Camera flashes blind my eyes, and every fanboy and fangirl watch us like we’re reenacting a scene from an X-Men comic.
We’re not.
We’re just…in love? Horny? Both. Definitely both.
“Letmedownletmedown,” I slur together in haste （and fright）， tapping Lo’s arm.
He sets me on my feet but instantly grabs my hand, lacing his fingers with mine. “I’m not losing you again,” he says. He scans our audience, and they start cheering.
“Encore! Encore!” about five people shout.
Nooooo. Well…I take it back. There will most certainly be an encore. Only no one will be watching it. Just Lo and me. Alone.
Lo draws me out of the crowds, giving them a stiff wave to say that the show is over. Now we’re just part of the masses again.
“Should we go to the hotel room?” I whisper.
I can’t see his eyes behind the visor, but he stares down at me with an intimidating scowl. He makes a good Scott Summers.
“Not to have sex,” I amend.
“We have friends now, remember? No more fake Stacey and Charlie.”
“Right,” I say. No more scapegoats.
“And with great friends comes great responsibility,” he tells me. “Like trying to listen to your sister talk without me referencing a demonic entity.” He looks at me. “It’s torture.”
Before I can reply, someone shouts, “I see her!”
I only flinch into Lo because Daisy’s voice emanates from seemingly nowhere. I whip my head around—how can she see me? And probably the least helpful thought pops up: She’d be an awesome spy.
“Emma!” Daisy shouts, using my character name to avoid attracting the wrong gazes. Thank you, Daisy.
I finally spot her…and she’s sticking out of the crowd by a Cider Rose Comics booth—the indies where Lo would’ve put Halway if he wanted to promote. He didn’t, and his father cut into him for that one.
“Is my little sister floating above people?” What the…I tilt my head. Her legs are as high as the heads. Is she standing on a table?
Oh.
No.
She’s on someone’s shoulders.
“Come on,” Lo says, quickening his pace.
Daisy’s short, bright orange wig molds her face. She wears a cropped white shirt and gold spandex. The giveaway of her costume happens to be orange foam suspenders that go beneath her crotch like a thong. I couldn’t pull off Leeloo from The Fifth Element with the same vigor as Daisy.
We reach the line of indie booths, and I expect my sister to be on some stranger’s body. She’s way too trusting. The opposite of me, I realize.
I was wrong though.
She’s on Ryke’s shoulders. Standing. Not sitting.
His hands clutch her calves so firmly that I doubt she can even shift an inch. He has on the same Green Arrow outfit from last year’s Halloween—oh my God, he shaved. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Ryke completely shaven.
He looks more like Lo. I don’t like it one bit.
“Hey, guys,” Daisy says with a bright, beaming smile. She playfully twirls her plastic gun and aims it at no one in particular. “Have you seen any aliens that I need to kill?”
“Yeah,” Lo says, “Connor should be around here somewhere with your sister.”
I nudge Lo in the side. “Batman and Catwoman aren’t aliens.”
Lo tilts his head at me. “But Connor Cobalt and Rose Calloway might as well be.”
I cover his lips, but it’s too late. Those names have already drifted in the air and penetrated a few ears. I grimace. Penetrated. Ears. Ew…bad one.
“Fine, only Connor Cobalt then,” he mumbles through my palm.
“Don’t say ‘you know whose’ name.” I drop my hand.
His brows harden. “Voldemort.”
I punch him in the arm. Though I fell into that Harry Potter reference-trap too easily.
He mock winces. “Ow.”
I take a deep breath and glance at my little sister. She now sits on Ryke’s shoulders. He grabs her by the waist and lifts her off his body, dropping her on her feet—a lot less carefully than Lo usually does to me.
She lands perfectly fine, thankfully.
“She’s a girl,” Lo tells Ryke, motioning to Daisy who twirls her gun and searches the area for our older sisters.
“I didn’t notice,” Ryke says with thick sarcasm.
“Just don’t be rough with her,” Lo tells him, less defensively. He’s trying not to jump down his brother’s throat about Daisy.