“It’s perfect,” I said, and was rewarded by a cute little clap of excitement. “But what about you?”
She narrowed her eyes mischievously. “Don’t you worry about me. I’ll be ready in no time. But…” She headed toward the door as she talked. “You go down without me. I don’t want you missing anything.”
She meant it, that was the truly great thing. Her eyes shone with eager enthusiasm on my behalf as she gave me two incredibly dorky thumbs up on her way out the door.
I headed over to the contest, which was being held at the hotel’s ballroom, and was met by Julia’s friends, who greeted me like we’d known each other for years.
“Where’s Jules?” Marnie asked. At least, I assumed it was Marnie by her voice, her head and body were completely shrouded in some sort of anime cat costume.
“She’ll be down soon.” It was Thea who answered, and as she did she looped her arm through mine and steered me toward a table where drinks were being served.
“So?” she said. “What do you think?”
I shook my head. “I’m still trying to take it all in.”
“It’s a lot, right?” she said with a laugh.
I nodded. “That’s an understatement.” Even as I spoke, I was swiveling my head for a better look at the costume-clad crowd around us. Some of them were funny, some were weird, and some were so elaborate they had to have been made by professional costume designers.
Thea came to a stop and I did too. She wasn’t looking at the crowd around us, only at me. “I just wanted to say…” She wrinkled her nose and shook her head. “Oh man, this is going to sound so cheesy but…” She let out a loud exhale as she looked at me with a smile. “I’m so glad Jules has a friend like you back home.”
I had no idea what to say to that. I mean, were we even friends? I thought back to the day we’d spent together, which had been filled with laughter and easy conversation and… Well, maybe something more. Something I wasn’t prepared to name just yet because I had no idea if I was the only one who was feeling it. There’d been moments. Not exactly tense, but not comfortable either. Moments when our eyes met and the world seemed to stop spinning. Moments when I got tongue-tied or she was blushing. Moments that were decidedly not friendly, but not in a bad way.
Then there were the moments when I felt closer to her than anyone else on the planet. Those times when I felt like I saw her—truly saw her—and she saw me.
Thea was watching me closely and I shoved those thoughts to the side. “A friend like me?” I repeated, for lack of anything else to say.
She nodded, her gaze searching mine oddly. “Yeah, you know…” She gestured vaguely as she searched for the right words. “A friend who doesn’t judge her.”
I didn’t think Thea meant to punch me in the gut with those words, but it sure felt like that’s what she did. Judging Julia was pretty much all I did when I was around her. Well, maybe not so much this weekend, but back at Grover High?
I’d never given her much thought except to write her off as a shallow, flakey, people-pleasing pod person.
I looked down at the ground as Thea kept talking. “I worry about her sometimes. I probably shouldn’t, she wouldn’t want me worrying about her, but I see what her life is like from the photos she posts online.” She wrinkled her nose up. “It’s hard to believe that Julia and my Jules are one and the same, you know?”
I nodded. I’d been thinking the same thing all weekend. “How did you guys meet?” I asked. “She never said.”
Thea smirked as she clapped a hand on my shoulder. “Dude, that girl gives new meaning to the term compartmentalize.” She arched her brows. “I bet there’s a lot of things she hasn’t told you…or me, for that matter.”
I blinked as I tried to figure out what she meant by that but, before I could ask, she answered my question. “We met in grade school.”
Now it was my turn to arch my brows in disbelief. “I think I would have remembered if you went to grade school with us.”
She rolled her eyes. “I met her during grade school. She and I went to the same cheer camp one summer. I’m the one who introduced her to comics.”
“Oh yeah?” I couldn’t even pretend to hide my intrigue. For all the talking we’d done today, Julia still had this way of deflecting all questions that bordered on personal.
Thea nodded, a smile spreading across her face at the memory. “My brother had turned me onto comics the year before, so I came to camp with this giant stack of them. None of the other girls took an interest, but Julia was all over them.”
