Girlfriend and Goodbye

“You want to go out with me?” Brian asked, a little surprised himself.

Still blushing, Stephanie nodded quickly. The pink-haired girl sitting in his lap now had been extremely cute when he’d first met her yesterday, but as he’d gotten to know her, she became more and more gorgeous to him. Her slight, awkward stutters were endearing, the way she seemed to light up when she smiled, the mysterious pink color that crept into her blonde hair—everything about her drew him in, until he was completely unable to deny his feelings for her.

“I’m definitely not opposed, but… are you sure? We haven’t known each other for very long, at all.”

“This with you has been amazing, um, for me,” Stephanie countered quietly, fidgeting with the hem of her dress. “I don’t see that, uh, that there’s anything wrong with us just… you know, exploring, th-that is, giving us more chances to get to know each other, to… see how things might be?”

“When you put it like that, I really don’t have any choice,” Brian gave her a smile. “You’ll be my girlfriend, then. I’ll be your boyfriend. We’ll be together, ‘till you start getting sick of me.” Before he could react, she threw her arms around him in an excited, exuberant embrace as if she’d just won the lottery. Feeling even luckier than her, he wrapped his arms around her and felt… incredibly satisfied. Happy. Why was I ever fighting this?

“Do—do you really mean it?” Stephanie asked in disbelief, disengaging for long enough to give him a hopeful look. “Are you serious?”

“Of course I am,” Brian said, and he leaned forward to give her a small peck of a kiss.

Whoa. Before he could withdraw, she lunged into him, lips greedily drawing upon his mouth in a hungry, open-mouthed kiss. The reality of the situation was just now really dawning on him—this beautiful young girl in his lap was his now. She wanted to be his, and he wanted to be hers even more. He wanted her in an unbridled way, that not only filled the hollow within himself he’d been struggling with—it seemed to make him more than himself. Because they were together.

He held onto her sides, a little more possessively than he had earlier, and their kiss took on an almost dizzying passion, tongues tentatively meeting and then sliding against one another, flickering pink bursts of—Wait, what?

Pulling away, Brian blinked spots out of his vision in confusion. It had felt a bit like the head rushes he used to get growing up, back when he was a little malnourished and would stand up too suddenly. But, that weird color—

“Br-Brian?” Stephanie asked in an odd voice. “I feel a little… I feel strange…?”

Strange? Brian froze. “What’s wrong?”

“I don’t know,” She gave him a quizzical look. She took off her glasses, glanced around, and then slipped them back on. “I feel different. Do I look different, this time?”

Realizing what she meant, he pulled back from her as much as their intimate position allowed and examined her carefully. On closer inspection—she looked dazzling. She had always been cute, but now she was cuter, in some intangible way that he couldn’t quite pinpoint. It was as though the amount of Stephanie in Stephanie had the volume dialed up by another twenty percent.

“Uh,” Brian was at a loss for words just looking at her, and the compulsion to simply move back in and kiss her again, again and again and never stop was grappling with his sense of reason. It’s like… someone turned up the color saturation on the blue of her eyes? Maybe? Or, did I just never notice them like this? She just seems more… animated?

“You’re even more beautiful, somehow,” he finally decided. “More… you, more Stephanie than you were. I know that sounds, uh…”

“No, no,” Stephanie beamed at him, glowing with happiness and contentment. Her lovely smile was distracting before, the kind of smile that stole his attention and made it hard to think; now, it was a complete knockout one that sent his mind reeling. “I believe you. I feel more beautiful… I think?”

“Maybe if we keep kissing, then…?” Brian suggested, wetting his lips and trying, in a futile way, to clear his head. Honestly, it seemed like a silly idea. What if I’m making things worse?

“I want to,” Stephanie admitted, and her radiant smile subtly shifted to a rather sly one. “But...”

Even just noticing a simple change in her expression like this felt like he was once again discovering new depths to Stephanie. Revealing that glimpse of the real her, the one normally trapped deep beneath her shy nature and all of those insecurities. The Stephanie who’d looked deep into his eyes with that unsure smile of hers yesterday and teased, I mean, I’ve already, kinda knocked you down once already, so… I’m ready for anything you can throw at me.

