer.

Or maybe he was just a drunk asshole.

I moved through the crowd and this time I was careful to avoid anyone carrying any sort of booze. Particularly the guys. I didn’t want to have anything to do with those assholes, thank you very much.

I craned my head looking for any sign of Zoey in the crowd, but either she wasn’t here yet or I wasn’t having any luck trying to find her. Probably the latter considering how full this place was. Besides, she was the one who invited me. I should’ve gotten her phone number or something so we could track each other down. Hindsight is twenty/twenty and all that.

I searched for another twenty minutes before the crowd finally parted in front of me and there she was. I smiled when I saw a crowd of girls dressed in similar outfits to mine, though of course their outfits were far more impressive than mine because they were made out of vacuum formed plastic and not out of hand-sculpted foam.

I looked through the crowd of bikini-armored girls. I wanted to make absolutely certain that Natalie wasn’t anywhere to be found in the group. Zoey could promise that she wasn’t around all she wanted, but something told me that nothing was going to keep that girl away if she decided she wanted to hang out with her old friends. Not even being broken up with and told to stay away.

Thankfully she was nowhere to be seen. I breathed a sigh of relief. One less thing to worry about tonight. One less bit of anxiety to eat away at my confidence.

Zoey looked over and grinned when she saw me. I could hear her shout even over the music and the din of people talking all around me.

“Hailey! You made it!”

I smiled. I couldn’t help it. She was so pretty, and her excitement was infectious. Having her so stoked to see me was exciting, for that matter. I couldn’t help myself. She walked up and looked like she was about to wrap me in a hug, but of course we both did that little awkward pause where we were obviously thinking about how much we wanted to hug and balancing that against how much we didn’t want to accidentally break part of our costumes.

Finally Zoey settled on holding her hand out for a shake. Normally that wouldn’t have felt very romantic at all, but feeling her hand pressing against mine sent a shiver running through me.

It seemed she had that effect on me no matter what.

The pause seemed to stretch out as we stood there shaking each other’s hands. Someone needed to say something. Someone needed to do something. This was driving me crazy. Finally Zoey took action, and boy was I glad that she was the one to make a move.

“Come on! We’re at a dance, so let’s dance!”

And before I could react or say anything to the other girls in her group, girls that I still hadn’t really talked to, I was being pulled out onto the dance floor.

Not that I minded. I really wanted to dance with Zoey. I was still worried that something might go wrong, but I pushed down on those thoughts and allowed myself to go with it. I was going to enjoy myself with her tonight, and fuck the usual anxiety that took over when something good like this happened to me.

Tonight was our night, and I was going to enjoy it without my usual inhibitions. I hoped.

14: All F*@!ed Up

Zoey:

The one thing I hated about these costumes was how difficult it was to really get close to someone while you were wearing one. It had always been a problem on the rare occasions when I tried dancing with Natalie, though now that I thought back on our time together it seemed that whenever we came to these masquerades she was more interested in dancing with other girls than she was with me.

And she’d always thrown herself at those girls with a reckless abandon that said she wasn’t afraid of maybe ruining her costume to get a little closer. There’d been times when I’d watched and wished I could be one of those girls.

Now as I thought back on those days all I could think was “what the fuck was I thinking?” I’d been wearing some serious blinders to not realize what had been happening under my nose the entire time.

None of that mattered now though. All that mattered was the feel of Hailey’s hand in mine. The dance music washing over us. They were doing some acapella techno remix of the pirate bar theme from the old Tales of Elassa MMO that I’d played for a little while in college before my grades started suffering to the point that I had to call it quits.

I turned to face Hailey. Grinned. People were moving all around us, but for that perfect moment it was as though it was just the two of us in our little bubble. That was just fine with me.

I got a little bold. I moved my hands in and put them at her hips like I would if we were at some cheesy old dance or something. It wasn’t anything like the sort of dancing I would’ve done with a girl in college just a couple of years ago, but again there was the problem of the plastic armor getting in the way of really having a good time.

This was going to have to be as good as it got for now, and boy was it pretty good. This was the first time I’d made any sort of skin contact with anything but her hand. It felt wonderful. Delightful. There were a bunch of words that meant pretty much the same thing that flashed through my head, but none of them really came close to describing the wonderful feel of her body so close to mine.

Or of having my hands on her hips, for that matter. I closed my eyes and enjoyed the moment. The way things had been going for me lately I couldn’t help but feel like something was going to come along to ruin that moment, and I wanted to thoroughly enjoy it while it lasted.

I opened my eyes. Nothing had happened. Huh. Maybe I was finally getting a bit of luck after all. A girl could hope.

Hailey seemed unsure of what to do at first. She looked down my body which sent another thrill running through me let me tell you, then back up to lock eyes with me. It was clear she was having the same issue I was. What to do when neither one of us wanted to risk ruining our costumes?

Finally she settled for placing her hands on my shoulders, which was just fine with me. We were twirling around one another just like we were at some high school dance and not two grown women getting to know each other, but it was more contact than I’d had with any girl in a long time and I’d take it.

“I’m really glad you decided to come out here,” I said, shouting so I could be heard over the music.

“I’m really glad I decided to come out here too!” Hailey said, a smile splitting up her face and lighting up my world. “I’ll admit I was a little worried at first, but this is pretty cool!”

Yeah, this was pretty cool. Just about the coolest experience I’d had in awhile. Cooler than… No. I stopped myself. I was not going to do that. I wasn’t playing that game. I wasn’t going to compare what was happening with Hailey in the here and now with what had happened with Natalie in the past.

Still, I couldn’t help but feel just a little crazy standing here twirling around as bad remixes of geeky standards blasted from the DJ booth. I’d been in a relationship with another girl twenty-four hours ago. A relationship that had been dead for awhile, but I didn’t know that. Or I wasn’t willing to admit it to myself.

And now here I was with someone who made me feel alive again. I just hoped she made me feel alive because I liked her and not because she was the first pretty warm body to come along after I dumped Natalie.

“What are you thinking about?” Hailey asked. Though again it was more of a shout than anything else.

“How pretty you are,” I replied.

I felt like a goober as soon as it left my lips. I was never very good at the whole sweet talking thing. Natalie was always better at the seduction game and damn it there I was thinking about Natalie again instead of thinking of the pretty girl standing right in front of me.

Either way I figured telling her I was thinking about how pretty she was would be a damn sight better than telling her I was thinking about my ex. Something told me she wouldn’t take that very well.

“Y’know you don’t have to bullshit me,” Hailey said, which surprised me.

“Please don’t tell me you have a case of ugly duckling syndrome,” I said with a smile to let her know I didn’t mean that in a nasty way. I’d learned it paid to be careful around someone who suffered from that particular affliction.

“Ugly duckling syndrome? What’s that?” she asked. “I just don’t think I’m much to look at.”

I searched her eyes for a moment, trying to figure out if she was fishing for a compliment or if she really was that oblivious to how she looked. Sure the costume tended to add a few hotness points to any girl at one of these conventions, and there were a couple of hotness points that could be tacked on because someone was a girl at these conventions, but Hailey would have been a ten out of ten anywhere as far as I was concerned.

And the girl had no idea. That much was clear from searching her face. I sighed.

“Ugly duckling syndrome is something we see a lot in our group,” I said. “Girls who were awkward or geeky or whatever when they were growing up so they don’t realize how hot they’ve gotten since they got out into the real world. I’d say you could easily be the poster girl for the syndrome too, because damn.”

I looked her up and down so there was no doubt exactly what I was talking about. Hailey blushed under my scrutiny, but that was just fine with me. I wanted her to know I was looking. I wanted her to know I was interested. I wanted there to be absolutely no fucking doubt whatsoever in her mind that Zoey was open for business.

“You’re just…”

“I’m just saying that to be nice,” I said, parroting a line I’d heard so many times before.

“Yeah but I’m not…”

“Really that pretty,” I said with a smile. “Bullshit.”

“But outside…”

“The convention people don’t even look at you. It’s only because you’re at a convention that you’re getting a second glance. Oh and you probably also think that people are only really looking at you because of that costume.”

Hailey stared at me. Long and hard. It was a look I’d seen plenty of times before. She was trying to figure out how I was able to read her mind so easily.

“Trust me, it’s not mind reading,” I said. “I’ve just known enough girls who suffered from ugly duckling syndrome that I know all the responses. I also know it pretty well because I used to have the same problem.”

“I still think you’re just saying things to try and make me feel better,” Hailey said, but she did smile. That was something. It would take time, but eventually she would realize just what a hottie she was.

Especially if she joined our group and started spending more time at events wearing these outfits. Nothing did wonders for your confidence like having guys, and some girls, constantly throwing themselves at you.

“Trust me,” I said. “You are so beautiful. And all this right here, it’s just so awesome!”

To be honest I was a little drunk on the whole situation. Feeling her close to me. Seeing how she looked in that outfit. Feeling her touch on my shoulders. It was a wonder I wasn’t going more crazy. It had been so long since Natalie had even touched me like that. At least it had been awhile since she’d touched me like that without me instigating. I was starting to realize just how shredding it had been being in a relationship with a cheater. She was so busy giving all her affection to everyone else that she never had time for me, and that had killed me a little inside every time she ignored me.

Which was a lot.

“Yeah, I guess it’s pretty cool,” Hailey said. She was repeating herself though. I wondered if something was wrong. It felt like I was losing her, and I didn’t like that feeling. Not one bit.

“Is something wrong?” I asked.

I could’ve kicked myself for just coming out and saying it like that. Obviously something was wrong. I always did that. I always just waded in and put my foot in my mouth rather than trying to be subtle about it.

I guess I couldn’t stand the idea of someone being upset with me. Couldn’t stand it to the point that I had to come out and ask them point blank when I knew that was likely to do more damage than help.

Again with the funny look on her face. I didn’t figure funny looks were a good sign. I searched her eyes for some sign that she was about to tell me what was wrong, but instead she got this weird look and locked eyes with me. Her tone wasn’t exactly friendly, but at the same time it wasn’t exactly angry either.

“Could we just dance and have a good time? I don’t want to talk about anything else right now,” she said.

I shrugged. Something was bothering her, but I wasn’t going to dig too much. Dancing sounded good. So I moved in closer. As close as I dared when the two of us were in armor that could potentially catastrophically fail on the dance floor if we got too up close and personal. Some of the guys around us staring and hoping for just that would probably enjoy it, but I wasn’t in the mood to put on that kind of show.

I put my hands out on her waist again. She moved hers down to mine and we did a sort of awkward sway where we twirled around one another. Maybe it was awkward, but it also felt pretty damn good. Again, I was so starving for any sort of attention along these lines that any contact from a pretty girl was going to drive me nuts.

We settled into a groove and almost I thought things were going to settle down. That things would finally start to go okay for a change. The only problem? It seemed like fate or whatever cruel power controlled my corner of the world at the moment was in the mood to throw me for a loop.

“What the hell is going on here?”

Damn. A shiver ran down my spine. There was a time when that shiver would’ve been because of how turned on I was at hearing that voice, but no more. These days the shiver was because that voice had become like nails grating across a chalk board in so many ways.

Hailey’s eyes went wide. Any hope that she didn’t recognize the voice was dashed in that moment. Damn. Why did Natalie have to show up to the ball to cause trouble?

Because she had every right to show up at the ball. That’s why. She was an attendee at the convention. I might’ve kicked her out of the group, but I couldn’t very well kick her out of the convention. I didn’t have that kind of power. I also should’ve known she would come to the masquerade. It was a big event for people in costume and she never missed it.

Why would this year be any different? Why would she stay away just because that was more convenient for me? Damn.

“What is she doing here?” Hailey hissed.

“What am I doing here? I’m trying my best to enjoy my convention after my girlfriend broke up with me. Broke up with me to go off with a new piece on the side, it seems!”

I squeezed my eyes shut. There it was. Natalie was already replacing what had really happened with her own version of events. A version of events where she wasn’t the bad guy. I wanted to scream and launch myself at her. Clawing her eyes out seemed like the least she deserved after everything she’d done, but then of course I’d be the one getting escorted out of the convention and probably thrown in jail for the night.

I didn’t want to think about what might happen to me in a jail overnight when I was in nothing but this costume. It didn’t bear thinking of. I figured I could turn some of the rage bubbling inside me on her though.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing Natalie?” I shrieked.

People around us were starting to notice something was going down. I knew I should stop shrieking at Natalie, for that matter, but I couldn’t help myself. It was like all the anger I’d felt the night before was coming back to the surface. I guess I wasn’t as over it as I thought I was. Also, from the way she was taking a deep breath, it seemed that Natalie was ready to pick up where we’d left off the night before as well.

Damn. I really didn’t want something like this to happen. I really didn’t need it to happen right in front of Hailey, for that matter, though I guess it couldn’t be helped. I was too mad. Too far gone. This was going down.

“What the hell am I doing? What the hell are you doing Zoey?” she shouted. “Yesterday you were doing your whole crazy jealous thing accusing me of going after other girls and now today I find you on the dance floor in the arms of another girl? That’s rich coming from you.”

I couldn’t believe it. I mean I could believe it based on past performance, but at the same time I couldn’t believe she would actually have the audacity to try and turn this around on me again. After I’d so thoroughly schooled her when we had this conversation yesterday. She really did live in a crazy world that was all her own. A crazy world that made me crazy angry.

I knew I shouldn’t engage. It was the same as getting in an argument online. It was best not to engage. Only just like getting in an argument when there were people who were wrong on the Internet I couldn’t help myself even as I knew better.

Besides, people were starting to stare with disapproval. At me, and not her. I felt like my honor was being besmirched here. She was accusing me of cheating on her, she was turning this around on me, and it made me furious to think that someone might believe her even for a moment. Even if we were surrounded by a bunch of strangers. These were strangers at the con. The con was like my family and my home away from home.

So even if they were strangers I couldn’t stand the idea that they might think I was capable of something like that. Especially when she was trying to turn it around on me.

The bitch.

“You were the one who was cheating on me! With her!”

I pointed to Hailey. Only when I pointed to her I realized I was pointing to empty space. Well, not quite empty space. There were people there dancing, but they weren’t Hailey. She’d disappeared. I turned towards the door and saw her making her way through the crowd.

Damn. Though I couldn’t blame her. I’d done it again. I completely lost control of my temper. Why wouldn’t she run when I was acting like this? I turned to Natalie and glared.

“Stay out of my life, bitch,” I said. “You spent long enough screwing me over when we were together. I don’t need you screwing me over now that we’re broken up.”

“I thought the problem was that I was screwing everyone but you over?” she asked with a smile that was almost too sweet. Like she knew what she was doing the entire time. She’d probably launched into the whole fight just to piss me off and scare Hailey off. That would be just like her. If she couldn’t have something then why should anyone else have it?

I glowered at her one final time and turned to plunge through the crowd. They’d already moved in around Hailey and I couldn’t see her, but I knew she had to be somewhere between me and the exit. I just hoped I could get to the exit in time to stop her from running off. I really needed to talk to her and make this better.

Even if I had no clue how I was going to do that.

15: More Apologies

Hailey:

I reached up and brushed away some moisture threatening at the edge of my eyes. I was not going to break down into tears here of all places. Not in front of all these people who were here to have a good time. I wasn’t going to be the girl who was a buzz kill.

Then again I was going to call even more attention to myself if I waited until I got out into the hall to burst into tears. There wasn’t music and a press of people all around me to keep people from seeing me burst into tears out there.

Damned if you do and damned if you don’t. The only thing I knew for certain was I needed to get away from Zoey and Natalie and their crazy relationship dynamic that kept sucking me in.

Why did the two of them have to keep fighting like that? Zoey seemed like a perfectly normal and insanely hot girl until she saw her ex. Then it was like there was a switch being flipped and she turned into a crazy woman who I hardly recognized.

A crazy woman I didn’t want to be around.

“Hey baby, I was wondering if…”

I didn’t bother to wait around to find out what the guy was wondering. He was in a costume that looked like it was maybe supposed to be armor of some sort, but it was made out of cardboard and whatever it was it wasn’t very impressive since I couldn’t tell who he was supposed to be. I shouldered him out of the way and he went sprawling back into the crowd.

I wasn’t in the mood to deal with any bullshit right now, whether that bullshit was from Zoey and Natalie or from creepers who thought they had a chance with me because I was a girl at a convention.

Anyone who thought like that had another thing coming.

“Hey! What’s your problem lady?” the guy shouted after me, loud enough to be heard over the music. I didn’t stop to tell him what my problem was. It’s not like he cared. And I needed to get the hell out of this place.

This convention had gone from being a good time to being hell. All thanks to Natalie and Zoey and their constant arguing.

I was an idiot for ever thinking I could have anything to do with her. It was obvious the girl had issues. She came on a little too strong, for one. Like she was trying her best to impress me instead of just being herself. It reminded me of Natalie, and reminding me of Natalie was the last thing she should be doing.

And that brought me to issue numero uno. Natalie really was a problem. A huge problem. One that I didn’t think I could overcome. Having an ex-girlfriend hanging around was infuriating under the best of circumstances. Having an ex-girlfriend hanging around who’d also tried to seduce me and sent Zoey flying into a rage?

No thanks. I needed to steer well clear of that. Even if there was a voice in the back of my head whispering that I was making a mistake. That I needed to give her another chance. That this was all a big mistake.

I didn’t want to get caught up in that. I didn’t want to get caught between them. I wasn’t going to be stupid enough to put myself in that position again even if there was a part of me that very much wanted to.

I should’ve invited Jake. He would’ve said something that made me feel better even if he would’ve also annoyed me by staring at my cleavage or something. It would be nice to have a friend right about now. Even if that friend could be a huge perv.

“I have the power m’lady!”

I had to pull up to a halt. The guy standing in front of me was so big that the line “that’s no moon…” ran through my mind. And he actually had a fedora on that he tipped at me. I stared open-mouthed. I didn’t think that was a thing that actually happened out in the real world. I figured that had to be an Internet stereotype.

Of course if there was ever a place where the geekier elements of the Internet were made flesh it was at a convention where people tended to be freer about letting their geek flag fly.

“What do you want?” I growled.

The guy didn’t pick up on the warning tone. He didn’t strike me as the kind of guy to pick up on social cues anyways. His smile only grew wider.

“I was hoping this humble gentlesir might have the pleasure of escorting m’lady this evening. You seem a damsel in distress, and I’d like to make it all better for you.”

I rolled my eyes. I couldn’t believe this. I was actually being white knighted. The asshole didn’t even know who or what was bothering me and he was trying to move in. I crossed my arms and let loose some of the frustration I’d been feeling all night. Was it fair to let it loose on this guy? Maybe not, but he was there and I was pissed off so here we were.

“So would you be interested in hanging out with me if I told you I wasn’t in the least bit interested in ever having sex with you?” I asked. I figured a bit of candor might be enough to scare him off.

The guy blinked and seemed taken aback, but he was good. He didn’t miss a beat. His smile widened and he spread his arms. “If you’re happy then I’m happy!”

“I’m serious. I’m never going to fuck you. It’s not happening. I’m into girls,” I said.

The smile faltered and then a frown spread. He positively glowered at me after a moment. Oh yeah, the white knight was showing his true colors. I’d run into a few at conventions over the years and it was never a pleasant experience. Better to burst their bubble at the beginning rather than dealing with their crap and becoming the subject of a forum post later where they complained about being strung along.

“Well fine. If you’re going to be a bitch then be a bitch,” he said. “You have no idea what you’re missing out on!”

I rolled my eyes again and moved around him. I was careful to keep my distance. So far the guy hadn’t made any moves, but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t try. I didn’t want to be within arm’s length if he did decide to make that move.

Once I was on the other side I breathed a sigh of relief. I was within sight of the exit and I dashed for the thing, nearly knocking over a girl who was walking in. She shot me a dirty look, but I didn’t care. I was beyond caring about anything. All I wanted was to walk faster and get out of here.

I stepped into the hall and took a deep breath. Somehow it was comforting being surrounded by neutral tan colors on all sides. It felt good to breathe in the antiseptic smell of a hotel corridor that was cleaned on the regular rather than the mix of sweaty bodies belonging to people who may or may not believe in deodorant if the smell was anything to go by.

“Hailey!”

Well then. I guess my relief at being out of that room was to be short lived. Why was she following me? Why did Zoey have to continue tempting me? It was like she knew what she did to me with a few words and did her best to drive me insane. I wanted to scream. I knew I should run, but what I really wanted was to stay rooted to the spot and see what she had to say.

Damn it. I really was doing this again. I turned around and braced myself for whatever she was going to say to try and get me to stick around. Even as I knew it wasn’t going to take much.

I was looking for an excuse the moment I turned around to give her another chance. I was thinking with the old brain between the legs and there was nothing going to stop that from hearing her out.

“What do you…”

I was on the verge of giving her a piece of my mind. I figured I could at least do that even if I was going to hear her out in the end. But then she opened her mouth and spoke over me. Didn’t give me a chance to get anything out.

“I’m so sorry about that,” Zoey said, and then the words rushed over themselves as they spilled out. “That whole situation was so fucked up and Natalie made me so mad, but she made me mad because I was worried she’d screw things up with you and then it turns out I’m the one screwing things up by acting like a complete bitch and scaring you away.”

Okay then. I guess she was more in tune with the situation than I thought. I figured I’d get some begging or something, but I had to admit that her coming out and admitting to everything was refreshing. She kept right on too.

“I can’t control Natalie,” Zoey said. “What she does is her business and all I can do is tell her to fuck off. What I can control is how things go with you, and I don’t want this to come between us. The yelling person you saw back there on the dance floor isn’t who I am.”

“I…”

“I’m going through a difficult time right now,” Zoey said. “Maybe it’s not the best time to try finding something new, but there’s something about you and I can’t stop myself. I know I don’t deserve it, but I really hope you can give me another chance.”

I stared at her long and hard. I knew what I should’ve said. I should have told her there wasn’t a chance. That I was done with all the craziness that came along with getting involved in her love life.

I didn’t say any of those things. How could I? She was so beautiful. She was so sincere. I knew I was still thinking with the wrong brain, but I couldn’t help myself. I was powerless in the face of her apology despite knowing it was wrong.

I smiled. “I guess I could maybe give you another chance. Let’s just try to keep Natalie away the next time we hang out. Deal?”

Zoey grinned as well. “Deal. Even if you didn’t give me another chance, I know the girls would beat me if I didn’t ask you to join the group.”

I frowned at that. Again we were getting to territory that was a little too close to what Natalie said to me for comfort. I knew she probably didn’t mean it like that though. She wasn’t the same as Natalie. So far she’d been nothing but nice to me, even if she had flown into a rage when talking to her ex.

“What’s your number?” I asked on impulse.

We exchanged numbers. Actually she gave me hers and then I sent her a text with my name so she’d have mine. After that she gave me an uncertain smile and opened her mouth to say something, but I held up my hand.

“With the way everything’s been going I’m thinking it might be a good idea if we leave it at this,” I said.

I hoped she’d take that the right way. After all, I basically just told her she needed to get lost. But the smile stayed on her face and she nodded.

“Yeah, you’re probably right. Knowing my luck…”

She glanced over her shoulder. I was pretty sure I knew exactly what she was worried about. That Natalie would appear from out of the dance hall and try her best to ruin our night. Again. I didn’t want that any more than she did.

“Yeah, best not to tempt fate when it’s walking around out there looking for trouble,” I said. “See you around?”

“Yeah, see you around,” Zoey said. She turned and disappeared into the pulsing darkness of the dance floor. I stared after her for a moment and talked myself out of the temptation of walking after her and finishing what we’d started on the dance floor.

It was tempting, but not worth the trouble. I forced myself to turn around and walk in the opposite direction. The thumping got quieter and quieter until I couldn’t even feel it rattling my insides.

I found something else to rattle my insides as I made my way down the convention corridor though. I looked up and saw a familiar face coming towards me. Jake. And he didn’t look happy. He stopped in front of me and looked me up and down with obvious displeasure and my cheeks burned with shame.

I didn’t think he’d be coming out here tonight. I didn’t think I’d run into him. Now he knew I’d been lying when I told him I wasn’t going out.

Great. As if this night couldn’t get any fucking better.

“Decided to hit the dance after all I see?” he asked.

“I guess,” I muttered. I looked away so I wouldn’t have to deal with the same of his gaze.

“So you basically ditched me so you could run off and see that girl? Is that what this is all about?”

I didn’t say anything. I didn’t think I could’ve felt any worse than I did when Natalie showed up, but here we were and I’d found an entirely new way to feel like a huge piece of shit. Great.

“Whatever,” he said. “I’m going to go have fun at the dance. Without my friend who couldn’t be here tonight.”

He shouldered past me, and still I didn’t say anything. What was there to say? I’d ditched him. There was no way to sugarcoat that. I didn’t even try to chase him down. I’d reached my bullshit limit for the evening and I wasn’t equipped to deal with Jake getting pissy, however justified, on top of everything else.

So I didn’t deal with it. I kept on walking. I needed to get away from this place and really think things over.

This had been the most eventful and crappy convention I’d ever been to even as it had also been the best convention I’d ever been to in many ways. I just hoped things got better from here on out. I didn’t see how they could get worse.

But this con had taught me the dangers of tempting fate with thoughts like that.

16: Late Night

Hailey:

I leaned back in my chair and let out a long deep breath. For some reason I just couldn’t get into playing Tales of Elassa tonight. Most of my guild were out doing their own thing and living their lives, which is more than I was doing.

A whole week since the convention. A whole week since I’d had girls throwing themselves at me. A week since I’d likely peaked, because it was all downhill from here. I wasn’t going to have another time when two girls were throwing themselves at me. Two gorgeous women.

Now that I was alone in my apartment on a Friday night I could even think of Natalie as gorgeous. I was far enough removed from the craziness that she’d given off that I could stop and wonder if I’d been a little crazy in dismissing her.

I shook my head and pushed those thoughts away. Just as I had every other time they occurred to me. I wasn’t going to go for a girl who was certifiably nuts just because she was interested in me. I didn’t care how long it had been since I was with someone. I wasn’t playing that game.

“You’re going stir crazy Hailey,” I muttered.

I heard a familiar sound that brought me back to my computer. A notification that someone had come online. Without thinking I clicked over to my messages and saw that it was Jake. Not that it would do much good to get rid of my boredom. In the past when he logged on he’d always messaged me right away if he knew I was online. To be honest there were a couple of times when I’d pretended I wasn’t online so I wouldn’t have to deal with him sort of maybe but not quite hitting on me.

There was nothing tonight though. Just like there’d been nothing every other night this week. The closest thing I had to a best friend, my geeky partner in crime, wasn’t interested in talking to me. Not that I could blame him after what I pulled.

Whatever. If he was going to be weird about things then I could be weird right back at him. I didn’t want to have anything to do with him if he didn’t want to have anything to do with me. The big jerk.

I pulled out my phone and looked down at it. There was a way I could get rid of this boredom and maybe meet up with someone tonight, but it was a step I’d been reluctant to take all week long for some reason. I looked down at Zoey’s number in my texting app. I hadn’t even created a contact for her. Creating a contact felt like it was too close to… well it was too close to something. I couldn’t exactly explain what that something was. Like adding her in my phone was a permanent step I didn’t want to take.

Yet.

Okay so I was being weird. Weird was what I did. Weird was part of the reason why I felt more at home at a convention than I id out here in the real world. Weird was the reason why I was single right now and couldn’t get any girls interested in me despite being in grad school and on a college campus where there were plenty of eligible girls.

“You have to go out and look for eligible girls if you want them to be interested in you Hailey,” I muttered to myself.

Yeah, there was the problem. A problem that I could solve. Damn it. I frowned down at Zoey’s number. I had to look for eligible girls if I wanted them to be interested in me. Well I could make the first move, damn it, even if it killed me.

My hands shook just a little as I poised my thumbs over the text message I’d sent. What would I even say to her? “Hi, I’ve been thinking about you nonstop ever since the convention. How hot you are and how much I wish I hadn’t gotten all weird and freaked out like I always do. Wanna come over and make out because that would be super!”

I sighed. No, I wasn’t going to say anything like that. I put a hand on my mouse and clicked to bring up a window I kept minimized whenever I was on my computer. The website for the Cosplay Angels group. It talked about all the charity work they did and visits to hospitals to cheer people up and stuff like that, but most importantly it also included pictures.

Lots of pictures. Pictures of Zoey. There were still some pictures of Natalie on there as well. I guess it was too difficult to take her out of some of them short of doing some Photoshop work. I didn’t care about her though. All I cared about was getting a look at Zoey. She was so beautiful. She made my cheeks color and I felt all hot and bothered.

I desperately wanted to contact her, but on the other hand I still felt weird about everything that happened at the convention. The whole situation was so fucked up that I could understand if Zoey wouldn’t really want to hear from me no matter what she said. It was like the part of me that had no confidence was reaching out to ask me why the hell I thought a girl like Zoey would ever be interested in me in the first place.

I fucking hated that voice.

No.

I wasn’t playing that game any longer. I wasn’t going to be an antisocial shrinking violet. She’d acted like she was interested in me and that was good enough. That had to be good enough. I shot off a quick text message. Nice and simple.

“hi :)”

Much to my surprise the response came back almost immediately. If I didn’t know any better I’d almost think Zoey had been sitting by her phone waiting for me to message her. The idea of her sitting around waiting on me to contact her was a nice one, to be sure, but I didn’t think that was what was really going on.

I’d probably just interrupted a game of Tetris or something so she was right there at her phone.

“Hi yourself :)”

“What r u up to 2nite?”

“Not much, u?”

“Pretty bored.”

“Yeah…”

“Yea…”

“Wanna video chat?”

I blinked and looked away from my phone for a moment. Did I want to video chat? I guess I wouldn’t mind. It seemed like an odd request though. I also was suddenly aware that I was not done up for a Friday night in any way shape or form. I’d been planning on my usual feast of chips and some Mountain Dew while I played games all night long. There’d be hell to pay for it when I went to the gym to work the night off, but it was tradition at this point and I had no intention of stopping.

“I guess that would be okay,” I tapped back. “Here on our phones or on the computer?”

“Computer would be better,” she said. “You at yours?”

“You know it,” I sent back. “Another exciting Friday night playing video games.”

“Same here. Just a sec,” she replied.

