Loveless (Osemanverse #10)(85)

‘It’s so pathetic the way he feels like he needs to bring up asexuality literally every time he does one of these,’ Lloyd was saying. ‘Next thing you know, we’ll be getting any old cis-hets joining who think they’re mildly oppressed.’

The way he said it sent a shot of cold hatred into the pit of my stomach.

But I was feeling brave, I guess.

As I walked past, I let my now half-full cup of wine gracefully tip in my hand and over the back of Lloyd’s neck.

‘WH-what the FUCK!?’

By the time he’d swung himself round to see who had just poured wine over him, I was already halfway to the door with a massive smile on my face.





Sunil Jha

JASON IS IN.

Georgia Warr

SERIOUSLY

Sunil Jha

YEP. He agreed to come along as a personal favour to me.

But he said he’s still not sure about rejoining

Georgia Warr

okay

so

i have an idea about how to win him back

‘No,’ said Rooney, once I explained my idea to her. She was on her bed. I was watering Roderick, who was not half as voluminous as he once had been due to the dead bits I’d chopped, but wasn’t quite dead, as I’d previously thought.

‘It’ll work.’

‘It’s stupid.’

‘It’s not. He has a good sense of humour.’

Rooney was sprawled in her going-out clothes eating breadsticks straight from the packet, something that had recently become her pre-night-out routine.

‘The Shakespeare Soc is finished,’ she said, and I knew she believed it. She wouldn’t be going out all the time if she hadn’t given up on it completely.

‘Just trust me. I can win him back.’

Rooney gave me a long look. She crunched a breadstick loudly.

‘OK,’ she said. ‘But I get to be Daphne.’

I skipped my lectures the next day to go on a costume hunt. It took most of the morning and a solid chunk of the afternoon. Durham had one costume shop down a tiny alleyway, and they didn’t have exactly what I was looking for, so I ended up trawling the clothes and charity shops for whatever I could find to create makeshift costumes. Rooney even joined me after lunch, sunglasses on to hide the bags under her eyes. She’d been sleeping in till midday most days lately.

I sacrificed a lot of my allowance for this month to get everything, meaning I’d have to live off cafeteria food for the next couple of weeks, but it was a worthy sacrifice, because once Rooney and I arrived early at our rehearsal room and changed into our costumes, I knew that this was the best idea I had ever had in my life.

‘Oh, this is the cosplay of my dreams,’ said Sunil as I handed him a bright orange jumper, a red skirt and some orange socks.

We finished changing, and then we waited.

And I started to think this may have been a terrible idea.

Maybe he wouldn’t find it funny. Maybe he’d take one look at me and then leave.

There was only one way to find out.

‘What is going on?’ Jason asked, stepping into the room and frowning at our odd get-ups. I’d missed him. God, I’d missed him and his fluffy jacket and soft smile. ‘Why are you – what are you do –’

His eyes widened suddenly. He clocked Sunil’s skirt. My oversized green T-shirt and brown trousers. Rooney’s little green scarf and purple tights.

‘Oh my God,’ he said.

He dropped his bag on the floor.

‘Oh. My. God,’ he said.

‘Surprise!’ I cried, holding out my hands and the dog plushie I’d found at one of the high street charity shops. Rooney flipped her hair back and posed as Daphne, while Sunil shouted ‘JINKIES!’ and pushed up his Velma glasses.

Jason put his hand on his heart. For a second, I was terrified that he was annoyed or upset. But then he smiled. A big, toothy smile. ‘Why the actual HELL – literally what the FUCK. WHY THE FUCK ARE YOU DRESSED AS THE SCOOBY GANG?’

‘There’s a fancy-dress club night tonight,’ I said, grinning. ‘I … I thought this would be fun.’

Jason approached us. And then he just started laughing. Slowly, at first, but then louder. He took the dog plushie from my hand and looked at it, and then it was almost hysterics.

‘Scooby’s –’ he gasped through his laughs – ‘Scooby’s supposed – to be – a Great Dane – and this – is a pug!’

I started laughing with him. ‘It was the best I could do! Don’t laugh!’

‘You’ve cast Scooby –’ he literally started wheezing – ‘you’ve cast Scooby as a pug – what is this – absolute defamation?’

He doubled over, and then we were just cry-laughing while he was holding the tiny pug plushie.

It took a few minutes for us to calm down, Jason wiping the tears from his face. In that time, Rooney had taken the final items of clothing we’d bought today out of the carrier bag and held them up to Jason – a white jumper, orange scarf and blonde wig.

He looked at them.

‘My time,’ he said, ‘has come.’

‘So you really like Scooby-Doo?’ Sunil asked Jason later that night, once we’d made it to the club. It was packed full of students dressed as everything from superheroes to giant whisks.