Find something for Colby

You have to find something for Colby. Your fuzzy memory of last night is killing you. You feel guilty and anxious. Bribery won’t fix it, but… you don’t know what else to do. You need to just call her and apologize. The part that’s truly tormenting you is the uncertainty: how did she feel about what happened? Did she like it? You need to know.

But you will do anything to stall and not do that. It’s too scary.

You pull your mask off so you can breathe, get a cold bottle of water, and wander the aisles of booths. This is a great way to distract yourself from your misery. You love this. Nothing is easier than meandering around this con and just drinking in the cool stuff. The only hard part is not spending too much money. You already have a thousand cool nerdy T-shirts, so why do you feel like you absolutely need every single one that you see? There’s one with Sailor Moon sitting on the Iron Throne, but the Iron Throne is made of moon scepters. It’s perfect. You have to have it.

But you’re stronger than that. You don’t know how Colby feels about you now, but you know that being broke won’t help your chances.

You feel a chill and stop in your tracks, turning to look back. You catch a glimpse of something orange…ish. You saw someone in one of those Peachface masks earlier. Are they following you? But after a minute of watching the milling crowds of cosplayers, visitors, and vendors, you don’t see anything. You’re on edge because of what happened with Colby and the changes in your life. That’s all.

Thanking everyone who compliments you on your costume, you keep moving, keeping an eye out for Colby. You’ll have **** but to call her at lunchtime, as you agreed a week ago when you made plans for the con. But even now, she’s probably here somewhere. She’s probably doing the same thing that you are: buying dumb stuff.

You find yourself at a booth for a small localization and publishing company that’s handling some slightly less mainstream manga, including some R18 stuff. You don’t recognize most of it, but you aren’t big into really obscure mangas.

“Cool T-shirt,” says a guy beside you.

“Oh. Thanks,” you say.

“Where’d you get it?” He’s a skinny guy with a neck tattoo of the face from the cover of Diablo II.

“We have a booth,” you say, delighted. “It’s in A6. That way.” You point.

“We? You’re CCL?” he asks, looking impressed.

You fold your arms and try to look cool. “Yeah,” you lie.

“Wow. OK. Cool. Um, is it true that like, that chick did all that,” he asks, gesturing vaguely toward your chest.

“It’s true,” you reply warily, hoping you’re not about to catch heat for trying to cash in on it.

“Whoa. And is it true that you guys are all like, nonstop naked orgies and stuff? Not in a weird way,” he adds quickly.

“Course not,” you reply with a smile. “Yeah. That part’s true. We party.”

He looks awed. “Wow.”

“You should check out our booth,” you urge him. “You can get a photo with a honey with big boobs tied up in shibari like this,” you say, picking up a shibari manga and showing him. “Just five bucks.”

He looks even more awed. “Sick,” he says.

“Right? I’d do it,” you say.

He heads off toward the booth. Nice. You killed it just now. You check out the book in your hands. You don’t love the art style, but you do love the content. It’s shibari heavy, but more erotic than pornographic. It’s rare to find shibari yuri. Most of it involves dicks, but this one’s all girls. You page through it, noting that some of these knots are not possible. That’s OK. That’s the magic of manga. You look through the other titles curiously. Although you haven’t dedicated much time and effort to these less mainstream ones, they do fascinate you. After a while the Dragonballs and Narutos of the world can start to feel very similar. This stuff is fresh, at least.

You pick up one volume that jumps out at you: more erotic yuri. This one has a beautifully painted cover with two girls on it. What makes it interesting is that one of them has brown skin like yours. It’s rare to see that in stuff from Japan. Not unheard of, but with gorgeous art like this? And Yuri? The other girl is even a short-haired, blonde cutie… almost like Colby.

You flip through it, fanning yourself with one hand. You need a drink of water.

Hmm. You pick up the shibari one. With a manga in each hand, you consider your options. Smut might not be the best peace offering after last night, but you’re feeling confident in yourself. The question isn’t if Colby enjoyed that or not… she did. The real question is more like… is she comfortable with it? Is she ready? Or is it worth it to jeopardize your friendship, which is already perfect? Those are the real questions.

Still… you are joining CCL. This is who you are. Colby can accept that or reject it. That choice is up to her.

Give her the panty-soakingly hot shibari yuri volume?

Or give her the more tender one with the brown girl and the blonde?