A minute stretched by where she didn’t say anything. I was starting to wonder if something was wrong when she was back and she sent over her video chat ID. A moment later I had the program up and my stomach was twisting in knots as the familiar dialing sound came up. It occurred to me that the reason she was gone for a couple of minutes was because she took the time to make herself look presentable for a video chat.

Damn. I should’ve done the same. Stupid. It was too late to do anything about it now though. No sooner had it occurred to me that I should’ve done something to look better than Zoey popped up on the screen in a tank top with her hair done up in a ponytail.

She. Looked. Absolutely. Delicious.

Seriously. I wanted to jump through the screen and jump her. I thought about how good it felt dancing so close and so tight with her, and I thought about how much fun it would be to be that close to her right now. Of course that would involve getting her out to my place or vice versa so it wasn’t likely to happen right now, but it was a nice thought.

She blushed and smiled uncertainly, then she looked right at me. Which is to say she was looking right at the camera so it looked like she was looking right at me. Still, the overall effect was enough to send a chill running through me. I thought about when she’d looked at me like that when it was just the two of us out on the dance floor.

That had been really nice.

“Fancy meeting you in a chat like this,” I said.

“Same to you,” she replied. “How’s your week been?”

I rolled my eyes. “Horrible. I’ve had to deal with a couple of crappy students who tried to get me to raise their grades, and then when that didn’t work I had to deal with crappy student parents who were upset that I wouldn’t raise their baby’s grades.”

“Really? You teach?”

“Well I’m a grad student. I assist for a couple of classes but it’s not like I’m a real teacher. Not yet. With the way the job market’s going I’m not sure I’ll ever be a real teacher for that matter.”

“I know how that is,” Zoey said. “I work in IT but it seems like everyone wants you to have ten years of experience before you can get a job. I’m busting my butt in some low level job trying to pay my dues, but it sucks big time.”

I giggled. I couldn’t help myself. Though from the look on Zoey’s face it seemed that she was curious why I’d be giggling at her plight. It wasn’t a very nice thing to giggle about, after all. It looked like I was laughing at the fact that she couldn’t get a good job, which couldn’t be farther from the truth.

“So is there something funny about my job misery?” she asked with a smile that let me know she wasn’t entirely serious. “Because whatever it is please share it with me. I’d love to get some humor out of the idiots I have to support on a daily basis.”

“Sorry,” I said. “I was just thinking of all my friends who got on me for going to grad school instead of going out and getting a real job. It’s nice to know it doesn’t work out all the time, because there are times when I think I’m crazy for not just going out and getting a job.”

“I think it pretty much sucks for everyone,” Zoey said. “At least you get to stay in school for awhile. That would be so much fun to keep going to college for a few years.”

I rolled my eyes. “Yeah, something tells me grad school isn’t quite like the undergrad you’re used to.”

“Maybe not, but it still has to beat dealing with a bunch of people who entered the workforce before the personal computer was invented and trying to fix all their computer problems when they think it’s a magical glowing box that’s out to get them.”

I grimaced. “Okay, so maybe you have it a little worse than I do. Probably the worst I get every semester is a student trying to hit on me. Or maybe a professor trying to hit on me, but word pretty much got around that I’m not into what those dudes have to offer.”

“Sounds like a tough job. I get a couple of the IT weenies around here hitting on me, but once word got around that I was into the ladies they pretty much started treating me like one of the guys,” Zoey said.

“Must be nice,” I replied. “All I have are professors who are convinced they’re the next best thing to God on campus.”

“Don’t get me wrong. It’s not all sunshine and rainbows. They still stare at my tits when they think I’m not looking, but it’s not that bad. They’re a bunch of geeky guys. It’s what they do.”

“I got plenty of that over the weekend at the con,” I said. “I’m pretty sure a couple of guys tried to cop a feel while they were moving in for a picture too.”

“You’ll get that,” Zoey said. “The costume does things to them. Speaking of, you have to tell me how you put together those awesome wings on your costume.”

I turned around and looked behind me. My living room also doubled as a computer room. And a kitchen, though it was separated from everything else by a chest height wall. The only room that was separate was my bedroom, and that was even smaller than the living room.

The joys of being a poor grad student.

The one nice thing about the room was the display that was the first thing I saw when I walked through the door. My giant set of wings I’d put together all by my lonesome by gluing feathers individually on a frame I’d custom built in what little free time I had, and that wasn’t much.

I turned around an angled the camera on my laptop so that it was facing the wings rather than me. “Is that what you’re talking about?”

“Damn. Those things even look impressive on a tiny webcam,” Zoey said. “What would you say to showing those off in person?”

I grinned. This I could get behind. Maybe it was because I was really in need of a friend. Maybe it was because I was feeling so lonely tonight. Whatever the reason, I decided to be impulsive, which was completely out of character for me.

“Name the time and it’s a date,” I said.

“How about now?” Zoey asked.

Now that brought me up short. I liked the idea of seeing Zoey, but tonight? Right now? Then again why not? Wasn’t this just more of me being a wimp and trying to avoid social situations even if it was a good thing happening?

I wasn’t going to do that, damn it. I was going to let her come over. Sure my mom would freak the fuck out if she knew I was letting some random girl come over to my apartment, but my mom wasn’t here and she had an outdated idea of what was involved in online dating anyways.

“That sounds fine,” I said. “I’ll message you my address and you can come on over.”

“Sounds like a plan. I’ll grab a pizza on the way over and it’s a date!” Zoey said.

A date. I liked the sound of that. Like I really liked the sound of that. It made all the trouble I went through at the convention somehow seem worth it if it ended in this moment when we were finally connecting.

Not to mention I had a girl coming over to my apartment. Booyah. Shit. That meant I really needed to clean up a little bit, because a grad assistant cave was not the kind of place that was designed for seduction, let me tell you.

Pizza. She was getting pizza. That would give me time. Although…

“Are you sure we should be eating pizza?” I asked. “After all, we do have to squeeze into those outfits.”

“Eh, don’t worry about it. There’s plenty of time until the next convention. Just don’t tell any of the girls in the group. They get mad when I cheat on my diet,” Zoey said.

“It’s a deal,” I said.

“Good! See you in a few!”

The connection closed out. I stared at the spot where Zoey had been on my monitor just a moment ago. I was reeling. I couldn’t believe we were planning on getting together that quickly. Everything was moving so fast with Zoey, but I guess that wasn’t a bad thing.

The only problem with everything moving so fast was I wasn’t anywhere close to being presentable. I was “night of gaming” presentable. Not “date night” presentable. Not to mention my apartment was still a disaster area.

I jumped up from my laptop. I had work to do if I was going to be ready for my night in with Zoey.

17: Confession

Zoey:

Okay Zoey. You are not an idiot. You are not making a huge mistake. You are not jumping into the middle of a situation that could end up bad.

I kept telling myself that over and over as I made the short drive over to campus where Hailey lived. I kept telling myself there was nothing wrong with what I was doing. I wasn’t cheating on Natalie because Natalie and I were no longer a going concern.

It was hard getting over that feeling though. I’d been with her for so long, we’d been an item forever, and I was having trouble getting over the feeling that I was stepping out on her.

I was also painfully aware that I was still on the rebound. I’d only kicked Natalie out of the apartment a couple of days ago. And now I was going over to see the girl who was a big part of the reason why we broke up?

Crazy. It was all fucking crazy, but I couldn’t stop myself. Besides, it’s not like it was all Hailey’s fault. The symptoms of our breakup were there long before Natalie and I actually split. It’s not like I could blame everything on the girl.

It’s not like blaming her for our split was keeping me from going over there either.

I pulled into Hailey’s apartment complex and smiled as I got a good look around. I recognized the place. It was one of the bigger apartment complexes off campus and I’d been to a few parties here a few years ago when I was in college. I’d had a few hookups here, for that matter.

Then again just about everyone who went to school in this town had their stories of hookups in this place. If someone wanted to make a nature documentary about the mating habits of the typical college student then this is the place they’d come. Well, maybe here or down on frat row where the frat types and the sorority girls did their thing.

I shivered as I looked up at the building where Hailey lived. The mating habits of the typical college student. Was that what was about to happen here? I was surprised that I was so conflicted.

There was that stupid fucking feeling as though I was still with Natalie. I needed to get the fuck over it. That relationship was over long before I pulled the plug.

I took a deep breath. Held it for a moment. That was an old exercise my tennis coach taught me back when I was still the sports type. The calming exercise still did wonders for me though even if I hadn’t actually played tennis since graduating high school.

I looked at myself in the rear view mirror.

“Okay Zoey. You’ve got this. You can totally do this.”

I wished I believed me, but I knew I could be one hell of a good liar. Especially when I was lying to myself.

I stepped out of the car and slammed the door shut behind me with one foot. I paused for a moment to take a deep breath and enjoy the hot humid evening. A lot of people didn’t like it when it was this hot, but I absolutely loved it. Made me feel alive. I was also hit with the smell of this place. A mixture of flowers and old building and under all of that the ever so slight presence of a stale bear smell that said this was a place where people came to party.

It made me feel young again. Not that I was that old, but I certainly felt the divide between me and college every time I got near campus. Amazing how the difference of a year could make me feel that old.

I made my way up the stairs and paused to double check that the address in the message Hailey sent me was the same as the address I stood in front of. It wouldn’t do to open the door on some stranger I didn’t know at all.

Of course Haily really was a stranger I didn’t know all that well too.

I knocked an the door flew open almost immediately. As though whoever was on the other side of that door had been standing there waiting for me to arrive. I felt a flutter rising in me along with an impossible heat as I got my first good look at Hailey.

“Damn,” I said, and I blushed as soon as the words passed my lips.

I couldn’t help it though. “Damn” was about right. I’d thrown on a tank top and some shorts and hadn’t given much thought to what I was wearing. I still had makeup on because I’d been too lazy to take it off, but Hailey looked like she’d taken the time between us agreeing to meet and me actually getting over here to dress herself to the nines. She was in a blue halter top that sparkled faintly and looked like it was more suited to a club than to spending a night in at an apartment discussing costuming technique. Down below she had on a miniskirt that made my eyes go wide and revealed more than a little of her legs.

Damn. I kept saying it, but it was the only way to describe her. I looked back up and she was grinning. Oh yeah, she’d caught me checking her out. Not that I minded. I wanted her to know I’d been checking her out.

“So are you going to invite me in or do I get to stand here all night?” I asked.

Hailey blushed and stepped back. Made a gesture to invite me in. As I moved in past her I noticed her looking me up and down as well. With interest. I shivered. It was nice to know she liked what she saw, even if I hadn’t gone to all the trouble she’d obviously gone to.

“You got over here pretty fast,” Hailey said.

“Yeah, well it’s not like you live that far from me and…”

I paused and peered a little closer at her. Her hair was wet. Did she really hop in the shower just for me? I also detected the faintest hint of perfume wafting off of her. It was intoxicating. I wasn’t going to need a beer to get me soused if she kept leaning in close like that.

I turned away from her. A stab of guilt ran through me as I checked her out. A stab of guilt that made me more angry than anything else because I shouldn’t feel guilty for checking another girl out when I was a single woman. Especially since the girl I’d been dating had no problem whatsoever checking out other girls herself.

“Nice place you have here,” I said. “It’s… wow.”

I stopped and took my first real look at her apartment, and wow was the only way I could think to describe it. I was used to being around costuming supplies, I had a whole room dedicated to it in my own apartment, but looking at Hailey’s place it was obvious there wasn’t a single square foot that wasn’t dedicated to costuming.

There was an honest-to-goodness mannequin up against one wall that had her foam bikini on display. Next to that there was a table with bits of foam and a hair dryer sitting out along with a bunch of cutting tools she probably used to form the foam. And on the wall. Oh boy on the wall. The wings that were so intricate. So impressive.

I found myself walking across her apartment to those wings. I couldn’t resist. I was a moth drawn to flame. They were so amazing. They were so far beyond anything we’d ever put together in the group. I wanted a pair of wings just like that for myself.

I reached out and ran a hand along one of the feathers. It felt soft and tickled me just a little. I giggled at that tickle.

“You like?” Hailey asked.

I turned to look at her. To take in her entire outfit once more from top to bottom. I licked my lips, and when I spoke I wasn’t just talking about the impressive set of wings she’d put together.

“Oh yeah, I like a lot,” I said.

We stood there for the space of an awkward breath, neither one of us quit sure what to do. We were so close to each other. Closer even than we’d been at the dance since our costumes kept us from getting too up close and personal there.

“I’m really glad you decided to come over here,” Hailey said.

She reached out and her hand brushed against my arm. A shiver ran through me. Hell, more than a shiver ran through me. A fire burned deep inside me at that touch and goosebumps rose all over my body. She could keep right on stroking my arm all night long as far as I was concerned. If she kept that up for much longer then I was going to go over the edge just from that touch.

I suppose that was a sign of just how starved for attention I’d become while dating Natalie. I frowned. Stupid fucking Natalie. Why did she have to be such a bitch? Why did I have to waste so much time with her when I could’ve been out having experiences like this?

Well one thing was for sure in that moment. I was done feeling bad or feeling like I was cheating on Natalie. I was going to get out there and live life, and I wasn’t going to let the ghost of a failed relationship keep me from living that life.

“Is something wrong?” Hailey asked.

I realized, too late, how that frown must look. She took a step back and I figured it must’ve been one hell of a nasty look. Damn it.

“I…”

“I know, I shouldn’t be so forward with you after everything that happened,” Hailey said. “I wouldn’t be surprised if you still blamed me for what happened in some small way.”

“No, I don’t blame you for anything,” I said. “If anything I was the one acting like a colossal idiot. I totally lost my temper and then I thought I lost you when you went storming out of the dance.

Hailey looked away for a moment. I thought I might’ve ruined things again. I was babbling. I was saying too much too soon. She looked back and smiled. Stuck her hand out. I looked down and arched an eyebrow.

“Um?”

“Hi, I’m Hailey,” she said. “What’s your name?”

Oh. Right. It hit me what she was doing and I reached out to take her hand. I also tried my best to ignore the shivers that ran through me as I took her hand. As she gave it a vigorous shake.

“Nice to meet you Hailey,” I said. “I’m Zoey. Looks like you’re into costumes?”

Hailey looked up to the most impressive wings hanging on the wall. “Yeah, I guess you could say that. Are you into costumes too?”

I grinned. “Totally. You have no fucking idea how much I’m into making costumes. It’s something of a lifestyle for me, actually.”

“Well then I think we’re going to get along just fine Zoey,” she said.

We kept shaking hands. I didn’t want to let go. I wanted to stay like that forever, or at least for the rest of the night. Hailey looked down and then back up to me and reluctantly I finally pulled away from her. I wanted to keep in contact with her though. Her touch was amazing.

“I can’t believe that worked,” Hailey said.

I giggled. “Yeah, but I think it’s the right thing to do. I mean I was so into you and I didn’t want to screw this up and now here I am babbling like an idiot and screwing things up because I’m babbling like an idiot and…”

I trailed off. There was something about the way Hailey was looking at me that made me shut up. “What? What did I say?”

“You were so into me?” Hailey asked, a blush coming to her face.

Damn. Here I was worried I was going to say something that would scare her off and now I’d done it. I really was an idiot. Only she wasn’t running away. No, she stood there staring at me with that goofy smile on her face and I realized that maybe things weren’t as bad as I thought they were. Maybe this was a good thing.

Now what the hell did I say? It had been way too long since I had to worry about all this first date bullshit, and I was way too out of practice.

18: Do It Right

Hailey:

I let out a little involuntary shiver. I couldn’t help myself. I was excited when I thought Zoey was coming over to check out my costuming collection. Sure I’d been a little nervous considering everything that happened, but I was still stoked to have a hot girl coming over to my place.

Even if having a hot girl coming over to my place meant I’d been scrambling while she was on her way over trying to get the place to look halfway presentable. Trying to get me to look halfway presentable, for that matter.

Now she was standing in front of me and admitting that she was into me. I mean sure I had a pretty good idea that she was into me because of how she’d been acting, but it was always nice to hear that confirmation. You could flirt with someone all night long and it was still nice to hear them say it.

Only now there was another awkward silence stretching out between us. I hated awkward silences. Sometimes it felt like my whole dating life was one big awkward silence punctuated by a few intense makeout sessions because I never knew what to say in situations like this. At first I thought it was because I was still new to the whole being into girls thing and a little reluctant to jump into it, but now I knew it was because I was a nervous ball of social awkwardness.

Which wasn’t great for dating.

“So…” I said, letting the words hang in the air.

I took a step closer. Zoey didn’t take a step back. What the hell. I figured if my dating life really was awkward silences punctuated by intense makeout sessions then I should at least get us to the point where we were doing the intense makeout session.

“So,” Zoey said. She looked away as I took another step closer. She seemed almost hesitant.

“So you’re really into me?” I asked.

I reached up and took her hand. She looked down and blushed, but there was still that hesitation there. I wondered what was going on. Then again she had just gotten out of a relationship. Maybe she was still feeling a little guilty about that even if that Natalie girl had deserved everything she got.

“I was drawn to you from the first moment I saw you at the booth,” Zoey whispered, still looking away. “And I felt like shit for being drawn to you because I was still in a relationship. I felt like I was doing the same damn thing I’d always accused Natalie of doing at those conventions.”

Huh. That was one hell of a zap to have on your head. It also went a long way towards explaining why she was acting a little awkward around me. Or maybe it was just that she was as awkward in social situations as I was. Maybe we were two peas in a pod. If we were then it was a miracle we were even together like this, but I wanted to make sure we stayed a thing.

Sure I didn’t really care for her still talking about the ex, but it was still a new break. I figured I could cut her a little slack.

“Well you don’t have to worry about any of that now. I’m here. I’m with you. Isn’t that all that matters?”

Zoey turned to face me and I was surprised at the fire burning in her eyes. I wanted to take a step back. Damn that was an intense look, but I also couldn’t help but smile under that intense gaze. I liked having her look at me like that. It felt good.

“I wasn’t mad at Natalie because she was cheating on me. Again. Or trying to, at least.”

Here we were with more about the ex girlfriend. I wondered if she was ever going to get off of that subject. I could give her a little leeway, but damn. Still, I was curious where she was going with this too. I figured I should see it through to the end.

“What were you mad about then?” I asked.

“I was mad because she was hitting on you, and I wanted you all to myself. I didn’t want her to take you away from me.”

Whoa. Hot damn that was intense. The tingles running through my body turned to a fire that ran from the tips of my toes all the way through to the rest of my body. I felt so warm. I felt so good. I felt like I needed to do something crazy after a revelation like that.

So I did something crazy. I jumped forward and wrapped my arms and legs around her. Zoey let out a surprised yelp but she also didn’t miss a beat as she wrapped her own arms around me. Her hands went down to give my butt a squeeze as I planted my lips firmly on hers and we fell into an incredible kiss that was setting off fireworks all over.

I lost track of time. I barely felt it as Zoey stumbled back a few steps, though a part of me worried that she might run into one of my costumes or something. For once I didn’t care though. For once all I could think about was how hot it would be even if we did knock over the mannequin holding my costume.

I barely felt it when we fell back on something soft. All I could concentrate on was how good Zoey felt under me. How wonderful it felt to explore her body. I concentrated on how good she tasted as her tongue explored my mouth. I focused on the tingling feeling running up and down my body as we swapped spit and I was lost in a world of pleasure that was so fucking hot and made me realize how much I’d missed doing this sort of thing.

I lost track of time, but eventually I felt a hand on my hair and someone was pulling me back. Zoey looked up at me and she was breathing heavily but I loved that she was breathing heavily because I was the one who did that and it was so fucking hot.

“This is crazy,” she said. “I mean I just got out of a relationship.”

“I don’t care about that if you don’t,” I said. I leaned down and nipped at her lip and she gasped just a little. I also pressed my leg in between hers and that got more than a gasp from her. I grinned a Cheshire grin down at her as I knew that she was mine. I had her in my thrall completely and totally and it was a heady feeling knowing that a girl was that into me.

So I leaned down and kissed her again. Allowed myself to get lost in the forbidden world that was her kiss, though I guess it wasn’t really forbidden since she wasn’t with that girl anymore. It just felt that way, and I was surprised that I was so into that, but it worked so whatever.

Only I felt her hands against my shoulders again. Zoey pushed up and I wanted to growl in frustration. What the hell was the problem? We were making out. We were having a good time. What was there to stop?

I looked down at her again, and this time there was just a little irritation in my look. “Is there something wrong or something?”

“I just keep thinking that this feels so good. I don’t want you to be just another rebound or something,” Zoey said.

Damn. I sat up and plopped my butt down at the end of the couch. It was a ratty old thing that I’d inherited from a former roommate. There was almost no cushioning, and I tried not to think about how many owners there’d been through the years. The thing didn’t come with bedbugs and that was about all I cared about.

“So how do we do this if you don’t want me to be just a rebound?” I asked, just a hint of testiness coming to my voice. I’d really been enjoying that whole making out thing we were doing and she kept insisting on putting a halt to the festivities.

“Well I was thinking maybe we could go out and do something before we get back to the making out? I mean that was fun and all, and you have no idea how long it’s been, but I keep thinking that…”

I smiled and reached out to run a hand along her cheek. It felt good touching her even if she was putting the brakes on. Not that I could blame her for putting the brakes on considering the weird head space she must be in.

“It’s okay,” I said. “I understand completely where you’re coming from. You want to take things slow, right?”

“Well I’m not saying I want to take things too slow,” she said. “The making out really was a hell of a lot of fun. I’m just saying maybe we should do something and get to know each other before we get to that?”

The girl had a point. And when she had a point she had a point, even if it was a point that was going to leave me sexually frustrated for the rest of the evening. I sighed.

“What was that for?” Zoey asked.

“I was just thinking about how right you are and how much it sucks that you’re so right,” I said. I winked at her to make it clear I was joking. Sort of. “Don’t worry though, I agree. We should get to know each other, so let’s get to know each other!”

“Yeah? What did you have in mind?” Zoey asked.

“Well I was already thinking of this whole thing as an unofficial date night,” I said. “So how about we just go ahead and make it an official date night? I know just the place we can go, too. I promise you’re going to love it.”

Zoey looked down at her watch and back up at me. “Really? What were you thinking? Isn’t it kind of late? All the movie theaters will be closed.”

I rolled my eyes. I might be socially awkward around people more often than not, but even I knew more things to do than go out to the movies. This poor girl really had been held hostage in a bad relationship for far too long if she thought a night at the movies was the most fun you could have on a Friday night. I grabbed her arm and pulled her up from the ratty old couch.

“Trust me, you’re going to like this place and it’s definitely not too late to hang out there,” I said. “I have a feeling this place is going to be right up your alley considering you’re the kind of person who hangs out at geeky conventions for fun.”

Zoey allowed herself to be pulled along to the door. I double checked that I had my apartment keys before stepping out.

“So are we driving to wherever this is?” she asked.

“Nope. No need for anything like that,” I said. “It’s within walking distance. Trust me, you’re going to love this place.”

Zoey smiled and reached out to take my hand. I looked at the offered hand for a moment before grinning and taking it. It felt good holding her hand. It felt right holding her hand. That was a hand I could get used to holding.

“I trust you,” Zoey said. “So let’s get going! The anticipation is killing me.”

So we stepped off into the night and towards bar row down on campus. As we walked I desperately hoped that everything would continue to go well tonight, because I really liked Zoey and I didn’t want things to go to shit.

Then again if things did go to shit I could take small comfort in that brief makeout session we had. Still, I told myself everything was going to be fine. It had to, because this girl was damn fine, geeky on top of that, and I had to have her in the worst way.

19: Date Night

Zoey:

“Bar row? This is where we’re going?” I asked.

Hailey looked at me and grinned a secretive grin. “Oh ye of little faith with your barely concealed disdain for the bar life.”

I arched an eyebrow at her. “So are you an English major or something?”

She grabbed my shoulder and yanked me along with that secretive smile still plastered on her face. Like she knew something I didn’t. I still trusted her, but I was having a hard time. The bar scene had never really been my thing unless it was a bar scene at a convention where I was hanging out with my fellow geeks.

That was different though. I felt at home no matter what when I was at a con. I felt less at home when I was hanging out in the real world with the muggles. I was surprised at how Hailey moved with such confidence, too. This didn’t seem like her kind of place either.

“Can you at least give me a hint where we’re going?” I asked. “I’m not really into the bar scene.”

Though come to think of it I honestly didn’t know if I was the one who wasn’t into the bar scene. Natalie sure wasn’t into the bar scene. She’d made that painfully obvious on several occasions when she got upset when I suggested we go out. It was something I’d always wanted to try, especially when we both turned old enough to drink, but it was also something I’d given up on.

Did I really hate the idea of going out? Or was that one more zap Natalie put on my head? I gave Hailey’s hand a squeeze.

“Y’know what, ignore my bellyaching. I said I trust you and I trust you. Lead the way,” I said.

“Good,” Hailey said. “Because I was planning on dragging you here whether or not you came willingly.”

We kept walking as drunk people walked up and down the sidewalk around us. It actually wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be out here. Natalie always complained about bars being too loud and drunk people being assholes, but that never stopped her from getting drunk and acting like an idiot whenever we were out. Which always led to the inevitable conversation after where I got mad at her because she always promised she’d never do anything like that again.

I sighed and forced my teeth to stop grinding. I was doing it again. Thinking of Natalie. I needed to stop that bullshit now.

I looked up as we turned a corner and saw a sign I didn’t recognize. Then again it had been awhile since I’d had occasion to drive through this part of town. It wasn’t the sort of place anyone went unless they were going to classes or they were driving down for a night of partying and a cab ride home.

“Arcadez?” I asked. “What kind of place is that?”

“You’ll see,” Hailey said. “I just discovered this place a few weeks ago and it’s fucking awesome. You’re not going to believe it unless you see it for yourself.”

“Fine, lead on,” I said.

Unlike most of the other bars on bar row there wasn’t a line of people waiting to get into this place. I wondered if that meant it wasn’t nearly as cool as Hailey seemed to think it was. Then again Hailey and I probably had a far different idea of what was cool than the rest of the world given our geeky nature.

Hailey opened the door and we stepped into a bar that was absolutely nothing like what I’d come to expect from a college dive bar. The place wasn’t even a dive bar. The whole place was immaculately maintained and it had a modern trendy look without the underlying smell of stale beer that permeated the few other bars I’d been to.

There was also no smoke, for which I was thankful. It was a good thing that all got banned from bars well before I got old enough to go into bars.

None of that was why I was standing in the entrance staring, slack-jawed, at the bar though. No, that had nothing to do with the decor and everything to do with what lined the walls at this bar. There was the usual bar in the middle and there were tables where people sat shooting the shit with one another, but lining the walls on the first level and in a loft I could see up above from where we stood were arcade cabinets. Tons of glorious arcade cabinets that I barely remembered from when I was a kid and the arcade at the mall was still barely hanging on.

I looked at Hailey and my mouth must have been hanging over or something because she had a huge grin on her face watching my reaction.

“I told you you’d like this place!” she said.

“This place is fucking amazing,” I said. “It’s like they have every video game I loved when I was a kid!”

Hailey elbowed me in the side. “Seriously grandma? You were old enough to be around when these games were new?”

I turned and elbowed her right back. A playful elbow, to be sure, but I wanted her to know she wasn’t pushing this grandma around thank you very much.

“Ha ha, very funny. No, I wasn’t old enough to be around when a lot of these games were new or I’d be like twenty years older. My mom used to drag me to the mall when she went shopping and the arcade was her babysitter before it finally gave up the ghost right around when I got to middle school and started appreciating the mall for things other than the arcade,” I said.

“Well let’s get started! These games aren’t going to play themselves,” Hailey said.

“Wait a second. I don’t have any quarters or anything. How do we…”

Hailey was giving me one of those looks again. Like I’d just said something monumentally stupid. I wondered what it was now. I wondered if she was going to call me grandma again. It’s not like I was that much older than her. If she was in grad school then we were probably close to the same age, assuming she’d done the usual four year stint in undergrad.

“They don’t make you pay to play the games,” Hailey said. “Can you imagine how much business they’d lose if they made people carry around quarters in a world where everyone uses credit cards?”

I shrugged and looked over the rows of games again. “I don’t know? Maybe they retrofitted them with credit card readers or something?”

“Credit card readers on ancient video games?”

“Stranger things have happened,” I said. “So what, are they free or something?”

“Totally!” Hailey said, a huge smile splitting her face. “All the games here are absolutely free as long as you’re drinking.”

“Huh. I guess that makes sense,” I said. “I’m guessing the beer here is way overpriced too?”

“Think of it as sinking quarters into your drink instead of sinking them into the game machines. C’mon, I promise you’re going to have a good time.”

Hailey took me by the arm and pulled me up to the bar. I smiled as I allowed myself to be drawn along. As I allowed myself to be surrounded by the geeky ambiance that was this bar. It was interesting to see the change in Hailey as soon as we stepped through the door. When we were out making our way through the campus social hot spot she’d been a little drawn in on herself. Like she wasn’t entirely comfortable around a bunch of people going out to get shitfaced and find someone to fuck.

It was something I could totally identify with. I’d never been big into that scene, though I was wondering now whether that was because I wasn’t into that scene or if it was because I’d internalized Natalie not being into that scene.

That wasn’t the case in here though. In here Hailey reminded of me when I stepped through the doors of a con. Or when I stepped out of my car at a charity event in my costume. It was like she was in her element. All of that reluctance, that withdrawn look as though she wasn’t enjoying herself, disappeared as she came out of her shell and really enjoyed herself.

And that smile on her face. It was radiant. It sent a thrill running through me. She was beautiful.

“How about you get the drinks and I’ll go stake out an arcade cabinet,” I said.

Hailey turned and looked me up and down indignantly, but her tone was telling a different story. “So you expect me to buy you the drinks while you go off and have fun playing games?”

I winked at her. “Yeah, well get me a little tipsy and we’ll see where the night goes. How’s that sound?”

“Sounds just fine to me,” she said. With that she turned and waded into the crowd of people surrounding the bar. I had no doubt she’d be able to get a drink pretty quickly. She looked good enough tonight that any male bartender would be all over her. It’s not like said bartender would have any way of knowing Hailey was into girls.

