Cosplayed: A Sweet Lesbian Romance Page 11

  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 m
uch 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 ha
rd. 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.