Chapter 31: Into the Fire

Chapter 31: Into the Fire

"You want me to what?!"

Neil pointed to the costumes, gave me a deadpan look, started again as if I hadn't heard him the first time. "I want you to wear that, Leighton. I want to see you wearing only that."

That was a very twisted Titanic. I almost barfed. We were inside the costume shop now after having to fight our way through the crowd. Neil was leading the melee, as usual. And after choosing among the racks among racks of clothes, the sale after sale items that everyone seemed to grab, we ventured upon the darkest, tiniest corner, in the shop. And after a thorough search on both of our parts, he decided that— yes, this was the perfect costume for me.

I didn't even want to mention what that thing looked like.

Neil took it from the rack, held it next to me. "See?" he said. "It perfectly fits you. Well, maybe not on some places, but we can definitely remedy that."

"Stop staring at my boobs!" I said.

"Chill. I don't want what you offer."

Still, I quickly draped my arms over my chest, but Neil didn't look interested. In fact, he had already moved on to the next costume, which was perfectly in sync with mine. What a horrible, horrible idea.

"I won't wear that." I refused.

"Not even to get my respect?"

Was he kidding me?

"I might get your respect for this," I said, "But I'll lose everyone else's."

"How about if I tell you that Audra likes this short of shit?" he said.

I gaped at him. I mean, I really, really gaped at him.

Knowing that he had grabbed my attention, Neil took the other costume from the rack as well. "So it's decided then," he said. "You're wearing that. And I'm wearing this. I told you, Pax. I get whatever I want."

Outside the store, I still couldn't believe how he conned me into buying this, much less even think about performing that "thing" on the stage. I would have never have imagined myself wearing such clothing. But even while on the counter earlier handing over the money that Hanz provided, Neil kept on mentioning Audra and how she would be impressed if I managed to pull this off. For once, I wanted to surprise her.

Amaze her. Even at the cost of my own dignity. All, according to Neil, for the sake of fun.

Neil wasted no time by dragging me back to the deck. "We barely have time to do everything," he said. "Let's go."

Another thing I never thought I would do in my life was spend more time with Neil than necessary. But he didn't tell me to get lost or anything. He even steered me towards the makeup store. That one was starting to pool with people too. Particularly those who were interested with joining the contest. A costume was never complete without cosmetics.

Neil avoided the sale's person by going to the sale rack. "What do you know about makeup?" he asked me.

"None."

He clucked his tongue, shuffled through the selection. There were a couple of make-ups sets that he was browsing through with interest.

Afterwards he said, "It's important to make yourself presentable at all times, especially when you have someone in your life."

"You mean, Audra?"

"Duh." Neil finally made a choice. Taking one makeup set from the selection, he opened it up, sniffed it like a foodie, snapped it close, beckoned to me. "I'll teach you everything, Leighton. Hold on to your panties."

This was weird, I thought, as we exited from the store again. No, more than weird. It was normal.

Us, just shopping cosmetics. Us, buying costumes; even if that costume was the most despicable thing I had ever laid eyes on. Us, pretending we were friends.

Could this even had happened if we were still in school? Could we somehow have a shot at friendship; all of us?

I shook my head. No. If we were in school, I would still be my scared old self. I still wouldn't even glance at Audra.

But now as I stared at Neil who was walking in front of me, pushing his way through the crowd, I could feel what I hoped to be friendship brewing. We might not be quite there yet. But I had a feeling we would. And this adventure, no matter how bad it was, somehow did that. There were positives in everything. A silver lining even in the dirtiest of acts.

We ended up back in the boy's room, where Hanz was acceptably missing. He was probably with Audra, preparing.

Neil, unloading everything we'd bought, jumped onto the sofa, called onto me. "Come here, Leighton. Make-up time."

Hesitantly, I followed him there. Glanced awkwardly at him before settling on the couch.

"So are you still a virgin?" he asked.

"W-what?"

He smirked. "Don't panic. I'm just making sure. But this would be a hard one, especially for tonight's performance."

I wanted to crawl under the ground while he continued. "Anyway. . . What base had you been with my best friend?"

"I don't really think that's any of your business, Neil."

"Fair enough." He turned to our paper bag, particularly the package where the makeup was in, and tore it apart. "Audra had been through a lot," he said. "You know that right?"

"Yes." But what was he getting at?

"Right now she's the only one I have."

I nodded. "I understand that," I said. "But if you think I'm coming between you and her, I swear that's not true—"

"Yeah? Well I hope you understand as well that if you break her heart, I will skin you. No questions asked."

I stopped on my tracks, looked at his eyes. He was serious. Deathly serious. All while removing the plastic wrap around the makeup. This felt like an interrogation, but with makeup instead of guns.

