Page 44 of Eye of the Beholder
And then I start laughing, easily as hard as she was laughing about the dumb puns, except this is so much funnier.
She gives a little squeak of despair and takes off my glasses, flinging them across the bed. She covers her face with her hands, and her voice is muffled as she says, “I didn’t mean that at all. I just misspoke. I would never say that.”
I just wave her words away, still laughing. “Come on,” I say. “We need to go. There’s a corn maze and lots of socialization with your name on it.”
14
Mina
Right before we leave, Lydia swoops down upon me with a palette of black and white face paint and an idea that she “just wants to try really quick.” I let her, because I’m happy to have any part of my bright red face covered at this point. While she works she asks if later we want to watch a scary movie with her and Jade. Cohen shudders, and I shake my head vigorously. I am not a scary movie person. She shrugs and then shoos us out the door.
Maybe this stupid corn maze will swallow me up and I’ll never have to look at Cohen again. That’s the only way I can think of to deal with the mortification I’m still wallowing in.
Fifteen minutes and one newly made-up skull face later, we pull into the lot at Decker’s. We’re not even out of the car and I can already smell the cows, but Cohen is still prone to smirk to himself every few minutes, so I get out of the car at top speed.
Make out with your face.Where did that even come from? What iswrongwith me? He’s just a little supportive of me and out slips “make out with your face”?
I shudder to think what I’d accidentally say if he did something truly incredible.
It was admittedly nice of him to be so encouraging about the florist thing. It’s nice to have someone prompt you in the direction you want to go but don’t feel like you can.
I shuffle through the hay-strewn parking lot—a parking field, really—as slowly as possible, because I can already see who else is here. The second I see Virginia and Marie, being in Cohen’s company doesn’t seem so bad. I’ll take his smug snickers over Virginia’s snide comments any day.
Cohen catches up to me, truly looking like a superhero who ran into a wall. The glasses look good on him. They give him an intellectual sort of air, which I didn’t realize I found attractive until he put them on.
“So?” he says. “Do you have topics of conversation planned out?”
“I’m trying to calm myself down,” I say. “I can’t think that far ahead right now.”
Not that I haven’t been trying. But really—what am I going to talk to these people about? There are four people waiting for us, so six people, including Cohen and me.
Three boys. Three girls. How fortuitous. And wouldn’t you know it—Virginia and Marie are definitely not wearing full-body suits.
“They’re going to freeze,” I say under my breath.
“What?” Cohen says quietly.
I nod as subtly as I can to Virginia and Marie. “They’re going to freeze. What are they? Is Marie a fairy? A dragonfly? And Virginia looks like a cowgirl that forgot to put on half of her clothes. They’re going to freeze.”
“I don’t think they cared about that,” Cohen says, grinning at me.
“No,” I say with a sigh. “As long as they can get a lot of skin showing, I guess they’re good. Well, they can cuddle up to their lucky men.”
Cohen raises an eyebrow at my bitter tone but doesn’t say anything.
I do feel a little twinge of guilt. I’m being pretty judgmental, which is a quality I don’t like in other people. I guess despite their past behavior Virginia and Marie could be all right—deep, deep down. Or there might be some scarring past event that made them act the way they do. Or maybe they’re just insecure.
I would feel better about that, actually. I mean, rude is rude. But it’s a little more excusable—or at least understandable—if there’s some sort of reason behind it.
I’ll just try to be cordial and avoid them otherwise. I’m here for Jack.
Although getting to Jack might involve going through Virginia, I notice as we finally reach the group. She’s not precisely draped over him, but that word isn’t too far off. She has this look she gives that’s sort of scary; it’s mean but also disdainful and detached at the same time. Like she’s deigning to descend to your level just long enough to shoot daggers with her perfectly blue eyes. She looks me over once and then looks away, the corners of her mouth tugging down into a frown as she smooths her perfectly beautiful hair.
“Hey,” Cohen says, moving effortlessly into the group of very scary people. He does some sort of bro greeting that involves a vague handshake or something and a back slap with Jack and Grant. Do all guys know that same greeting? Is it intuitive? Is it passed down from father to son?
Jack’s costume consists of a cowboy hat, a plaid shirt, jeans, and boots. He’s Virginia’s counterpart, I guess, which makes my heart sink a bit. I’m not a boyfriend stealer. Partly because it’s rude but also because there is no way I will ever be adept enough to manage that sort of thing. Grant’s and Marie’s costumes don’t match, I don’t think, but it’s hard to tell because I can’t tell what Grant is supposed to be. Maybe they just got randomly pulled into this whole outing, like I did.
I debate the pros and cons of just not saying anything when Cohen takes that option away from me.