It was amazing how much faster service was for a hot girl. I’d miss it when I finally aged out of that, though hopefully I wouldn’t still be coming to bars like this by then.

I moseyed down the line of arcade cabinets looking at familiar old titles that I’d all but forgotten in the years since I was a little girl staring up at the blinking lights and booping noises in amazement. These had all been the height of video game technology back then. It was a far off time when arcade cabinets could still, barely, deliver a better experience than home video games.

They all looked quaint and archaic these days, but a fun game was a fun game even if it was almost old enough to start getting mailers from AARP. I went down one row but all the games were taken. That was one bad thing about having a bar where there were no quarters. There was no way to tell the world that you had the next game.

I finally stopped at a game near the back that caught my eye.

“Holy shit. I can’t believe it!” I squealed.

It was an honest to goodness copy of Battle Barbarians. I had a lot of fond memories of this game, in no small part because it was a fighting game populated by shirtless barbarians which did nothing for me and women in fur bikinis which had done quite a lot for young me back before I understood exactly what it meant to feel tingly looking at pixelated scantily clad women.

I certainly knew what those tingles meant now, though they were more nostalgic than anything else. Apparently my memories had inflated the graphics on this thing, because it wasn’t much to look at these days. Still, the old sights and sounds brought me back to days when the only concern I had in life was being cute enough to bum another quarter off of someone so I could keep playing.

Besides, this game and its scantily clad women in those bikinis had been the precursor to my obsession with the Battle Gear Angel Squad anime. In a way it was the reason I got into the whole costuming scene and a big part of the reason why I was here tonight with Hailey. Everything came full circle.

20: Friendly Wager

Zoey:

The guy standing at the arcade cabinet turned to look at the source of the squeal. Then he stopped to give me a more considering look when he realized that the source of the squeal was a hot girl, if I do say so myself. His grin said he was about to make a move, so I held up a hand.

“Gonna stop you right there buddy,” I said. “I’m here with a date.”

“Well that’s his problem if he left you all alone back here. How about you and I do a little one on one here? Winner gets a kiss?”

I crossed my arms and fixed him with my best “are you fucking kidding me?” look. He seemed to get the message because he started to look a little pissed off. Great. A belligerent drunk hitting on me. That was just what I needed.

“First off, I’m not nearly drunk enough to fall for a stupid line like that so keep dreaming buddy,” I said. “And second, my date will be here any moment now and I’m sure she wouldn’t appreciate it if I was with some random guy.”

He got that hopeful look that I was so familiar with. The look that said he thought he was about to get the threesome that it seemed every heterosexual guy dreamed of. The threesome that they seemed to think every lesbian couple owed them for some reason. Stupid men and their stupid entitled attitudes walking through life.

“I know what you’re thinking and it’s not gonna happen,” I said.

Behind him I saw his barbarian fighter get hit one final time and he went flying across the screen in slow motion letting out a poorly sampled scream. The monitor flashed “GAME OVER” and another sampled voice said the same thing in a garbled shout.

I smiled at the reminder of a time when video games couldn’t render everything so perfectly that you could almost mistake them for reality. That had all been a part of my childhood even though I was young enough that there was no way those things should’ve been part of my childhood if it wasn’t for an ancient mall arcade barely hanging onto life.

“Forget it,” the guy said. “You can have the stupid machine. I’m going somewhere where I have a better fucking chance.”

“Have fun,” I said, fixing hi with my best bubbly smile. I gave him a little wave as he shouldered past me and I moved up to the arcade machine and shivered as I put my hands down on the familiar old controls.

Those controls were the same, but my hands had gotten a hell of a lot bigger since the last time I played. Still, it was like unexpectedly running into an old friend from when I was a little kid. I smiled as I watched the demo screen running.

“Do you and the arcade cabinet need a moment alone?”

I turned to see Hailey smiling as she carried two beers over and placed them on trays installed on the side of the arcade cabinet. Huh. I didn’t remember anything like that from the old days playing this game. Then again I hadn’t been old enough to drink.

“What are you talking about?” I asked.

“You were looking at this arcade cabinet the way I’m hoping you’ll be looking at me by the end of the night,” Hailey said.

I winked. “Who’s to say I’m not looking at you like that right now?”

“Trust me, I’ll know when I get a look like that. That was pretty fucking intense,” she said.

“I have a lot of good memories playing this game,” I said. “I used to be pretty good when I was a kid. I could beat anyone who challenged me.”

Hailey arched an eyebrow. “Really now? That sounds like a challenge to me.”

“Maybe it is,” I said.

“Want to make it interesting?” Hailey asked.

“What did you have in mind?”

The question was hardly necessary. I knew exactly what she had in mind. It was the same thing I had in mind.

“How about loser has to kiss the winner?”

I grinned at the almost-echo of what that guy had said. The big difference was that I wasn’t interested in that guy and boy was I interested in what Hailey was offering. I grinned and stuck my hand out. Hailey took it and we shook on the bet.

“It’s a deal,” I said.

There’s an ancient and wise piece of advice that floats around in geek culture: let the Wookiee win. I was also aware that there was a lesser known corollary to that rule when it came to dating. It was a good idea to let the hot girl you were interested in win every once in awhile if you were really good at a game.

I briefly dated a girl at the beginning of college who thought she was really good at Smash Bros. She only learned otherwise when things started going south between us and I stopped pulling my punches.

Something told me Hailey wouldn’t be interested in being treated with kid gloves in a game though, and the rules were that the loser had to kiss the winner so I figured it was sort of a heads I win tails you lose situation. Which is to say I didn’t pull any punches. After a couple of rounds Hailey finally threw her hands up and took a long drink.

“Okay, I get it,” she said. “You’re like some weird Jedi master when it comes to this game. Uncle.”

“So where do I go to collect my winnings?” I asked.

“They have some booths in the back of the bar for people who want a little quiet time. At least more quiet than it is out here with all the arcade machines,” Hailey said. She held out her arm. “Care to join me?”

“Do I!”

We settled into a booth in a back room where there was low music playing. It sounded like a jazz rendition of the Super Mario Bros. theme. I guess even back here they weren’t going to completely abandon the geeky gaming theme. The one thing that was blessedly absent? The beeps and boops of all those old games.

I settled in next to Hailey and moved in close. She reached out and put an arm around me. We were close. So very close. I could lean in just a little and my lips would be pressing against hers.

I searched my feelings in the pause before our lips pressed together. I was drawn to her. I needed her in the worst way. Yet at the same time I couldn’t help but feel that I should’ve felt weird about this. After all, I’d been dealing with the nagging feeling that I was cheating on Natalie at every step of the way.

Only to my surprise that feeling wasn’t there anymore. No, the only thing I felt was a deep attraction to Hailey. There was nothing left for Natalie.

What the hell. I needed to go with what my body was telling me. I leaned in and we were right back where we were earlier in the night at Hailey’s apartment sucking face like our lives depended on it.

I lost track of time. It was one of those makeout sessions to end all makeout sessions. The sort where I completely lost track of time. I barely came up for air or to take a drink of my beer. The place wasn’t making much money off of us tonight because we were too distracted and drunk on each other to get drunk on the good stuff.

All good things must come to an end though. Eventually the lights started flashing. I looked up and was surprised to see that the place had mostly cleared out. A bored looking person in a T-shirt with the bar logo on it stood at the entrance to the room not looking at us with such intensity that it was obvious she was avoiding us.

I looked at Hailey as she blushed and looked over to the girl.

“Guess we got a little carried away there,” she said.

“So much for date night,” I said. “We should’ve stuck with the making out back at your place.”

I let that hang in the air between us for a moment, wondering if she would take the bait. If she wanted to invite me back to her place then I’d be very interested in joining her, but instead she leaned forward and pecked me on the lips.

“I know what you’re doing there, and I don’t think that’s a good idea tonight,” she said. “I did have a lot of fun with you though. We really need to do this again sometime.”

“Yeah, we do,” I said, and then a genius idea hit me. “Y’know we’re having a costume build day over at Cassie’s place on Sunday. What would you think about joining us?”

“A build day?” Hailey asked.

“Yeah, we fire up the old vacuum forming machine and make costume parts. Usually we do replacements, but if we have a new member or something then we work on a new one. Stuff like that.”

Hailey thought about it for a moment. I held my breath and waited, wondering if she was going to turn me down even after everything seemed to be going so damn well tonight. I suppose there’s always that worry that things aren’t going nearly as well on a date as you think they are.

Then she grinned and I forgot all about my worries. Tension released from my shoulders and I let out a small relieved breath that wasn’t quite a sigh.

“That sounds like a good time,” she said. “And I’d like to meet the other girls.”

She frowned as though something had just occurred to her. “Natalie’s not going to be there, right? You were serious when you said she was kicked out of the group?”

“Trust me, she’s definitely not going to be there,” I said. “If she does show up then we’re going to call the cops, because she’s definitely not welcome. That’s assuming the cops can get there before Cassie has a chance to get at her.”

The girl near the front of the room cleared her throat. I gave her an irritated glare. We were paying customers here, and if we wanted to sit and chat for a minute setting up our next date then she could stand there and wait damn it.

“I guess if you’re sure she’s not going to be around then I’ll go,” Hailey said. “Sounds like a good time! Now we probably ought to get going before that girl over there drags us out.”

Hailey leaned in and kissed me one more time, though this time the kiss was more than a simple peck on the cheek. I found myself getting lost once more in the sublime experience that was making out with Hailey, and the only thing that pulled me out of that experience was another throat clear from the girl at the front.

Reluctantly I pulled away. I could’ve stayed here all night long, but it didn’t look like the good people who ran this place would be too happy about that.

“We should probably get out of here before they get really annoyed with us,” I said.

“Good idea,” Hailey said.

“Can I walk you back to your place?”

Hailey wagged a finger at me. Damn. I guess I was way more transparent than I thought. Still, you couldn’t blame a girl for trying.

“I want that more than anything,” Hailey said. I felt hope rising and then it was dashed. “And wanting it more than anything is probably a good reason why you shouldn’t walk me home.”

“Damn,” I said.

“Text me the info and I’ll see you on Sunday,” she said as she stood and walked towards the exit. I reluctantly got up and followed, though at least when I followed her I was treated to the glorious view that was her walking away from me in a pair of tight shorts. That was almost worth it.

I stepped out of the bar and we kissed one final time before we parted ways. That lasted all of one minute before I realized the problem with us parting at the bar. My car was parked in front of her apartment building.

Whoops.

I rushed to catch up with her. It looked like I was going back to her place after all, but I’d behave myself. Things were going so great that I didn’t want to screw this up. I couldn’t get enough of this girl. She was everything I’d ever wanted from Natalie and so much more, and that was wonderful.

No, I wasn’t doing anything to ruin that.

21: Build Day

Hailey:

I pulled up to a house in a cul-de-sac in the suburbs that was a world removed from everything I’d known since going off to college. The place reminded me of my own house where I grew up, though everything here was bigger and nicer than anything I knew growing up.

In short it was pretty obvious that I was in the swankier part of the suburbs. The sort of place where the soccer moms drove around in the expensive minivan. The kind that cost as much as an expensive sports car.

Yeah, those really existed.

“Okay Hailey,” I muttered to myself. “You can do this. It’s not a big deal.”

I felt out of place here. My car was an old beater. It was reliable, but it wasn’t exactly the nicest old junker. I didn’t fit in with all the expensive wheels I saw in the driveways. Heck, I felt weird about parking in the street.

I put the car into park and double checked the address on my phone. Yeah, I was in the right place. Both doors on the three car garage were open, and there was a table of some sort behind the smaller garage opening where a car should be. I didn’t see anyone out there.

Well there was nothing for it but to go up there and introduce myself. I wondered if Zoey was here yet. I wasn’t sure what these girls would think of me. I’d only seen them from a distance at the convention, after all, and they had to know I was the reason there was a big blow up and there was no more Natalie coming to these things.

Talk about an awkward introduction to the group.

I stepped out of the car and paused for a moment to take everything in. There was the slightest hint of a chill in the air. It wasn’t quite fall yet, but the weather was getting there. I could hear kids shouting in the distance playing somewhere in the neighborhood, but this cul-de-sac was deserted.

I walked up to the garage and took a look at the odd table. The thing was big, and it didn’t look like the kind of table that could be easily moved. Whoever put this thing here didn’t have any plans on parking a car in this part of the garage. That was for sure.

“What the…” I muttered as I looked at what was on the table. It looked like wood carvings in the shape of bikini parts.

Right. That was what they used to make the molds for the plastic pieces. As I looked at the table I could sort of get an idea of how it worked.

“Hey!” someone shouted from behind me. “What the hell are you doing in here?”

I jumped. I couldn’t help myself. I wasn’t expecting someone to sneak up behind me and shout at me. Then again I was the one who was walking into someone’s house without permission. Sort of without permission.

I wheeled around and recognized one of the girls from the convention booth, though I didn’t know her name. As soon as she got a good look at me she smiled.

“Oh, it’s you,” she said. “Sorry. Would’ve been nice if Zoey told us she invited you.”

“Um, I’m sorry?” I said. “Inviting me was sort of a last minute thing. I think.”

“No worries,” the girl said. She stepped down a couple of steps from the house into the garage and stuck her hand out. I took it and she gave mine a shake. “I’m Cassie. This is my place.”

“I’m Hailey,” I said.

“Oh yeah. I totally know who you are,” she said. “And I have to say I’m glad to see you here. Zoey deserves something good happening to her for a change.”

I wasn’t sure how to react to that so I stood there looking all awkward and didn’t say anything. I hated that I didn’t say anything, but then again that’s pretty much what I did when things got good and awkward. Good old Hailey running from the awkward.

“Sorry for yelling at you, by the way,” Cassie said. “Sometimes the neighbors come up and get nosy acting like it’s a violation of the HOA rules to have the vacuum machine running. Of course it isn’t, but that doesn’t stop some of them from trying to get all up in my business.”

“That sounds pretty annoying,” I said. “I wouldn’t know. I live in an apartment so all I can do is pound on the walls when the neighbors get too loud.”

“I remember those days,” Cassie said. She sighed and looked off in the distance as a smile spread across her face. “Man, to be back in an apartment with my friends hanging out. Those were the days.”

“Um, sure,” I said.

Something told me she was looking at the past through rose tinted glasses. I was living the reality of what she was remembering and it wasn’t all that fun living it. I couldn’t imagine looking back fondly, for that matter.

“Enough about the old bats sticking their nose where it doesn’t belong though,” Cassie said. “I saw you were taking a look at the machine. You ever seen one of these before?”

“I’ve seen videos of them online before, but I’ve never actually seen one in person,” I said, running a hand along the edge of the machine. It was a beautiful piece of work. I couldn’t stop thinking of the beautiful things I’d do with a prop table like this.

“Awesome. The whole thing is pretty cool,” she said. “You take the wood carvings we have here and…”

“Oh yeah, wood carvings because anything softer will cave in when you vacuum it,” I said. I walked over to the other side of the table where there was a frame that was attached to hinges. “I’m guessing this metal thing below this frame is the heating element, and you attach sheets of plastic to the frame then pull them over to the other side against the wood molds.”

“Exactly,” Cassie said. “You really do know your stuff. We flip the vacuum on and it pulls the plastic down over the wood blocks and boom. We have plastic props that are ready to be cut out and painted once they cool down.”

“Amazing,” I said. “I’ve always wanted to make something like this, but I live in the apartment so it was impossible. That’s why I worked with foam for my costume.”

“Well we do know how to work,” Cassie said. “It also helps to have a three car garage and only two cars that I need to park.”

I picked up one of the wood “molds” they were using. Basically a carved front piece for a bikini top. “This is so far beyond anything I could do with foam.”

“Join us and you’ll have access to this thing whenever you want,” Cassie said. “Your costume was already pretty kickass though.”

“Thanks,” I said. “But having something solid an plastic like this would be amazing. I spent half the convention worrying that the foam would break or something.”

“You still get to worry about that with these plastic getups, but it’s not as bad. You should seriously think about joining. We’re pretty good about making sure people get their costume set up, and there is an opening,” Cassie said.

And there we were. Back to the thing that had been bothering me ever since I decided to come out here. I knew how I felt about Natalie. I was pretty sure I knew how Zoey felt about her even if she did seem a little conflicted. The real question was: how did the rest of the group feel about her and were they pissed off that she was gone?

I couldn’t tell from the way Cassie was looking at me, so I decided to go for apologetic. God I was such a spineless wimp sometimes, but it didn’t stop that kneejerk people pleasing reaction from shining through.

“Yeah, about that. I’m so sorry about everything that happened. I swear I had no idea what she was really after when she invited me up to that hotel room,” I said.

Cassie arched an eyebrow and let out a long and low whistle. “Which one invited you up to a hotel room?”

I got the feeling that maybe Cassie didn’t know about that part of this whole drama. I really should’ve asked Zoey what she told her friends before I came out here to meet her friends, damn it. Too late now to backpedal though.

“Natalie?”

Cassie shook her head and the hint of a smile turned up the corners of her lips. “I knew all about everything. I just wanted to see if the version of events in your head was different than the version of events Zoey gave us. Guess not.”

I’d been had. I wasn’t sure what to think about that. I was relieved at her next words.

“You don’t need to worry about anyone being upset about Natalie not being here anymore either. The way I see it you did all of us one hell of a big favor by finally giving Zoey the courage to get rid of her. I don’t think you’ll find anyone in the group who’s sad to see Natalie go.”

“That’s a relief,” I said. “I was convinced some of you were going to hate me or something.”

“I mean we do hate you,” Cassie said.

This was like a roller coaster of emotion. One moment I thought I was in the clear and the next moment she was pulling the rug out from under me with a totally serious delivery of a line like that. What was with this girl? The panic that had been ebbing away as I talked with Cassie came roaring back with a vengeance.

“You hate me? Why?”

“Because you did such a good job with those wings. I’m super jealous of anyone who can put something together like that. You’re totally staying in the group long enough to teach me how you did that,” she said.

Just like that the panic was replaced with relief again. I didn’t know how much more of this I could take.

“Um, sure,” I muttered.

“You need to stick around anyways. I’m pretty sure Zoey likes you. A lot,” Cassie said.

I felt a thrill at that. Sure we’d had that intense makeout session a couple of nights ago and we’d been flirting back and forth via messages ever since then, but there was something about having an outside observer confirm everything I thought was going on that somehow made it more real. If someone else saw what was happening and thought things were going well then to my anxiety-riddled brain that was confirmation that it wasn’t just my mind playing tricks on me and telling me things were going well.

“It’d be good for her to have something good in her life for a change. She’s been dealing with way too much crap.”

The swing went right back to anxiety. Why was I such a freak about this sort of thing? But thinking about something good happening to Zoey for a change left me wondering if that something good happening to her was a rebound or if there was the potential for something more. Was I setting myself up for nothing but heartache and heartbreak because I was jumping headfirst into a rebound fling when I really wanted much more than that?

Cassie seemed to pick up on something bothering me. I was doing the usual thing. Arms crossed under my chest. Looking away from the source of my anxiety which, in this case, was Cassie and all her talk about how happy I was going to make Zoey and the worry about whether I could live up to something like that. I wasn’t magic, after all.

“Hey, you really don’t have to worry,” she said. “I promise Natalie isn’t going to be here. She isn’t going to be around ever again.”

“Yeah, sure,” I said, playing it off like that was what was worrying me. Going into everything else would be way too much. Especially since I was just meeting this girl for the first time.

The sound of a car pulling up behind us pulled me away from the awkward moment. I turned around and recognized the sensible lower end but still new sedan that Zoey drove to my apartment a couple of nights ago. I found myself looking at the car with almost as much desire as I looked at Zoey. As a poor grad student I didn’t expect to replace my old beater any time soon, and the idea of being able to afford any sort of new car was a pipe dream.

Then Zoey stepped out of the car and all thoughts of transportation fled my mind. She was in a simple T-shirt and a pair of shorts, but damn was she rocking that T-shirt and shorts. The shirt had an old Battle Gear Angel Squad poster on it. The one from the ‘80s movie that was brought over back when they still called it “Japanese animation” and turned into a surprise hit that spawned a pop culture empire. I’d worn out an old DVD of that movie when I was a kid.

Zoey waved and jogged up the driveway. When she reached me she gave me a hug and a kiss that I returned with interest. Having Zoey right here in front of me chased away all those worries I had about this just being a rebound thing. That wasn’t the sort of kiss a girl gave someone who was just a rebound.

“I see you met Cassie,” Zoey said.

“Oh yeah, we’ve been talking about you,” Cassie said.

“All good things I hope?” Zoey asked, a hint of worry entering into her voice. It was nice to know that I wasn’t the only one beset by anxiety when it came to this whole new relationship thing.

“Of course not!” Cassie said. She glanced down at her watch. “Now as soon as Heather gets her lazy butt over here we can get started.”

“Can’t we get started without her?” Zoey asked.

“No dice. I’m out of plastic sheets after our last run and she was the one bringing us more,” Cassie said. “We’re going to have to wait until she gets here.”

They continued talking shop and I forgot all about my worries and anxiety as I lost myself in a world of costuming that was way beyond anything I’d ever done myself. I figured that anxiety would rear its ugly head again soon enough, but for now I was going to enjoy myself.

22: Get It Right

Zoey:

“So what are we putting together today anyways?” Cassie asked. “I don’t think we have anyone that needs any repairs.”

I glanced across the garage to where Hailey was talking with Heather about the vacuum forming machine. Not that Heather knew all that much about it beyond it was a magic thing that made plastic parts out of the wood carvings we’d custom made for our group, but Hailey was hanging on her every word regardless.

“I was thinking maybe we could do a newbie special today?” I said, trying to make my voice sound casual.

I wasn’t sure if I did a very good job of it. Especially with the way Cassie immediately looked over to Hailey then back to me. She put her arms on her hips.

“Really? Are you sure you want to do that?”

“Why wouldn’t I?” I asked.

To be honest I felt a little out of my element here. Sure I’d been to plenty of these build days before, but this was one area where Natalie usually did all the planning. Sure she annoyed everyone because that planning always involved her getting the latest and greatest of whatever we were building, but it was still one of the only areas where she was mostly in charge instead of sharing duties.

At least Cassie was the one who actually knew the ins and outs of running the table. At least she’d sided with me and not Natalie. If I lost her then that would’ve been the end of it for me with this group because I would’ve been stuck without a way to repair my costume other than spending way too much money paying people who sold the stuff online.

Only now it was Cassie who was raining on my parade.

“You don’t think that’s maybe a little too close to what Natalie used to do? Promise some girl the world to get in her pants?”

“But it’s just a costume. I thought it would be a nice surprise for her. I didn’t mean it like that at all,” I said.

“I know you didn’t mean it like that,” Cassie said. “But I know you and I know you’re not Natalie. Does your new friend over there know that?”

I shook my head. “You’re being ridiculous Cass. We’re going to fire up the machine and do a run for a new costume for her and then she can show us how to do those wings. It’s a fair trade and a nice thing for us to do.”

“If you say so,” Cassie said in a tone that was dripping with warning. A tone that I ignored. She was being ridiculous. I really was just trying to be nice.

Wasn’t I?

“You okay?” Cassie asked. “You look a little off.”

“I’m a little frazzled from actually running one of these things,” I said.

Cassie snorted. “What are you talking about? You were always the one running this stuff. Natalie just swished around and acted like she owned the place while you did the real work. Don’t let it freak you out because you’re being in charge out in the open now.”

I took a deep breath and let it out. She had a point. Natalie never really contributed much other than telling us what costume we were going to do next, and I could totally do that. On top of everything else I already did for this group. It was a little daunting thinking of everything that went into organizing something like this, but I’d been doing it for awhile now so what was the big deal?

It wasn’t a big deal at all. At least I kept telling myself that.

“Right. If I’m making the decisions then I’m deciding we’re going to fit Hailey for a costume and surprise her.”

“How are you going to surprise her? It’s pretty hard to get one of those sized just right without the person knowing we’re sizing them, you know.”

“Leave that to me,” I said.

I walked across the garage to where Hailey and Heather were still deep in conversation.

“So once we have the plastic pulled down around the style of top we want it’s a matter of getting in and cutting off all the excess stuff that we don’t want around the edges,” Heather said. “At least I think that’s what they do. I’ve only ever watched them. I was never all that good doing stuff with my hands.”

I patted Heather on the back and she jumped. Just a little. “Are you sure about that? Because it seems like you come up with an excuse every time it comes time to do some actual work.”

I winked at her to let her know I wasn’t serious. Not entirely. It was true that whenever it came time to do actual work it felt like Heather wasn’t around or she had an excuse. Still, she looked good in a uniform and she was great working with crowds, so it’s not like I minded if her skill set went to something other than building costumes.

“Shut up Zoey,” she said, sticking her tongue out to let me know she wasn’t serious. Not entirely, at least.

I slapped my hands together and rubbed them back and forth a couple of times. “So I was thinking since Hailey is here maybe we could give her the full build day experience? Walk her through the process we use to put together a costume and let her see what we’re all about?”

I turned to her and grinned. “After all, it’s something you’ll have to learn how to do if you’re going to start hanging out with us!”

“Sounds like a plan,” Heather said. “But I’m not cutting anything out. You know I don’t like doing that.”

“I know Heather,” I said. I turned to Hailey. “So I’m going to need your bra size and we’ll have to take some measurements.”

“What?” Hailey asked, a blush coming to her face. She looked at Cassie and then to Heather. I could imagine what she was thinking of. I’d gotten some of her measurements in a very different way on Friday night when we were exploring one another, but I needed something that was a little more precise than fumbling around under one another’s clothes in the dusky back room of a campus bar.

Even if fumbling around in that back room had been a lot more fun.

“If it would make you feel more comfortable we could have Cassie or someone else take your measurements for you,” I said.

“Oh no,” Cassie said from the other side of the room. “If you’re doing something like that then that’s all you. I’m not going anywhere near your flirting games.”

I shot her an irritated glare. I didn’t actually expect Hailey to let Cassie take her measurements. I just figured that would make her more comfortable with the whole process. It didn’t help that Cassie was leaning against the wall on the other side of the garage nursing a beer and grinning at me like an idiot.

She was enjoying this.

“No, that’s okay,” Hailey said. “You can do that.”

I went over to a toolbox that didn’t hold any tools in the traditional sense of the word. The thing was massive, but I went right for the top drawer and pulled out tailor tape. At least that’s what we called it. I’m sure there was probably some technical name for the stuff but I had no idea what the fuck it was. I turned and smiled at Hailey, trying to put her at ease.

It felt weird as I took her measurements, but then again everything about today felt weird. I tried to be quick and businesslike, but the entire time I couldn’t help but be hyper aware of how close we were. How good it felt to be up close to her again.

Of course the entire time I was also hyper aware of how close the other girls were. They were watching and it’s not like I needed an audience for the kind of things I’d like to do with Hailey. That more than anything else was a big part of why I was so quick to get everything we needed and pass it off to Cassie.

“Let’s see,” she said. She took a look and then hefted a couple of wood carvings we’d put together as molds for that size. “These should do nicely, but of course we’ll need a quick try on to make sure we’ve got the right one. I think we can use some of the junk plastic for that, right?”

“Of course,” I said.

“What’s she talking about? Junk plastic?” Hailey asked.

“We got a shipment of plastic sheets a year ago that had some weird bubbling on all the plastic when it arrived. We got a refund but the company that sent it out to us told us to keep the original because they didn’t want to pay shipping to throw it away, so now we have junk plastic that we use when we’re doing test runs and don’t want to waste the good stuff.”

“Oh, I guess that makes sense,” Hailey said.

“So this is how the magic happens,” Cassie said as she pulled out a sheet of white junk plastic and clamped it into the frame over the heating element. “I clamp everything in on our custom made frame right here, then I flip a switch and turn on the heater.”

She did just that.

“I don’t feel anything,” Hailey said. “How hot is that supposed to get?”

“Want me to lift this up and you can stick your hand down there?” Cassie asked.

“Cassie, don’t be an idiot,” Heather said.

“That gets pretty hot,” I said. “The only reason you’re not feeling anything is because the plastic is in the way. See how it’s starting to droop down just a little? That means it’s ready to go.”

“So what happens now?” Hailey asked.

“Now I do this,” Cassie said.

She gave a heave on a handle sticking out from the frame and the frame moved up and around in a half circle, coming down on the other end to settle on the carved molds we’d set down on the other end. The plastic formed around it and, removed from the heating element, it solidified pretty darn quick. The room was filled with the acrid smell of burnt plastic as it cooled down.

“That’s it?” Hailey asked.

“That’s it,” I said. I went over and put a hand on the plastic. “See? It even cools down pretty quick. The whole thing is pretty cool, right?”

“That is pretty cool,” Hailey said. “So what do you do with the pieces?”

“Normally we’d take the time to cut them out properly so they look all nice and pretty when we get ready to put them on a costume, but considering we’re doing a quick and dirty draw right now with the junk plastic we can do a quick and dirty cut out job.”

I went back to the toolbox and pulled out a box cutter. Went back to the plastic and after a minute of cutting both of the pieces that would eventually become part of a Battle Gear bikini top if we were doing this for real were ready to be fitted. I held them up and then tossed one to Hailey. She caught it and then threw it in the air and barely caught it a second time with her other hand.

Hailey blushed. “Sorry. I guess I thought it would be hot or something.”

“It’s okay,” Heather said. “I did that the first time they tossed one of those things to me too. It seems ridiculous that it would cool off that fast.”

“So what am I supposed to do with these?” Hailey asked.

“Hold’em up to your tits and see if they’re the right size,” Cassie said. “If they are then we’ll do a run for real so we can get started on your new costume.”

Hailey looked over to Cassie and then back to me. There was something off about her expression. Like she wasn’t exactly happy to hear that we were putting together a costume just for her.

“What is this all about?” she asked. “I thought you just wanted me here so I could see how you did all this stuff.”

“That is why I wanted you here,” I said. “I thought you’d like seeing all this.”

I sent a murderous glance across the room to Cassie. At least she had the good grace to not look quite as self-satisfied as she had a moment ago. The whole feel of the room had changed and I could feel everything going south. I felt a touch of anxiety taking hold. I knew something like this was going to happen. After everything that went wrong with Natalie for so long I’m not sure why I thought something good would finally happen.

