“Which one shall it be?” Naomi said. She tossed a yellow sparkly leotard on the bed next to two other costumes. One was a blue and pink color cheerleader outfit. And the other black fox onesie. “I’m thinking of the foxy. What are you thinking?” My mind was stuck on examining her half-naked muscular body. I pointed to the fox outfit since it’s close and it’s what she wants. “Awesome. You know what would be perfect alongside this?”

“What?” I said.

“You with me in one of these.”

I told her no while trying my best not to smile. The idea sounded ridiculous. I couldn’t picture myself in a costume surrounded by people at a convention about things I do not particularly care about.

“You can go by yourself,” I said.

“Joshua,” she said multiple times as she slowly walked closer to me from the foot of the bed. She sat on my right thigh and leaned into me with all of her weight. I held her from behind with my arms around her soft stomach. “Don’t make me beg,” she playfully pouted. “Pretty please would you come with me?” She tried to tickle my cheek with her nose. My lips accidentally touch hers when I try to avoid her nose. “No, you didn’t,” she gasped then giggled with her hand over her mouth. “Did you...”

“It was an accident.”

“Was it? Your lips made some solid contact,” she said, biting the corner of her lip. “You got some soft lips,” she whispered inches from my face. “Why haven’t I kissed you sooner?”

“I don’t know,” I mumbled.

“Come here.” She brought my face to her lips for a single yet tender kiss. “I’ll make a bargain with you. If you come, I’ll make it worth it.” I squinted my eyes and puckered my lips to show her I was almost interested. She frowned but couldn’t keep her smile from breaking it. “Come on,” she chuckled for a moment before taking in a lot of air through her nose. “I don’t wanna go alone,” she begged gently. “Joshua... this is once every year.” I gave in to her wish like someone getting baited for a charity event. How could I say no to a beautiful girl? Plus, I was never the one who went out to places willingly.

“Where do I buy that outfit?” I said.

Naomi handled buying my suit. The convention she took us to was the same building I drove to last year when I picked up Yosefin from that creepy guy. It was filled with colorful people. I had no idea what the hell most of these people were. Most of the women that were walking around were wearing anime costumes. Their hair was colorful, spikey, and mostly fake.

“God, what am I doing here?” I said. A man walked a foot in front of me nearly stepping on my shoes. He wore a full set of combat gear with an assault rifle prop slung behind his back. I recognized his outfit from a game I played almost every day when I was not bored out of my mind.

“Recognize that, hmm?” Noami said. “It’s not just all one thing here. You’ll find your niche.”

“I doubt it,” I said as I looked in every direction. There was nothing that drew me in.

“Were you this uninterested with Yosefin?” I almost took offense to the question. I became more open to new things because Yosefin took me out of my comfort zone.

“I’m more open-minded because of her.”

“All right then. Let’s find what piques your interest.” She walked me over to a stand where her favorite anime character had their little booth. Her name was Erika. She was a swordswoman with magical powers in a medieval fantasy period. There was a life-size cut out of her. She was an inch away from being six feet tall.

“Wow. We’re nearly eye level,” I said as I stared into Erika’s green eyes.

“Let’s look around some more.”

We wandered about different areas in the building. There were more things that I didn’t care about that made Naomi spin for joy. I began to think my time was wasted until I saw a booth about a game coming out next year. There was a big crowd watching early gameplay footage of the demo. It was a role-playing game Yosefin mentioned she liked to play with me. I didn’t care for it until she said she would buy it for me.

Naomi stayed with me while I watched the game in its entirety. The visuals were stunning. The gameplay looked fun to play. I wouldn’t mind playing it with Yosefin if only we weren’t on not speaking terms.

“Wow! This looks cool!” Naomi said.

“Yeah,” I said under my breath. “It does look cool.”

“You don’t sound too happy about it.” I let Naomi know that Yosefin was the one who wanted to play the game with me. “Maybe she still does.”

Her optimism felt reassuring but it wasn’t enough for me to want to check if Yosefin still cared for it. I told her that we hadn’t spoken in weeks. Our friendship felt dead. We acted like strangers to each other.

“No,” I said after thinking long and hard if Naomi’s statement was true. “I think that spark is gone.”

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“Well. I could reignite that flame,” Namoi said. “When does this game come out?” We waited for the demo to finish so we could see its release date. “Thanksgiving,” she said after pointing at the date on the screen with both of her fingers. “That’s a few weeks from now!” Close yet far. All I saw were more days of silence between Yosefin and me.

“Wonderful,” I said with zero percent joy.

“Let’s look at something else.”

Naomi tried her best to keep my mind occupied, but it was hard not to think about Yosefin. She stayed on my mind when I headed back to Naomi’s place.

“Should I go see her?” I said. I laid on Naomi’s bed still wearing the animal outfit while Naomi stripped out of hers. “See if she’s doing okay.”

“Didn’t you say the last time you went to see if she was okay, you guys made out?” Naomi said nearly laughing. I scoffed yet ended up laughing. “Yeah. Just call or text her.”

“Why? I think I should do it in person.”

“Honey,” she said, rolling her eyes and shaking her head slowly.

“What?”

“I know her type,” she said, pointing her finger at me. She lay beside me with her head propped up on top of her fist. “She’s going to make you feel like shit and you’ll cave into her advances.” I laughed at the idea of succumbing to stupid tactics.

