Down, Then Up: A Novella by Labonte Beth

Author:Labonte, Beth [Labonte, Beth]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
Publisher: UNKNOWN
Published: 2016-11-06T04:00:00+00:00

Eleven Years Earlier

“I can’t believe you actually dressed up,” said Jamie, taking a step back to get a better look at me. “I mean, I’m still getting over the fact that you agreed to come here at all. But I never thought you’d put on a costume.”

I spun around in front of the mirror. I was wearing a floor length, white, wispy dress complete with prosthetic elf ears and hair extensions. Jamie was wearing the male version of an elf costume, complete with long, blonde wig, and a bow and arrow set—a total bitch to get on the airplane, by the way. I don’t know what he was so surprised about. Lauren Oswald didn’t half-ass anything and he knew it. If I was going to fly all the way to California to attend Comic Con, I was going to do it right. Besides, I needed to be in disguise in case I ended up in any photographs.

It was the summer after sophomore year, and Jamie and I were home on break. Comic Con was a mere four days out of my summer, so there was no reason my other friends would ever find out about it. That pretty much summed up my relationship with Jamie over the past two years. Everyone knew that we were friends, but they didn’t know the extent of it. Most of them thought he was tutoring me in physics. I was still too embarrassed to admit, publicly, that my idea of a good time—not a drink-until-you-puke kind of a good time, but a legit good time—was sitting in Jamie’s room, learning to play Magic the Gathering. I was a geek at heart, but I wasn’t ready to fully commit.

“Would you have still worn that—” I gestured toward his getup, “if I hadn’t?”

“Of course,” said Jamie. “I’m at Comic Con, what else was I going to wear? Khakis?”

I smiled. “At least you look good in tights.”

“I’m not sure if that’s a compliment.”

“It was.”

Jamie raised his eyebrows. “In that case, I didn’t know you’d been looking at my tights region.”

I shrugged and turned back to adjusting my costume in the mirror. I hadn’t seen Jamie in over a month when we met at the airport to fly out to San Diego. I wasn’t expecting to be hit with the emotions that I felt when I saw him waiting there for me, all crinkly-eyed, at the gate. But there they were—the butterflies and the sweaty palms, and the fear that I sounded like a complete idiot every time I opened my mouth. Every clichéd crush symptom trampled me in a riotous, pitchfork-wielding mob, leaving me dumbstruck on the ground. Absence had made the heart grow fonder.

Sitting in close proximity on the airplane only made things worse. As did the fact that we were going to be alone at a hotel for four whole days—the thought of which put my flip-flopping stomach into overdrive. Especially with all the turbulence. Every time we bumped elbows I felt like pulling down the oxygen mask and inhaling deeply.

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