Ship It(32)

When I look triumphantly up at Rico to tell him that wasn’t so bad, his eyes are locked somewhere over my shoulder.

“What is it?” I say.

Rico murmurs, “We’ve been spotted. Two girls, two booths down.”

“What? Already? I just tweeted, like… fifteen seconds ago.” I don’t dare look around lest I accidentally make eye contact.

“They must have been nearby. Never underestimate fans,” Rico says. “Looks like they’re too scared to come over.”

“Can we get away, do you think?”

Gina hands us our posters as Rico gives me a funny look. “Why would we want to do that?” He smiles, kisses Gina on the cheek, and takes off toward the girls.

“Wait, Rico, jeez.” I basically have no choice but to scurry after him. Rico walks right up to the two fans, who at this point are kind of hyperventilating.

“Hi, I’m Rico.” He sticks his hand straight out. They gape for half a second before quickly shaking it one by one, a little too enthusiastically.

“Betty,” says one.

“Riley,” says the other.

“Forest,” I say.

Riley blushes. “We know.”

I’m not sure what to say next. What do I possibly have in common with these girls? And that’s when I notice. “Oh my god, are you me?” Riley is wearing Smokey’s trademark leather jacket, holding a replica battle-ax, her hair pulled back in a bun.

“Yes!” She strikes a pose. “I love you! I mean, I love Smokey. I don’t know you.” In that outfit, in that stance, she almost looks like me. I’m weirdly impressed.

“I love you, too,” I find myself saying, because I’m that overwhelmed, and she looks like she’s just about to faint.

Betty is dressed like Rico’s character from Star Command, and she and Rico are taking a selfie next to us.

I turn back to Riley. “Wow, you even have the broken strap.” I reach out and touch the shoulder strap of Riley’s leather jacket that’s busted in just the same way as my real costume is. The attention to detail is incredible. I notice her tense under my touch, and I pull my hand back. “Sorry.”

“No, it’s fine,” she says, and laughs breathily, but she’s wound tight like a coil. It’s weird to interact with someone who has so many feelings about me. She knows me, but I don’t know her at all. What does she expect from me?

“That strap”—I indicate her jacket—“I actually broke it myself my first day on set by accident. I was afraid I’d get in trouble, but it turned out they liked it so much they did it to all the jackets.” I realize she might not know how the costume department works. “They have a lot of jackets that are all the same, just in case we need backups.” I rub my hand around the back of my neck. “Anyway, I didn’t think anyone watching would notice.”

She smiles at me. She noticed. Then she looks down at my chest, like she can’t make eye contact for too long.

“Forest, I want to tell you that Demon Heart is…” She fiddles with the bracelets around her wrist as she searches for the words. I give her a second to find what she wants to say. “It’s important to me.”

I think of Demon Heart as some little Monday-night show on a minor network that no one really watches. Obviously I try to do my best at work, but I never thought what we were doing was a big deal or anything.

I didn’t think it was important to anyone.

“This last year,” she continues, “I was in AP classes? And Advanced Calc. And my best friend went to Switzerland to study abroad…” She glances over her shoulder at Betty, who is chatting excitedly to Rico. “It was a hard year.”

“I’m sorry to hear that,” I say.

“No, you don’t get it.” She looks at me very seriously, gripping the battle-ax in front of her with white knuckles. “I didn’t think I was gonna make it through. Like I was really close to just…” She shakes her head and looks away, biting down on her lip. “But then I found Demon Heart.”

She starts to well up, and I have no idea what to do.

“Demon Heart…” she says, wiping tears off her cheek with her sleeve, “it saved my life.”

“I’m…” I say, unsure how to respond to that. I don’t know how that could possibly be true, but she’s looking at me so genuinely that I know it is. “I’m glad we could help you.”

She nods, trying to keep the tears back.

“Do you… uh… want a hug?” She nods, her lip quivering. I step forward and wrap my arms around her. She tucks her head into my sweatshirt, and I can feel the tears spilling out of her.

“Thank you,” she murmurs into my chest.

I look up and Rico is smiling at me. Betty covers her mouth with her hands, and has this expression on her face like I’ve just given a home to a shelter dog. I have no idea what’s happening.

“Can we get a picture with all four of us?” Betty asks.

“Of course,” I say. Riley pulls away from me and swipes at her eyes and tries to look like she hasn’t just been sobbing into my hoodie. We all get together, and Rico takes the photo because he has the longest arms.

After, Riley asks me, “So, um, where’s heart-of-lightness?”