Cosplayed: A Sweet Lesbian Romance Read online

  “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. Flirtati
ous, 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.”