• Convention Fling
    Part 1

    “Oh man, what a day. It was tiring but still pretty awesome.” Geoffrey smiled at me. God, I loved that smile of his. It was almost contagious.
    “Mhmm. My friends can be ridiculous sometimes... On second thought, they are always being ridiculous. I love ‘em regardless”, I said smiling brightly.

    …See? Told you it was contagious.

    I yawned, still smiling. Bad idea; it hurt a little bit doing that. Today was definitely exhausting but it was one of the best days I’ve had in a while. We were driving home from my school’s picnic day at Amusement Land [an amusement park about an hour away from where I live]. This day was meant to be sort of a “date” day between me and Geoffrey but my friends Kelsey and Lachelle showed up outta nowhere and stuck with us the whole afternoon. It was nice hanging around and going on rides with them [‘cause I never do anything outside of school with them] but I really wanted to be alone with Geoffrey. They didn’t get the hint but we all managed to have a good time together.

    It was around 11:30pm when Geoffrey’s car pulls up to the side of my house. I always dreaded the drive home when I was with him. I hated seeing our “cute-couple-date-type-things” end. Man, I can be such a girl ‘bout these types of things.

    Geoffrey turned the key in the ignition to “off”. He turned slightly to his right and looked at me. I turned slightly too, looked at him and cracked a smile. Damn those contagious smiles to hell and back! We leaned towards each other, slowly, and our lips met. My eyes closed on contact; I’m sure his did too. Funny thing is is this always happens whenever it’s almost time for me to go inside for the night. It never fails but you’re not gonna hear me complain about it. I love our goodbye/night kisses. They made me feel good (?) on the inside before actually going inside.
    After a few minutes of “going at it”, Geoffrey pulled away a little bit and rested his forehead on mine. For some reason I thought that was an adorable, loving-type gesture or something like that. I’m not entirely sure but it made me smile all the same. Goddammit, what didn’t he do that didn’t make me smile?

    He started speaking softly about today’s adventures and how he had good time, how we need to do this again, et cetera, et cetera. I zoned out a tad because he was rambling. Oops, didn’t mean to do that. He then decided this would be an opportune time to kiss me again and catch me off guard. I immediately snapped back into reality, just in time to hear those unforgettable words:
    “I love you.”

    …what did you say? I wanted to ask that so very badly; for I feared I was just hearing things [because I was beyond tired to comprehend anything at that moment]. No way. I most definitely was not hearing things; he actually said it. Hoooooly hell; no one’s said that to me before [that wasn’t in my family or was a close friend]. I didn’t know what to do with myself for a few seconds. My mouth hung open ever so slightly, my bottom lip quivered and I couldn’t speak. I panicked inside my mind, hoping he wasn’t thinking I didn’t hear him or something. Internally I sighed and I mustered all my strength [well what was remaining] to repeat those blessed words, just as soft as he.

    “I…I love you too.” He chuckled as he gently kissed me again and again and again.
    Am I…melting? God, it sure felt like it but I had a good feeling I wasn’t. On the other hand, the steamed up windows weren’t exactly telling me otherwise. I think this is my cue to go inside before things get way past PG13. We kissed one last time, followed by our usual complaints of not wanting to leave each other’s sides. This always left me feeling a little lonely and sad whenever we did this. As generic as this might sound, I never feel anything but the upmost happiness when we’re together. Alas, this was an inevitable event and I go inside a few minutes later. I unlock the front door and hurry silently up to my room. The clocks read midnight. It’s not that I have a curfew to follow but I like to be quiet when I come home. I don’t like waking up my mother and step-father. I flick on my side-table lamp and kick off my Chucks. I was passing my giant mirror on my dresser to set my shoes down when I caught a glimpse of my face: it was as red as a ripe tomato. I giggled as silently as I could.

    “Oh wow, I never expected that to happen in a million years. Heh I think I’m still in shock. Sigh, what a perfect ending to a pretty awesome day.”

    ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
    I must admit that that was one of the best days that summer.
    *needle on a record scratches*
    Oh wait a gosh darn minute. Huh. It has come to my attention that I am writing the events in this story a little out of order. I actually started somewhere in the middle of this whole mess of a lovey-dovey-love story. [Why a mess you may ask? Oho, you will find out a little later on.] I apologize for the inconvenience. Let me take youse back to the day when this all began…
    ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

    Thursday; it was the morning of my 17th birthday and I had the biggest smile on my face. I wasn’t happy just because it was my birthday and I was one step closer to graduating high school. Ooooh no. It was also the first day of Comiani Con! Comiani Con is a local anime and comic book convention that comes every spring. I look forward to this weekend more than the last days of school or even Christmas! Yes, you read that right. I have a lot of love for this convention. At school, I babble on and on to my non-anime about how awesome Comiani Con is and how much fun I’m gonna have. They smile and nod, pretending like they understand my excitement. They don’t. They never do. Oh well, I’m not gonna let that bother me today. I have some epic times awaiting me after school, so I go through the today like it’s a normal day but more uppity.

