Page 28 of Foes & Cons
“Hey,” I respond and gesture at the costume, “are you sure you don’t want some water?”
His snout bounces up and down, so I turn and catch Roxy’s eye, mouthing for her to get him a water. She nods, and I turn back. He’s watching the band, nodding his head to the music.
“They’re good right?” I say.
He looks down at me. I wish he’d take that mask off.The glassy eyes remind me of taxidermy. Not that I’ve been around much taxidermy, but I listened to a podcast once.
“Sorry?” he says, leaning closer and putting his hand up to his ear. His wolf ear.
“The band,” I say, louder this time. “Aren’t they great?”
“So good,” he says, nodding. “I actually saw them last year but didn’t know who they were. Just thought they were a cool band.”
“Where?” I ask.
“In LA.”
“LA?” I repeat.
“Sorry?”
“You’ve been to LA?” I shout over the music.
He looks at me through those marble-like eyes, but someone shoves past and I fall into his wolf chest.
“You OK?” he says, putting his hands out to steady me.
“Yeah, I’m OK,” I reply, checking I haven’t had a wardrobe malfunction.
“Everyone looks amazing,” he says, his snout followingsomeone dressed as a masquerade-ball version of Juliana as they walk past us. “You all really go for the costume stuff, right?”
“You tell me, McKinley,” I say, pointing at his suit.
“McKinley?” he says, looking down, then nodding. “Oh, right. McKinley, yeah. I actually . . .”
He carries on talking but I can barely hear him over the music and through his mask. I step closer and cock my head, trying to follow what he’s saying.
“Sorry?” I say.
“I said, I’m sort of new to watching the show so don’t know all the characters properly yet . . .”
“Oh, right.”
“Yeah, and I wanted to go for something easy, so it was either this werewolf costume or the guy in the robe thing . . . what’s his name . . .”
Unsurprisingly, robe thingsmake quite a few appearances inVampire Fallsso I’m not sure who he’s talking about.
“I can’t hear you,” I say, shaking my head as he goes on.
“I said, it was either this guy or that other dude, Cox the Observer.”
“Who?” I say, turning my ear to him.
“Cox the Observer,” he repeats, louder.
“Oh,” I shout, realising he’s talking about one of my favourite characters,“I love Cox!”
Yeah. Yeah, I shouted that just as the song finished and there was a couple of seconds of silence, but long enough to shout that out nice and clear. Everyone in the vicinity is staring, including Fake McKinley.
