She makes a popping sound with her perfect cupid’s bow lips. Roxy looks at me, her eyebrow raised.
“What?” I ask, my stomach dropping.
“Worth a try? You’re really wedged in.”
“What’sworth a try?”
Roxy swallows.
“The butter thing?” she says, looking to Vivian and Charlie Chamberlain for confirmation.
“Oooh, yes please,” says Vivian, clapping her manicured hands together. “I’ll go ask for some.”
“Nobody is rubbing butter on me!”
Vivian’s shoulders sag in mock disappointment but a wide smile is still on her face as she rejoins the taskforce. Charlie Chamberlain steps up and peers at me. Is this how those old Victorian sideshows felt? It’s not great.
“Have you tried pulling her?” he says. Roxy folds her arms and raises an eyebrow. “Pushing her?”
“No, Charlie, I have not tried either of those straightforward methodologies. Thank goodness you’re here.”
“Are you . . .” We all look round at Fake McKinley who’s also joined the fun; he frowns at the group then looks at my legs, “stuck in there?”
“How’d you guess?” I say, rolling my eyes.
“Everyone’s talking about it back there. And it’s on TikTok.”
I look at Roxy, who takes a deep breath and turns to everyone.
“OK, can anyone actually help?” A few murmurs from the group but people mostly shake their heads. “Piss off then. I’m pretty sure the Dax St. James photo session is about to start.”
A few gasps then people turn and rush out the door, including Sadie and her supervisors. If you want to clear a room at a convention, tell people they’re about to miss their photo op. Roxy looks at her phone, then frowns, biting her lip when she makes eye contact with me.
“I’m so sorry, babe, but I need to answer this,” she says, backing away.
“What?” I blink at her. “Roxanne Fu, you are not leaving me alone like this?!”
“I’ll be right back, I swear,” she says, backing away. “And you’re not alone, Fake McKinley’s with you.”
“Roxy?”
She holds up her finger and turns away, ducking her head as she answers the call and merges with the autograph crowd in the foyer. I blink at the lack of Roxy in this particularly classic Eliza fuck-up, then turn to my assigned guardian who looks down at me, his arms folded.
“So,” he says, “this is unfortunate.”
CHAPTER TWENTY
LILA MURPHY
But why the ‘pessimistic’ werewolf, though?
VIGGO RASSMUSSEN
Wouldn’t you be? If you were a werewolf?
Vampire Falls. Season two, episode sixteen – “Come Back Moon”
“That’s a word for it.”