    The final bell rings and I sprint out of the band room. Dodging other classmates, misc. people and cars outside the school, I make it home in my usual 5 minute timeframe. My heart was pumping quicker than normal as I ran around my house trying to finish my chores before my ride shows up. I hear a car beep outside moments later.

    “Time check: 2:30. Pap’s right on time... ******** yeah!”

    I get in his car and we’re on our way. We have our usual small talk until he says to me “I’m gonna get you to that convention or whatever it is in 7 minutes”. Before I could say anything to his ridiculous statement, he put the pedal to the freaking metal. He swerved between cars, going well over the speed limit. I’m surprised he didn’t get pulled over but then again, cops are never around when s**t gets crazy.

    Lo and behold, he actually gets me to Comiani Con in exactly 7 minutes. I’m impressed, old man. I said my goodbyes to him, took a deep breath, exhaled slowly [I was trying to stop my heart from beating out of my chest from all of the impending excitement], left the car and entered my nerdy sanctuary.

    To get to registration table [to buy my ticket/badge in], I have to go up 2 giant sets escalators and walk down a huge hallway [looked like it was the size of two football field!]. Oh perfect, I‘m getting’ tired already.
    Well, I’m exaggerating about the hallway. It wasn’t THAT big because it was filled to almost capacity with my fellow brethren. Many were in colorful/elaborate homemade costumes [you could tell by the craftsmanship]; some were in just as awesome store bought costumes. The rest were in their normal street clothes, decked out in anime/video game paraphernalia [t-shirts, bags, hair clips/hats, plushies, etc]. I was one of those people today. It was only the first day of the Con; I had three more days to bust out my cosplay. Typically, day 1 is used as a “catch-up-with-friends-and-set-my-bearings” kinda day.

    I found the registration line and two words escaped my lips:
    “Hoooooooly hell.”

    The line looked like it stretched on for miles! Aw man! …I sighed and took my place in the seemingly never ending line amongst my fellow otaku. A few minutes passed; the line barely moved a few inches. Ugh, how annoying. I can become impatient quickly at these types of things, especially when I don’t come with a friend to help with my boredom/impatience. Stupid me didn’t offer anyone a ride to come with me. I start fiddling around with my phone [this is a habit of mine when I’m bored]. I hear a girl talking to some friends of hers behind me about my shirt. It was a list of bands and special guests that were gonna be at the con. [I was one of the very few who was able to buy this shirt earlier than other attendees. I have special ties like that.] The girl couldn’t pronounce one of the names of the guests. I chuckled to myself [I mean, who the hell else was I gonna laugh to? I came by myself, remember?]

    There were 3 guys standing in front of me. I guessed that 2 of them were friends and came to Comiani Con together because they kept talking about a bunch of random things only friends could possibly know. The one was like a giant [I guessed he was over 6ft] and the other was shorter than his friend [probably my height, which is about 5’5”]. From what I can tell by their conversations, they seemed like nice guys. The 3rd guy in front of me was just standing there with a bored expression on his face. I feel your pain buddy; I’m bored too. He was taller than me by a few inches and had long red hair coming out from under his fedora. It wasn’t uber dark red like some gingers but it was a nice light shade. He was wearing a tight black anime t-shirt [I couldn’t tell what it was at the time] that showed he was a pretty skinny dude and he was wearing Tripp shorts. *drool* A-ahem. Yeah, you can say he caught my interest. Somehow he got roped into the other guys’ conversation and I did too a few minutes later. Awesome. Antonio [the giant] and Jake [the shorter guy] told us they were from Chicago and traveled all this way just for this convention [we’re somewhere in Pennsylvania]. Wow. Talk about love and dedication for something. Unfortunately, I didn’t catch the name of the one I was interested in. Goddammit.

    We all talked and laughed all the while we were in line. Time passed rather quickly and, just like that, we were at the front of the line. Finally!! Ugh, I was gettin’ impatient even though I was talkin’ to 3 awesome dudes. We were all registered within minutes. Antonio and Jake said they had to leave us because another friend of theirs was running a panel and they were supposed to help. They said a quick goodbye, leaving me and the mysterious ginger by ourselves. I had no idea what to do; I was never in a situation like this before.