“But, what?” He couldn’t help but ask, struggling to not be completely mesmerized.

“I want to savor this,” Stephanie said. “I want... all of us to savor this.”

ALL of us? Not BOTH of us?

“I want… to wait for Kelly,” Stephanie explained, confirming his suspicion. She gently leaned her forehead against Brian’s and gave him a helpless smile. “It’s hard to explain?”

“Kelly?”

“She’s amazing,” Stephanie breathed against him in a murmur, and Brian was losing sight of what was going on again. “She deserves… no, she’s a part of this. All of this, between you and I.”

“Kelly is amazing,” Brian agreed, thinking back to that surprising kiss between the two girls he’d walked in on this morning. Is that what’s…? “But, I don’t think she has actual feelings for me, Stephanie.”

“She doesn’t think she does, either,” Stephanie whispered to him. “But, she’s wrong. You’re both wrong. I think she needs you, like I do. There’s something special.”

“There is?” He tried not to sound dubious of this far-fetched-seeming assertion of hers. He wanted to believe her, and there was something incredibly persuasive about the way Stephanie was sitting on his lap and pressing up against him. Damn. No, focus, Brian.

“She hid it from you this morning, Brian,” Stephanie breathed, “With the way she did her hair. Ever since she kissed you last night, she has this little streak of color—just like I did.”

“Wait—what?”

Sarah Killarney:

I’m interested in buying. Meet me in that room I brought you to earlier.

That’s a surprise. Kelly arched an eyebrow at the message that had appeared on her phone. How long has it been since she logged into her old personal account? Didn’t know she even still had it.

Supposedly, her sister Sarah was now making a living doing the cosplay thing professionally. She made ad revenue from her videos, there were fans who bought her prints, she styled and sold wigs, auctioned off old costumes, and generally fleeced those fellow anime nerds of hers in any way she was able. She should have some money for the gothic lolita outfit, and was honestly the only other person Kelly knew who would’ve ever had an interest in the thing.

Yeah, it’d be cool to sell the thing for Brian… but isn’t that doing a lot for him? Wouldn’t I normally just, you know— take it? Mixed feelings played tug of war throughout Kelly’s mind as she proceeded down the hallways to that panel room where she’d spoken to her sister. And, if Sarah’s only buying it because of me… well, I don’t need her handouts. I could just give her the damn thing as a going away forever present, can’t I?

A few last attendees were still leaving the cosmetics panel by the time Kelly arrived. A projector had been set up and a large white pull-down screen took up the wall behind the panel’s long table at the front—Kelly was honestly sorry she’d missed her sister’s panel. She’d have loved to sit through the thing, but things were tense between them, and Sarah would have absolutely refused to allow it anyways. Would’ve loved to chuckle out loud at all her stupid little makeup mistakes.

“Okay,” Sarah sighed, looking up with a tired expression as Kelly waltzed into the room. Her Asian friend Qin Wanwan, still dressed up in her tribal wolf-girl cosplay, was watching them with arms crossed and a flat expression. “First of all. Can you promise me—really promise me, that the outfit isn’t stolen?”

“Just modeling it for a friend,” Kelly rolled her eyes in exasperation, shaking her head. “Are you interested, or not?”

Sarah set her jaw and stared for a long moment, before finally grimacing and giving her a hesitant nod.

“I’ll buy it,” Sarah said through gritted teeth. “I can give you a thousand bucks. That’s all I can do, I literally won’t have money for food and stuff until the first of the month. I’m not borrowing money from my friends for this.”

“A thousand dollars,” Kelly repeated in a neutral tone. Inwardly, however, she was shocked. Isn’t that real close to how much it’s worth originally? Like, all pristine and mint condition or whatever? I expected half of that. Or less, honestly.

“That’s as much as I can spare, I’m really not kidding,” Sarah insisted.