Her gaze met mine again and her smile faded. “She was having a tough time that summer, but of course she never talked about it. I think she realized that comics were a great escape, you know?”
I didn’t know. I’d known Julia in grade school—heck, back then we were all friends. But I had no idea why she would have been having a tough time. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that I didn’t know much about Julia at all.
The thought was disturbing.
“Speak of the devil,” Thea said brightly.
I turned to see a beaming Julia heading our way. I couldn’t return her smile because I was too busy staring. Leering, possibly. Definitely ogling. “You look…” I trailed off as she came to a stop at my side.
“Like it?” she asked, smoothing a hand over the pantsuit that seemingly matched mine, although hers was far more form-fitting. She too had on a blue T-shirt underneath and her hair was pinned up atop her head. She wiggled her fake glasses with a grin. “I figured if you’re Clark Kent I could be Kara Danvers.”
I still couldn’t speak. I know, I know. A hot girl dressed up in a suit shouldn’t have knocked me off my feet, but there it was—she was beautiful. Her eyes were lit up with happiness and her smile was genuine.
She was stunning.
My silence had her brilliant smile fading a bit. “What? You don’t like it?” She shifted, fidgeting with her suit. “I’d originally thought we should go as Superman and Supergirl from the cover of Crisis on Infinite Earths, but I figured you wouldn’t really appreciate having to carry me around all night.”
Thea was still standing beside me and I heard her laugh. “Girl, I think you lost him with that one.”
Julia bit her lip and arched her brows and that was when I realized she was still waiting for me to talk, or at least show some signs of life.
“Yeah, uh, you look great,” I finally managed.
That made Thea snort-laugh and I fought a wave of embarrassment. Julia did too if her blush was anything to go by. Still fidgeting with the hem of her suit jacket she looked down at herself. “Maybe I should have gone with something else.”
“No. This is perfect.” I took a step closer and touched her arm, guilt flooding through me at the thought that I’d embarrassed her. Today she’d opened up to me in a way I now realized she almost never did—at least, not with her friends back home. She’d let me see a side of herself she normally kept hidden.
My chest grew tight with some unknown emotion. I was touched by the fact that I was one of the rare few who got to know this Julia. I was humbled by it.
“Look, can we…” I nodded toward the door. “Can we go get some air?”
She smiled, but this time it was a little more tentative. “Sure.”
I led the way even though I wasn’t really sure what I was doing or where I was taking us. We went back out to the lobby and I chose a random hallway to walk down that was blissfully quiet compared to the ballroom. “Sorry,” I said. “I just wanted a chance to…” My brain fumbled for a way to finish that sentence. Talk? Look at you without other people watching us? Have another moment, just the two of us?
“Breathe?” Julia suggested when my silence lasted too long.
I exhaled heavily. “Exactly.”
“Yeah,” she said with a little laugh. “Comic-cons can get a little intense. You’re surrounded by people all the time. Just wait until the ball tomorrow. That crowd is way bigger than t
his one.”
I stared at her. “Ball?”
The word ball had never been tinged with such outright horror. My only relief was that I’d unintentionally made Julia laugh. “Don’t worry,” she said. “It’s not all that formal. You don’t have to wear a tux or anything.” She eyed me from head to toe. “Just replace the T-shirt with another shirt and you’d be good to go.”
“But…a ball?”
She laughed again and patted my arm. “It’s just a big crowded room with a DJ and some dancing. Nothing crazy, just a place for people to mingle on their last night.”
“Another crowded room,” I said with a sigh. “Can’t wait.”
She laughed again and nudged me with her shoulder. “It can be overwhelming, right? I know Marnie and a couple of my other friends actually schedule in some alone time at these things. For them it’s a necessity.”
“Not you?” I asked.
She shot me a funny sideways look. “I’m kind of a people person.”
