On the other side of the screen, Leece gasps.
“Take that back, you whore!”
Chandra cackles. Megan belatedly covers the toddler’s ears, but the toddler isn’t paying attention anyway. Wallace shakes his head and smiles.
CHAPTER 14
Cole marches back, chest puffed out in pride, with three cups of punch for him, me, and Wallace. Megan has a no-spill water bottle that the toddler knocks over every ten seconds. I nurse the punch close against my chest and hunker down in my seat while the five of them talk. I am better this way, unseen and unheard, hidden in Wallace’s bulky shadow. Some of the otherMonstrous Seafans have migrated away from our table, so I turn my face to the empty space beside me whenever I need to breathe.
I learned years ago that it’s okay to do this. To seek out small spaces for myself, to stop and imagine myself alone. People are too much sometimes. Friends, acquaintances, enemies, strangers. It doesn’t matter; they all crowd. Even if they’re all the way acrossthe room, they crowd. I take a moment of silence and think:
I am here. I am okay.
Then I let myself listen in on the conversation again, and slowly slip back into it.
It is amazing how much you can learn when you keep your mouth shut. In half an hour, I know that Cole is a high-school sophomore, a rising baseball star who keeps his love ofMonstrous Seaa secret to ward off any unwanted questions about his potency on the diamond; Leece is the biggest collector ofMonstrous Seamerchandise probably anywhere, and is a world-class gymnast living in Colorado who uses the comic as her go-to relaxation therapy; Chandra’s across the Atlantic, in India, and though her parents don’t entirely approve of the subject matter of her drawings—most of which involve differentMonstrous Seacharacters embracing in one fashion or another—she sees it as a way of life; and Megan lives a few towns away and is a single mother to the toddler, Hazel, and she works one job as an office assistant during the day and the graveyard shift at the Blue Lane Bowling Alley at night.
Megan was intoMonstrous Seafirst, Wallace tells me,and she got Cole into it, and that was how he and I met. Then we found Leece and Chandra and took our Angel personas, and the rest is history.
Every once in a while they ask something about me. Friendly questions. How old am I? How did I meet Wallace? What do I do for fun besides readMonstrous Sea? I do my best to answer them, not just for Wallace’s sake, but a little bit for my own too.
These are not enemies. They’re not going to make fun of me for what I like or how I spend my time. They may not be my friends, but they are my people, and just because they’re not behind a screen doesn’t mean they’re not worth talking to.
Still. I miss my quiet bedroom and Davy and my computer. What’s going on withDog Daysright now? Are people missing LadyConstellation in the chat?
When sushi-suit girl calls up entrants to show off their costumes, Cole manages to pull Wallace out of his seat to stand awkwardly out there, but I refuse when my name is called.
“It’s just for a second,” Cole says, motioning me out with his hands. “Come on. Just a second.”
“I don’t ... I don’t really want to.”
Wallace gently pushes Cole out of the way so he can get back to his seat and grab his phone.
If she doesn’t want to, don’t make her do it.
Cole sighs so overdramatically he must be joking, then turns to tell sushi girl I won’t be participating after all. A few more people from other groups around the room go up. There’s a panel of teenaged judges stationed behind one short bookcase like it’s a desk, and at the very end they get together to deliberate before they announce one of the Hogwarts students as the winner.
“Oh, come on!” Cole cries. “The Harry Potter people always win! They’ve had like twelve years to put their costumes together!”
“I’ve done my waiting,” Megan says to Hazel, pulling up thelittle girl’s arms. “Twelve years of it! In Azkaban!”
Cole and Wallace tear through most of the food on the table, which I guess means we’re not going to get sushi after all. By nine thirty, Leece and Chandra have both signed off and Cole has packed up his computer, and Hazel is fast asleep against Megan’s shoulder.
“Time for us to go, I think,” Megan says. “It was nice seeing all of you again. We’ll have to get together soon. We could plan aMonstrous Seameet-up.”
Wallace gives Megan an awkward side-armed hug good-bye. When she pushes her way through the bookshop doors, she lets in a blast of chilly October air.
“I should probably go too,” Cole says, scrubbing at his hair and disheveling it even more.
I thought your curfew was eleven?Wallace texts.
“Nah, Mom moved it back to ten when I broke it two weeks ago. What’s that look for? I just forgot how late I was out! You know how it is when you’re at a girl’s house!”
Wallace rolls his eyes.
“Look,” Cole says, leaning on the edge of the table so he can stare Wallace in the eye. “That new school has got to be better than the old one. Ithasto be. Right? Things have died down, but you’re better off there.”
Wallace shrugs. Cole claps him on the shoulder. Then it’s me and Wallace in a rapidly emptying bookstore. Why would Westcliffbe better than his last school? I don’t dare ask, at least not right now. All I want right now is to get out of here.