    As I put my badge lanyard around my neck, I started smiling and said to him “You know, I think we should keep hangin’ out. I liked talkin’ with youse.”
    He put his lanyard through one of his belt loops and smiled too. “Haha, yeah we should.”

    YAY, HE AGREED is what I thought at that moment. There was some time before opening ceremonies, so the nameless ginger and I walked around the spacious convention center [we were basically scoping it out]. It was just as I remembered: numerous cosplayers and otaku running around having a good time, the video game rooms blasting music, laughter erupting from certain panel rooms and flashes from a plethora of cameras going off [including mine]. I felt at peace and I loved every minute of it. As an added bonus, I was walking around with a badass dude. That also helped [in some strange way, I must admit]. A little while later, it was time for opening ceremonies to start. Basically, the head of Comiani Con and a few staff members introduced some of the guests, cracked a few jokes and wished all of us a safe and enjoyable time. I’ve never been on time to Comiani Con, so this was my first time going to opening ceremonies. It was pretty cool all in all. When it ended my new ginger friend and I continued our walk around the Con, talking about random things. I’ve come to realize we had a lot in common [it was almost creepy]. We were walking near the front of the Con [where the registration tables were] when I saw a few friends from school. I mumbled something like “Oh s**t! Those are my friends!” to the ginger kid and ran at full speed towards them. I wasn’t too worried about him at that moment. Kinda confused, he followed me at a slower pace. I hugged all 5 of them at once and started spouting off Con advice at them. It was all their first time at Comiani Con and they needed a little bit of help. The ginger was “bringin’ it up the rear” and appeared next to me shortly after. All 5 of them looked at me, then over at him and then back at me. They seemed very curious about him.

    “Oh! Kandi, Chuck, Mareesa, Jimmy, and Lisa this is … uh…” They looked at me funny.
    Oh no! I totally forgot I didn’t know his name!! Slightly panicking and embarrassed, I crouched down a tad and grabbed his attendee badge. I had a feeling that looked pretty awkward from their angles, but eh I didn’t care.

    “Ah. Everyone, this is my new friend Geoffrey”, I said with a slight laugh. They all said their mixed hellos and goodbyes before leaving us. They had a limited time there because they came by bus and the next one was soon-ish. Geoffrey and I saw them off before returning to our convention-y things [random walking and talking]. I apologized for not remembering his name. I used the “I have a bad memory” excuse I always use in these situations.

    He smiled and replied,”It’s ok. I’m like that too.” Yet another thing we have in common. This was getting weirder and weirder by the minute but I brushed it off for the time being. I was having way too much fun to be worrying about something stupid like that.

    A few hours of walking and discussing anime, games and music had passed by quickly; it was around 10 o’clock. My phone buzzed in my pocket…a text message from my mum?
    “Hey Hun, I’m almost there. Usual pick up spot?”
    “Uh, yeah. That’s good.”

    “Ah, goddammit.” I groaned.
    “What’s the matter?” Geoffrey inquired.
    “Siiiiigh. That was my mum. She’s on her way here to pick me up…”
    “Ooh.”
    “I really wish I didn’t have school tomorrow. That way I could stay later than this. It’s way too early to be going home.”
    “Yeah… all the best stuff happens later in the night.”
    I laughed. “I bet. Well I need to get goin’. Maybe we can hang out some more tomorrow?”
    “I’d like that”, he grinned. I started fumbling around with my phone again. It gave me an idea of sorts.
    “Weeeell, I’m gonna need your number. You know, so I can find you tomorrow when I get here.”
    We both chuckled and I got my wish. It only took the whole afternoon to get an opportunity as perfect as this but regardless, I still got it! I said my goodbyes to Geoffrey and walked away. I turned around and waved at him when I was a little further down the hallway we were in. He waved back. I turned back around and smiled another giant smile.

    A few minutes later, I’m outside and my mum pulls up. Not even two seconds later, she bombards me with questions. I don’t mind but jeez; gimme a second to get situated.

    “It was AMAZING. Sigh, I had a ton of fun and I made a new friend too”. There goes my smile again.
    “Aha, that’s my girl! What’s his name?”
    “Geoffrey and oh mum, it’s not like that.” She was so weird sometimes but I guess it makes since that I’m her daughter and I get my weirdness from her. I can’t blame her though; I have a lot of friends but it’s not often that I make new ones, especially guys. I’m not surprised she guessed it was a guy. Regardless of that strange moment, I still had a blasty blast and I couldn’t wait for more fun times that were bound to happen tomorrow!!
    ~~~~~~~