I laughed at the understatement. “Yeah, I’ve noticed.” I nodded back toward the crowd we’d just left behind. “So you don’t mind the nonstop crowds?”
She shrugged. “Sometimes I need a break, but overall I find it energizing. Exhilarating.”
“I can see that.”
Her eyes darted over to me again and this time she looked a little wary. “Are you mocking me right now?”
“No,” I said quickly. “Why would you think that.”
She shrugged but I could tell she was already over it. “Oh, I don’t know. I just don’t think you’ve ever been this nice to me before.”
“Hey.” I threw a hand over my heart and didn’t even have to feign offense. “I’ve never been mean to you.”
She scoffed. “Maybe not mean, but you don’t like me and you never have.” Arching her brows, she added, “Your disdain for me and my friends was hardly a secret.”
I opened my mouth to protest but realized how ridiculous that would be. I hadn’t been a fan of Julia Farrow’s…at least, not until very, very recently. I couldn’t protest, but I couldn’t bring myself to agree with her either. “I liked you just fine back in grade school,” I said.
She laughed. “Everybody liked everybody in grade school. That doesn’t count.”
“Maybe not,” I said. “But I’m also starting to think I didn’t even know the real you this whole time.”
She stopped walking. “What’s that supposed to mean?” She sounded guarded. On edge. I thought about backing down but I couldn’t bring myself to do it. Ever since that last workshop today when we’d listened to her idol talk about masks, the thought had been nagging at me. And what Thea had said only reaffirmed it.
We were standing alone together in the middle of an empty hallway and the sound of music coming from the ballroom was faint.
My eyes met hers and there it was again. That pull. The draw. The overwhelming desire to close the distance between us.
To kiss her.
She shifted, her gaze dropping to my lips as if she could read my thoughts. “Matt?” she said softly, a small frown forming a crease between her brows. “What do you mean you didn’t know me?”
“I…” I cleared my throat and tried again. “I just feel like I’m seeing this whole other side of you this weekend.”
She sniffed and glanced away. “Yeah, well…you already knew I didn’t share my love of comics or comics conventions with the world at large so—”
“That’s not what I meant.”
Her gaze darted back to meet mine and I thought I saw a flicker of alarm. “Then what do you mean?”
I took a step forward and she didn’t back away. I wondered if she could feel it too—this tension between us that turned regular old air into a sort of force field that blocked out the rest of the world.
“Since we’ve been here I feel like I’m finally seeing the girl behind the mask,” I said. When she fiddled with her glasses again I added, “I meant a metaphorical mask.”
That lightened the mood a bit, at least, and earned me a little smile. She lifted one shoulder in a little shrug. “You heard Les Corning. By his theory we all wear masks, right?” Her gaze met mine and it was so direct I couldn’t have looked away if I’d tried. “Don’t you?”
I thought about it. “I guess. But yours is…” I tried to run a hand through my hair, temporarily forgetting that it was gelled back and impossible to move. I dropped my hand and spit it out. “Yours is really good.”
She blinked a few times and I could have sworn I saw a flicker of hurt. Crap, I hadn’t meant to offend her.
“Are you trying to say that I’m fake?” Bitterness laced her voice. “Because I’m well aware that you think I’m shallow and superficial. You probably think I’m an idiot too.”
“No,” I said quickly. Maybe too quickly. I inched closer to her and we were now so close to touching I could smell the floral scent of her perfume and see the pins she’d used to hold up all that thick blonde hair.
“Then what are you trying to say?” she asked, her tone terse and her body tensed as if for a blow.
“I-I’m saying…” Oh heck, what was I saying? “I’m saying that I’m glad I’m getting a chance to know this side of you. I’m grateful that you’re letting me see this side of you. I really like this side of you. I’m…I’m…”
Her eyes were wide and hypnotic. Her lips were slightly parted and I temporarily lost the ability to speak. For a guy who prided himself on his way with words, I was utterly lost as to how to say what I was feeling.