“Is this like some sort of payment or something?” Hailey asked, holding up the bit of white plastic that sort of looked like a Battle Gear chest piece. Hailey was looking more and more upset with every passing moment. “So like I make out with you in the back of a bar and then you bribe me with a costume? Is that what this is all about?”

“Hailey, that’s not…”

“You’re no better than Natalie. You know that?”

Then she was gone. She turned and walked double time out the garage door and down towards her car. I stood there for a moment completely stunned and not quite sure how to react to what just happened.

“Wow,” Cassie said. “Someone still has some issues she needs to work out.”

“I was just trying to be nice,” I said. “I thought she’d like that. She was going on at the convention about how much she wanted a costume like ours.”

“Did you ever ask her if that’s what she wanted?” Heather asked.

“I mean I didn’t bring it up with her. I thought it would be a nice surprise or something. Was that wrong?”

Heather shrugged. “I don’t deal with girls. Too much drama in my experience. Tried it once in college and didn’t look back.”

“Same here,” Cassie said.

Heather and I both turned to stare, our mouths hanging open.

“You never told me you went for a walk on the wild side in college,” I said.

“It was a one time thing and it’s not ever happening again,” Cassie said. “And I’d appreciate it if neither one of you blabbed about that either. If my husband got wind of that he’d be hounding me constantly for a threesome and that is so not happening.”

“Right, we’ve got more important things to worry about right now anyways. Like what the hell just happened there with Hailey,” I said.

“The only person who really knows why Hailey is upset is Hailey,” Cassie said. “You should probably go talk to her and figure it out, because otherwise you’re having a short date night.”

“Yeah, and we don’t have someone to replace Natalie,” Heather said. “Then we have to deal with all the weirdos who want to join up and I am not going through those applications again.”

“Remember the guy that sent us a dick pic? Like he was so ready for a bunch of girls dressed like anime characters to see his dick that he had to fake being a girl and send that in as his example picture?”

“I mean at least he dressed it up in a Battle Gear outfit. It was sort of funny,” Heather said.

I ignored the conversation. The infamous dick pic where the dick was dressed as a Battle Gear Angel had been equal parts creepy and funny, but I didn’t have time to think about that right now. So while Cassie and Heather lost themselves in a conversation about why men felt it necessary to send unsolicited pictures of their junk out into the world I turned to follow Hailey.

I wasn’t sure what the hell I did to make her so upset, but I wanted to fix it. I just hoped I could get to her before she got to her car and peeled out of here.

23: One More Chance

Hailey:

I heard someone running up behind me on the sidewalk and I knew the bill was coming due for how ridiculous I’d acted back there in the garage. I was having trouble breathing and I was pretty sure it didn’t have anything to do with how quickly I’d gotten the hell out of Dodge back there.

No, I was getting close to having a full on panic attack over the way I acted back there, and it was shaping up to be a bad one. I felt my body tingling all over and my chest was tight even as I was having a hell of a time breathing.

“Why do you have to be such an idiot about these things Hailey,” I muttered.

The footsteps behind me picked up. I looked down at the hunk of plastic in my hand. The concave inside of a chest piece for a Battle Gear Angel Squad costume. Why didn’t I drop this thing back there in the garage? The last thing I wanted was a souvenir of the day I acted like a first class idiot in front of a bunch of total strangers and a girl I thought I might have a chance at something special with.

I was going to have to take a pause. I wasn’t going to make it to my car before the panic attack set in full force. This was too much for me. I couldn’t take it. I stopped and tried to calm myself down. Tried to force myself to take deep breaths because otherwise I was going to be in deep trouble.

“Hailey, wait up!” Zoey’s voice came from behind me.

I tried to stay in my calm place. I was off on a nice beach somewhere warm where the evening air wasn’t touched by the slightest hint of the cool weather that would be coming soon enough as fall hit. I wasn’t standing on a sidewalk in some strange cul-de-sac where I’d just made an ass out of myself. I wasn’t being chased down by a beautiful girl who had every right to be pissed off at me after the way I acted just now.

Thinking of all those things wasn’t helping me get out of panic attack mode. Not at all. Damn it.

“Hailey, could you wait up?”

I turned to face Zoey. What was she talking about? It’s not like I was moving away from her or anything.

“What do you want?” I asked.

“I want to know what the heck happened back there,” Zoey shot back. “I thought things were going pretty good and then you blew up at me. What’s wrong? The girls were worried about you.”

The girls. Cassie and Heather. They’d been nothing but nice to me and I’d turned around and thrown that in their faces. I felt the beginnings of tears coming to my eyes. I finally had a chance to hang out with people who were just as geeky as I was and then like an idiot I took that chance and threw it away.

Idiot!

“It was nothing,” I said. “Don’t worry about it.”

“I’m going to worry about it and obviously there’s something going on here,” Zoey said. “So why don’t you tell me about it? What’s got you so upset?”

I reached up to wipe a tear from my eyes. The more I felt the tears coming the harder it got for me to hold onto sanity. I felt like I was a single breath away from totally losing it and I didn’t like having that feeling. I especially didn’t like that feeling when I was standing right in front of Zoey looking like a blubbering idiot.

Some impression I was making on what was supposed to be another date night. I guess this one wasn’t going to end with a hot makeout session or anything. Knowing my luck it wouldn’t end with another date at all.

I needed to be honest. I needed to lay it all out there and let her know how I felt. Even if it was sort of fucked up.

“I know what you were doing back there was probably you trying to be nice, but it felt like you were doing the same thing Natalie did when she invited me back to that room. She made it clear that if I wanted to be in your group there was going to have to be some quid pro quo going on in the hotel room, and I didn’t appreciate that,” I said.

“Hailey, that’s not what I meant at all. I thought it would be nice to give you a costume like what we have. That’s it, I promise. Not to mention you can show us how to make those amazing wings. We’re getting something out of this, believe me, and it’s nothing like what Natalie was hoping to get out of you.”

I smiled just a little. Some of that anxiety was fading away. That made sense. It also felt nice to know that these girls who could do so much with their costumes might need my help with something. It was crazy to think they’d need my help with anything, but it was a good feeling.

“So you weren’t trying to be nice like Natalie was trying to be nice?”

“Look, I’m not Natalie,” Zoey said, a flash of irritation playing across her face. “I don’t do business like her and I’m definitely not tying any strings to you joining the group.”

She paused and a funny little grin spread across her face. “Besides, I figured I was doing pretty well without tying any strings. That night at the bar was pretty fucking hot. I’m not gonna lie.”

I grinned right back at her. It was an infectious sort of grin, and now that she pointed it out she did have a good point. She did already have me before I came out here today. It’s not like she was really dangling a costume in front of me to get in my pants when she was already well on her way there.

“Yeah, maybe I was overreacting just a little,” I said. “Can you find it in your heart to forgive me?”

“I don’t know,” Zoey said. “I mean you did compare me to Natalie…”

I was pretty sure she was joking, but hearing her say “I don’t know” was enough to put some things in pretty sharp perspective for me. She seemed genuinely insulted at being compared to her ex-girlfriend, and why not? Her ex was certainly a piece of work, that was for sure.

And so even though we were joking I found myself afraid. Afraid that I screwed things up again.

“I didn’t mean it like that,” I said. “Please don’t be mad. I just came out here thinking about how I was worried I was just a rebound or something and…”

I stopped. Zoey was giving me another funny look. What did I say that would cause her to give me a funny look? Oh, right. The rebound thing. Did I really just say that out loud? It was like my mouth was moving faster than my brain which wasn’t out of the ordinary but damn it did it really have to hit me right now of all times?

“I mean… um… I’m sorry?” I said.

Zoey looked away and let out something that sounded like a growl. I couldn’t be sure. She didn’t sound happy. I could be sure of that.

“I really am sorry…”

Zoey held up a hand to stop me. “No, please don’t,” she said. “You’re not a rebound, and I can understand why you’re worried given the experience you had with Natalie back in that hotel room.”

“I know Zoey, but I know you’re not like that. I’m acting like an idiot.”

I could almost laugh if it wasn’t so serious. The two of us standing here backpedaling and trying to assure the other that everything was okay.

“I don’t know,” Zoey said. “Maybe I am like that a little? I mean I did bring you out here to try and impress you with our costumes and stuff. I guess there was a part of me who hoped you’d see all that and want to stick around longer and get to know me. Trying to impress you with something like that was a play right out of the Natalie playbook.”

“I don’t think it was a play right out of the Natalie playbook,” I said. “You’re reflective enough to realize when you’re doing it and try to make it better, after all.”

“If you say so,” Zoey said. The grin was gone, replaced by a sad smile. “You’ve given me a lot to think about tonight, at least. I do hope we can hang out another time though? I’d really like another chance to get to know you better. I know the girls would like a chance to see you again at an event or something.”

“I think a do over sounds like a good idea,” I said. “For us and for the group. We need something where we’re not going to freak out on each other.”

“I’m almost afraid to mention it, but we do have a charity event we’re doing next weekend for a local children’s organization,” Zoey said. “You could come out there in the costume you made and we could see how things go there. I’m sure you’ll get along great with the girls in the group, but we always have people come out for a tryout run before we formally invite them.”

“Oh? And if I don’t get formally invited to the group does that mean we can’t go out on a one on one date with each other?”

“Shut up,” Zoey said. “You know we’re going back out next weekend whether or not you come out to the costume thing. And you know that armor we’re making in there is yours if you ever want it. No strings attached.”

“Uh-huh. I’ll think about it as long as there are none of those Natalie strings attached,” I said. Then a thought occurred to me. “I know everyone else has told me this like a million times, but I need you to reassure me. You’re absolutely certain Natalie isn’t going to be at this thing next weekend?”

“If she does show up then she’s going to be in for a rude surprise. She’s not in the group anymore. You’re her replacement if the other girls like you as much as I like you,” Zoey said.

I arched an eyebrow. “Really? So you’re saying I have the pick of all the girls? They all like me as much as you like me? Because that could get very interesting. How am I supposed to pick just one?”

Zoey stuck her tongue out, but I surprised her by pulling her in close. She yelped in surprise as I moved in and bit the tip of her tongue, but a moment later my tongue darted out and around hers and we were lost in another one of those moments where we were so preoccupied with sucking face that we forgot all about the troubles that had followed us tonight.

At least I forgot all about those troubles. Making out with Zoey tended to do that for me.

“Woo! Go Zoey! Get her!”

I pulled away from the kiss and looked back up to the garage where Cassie was standing outside her garage cheering us on. I blushed as I realized she and Heather had been watching us. I also glanced around the cul-de-sac to make sure no one else was looking at us and seeing our impromptu makeout session.

Luckily the coast was clear.

“I should probably get going,” I said. “Text me the information for that thing?”

“Sure thing,” Zoey said. She paused for a moment as though she wanted to say something else, but I knew I needed to get out of there like right away or I was going to jump on her again and that seemed like the sort of thing that the little old ladies from Cassie’s homeowner’s association wouldn’t appreciate at all.

So I turned and made my way back to my car before I could do something really stupid.

24: Decisions

Zoey:

“You know you’re going to get me in deep shit if you do stuff like that,” Cassie said as I made my way back to the garage.

For once I didn’t care. Cassie could say whatever she wanted, but after kissing Hailey out there on the sidewalk I didn’t care. I didn’t care if other people in the neighborhood saw us and were scandalized. If they had a problem with girls kissing girls they could go fuck themselves.

My my, kissing Hailey had certainly turned me a little salty.

“So do you want to tell us what that was all about?” Heather asked.

“Nothing really,” I said. “Hailey agreed to come out to the charity thing we’re doing next week. I figure it’ll be a nice tryout for the group.”

“A nice tryout for the group, or a nice tryout for your next girlfriend?” Cassie asked.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” I asked.

“I’m just wondering if you’re maybe moving a little too fast,” Cassie said. “I know you’re all about this girl, but you saw the way she reacted when you mentioned giving her the costume.”

“So?”

“So wasn’t promising costumes and stuff like that a big thing Natalie did? Didn’t that poor girl get some alone time with Natalie back at the last con?”

I crossed my arms and tried to look pissed off, but it was difficult. Especially because I knew she was right. I’d realized that while I was out there talking with Hailey.

“Okay, so maybe I’ve been coming on a little strong,” I said. “Can you blame me though? I mean look at her! A hot girl who’s into other girls and she’s awesome at making costumes. Do you have any idea how rare that is?”

“About as rare as hot guys who are into this?” Cassie asked.

“Oh tell me about it,” Heather said. “Do you remember that guy who was doing that warrior thing at the convention? You could bounce a quarter off those abs, and they were the real deal!”

“I saw him too!” Cassie said. “I think he was supposed to be the guy from that movie about the Greek dudes or something. Haven’t seen one of those at a con in awhile, but damn was he worth it.”

“I know! Usually guys draw the abs onto their beer gut, but that guy obviously put in the time at the gym! I can respect that,” Heather said. “It was too bad he was walking around with his boyfriend.”

“Probably explains why he was in such good shape though,” Cassie replied.

“Excuse me, but could we talk about my problems here for a minute?” I asked.

“What about your problems?” Cassie asked. “You went and made up with the girl. We all saw it from over here. Hard not to miss it. Now what about our problems?”

“Yeah, like why is the sexiest guy to show up at a convention in costume in ages gay? Why are the good ones always gay?” Heather asked.

“Excuse me,” I said, crossing my arms under my breasts. “I don’t know that I appreciate you trivializing my whole sexuality because of some guy with some nice abs who was there with his very nice boyfriend.”

“We’re not trivializing your sexuality Zoey,” Cassie said with a grin that told me she was about to say something that would probably piss me off. “He was into dudes. You’re into girls.”

“Yeah, totally different thing,” Heather said with a grin of her own.

“You two are terrible,” I said. “And this is why I never want to take you out with me when I go to the lesbian bar or something.”

Cassie struck a dramatic pose like she was a model or something making her way down the catwalk. “Face it Zoey. The real reason you don’t want to bring us with you while you’re out partying with your lesbian friends is because you don’t want us stealing all the girls and breaking their hearts when they find out they can’t have us.”

“I’ve been entirely too indulgent with you two,” I said. I clapped my hands together. “Now let’s get to work! We know what Hailey’s size is, so we’re going to have the first run of her costume ready to go. I want the whole thing done and I want it done yesterday!”

“Wait, I thought you just said you realized you were coming on too strong and all that?” Cassie said. “Isn’t making her a costume the exact opposite of not coming on strong?”

“She’s joining the group, isn’t she?” I asked. “She’s going to need a real costume if we’re going to do that. The foam thing she put together was impressive for a first effort, but she needs something way more durable if she’s going to hang with us.”

I leaned back and watched as Cassie and Heather got down to the business of putting together a new costume set. They were pretty good at it at this point. Which was hardly surprising considering how long we’d been working at this and putting together out own outfits.

“Do you really think this girl is worth it?” Cassie asked as we got out a piece of the good plastic and got ready to do a draw. She flipped on the heating element and its rumble filled the small garage.

“Are you talking about for the group or for dating?” I asked.

“A little bit of both,” Cassie said.

“I was wondering about the dating thing,” Heather said. “She’s been a lot of trouble for you. Seems like she sort of flies off the handle without all that much provocation.”

I thought about that. Things hadn’t gone all that well between us, but even with all the difficulties we’d had I still found myself drawn to Hailey. I still couldn’t stop thinking about her. Thinking about how much I wanted to see her again.

I suppose that right there was really all the answer I needed. She was worth it because my brain told me she was worth it even if it was crazy to keep tilting at the same windmill after all this time.

“Yeah, I think she’s totally worth it,” I said. “I’m going to win her over even if it kills me.”

“That might actually happen given all the trouble you’ve had so far,” Heather said. “Knowing your luck Natalie will go crazy or something and go after you.”

“Please,” I said. “There’s not a chance we’re going to hear from Natalie ever again. After the way I yelled at her back at the convention she’s not going to show her face near us.”

“I heard she was trying to start a rival group,” Cassie said.

I felt a flash of anger at that. Of course she would try to start a new group. Of course she would be so pissed off about getting kicked out of our group that she would try to turn it around and make one of her own. If she couldn’t be part of our party then she’d make her own and try to tell herself that it was so much better than us.

Typical Natalie.

“I’m not worried about that at all,” I said. “Worst case is Natalie makes a group and recruits a couple of people.”

“That’s called competition,” Heather said.

“Not for long. As soon as they spend any amount of time with her they’ll realize what a bitch she is and come running for us. That’s not competition. That’s doing our recruiting for us. We’ll keep the good ones and let the weirdos stick with Natalie.”

“If you say so boss,” Cassie said as she heaved the frame over and brought the hot plastic down over our molds. It created a perfect reproduction of our tops.

“Besides, it’s not like she’s getting all that far if she doesn’t have a way of putting together costumes,” I said.

“She never was all that good at the costume thing,” Cassie said. “I expect her to try and get in touch with me as soon as her current costume starts to break down.”

“Whatever. Could we please stop talking about Natalie? I don’t want to think about her.”

“No, you want to think about the new hotness in your life, don’t you?” Cassie said with a wink.

“She’s not the new hotness in my life. There could really be something there and I’d appreciate it if you stopped yanking my chain about it,” I said.

“Suit yourself,” Heather said. “Go after her if that’s what you really want, but watch out for the universe trying to kick you in the ass.”

“Seems like that’s been happening to you a lot lately,” Cassie said.

“Thank you so much for the votes of confidence,” I said. “You two are supposed to be my friends, you know. Supportive and loving and all that.”

“If that’s what you’re looking for with your friends then you’ve come to the wrong spot,” Cassie said. “Now could we please stop jabbering about your love life and get to work on this costume? It’s not going to build itself.”

“Right. We’ll need it by at least the event after this one if Hailey is going to wear it,” I said.

“Careful. You’re sounding an awful lot like she-who-shall-not-be-names when you talk like that.”

I stuck my tongue out at Cassie to let her know exactly what I thought of that, but inside I couldn’t help but agree with her. Not that I had any intention of ever letting her know that I agreed with her. No, that would just encourage her to never let me live it down, and I didn’t want to deal with that.

But she was right on some level. I had been walking around acting a lot like Natalie. Sure I was acting a lot like Natalie because I wanted to do something nice for Hailey. I was acting a lot like Natalie because I was so into Hailey and it had been so long since I’d been with a girl who made me feel the way I felt with her that I couldn’t help myself.

That didn’t make what I was doing right, though. I needed to tone it down a little bit. I needed to keep myself under control. More than anything I needed to stop coming on too strong just because I liked Hailey so much. That was a good way to lose her forever. Particularly since she had so many issues because of the time she shared with Natalie at the convention center hotel.

Slow and steady was going to win this race. I resolved right there that I wasn’t going to come on so strong in the future. I was going to let things progress naturally and not screw things up by acting like she-who-shall-not-be-named.

I felt a lot better about it after making that resolution. Hailey and I might’ve gotten off to a rocky start, but the future was wide open and I had a feeling it was going to be nothing but smooth sailing from here on out.

25: Realizations

Hailey:

I picked at the French fries laid out in front of me, but I didn’t have much of an appetite. I was mostly pushing food around like back when I was a kid and my mom insisted that I would just like Lima beans if I gave them a try.

I still hated them to this day.

I was in the middle of making a fun little picture painted with ketchup when I was rudely interrupted.

“Want to tell me what’s wrong?” Jake asked.

I put my chin on my hand and rested my elbow on the table. Usually coming to this diner with Jake made me feel better. It’s something we’d been doing for a year now since we first met on campus. It wasn’t making me feel much better today though.

“Sorry, I keep thinking of everything that’s happened with Zoey over the past week. I keep thinking I screwed something up,” I said.

“Oh come on,” he said. “You didn’t screw anything up. That girl was crazy, and the girl she was dating was crazy. It’s not your fault you got sucked into their crazy vortex.”

“Thanks for that,” I said. “I was stupid enough to get sucked into a crazy vortex. Just what I needed to hear.”

“I think you should forget all about her. It’s obvious this new girl is doing her best to reel you in with the same games the first one was playing. Do you really want to have any part of any of that?”

I shook my head and went back to playing with my food. My mom would be horrified, but I was a grown ass woman and I could do whatever the hell I pleased with my food now thank you very much. Besides, it was a welcome distraction from everything that had happened lately.

Natalie. Zoey. Zoey getting mad at Natalie. Zoey acting an awful lot like Natalie. Like she was trying to buy my affection or something. Even if she claimed she wasn’t doing anything of the sort.

“Hey, I know you’ve been through a lot, but I’m here for you,” Jake said. He reached across the table offering his hand. I hesitated for a moment before taking it. After all, it was a wonder he’d even agreed to get together with me considering the radio silence I’d been dealing with over the past week.

It was only when I told him I was having trouble with Zoey that he’d agreed to come along. He really was a good friend, providing a shoulder for me to cry on in my time of need. It was too bad he was a dude, because otherwise I’d seriously consider a date. But he was a dude, and that did nothing for me.

A cruel twist of fate. It seemed like fate had been pulling a lot of cruel twists on me lately. Stupid fate.

“I don’t know,” I said. “I know it’s ridiculous but I can’t stop thinking about her. I keep giving her more chances for some stupid reason.”

“Come on Hailey,” Jake said. “You need to forget all about this girl and all the bullshit she’s put you through. She’s a drama magnet. Is that really the kind of person you want to be around for the rest of your life?”

Jake made sense. His words were seductive. They fed into all the doubts I’d had about Zoey since the first time I realized she was spoken for but she was still flirting with me. Yet at the same time I really couldn’t get her out of my head. I wanted to be around her. I was drawn to her like a moth to a flame.

I just hoped the end wouldn’t be as bad for me as it was for a moth flying right into a flame.

“Let’s just forget I ever brought it up,” I said. “I don’t want to talk about it right now.”

“Fine with me,” Jake said. “That means we have more time to talk about what’s really important anyways.”

I looked up at him and cocked an eyebrow. He had a funny look on his face. Like he was trying to psyche himself up for something. I felt a prickling on the back of my neck. A danger signal that was telling me something was about to go down that wouldn’t be good for me.

It was a signal I’d gotten used to over the past week with everything that happened with Natalie.

“What are you talking about Jake?” I asked.

He still had my hand. He gave it a squeeze. I tried to pull away but either he wasn’t taking the hint or he just wasn’t in a mood to let go. Either way I was starting to get worried. What was he on about?

“I tried to get you aside so I could talk to you about this at the convention, but you were always so busy with that girl that you didn’t have time for me,” he said.

I vaguely remembered him saying there was something he wanted to talk to me about back at the convention. Honestly he was right. I’d been so wrapped up in everything happening with those girls that I hadn’t paid much attention to anything he was saying. I was starting to think that might’ve been a big mistake.

“Then I wanted to go to the costume masquerade with you because I figured that would be a perfect time, but you said you didn’t want to go and betrayed me by going anyways, which I totally forgive you for,” he said.

My eyes narrowed. He totally forgave me for that? What planet was this guy from? So I decided to go to the costume masquerade without him. Was it a bit of a dick move to make an excuse and go without him? Maybe, but it wasn’t the end of the world he made it out to be or anything.

“Jake, whatever this is you should just come out and say it, unless you’re about to ask me out. You need to seriously consider whether that’s a good idea.”

I figured that was a big enough warning. Even Jake should be able to pick up on that, and in my experience he wasn’t all that great at picking up on social cues. From the way a cloud passed over his face I had a feeling that asking me out was exactly what he had in mind.

Damn.

“Why shouldn’t I ask you out?” he asked. “We’ve been friends for over a year now and we get along great. Now that those girls are out of the way you can try something different for a change.”

“Jake, you really…”

“Come on Hailey. I’m completely and totally head over heels in love with you. I finally got up the courage to say something and I worked up the courage at the con and then that girl stepped in and pulled you away from me and…”

I held up my free hand to stop him. I also tugged on the hand he was holding, but he wasn’t letting go. If he kept that up for much longer I was going to start screaming, but I kept silent for the moment.

“Jake, I don’t know what the hell you’re going on about. What did you think was going to happen here? I’m gay! The reason I went after those girls was because I’m into girls. Not guys. Not you. Not ever.”

A little harsh? Maybe, but it seemed like that’s what was called for to let him know there was no chance. If he wasn’t that good at picking up on social cues then I’d give him the sort of cue even he couldn’t ignore.

He blinked a couple of times and for a moment I thought he might be on the verge of tears. That was just what I needed. Him crying because he didn’t realize that gay meant no. At least for him.

“Come on Hailey,” he said. “You know you want to give it a try for me. We’ve been friends for so long that you have to give it a try!”

“I don’t know what strange world you’re living in Jake, but that’s not how this works,” I said. I gave my hand a yank and I finally pulled free. I shook it a couple of times to get circulation working again. He’d been squeezing my hand really hard.

“Come on Hailey! I’ve put in the time and now I deserve my chance!”

I stared at him in complete and total disbelief. I couldn’t believe we were actually having this conversation. I couldn’t believe he thought I owed him something because we’d been friends for over a year. That wasn’t how friendship was supposed to work, but now I was starting to realize that it had never been a friendship for him.

It had always been about what he could get from me. The asshole.

And in that moment I had something of a revelation. Something that put the whole Zoey situation into stark perspective. Something that made me realize what an ass I’d been for pushing Zoey away all this time.

Natalie was the problem because she offered me something and then assumed that I’d owe her something for what she was offering. I could only join the group if I was willing to hop into bed with her. Zoey, by contrast, was offering to do nice things because she liked me. At no point had she ever said there was any sort of expectation or strings attached to what she was offering. It was a gift freely given with Zoey versus a gift with strings attached with Natalie.

It was a subtle difference, but it was kind of a big deal. And I’d been an idiot. At every step of the way I’d been jumping at emotional shadows, convinced that Zoey was acting the way she was because she was no different from Natalie when that couldn’t be farther from the truth.

Damn. I’d been a first rate ass this whole time, and it took watching Jake making a first rate ass out of himself to help me come to that realization.

I turned my attention back to Jake. He was still sitting there on the other side of the booth with an expectant grin on his face as though he thought this was all somehow going to work out for him in the end. The poor guy. I still had enough lingering good feelings from our friendship to feel sorry for what I was about to do to him, but it was something that had to be done.

“Jake, thanks,” I said.

His grin grew wider. “I knew you’d come ar…”

I held up a hand to stop him again. He shut up. Good. I didn’t think I’d be able to stand listening to him talking about how we were meant to be and I’d come around because I was so hot for him. Gag.

“You just helped me come to my senses, but not about you or dating guys. That’s not happening, we’re not happening, and I think our friendship is over,” I said.

“What? You friendzone me and now you’re dropping me?”

“It was never a friendship to begin with if the entire time you were only ‘putting in your time’ in the hopes of getting into my pants,” I said. “That’s not a friendship, and I’ve made it clear from the get go that I wasn’t interested in anything like that.”

“I can’t believe you’d do this to me!” he said, loud enough that he turned some heads around the diner.

I stood and tossed some cash down to pay for my food. I didn’t have much of an appetite before, and I really didn’t have an appetite now.

“Jake, it’s been nice knowing you, and thanks for helping me clear some things up.”

And with that I turned and made my way out of the diner. Sure I’d just ended a friendship that had been going pretty well for the past year, but if it was only a friendship where he was trying to date me and that wasn’t happening then it wasn’t a friendship I wanted to be a part of.

Instead of feeling sad I felt more giddy than anything else. Jake had been an ass lately anyways. What I was really looking forward to was seeing Zoey again. I was going to plant the biggest kiss ever right on her lips and apologize for how crazy I’d been acting. It was still really early in whatever this was, but I wanted us to start on the right foot and that started with an apology.

I just hoped it wasn’t too late. I hoped I hadn’t already screwed things up too much with my freakouts. I’d have to wait until the charity thing tomorrow to find out for sure.

26: Charity

Hailey:

I could see tents off in the distance that told me I was getting close. The butterflies in my stomach were also telling me I was getting close. I’m not sure why I had butterflies in my stomach. After all, I’d already gone on one and a half dates with Zoey.

Sure one of those dates had ended really well and the other one had nearly ended in disaster, but I figured that meant there was at least a fifty/fifty chance that this one would end well.

I put my car into park when I couldn’t drive any further. There were cops blocking off the road leading down to where the charity walk and run was actually taking place. I really hoped we weren’t expected to walk or run in these costumes. It would be difficult in my foam bikini, but next to impossible with the wings on.

I almost left them behind, but changed my mind at the last minute. After all, weren’t the wings the one thing that everyone went crazy over? Far be it for me to leave the most impressive part of my costume in my car.

Not to mention that if I left it in my car anyone who walked by would be able to see them. I didn’t think there was a big black market for feathered wings to go on costumes, but you never knew. There might be a fan out there somewhere who would steal it.

Maybe Natalie was lurking out there somewhere waiting for a chance to swoop in and steal them. I couldn’t shake the feeling that she was out there. Watching. Waiting for a chance to move in and ruin any fun that Zoey and I might have today.

“You’re being paranoid Hailey,” I muttered to myself as I shouldered the wings and tried to snap the straps in place. Hiding the straps on the thing had been almost as difficult as gluing all the feathers onto the thing individually.

Besides, I wasn’t nearly as worried about Natalie as I’d been even a couple of days ago. Shit happened, and in this case the shit was Natalie. I’d given her way too much power over me and it stopped now. I’d realized that much from my weird dinner with Jake.

I got a few odd looks as I was getting into my costume which threw me for a loop for a moment. Then I remembered where I was. Out in the real world with the muggles. People who weren’t used to seeing people dressed up in elaborate costumes. I never got a second glance when I was getting my costume on in a parking garage next to the convention center because the people going to the convention were used to seeing that sort of thing.

Not so much here. I even saw one guy who looked like he wanted to stop for a picture, but a quick slap from his wife put an end to that before it even started.

I shook my head and giggled. It would seem that my outfit had as much of an impact out here as it did in the convention center, at least.

As I made the walk over to where the charity event was being held I was glad this was happening at a time of year when it was a little cooler. Sure I was in fake armor that was really nothing more than a glorified bikini, but it got really hot walking around in these things. You’d think there’s a lot of air coming through the thing, but let me tell you that wasn’t the case after walking around with heavy foam armor and the heavy wings on top of that.