“I won’t cave in.”

Two hours later, I caved. I asked Yosefin to come over to my house to figure out if we could squabble the tension between us. It took some tears, whimpers, and reminiscing of our cherishable moments before we started dating for me to feel shitty. Then she blamed all the problems we were dealing with. I tried to keep things cordial. One thing led to another. I cracked and gave in to all of her intimate advances. I wanted to punch myself in the gut for letting her manipulate me into doing what she wanted. She snuggled halfway on my body and took a nap for thirty minutes. I lay motionless, occasionally gripping and rubbing her ass while I tried figuring out what I should say to get her out of my head.

“We got to stop doing this,” I said. Yosefin didn’t say a word. All she did was readjust her face to be a bit more closer to my chest. “We’re cheating on our dates at this point.”

“First of all,” she said, hoving over me. “She’s not your girlfriend. Second, I’m not dating James.”

“What?”

“Don’t act surprised. You knew I didn’t care for him.”

“What?” I said but louder.

“God,” she said and rolled off me with her back facing my way. “You’re stupid. Did you really think I would accept him?”

“Yes!”

I was in such shock that I couldn’t figure out what else to say. My plan was in shambles. If James couldn’t get her to like him, then I knew no one would.

“What am I going to do with you?” I said, thinking out loud. She snickered before turning it into soft laughter. “Yosefin, this isn’t funny. I can’t keep doing this with you.”

“Sure you can.”

“No! You’re never going to get over me if you are not dating other guys!”

“Oh well.” For the second time, I was speechless. “Why so silent?” She said, softly laughing out her nose.

“You have some serious issues!” She rolled over on her side and got inches from my face. She didn’t have the slightest smile or frown. Her eyelids hung low above her eyes due to her head being down and her eyes gazing up. “Don’t give me that look.” She continued holding the expression without needing to blink.

“If I was more of a complete wreck,” she said and smiled. “That would have made me cry.”

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to say it like that.” I tried to downplay what I said by rewording it to something more meaningful.

“Dude, shut up,” she said after gently headbutting my stomach. I shut my mouth and pressed my lips in. When she saw what I did, she rolled her eyes and then randomly kissed me on my forehead.

“Please, stop kissing me.”

“I can’t,” she said and kissed me once on the lip. “I can’t help myself,” she said softly.

“Yes you can,” I said, matching her voice. “We’re friends. Whatever this is, it needs to stop.”

I tried to make myself hate feeling her soft lips. I kept my lips soft, but it was hard to fake not liking it. She took me along for another ride. We went as far as taking our shirts off. She clawed and touched my chest like she was trying to get a feel for something. Her soft warm hands tickled when they rubbed over my nipples. It was also somewhat arousing.

“We need to stop this,” I said, lying through my teeth.

“That smile tells me another thing.” She stopped touching me to reach behind her back to unlatch her bra. I finally snapped out and told her to stop. “Huh? You don’t want to see them?”

“Can we not do this?” I said almost laughing.

“How about you touch them?”

“Yosefin!”

“Hmm?”

“Can you please, get off me? I don’t want to do this anymore.” It took her a second to do what I asked. “I think it’s time for you to leave. This was a terrible mistake.”

“I don’t think it was.”

“Of course, you don’t,” I said in a low-volume shout. “I never should have done this the first time we did it.”

“Do you really mean that?”

“Yes!” She asked me again but held my hand from the top. I said the same thing without her holding it. “You’re ruining my chances with Naomi.”

“Do you honestly think she’s better than me?” That question left me stumped. The clear answer was obvious yet impossible to say out loud. The only sounds that came out of me were grunts and stutters. “Okay,” she said twice only using her mouth. She tried her best to smile. Her lips fidgeted then she suddenly grabbed her shoes and walked out in a hurry. I thought about going after her. I stopped at my door when I decided against it.

“Let her go, Joshua,” I said in my head. “She’s got to realize one way or another.”

The next day after school, Yosefin came to class with a new look. She dyed her hair back to its original black color. All of her earrings were out, she wasn’t wearing makeup, she didn’t have her nose ring in, and she wore a plain shirt and basketball shorts. I was disturbed to see her that way. She looked like a typical average-looking guy. Naomi took notice and asked what the hell went down for Yosefin to make a dramatic change after we saw her storm out of the class the second class ended.

“Nothing,” I said before Naomi gave me the judgmental gaze. “We did it again. You were right about her.”

“Goddamnit Joshua!” She whispered. “Who are you trying to date?”

“Uh,” I said for three seconds.

“It’s not a hard question.” She left the room before I could tell her she was the one I wanted to be with.

“Namoi wait!” I thought she left me. When I turned the corner, she stood outside the door with her arms crossed with her back to me. “It’s you,” I said twice. “I want to be with you.”

“Do you? Because I feel like I’m getting shaged around by your so-called friend.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Listen,” she said, softening her voice. Her hands cupped my cheeks. Some of the callus below her fingers rubbed against my skin. Her eyes darted between focusing on my eyes. “I think it’s best if you stay away from her. She’s manipulating you into doing what she wants and she’s winning.”

“What can I do to get away from her?”

“It’s obvious,” she said, letting go of my face. “You gotta take the lead and prove yourself that you truly want me.”