Page 64 of Cosplay & Consequences

“Sorry. My humor gets inappropriate when I’m tense.”

“It’s okay. I’d probably laugh if it wasn’t Faye,” I replied.

“This is what kids do at her age,” Jess said, trying to calm me down. “I’m sure you and Paige did the same thing.”

“We did,” I said, tightly.

“See? And you guys came out all right.”

“Except when Paige went out one night and found out she was pregnant a few weeks later,” I deadpanned.

Jess let out a hiss of embarrassment. “Yeah, I’m not helping, am I?”

I let out a long breath and rolled my shoulders, trying to release some of the tension. “You are helping. More than you know. If this was any other kid, I’d be cracking jokes with you right now.”

“She’s going to be all right,” she assured me. “The people she is hanging with are fairly nerdy. Not the hard partying type.”

From the corner of her eye, I saw her bite her lip. She was holding something back. “You’re telling me that just to make me feel better, aren’t you?”

She grimaced, feeling caught. “Whatever is going to keep your head from popping off your shoulders right now, I’m saying it.”

I groaned. “What kind of party did she go to?”

Jess’s lips formed a tight line. Something in my gut twisted. I knew I didn’t want to know the answer.

“Jess?”

She winced. “The Devil’s Disco.”

I blinked in confusion. “Devil’s Disco?”

Jess sighed. “It’s from that show on Primary. Where the devil left hell, became a police consultant and fights crime. Basically, uh, he indulges himself every chance he can. The Devil’s Disco is modeled after the club on the show and it is... um. Very adult.”

I sat in silence letting that information stew in my stomach.

Jess glanced at me. “That didn’t help, did it?”

“Could we drive faster, please?” I requested, with as much politeness as I could muster.

She punched the accelerator with her foot, pushing us past the speed limit. For whatever reason, it eased the tension in me, and I could almost start to breathe again.

The Primary party was in full swing. The line was out the door, and bouncers were dressed as demons guarding the entrance. Jess dropped me off and went to find parking. I checked the line for Faye. It was not as easy as I hoped it would be. Everyone was in cosplay and I was out of my element. I looked like some thirty-one-year-old creep in a grease-stained T-shirt, with mussed-up hair. Everyone there probably thought I was losing my mind. At the front of the line, the two large men in demon costumes, whose biceps were bigger than my head, stared me down.

“So. I know this sounds crazy, but my niece is inside there, and I need to bring her home,” I pleaded. “Have you seen her? She’s just short of five feet with dyed black hair and red highlights.”

They said nothing. The only response was a slow narrowing of eyes, scowls gradually taking shape.

I smiled weakly at them. “I don’t suppose you know who I am?”

I hated doing that. I’ve always hated doing that. I cringed as I said the words aloud.

They gave each other a sidelong glance before resuming their death stares at me. “We know who you are,” the one on the right growled. “You’re the one who didn’t read the books.”

At that moment, I wished they had punched me in the face instead of saying that.

“It’s okay, Jeremy! He’s with me.”

The stone-faced men broke out into smiles.