Not Scared Anymore

Chapter 20 - Kevin

At ten o'clock on Thursday morning, Kevin was crammed onto the subway beside someone wearing a large creeper costume made entirely of cardboard. The type of costume that was not designed for public transit. The train was delayed, and Kevin was grumpy.

He was supposed to meet the guys at 10:30am before the cosplay parade. At this rate, he wouldn't even make it in time to see the parade. Not that the parade was that important to him, but he was nervous about going to the convention. He knew thousands and thousands of people would be there, so odds were slim that he would run into Stephanie while wearing this costume. That didn't stop him from feeling self conscious.

The costume wasn't too crazy. He was wearing a white shirt under an open black vest, and had dark pants on and black boots. He regretted his new hairstyle for the first time, as his old style could have easily looked just like Han. The craziest part of his costume was the blaster holstered on his thigh. Nothing like the homemade cardboard creeper beside him.

The subway finally reached the convention centre, and Kevin moved with the crowd through the doors and up straight to the main concourse. Every year he was amazed at how many different people congregated in one spot and let themselves truly have fun in whatever cosplay they chose. He joined the admissions line and texted the rest of the guys to update their meet up. Missing the parade would give them a great chance to check out some new booths when everyone else was distracted.

*

It was almost 3:00 in the afternoon and the guys were taking a short reprieve before going to the Marvel panel. Kevin was sitting against a wall just off the main convention floor, reading the back jacket of his new book.

"Kevin?"

At his name he glanced up sharply and saw Stephanie walking towards him from a loading door. He scrambled to his feet and shoved the book back into its bag.

"Oh, uh, hey. I didn't think I'd see you here." He could feel the heat rising in his cheeks. She stopped three feet away from him.

"Well, you knew I was working here. I am the one who should really be surprised, since you never said you'd be here. How is everything going? Are you here with someone?"

He looked down at the floor, thinking how much he wished it could just swallow him up. "Yeah, with some of my buddies."

"Oh, that's fun." She looked him up and down, and Kevin felt like his ears were burning red. "Are you all dressed like members of the resistance, or just you?"

He glanced up quickly. "Just me. We've got some wizards, superheroes and a Doctor with us."

"Oh, I wish I could have seen you all together. You look great." He blushed again, but this time smiled. She beamed at him and pulled up the left sleeve of her shirt, exposing a collection of mini tattoos in a line from her elbow to wrist. They were symbols of most of the fandoms he loved, and a few he didn't recognize. His jaw dropped.

"Since I'm working, I have to dress business casual, but I had to participate in my own way. They're temporary, but should last a couple weeks. Can I get a picture with you?"

"Yeah of course!" Kevin sounded overly excited to his own ears, but he was pretty sure he had never seen anything more beautiful than the tattoos on her forearm, and he was overwhelmed. They smiled and took the selfie.

"Perfect." She saved the photo and smiled at Kevin. "Well, I need to get back to work. They said I'm not allowed to take pictures with everyone all day. Meet me at the Koffee Bean next door at 5. I'll be done by then."

"Okay." He watched her tug down her sleeve and walk back the way she came from. He was staring after her, wanting so badly to chase her down and kiss her, when she suddenly turned around and snapped a picture of him from afar, then waved before she walked through the opposite loading door. His phone buzzed in his pocket, and he realized that if he didn't go soon, he would be late to line up for the panel.

*

The panel ended at 4:30, and he felt like he missed the whole thing. He was there, he listened, but he was so distracted by thoughts of Stephanie. She seemed to genuinely like his cosplay. She even nerded out herself for the weekend. Sure, they weren't permanent tattoos, but the fact she did anything at all made him think they weren't so different after all. Kevin was so used to hiding his true interests from girls he liked, he wasn't sure how to proceed.

Stephanie was beautiful of course, but so tall. Growing up, echoes of girls' conversations saying said they would never date someone shorter than them trailed him everywhere he went. He'd waited for his growth spurt so they'd be interested in him, but it never came. Stephanie was tall and athletic, and apparently into more fandoms than just Spellmasters.

He wanted to bare his soul to her and let her know how much he loved Com-Expo, and tell her about his Guild, share his love of all things fandom with her; he thought she might actually understand, there were a lot of tattoos on her arm.

Then again, if history was any indication, she'd be so overwhelmed she'd lose any interest she could possibly have, and he'd be disappointed again. If he left right now, he could get to the café on time.

"Kev, you coming with?"

"Wh.... What?" he realized Joey had asked him a question.

"We were going to go get some 'za. Down on the pier. You in?"

"No, something's come up, I gotta get out of here."

They said their good byes and headed out to the street. From the sidewalk he looked towards the Koffee Bean for a minute, then turned and walked the opposite way.