“A thousand dollars… for the full Calamity Queen set, by Noblesse Oblique?” Kelly teased with a smile, slowly stalking forward.

“Well…” Sarah’s face fell, and quickly turned to send a pleading look towards her friend Qin. “How much do you think it’s really worth, then?

No way. She’d borrow money for this?

“Fine,” Kelly sighed, and she began to unbutton the top of her dress. “Since you’re my sister, I can sell it to you for an even thousand. Do you have the money?”

“Really?” Sarah’s face lit up, and both her and Qin Wanwan revealed excited grins. The tension in the room seemed to evaporate, and the girls rushed forward to help Kelly unlace the corset. “I have it in cash—just, you know. Lot of it’s in small bills, though, from my sales. Qin, can you get the door for us, please?”

“You got anything I can wear in the meantime?” Kelly asked.

“Um, yeah, actually,” Sarah seemed to have a sudden realization and gave Kelly a guilty look, pulling away. The sister stepped behind the panel room’s presentation table, hefted a bag up, and pulled out several garments. “I brought clothes to change into after the cosplay contest, just... promise you won’t get mad?”

“Why would I—hey, that’s my shirt!” Kelly snapped, already angrily struggling out of the corset still half-cinched about her waist. “When the fuck did you steal that? I pulled the fucking dryer out of place looking for it back before I left home.”

“I… was borrowing it,” Sarah said matter-of-factly. “Now, I’m giving it back. I have spare leggings, here. Floral print, or gray?”

“Gimme the gray,” Kelly growled, shucking the leather corset onto one of the room’s folding chairs in the nearby row. “I can’t believe you’d steal from me. You were supposed to be the little goodie-two-shoes. Didn’t Mom warn you not to wind up like me?”

“I was just borrowing it,” Sarah muttered in a low voice, looking away. “It’s my favorite top.”

“It’s my favorite top,” Kelly pointed out, stepping over to snatch the shirt off the table and hold it up. It was a slightly faded black band tee, with a boat neckline she remembered always sliding down one shoulder in a sexy way. The iconic band logo of the Rolling Phones was on the front; a bright red pair of plump lips, an extended tongue licking across a bright red telephone receiver. The shirt was split vertically up each of the sides, but it laced shut through a series of little metal grommets. Fuck. I really did miss this one.

“You two really are just like sisters,” Qin observed, picking up the discarded corset to admire.

“We’re nothing like sisters,” Sarah scowled.

“She’ll only ever be a second-hand imitation of the real thing,” Kelly laughed.

“Sarah, are you... going to be okay blowing all your money at once here like this?” Qin asked, stepping in to help lift the Calamity Queen dress up over Kelly’s head. “A thousand, that’s like… everything you’ve got.”

“It’ll... be fine,” Sarah said cautiously, taking the dress from them and carefully draping it over the table. “So long as I win one of the cash prizes in the cosplay contest, there’s nothing to worry about. Right?”

“But, what if you don’t?” Qin countered in a low voice, sending Sarah an uneasy glance. “You’ll be totally fucked, Sarah.”

“I will win,” Sarah gently smoothed out the folds of the gothic dress with her fingertips, admiring the exquisitely stitched lines. “I have Marcilla. The vampire princess gown I created isn’t any worse than this one right here. So, there’s nothing to worry about.”

“Where’s the cash?” Kelly asked bluntly, and she carelessly kicked the unfastened petticoat off her leg.

“Careful with that!” Sarah chided, doing a double-take at realizing her sister was now half-naked, baring her naked breasts in the large empty room. “Don’t you ever wear a fucking bra?”

“Do you have the cash, or not?” Kelly glared, standing impatiently in her stockings and bloomers.

“Yeah, yeah,” Sarah grumbled, crouching down behind the table to heft up her little strongbox, a portable steel case festooned with dozens of anime stickers. “Still have your shitty tattoo?”

“I don’t see how it’s any of your fuckin’ business,” Kelly growled, rolling her eyes. “What, did Mom ask you to play twenty questions with me?”

