Page 102 of My Cosplay Escape
Adam stares at me. I wish he’d laugh. “I don’t want to be a cliché, but she has the wryest sense of humor. She’s confident. Clever. Sexy as hell.”
I clench my fists. “Are you twelve-years-old?”
“Probably. I get excited when I’m standing next to her. Why wouldn’t I want to be with her in real life?” He looks at me cautiously, and it’s like he can read my thoughts. “What’s up?”
“Ask her to homecoming,” I say.
“What?”
“A swoony dress. No girl can resist the chance to wear a swoony dress.”
“I can’t ask her to homecoming.”
“Why not?”
“I’m working that night. Which reminds me, I have to tell my cast. We got booked by the school.”
“What?”
“For homecoming. We’re setting up the escape room in the student center. They gave us twice the space, so I’ll be able to run two escape rooms at once. Well, with modifications.” Adam checks his phone before returning it to his pocket. “You know what? I will ask. She won’t be able to say no. She’ll be there working. Thanks, Hoodie.” He tugs on the strings of my sweatshirt. “Hey, are you coming to homecoming?”
“I… Yeah. Absolutely. Wouldn’t miss it,” I say.
Adam brushes a hand through his hair. “Lucky guy. I’ll see you there.”
Later, when I’m home after my shift at the gym and reading my econ chapters while my mom is catching up on her BBC before dinner, my phone pings.
“I think I should get a cat,” my mom says.
I swipe through an email from Adam detailing the homecoming schedule for the escape room. “For reals?”
Mom takes a sip of her beet juice. “Want to come with me to the shelter on Saturday and pick one out?”
“My Saturday is really busy. The escape room is working homecoming.” My phone pings again with a text.
Adam: Come with me to the dance Saturday?
Sabine Kennedy: I’m working.
Mom looks crestfallen. “Maybe it was a bad idea anyway.”
“I don’t think so. What if we went now? Grabbed fish tacos on the way home?”
Mom brightens, looking simultaneously scandalized and delighted. “I’ll get my keys.”
Another text buzzes on my phone.
Adam: So you can’t say no. Meet you there?
“Ready?” Mom asks.
I tap out a text and press send before tossing my phone down and following Mom out the door.
Sabine Kennedy: I’ll be waiting.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
“Let me get this straight,” Gwen says. We’re in the gym on an unusually quiet Saturday afternoon. “You’re going to homecoming as yourself, as Catstrike, and as Adam’s real-life Sabine Kennedy?”