Sometimes I thought I spent more time in the gym just to get in good enough shape to hold everything up than I did trying to stay in the proper shape to wear the armor and look good. It was killer on my back.

I got closer and I saw some familiar faces in front of a booth that looked a lot like the booth the girls had set up at the convention. It had their logo on a banner over the top and they were taking pictures with kids and families.

I smiled at that. Here was a group of girls who were doing their best to do something good with their geeky obsession and make everyone in the world just a little happier. That was the kind of group I could really get behind.

I pulled my phone out of my bra cup. A motion that drew the attention of a couple of guys who were walking past. One guy got slapped by his girlfriend for his trouble, but I wasn’t paying attention to them. Guys checking me out was another occupational hazard whenever I stepped into this thing. I was more concerned with where Zoey was. Maybe it was weird, but I wanted to make sure she was actually there at the booth before I made an appearance myself.

“Are you out there?” I asked.

There was a moment when I didn’t think she was going to respond. Sure we’d been texting back and forth, but there was still a part of me that worried this whole thing was going to come crashing down around me sooner rather than later. I’d learned to ignore that voice, but every time it took her awhile to respond it came back louder and louder.

Like right now. Thankfully my phone buzzed a moment later with a message.

“Down at the booth. You here?” she asked.

“Sure am,” I said. “Be there in a minute.”

One nice thing about being at a charity event rather than at a convention was it didn’t seem like everyone and their mother wanted to stop me to have their picture taken. That was very refreshing. Sometimes at the cons it felt like I couldn’t take more than a couple of steps without running into someone who wanted a piece of me.

Usually a picture, but sometimes more. Those were the most annoying.

When I got to the booth I felt like an idiot. None of the other girls were wearing their wings, but they were all up on a stand behind them and they looked decently impressive. Not quite as wide or as natural looking as the wings I’d made, but they were still pretty darn good.

“Hailey! You made it!”

I turned to see Cassie grinning. She walked up and wrapped me in a hug, but it was a bit of an awkward hug because she had to turn to the side at the last moment to make sure our costumes didn’t run into one another. Which was just fine with me. They could talk about making me a new costume all they wanted, but I wanted to make sure I kept this current one in good shape.

“Is Zoey around here? I texted her and she said she was at the booth,” I said.

“She’s over on the other side talking with the lady who organizes this shindig. You should go around and meet her,” Cassie said. “Oh, and by the way, I have to say that the progress we’re making on your costume is amazing. It should be ready by our next event.”

I stopped and felt a chill run through me. The costume was amazing?

“What costume?” I asked, careful to keep my voice neutral.

“The one we’re working on for you as a group silly,” Cassie said, her smile growing wider and wider. “And you can’t get mad at us. It was a group thing. We want you to join us so we want you to have a new costume. It doesn’t have anything to do with Zoey or she-who-shall-not-be-named.”

I couldn’t help but laugh just a little at that new name for Natalie. It seemed appropriate considering I didn’t even want to think her name let alone hear it spoken. It brought up a case of the shivers, and not in a good way.

“Right,” I said. “I think I’m going to just go around to the other side of the booth and let Zoey know I’m here.”

“Good idea,” Cassie said. “I was sure she was going to break her neck the way her head spun around every time she heard a new car pulling into the parking lot. Now that you’re here she might be able to actually get some work done.”

I stepped around to the other side of the booth and there she was. She was so beautiful. I know I thought that every time I saw her, but it really was true. Zoey was one of the most gorgeous girls I’d ever seen. Plus she was geeky and she had the same dedication I did to putting together costumes.

I stopped to just watch her for a moment. She had a smile on her face and she looked so happy as she stood there talking to an older woman who I could only presume was the organizer of this little shindig.

“The final amount is going to be something like five thousand dollars I think,” Zoey said.

“Five thousand? That’s better than you’ve ever done before!”

“Yeah, well we almost didn’t have that much. It turns out Natalie was skimming money off the top and we all had to go in together to make up for what she took,” Zoey said.

The woman shook her head and clicked her tongue a couple of times. “I can’t believe she would do something like that. She always seemed like such a nice girl. Is she not here today?”

“She seemed like a nice girl to a lot of people,” Zoey said. “I guess appearances can be deceiving though, and no, there’s not a chance she’s going to be here today. We kicked her out of the group.”

“Because of the money?”

“Not really, but that would’ve been enough to kick her out if we found it in time. But let’s talk about some other stuff. Looks like you’re going to have a good turnout here today! If we have enough people asking for pictures that’ll easily push us over the $5000 mark!”

“I really hope so,” Zoey said.

The lady seemed to notice me standing there for the first time. She looked up and jumped. Let out a little yelp.

“Oh my! You startled me! I don’t think we’ve met before,” the lady said. She walked forward and held out her hand. “I’m Susan. And you are?”

“Hailey,” I said.

Her eyes went wide and if anything the smile got bigger. “Oh, so you’re Hailey. I’ve heard lots of good things about you!”

I glanced past Susan to where Zoey looked like she was trying her best to sink into the ground. Her face was bright red and she was shaking her head back and forth and muttering something to herself. I turned my attention back to Susan.

“Really now? Well that’s good to know that they’re all good things, I suppose!”

“Right. I have some other things to attend to right now. I’ll leave the two of you to chat with each other,” Susan said.

She turned and left. I walked up to Zoey and punched her lightly in the shoulder.

“So you’ve been talking about me while I wasn’t around, huh?” I said.

“Maybe,” Zoey replied.

“Well let’s give them something else to talk about, how ‘bout?” I said.

“What are you…”

I didn’t give her a chance to finish the thought. I reached out and pulled her in for a kiss. She let out a surprised yelp but even that surprised yelp didn’t last for long as I planted my lips against hers. The plastic of her costume rattled against the foam of mine and that was what finally brought me back to reality and had me pulling away from the kiss.

It wouldn’t do for us to have a wardrobe malfunction right here in the middle of a charity event, after all. Talk about embarrassing! Especially on my first official time out with the group and all.

Though I’m sure there were a few guys who wouldn’t mind if we had a wardrobe malfunction judging from the odd looks we were getting. Right. Two girls kissing. Of course all the knuckle draggers would look at that and think about how hot it was.

It was pretty hot, don’t get me wrong, but I wasn’t trying to put on a show for anyone or anything.

“That was a nice way for you to say hello,” Zoey said.

“You’re telling me,” I said. “I think I’m going to greet you like that every time we meet.”

“I could get used to that,” Zoey said. “Natalie never…”

A look of pure panic passed across her face and her hand went up to her mouth. It was funny. A couple of days ago I might have gotten really upset that she brought up Natalie again, but now with the benefit of a little bit of time and a little bit of hanging out with her I wasn’t upset. She’d just gotten out of a relationship. It was only natural that she’d still bring up something that was such a huge touchstone in her life.

“Oh shit Hailey. I’m so sorry,” she said. “I just opened my mouth and it came out before…”

I held up a hand to stop her before she could really get going. “Zoey, calm down. It’s okay.”

That brought her up short. She cocked her head to the side and her eyes darted back and forth as she looked into my own. “Are you serious?”

“Totally serious,” I said. “Natalie was a big part of your life for a long time. Freaking out about it isn’t going to do anything but ruin any chance we might have, so I’m not going to freak out about it.”

Zoey grinned again. “I’m glad to hear you say that, but I promise any time I mention that psycho it’s totally an accident. I don’t still have any feelings for her or anything.”

“I know Zoey,” I said. I leaned in to kiss her again. “Just be glad the crazy bitch is out of your life and I’m in it now.”

“Now isn’t that interesting,” a familiar voice said from behind us. “Now you’re stealing my group, shacking up with the girl who broke us up, and you’re talking trash about me behind my back.”

I wanted to squeeze my eyes shut. I know I’d come to a big realization while I was chatting with Jake. I was okay with the idea of Natalie being a part of Zoey’s life in the abstract, but what I wasn’t cool with was Natalie showing up to a place where she clearly wasn’t invited or wanted. Couldn’t that girl take a fucking hint?

I balled my hand into a fist and turned around, fully intending to deck her. She stood on the other side of a rope blocking off the booth wearing her own costume and she had her arms crossed under her breasts as she looked between the two of us with a look that seemed to hold all the hatred in the world.

Almost all the hatred. I was feeling a bit of that myself. How dare she show up again and try to screw things up. I took a step forward, but then a hand wrapped around my arm and held me in place. I tried to pull free. I really wanted to tangle with this girl and I didn’t give a fuck that I was in my costume.

But there was that iron grip on my arm. I looked down and back. Blinked in surprise when I realized it was Zoey holding me back with her grip. She looked at me and there was a cold fury burning there behind her eyes. It was enough to make me want to take a step back. I looked between Zoey and Natalie.

“Let me handle this Hailey,” she said.

I thought about all the times Zoey had gotten mad at Natalie while I was there to witness it. How scary it was when she got good and angry. Only now I could think of nothing that would please me more than to see Zoey giving Natalie a bit of what she deserved.

So I stepped aside and got out of the way. It was time to watch the fireworks fly.

27: Throwdown

Zoey:

“Did you seriously come out here in costume when you knew you weren’t invited?” I asked.

It was weird. Every other time I’d argued with Natalie in the past week it had been a huge blowup. My rage had boiled close to the surface and I’d been almost ready to punch her out. That was how angry I was with her over everything she’d done to me.

Though I guess part of that was also how pissed off I was at all the time I’d wasted with her. Time I needed to make up for now. Time that was being wasted again because she kept showing up and screwing things up with me and Hailey.

“You don’t talk to me like that,” Natalie said. “You stole my group and you cheated on me with this…”

“Would you please just shut the fuck up?” I asked.

Again my voice was quiet. I felt calm. Cool. Collected. I felt like I wanted to scream at her, but I knew screaming at her wasn’t going to do a damn bit of good. Not when we were out here in the middle of a crowd. Screaming and yelling and making a scene in front of the nice charity people would only make it certain we wouldn’t get invited back to the nice charity event ever again.

“You…”

“You need to shut up,” I said. “You need to get the fuck out of here. I don’t know how many ways I can say this, but you were kicked out of the group. That doesn’t even have anything to do with you and me. You were taking money from the group. Oh yeah, I found out all about that when we sat down and looked at the books.”

“How dare you…”

“Natalie, could you please shut the fuck up?”

I turned and saw Cassie come up behind me. The rest of the girls formed up around us, and none of them looked too happy to see Natalie there. Hardly surprising considering most of them ended up chipping in to make up the money that she stole. We were still trying to decide whether or not it was enough money to turn it into the cops, or if they’d even be interested in going after her.

“Cassie, you were always such a slut. I know you and Zoey were…”

“Are you really doing this Natalie?” Cassie asked. “The whole projection thing might’ve worked on Zoey here for awhile, but it sure as shit isn’t working on me. I’m going to give you to the count of ‘fuck off’ to get out of here before I knock out a few of your teeth and rip up that costume of yours. Good luck finding a replacement without access to the machine.”

Natalie looked at everyone lined up and arrayed against her. She was living off in her own world, but it seemed like reality was moving in on her even if it would be only for a moment.

“Look Natalie, I’m not sure what you were expecting when you came out here. Did you think everyone was going to fall all over themselves to welcome you back to the group or something? Well it’s not happening, and you need to leave before you cause a scene,” I said.

“You can’t kick me out of my group. This is my group! I founded it! I founded it and I can take it back from you!”

Her voice was getting louder. She was starting to do exactly the sort of thing I’d hoped to avoid. People were turning and looking at us, and why not? We were at a charity event where everyone was supposed to be having a good time and here she was screaming and melting down.

“You didn’t build this Natalie,” Heather said. “Zoey is the one who got everyone together in the first place. Cassie is the one who built the table along with some help from Lisa. I was the one who recruited Sierra and Thea. The only thing you ever did was hit on girls who came up to our booth and make us look bad in the process. We don’t need that.”

“Yeah, and we’re going to tell the cops all about what you did stealing money from the charity,” Lisa said.

I squeezed my eyes closed for a moment at that little interjection from Lisa. She’d been more pissed off than anyone else when she found out about the theft. Naturally she’ be the one to bring it up today. Not that I wanted her to bring it up. That was one little surprise I was hoping we could save for when we actually decided to press charges.

If we decided to press charges.

I opened my eyes. Looked up at Natalie. I met her gaze and held it.

“This isn’t about us anymore Natalie,” I said. “I guess in a way it never was. No one in this group wants you around anymore. No one in this group liked you when you were with us. So please do what we’ve all asked you and fuck off before you get hurt.”

Not that I thought we’d really get into a rumble or anything. The idea of a bunch of girls in these costumes getting into a fight with each other was laughable. None of us were going to risk breaking our costumes even if it did mean a chance to beat the snot out of Natalie after everything she put everyone through.

Natalie looked like she was on the verge of leaving when a voice interrupted.

“What is the problem here? I heard shouting,” Susan’s voice rang out through the crowd. She stepped through and for a wonder she actually looked angry. She was such a kind woman that I didn’t think I’d ever see her as furious as she was in that moment, but furious she was.

I suppose the old saying about being wary of the anger of a quiet man also applied to kindly older woman. She looked absolutely furious that someone would dare interrupt her charity event with shouting. She turned and put her hands on her hips when she saw Natalie standing there.

“Susan, I don’t know what these girls told you but it’s a lie,” Natalie said. “They’re trying to steal my group from me and…”

“Oh they told me all about who was doing the stealing in your group hon,” Susan said. The kind smile returned to her face and Natalie actually turned to hit me with a triumphant smile. I’m not sure what she thought was going to happen here. Even if she had Susan on her side it’s not like that would get her the group back.

Not that I thought for a moment that she had Susan on her side. The charity organizer might be smiling, but there was a dangerous gleam in her eyes that said Natalie was moving onto shaky ground. No wonder considering the hundreds of dollars she’d skimmed off the top of our donations.

“I know all about how you were stealing money that was meant to go to the kids. So you can turn around and leave my charity now, or I can call the nice police officers working the event over here and they can escort you away in the back of one of their squad cars. How’s that sound?”

Natalie looked at everyone surrounding her. I wondered if the bubble she live in where she could never do any wrong would extend to allowing herself to be escorted away by the cops. Surely even she wouldn’t go that far.

She turned and glared daggers at me one final time. “Fine. This isn’t worth all the trouble. I’ll start my own group.”

Natalie turned and stalked off towards the crowd. More people were staring now and taking pictures, and so there were more than a few cameras running when she hit a bad spot in the grass underfoot and went falling straight forward. I heard the dreaded sound of plastic cracking, the sure sign that something had just gone kaput on a costume. All around me the other girls in the group breathed in sharply at that sound.

When she stood she was holding part of her top in place. The crack was pretty obvious, right down the side of one of the cups, and I could see the bra underneath. She turned back to our booth one final time.

“You hear me! I’ll start my own group and we’ll do way better than you bitches!”

I flinched. Not so much because she was screaming at us as because of what she was screaming at us. That really wasn’t the sort of language you should use around kids. Apparently the cops Susan had threatened to bring along to talk to her thought the same thing because they materialized out of the crowd and each of them put a hand on her arm as they started pulling her towards one of the exits.

I sighed in relief. I still couldn’t believe she would even come out here in the first place, but that had gone about as well as could be expected, all things considered. No one got into a fight, after all, and the only person who ended up with a broken costume was Natalie.

“I’d like to see her start a new group or fix that costume without access to my workshop,” Cassie muttered.

“Well that was unfortunate,” Susan said.

“Susan, look, I’m so sorry about…”

Susan waved a dismissive hand and the smile I always saw there was back on her face. “Don’t you worry about it at all dear,” she said. “I know you can’t control where she shows up. Hopefully Dan and Reg will have a nice chat with her about showing up where she’s not wanted and that will be that.”

“Maybe,” I said.

I was relieved that she didn’t blame us for anything that just happened, but at the same time I couldn’t shake the feeling that this wouldn’t be the last time we heard from Natalie. There were other groups around the country who had to deal with drama like this and it was never pretty. Still, there was nothing for it but to soldier on and keep doing the good work we were doing.

I looked around at all the kids we were raising money for. They were the real reason we were doing this. Them and the friends I’d made. Them and the one girl who might be more than a friend if I played my cards right.

I turned to face Hailey, though I was afraid I’d see her retreating back to her car like she had before whenever Natalie came up. To my surprise she was right there smiling back at me.

“I think you handled yourself well there,” she said. “You didn’t fly off the handle this time.”

“Believe me I wanted to,” I said. “But I don’t think that would’ve helped anything.”

“You’re probably right. You did a lot better being the calm collected one and letting her be the psycho. It really turned the crowd in your favor. That Susan lady too.”

“So you’re not upset or anything?”

“Y’know I like to think I’ve learned a thing or two over the past week,” Hailey said.

“Really now? And are those things good for me?”

“Maybe,” she said. “A couple of things are good for you. Like I’ve learned that you’re not Natalie. When you do nice things you’re never doing it with strings attached, and I shouldn’t have let the zap she put on me in that hotel room get in the way of how I felt about you.”

“Fair enough,” I said. “It was getting exhausting trying to do nice things for you.”

Hailey stuck her tongue out at me. Okay. A little immature, but I probably deserved that. Still, it was the truth. It had been exhausting trying to do nice things for her and wondering if she was going to fly off the handle. It was nice to know that wasn’t going to happen anymore. Or at least if it did happen she knew what she was doing.

“So what’s the other thing you learned that’s good for me?” I asked.

She moved in close and put her arm around me. I smiled and shivered at feeling her so close to me. I was never going to get tired of that. After so long being rejected by Natalie this was like walking through the desert and finding an oasis of affection that I’d desperately needed and never realized.

“You can’t control what Natalie does. She’s like a force of nature. All we can do is react to her and try to do damage control,” Hailey said.

I shook my head. “Y’know you probably have no idea just how right you are. I have a feeling she’s going to try and start a group of her own or something. We’re going to be dealing with her and her drama for a good little while to come.”

“That’s fine with me,” Hailey said. “As long as we’re dealing with it together?”

I grinned down at her. “Y’know I think I like the sound of that.”

I did like the sound of that. We’d been through a lot over the past week. It had been a whirlwind. A roller coaster. But here at the end it was the two of us standing together arm in arm. We were still at the beginning of whatever this was, but it was a good beginning.

“On the bright side, we’ll have one hell of a story to tell when people ask us how we met,” I said.

Hailey laughed then pulled me in for a kiss and I forgot about everything else for a good little while.

28: Six Months Later

Hailey:

I stepped into the convention center and took a deep breath. There was something about the smell of a convention that always put me in a good mood. It was the smell of new plastic from all the toys that were on display at various booths. The smell of brand new T-shirts waiting for people to try them on and take them home. There was also an undercurrent of B.O. that I could’ve done without, but other than that it was a good mix of smells.

For me it was the smell of coming home.

“Think you could stop sniffing the air long enough to help us out with some of this stuff?” Cassie asked as she stepped in behind me carrying a table.

I hopped out of the way and moved to the back of the table. The convention center wanted to charge us $200 per day for providing a folding table so we said “fuck it” and told them we’d bring our own. Thankfully we could do that at this convention centers. We’d heard of other groups that had to pay ridiculous fees because otherwise they’d be standing at an empty booth.

It was a racket that you never thought about when you were visiting a convention as a guest. It was a whole new world I’d been introduced to since I joined the local chapter of the Battle Angels officially.

“Sorry,” I said. “Let me help you with this so you’re not dragging it all over the convention center.”

“Awfully nice of you,” Cassie grunted.

I thought she was being melodramatic. It was a folding table. It’s not like it was that heavy. Just a little awkward because of how long it was. We carried it back to the booth space and Zoey appeared a few minutes later carrying our banner and other stuff.

“Looks like you-know-who is going to be here today,” Zoey said, a frown on her face.

I looked through the empty tables and rolled my eyes. There in the distance was Natalie glaring at us. It wasn’t the first time that had happened and I had a feeling it wouldn’t be the last, though it looked like she was down a couple of girls from the last convention. At least one of those girls would be joining us this time around.

“Let her stew over there,” I said. “People know who we are and we won’t be able to see her once all the other booths in between us are set up anyways.”

“I know you’re right, but it still pisses me off,” Zoey said.

I reached out and took her arm. Pulled her in and hit her with a big kiss right on the lips. For a moment we forgot all about our troubles and she-who-shall-not-be-named setting up with her failing group on the other side of the convention floor. The organizers gave us a much better spot than she got anyways.

We’d be fine.

I pulled away from the kiss and glanced across the room again. Natalie was glaring at us still, but she looked even more pissed off now than she had a couple of minutes ago when we noticed her. Good. Let her sit over there all alone thinking about everything she lost. I was going to concentrate on how awesome things were over here.

“Do we have all the swag ready to go for the raffle?” I asked.

“Looks like Lisa already swung by earlier to drop everything off,” Cassie said.

“She did,” Thea said, appearing from behind a curtain. I breathed a small sigh of relief. I was going to be annoyed if someone dropped off all our raffle swag and didn’t leave anyone to watch it. That was the rule at these things. Always have someone watching our toys because you never knew when someone with sticky fingers might be walking the convention hall.

Even right now a couple of hours before the convention center opened when we were just setting up.

While they were busy setting everything up I went through some of the paperwork and advertising stuff we had ready to go. It’d become very important to differentiate our group from others operating in the area over the past half year, but I thought we’d done a pretty good job of it. Especially since we were the group with the obviously professionally made costumes. All the girls had sets of wings made by yours truly, and we had a couple of other people who were starting to do just as good a job as I did.

I looked at the bustle of activity and smiled. Six months ago I never imagined something as simple as putting together a costume would have given me a second family like this, but now here we were half a year later and that’s exactly what the girls had become. We were a sisterhood. We were family, and it was awesome. It was the group of friends I’d never known I needed until I found them.

And then there was Zoey. Beautiful Zoey. Geeky Zoey. Zoey who was perfect in every way. I felt butterflies when I looked at her that were every bit as intense now as they’d been the first time I saw her. Heck, if anything they were more intense now than they’d been back then because we were talking about moving in together.

Sure it was crazy. Sure people said we were moving fast, but I didn’t care. Everything about our time together had been crazy and fast and so far it had been wonderful even considering our rocky start. I smiled as she turned around and caught me looking at her. None of us were in our costumes yet, but even in her civvies she was the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen.

“Are you going to help us with this stuff or are you going to stand there sneaking looks at my ass while I do all the heavy lifting?” she asked.

I shook myself out of the reverie. It’d been a nice reverie staring at her and lusting after her, but she was right. There was work to do and I was screwing around.

I threw myself back into the work. It was good to have an excuse to go to these conventions more often and a group of friends I could hang out with. It was good that I had Zoey to hang out with at these things and to have fun with after the dealer hall closed and we could go out and have some fun on our own.

Or retire back to the hotel room for some fun. For some reason Zoey still acted like it was a big deal that I shared a hotel room with her at these shindigs. I didn’t dig too deeply because I had a feeling Natalie was the monster lurking at the bottom of that idiosyncrasy.

I pushed those thoughts away and concentrated on the work. We were going to have an awesome fucking weekend.

Zoey turned around again and smiled at me.

“What are you thinking about?”

“What do you mean?”

“You’ve got that goofy smile on your face again. The one you had on your face when you asked me to move in with you.”

“I’m just thinking about how much better my life is now than it was six months ago. I’m glad we gave each other all those chances.”

Zoey stepped away from the work of putting together the booth and wrapped her arms around my waist. She leaned in for another kiss, and when she pulled away she was all smiles.

“I’m really glad too. Now let’s get to work. The dealer hall opens in a couple of hours and we really do need to get to work!”

“Aye aye captain,” I said, sketching a mock salute, but I dove in with gusto. Was it hard work? Sure, but it never felt like work. Not with Zoey and my new friends.

Yeah, life was pretty fucking awesome these days, and it was all because two geeky girls met and fell in love at a con.

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Will life in the small town pull a budding relationship apart or bring them closer together than ever before?

Anna and Erin were the best of the best looking for fun in their geeky game of choice, but they’ll discover there’s a thin line between love and competition!

A holiday in the biggest amusement park in the world. A princess hiding her identity and sneaking into the park. A pretty band geek who’s about to get the surprise of her life. What could go wrong?

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Novellas

A spacefaring captain on a mission of revenge finds lust and love in the unlikeliest of places out amongst the stars.

1: Mysterious Stranger

The heavy wooden door to the inn slammed open and everybody turned to look. The human who stepped through the door stopped for a moment, his hands on his belt, and surveyed the room as though he owned the place. He exuded power and authority. He had the calm confidence of someone who was in his element, someone who knew nobody in this room would dare cross him.

This close to the city I’d say he had all the cocky swagger of an enforcer, though he wasn’t wearing their uniform. Perhaps he was an officer. Perhaps he was off duty. Perhaps he was simply working in secret and doing a terrible job of keeping that secret.

Whatever it was, everybody immediately paid attention to their drink. Paid attention to what they’d been eating. The conversation that had filled the large room was gone.

I sighed. Humans and their petty squabbles.

The man looked around the room one more time and then did a double take when his eyes ran across me. I fought the urge to smile. It wasn’t very often that my kind traveled in the human realms. It definitely wasn’t very often that my kind graced a simple tavern this close to the city.

Apparently my uniqueness was enough to draw his attention. I was immediately on guard. My fingers crackled with the energy of several magical surprises I’d worked up just in case it turned out he wasn’t a member of the enforcers. In this city somebody with that cocky swagger could just as easily be a member of a local criminal syndicate. Crime families seemed to spring up and disappear on an almost nightly basis in this place.

No matter what the circumstances, whether he was enforcer or criminal, I’d found it was always a good policy to be on guard when traveling through the human realms. Better to fireball first and ask questions later.

He moved over to the bar slowly which gave me plenty of time to give him a cursory inspection. He had a tunic that was made of fine materials, though not so fine that it would mark him as a member of one of the local human noble houses. Those also seemed to spring up and disappear on an almost nightly basis around here. Part of the turmoil in the human lands. He had a sword at his side and from the way he moved with a dangerous coiled grace like a cat about to spring it seemed that he knew how to use it. He was ruggedly handsome, though not too pretty. Nothing like the men from my homeland. He had a scar running along one cheek and a nose that looked like it had been broken on more than one occasion.

Yes, definitely an enforcer or a criminal. The question was, which one? I would just have to wait and see.

He leaned against the bar and it creaked under his massive weight. He really was enormous. Not fat, just big. Broad shoulders, heavy chest, a stomach that was perhaps a little larger than most in this area which once again made me think he was working for somebody with the means to provide a regular meal. That was a rare luxury in these lands since the Sundering. He definitely didn’t have the lean look of someone who spent their time out in the world adventuring.

He grinned down at me. One of his teeth was missing. His eyes openly ran up and down my body and I fought the urge to reach out and smack him. Reaching out and smacking him was the last thing I should do no matter how tempting that might be. With the magic that was just itching to be released from my fingertips I was just as likely to engulf him in a column of flame or disintegrate him where he stood as actually physically smack him.

Occupational hazard of working with powerful magic.

Stranger finished his inspection and chuckled. The inspection made it clear he was the kind of man who had to categorize everything as to whether or not it was a threat. The chuckle and the way he smiled at me made it clear I’d been dismissed as no threat at all. There was a time when that would’ve made me bristle with anger. There was a time when I was out to prove myself and my ability when I might have been tempted to teach him a lesson.

But that time passed while his great grandparents were probably still children. Experience taught me that having somebody dismiss you out of hand like that could be an advantage rather than a liability. Especially with meatheads like this who thought a sword at their side was the only thing they needed to make their way through the world.

He returned his attention to my eyes for a moment, then moved down to my chest. That was another move that would’ve made me bristle once upon a time. How dare a human look at me like that! Only now it was just one more thing I welcomed as a potential advantage, a potential weapon in my arsenal, and I have to admit that feeling his eyes on me like that did send a thrill running through me. A thrill that I’d never admit even to myself because that was definitely not the sort of thing I was looking for in these taverns. That was definitely not the sort of thing I would ever do with a barbarian human like this for that matter!

“I don’t think I’ve seen you around here before,” he said.

His voice was deep and gravelly. It promised danger. It promised quick death to anyone who crossed him. I had to fight the urge to giggle as he stood there trying to look imposing and threatening with no idea that I could disintegrate him with the flick of a finger if I wished it.

“I sometimes have reason to travel in human lands,” I said.

“Oh?” An elf is rare enough, but it’s even rarer that we see an elf maiden from the Elven Order traveling these lands.”

I bit back a curse. He wasn’t supposed to know that. Wasn’t supposed to know who I was, what I was, who I represented, and yet here he was saying it plain as day for everybody in the tavern to hear. Talk about bad manners! Poor form and bad manners!

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said.

There was still time to salvage this. Still time to hope he’d take the hint. This had been off to a promising start, and I didn’t want to be disappointed now. Of course it wouldn't be the first time I was disappointed by a guy who was probably doing all of his thinking with his dick. In-game or out.

“Of course you do, elf,” he said.

“Why would you think I was in the Order?”

He grinned. “I just have a way of knowing these things.”

I sighed and rolled my eyes. Of course he’d say something like that. Of course he wouldn’t have any good reason why he knew what he knew. He just expected me to take it at face value that he was some super genius fantasy Sherlock Holmes who could immediately tell everything about a person’s background from looking at them. Of course I knew he could tell everything from looking at my profile and the guild tag over my head, but he wasn’t supposed to bring that into our conversation. It was supposed to flow naturally. It was supposed to come out in the back and forth. Not for the first time I regretted ever using one of those role-playing profile plugins in the first place. They caused more trouble than that they helped in my experience.

“I think our conversation here is done,” I said.

That grin on his face grew even wider. It was definitely ruined by more missing teeth that became obvious as his mouth opened. Sometimes it felt as though humans had never heard of hygiene or its benefits.

“Now that’s what I’m talking about! So are we going out to the edge of the zone or what? Maybe a little fun?”

I pulled away from the keyboard let out a noise that was halfway between a frustrated angry cry and a strangled retching noise. I should have expected this. I leaned back in my chair and stared at the screen for a moment, tried to collect myself, tried to think about how I was going to respond to this asshole.

“Something wrong?” Megan asked.

