Imperfectpictures

5/23/2019

Episode Nineteen: The Con

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Chapter Nineteen: The Con

Trigger warning for mentions of sexual assault.

The following day Edward was scheduled to be a surprise guest at a panel at a local video game convention. He, Tyler, and Seth were all going to dress normally and wear these hideous ultra-realistic big headed masks. I refused one. They could be idiots all on their own.

Besides, no one would know me to spoil the surprise anyway.

I wore a vintage Star Wars A New Hope poster tee shirt, blue jean skirt, knee socks, and my cute starry converse. I braided my hair into two long fishtails. I had fun with my makeup, wearing a teal green lipstick and neon pink eyeshadow and gold eyeliner. I also wore enough pale purple highlighter on my cheekbones to be a disco ball. The silver hoops in my ears finished my outfit, the biggest nearly touching my shoulder. I looked like a better endowed sixteen-year-old version of me.

The place was massive and filled with vendors. We arrived three hours early just so Edward could walk around beforehand in disguise.

He and I walked hand in hand while Seth and Tyler filmed the convention floor for the channel content. A few people stopped Eddie to take a picture with him because of his cool mask. He was more than happy to pose. He was also more than happy to shop like a madman. I felt bad for the poor security guards following him around during. They seemed nice enough. They worked for his management company and worked with loads of different celebrities. It wasn't the first time they helped carry the bags, sadly. They stayed fairly far back so as not to draw attention to us.

He bought a couple of dozen mystery grab bags from various tables in a variety of sizes. Those were to be opened for videos. Though, I think he just liked them. He bought shirts, underwear, toys, mugs, comic books, books, art, and games. Edward was obviously enjoying himself.

I browsed through a table of steampunk jewelry and clothes while he continued to browse a table of cool backpacks beside me. He was looking for a messenger bag for himself.

"Hey! I know you!" The woman behind the table said to me. She was a petite, young, pretty Latina girl who was covered in tattoos and piercings. She wore a cute steampunk dress and a tight corset, shoving her chest up high. I was guessing she was maybe Edward's age. She was actually very attractive. "You're a friend of Eddie's! You were on a video today."

Edward's head spun comically fast towards me, making the mask continue to spin almost backward. I burst into laughter, covering the mask's eyes so they couldn't look at me.

“I am,” I admitted, still giggling. He fixed his mask, me still far too amused.

She was so excited. “I really liked the one from today! I watched it at breakfast.”

I hadn't even opened my laptop that day. "Oh, which one? I've not seen yet. We filmed a bunch, actually."

“The one at the tattoo shop!” She was quick to reply.

“Oh! Yeah, that was so much fun.” I smiled, touching the spot where my tattoo was irritating me sub-consciously just because she mentioned it.

“I loved your tattoo! It's making me think about my next ink.” She showed me her tattoo-covered arms, rubbing a hand over them lovingly. They were almost full.

“Wow! Thank you! Yours are great, too! I really love my new one so much. It's a little itchy right now because it's real scabby though,” I confessed. “So, I did okay? He said I did well, but I think he was just trying to be nice to me.”

She was more than happy to give me her opinion. “Girl, I loved it. I'm glad you made a bunch with him. He needs to get some more women and especially people who aren’t so... white. He's gotten Seth and you this year but most of his friends are white as fuck. He used to at least have girls in them, but it's been a while. Everyone seems so nice, but it would be nice to see a little diversity."

I glanced over at him, but she didn't notice. "I think that would be a great idea. He always likes filming with new people. It's something we've actually somewhat talked about. He moved this year so that probably has something to do with it. He's still trying to find people here. He's shyer than you'd expect."

Edward was standing right beside me as I held this conversation with this woman who clearly didn't not, somehow, figure out who Eddie was and that he was right before her. I have no idea how.

“I actually ordered one of your pictures. From your website. It's a poster of like some green abstract looking piping.” I was actually taken aback. I had never met someone in the wild who bought something I made. Besides Edward.

“With the subway sign beside it? I know which one you're talking about. With the weird pipes and the mosaic old wall. That's awesome! It's one of my favorite. That green so good in that picture. That one and this fallout sign are my favorites,” I overshared, practically gushing with pride.

“Oh, my god! The one that is at night with the sign above the open door with the yellow light? That one is next when I get paid again! I'm getting them framed, too. My roommate loves them as much as I do,” she was just as happy to gush with me. “They are so awesome!”

"Aw! You're going to make me cry! Thank you so much!" I laughed a little self, consciously, "I see that sign almost every day. That's actually the back way into my apartment."

