Second Helpings_ A Jessica Darling Novel - Megan McCafferty [54]
Scotty was an FDNY firefighter, which I thought was appropriate considering my unpublished Hero Worship editorial and all. It turns out that Manda (done up as Like a Virgin–era Madonna) made him dress like that because it “turns her on.” Ack. Ack. And more ack. Sara was a generic, anorexic Miss America in a low-cut evening gown, stilettos, and a crown. Bridget was Gwyneth Paltrow at the 1998 Oscars. Len was John Lennon, but he had to tell people which of the Fab Four he was trying to be. Until the administration made him take it off, Pepe was a reservoir-tipped condom ribbed “for her pleasure,” one of the goddiggitydamnest sights ever seen.
But there is no example better than Marcus, whose costume consisted of jeans and a new black T-shirt decorated with white iron-on letters. It barely deviated from his days-of-the-week uniform. Instead of WEDNESDAY, the shirt read, GAME MASTER.
That’s right. You read that correctly. GAME MASTER.
Not even self-proclaimed lifelong lovers of all things eighties (like Ashleigh) know about Midnight Madness. In fact, I daresay that there are only three people on earth who don’t need an explanation for the shirt, and that’s you and me and Michael J. Fox. We are the only three people on earth who would recognize the GAME MASTER T-shirt as the costume worn by the Leon character in Michael J. Fox’s film debut, the obscure 1980 college comedy Midnight Madness, which you and I enjoyed during a particularly memorable Friday Night Flick and Food Fest. And since you and Michael J. Fox were unlikely to grace the hallways of Pineville High, I can guarantee with 100 percent certainty that Marcus wore the costume for my benefit alone.
At least this time I can explain for his actions, it’s not a case of inexplicable intuition. I know he must have seen the DVD on my bookcase when he came to my bedroom the other night. He didn’t even have to know anything about the character or the movie itself. All that mattered was that I knew what it meant. This brings me to the more significant point, which is how this costume perfectly sums up Marcus’s life ambition: messing with my mind. So I responded to the Game Master’s maneuver by not responding at all.
So, there!
What did I wear for Halloween? Well, it just so happens that I didn’t wear a costume. I went to school as myself. If you buy into my whole theory, it was indeed the perfect costume, wasn’t it?
Inauthentically yours,
J.
november
the third
I decided not to make a move, even though it was my turn. I swore that I wouldn’t give in to the Game Master.
This lasted three days, thirty-six hours longer than I thought it would, which is pretty damn good.
This morning, however, I just couldn’t take it anymore. I just had to tell Bridget all about the Game Master costume and getting grambushed in my bedroom and the news that Len liked me. I was already agitated, and since Bridget is the only other person who ever saw the fall poem, I figured I might as well vent just how much it bothered me that their band’s name is Chaos Called Creation. What’s with that, anyway? There’s no way that of all the lines, in all the poems he’s ever written, Marcus just happened to choose a line from the poem he wrote with the sole intention of seducing me. You know, the one Marcus wrote to “thank” me for peeing into the yogurt cup. The one that began, “We / are Adam and Eve / born out of chaos called / creation.” And ended, “I know we will be / together again someday / Naked / without shame / in paradise / My thanks to you / for being in on my / sin.” That one. It’s been ten months since the New Year’s Eve cockblock, but he’s still thinking about it.
This is more or less a synopsis of the rant I greeted Bridget with when I arrived at her house this morning. Her response? She thwacked me on the head with a copy of the fall fashion issue of Vogue—which is nine hundred