AH collections

the sugar baby escapades (10)

OT6
Word count: 17704
Chapters: 18

Jeremy shows up at Tess's house for a pre-game. It's Halloween night. Jeremy isn't much for dressing up. He does enough of that for the crew and for school. He's happy just to be a wall flower tonight.

Which isn't going to stick when he gets to Tess's.

She opens the door and she's wearing a roughened leather jacket and denim jeans with sturdy boots. Her hair is a bit frizzier than usual. She pulls down her sunglasses. "Oh, thank god. You came as nothing. Paula! We've got a clean canvas to work with!"

"Wha—" Jeremy's yanked inside the house and pulled to the living room.

"Jeremy!" Paula says. She has her hair piled up onto her head. White paint covers her brow, contrasted with black around her eyes to make an elegant skull.

Oh god.

It's his art piece return to haunt him.

"Whaaatt is this?" he asks.

There's a garishly orange t-shirt on the couch with an equally garish purple zip up hoodie.

"Oh god."

"So," Paula says, clapping her hands together. "We figured that because you're short like the Rimmy Tim you could dress up as him tonight. You'd make a pretty good look-a-like."

Jeremy laughs at that—slightly out of nerves, slightly because of course he's going to be the Rimmy Tim.

"Rob says he'll be here in five," Tess says. "And he's bringing his cowboy hat. Get changed, Tim." She tosses the shirt and sweater at him, and Jeremy moves to take off his jacket and shirt and change into the costume.

Tess nods as the transformation takes place. "Yeah. Yeah, all right. Fuck, you look good."

"Oh, my god, Jeremy," Paula says with her phone raised. "You look amazing!" She snaps a photo, and Jeremy has a niggling of regret in the back of his mind. The guys are never going to let him live this down.

Rob arrives not much longer, wearing a pair of black skinny jeans and a buttoned up shirt of fabric that has a slight shimmer. He's wearing a pair of aviator glasses, and Jeremy knows he's trying to pull off the Golden Boy look again.

"What up!" he says and tosses the cowboy hat at Jeremy. "Damn. The crew is looking good."

"Told you he'd fit for the Tim," Tess says. "Now, come on. Let's head out. I want to impress the judges beforehand."

"There's a competition too?" Jeremy asks.

"Yeah?" Paula says. "What do you take us for? Half assed cosplayers? No! We go full out. Come on, Tim! The night is young!" She pulls on his arm and leads him to Tess's car.

The next morning, he wakes up with a headache and to Geoff's laughter in the kitchen.

"Jack! Did you fucking see this? Jeremy went out for Halloween as himself!"

Jeremy fumbles for his phone and scrolls through his Facebook feed. There he sees the photo of the event he went to last night—proudly pronouncing him and his friends the group winners of the costume party last night. "Oh, god," he groans.

"This shit is fucking hilarious! He went as his fucking self!"