“So, is Eddie like he is in the videos?” She asked in a sort of whisper. “I mean, he seems really nice.”

I smiled to myself. “He's lovely. Always fun to be around. Very kind and always a gentleman.”

“So, are you done taking pictures of him? On his Twitter, he talked about you coming over to take pictures last week.”

She knew more than I did. I didn't realize he even had a twitter.

“Yeah, I'm done taking them for the magazine. I'm here on vacation now with my boyfriend,” I pointed to the big head.

“Hi,” the girl smiled brightly to Edward and waved. “A con is such a great thing to do on a vacation. Will you be working with Eddie again to make more videos?”

“Yup, I think so. He offered me a job taking pictures for him, actually. It's pretty good pay. Great benefits. I'm considering taking it.” Edward squeezed my hand beside me. I smiled a little to myself as we spoke about him like he wasn't there again. I was having way too much fun with him being silent.

She clapped her hands together. “Oh, yes! Please do it! Don't you live in New York, though?”

“Yeah, but I don't mind flying back and forth for a while,” I explained. “Flights out of New York are always cheap.”

“Right. Same with L.A. By the way, I love your makeup so much. Do you do tutorials?” She asked. She was giving me such an ego boost. “Like on YouTube? Do you have your own channel?”

“Um, no, I don’t. I've not watched a bunch of tutorials either, to be honest,” I told her truthfully. “Only a few in passing.”

"Then, how did you learn to do it so well?"

"Oh…. One of my best friend's is a makeup artist," I explained. "He worked on Broadway for ages, and now he's running his own little theater. He used to practice on me and my two other best friends. He'd give a Ted talk during makeup practice about makeup before Ted talks were Ted talks if you know what I mean?” I over-explained my life, happy and talking too much to the lovely girl in the booth. “He should do tutorials. He taught me everything.”

I bought a couple of pieces of jewelry and a dress because I felt guilty for talking to her for so long. I couldn't not buy anything, especially since she had purchased stuff from me. Artists needed to support artists, I explained to Edward as we made our way to the backstage of the panel.

The crowd cheered wildly when Eddie came on stage. There were a literal thousand people in the cramped, sweaty room. It was interesting to see him like that in front of people. He was a good performer. He owned the place easily, controlling the mood and flow. It was like he switched on like a light.

I watched as he spoke and interacted with his fans for an hour, patiently answering questions. After that, he had to sit for an hour and sign autographs. I sat behind him at the booth, listening to him chat pleasantly with everyone as they came by. I took pictures with my extremely long range lens from my seat, having a blast taking photos of all the costumes and people while no one noticed or cared about me.

It was nearly seven when we finally got out of the convention. The boys decided they wanted to have Zankou's chicken for dinner back at Edward's house. They ordered two whole chickens, a ton of pita bread, and one of every side they had, and a large extra helping of the garlic sauce they were most known for locally.

I helped set the food up around the table while Edward got everyone a beer.

“You know, it's taking everything I have not to tell you about the Zankou's chicken murders,” I joked a little too honestly to the boys as I took my seat.

“Isn't that such an interesting story!” Seth said excitedly. “Everything about it is so wild. Cancer. The bad sons. The white suit.”

“This is why you're single,” Tyler said sarcastically to Seth. “No one knows what you’re saying.”

“Hey! No! I do! And, true crime has been a thing for centuries,” I defended him. “It's usually just that women are more into it. But, I think it’s cool that he likes it.”

“I wonder why it’s more of a lady’s hobby,” Edward mused as he made his plate.

He didn’t realize his mistake in giving me such an opening. My mouth started running right away.

“That's easy. Women are more likely to suffer a violent attack in their lifetime. One in two women is sexually assaulted. One in four will be abused by their partner. The number one cause of death for a pregnant woman is homicide, usually by the baby's father. And nine out of ten murders are committed by someone the victim knows. A spouse, a parent, a family member usually. Women start dealing with violence at a very young age. You have to learn about it, just to protect yourself if anything else. Then it just becomes a morbid hobby after a while.”

Edward was thoughtful and a little concerned. “Do you really think one in two women is sexually assaulted? I think I can say with a fair amount of certainty no man at this table has ever done that. It just seems so high.”

