Comic-con Gone Wrong
Summary: Alex goes to comic-con with his girlfriend and meets a cute girl dressed up as link. Or so he thinks.
Warnings: misgendering, very very slight abuse mentions if you read into it
“Alex, come on! We’re going to be late if you don’t pick up the pace,” My girlfriend, Andrea, urged me as she pulled my arm. She was trying to get me into the comic-con faster, but I was distracted by all of the people in costumes - I think Andrea called it cosplay - and all of the crowds of people. I had never been to any sort of con even though Andrea adores them and goes constantly. I’ve been dating her for years, but I didn’t even know that she liked these things until about a year, but now I see why. There is so much and all of the colors just catch your attention, plus the people seem very friendly.
“I’m coming, sweetheart, don’t worry so much,” I said, but she just shot me a dirty look and continued to try to drag me into the building where the con was taking place.
Once we got in the building, I was immediately hit with a wave of stimulus. People were talking all around me, the lights were bright overhead, I could smell multiple different food vendors cooking various different kinds of food, and people shoved at me in an attempt to get by me.
“What do you want to do first?” Andrea asked, pulling me back to the current moment.
“I would really love something to eat.” She giggled a little then shook her head, her long red hair hitting bouncing around. She had dressed up as Poison Ivy and tried to convince me to dress up with her, but I had too much work and it was too short notice for us to be able to pull anything together.
“You can do that, but I’m not really hungry yet. I think I’ll go and look at that DC merch booth, okay? Just meet me there when you’re done.” I flashed her a smile which made her giggle again before she turned and skipped over to the booth.
I got into line at a booth that served various deserts shortly after. The girl in front of me was wearing a Link cosplay and looked up when she noticed me get in line. She had a nose ring and an eyebrow ring, but they, oddly enough, worked really well with the cosplay. Her fake elf ears poked out from her shoulder-length blonde hair and her eyeliner was sharp enough to cut.
“Hey, is this your first con?” Her voice was sweet and slightly deeper, but still beautiful.
“How did you know?” Her intuition freaked me out a bit, but she flashed me a toothy grin and offered me a hand. I took and she returned with a firm handshake that felt like we were sealing a business deal.
“You have that look about you. Everyone does at first. I’m Max by the way.” She flashed that toothy grin once again and moved forward as the line shortened. “Did you come with anyone or have you always been into comics and such?”
“My girlfriend made me come along, but it’s not like I mind. I usually go to superhero movies with her, so it’s not like I’m completely in the dark about this stuff.” Max kept comfortable eye contact this whole conversation up until I said the word ‘girlfriend’ when she looked away and rubbed the back of her neck.
“That’s cool. I always wanted my boyfriend to go to this stuff with me, but he never wanted to. He didn’t like me going by myself either though, so I often didn’t even get to go.”
“I’m guessing you’re not with him anymore since you’re here.”
Another toothy grin. She really was cute when she smiled. “You would guess right. My friend made me dump him a little while ago. She’s actually here today, but I don’t know where she went.” Max got up on her toes and looked around for her friend, but eventually settled down and shrugged. “She likes to go off on her own, but she’s my Zelda, so our cosplays are incomplete without each other.”
“I was going to cosplay with my girlfriend, but my work schedule got in the way, so I didn’t end up with a finished cosplay before the con. Maybe next time.” Max’s eyes, once again, darted away when I mentioned Andrea, but she recovered quickly when I talked about cosplay.
“I can only hope that I find a boyfriend as cool as you. Maybe my expectations are too high.”
“I don't think expectations can be too high. You have self respect and I respect that. I’m sure you’ll find a guy that will appreciate a girl as lovely as you.” Max gave me a funny look and laughed when I finished my little speech and I could feel my ego deflate slightly. She recovered quickly though and noticed that she hurt my feelings a little.
“It’s not that I don’t believe you, it just feels so impossible.” Max was, finally, next in line and she ordered something that looked like something that Andrea would never eat and instead she’d just complain about the carbs in it and throw it away if I bought it for her. However, Max seemed comfortable in herself and comfortable with the extra calories in what she’s eating.
When I got up to the booth I ordered the same thing as Max and stepped out of the walkway with her in order to talk a little more.
“You should follow me on Instagram,” she said as she pulled her phone out of her pocket. “I do cosplays more often than just at cons, so you could see some of that on there.”
I pulled my phone out as well and handed it to her, so she could follow herself on my Instagram. She handed it back to me with a big smile when she was finished and pulled out her own phone to follow me. It was then that I saw Andrea coming over and I waved her over to Max and I.
“Alex,” she said, looking at Max, “did you make a new friend? Introduce me.”
“Andrea, this is Max.” Max held out her hand and Andrea shook it while regarding her. She must’ve passed whatever test Andrea had for her because Andrea turned to me and smiled.
“I should probably go find my friend, she just texted me asking where I am,” Max held up her phone almost as if she was showing proof that she wasn’t lying. “It was nice to meet you though, I hope you message me on Instagram sometime.” I waved and she disappeared into the crowd, looking down at her phone as she walked.
“I think you should message Max sometime, it’d be nice for you to have more friends who aren’t overgrown frat boys.”
“You’re ok with me talking to a single girl that I just met? Is this the Andrea that I know?” I pressed a hand to her forehead, but she just pushed my hand away and gave me an odd look.
“What do you mean? Max was obviously a guy. Even with makeup he couldn’t completely hide his jawline. Plus most girls love showing off their boobs in link cosplay and he was flat chested. And I’m not that controlling, I just didn’t like Adeline because she was constantly flirting with you.” Andrea crossed her arms and stuck out her bottom lip like a little kid, but I was still stuck on the fact that the girl that I was just talking to wasn't actually a girl at all.
“But she said that she had a boyfriend.”
“Gay people exist, Alex.” Andrea’s tone of voice was one that you may use on a child, not on your boyfriend and that’s how I knew that she thought I was an idiot. Maybe I was an idiot, but I was not ready to let this go.
“I called her a girl and she didn’t correct me, she just giggled.”
“I’m sure he felt awkward about you calling him a girl and didn’t want to embarrass you or himself, so he just stayed quiet about it. I know I’d stay quiet if someone called me a guy.”
“You wouldn’t do that, you’re just trying to prove your point. You’re too proud to let someone call you a guy.”
“I cosplayed as Marshalee last summer and posted pictures on my Instagram and a few people thought I was a boy, but I decided that it was too much trouble to correct them, so I just let it go. A lot of cosplayers do that, especially if you’re cosplaying as the opposite gender.”
“It still makes no sense that she wouldn’t correct me.”
“You got her Insta, right?” I nodded and Andrea took my phone from me. “Let’s check his bio. I know his type and they usually put their pronouns in their bio.” She swiped at my phone for a few unbearable moments before showing me my phone.
He/him/his
The words were at the end of his bio and they were the words that I least wanted to see at that moment. I didn’t want Andrea to be right, and I didn’t want to be dumb, but she was right and I was dumb to assume.