Only Neil could manage to do that.

His smile was more genuine though, as he glanced at me again. "Now that it's out of the way," he said. "Let me teach you the art of seduction."

Six o'clock couldn't have come any sooner, and when it did, Neil and I, dressed in our costumes and makeup went into the atrium where everyone in the ship seemed to have gone. The deafening cheer of the audience made me want to back out.

"Where do you think you're going, girl?" Neil's hands firmly clasped on my wrist just as I was about to turn around.

"N-nowhere!" I said.

"Stay just beside me."

I gawked at the atrium instead.

Situated in the middle of the ship, the atrium could be reached by going down a flight of intertwining grand staircase, reaching down to the bottom. At the center of it was a stage, and right now everyone on the third floor was looking down, gazing at the spectacle— the blue and purple lights coming from the platform.

"Wow. . ."

Neil nodded as he gaped too. Both of us were mesmerized. Not only at the stairs, the chandelier above, the people who were watching like they did in ancient Rome with gladiators and such. But the constant stream of confetti's being thrown from almost everywhere by machinery. Add to that, the hypnotizing ambient sound that were coming from hidden speakers somewhere.

Someone tapped my shoulder. "Guys!"

I turned around. It was Hanz, accompanied by Audra. But my eyes were not focused on him anymore. It was already on hers. She was. . .

She looked. . .

"So you did go as a knight." Neil was the only one who could speak at this moment, because apparently my jaw had crashed to the floor.

Audra, in her knight costume, complete with a sword on her hand, gave me a small bow. "My Queen. . ."

"And I'm the Princess," Hanz said, half-confident, half-wanting to die, especially when I glanced at him.

What the hell?

"It was Audra's idea." Hanz fixed his tiara. "She didn't want to be the Princess."

I looked Hanz up and down and tried not to laugh. They had a little role reversal. While Audra was suited in an armor and looked sexy as heck, Hanz. . .

Well, Neil always had something awful to say. "You look like someone's biatch," he remarked.

"Gee, thanks." Hanz dropped his hands, raised his pink gown, scratched at his leg. I had to stifle a laugh when I saw that the hair on it were long gone. Did he shave it just for this?

But just before I could ask so, Audra was already pulling me away, was guiding me behind a stone pillar, was snaking her hands around my waist. "You look heavenly," she whispered. "I want to keep you to myself. But. . . What are you supposed to be, huh?"

I bit my lip. My costume was not as good-looking as hers. And I closed my eyes when she touched my hair. "It's a surprise," I murmured.

"No fair. . ."

I had trouble concentrating while she leaned towards me, took a gentle kiss on my neck. Audra, since last night, had been making small moves like this. It was starting to drive me crazy.

I took a small step back. "You like it?" I said, trying not get caught on her trap. If we continued like this, I'd have trouble concentrating. So instead, I twirled around, looked at her while she scrutinized my own costume, which was currently covered by a cloak. Yep. At the very last minute, Neil told me to buy that, to hide what were doing until the right time.

"I like it," Audra said. "But I can hardly tell what you are. And what's with the makeup?"

I bit my lip again. Exhaled. The makeup was kind of a small giveaway to our costumes, to be honest. But without seeing the whole thing, plus the extra prop that Neil had brought, no one would ever know.

"It's just something that your best friend and I came up with," I said. "Mostly him."

Audra smiled. And her smile was different this time. There was contentment in it, almost like this was what she wanted all along. Perhaps that was why she agreed to the whole thing in the first place.

"I see," she said, nudged her head to the crowd. More and more people were going to the atrium. Everyone was in costume, making us blend right in. "Want to do something while we wait, Pax?"

"Sure."

The two of us let ourselves get swallowed by the people.

We ended up dancing. Or waltzing. Or whatever you would call it while giggling from time to time. We were not coordinated enough.

Well actually, Audra moved just fine. But I was not used to this. I was supposed to be an introvert. I was supposed to be sitting at home.

It was true what they say, introverts had to be adopted by someone. And I hope she never gets tired of me, even when inevitably, I would get back to my own shell, retreat in the comfort of my own mind.

Audra leaned to me. "I won't," she said, even though we hadn't been talking. We were just dancing for a few minutes, and now she was speaking. "I won't get tired of you." She confirmed. "If ever you need to retreat, I'll just be by your side waiting."

I twirled around. She could always figure me out.

The problem with us introverts was we were too busy hiding inside our minds that we didn't notice when people were observing us.

And Audra, for all I knew, had always been watching me.

As if to prove that, she pulled me close, whispered to my ear. "I am. Pax Leighton. I am watching you."