Alice and I had discussed this topic on many occasions. It was something I could have ranted about for hours. "Not only do I think that number is low, but I would also say the number is closer to seventy percent. Probably higher, honestly. Sexual assault is such a broad term, and every woman has been groped and has not reported it to anyone. But we've been taught that we've done everything wrong. My skirt is too short, my shirt too tight, I had a drink. I walked alone. You can't rape your wife. Every woman might not have been raped, but every woman has been forced into a corner, groped, or had gross threatening things said or done to them. They have been made embarrassed or catcalled for simply being a woman, at the very least. I mean... I was dragged behind a dumpster when I was like seventeen and was assaulted. He didn't rape me, but he was planning to. He was on probation for raping two young girls about six years before. He had been out for three months. Can you imagine? It's people like him who probably raped dozens, if not hundreds, of women before they get caught that make the world unsafe for women."

Sometimes my baggage just came rolling out without my permission, popping open for everyone to see. I wanted to crawl in a hole and hide. I poked at my chicken with my fork sharply. It was one of those things I tried really hard not to think about, but sometimes it was just there. Bloody and terrible. I felt my cheeks heat.

“I'm so sorry,” Edward rubbed my back softly. “I'm sorry you went through that.”

“It's alright. It was worse for him,” I told him quietly as I remembered it. It was just another thing in a long list of stuff I went to therapy for in the past.

"How is that even possible?" Tyler asked, concern ringing in his voice. I had Tyler and Seth's full attention as well, I realized.

“Uh,” I chewed on the edge of my thumb for a second. “Well... I used to carry around my granddaddy's knife, on my belt, you know. From a really young age, too. Because, of course, Texas. Pretty little thing with mother of pearl in the handle. Maybe three inches long. It was handy for opening things and such. Anyway... He, the guy, um... lost an eye and a testicle. I scarred his face up pretty good, too, though I don't remember too much of what exactly happened. I slashed a lot, I guess? I kind of blacked out. I tend to do that if I get too stressed out. It’s a problem.”

"Holy fuck!" Seth gasped. Tyler's face drained of color, and his eyes grew wide. "You don't remember what happened at all?"

"I know the basics of what happened," I explained to them quickly. "Obviously. He pinned me to the wall with my arms behind my back, and he tried to pull up my skirt." I looked down at the blue jean skirt I was wearing. I could feel panic tickling at the back of my throat, but I swallowed it back. "The knife practically fell into my hands. I do remember that. How it felt slippery and sharp. I cut my palm. I have a little scar. He had exposed himself, and I frantically swiped low to get that away from me. He kind of lunged for me and I must have panicked because I stabbed him in the eye or face. My flight or fight instinct is heavily weighted towards fight. Anyway, he ran one way, and I went the other. I was covered in so much of his blood." I could practically still see it as it dried brown under my nails. "And my own. He went to the hospital, unsurprisingly, and they arrested him in the emergency room not long after," I explained some more as I had told the story a dozen times before. I wasn't ashamed to share it, it was just dark. "Luckily there wasn't a trial or anything I had to suffer through. They just revoked his probation and tacked on another twenty years with no possibility of early release this time."

“Crispy Christ on a fucking cracker, Bella! Fight or flight? How about shank a bitch?” Seth said loudly, making me laugh. It gave me instant relief. I was so grateful. He smiled at me. “Don't piss you off, huh?”

“I may be short, but you know who else was short? Bruce Lee. I'll fuck someone up. I'm scrappy,” I said very sarcastically. “I don't carry that knife around anymore though. Now I have a leatherman tool, like a Swiss army knife. It was Aiden's. It has a couple of knives in it, but that's more for handy reasons. New Yorkers frown upon open weapon carrying. In Texas, it's fashionable.”

Both Tyler and Edward were very quiet while Seth and I chatted. “Sorry, I didn't mean to make dinner conversation dark,” I apologized to Edward while I rubbed his thigh under the table. “Well, this dark.”

“It's alright,” he murmured, a bit salty. “I just kind of want to kill that pile of shit that hurt you and other poor women.”

"Oh, no. Don't do that," I told him very seriously. "He's got another twenty years probably in prison and killing him would bring him respite from the hellscape that is the U.S. prison system. In Texas no less. I want him to be in perfect health so he can sit alone every night in a cell with no air conditioning with his one eye and his one ball and remember that he is sitting there because of a tiny little girl who wasn't scared of him and his sad excuse of a micropenis."

Tyler laughed a little uncomfortably, “now that's nightmare fuel. A one-eyed, one testiculed, pedophile sitting in the dark, in prison, thinking about the one that got away.”

“I'm sure that's a horror movie already. Like every sequel,” I said to him before shrugging, “Not the ball part. That’s all me.”