I wheeled my computer chair around to face my roommate. She also had Tales of Elassa up, but her gaming experience looked way different from mine. She had a massive gaming rig set up on her desk that glowed with various LED lights. It seemed to positively hum as various fans turned on and off to make sure all the expensive widgets she’d put in the thing to make sure the game ran at maximum settings at all times worked.

I wasn’t really big into computers. As long as I could load the game and go to some of my favorite zones and role-play that was enough for me. She was a power gamer in every sense of the word though, and apparently that necessitated the kind of computer that looked like it could gain sentience at any moment and try to wipe the human race from the face of the earth in a desperate act of self-preservation.

Not that I could complain too much about Megan’s obsession with having the biggest and the best. Her constant pursuit of the biggest and the best meant she was always upgrading my computer with the castoffs from whatever she’d just picked up. She was in grad school just like me, but the big difference was she had rich parents and a trust fund to help her with her costs while I was going to school on scholarships and student loans.

Not that I could complain much about Megan’s trust fund either. The only reason I got to live in this awesome and huge off campus house as cheap as I did was because she'd rather have a friend and roommate to hang out with and play video games with than live all alone in this giant rental her parents bought her.

“What’s wrong?” Megan asked.

“I was having a promising session with some new guy at the inn and then he comes out and asks for it,” I groused.

I didn’t have to tell her what “it” was. The main reason Megan was on a role-playing server rather than some other server was because I happened to play on this one. That and she said the “care bears” on this server wouldn’t know decent raiding if it bit them in their prose spewing butts which made it easier for her to dominate the endgame. I knew those words meant something when she strung them together like that but I had no idea what the meaning was.

She might as well be speaking a foreign language or some impenetrable code whenever she started going on about game mechanics. She seemed happy so I didn’t ever press. Her lectures on endgame content and theory could get pretty boring though. Probably as boring as when I started gushing about the importance of proper characterization and other stuff that made the role-playing experience go from mediocre to awesome, which was a rare enough experience even on a role-playing server.

Anyways, I’m getting away from what’s important. Nobody could play on this kind of server for any appreciable length of time and not know what “it” was. “It” was the thing that made these kinds of servers infamous, even though most people weren’t interested in that sort of thing.

There was role-playing. Building a story with other people. Developing a character. Coming up with pleasing prose and new ways to twist the language into pleasing forms within the confines of the clunky chat and emoting system the developers threw in as an afterthought in an early patch to placate an annoyed, small, but very vocal role-playing community.

And then there was “role-playing” where people got together with an avatar of the opposite sex, or the same sex depending on their preference, and went to a quiet corner of the zone or some private dungeon for some fun that amounted to little more than poorly written two player erotica improv.

Megan shrugged and grinned. “I don’t know what you expected, dressing yourself up in that ridiculous bikini outfit and going to a general role-playing area.”

I rolled my eyes. Maybe I was wearing the bikini armor, but I also had a sensible robe on over it. Or my character had a sensible robe on over it. Oftentimes I found the line between role-playing and reality blurring in my mind when I really got into the game and a session. The point I'm trying to make is that anybody looking at my character in the game would see the robe. They'd have to do a detailed inspect to see the chainmail bikini which was more a function of that being the only kind of decent armor for a character at the top level than any desire on my part to wear it.

Okay, so maybe I liked how my character looked wearing the bikinis. In private. Where no one else was looking. And certainly not for this asshole who was treating me as though it was a given I was going to go out there and rub my character against his until he got off and made a mess on his keyboard. The presumptuous prick.

“Is it too much to expect the people in the general role-playing population to have some integrity?”

Megan rolled her own eyes and laughed. “Amber, sometimes I think you wouldn’t be happy unless Kaitlyn Morgan herself walked through those inn doors and started having a one-on-one writing session with you.”

I giggled. “As if! Besides, Kaitlyn Morgan is probably way too busy actually writing books to ever get around to playing Tales of Elassa!”

“Isn’t she only supposed to be a few years older than us? She could totally be a gamer. Hell, you're the one always griping about how she won't write the next book in that series. Putting off work to play a game? That has an Elassa player written all over it.”

It was possible. Though I didn't exactly gripe about Kaitlyn not writing the next book in the series. It was more that I griped to Megan about people griping about the next book taking a long time. Not that Megan probably noticed the subtle difference since she was usually listening with one ear and focusing on playing the game with most of her brain.

I really didn't know much about Kaitlyn Morgan other than a name and a picture on the dust jackets of the Elassa books. I’d never bothered to look up anything about the woman who wrote the books I loved so much that spawned the media empire that led to the game Megan loved so much. Which, now that I thought about it, was a little odd considering the impact her books had on my life. I was always happy to read the books and play the game, though lately I didn’t even get to read the books since the great Ms. Morgan seemed to be having trouble getting the next one out.

The Tales of Elassa books were the reason I got into creative writing. They were the reason I was getting my MFA in Creative Writing. And of course they were also the reason why I started playing Tales of Elassa, which, ironically enough, could very well also be the reason why I ended up flunking out of my MFA program if I didn’t start spending more time actually writing for class and less time writing new storylines for my character in the game.

We lived in a world with the Internet though. I could just look up Kaitlyn Morgan with a couple of clicks and find out all about her including whether or not she was into video games. It was weird considering the impact her books had on my life that up until now she’d mostly been a name on a page and those dust jacket pictures where she was smiling out at the world inspiring more than a little stab of jealousy in me because she was only a few years older than me and it was so unfair that she was a damn billionaire from her writing while I was still languishing in a creative writing program with no hope of getting published any time soon. Not that I'd submitted anything for publication, but that's not important. I made a mental note to look up more about her, but later. After I’d put this particular digital asshole in his place.

I made a lot of mental notes to do things later since I started playing Tales of Elassa seriously. A part of me worried about that, but that worry wasn’t strong enough to overcome the dopamine portions of my brain that shot out plenty of fun and relaxing chemicals as soon as I put my hands back onto the keyboard and was transported back into that addictive world.

My eyebrows lowered and my face darkened as a storm cloud passed across it. I was amazed that this asshole couldn’t see the danger he’d just ignited. I reached my hand back and smacked him with all the force I could muster, sending him flying across the tavern with a very surprised look on his face as magical energy crackled around him. Everyone else in the room who was busy off in their own little world continued to not pay attention to the altercation. A few heads looked up, casually interested, but most weren’t concerned with our business. Especially when one of us was using magic and the other looked like an undercover enforcer.

He picked himself up from the shattered table he landed on and stalked towards me, a storm cloud on his own face. “What’s the big idea you bitch?”

I stood and stared up at him, held out my hand and allowed a fireball to dance between my fingers. He looked down and his eyes widened when he saw that. They widened even more when they heard what I had to say.

“If you’re going to god mode then I can do the same thing,” I said. “And if you’re going to treat a role-playing session with somebody as nothing more than an excuse to solicit them for a little fun then I’m going to break character! Now I suggest you get out of here before I report you to a game moderator and see what they think about your chat logs. You are aware that what you’re trying to do is against the rules, right? Very against the rules.”

The sort of role-playing that he was looking for was against the rules, to be sure, but it was also well known amongst the people who did that sort of role-playing that the game moderators never did anything about it unless they got a complaint. Of course once they got a complaint that could quickly lead to an account being temporarily suspended or permanently banned since a record of everything typed in the game was held back. I'm sure this guy was well aware just how much of a threat to his account that was. Even if he was pretty low level I knew there was a good chance he also kept his regular higher level character on the same account and he was putting all of that at risk by cruising an inn just outside the main city gates for a little two-person erotica.

He paused and looked at me and then to the rest of the room. More than a few people had turned towards us. I’m sure most of the people who were sitting in this room were sitting in here looking for the very same thing this guy was. Most of them were probably just as nervous as he was at the prospect of a game moderator being pulled into a fight. I rolled my eyes and let out another disgusted noise. This is what I got for coming to a general role-playing area.

The asshole faded away, no doubt logging out of the game rather than sticking around to risk more humiliation. Of course he was logging out of the game under the false assumption that if he wasn’t logged in then the moderators wouldn’t be able to do something about him. They could ban him just as easily if he was in game as if he was out. Not that I actually had any intention to report him. I was actually more mad at myself for losing control like that and breaking character in public chat. That was violating one of the biggest rules of being involved in the role-playing community.

I sat down at the bar and buried my head in my hands, despairing of ever finding somebody who was worth role-playing with in a public area like this. I needed to just logout for the night or send a private message to somebody on my list who was passably decent at writing who'd be a sure thing instead of hoping to find a nugget of gold amongst all the crap role-players to be found in the general population.

Only all the people I usually role-played storylines with were either offline or they were the kind of people who churned out the same repetitive crap every time. The last thing I wanted was to spend another night wasting time with someone like Cara who was always the mysterious elf princess who kept her identity hidden and then swears you to secrecy when she reveals who she truly is, or Mike who was always a stoic but goodhearted adventurer whose morals always overcame his desire for money by the end of whatever story we were working on.

Boring. Typical. Predictable. Not what I was looking for.

No, the game was starting to get stale. It was starting to get boring. I sighed at my keyboard and my character sighed in the game. It was starting to feel like there were no new worlds to conquer, no new scenarios to explore.

The door to the inn banged open. I looked over, but with nowhere near the hope I’d felt earlier when the asshole I'd just chased off walked in.

2: A More Mysterious Stranger

The human barbarian who walked through the door looked much the same as any other human barbarian in these parts. She wore a cloak that was tattered and torn in places, though she’d obviously taken care to repair it in other places. Perhaps she was just in from a long trip. Underneath the cloak she wore the once fine but now faded and threadbare clothes of a woman who had fallen on hard times.

As I looked her over I figured that no doubt she was a member of one noble family or another. They seemed to spring up constantly and fall just as quickly as they rose. Both because noble houses were a popular role-playing target for newbies who didn’t know what they were doing yet and because in the game lore there was the whole giant cataclysm that ripped the world asunder and sent humans scattering, nobles included.

I sighed. No, there definitely wasn’t anything promising about a low level human who looked much the same as every other low level human. She was pretty enough, to be sure, with striking green eyes that seemed to draw my attention long after everyone else in the room had gone back to whatever they were doing before she walked in. Green eyes that would've been striking if I was into that sort of thing on a girl, which I totally wasn't even though I found myself losing myself in that face once more for some reason and had to shake myself out of my strange mental funk. It didn't help that she was making her way directly towards me. I suppose it couldn’t be helped. I was the only elf in the room and that tended to draw attention.

It really was my fault for drawing the wrong type. I was something of an oddity. Most elf players tended to stay in elf zones. It was amazing how quickly the pseudo-racist undertones of a book series could translate into pseudo-racist undertones in an online role-playing game. Sometimes I thought the people who spouted nonsense about being superior to humans half believed their crap, even though it was probably a human on the other side of the computer doing the role-playing.

At least I was pretty sure elves hadn’t discovered computers and video games. Not yet.

That was one of the reasons I’d come to human lands. The Elven Order was ostensibly an elf guild with a few humans here and there. If I stayed where most of our official role-playing events were held, where my guild held the most influence, then I’d almost never make it to human zones.

So in a way I was adventuring here in the hopes I might find somebody who surprised me, though so far I’d found nothing to disabuse me of the commonly held belief that the people who hung out at this particular inn in the human territories were nothing but a bunch of shallow idiots who were more interested in getting their rocks off with a little bit of two way erotica improv than in constructing a genuine storyline and getting into real role-playing.

The human stepped up to the bar and turned to face me. She had a winning smile and I had to admit she was stunning under that bedraggled first impression. If you were interested in humans, which I most certainly was not. Well, which my character most certainly was not. Or if you were into women, which I most certainly was not. I wasn’t one of those crazies who didn’t make a distinction between the character I role-played and reality. There were plenty of them out there, believe me.

She leaned an elbow against the bar and immediately lost her balance. Immediately went flying and clattering to the floor sending several empty drinks that were waiting for the bartender to come and pick them up flying. I couldn’t help but giggle at this odd and novel approach to an opening move.

She stood and almost lost her footing again. It appeared that clumsiness was a trait with this one. I glanced to the sword by her side and wondered how she was able to use the thing without accidentally cutting her head off. Then again that was a sentence that could apply to humans and just about any piece of technology more advanced than fire. Oftentimes it could apply to the fire as well.

She finally managed to regain her footing and didn’t even bother sketching a bow. She just plopped her lithe and inviting frame down on a bar stool and took a deep breath. I took a deep breath too. Lithe and inviting frame? Where the hell had that thought come from?

“Well that definitely wasn’t a good way to make a first impression,” she muttered.

In the game, in character, she was probably right. Only speaking from a strictly out of character perspective it was a wonderful way to make a first impression. I pulled away from the keyboard and blinked. “Now that’s interesting…”

“What’s that?” Megan asked.

“Oh nothing,” I said. “Get back to your raid. I’m sure they’re counting on you to click your mouse at just the right moment or whatever it is you do.”

Megan stuck her tongue out at me. “It’s a little more complicated than that, O mighty queen of the role-playing wordsmiths!”

I stuck my tongue right back out at Megan. Then I turned my attention back to the game and raised an eyebrow. Looked at this strange avatar before me. Stumbling and causing a mess like that was definitely novel. It was definitely something I’d not seen before. Usually this inn was filled with people role-playing for the first, and they were almost universally the type whose characters were secret gods or half dragon or some other nonsense.

Which was pure poppycock. There were no dragons in Tales of Elassa. If there was one thing I hated more than people who used the game’s role-playing community as an excuse to do a little bit of one-handed two-person erotica improv, it was the people who brought in elements that were outside of the world's established lore.

That made me see red.

So this mysterious person standing before me with her striking green eyes that had that strange ability to hypnotize me was refreshing. Her character had a vulnerability. Her character wasn’t another stoic hero just returned from slaying thousands of her enemies. No, she was just a little clumsy. And that that was enough of a hook that I was intrigued. It was enough to make me want to know more about her. It was enough that she was already more promising than the first asshole I ran into and we hadn’t even started properly talking.

She looked at me again and my breath caught. This human really did have the most piercing green eyes. Piercing green eyes that were unlike anything I’d ever seen on a human before, though that might just be because I wasn’t looking rather than it not being a trait humans possessed. Obviously it was a trait humans possessed if she was looking at me with those gorgeous blinkers. I was getting scatterbrained. My thoughts were running away from me. I needed to get myself under control.

“So what brings you to human lands? That’s a dangerous journey for a young elf such as yourself,” she said.

I threw my head back and laughed, and yet secretly I was delighted. She called me young. A common misconception, but it also meant that if she was reading my character sheet, and she definitely could since I could see the same mod installed with an indicator over her head that led to an impressively detailed character history, she wasn’t bringing it into the conversation. That was so refreshing. That was such a change from what I was used to.

“I guarantee you I was probably fighting off scarier monsters than you could imagine before your great-grandfather even looked at your great-grandmother with a twinkle in his eye,” I said.

A hundred years ago I would have been able to show off my age to a human by referencing their kings, but that wasn’t the case anymore. The humans hadn’t had a unified kingdom in at least half a century. Just another way that their world kept changing while mine stayed the same. Except for the Sundering, of course. That affected everybody. Still, there was far more potential for intrigue with a good human player. Perhaps that was one reason why I was so drawn to humans. It allowed for a richer role-playing experience than sitting around whining about how much it sucked to be immortal which is what your typical elf role-playing scenario boiled down to.

Assuming you could find somebody good. I desperately hoped this gorgeous woman in front of me was good. Wait. Gorgeous? Where were these thoughts coming from? I needed to get control. I needed to stop losing myself on ridiculous tangents about how attractive this girl was, particularly considering her "attractiveness" boiled down to an avatar and the way she described herself in that character sheet. And yet there was something compelling about her writing, about that description and the way she hooked me initially, that had me shifting in my seat out in the real world.

“My apologies lady elf,” she said, seeming genuinely sincere. “But a pretty face on an old soul isn’t going to protect you from creatures with sharp teeth any more than my clumsiness would protect me.”

My character blushed in game and out of the game I felt a flush rising to my cheeks. A surprising flush rising to my cheeks. What was going on with me tonight that this girl was able to get that sort of reaction out of me with just words on a screen?

Focus. Get back in the game.

I held up my fingers and allowed a flame to dance from finger to finger. She raised an eyebrow, but otherwise didn’t react. Obviously this was a woman who’d seen magic before. Or at least she’d heard of it. Either way she didn’t react with the wide-eyed surprise that usually accompanied that display. A slight disappointment, but behind my keyboard I was secretly jubilant. I was so sick of people who thought that wide-eyed surprise was the only way to react to magic, as though anybody who lived in a world where magic was a commonplace thing would be surprised by the damn stuff.

“Ah, I see,” she said. “A sorceress, I presume?”

I winced at the human word.

“If you want to reduce calling down the very forces that power this universe and bending it to my will “sorcery” then I suppose you could call me that,” I said.

“Impressive,” she said.

She dug into her pocket and pulled something out. I saw a flash of black and then the flames dancing on my fingers winked out. The tingling sensation that let me know I was drawing upon the magical forces that powered the universe disappeared at the same time. I blinked, looked at the object in her hand, and then my eyes widened in surprise. I hated that I reacted like that, but it was the only thing I could think to do in this situation. I did a quick inspect of her character just to be certain.

“Is that…”

An Elassa Shard,” she said. “It’s been passed down in my family, though I’ve never had occasion to show it off before. I figured this would be the perfect opportunity to show it off to someone who would actually appreciate it.”

The way she leaned against the barstool with a cocky smile on her face was only slightly ruined when she slipped in a puddle of something on the floor, no doubt left over from her spill a moment ago, and nearly sent the Elassa Shard flying across the room. I cried out and held my hand out trying to catch it, but she did a surprisingly nimble dance and snatched it out of the air before it went flying too far. It appeared being constantly clumsy has given this strange woman one hell of a set of reflexes.

And a good thing too. If that really was what she said it was then it was more valuable than the combined wealth of the entire city. They were so rare in the books that kingdoms rose and fell based on possessing one. I didn’t even know they were in the game.

I opened her character window and did a quick inspect. Sure enough equipped right there in her offhand was an item labeled as an Elassa Shard. Huh. I didn't realize they'd added them into the game. I closed out the character window and went back to the chat window.

“How did you get that?”

She blinked, cutting those delicious green eyes off from me for a moment. Her delicate jaw line worked for a moment and she fixed me with an expression that told me she was wondering if I was entirely right in the head.

“I told you,” she said slowly. “It’s been passed down in my family.”

I shook my head. “That’s not what I mean. How did you get that? I didn’t know Elassa Shards were even in the game! At least I’ve never seen one before…”

Of course that didn’t mean they weren’t in the game. It just meant I hadn’t seen them in the game before. I wasn’t really a big fan of the higher level dungeons, and they were always releasing new toys to entice people to go through that particular treadmill over and over. Megan was a perfect example of the type of personality that was perfectly willing to run the leveling treadmill as long as a shiny new in-game item was dangling tantalizingly just out of reach. It was entirely possible this was just some new bit of end game content I didn’t know about because I didn’t ever play end game content. It wouldn’t be the first time the developers took an all-powerful item from the books and reduced it to a trinket with a fun animation.

Of course if that was the case then how did a lower-level player get her hands on one? She wasn’t even halfway to the level cap and she was walking around with something that shouldn’t exist. Even if she had a higher level character and this was her role-playing alt there was no way to transfer items like that between characters. Color me intrigued.

She shook her head and now she really was looking at me as though I’d grown a second head. Or as though I’d sprouted fangs like some of the bloodsucking creatures that totally weren’t vampires even though they sucked and blahed like a duck lurking along the paths to human lands after dark.

“Game? What game are you speaking of? Are you quite all right my lady elf?”

I pulled away from my keyboard and shook my head. Damn! Here I was complaining about people breaking character, complaining about people pulling in information they’d have no idea about, and I’d been so surprised by this strangely compelling woman that I went and did it myself! I never did that. I never lost control. That never happened to me. What was going on here?

And yet I couldn’t deny the way I was feeling talking with this woman. There was something about her prose that went straight to my heart. There was something about her prose that went straight down to other areas in a way that few women ever had before. There was just something about her that was so compelling, so fascinating, so mysterious. And she was just some pixels on a screen with a particularly well written character sheet!

I put my hands back on my keyboard.

“I’m so sorry,” I said. “I forgot myself for a moment.”

She chuckled, a melodious rich sound that rolled over my body and sent a bolt of pleasure running through me as it hit my ears. “All is forgiven my lady elf.”

I sighed in contentment. There was something about the way that sounded. “My lady elf.” As though she was claiming me for her own. I blinked. What the hell was I thinking? Wanting someone to claim me? Wanting a woman in particular to claim me for her own? Now that was entirely out of character both in game and out! That was dangerously close to the sort of thoughts that led to the sort of role-playing the first asshole I'd threatened was into.

“I’m sorry to cut this short,” she said. “But I’m afraid I have some work to attend to.”

“Certainly,” I said. “It was nice making your acquaintance…”

I trailed off and hoped the question was obvious. Of course I knew her character's name because it was hovering right over her head, but there were points of role-playing etiquette to be observed and I was going to observe them to a fault considering how bad I'd just screwed up. She grinned and shifted, her enticingly lithe body moved this way and that and I found myself swaying back and forth hypnotized by the sight. “My lady elf may call me Kaira, if it pleases you.”

I grinned. So maybe there was a little bit of hubris to this one. Kaira was the name of the great human queen who unified all their kingdoms in antiquity and who forged treaties with the elves and other races. Of course it was also ironically enough Kaira's alliance that ended war long enough for scholar mages to turn their focus from fighting and delve too deeply and too greedily into arcane arts probably best left alone, but I’m sure she wasn’t thinking about giving some crazy mages enough breathing room to shatter the world a thousand years after her reign when she consolidated political power in this world. In my experience humans didn’t tend to think beyond their lifetime, though her reign was still within living memory for my people.

I arched a curious eyebrow at this intriguing woman and she looked me up and down as I did so. Normally I didn’t go for this sort of scene, but there was something about this girl that was making me enjoy this thoroughly. Far more thoroughly than I’d enjoyed a role-playing scenario in quite some time. I blushed and told myself it had nothing to do with the way my hair was standing on edge all over my body, the way my nipples were straining out, with that impossible delicious feeling between my legs that she was somehow able to elicit with just a few words despite my never having a particularly strong interest in the fairer sex before now. At least not that I'd admitted to myself, though I was starting to wonder after this brief interaction.

Not that any of that mattered. This would probably be the only time I met this woman. Assuming she was even a woman and not one of the many men who masqueraded as women in the game for various reasons. So many role-playing interactions were so many ships passing in the night never to see one another again, so why should this one be any different? So I figured I'd just enjoy myself and forget about any underlying existential crises that could potentially arise from how this woman was making me feel.

“Interesting name,” I said. “Hubris?”

Kaira fixed me with that easy-going grin. A deliciously sexy grin that made me want to kiss every inch of her lips even though that was completely out of character both in character and out of character, if you catch my meaning. And suddenly there was none of the clumsiness about her. Suddenly she was every bit the cocky role-player coming here for the first time, only with her it was somehow different. With her I got the feeling she could back it up.

“Not hubris,” she said. “Just the truth. Or a version of the truth. And it’s a family name.”

Well that was an answer and not an answer at the same time. Not sure what I was expecting. Either way I needed to know more about this mysterious stranger. I needed to know if this was a one-time thing or something more.

“Will I see you again?” I asked.

I bit back a curse as the words flew unbidden from my fingers to my keyboard and into the chat window. That wasn’t how this worked. If you liked role-playing with someone then you added them to your friend list. You kept an eye on their location and tried to engineer a “chance” meeting to avoid your one promising interaction fading into obscurity. After a couple good role-playing sessions you’d maybe start sending them out of character private messages. Maybe start working on a collaborative story. But at the beginning everything was supposed to feel organic. It was supposed to seem like you were stumbling into one another by accident even if it was nothing but.

At least those were the role-playing principles that my guild lived by. Those were role-playing principles I’d helped draft as the mistress of role-playing. And here I was throwing my own rules out the window because I was intrigued by a mysterious woman who wasn't even the gender I went for, who I didn’t know anything about, and who could very well be a dude for all I knew given the statistical breakdown of gender in this game!

And yet as I sat there at the keyboard, as I thought about this session, the mysterious object she held, and most of all her incredible skill with the written word, I realized I didn’t give a damn.

Fuck the rules. Some of them were stupid anyways.

She grinned one final time as she faded away. “Perhaps?”

3: Digital Sleuthing

I pulled back from my chair and concentrated on breathing. If I didn’t do that then I was worried I might actually forget to breathe. That I might pass out at my computer chair, and then that would worry Megan and pull her away from her raid which always made her cross.

I looked over my shoulder to Megan. Really looked at her in a way I hadn't before. At least I tried really looking at her in a way I hadn't before. I felt bad for using my roommate like that but she was the closest girl available.

Megan was pretty in a geeky sort of way. Behind those glasses was a pretty face with nice blue eyes. And I had to admit that she also looked pretty good in her tight fitting pajamas that were her usual uniform when she was raiding. I'd seen her in those outfits before and always thought she looked hot. I'd always thought objectively that she had a nice figure, but did that mean I was attracted to her? I mean it was one thing to look at someone and know objectively that they were attractive and another thing entirely to look at an objectively attractive person and be attracted to them.

Wasn't it? That chat session had me all sorts of confused.

As I looked at Megan I thought back to that chat session and it was as though something clicked. I was looking at her with new eyes. I didn't just know she was sexy. I thought she was sexy, if that makes any sense. I found myself staring at my roommate's lips and wondering what it would be like to run my own along their soft contours...

And I immediately shut down that line of thinking. For one this was Megan, my roommate, and that was an avenue I definitely didn't need to be traveling down any more than I'd allow myself to start fantasizing about a male roommate if I was in that sort of situation. Second, I was scared exactly what that line of thinking meant. Where it would lead. So I shut it down.

I needed something else to focus on. Like that Elassa Shard she'd been carrying. That was safe. That was something Megan could help me with. That was a distraction. I tore my eyes away from Megan to her screen and her raid. It looked like they were in a lull. I’d learned to read the patterns of those high-level raids even if they didn’t interest me at all, if for no other reason than so I could get a word in edgewise with my roommate.

“Hey Megan, quick question.”

Megan pulled her headphones down and laid them across her neck. Turned and smiled at me. That was a nice smile. I ignored that thought.

“Shoot,” she said.

“Did they add Elassa Shards as a high-level item or something?”

Her face scrunched up. “Elassa Shards?”

I rolled my eyes. Megan was so obsessed with Tales of Elassa that there were times I forgot she hadn’t ever bothered to read the book series that had taken the fantasy world by storm in the past five years and caused the game to be created in the first place. I ran into a lot of people like that. I even ran into people who were into the role-playing scene who hadn't cracked open the books and didn’t know anything about the world’s lore.

It was a point of mild personal shame that my own roommate hadn’t read the books despite trying time and again to get her to. Of course at the same time I’m sure it was a small point of personal shame for her that her roommate wasn’t a hardcore raider.

“They’re items from the books that negate all magical power. If anyone tries to throw a magical spell at someone carrying an Elassa Shard the spell disappears as though they’re in some sort of anti-magic bubble. And if you get near someone using magic then it stops them from casting whatever spell they were working on,” I explained.

Megan thought about that for a moment, tapping her finger against her lip. “Nope, nothing like that in the game.”

Huh. That was interesting. Megan knew everything about everything in game, and if she said an item wasn’t in the game then the item wasn’t in the game. And yet I couldn’t deny what I’d seen with my own two eyes. Kaira used that item and my character’s spell animation stopped immediately. As though I was being surrounded by some sort of anti-magic field. Although I suppose it was actually my character coming in contact with some ones and zeros that some clever programmer had put together to make the magic animation stop when that item got close to me. Whatever. I tried not to reduce the magic in game to its component programmable parts.

I’d even inspected her character. There was clearly an item equipped in her offhand labeled as an Elassa Shard. I wished I’d gotten a screenshot of the thing now, because I was starting to think I was going crazy. Or at the very least I was imagining things.

“Are you sure?”

“Pretty damn sure,” Megan said. She leaned back in her chair. “Something like that would be a game breaking item. Being able to interrupt any magic spell? The implications for dungeon runs, for PVP, would be incredible! Anyone who has something like that would be like a god in game!”

“You’re absolutely sure?”

“I’m absolutely sure,” Megan said. “Look, I’ll try pulling it up in the Elassa Item Database.”

She alt tabbed out of the game and pulled up the item database. There was a plug-in that worked in game, but she never used it because she claimed it affected performance. That was all stuff that was beyond me though.

I stood and moved over to her computer. Watched as she clearly typed in Elassa. Plenty of things came up. There were a lot of items in the Tales of Elassa database that had Elassa in the name.

Megan narrowed it down. Elassa Shards. Zero results. She modified the search so she was just looking for shard. There weren’t nearly as many results as what had come up when she typed in the name of the game, but there were also no combinations of the name of the game and the word shard.

I blinked. Was I really going crazy? Had I hallucinated that item?

“Nothing like that in the game,” Megan said. “Like I said, anyone who had something like that would be a major game breaker. They’re either a developer having some fun or a hacker doing one hell of a cheat that’s going to get them caught eventually.”

“Interesting,” I said.

“Why do you ask?”

I shook my head and blushed. The last thing I wanted right now was to explain my encounter with Kaira. The last thing I wanted was for her to think I might potentially be going insane thinking I saw items that didn’t exist. The last thing I wanted was to think my strange role-playing partner was actually some sort of cheater or hacker. Partly because something told me she wasn’t the type, and also because I didn’t want her to get banned from the game. I wanted to see her again.

Now there was an odd emotion. I wanted to see her again? She was just an avatar and some text on screen!

“Oh nothing,” I said. “Just some low-level role-player bragging about something I figured wasn’t true.”

Megan shrugged. “That’s what you get from people who think it’s more fun to spend time making up stories about the game than it is to actually play the game.”

I fixed her with a sour smile. That dig wasn’t lost on me, but I was too adult and too confused at the moment to give as good as I got. I went back to my computer and logged out of my own game.

“You’re logging out already?” Megan asked.

I jumped. I hadn’t realized she’d come up behind me.

“I have class early in the morning,” I said. “I figured I’d better turn in.”