It wasn't long before the emcee for tonight got on the stage, halting the music, stopping the dance. As if just waiting for the right moment, Neil and Hanz rejoined us.

"Having a good time, girls?" Hanz wiggled his eyebrows, but the emcee, too, had something to say.

Everyone stopped talking, including us.

"Good evening, ladies and ladies!" The mustached host wearing a suit on stage chuckled. "The rules for this contest is simple. We will ask you all to list your name, and then we'll call you by your number. All you have to do is come on stage when you're up, and do what you need to do. Good luck!"

Claps.

Cheers.

Even Audra and I grinned at each other, before the contestants were called to the right-most corner to register.

Fast forward to thirty minutes later when the numbers were handed out. Neil and I would go first before Audra and Hanz. The four of us would be performing near the final part of the contest.

Everyone else was ushered away from the stage.

And let the show begin!

"Are you ready for this?" Neil asked me about two hours later. It could be more, but time had passed so fast, I had barely noticed what was going on. Everyone performed on stage so greatly. A trip to Bahamas was definitely worth it.

Neil elbowed me again, thinking I wasn't listening to him. "Are you in this with me, Leighton?"

"Yes," I said. "No! No, I changed my mind. Is there any other way?"

I gave him a pleading look but I knew that it was over. I wouldn't win. Over him, that is. We had already purchased the costumes. We had already talked about what we were going to do. Sure, we hadn't practiced like he wanted, but we were here, weren't we? And besides. . . I glanced at Audra. She was looking at me with full curiosity. I really, really, wanted to surprise her.

Neil said if I did this, I would.

And I wouldn't be just an unseasoned cabbage anymore.

"Let's go, Leighton," Neil prompted. "They're calling our names."

Hanz and Audra gave us good luck whispers. But even as I was walking away with Neil, I knew that the strongest of good luck's wouldn't help my case. I just had to believe in myself.

The two of us went closer to the stage where a ship's crew was waiting for us. "Err. . ." The staff said. "Lilith Hart and Blue Loire?"

"That's us," Neil said, ignoring the other man's curious face. "What do we have to do?"

"Err . . Just go up the stage when your number is called. Do your performance or whatever."

Easier said than done. Especially when the two supposedly ghosts performing before us stopped haunting the stage. People Clapped. And then it was our turn.

Neil, nodding to me, started clipping the choker and chain on my neck before everything else.

The crew, upon seeing that, just gawked at us. But then it was our time to go up the stage, and sooner than later we were removing our cloaks, revealing what we were to the masses.

Everyone stared at us, just as I thought. I knew I shouldn't have agreed to this.

Neil tugged at the chain, however, not minding everyone else. "Show time!" he said. "Do our decided poses, Leighton."

I tried to detach myself from whatever was happening, but the leather costume was too tight, it was slowly choking me as we posed. Especially as we walked right to the middle of the stage; a master and his slave. Inevitably, my eyes landed on Audra.

Shit.

Neil laughed. "God, that look on her face! Do you see her, Leighton?"

"She'll kill you." I decided. And then she would kill me too. For wearing this skintight clothing. For even agreeing to this.

Audra, in the distance, looked like she had floated out of her own body. Pretty soon, the people were clapping for us. It was Audra's turn and Hanz. It happened so fast.

The two of them got on the stage while I tried not to die when the cloak was handed back to me. Audra, while on there, looked like she had stumbled on the twilight zone. But one glance in my direction informed me that there were repercussions for the things that I had done. I didn't know whether to be turned on or mortified by it.

That look on her face was different; full of lust.

Meanwhile, Neil continued laughing, pulling me towards the crowd. "Great job, Leighton," he said, "Now we're even. Now I really respect you. And you managed to seduce Audra too."

But why were we heading back up the grand staircase?

"I know we'll win," Neil assured. "I mean, we're not that family friendly. But we did receive a lot of cheers. We don't have to watch. It's decided."

Okay. But I never wanted to talk about it as long as we lived. Even for Bahamas.

Remembering that the embarrassing chain was still attached to the choker on my neck, I removed it at once, keeping my eyes fixed on the ground all the time.

Maybe that was why I didn't notice when we had already stumbled to Audra and my room. That we had finally made it back.

But I did hear the voice calling to us. Glancing at the source, I was taken aback.

The man in our room smiled. "Hello, Pax Leighton."

A/N: Hello, thank you for continuing to read and buying this novel on Kindle etc. I apologize for the inconsistent upload here in Wattpad. I'm starting therapy tomorrow. I was diagnosed with a slipped disc in my spine and had seen five Doctors up to date. I'm trying to work on my health. God bless you all and please be happy.