“Can you imagine a knife being out while your pants are even down? Let alone anywhere close to it?” Seth said in a pained face. “Couldn't happen to a nicer guy. Fucker deserved a Bobbit,” he muttered.

“Do you like horror movies?” Tyler asked a bit loudly, changing the subject for everyone's sake. “You enjoy true crime. Seems in the same genre.”

“They're fine, I guess. It depends on the movie. I've only really watched a handful in the past few years. I'm not a big movie person in general,” I explained.

“Yet, you're dating an actor,” Seth sassed.

"I just don't enjoy the movie-going experience. I'd rather watch at home and Blockbuster is gone, so I miss a lot of stuff. My roommate has all the streaming services, so I catch more now than I did. But, I'm super behind pop culture, sadly."

“What don't you like about it?” Edward asked. “Going to the movies?”

"It's expensive. They're dirty. You can't talk during them, or knit, or play on your phone. Or pet your cat. Out of every ten films made one is good, two are decent. And the rest are boring at best and hot offensive garbage at worse. I can't pause to pee. You can't drink cheap wine straight out of the bottle," I said sarcastically. "I think I could go on, but you get the point."

“Fair enough,” Tyler smiled. “I'm with you. I'd rather watch at home, too. Miss Blockbuster so much.”

“I've only been to the movies once since I've moved,” Edward admitted. “I don't want to go alone.”

“When we went to see Infinity War,” Seth said thoughtfully.

"Stupid movie," Edward mumbled under the breath. Seth opened his mouth to begin to argue, but he put his hand up. "No, we're not arguing about this again. You won't change my mind. Terrible, long, boring, and stupid. A waste of great characters. I could have written a better script in my sleep. Don't at me with your shit.”

“And, too much CGI,” I agreed with him. “I saw it at a volunteering event. Black Panther was pretty good, though. I just want a movie with the sister and general though and their pet rhino. Sciencing shit up.”

“I'd watch the fuck outta that,” he said as he finished his beer. I could tell he was a little warm from it, making his cheeks a soft pink.

“They'll have to figure out that black people AND women love good strong female characters, no matter the color, as long as she is well developed and well written. Both groups are so starved for entertainment they'd go see it no matter what. Same with Asian and gay audiences,” I sighed, “but that won't happen anytime soon. Because fuck us, I guess. Why would we want an interesting movie? Good luck if you’re a gay mixed raced kid. No representation for you.”

“It's a shame,” Seth agreed. “Maybe one day.”

“You'd get along really well with my girlfriend,” Tyler said pleasantly. “I think you have some things in common. You'd agree with her on a lot of things, especially in the entertainment industry. Are you going to be in town on Halloween?” He asked.

“I fly out on the Friday after.”

“You and Eddie should come over to my place for Halloween. We're going to grill out and watch movies, drink, pass out candy. Karaoke. Seth is coming. Some more of my friends and my girlfriend's friends, too. If you don't have any plans?” Tyler asked me.

I looked over at Edward. “We haven't talked about Halloween yet. You wanted to go out.”

"I hadn't thought about it yet," he admitted. "I'm always down for eating, but it's up to you, love."

“I meant to invite you sooner,” Tyler said to Edward, “But, I figured you probably had better plans. Some swanky ass Hollywood party.”

"Ah, no, mate. I'm barely leaving the house these days," he replied.

I smiled, and Edward grinned in return. I looked back to Tyler. "It sounds good to me. Is it like a costume thing?"

“It's not required but encouraged. My girlfriend is dressing up. So am I.”

“I am, too,” Seth chimed in. “It’s a surprise. It’s going to be awesome.”

I nodded. “Should we bring something? Food or whatever?”

“You could bring like a side and a dessert. Or, a bunch of beer. I mean, it's up to you,” he explained. “Anything would be great.”

“I can make something really good.” I smiled brightly at him.

“What should I bring?” Seth asked, suddenly a little panicked. “I didn't realize I needed to bring shit.”

Tyler pursed his lips out as he thought about it. “Grab like a couple of bags of chips or cookies. Or, beer. You know, the staples. We're making hamburgers, hot dogs, sausage, and chicken. A bunch of veggies. Salad. Baked potatoes. Rice. My girl's a vegan for health reason,” he explained to me. “She's got a very sensitive tummy. So, we'll have a big spread for everyone.”

“You could get her some Oreos, then. They're vegan,” I mused.

“Are there any Oreo murders?” Edward asked a bit sarcastically.

“No, I don't think so. But, I'm still dying to tell you about the Zankou's one,” I laughed awkwardly.

Back: Episode 18

Next: Episode 20