Megan looked at me long and hard. “Are you sure you’re okay? You've had class every other day this entire semester and you’ve never gone to bed before 2 o’clock. I don’t know how you do it.”

“Well I need some sleep now,” I said as I got up and made my way towards my room.

To be perfectly honest I needed some time away from the game. I needed some time to think. I needed some time to process what had just happened and why I’d thrown every rule I had about meeting people in game out the window. I certainly needed time to think about this strange new attraction I was feeling towards other women. More than anything I needed time to think through why I couldn’t stop thinking about somebody that I only knew as a few words and a game avatar on screen.

I felt like I was going crazy, and it had absolutely nothing to do with an item that seemed to not exist.

4: Creative Writing

“Magic? Really?”

I blinked. I wanted to reach across the table and smack that smarmy look off of that bitch's face. I don’t know why I expected anything different from a critique from the great literary master Carrie Arnold, at least she was a great literary master in her own mind, but there it was.

“Do you have a problem with magic?” I asked.

“I have a problem with genre fiction,” Carrie said. “You’re getting an MFA in creative writing. Why are you wasting your time with this garbage?”

I balled up a piece of notebook paper in my hand and concentrated on crushing that rather than reaching out and trying to crush Carrie. Not for the first time I cursed the day she’d ever sat at the same table as me.

“I don’t know, I thought it was okay and that stuff seems to be really popular right now,” Devon said, though the way he hesitated, glanced down at the short story I’d presented for a critique, told me he was thinking the same things but he was too polite to say them out loud. It wasn’t exactly the best defense in the world.

“Just because something sells well doesn’t mean it’s worthwhile,” Carrie said. “And besides, we’re here to expand our writing ability. We’re here to learn new things about the craft. We’re not here to write about witches and wizards fighting goblins or whatever the hell this is about. It's not like you're going to be the next Kaitlyn Morgan or anything.”

I rolled my eyes. I was surprised this crazy bitch even knew who Kaitlyn Morgan was. I suppose it just went to show how deeply the Elassa series had insinuated itself in pop culture that someone who "hated" genre fiction knew about the series.

I couldn't believe Carrie was talking like this! Wizards fighting goblins? There wasn't a single mention of wizards or goblins in the piece I presented for critique! She hadn’t even bothered to read the damn thing! And to think I’d wasted valuable time I could’ve spent playing Tales of Elassa a couple of nights ago reading the crap she’d vomited out about some girl who dumped her a couple of years ago. I’m sure she thought it was all very literary and mysterious, but the only thing I could think the entire time I read those twenty pages of crap was boo-hoo, baby’s still upset that one of her girlfriends threw her to the curb and she hadn't gotten over it yet.

But I wasn’t going to be violent. I wasn’t going to rise to what she was trying to start here. I was going to be the better person.

“Do you actually have any constructive criticism?”

“Yeah, stop writing this fantasy crap,” she said.

I rolled my eyes. There wasn’t a chance I was going to stop writing this “fantasy crap” as she called it. For one it was my favorite kind of book. For two I was spending so much time playing Tales of Elassa these days that I’d started taking some of the role-playing scenarios I’d worked up and changed some of the names, reworked some of the settings, and presented them to my class as original works rather than stuff that was based on a videogame I happened to be spending way more time than was strictly healthy playing.

Genre fiction was already a four letter word in this class. Carrie wasn't alone in that opinion. They’d have kittens if they realized the stuff they were reading was fan fiction as well as genre fiction. Of course I still thought it was damn good even if it did start its life as role-playing scenarios for a video game.

“What’s your problem with this anyways? It seems like this goes a lot deeper than not liking what I wrote,” I said.

“You’re right,” Carrie said. “It does! I have to see this crap on TV, I have to see this stuff taking up space on bookstore shelves while real writing by real writers…”

She punctuated that sentence by smacking her own short story on the table in front of her. As though that emotionally stunted drivel was somehow real writing or something. Who wanted to read about leftover angst from a girl who was a couple of years out from the scarring life event that still seemed to dominate her writing? Not me, thank you very much. Give me the swords and the wizards and the goblins any day of the week.

“Real writing like this barely even gets a shelf at the bookstore. The public doesn’t even know what’s best for it! It’s ridiculous that crap like this sells so well and literary stuff barely gets a mention!”

“Well if they had a Nobel Prize in whining about literature then you’d certainly win it…” I muttered.

“What the hell was that?”

“What seems to be the problem here?”

Like a guardian angel professor Timms stepped in. She was an older woman with auburn hair that definitely looked like it came off of the shelf at Target or Walmart. Probably Walmart considering what the average college professor, even one with tenure, pulled these days. Not that I was judging or anything. I actually really liked her most of the time. She had a way of cutting through bullshit that only an older battle scarred prof who’d been through more than a few dances with undergrads could. Like right now as she stared down at us over her glasses.

She didn’t look happy.

“Carrie here seems to have a problem with genre fiction,” I said. “Such a big problem she can’t even follow the critique guidelines.”

Professor Timms looked down at Carrie and she actually looked down. One thing that could get her to shut up was a glance from professor Timms. Then again I had a feeling that a rampaging bull would probably stop and apologize if the good professor fixed it with that glare. She was just that kind of professor. Fair, but severe if she thought you were stepping out of line.

“Is this true Carrie?”

“She keeps writing genre crap,” she muttered.

Professor Timms arched an eyebrow. That was never a good sign. “Genre crap? Did you really just say that?”

Carrie looked up and some of the anger she’d directed towards me was directed towards professor Timms. Only that anger seemed to crash over her like a wave slamming into a mountain for all the effect it had on her. She stared down at Carrie, tapping an irritated finger against her arm, the only sign other than an arched eyebrow that showed she was irritated and a sure sign that whatever student she was talking to needed to shut the hell up if they knew what was good for them. She had the unflappable calm demeanor of a woman who’d been teaching creative writing to artistic types for decades, and she’d seen everything at this point.

Professor Timms turned to me. “And what do you think of this Amber?”

I was so angry. I was seeing red. I was starting to not care about consequences. I got that way when I got really angry. Like so angry that I saw stars dancing in front of my vision. Like how angry I was right now when I looked at Carrie's smarmy face.

I wasn’t going to launch myself across the table and smack her a couple of times like I wanted to, but I was going to lay into her.

“I think if Carrie has a problem with something then she should probably follow the guidelines we were given for critiques at the beginning of the semester instead of resorting to personal attacks,” I said.

A hint of a smile played across professor Timms’ face. “Such as?”

I picked up Carrie's story and flipped through it. I thought about looking at the notes I’d made. The red marks I’d jotted down while I was doing a proper critique. I noticed she had none of that on the stuff she printed out for my work.

“Well she could come after me on technical grounds if she had a problem with the way I wrote. For example if I were to say something to her about craft then I might tell her that commas and dashes aren’t an appropriate replacement for proper punctuation. Or I might tell her that tossing an adverb after every dialogue tag is something that she probably should’ve gotten out of her system back when she was in middle school. I’m surprised that grumpy old Mrs. Ericson, the teacher with gray hair who was divorced and not exactly happy about teaching English at her age, didn’t beat that out of poor Carrie back in the day.”

Carrie's mouth opened and moved, but she didn’t say anything. I glanced up to professor Timms and her smile was growing wider. The tapping on her arm stopped. I figured that was all the permission I was going to get, so I kept going. I held up Carrie's story and waved it in the air.

“Or if she was going to attack a story she could go after the substance. For example if I was to say something about her story then I might go on about how a story dripping with thinly concealed angst isn’t exactly deep nor is the prose particularly literary. Unless playing fast and loose with punctuation like we mentioned earlier is your idea of being literary.”

“Very good,” professor Timms said. “All valid critiques. All getting at the substance of the story without actually attacking the person who wrote the story or the genre the story’s written in.”

I was really on a roll now. And the support from professor Timms was egging me on. “Exactly! If I was going to be so low as to attack something just because of the genre it was in then I might say something about how a story about a girl being upset because she got dumped a few years back isn’t exactly original, nor would anybody care to read it even if it was well-written.”

That tapping started again and I knew I’d gone too far. Only it was so worth it. It was worth it to see the utterly pissed off look on Carrie's face. It was worth it to give as good as I’d gotten. Let the bitch stew for awhile. She'd been my nemesis since day one with that peculiar ax she had to grind against fantasy. The way she went on about it you'd think Kaitlyn Morgan herself had personally wronged her somehow just by existing.

Like I said. Crazy.

“An astute observation,” professor Timms said. “That last remark probably isn’t quite in keeping with our critique guidelines in this class, though it might be deserved considering what prompted this conversation. Carry on, and I trust we won’t have any more problems at this table.”

That last bit was said with a pointed glance at Carrie, but she also looked over to me and I blushed. Okay, so when I got angry maybe I got a little too angry. Maybe I got carried away. But she’d really pissed me off. She deserved it! Always flitting around the room like she was the bad girl of the creative writing program. Always flipping her shiny blonde hair and giggling to get guys' attention in class even though the sad breakup story she kept repackaging for each assignment made it pretty damn clear no guy was getting close to her. No, with that blonde hair and the girly-girl looks she definitely couldn't pull off the dark and mysterious vibe she tried to convey in her writing because she was still upset two years after the fact that she got dumped. If I had to read one more boring story…

“Bitch,” she muttered.

“Hack,” I whispered right back.

“Fine,” she said, low enough that she couldn’t be heard by anybody else. Not even by anyone else sitting at our table. “You want a critique? I’ll give you a critique. This stuff reads like trash. It reads like something somebody who’s trying to write a trashy pulp novel from the ‘50s might come up with. It reads like you’re doing some sort of cheap fan fiction or something. It reads like you're trying to pull off a Kaitlyn Morgan novel and not doing a very good job of it. It’s no good, your writing is no good, and you’ll never amount to anything!”

I knew I shouldn’t let her get to me. I knew she was trying to get a rise out of me. And yet what she was saying hit so close to home that I couldn’t help it. The way she seemed able to pinpoint exactly where I got most of my ideas while also tapping into my fear that everything I wrote was derivative instead of new and creative stung. Was I really any better than her if I was repackaging fan fiction instead of repackaging a story about a particularly nasty breakup?

Every time she finished a sentence it felt as though she was stabbing straight into my heart. I felt moisture gather in my eyes, and I hated that I was letting her get to me like this.

“Oh yeah bitch?” I said as I stood.

I picked up my bag and threw it over my shoulder. I was reacting badly to this, I was really angry and about to do something very stupid, but I couldn’t help myself. It was as though I was in the middle of a wreck that I could stop before it really started, but I was going to see it through to its messy end. “Sorry I can’t be more “literary” like you. Maybe I’ll go down to the local gay bar so I can ask some girl to wine and dine me and dump my ass so I can be as great a writer as you are!”

I was yelling at the last part. I looked up and every eye in the room was on me. Professor Timms was looking at me and her finger was tapping furiously enough that it could've powered the city for a week if the Engineering School could find a way to hook her up to a power plant. I blushed and turned to run from the room. My only consolation was the look of shell shocked surprise on Carrie's face. Good. At least I’d finally got through to that bitch!

The waterworks finally came when I got out into the hall. I wiped the tears from my eyes, but I couldn’t help it. I was proud of my writing. I thought I did good stuff. I also wasn’t very good at dealing with harsh critiques like that. I knew she was just trying to get a rise out of me, I knew she was just pissed off about getting called out by our teacher in the middle of class like that, but there was a gnawing dark doubtful part of my soul that was whispering to me that she was right. That I was no good. That I would never amount to anything seeing as how I had trouble actually coming up with an original idea of my own and I was wasting my time in a creative writing program.

It was a dark part of me that I tried to ignore. It was a dark part of me that I chased away by playing Tales of Elassa and enjoying my time in there where I could get positive feedback. And yet that dark part of me always whispered that I was just running away from reality. That I was just seeking approval from people who were going to be nice to me no matter what because they were my friends.

Luckily I managed to get out of the English building before the waterworks really started. Then there was no stopping it. I’m sure I got a few weird glances from people watching the crazy girl walking down the sidewalk crying. I couldn't tell since it was hard to see through the tears. Not that it was entirely odd to see that sort of thing on campus, but I hated that I was the source of the spectacle.

I needed to get home. I needed some comfort.

5: Comfort

Comfort meant one thing. I felt that familiar rush of endorphins as I sat down at my computer and double clicked on the icon to log into Tales of Elassa. The familiar violin music washed over me and it felt as though I was immersing myself in a cold pool of water. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. Typed in my username and password and then I was in.

I became Maia, high elf priestess of the Elven Order. A high elf priestess who was respected. A high elf priestess who was considered one of the best role-playing scenario writers on the server. Here was a place where my talent for genre fiction was definitely appreciated!

Fuck that bitch Carrie and her irrational hatred of genre fiction! And yet at the same time that voice was whispering that I was just trying to escape reality.

Whatever. I’d escape reality. Reality sucked right now.

A beep. A ding. I looked up in curiosity. My message icon was blinking on my UI. Now that was interesting. Most people who I knew in game didn’t play during the day. Sure the server was online twenty-four hours a day unless it was down for maintenance, but at the same time I tended to only have friends who played at night because that was when I was on. My understanding was the place was pretty sparsely populated during the day when most of the US population was at work or at school or doing other things that people with normal lives did.

The only people on right now were mostly the unemployed, kids who didn’t have to be at school for whatever reason, or crazy girls who’d decided to cut out of their creative writing seminar a half hour early because they were upset about a bad comment they got on one of their stories.

I clicked the icon and a message popped up. Immediately I felt my pulse race. Immediately I felt blood pump through my body, course behind my ears. I felt my nipples harden and strain out towards the computer which was definitely a surprising reaction considering I was just looking at some text on a screen. The hell?

Her. Kaira. She was on, and she just sent me a message.

“How’s it going?”

Three simple words, and yet I found myself racking my brain trying to think of a way to respond to them. I desperately tried to think of something that would make me seem witty, clever, a sophisticated woman of the online gaming world, and yet my words failed me. I found myself simply responding honestly.

“Pretty fucking terrible actually. How about you?”

“Sorry to hear that,” she said. “Want to talk about it?”

The words started flowing from my fingers before I had time to think about it. This was a complete stranger, and yet something about her concern touched me. Maybe it was because I was vulnerable in the moment, but I found myself explaining everything. My class. How they’d reacted to me. My insecurities about my writing.

All that poured out into the chat window. It was the first time I’d ever talked to anybody about any of this. It was the first time I’d gotten any of this off of my chest. Megan was usually the only person I had in-depth conversations with about these sorts of things, and that was typically talking about whatever guy we were dating that week. Well, whatever guy she was dating that week. I didn’t do a lot of dating what with my busy schedule of playing video games and going to class. At least I always told myself that was the reason I never seemed to find just the right guy or lost interest after a week or two when I did seem to find just the right guy.

I always told myself that, but recent developments suddenly had me seriously questioning whether or not disinterest and a busy schedule were the real reasons why I dropped guys so fast. Not that I was going to unpack that particular bundle of anxiety. Not with the girl who was the source of it in the first place!

The cursor blinked at me from the end of the chat window. There was a long pause. So long that I started to worry that maybe I’d said too much. Maybe I downloaded too much right at the get-go. I’d just met this girl after all. I didn’t really know her all that well, or at all, even if I did have the strange feeling that I could talk to her about anything.

Great. I meet a somewhat nice girl, a girl who could turn a phrase with the best of them, and already I’d chased her away venting about all my problems and insecurities. Good job Amber. Great fucking job!

“I know how you feel,” she said.

I blinked. “You do?”

“I don’t know if you can tell, but I do a little bit of writing myself,” she said.

I smiled. She didn’t know if I could tell? As though it wasn’t obvious she was good at this sort of thing from the way she spun that scenario last night. From the way she put words to the screen so effortlessly.

“Oh no, I had no idea!”

I made sure to put in an eye roll emoticon so she'd know I wasn’t being completely serious. Meaning and tone could be difficult to convey in text.

“I do a lot of writing actually,” she said. “A lot of it for my job, and I always worry that it’s never going to be good enough. Everyone tells me it’s great, but as I’m writing I always have this little voice in the back of my head telling me everything is crap. That everyone’s going to hate it this time. That this is going to be the one where everybody realizes I just got lucky with the other stuff.”

I blinked. “You write professionally? Like novels or something?”

“Probably nothing you’ve ever heard of,” she said. “Technical writing and that sort of stuff, but still. I have that gnawing doubt. Heck, for awhile now it’s been hard for me to write anything. I’ve been coasting for awhile. Trust me. I know exactly what you feel like, and I get paid to do this stuff!”

I smiled and felt warmth spreading through my body. Here was someone who understood me. Here was a girl who knew exactly what I was going through! And the admission that she was a writer, even if it was just technical writing which was something of a four letter word in creative writing circles even though most people I knew who graduated went on to do it because they quickly discovered they couldn’t pay the rent with their literary fiction.

“So you’re saying that feeling never goes away?” I asked.

“Nope. Never does in my experience. All you have to do is learn to take that voice and squash it. Listen to it from time to time to make sure you’re not actually turning out crap, but I figure if most people around you tell you that you’re doing a good job then that’s good enough,” she said.

“What about bad reviews?”

And then I realized I was probably being ridiculous. Like she would get a bad critique when she was doing technical writing!

“Everyone’s a critic,” she said. “You just have to learn how to let that roll off of you. I can get nine people out of ten telling me what a wonderful job I’m doing at my work, and still that number ten who had a problem is going to get more attention than the nine people who told me how great I was!”

I smiled and actually laughed. I was amazed at how easily she could put me at ease. I was amazed at how quickly all of my worries from class washed away. I was actually starting to feel kind of foolish for walking out of class like that, for getting so emotional. And yet at the same time I was glad I’d gotten so emotional because it meant I came home to Kaira and getting this pep talk to cheer me up.

“So you write fantasy stuff?” she asked.

I blushed again. “Mostly. Lately I’ve just been writing stuff in Elassa because that’s where I spend most of my time, but it’s always been my favorite genre. The Elassa books have been my favorite ever since the first one came out!”

“Oh? You’ve been reading them since the beginning?”

“Of course. I’m always on the lookout for a new good book, and as far as I’m concerned Kaitlyn Morgan has been a literary genius since the first word she put to paper. I'm so jealous that she hit it so big so early! Now if only she’d get out the next one...”

“It’s always nice to find someone who’s liked the books almost as long as I have! Sometimes I feel like I’m the only person who knew about them back at the beginning,” she said. “Besides, I’m sure she has a good reason for making us wait!”

“I thought it was a revelation when I read the first book, so I really don’t care if she takes her time. I’m not like those rabid fanboys that seem to think she owes us something. My love for the books is probably why I spend so much of my time playing Tales of Elassa. Sometimes I wish I could be in that world! Other times I just wish I could craft something as amazing and original!”

“You never know,” she said. “Just look at that chick with those kinky sex books, and that started out as a fanfiction didn’t it?”

I rolled my eyes. “Yeah, like something like that would happen to me!”

"You never know. Like you said, Kaitlyn Morgan hit it big early and look how far she's gone. It could happen to you too."

"I'm not going to hold my breath."

“So you’re a huge fan, does that mean you’re going to Elassa Con?”

I sighed. “I’d love to go to Elassa Con! I’ve been to a few regional cons, even have a stupid costume I wear to them, but I’m afraid Elassa Con is more than a poor grad student like me can afford.”

“Pity, I was thinking of going. We could meet up,” she said. “I’d love to see that costume. ;)”

“Yeah, well, maybe I’ll go someday if I get rich off of my writing,” I said.

“I’d like to read some of your stuff,” she said.

I pulled away from the keyboard. I blinked a couple of times. I stared at the chat window. At those words burned onto my flat panel. Sure I shared my stuff in the critiques every day, sure I shared my stuff with the people I role-played with online, but there was something about this that seemed different. I was suddenly self-conscious about sharing my work with this woman. Maybe it was the way she wrote. Maybe it was knowing she did this professionally. But for whatever reason, I was hesitant.

“I don’t know,” I said. “I’m sure it would be boring for you…”

“No! I’m definitely interested! If you’re half as good as what you write in game then I have a feeling I’m going to be pleasantly surprised!”

I blushed and had to stop. I had to count to ten. It was like this girl was pressing all the right buttons, and I didn’t even know her real name. I had no idea what she looked like or if she was even a she. For all I knew it could be some fifteen-year-old kid who was home from school today. For all I knew she could be some old man. And yet I didn't think that was really the case. I didn't want to think that was the case. I was drawn to her in a way I hadn't been drawn to a woman before, in a way that had been missing even from my interactions with men, and to discover that it was all a lie would be crushing.

Catfishing was an ever present danger online, but something was telling me I should take a chance.

“Fine, what’s your email address?”

“Kaira@elassa.com”

I arched an eyebrow at that. I was surprised she was actually able to get that email address. It’s not like Kaira was a super famous character in the series or anything, but she was a driving force in the narrative for anybody who bothered to pay attention to that sort of thing. It was the kingdom she created that led to the catastrophe that created the world I was running around in right now. The world I loved reading about so much. The world that had taken the real world by storm over the past five years with its explosive popularity. And I figured a name like that would’ve been snapped up immediately by someone who was way too into the lore like I was. Only here she was with that email.

Interesting. And it also made me respect her all the more. It was slightly cocky choosing that name, but at the same time it showed that she really knew her stuff. She really knew the story in-depth in a way that even a lot of people who'd read the books didn't because they didn't ever read any of the supplementary materials or appendices. A lot of people didn’t pay attention that deeply. They just enjoyed the action in the books or they enjoyed the boobs on the pay cable miniseries. No, that name told me this was a girl who really got the series. This was a girl who was definitely a fan.

And that made me both respect her more and want her more. Want her more? I thought about that for a moment. Thought about the strange feelings washing over me. Maybe it was just a bit of confusion in finding a kindred spirit, but I couldn't deny the heat and the rush I'd felt when I saw her sending me a message. I couldn't deny how I was feeling even if these new feelings terrified me. I might as well own up to it to myself even if I had no intention of telling Kaira and scaring her away forever.

It was ridiculous to fall for a girl over something silly like writing skills and the fact that she obviously was just as into my favorite books as I was, but there it was. People had fallen for sillier reasons than that, so why not an intense intellectual attraction? I was an intellectual woman first and foremost, and she was definitely able to stimulate my brain in a way most guys had never been able to, let alone a woman. That intrigued me. That turned me on if I was being perfectly honest, and I needed to start being perfectly honest with myself, damn it.

“Fine, I’ll send you something I worked up for class,” I said.

“No, I want your novel,” she said.

I blinked. “How did you know about that?”

“You said you’re in a creative writing program and you just got in a fight about liking genre fiction. I know you have a novel you’ve been working on. I want to see it.”

Now this really was asking too much! She was absolutely right, but I’d never share that with anyone. I even turned the screen away when Megan was in the room. Not that I’d actually worked on the thing in a while because I was so busy with the creative writing program and all the creative writing I’d been doing for the game. But still. Sharing something like that was so personal.

“Come on…” she said.

I sighed. “Fine. I’ll send you the first few chapters, but that’s it!”

“Glad to hear it.”

Damn. She was so cocky. So arrogant. So sure she’d get her way! I wondered what kind of woman she was in the real world, outside of the videogame, that she had that calm and confident demeanor. That she just assumed everyone was going to do what she asked.

I alt tabbed out of the game and opened up my email client. I had my own Elassa mail account. They called it Elassa mail, but really over the years it had morphed into a giant social network for fans of the series. I typed in her email and attached the file, but when I tried to send it at first it bounced back. I frowned. I clicked over to her profile but that was locked down too. Usually you didn't see that in the Elassa social network.

I tabbed back into the game. "Your account is locked down."

"Oh, right. Sorry." A moment passed and then the little icon that indicated she was typing popped up again. "Try now."

Again I alt tabbed out of the game. Again I drafted a mail and attached the file, but I held off on sending it for some reason. I stared at the screen, wondering if I really wanted to do this, and as I stared I realized that her whitelisting me for access to send her mail directly also allowed me to see her profile, though I wasn't going to tell her that. I figured if she was going to try and keep secrets then I was going to do the same in the name of revealing some of those secrets.

I got a good look at her profile picture. Not everybody bothered with the picture, but she had one. And I found myself staring, transfixed.

The character creator for the game meant you could pretty much write your own ticket in terms of looks. Most people chose a character who was muscular or slim in all the right places. Basically the perfect figure and the ultimate in wish fulfillment. What I’m trying to say is you didn’t see a lot of chubby characters walking around Tales of Elassa unless it was somebody who was doing it to make a point for a particular brand of role-playing.

Only as I looked at the picture attached to Kaira's profile, I wondered if she realized I was going to be able to see that picture when she gave me her email, I realized that in this case at least, assuming this was actually her and this wasn’t an elaborate catfishing expedition, there wasn’t much difference between the girl behind the computer and the beautiful character in game.

She wore a huge pair of sunglasses that obscured most of her face, but there was no obscuring the sexy contours of that face even if I wouldn't be able to pick her out of a crowd. She had the same pixie-cut short blonde hair as her character that looked unkempt but was so cute. And the rest of her. She was in a tight fitting tank top that showed off her smooth shoulders, slim arms, and what looked like a petite but incredible figure under that tight fitting tank top. I could see a strip of her stomach below and the hint of her belly button and I found myself leaning forward to stare in a way that I never had before with a girl, but I didn't care. I was all alone in the apartment and it's not like Megan was going to walk in on me by surprise. She looked like she was anywhere from five to ten years older than me and she looked absolutely delicious.

Not for the first time since I started interacting with this woman I found myself staring at the screen while my brain short circuited. What the hell was going on here? Could that really be her? That couldn’t possibly be her! There was no way that a girl who looked that good, a girl this compelling and nice, the first girl I ever found myself truly drawn to, a girl who seemed to know what I was thinking before I even thought it myself, could be that gorgeous! The universe just didn't work that way. I wasn't that lucky. Of course it was entirely possible that I could be that lucky and still I'd be unlucky in that she wasn't into girls that way. But who knew? A day ago I would've said I wasn't into girls that way and here I was salivating over Kaira's picture.

I instantly felt self-conscious as well. If I sent her an attachment through my account at Elassa.com then she’d see my profile picture. My mess of brown hair. A face that was definitely not anything to write home about even if I did have guys pestering me all the time in what I was pretty sure were clumsy attempts to get a date. And I had a petite frame that definitely didn’t bear much resemblance to my buxom character in game. Not that I even knew if she was into tits at all, buxom or otherwise, and it's not like I was going to ask her and scare her away. Hell, I was scared enough of these strange feelings without terrifying the object of those feelings!

I thought of my profile picture and groaned. I was staring into the camera with a goofy expression that definitely wasn’t very flattering making the hand symbol of the Bendai sisterhood which figured largely in the books. The juxtaposition between that very serious hand signal and the weird look on my face wouldn’t be lost on her, but I looked absolutely ridiculous.

I couldn’t send her an email right now. I couldn’t send an email when she’d see that picture of me!

I alt tabbed back into the game fully intending to make an excuse.

“I’m waiting…”

There she was again with that infuriating casually insistent confidence. As though she expected me to send her my manuscript right now. And I found myself blushing, moving out of the game client again, and hitting send. It was as though I was under some sort of spell. It was as though she was able to get me to do whatever she wanted. I didn’t even realize what I was doing until I’d sent it, and immediately my hand went from my mouse up to my mouth. I stared in wide-eyed shock.

Damn it!

I moved back to the game. I waited to see what the damage was.

“Got it.” she said.

There was a pause. A pause that stretched into eternity. A pause where I was sure she was looking at my picture, where she was sizing me up, where she was realizing that the sexy seductive elf priestess was nothing like the girl in my profile picture. She was probably looking me up and down and thinking how ridiculous she’d been to ever pay any attention to me. I’m sure she’d come back and say that she didn’t have time to read my manuscript.

“My my,” she said, adding a smiley face to the end. “You are a cutie my lady elf.”

Was that what I thought it was? I reread the sentence over and over trying to process it. That seemed downright flirtatious. Usually I was pretty oblivious about that sort of thing, but this was like a massive signal being projected onto the sky that even I couldn't miss. I felt my breathing catch as I read the sentence. I felt warmth settle into the pit of my stomach. I couldn't believe it.

Damn it. This girl kept blowing my expectations away! I blushed again. I blushed! And I felt a tingle at the tips of my fingers that I was pretty sure was from getting turned on and not an impending stroke as I started typing. At least I hoped it wasn't an impending stroke. That would be just my luck. I start falling for a girl. The girl seems interested in me. I have a stroke and I'm dead or incapacitated to the point that I can't explore this strange new romance. Only that didn't happen as I kept typing.

“You’re not so bad yourself.” I said with a wink emoticon. I was so nervous as I hit enter but I did it.

Was I really doing this? Was I really flirting with a girl over the Internet on the basis of a picture and a silly crush? This was ridiculous! I hadn’t done this sort of thing in at least five or six years. Not since I was a teenager using the Internet for the first time. Not since I’d first got involved in non-Elassa role-playing communities that were best forgotten all these years later.

And yet here I was, very much feeling like the giddy schoolgirl I’d been back then talking to a cute guy. Only now it was a cute girl I was talking to, and unlike with those early role-playing chats this time I had actual proof that she was a cute girl. At least I hoped she was a cute girl. I wasn’t completely naïve. I knew there was still a good eighty percent chance that picture was bullshit, but a girl could dream, right?

“That’s all?”

I blinked. Was she expecting more? Was she really that cocky? Did she really need me to validate her looks? I have to admit that it took some of the shine off of the moment.

“Was there supposed to be more?”

“No, nothing…”

She seemed surprised. She seemed to be avoiding telling me something. And yet I’d just met her. I was still so surprised that she looked like that, I was still so surprised that she was the complete package, that I decided I wasn’t going to dig any deeper. Not yet. If she wanted to have her little mystery then let her have her little mystery. It was enough that we had what we had for now.

“Think I’m going to log off and have a read of your story,” she said. “Talk to you later?”

“Sure. Looking forward to it!”

“Me too.” And she winked at me. Well, it was a wink emoticon, but I'd grown up online. To me it was as good as the real thing. The physiological reaction it provoked through my body was certainly the real thing!