“No! I didn’t—she didn’t… I didn’t say anything,” Sarah answered, looking conflicted as she turned towards Kelly, a large wad of bills in her hand. “She doesn’t know you’re here. Wouldn’t even know where to begin on all that—if she knew you were here right now, I mean.”

Qin remained silent through another tense moment, looking from sister to sister as Kelly stared Sarah down.

“Okay. Cool,” Kelly finally said, holding out her hand. “Do I need to count that?”

“It’s all there,” Sarah hesitated. “There’s a lot of ones and fives, though. Do you… promise me you won’t use it to buy drugs, or anything fucking stupid like that? I’m so serious, I’m not giving this to you no matter what if you’re—”

“It’s not for me,” Kelly rolled her eyes. “It’s going to a friend.”

“Uh-huh,” Sarah said, unconvinced. Letting out a slow breath, she slapped the stack of bills into Kelly’s waiting palm. “So, this is goodbye, I guess?”

“Goodbye for good,” Kelly kept the money in one hand with her phone as she dropped her bloomers to the ground, then swiped the gray leggings off the table and started pulling them on. “Must be a big relief for you, huh?”

“I... guess,” Sarah said, looking like she was at a loss. “What are you gonna do?”

Kelly didn’t answer, making sure the gray leggings were snug and then shrugging on that familiar Rolling Phones shirt, pulling her long dark hair free of the neckline.

“Gimme a fuckin’ hug,” Kelly said, walking around the table. She enveloped her sister into a tight hold and held it for a long moment. “Mom was right about me—so, I don’t ever want you trying to find me, or looking me up or anything. Okay? Don’t be like me. But, you don’t have to take all of her bullshit all the time, either. I love you.”

“Love you too…” Sarah murmured, looking torn. “Kelly, if—”

“Bye, Sarah.”

Then, Sarah watched her sister walk away barefoot down the aisle of that deserted panel room and leave through the door without a single glance back. Sarah wanted to stop her, but conflicting emotions had her frozen in place. She wanted to say something, anything, but she didn’t have any words. She wanted to cry, too, but that wasn’t coming out either right now.

“You okay?” Qin asked, finally daring to breathe again.

“It’s her life,” Sarah said, a gloomy, distant look in her eyes. “I just wish… uh, well, can you grab an empty box for the dress from the vendors room for me? I need to... start my makeup for the contest.”

Stephanie Brandt:

Kelly? It’s Stephanie. Brian and I are going out to eat, at the pizza parlor just past where our hotel is. Would you be interested in joining us?

Kelly sighed as she stared at the text, unsure of whether or not to respond. She’d already accomplished what she set out to do at the convention, here—she’d said her goodbye to Sarah. That made it time to leave, time to move on. There’s no REAL reason for me to stick around AnimeCon anymore, is there?

Only, it hadn’t gone quite the way she wanted it to. It was abrupt, she felt unresolved about it, and she didn’t get to say much of what she’d meant to... but still she’d had to walk away. Because I can’t answer any of her questions without inviting an argument. And I don’t want our last memory together to be like that. I just wish that...

She slowly shook her head to herself. That other thirst she’d managed to stay a step ahead of this weekend was creeping back into the recesses of her mind. The need to drink, really drink, inebriate herself several distinct stages past shit-faced, because she was way too fucking sober right now. She glanced again at the money for Brian, this ridiculous wad of cash her sister had given her for the Calamity Queen set and almost laughed. She needed this money, so why did her mind persist in thinking of it as Brian’s?

Bail on the dweebs and go and get trashed—forget about all of this for a good long while? Or, go meet the dweebs one last time, and hope for some fucking amazing sex? Kelly weighed the folded bills in one hand against the message on her phone in the other. It was a tough call. Normally I’d go with my gut on this, but—

As if on cue, she heard her stomach growl and the persistent pang of hunger that had been growing over the past few hours demanded her immediate attention. Hmm. Guess it HAS been a while since that pancake platter this morning, Kelly sighed. Okay, gut instinct it is. Pizza and dweebs.