What I was feeling felt too big for words. Too confusing, and too important. So I acted on impulse, and…I kissed her.
For a second she stood there frozen, her lips warm and soft beneath mine, but unmoving. I was just about to pull back and apologize for so thoroughly misreading this tension between us but then she seemed to come alive, melting into my arms with a soft sigh that made my whole body respond.
I pulled her tight against me, so desperate to taste her, to feel her, that I couldn’t think about anything else. She seemed to share my urgency, her arms wrapping around my waist as she met each kiss with one of her own until it was impossible to tell who was leading and who was following, and time ceased to matter. All that mattered was the heat of her skin, the smell of her skin, the feel of her body against mine, the taste of her lips.
I could have drowned in Julia Farrow, that’s how lost I was.
If it wasn’t for the voices at the end of the hall, I wasn’t sure how long we would have stayed like that. But whispers pierced the air, followed by giggles. When Julia pulled back and looked over, I followed her gaze to see the guy who’d been wearing the Doctor Who T-shirt earlier standing next to Marnie. For the record, he was currently dressed as the fourth Doctor.
And this Doctor and Marnie-the-anime-cat were clearly laughing at us.
“Sorry,” the Doctor called out.
Marnie gave a little wave and another giggle as she tugged on his arm and pulled him back toward the ballroom.
That left us alone.
I turned back slowly and saw Julia already watching me with an unreadable expression. My brain was only able to come up with one coherent thought in the aftermath of that epic make-out session.
I’d just made out with Julia Farrow.
Chapter Ten
Julia
“We should, uh…” That was how I eloquently broke the silence.
Yup, eloquent and smooth, that was me. I jerked my thumb toward the doorway where my friends had disappeared.
“Yeah,” Matt said. “We should probably get back.”
If he was as dazed and confused as I was, he was doing a far better job at hiding it. We walked back side by side in silence. I wanted to break it, to say something to lighten the mood and make this not awkward, but all I could think was—I just kissed Matt Cartwright.
And I liked it.
Liked was way too tame of a word for the way that kiss had knocked me off my feet. It had been li
fe-altering. Sure, that might’ve sounded a tad melodramatic, but here was the thing—it was the truth. Have you ever had one moment in your life where you could actually feel the course of your world shifting, like your own personal orbit just came undone?
No? Okay fine, maybe that was just me. But that’s how it had felt to kiss Matt Cartwright. Like everything was at once the same but totally different.
I’d had my fair share of kisses and make-out sessions before. I’d had boyfriends, and kissing pretty much went with the territory, but none of those kisses came close to the one I’d just shared with Matt.
I really like this side of you. The words he’d spoken just before kissing me flooded back into my skull, along with an image of his eyes, the way he’d looked so earnest as he’d tried to explain how much he liked this me. The real me.
The me no one at Grover High knew.
But Matt knew me. Or at least, he was starting to get to know me. And that was…
Terrifying.
Exciting?
Amazing.
I glanced up at him quickly and then looked away. Nope, terrifying. Definitely terrifying. I stared down at my feet as we walked, no longer even trying to think of something to say. There was no way I was capable of speech right now.
Once inside the ballroom, I spotted Thea with relief. My longtime friend would know how to ease this awkwardness. She always knew what to say. I rushed to her side, Matt so close to my side I could have reached out and grabbed his hand. But I didn’t.
“You guys do know you’re dressed up as cousins, right?” Thea teased the moment we reached her side. She eyed our costumes with a look of amusement. “You two are giving new meaning to the term kissing cousins.”
Heat surged to my cheeks and I couldn’t bring myself to look up at Matt to see his response. “You heard?” I muttered.
Thea laughed. “Did you think they wouldn’t tell? I mean, dude…”
She stressed dude so hard that I heard Matt snicker beside me and hated the fact that he found this amusing while my cheeks were painfully on fire.
Once Upon a Comic-Con: Geeks Gone Wild #3 Page 8