It was amazing how punctuation could make me feel so amazing. It was really just a semicolon and a closed parenthesis, and yet that simple bit of punctuation was getting me worked up in a way that I hadn’t been in quite some time. Since the last guy I dated seriously. Where "seriously" is defined as going on a couple of dates but I didn't really feel much of a spark when he tried to get physical so I'd called things off.

Since then I didn’t really have time for dating what with my busy schedule. At least with what I told myself was my busy schedule, though it would probably look rather pathetic to anyone who actually had a busy schedule or real responsibility instead of a full plate of video game playing every night.

The chat window indicated she’d gone off-line. I paused for a moment, and then I added her to my watch list. She must’ve already done the same to me if she knew when I was online. That sent another thrill running through me. A girl that gorgeous, a girl who could write like that, a girl who could make me feel this way with just a few words on the screen, and she’d obviously been interested enough to talk to me first!

It was weird, but I was starting to feel very much like that giddy schoolgirl even when I wasn’t talking to her. Just the thought of her was enough to set me off. It was an odd feeling, it was strange thinking of another woman like that, but it wasn't unpleasant. I wasn’t sure exactly what was going on, I was still really confused, but I knew that I liked it. And really wasn't that enough to see where this was going?

I closed out the game. Without her on there really was nobody for me to talk to at this time of day. Most of my friends didn’t start coming online until after the work day was over. As the game closed a window popped up advertising Elassa Con which was coming up very soon. I sighed as I looked at the pictures streaming past. It looked like everybody was having a hell of a time.

I’d been to a couple of local conventions, I even had a costume I put together that was slightly scandalous since it took a fashion cue from some of the more bikini oriented outfits that the sorceresses could wear in game, but I’d never been to the big convention. The one put on to showcase a combination of all the different component parts that made up the Elassa media empire.

People from the game were there. People from the TV miniseries were usually there. I even heard that Kaitlyn Morgan herself made appearances.

With a wistful sigh I closed out the advertisement. However nice it would’ve been to go to that convention there was no way a girl who made what I made, absolutely nothing aside from loans and a stipend, would be able to afford a ticket out to Indianapolis. There was definitely no way I was going to be able to afford the price to get into the convention, or the price of a hotel stay. I heard those got really ridiculous as the convention got closer, and there were even a special team of moderators on the forums to make sure scalpers didn’t go around trying to sell hotel rooms via official channels.

No, it was definitely out of my price range.

I needed to forget about that stuff though. I had more important things to concentrate on. Like the fact that I had to get to work. All that talk about my novel, all the anger I felt towards Carrie, all of the encouraging words I’d gotten from this mysterious woman, had put me in a mood to write. Really write. Not stuff for the game.

I opened up my novel and got to work on it for the first time in a couple of months at least. The muse was upon me, and I was going to take advantage of the moment since I didn’t have much else to do until later in the evening when it was time to log back into the game.

6: Waiting Game

I went absolutely crazy in more than one way over the next couple of days. I started working on my novel at a furious pace. Words flowed from my fingers into the computer. I hadn’t written this much on one of my own projects in ages, but I felt inspired. Maybe it was showing my book to someone. Maybe it was the inspiration I’d taken from her encouragement. Whatever it was, I was writing like a maniac and I was putting out thousands of words a day which was unprecedented even before I got sucked into Tales of Elassa and spent all of my writing energy on the game.

Kaira was driving me crazy in other ways too. Mainly by her absence. I’d only talked to her a couple of times and so it was totally weird that I’d miss her like this, and yet with each passing day that I didn’t see her on I grew more frustrated. Her profile said she hadn’t been on since the last time we spoke a couple of days ago, not that I was stalking her profile and obsessively refreshing it or anything.

It was driving me nuts. I was busy writing, but I also kept myself logged into the game on the off chance that she’d show up. I kept myself logged into the chat client for the game on my phone so that if she showed up while I was in class or at my job I’d be able to catch her.

And still days went by with absolutely nothing. Like I said, I was starting to go crazy.

Her absence was so pronounced that I started to wonder if there was something I’d done wrong. I was starting to wonder if she’d read through my story, realized that she absolutely hated what I did, and decided it would be easier to just never log onto that character again rather than disappoint me. It was amazing the lengths my mind went to coming up with a worst-case scenario, and yet I couldn’t help it.

So I was very surprised on Friday when I was sitting at my job, though I wouldn’t really call working as a receptionist for the history department much of a job at all since it mostly involved sitting at a desk that nobody came to unless one of the profs was trying to get into their physical mail.

Even that didn’t happen very often, which I thought was odd considering this was the history department and most of the profs who worked here looked old enough that they probably didn’t have the greatest grasp of technology or email. Not that I was going to knock it. The dean of the department was nice enough to let me do my own thing on the computer if we weren’t that busy, which was most of the time.

And so I was doing my own thing and working on my book when I saw an icon pop up in the bottom right-hand corner. My breath caught as I saw it. It was the Elassa chat icon. I’d installed the chat client on this computer ages ago and nobody had ever said anything about it even when the dean walked by and saw me chatting. So I figured it was okay. I never asked outright, but whatever. Easier to beg forgiveness than ask permission and all that.

I felt a thrill and apprehension as I saw that icon blinking. Every time that icon popped up in game, on a computer, or on my phone it set my heart to racing. Of course that racing heart was inevitably followed by disappointment when it turned out to be Megan or another one of my in-game friends and not her.

And so it was with a mixture of anticipation and resignation that I clicked on the icon and brought up the chat window. My breath caught and boy did my pulse really start racing in a major way.

“Hi.”

One word. One single word. And yet it was so weighted with significance because of the name it was attached to. Why was she only sending me one word? Where had she been? Why wasn’t she saying more? Did that mean she didn’t like what she read? Why was I such a pessimistic mess?

Deep breath. Get control of yourself Amber. Don’t overanalyze!

“Hi yourself.”

“Sorry I’ve been away,” she said. “I’ve been ridiculously busy at work. We’re getting ready for a big event here.”

“What kind of a big event?”

“Nothing special,” she said. “But it’s the biggest event we throw at my job, so it takes up a lot of my time. Haven’t had much time for anything other than work.”

My spirits fell. If she hadn’t had much time for anything other than work that meant she also hadn’t had much time for anything like reading.

“I understand,” I said. “You get busy at work sometimes!”

Of course it’s not like I really understood. I was self-aware enough to realize that I’d gotten a pretty cushy gig with my current job. I knew this was probably something I’d look back on with fondness when I was eventually forced into the real world. When I was eventually forced to get a job outside the university where they expected results.

“I did have a chance to read your story though,” she said.

Damn! If just the sight of her screen name showing up was enough to set my pulse racing, well her telling me that she’d read through my work was enough to make me feel lightheaded. It was enough to twist my stomach up into knots.

I imagined this gorgeous creature sitting back in a chair with a tablet in between doing stuff for her job, whatever that was, and thinking about me the entire time. It also sent a warm feeling coursing through me knowing she’d been thinking about me even if it was sort of indirectly as she read through my story. Knowing I’d been on her mind even if she hadn’t been able to hop on and talk to me all that much was nice.

“That’s cool,” I said. I was not going to fish for a reaction. Let her say what she was going to say.

“It was fucking amazing! I’m seriously blown away, and I don’t say that lightly,” she said.

“Really?”

“You’re just full of surprises Maia,” she said. “Brains, beauty, and talent. You really are the whole package. You’ve even inspired me to really get to writing again!”

I blushed. And glanced around the room to make sure nobody else was looking. Now that probably looked suspicious, the receptionist sitting at her computer typing away furtively, leaning close to the monitor, and then glancing around to make sure nobody was actually looking to see what I was doing.

If that didn’t get the dean interested in what I was doing on my work computer then I figured nothing would, but glancing in his office he wasn’t there anyways so whatever. There weren’t even any students or professors milling around in the hall outside.

I turned back to the chat window.

“You mean that?”

“Of course I mean that,” she said. “Why would I lie about something like that?”

“I don’t know what it is about you, but I feel like a giddy schoolgirl every time I talk you!” I said. I don't know why I said that. Here she was online and talking to me for the first time in days and I said something stupid that was bound to scare her away, flirtation aside.

And I was astonished I’d feel like that even as I said it. There was just something about this girl that short-circuited my brain. There was something about this girl that made me say the most ridiculously inappropriate things. There was something about this girl that made me type things that I was sure would lead to her getting scared and running away for good.

“I’m kind of glad to hear you say that, because I’ve been feeling the same way,” she said. “I’ve been so busy with work, but all I could think about was how much I wanted to sneak away and log into the game so I could talk with you!”

I didn’t think it was possible for me to blush any more than I already was, but somehow my cheeks found a reserve of bright red to color them. I was so entranced with the chat client that I jumped when somebody cleared their throat. I looked up and saw an undergrad staring down at me and looking over to the screen. I blushed even more furiously, wondering if he'd seen what I was talking about. I quickly minimized the window and put on my best smile, though it was difficult with the way I was turning bright red.

“Can I help you?” I asked.

“Um, I need the form for dropping a class…”

“You need to go down to the registrar’s office,” I said. “We don’t do that sort of thing in this office.”

The guy muttered something under his breath. I caught a bit about how it was bullshit that we didn’t have his form but did have time for Elassa chat and I blushed as I realized he knew exactly what I was doing even if he didn’t know exactly what I was talking about. That was bad enough. Only as soon as he was out of the room I immediately brought that window back up. It was blinking furiously.

“Still there? Was it something I said?”

“Sorry,” I said. “I’m using the chat client at work and I needed to help someone.”

“That’s fine,” she said. “Will you be on tonight? I made sure to clear a hole in my schedule.”

I blinked. What kind of work was she doing that she had to clear a hole in her schedule to play a video game at night? What kind of work was she doing that she was getting ready for the busiest event of the year with whatever the hell it was she did and yet she could just clear a hole in her schedule like that? This girl was definitely a mystery in more ways than one. A mystery that I fully intended to solve.

“I should be on later,” I said. “Why?”

“Well I want to take you out on a date,” she said. “Only I’m not sure if it qualifies as a date if we’re doing it in a videogame…”

My face broke into a huge grin and I felt butterflies dancing in my stomach even as it twisted into nervous knots at the thought of actually going out with a woman. A date! Sure it was in a videogame, but when you were separated geographically I suppose it was the best I could hope for. It was also crossing a line. If we went on a date, two women going out on a date even if it was in-game, then I was admitting something to myself that was a major change. Did I want to do that?

It really wasn't a question of whether or not I wanted to do that though. I had no choice. These feelings were insane, but they were also so damn strong. I couldn't deny how I was feeling, and I wanted nothing more than to enjoy a digital date with this woman.

Besides, it’s not like meeting someone online was too different from getting to know someone in person. It wasn’t all that weird these days. Sure, meeting someone online in the middle of a videogame and then going on a date with them in that videogame was probably a little weird even by modern standards, but whatever. Fuck anybody who judged me for that. And fuck anybody who judged me for going on a date with a girl. I was going to do this.

“Sounds like a plan,” I said.

“What time should I pick you up?”

“I get off work at 4:30 today. I should be online shortly after that, so whenever.”

“Sounds like a plan. Look forward to seeing you then!”

And then she was gone.

I was so giddy that I tapped my feet against the floor and let out a triumphant shriek. And then I quickly schooled myself to seriousness as an older professor stuck her head in, looked around the office for a moment, settled on me with a raised eyebrow and then a smile, then disappeared.

I blushed again, it seemed like that was going to become a common thing if I was going to be spending much time around this girl, but I didn’t care. A date! Sure a date in-game, sure a date with a woman which I was still a little unsure about despite all my bluster, but I’d take it. Pretty much all of my social life was taking place inside that game these days anyways, so why should my love life be any different? And why should I care if that love life was igniting again with a woman rather than a man?

If my in-game love life was bringing me a girl as incredible as this then I was all for it. I just hoped she really was what she said she was. That this wasn’t just some scam. That she wasn’t just playing me for her amusement.

Sometimes I really hated that the worst-case-scenario centers in my brain were so overactive.

7: Digital Date Night

A blinking light showed in the top right corner of my heads-up display. I felt butterflies running through my stomach. I felt my breath start to quicken. Hell, I felt my nipples start to harden and I even felt a tingle between my legs. A hell of a reaction to a chat notification.

And it might not even be her. I had that reaction every time I got a chat notification. That’s how powerful her hold on me was.

I glanced over my shoulder to where Megan sat bathed in the glowing light of her massive monitor engrossed in a raid or something. It looked like she was just clicking her mouse over and over, but I knew from the way she was staring at her screen with intense concentration, the way she was listening intently to whatever voice chat was happening over her ridiculously expensive gaming headphones, that the entire world, myself included, was shut out. She wouldn’t be paying attention to anything going on over on my screen.

Good. I still didn’t want her to know about this girl. That I was actually falling for a girl. In a video game. Not yet. Both because I didn’t want to deal with the inevitable barrage of questions and because I didn’t want to hear her not-so-expert opinion on the state of my love life, which was usually pretty dismal.

I turned back. I clicked that blinking icon, a thrill running through me as I did so, and it popped up with a message.

“Good evening my lady elf,” she said. “Ready for that date?”

Those butterflies in my stomach were fluttering around on overdrive. To the point that I thought I might actually get sick from how nervous I was. I’d been doing this for years and yet this girl was the only person who’d ever managed to get this sort of reaction out of me. I forced myself to control my breathing. Maybe it was a date, but it was also a role-playing session. I needed to get in the zone and I definitely wasn’t going to get there if I was acting like a silly girl with a crush even if that's exactly what I was!

“Mother fucker!”

Megan’s shout pulled me away from the chat window which I quickly minimized since that phrase coupled with the sound of her expensive headset being thrown against the wall usually meant she was back in the real world.

I looked over my shoulder. Megan looked over at me but there was a frown on her face. Obviously the raid hadn’t gone well, though at least she hadn’t launched her mouse across the room along with the headset this time.

“I take it the raid didn’t go well?”

“No, not really,” she groused. “We’re stuck on a boss because this idiot healer keeps fucking up and he’s trying to blame me for it! I can’t take this shit. I need to go get drunk. Wanna hit the bars?”

I blinked. This was definitely a development I hadn’t anticipated. It was an unfortunate development considering that I had date night planned with Kaira and it didn’t seem like she’d be available any time soon if I passed up on tonight. Damn it.

“I actually think I’m going to stay in tonight,” I said. “I’ve got a scene I’ve been working on for awhile and the person I’m doing it with is only available tonight.”

Megan grinned and I winced at my choice of words. Perhaps “doing it with” somebody wasn’t the best way to phrase that. Damn it.

“Oh really? Is this special person a dude?” Megan asked.

“No,” I said.

So maybe that wasn't entirely honest from a certain point of view. I knew exactly what she was asking when she asked if it was a dude. She was asking if this was a role-playing session with someone I had a romantic inclination towards. The answer to that question was a definite yes, but that wasn't the question she asked. She just asked if it was with a guy and I'd answered truthfully even if it wasn't quite the truth considering what she was really asking. I wasn’t going to reveal anything else unless she dragged it from me though. Not yet.

Megan walked over to stare at my screen and I quickly flicked it off. She crossed her arms and looked down at me with a huge grin splitting her face. A grin that made me blush as much as I would if I was talking with Kaira. I knew I was giving myself away, but what could I do?

“Keep your secrets for now Amber,” she said. “I’m going to go get drunk. Maybe head down to the bar if you get done with your new boyfriend.”

“He’s not my boyfriend,” I said. Now I was playing the pronoun game. Still, she hadn't used the right pronoun so I definitely wasn't giving that away. Using the right pronoun would cause it all to come out and that would ruin date night as I tried to pry Megan away from my monitor as she attempted to to learn more about this girl I was suddenly so into.

“So it is a guy!”

I rolled my eyes. Let her think what she was going to think. Let her think she was being crafty.

“Go have your drink Megan,” I said.

She took her sweet time getting ready. I waited until I heard the front door slam shut before I moved back to my own machine and clicked on the blinking chat icon. It felt like it’d been an eternity, I wondered if she’d even still be there, but when I looked at the screen I was surprised to see that only about five minutes had passed.

“I’m ready now,” I said.

“Glad to hear it. I was starting to wonder where you’d disappeared to my lady elf.”

I glanced over towards the front door one last time and then put my hands on the keyboard. I closed my eyes, opened them, and I was in the world of Elassa.

I stood at the entrance to the Pirate Caves of Aktor. This was one of my favorite dungeons in the game, even if it was one of the earlier dungeons that only new players tended to go to. New players and higher level players who were looking for a convenient spot for a quick role-playing session. Megan always laughed when she saw me exploring the place. She always acted like it was ridiculous that somebody with a character my level would bother with the place, but I loved it.

I rounded the corner towards the dungeon entrance and moved inside. My breath caught as the screen loaded up a private instance of a dungeon where no one but a game moderator could bother us, and it's not like they were going to be poking around one of these dungeon instances without being called down anyways. We were already in a party together and she was waiting for me in there. As soon as I stepped through, as soon as that loading bar finished, she was there. Looking me over with a very intense stare.

Or, rather, looking over my character. But it might as well be the same thing. It caused the same reaction sitting in the real world in my computer chair as it would have if I’d suddenly rounded a corner and saw a beautiful woman with striking green eyes staring at me in the real world.

This was ridiculous. I’d only seen that one picture of her before and I was drooling over just the thought of that delicious body. Assuming she actually was who she said she was, and I wasn’t just getting catfished.

I needed to stop that. I needed to just enjoy myself. More than anything I needed to avoid getting pulled out of the game like that!

I closed my eyes, took a deep breath, put my fingers down on my keyboard, and when I opened them I was my character. I was Maia the high priestess of the Elven Order. I was a gorgeous high elf priestess going to meet a human adventurer in a forbidden rendezvous in a less than savory part of the world.

I eyed the human barbarian warily as I stepped into the cave leading to the pirate’s cove. I called her a barbarian, though to be perfectly honest that wasn’t an entirely accurate description of what she was. That assessment was a product of one of the unfortunate attitudes towards the lower races I’d picked up. I tried to be careful about those assumptions, but it was difficult after so many years of seeing humans prove themselves worthy of the barbarian name time and again.

Though this human probably wouldn’t have considered herself a barbarian. Not in the way they reckoned it. Muscular men in loincloths wielding giant swords and attacking one another with no care in the world aside from where their next meal or their next mating would come from.

This one, at least, had once fine boots and wore a tattered shirt and pants that looked like they were well cared for but a far cry from the finery they’d started as. She also wore a belt with a buckle on it that bore some house sigil. Not that I could determine which house it was just from looking at that sigil. There were so many minor human noble houses scattered by the Sundering that nobody could keep track of all of them. Not even the humans. Not that it stopped them from fighting incessantly with each other over those houses and the paltry territory they controlled.

I could guess her story from a simple look. She was the daughter of a minor noble house with a tomboy streak that served her well in this new world where might so often made right. The Sundering had hit her hard, had separated her from everything she once knew, and so now she wandered the world selling her sword for her next meal and probably holding herself to some outdated moral code that didn’t apply in the new realities of the world after the Sundering.

Still, it also meant I could probably trust her. To a point.

Still, trust could be dangerous and I wouldn’t throw caution completely out. I was well aware it was a dangerous place I was going. I was well aware that the world wasn’t the perfect place that the Order would like to believe, to be cataloged according to their view of things.

I was aware of all of those things, and so that’s why I was keenly aware of the incredible danger I could find myself in if this strange human I’d only met once in a tavern was hostile. If she decided to cause trouble.

I prepared several nasty magic spells that would catch her by surprise if she should choose to try and take a high priestess. If she tried anything then I would at least make her very sorry that she tried, if not kill her outright. Assuming she didn’t have that little toy that negated my magic spells.

“My lady elf,” she said, sketching a quick bow.

My eyes narrowed. There was a rakish grin that crossed her face as she made that bow that told me her supposed show of respect was anything but.

I raised an eyebrow. “Is that mockery?”

She moved up from her bow and that rakish grin was still on her face. I had to steel myself. Had to suddenly concentrate on my breathing so it didn’t start coming in quick gasps. This woman was beautiful, there was no denying it, even if she was just a lowly human from what looked to be a noble house fallen on hard times.

“Merely showing my lady elf the respect she deserves,” she said.

Her voice was melodious, hypnotic. It had me swaying and I had to blink. I had to shake my head and concentrate on the business at hand. I was here on the Order’s business, and I definitely didn’t have time to indulge in impossible fantasies about lowly human nobles.

I sniffed and turned to enter the caves that led to the hidden cove. “Very well human, we must be about our business.”

“Are you sure you want to do this? I wouldn’t go in there if I were you,” Kaira growled.

I turned and looked at her, once again trying and mostly failing to control myself. Trying to control my breathing. I was not some novice to go mooning over a girl of all things! Especially a human!

“And why is that?” I asked in a quiet voice. I wanted to laugh. She obviously hadn’t yet realized that I was easily one of the most dangerous women she was ever going to run into in the course of her travels.

“Lots of criminals, thugs, nasty people in there,” she said. “I’d hate for a pretty little elf such as yourself to get in trouble.”

This time my eyes lowered in a stormy expression. Who did she think she was? Pretty little elf? And yet even though I was indignant, even though I was angry, there was also a part of me that was undeniably flattered. My body was betraying me and a blush was rising to my cheeks. I felt a rush between my legs at her words. There was a part of me that was definitely interested in the promise that flirtatious smile offered, and the fact that this was a random girl I’d just met who I didn’t know much about didn’t seem to mean anything as I stared at her.

I pulled my hands away from the keyboard. I had to stop and catch my breath. This was so wrong. I was on the verge of going to a very dangerous place that I promised myself I’d avoid when I started in the role-playing community on this server. I shouldn’t be indulging in this fantasy.

I should go to a public role-playing location with her where I wouldn’t be tempted. I should be anywhere but where I was, continuing this role-playing session with a flirtatious girl who got my blood pumping with just words on a screen! And yet I'd already broken so many rules for this woman. I'd already crossed so many lines. What was one more? I paused in the quiet of the computer room. Made my decision. I reached my hands out, placed them back on the keyboard. Found myself transported back to the forbidden world.

I looked the human up and down, an appreciative glance that took in her slim muscular figure, her smooth shoulders, the way her armor molded to all of the above leaving nothing to the imagination. And yet I kept returning to that easy, cocky, rakish smile with her short hair above it all. There was no denying it. This woman was gorgeous. Not just for a human. She was one of the most gorgeous creatures I’d ever laid eyes on, and it was no surprise she was having such an effect on me.

Of course her attitude was infuriating. That ruined the other effects she was having on me slightly. But only just.

“What makes you think I can’t handle myself in a den of thieves such as this?” I asked. As I did I held my hand up and a small flame danced from finger to finger. Her eyes widened for a moment which disappointed me out in the real world since she'd been so good about not having that reaction earlier, but that was the only surprise that registered. Meanwhile back in the game world my character felt another stab of frustration. Usually when humans saw me working the elements like that it sent them running in terror, but not so with this woman. She was calm, confident, collected, and she still had that cocky grin plastered on her face. Then again if I had an ancient artifact that wasn’t supposed to even exist that negated magic I’d probably have that same delicious smile on my face.

This woman was as infuriating as she was beautiful!

“I’m not saying I don’t think you could turn any of those ragamuffins into a pillar of fire if you saw them coming at you,” she said.

I nodded and smiled in satisfaction at that admission. But that smile soured at her next words.

“Of course you have to be able to see someone coming at you to turn them into a pillar of fire. That won’t help you much in those pretty robes if someone comes up behind you with a knife.”

“Then what do you propose I do?”

The human stepped forward from where she’d been leaning against the cave wall and she stretched. She lifted her arms up above her head which gave me a clear view of how muscled she was even on her slim frame. I realized I was staring, captivated, with my mouth hanging wide open and quickly remedied that situation. I was not going to sit here and stare at this woman like some hormone addled novice, no matter how beautiful she was!

As she stepped forward she clearly eyed me up and down with something more than the professional interest of someone who’d been hired to act as a bodyguard. I blushed and looked away as she eyed me, then realized what I was doing and anger flashed through me.

I forced myself to meet her eyes, to ignore the thrill running through my stomach at that eye contact. I forced myself to channel some of the fury I was feeling at the casual way she was addressing her elven betters, though I felt a flush of embarrassment as the casual dismissal of "lesser" species that I hated so much from my own people drifted through my mind unbidden.

“I have no doubt what you’re interested in, human,” I spat out.

She looked me up and down once more, and there was hunger there. And there was something else. Amusement?

“I’m simply giving my lady elf the same consideration she’s been giving me ever since she first laid eyes on me.”

I blushed. So she’d caught me looking. Interesting. Very interesting. She was far more perceptive than I would have given a human credit for. There were hidden depths to this one, and I wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing.

“Very well human, I am the one who has hired you but I assume you are about to present me with terms despite the fact that I am the one paying you to do my bidding?”

She sketched another bow. “My lady elf is quite perceptive.”

My lips turned to a frown, but I decided to let this particular dig slide. Maybe if I just ignored her referring to me as her “lady elf” she would tire of the jest and stop using it entirely. I could hope, at least.

I reached into the pouch at my side and pulled out a gold mark. I held it up in the fitful torchlight that illuminated the entrance to the pirate’s cove.

“This is one gold piece. I imagine that will be enough to feed you for a week if not longer. Maybe even get you some proper clothes. You get one of these at the beginning, and another when we are finished if you desist in this ridiculous insistence on dictating terms to your employer,” I said.

“No.”

I blinked. “Excuse me?”

She raised an eyebrow. “You really are a fool for all your finery. I’m not here for gold. I’m here because you intrigue me my lady elf. Besides, what’s to stop me from just killing you and taking all of your gold?”

I tried to control myself at that admission that she was here because I intrigued her. I tried not to read too much into that despite the way my mind was screaming and my body was consumed by a raging fire. I tried my best to bring both mind and body under control, but it was difficult.

“You won’t kill me. And not because I would kill you for it or because I intrigue you enough for you to keep me alive until it’s no longer convenient. No, you wouldn’t do it because it isn’t the right thing,” I said.

The human, Kaira, moved forward with lightning speed. So fast that I only had time to let out a yell of surprise. I didn’t know it was possible for humans to move that fast! One moment we were standing in the entrance, I was in control of the situation, and the next moment she was pressing me up against the cave wall. Her body pressed against mine and it felt so delicious. It would’ve been a welcome distraction if I wasn’t so terrified that my life was about to end. Her face was inches from mine and that hunger was back. She'd been so fast I hadn’t even had time to work up a spell, though I had plenty of time to prepare a fireball or some other nasty surprise now, but I didn’t. Something stopped me.

She'd pressed me against the wall, but she hadn’t actually made a move to slit my throat. A woman who moved like that could easily have done so. A woman who moved like that could have killed me and left me to be looted by whatever robbers followed her. And yet she hadn’t. She was just staring down at me with that smoldering hunger in her eyes. That burning lust barely contained. I wanted to reach up and kiss that beautiful face, and I had to pull my hands away from the keyboard at that thought.

What the hell? This was definitely getting hotter and heavier than I’d ever gotten before, and yet I couldn’t deny how it was making me feel. I was so turned on that I’d been pulled out of virtual reality and back into the real world. That hardly ever happened. And it was also having one hell of an effect on me back here in the real world. I worried there’d be a wet spot on my gaming chair when I got up, but no, that couldn’t possibly be the case.

Still, I was so fucking turned on. Moisture was definitely gathering in my pajama bottoms. I reached down and traced a finger lightly along the edges of my pussy lips as I imagined doing the same to another woman and I nearly jumped. Just running my fingers down there was enough to set off an electric shock that ran through my entire body. It was enough to cause me to let out a quiet gasp. A quiet moan that was an unmistakable moan of pleasure.

Good thing Megan decided to go to a bar down the street.

I had a choice to make. I could pull away from the computer. I could disconnect. All it would take is closing down the game client and then I’d be free of the immediate scenario, but I wouldn’t be free from my feelings. I’d be thinking about Kaira, thinking about this forbidden role-playing session that was quickly spiraling out of my control, all night long. It was clear this was going someplace I hadn’t ever gone before with someone I role-played with, or with another woman for that matter. It was clear that this particular role-playing session was becoming something more. It was becoming something deeper, hotter, far more passionate.

I made my decision. My hands moved back to the keyboard. I stared up into the eyes of this dangerous human who was staring at me, her muscular arms to either side of my head. My breath was coming in ragged gasps. My nipples were pressing out against my dress and my body was betraying me with its arousal.

I wanted to say that the reason I didn’t vaporize her was because I was worried my magic might blow back on me. The problem with setting things on fire is that it didn’t do much good if you were in close proximity to the fire that was being set. I wanted to say that the reason I didn’t turn her into a pillar of fire was because I didn’t believe in killing unless someone was obviously threatening my life. Of course this situation could almost call for that. I could even blame that little anti-magic surprise she carried if I wanted to.

But that was all bullshit. No, the real reason I didn’t incinerate her where she stood was because I was intrigued as well. I was excited. By a human of all things. By a woman, which was a surprise. If anything, that intrigued me even more. I wasn’t sure what the hell was going on, I wasn’t sure why my body was betraying me like this, but I couldn’t deny how I felt. I couldn’t deny how incredible this was.

I looked up at her and smiled. “Point taken.”

She grinned. She pulled back and I wanted to cry out in disappointment as her body moved away from mine.

“I’m glad we have an understanding,” she said. “You hired me to guard you and I’m going to do that. That means that you do what I say while we’re in there and follow my orders with no questions. The fact that you’re the one paying me means nothing if you get a knife in your back because you think some flashy magical fireworks will save you from a crafty pirate who’s used to working in close quarters.”

I nodded. I tried to ignore the thrill running through me at the way she was casually taking command. Casually ordering me around. I should be furious, but instead I was just incredibly excited.

Kaira gestured towards the entrance to the cove. Deeper into the cave. I glanced at the dark entrance, lit only by the fitful burning of torches, then back to her. Did I dare go in there with her? Did I dare descend into the darkness and all the potentially forbidden pleasures that it offered?

I moved forward and I could hear her following behind me. I smiled, wondering where this was going. Because this certainly was unlike any dungeon run I’d ever been on before.

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