Chapter Eight
Eight
“How do I look? He’s going to be here any minute.”
“Hang on, hang on, I’m almost done, don’t move.
Relax your mouth.” Violet opened her own and Audrey imitated her, trying not to look anxiously over her shoulder at the door while her roommate put the finishing touches on her lipstick.
She was terrible at doing makeup and hardly ever wore it, but Violet was more than happy to lend her a hand.
“Why do you even have this shade, anyway? It’s so weird.”
“Quit talking,” Violet snapped while she carefully swept the color across her lips.
“It was all the rage a few years ago among the edgier YouTube makeup gurus and I had to try it out. I only wore it a few times, and I’m honestly jealous of how good it looks on your face,” she grumbled with a pout. “Never looked half as good on mine.”
“It does?”
“Hush.” She flipped the tube over and swept a few coats of a clear sealant over Audrey’s lips. “There. Once that dries, it ought to hold in place even if you two have an extended makeout session in an alleyway somewhere. But don’t touch it, and give it a minute to dry.”
“How am I going to get this off if it’s blast-proof like that?”
“You—wait, what? What kind of making out are you doing?”
Audrey’s cheeks burned. “He’s sweet. I get kind of intense,” she mumbled.
Violet snorted. “Jesus. Okay then. And, well, I guess it is your third date.” She bounced her eyebrows significantly and thrust Audrey’s usual emotional support tube of ChapStick into her hands.
“Right. Th-third—third date.”
Her stomach dropped at the reminder.
“Lip balm will get it off. Lots of it. Swipe it on, then immediately wipe it off. The oils in it should do the trick.” Audrey tucked it in her clutch right as her roommate passed her a hand mirror. “Just look at my gorgeous handiwork. I’m a fucking artist.”
“Whoa.” Audrey didn’t recognize the person reflected back at her.
Her eyes were dark and smoky, colored with various shades of black and gray and bright, glittering holographic silver eyeshadow.
More silver was dusted along her cheeks as highlighter, and the silvery-gray lipstick Violet had just so expertly applied was still drying, but the glossy topper shone gently in the golden fairy lights of their apartment.
Her hair was loosely curled and tumbled to her shoulders, and Audrey marveled at how well Violet had gotten it to cooperate.
She lowered the mirror and beamed at her as she grabbed her coat.
“Thank you. I could have never done this myself.”
“You did such good work on the dress, so we had to stick the landing.” Violet patted her shoulder just as their buzzer went off, and she gasped and lunged for the button to let Theo in before Audrey could.
“Vi, I’ll just meet him on the stairs, you don’t have to—”
Violet spun on her heel, her finger raised accusingly and her scowl dark. “No. I’m officially meeting Theo. That’s my reward for this masterpiece I’ve just created.” She gestured at Audrey’s face. “Don’t tell me otherwise.”
Audrey sighed. “Fine. But at least let me answer the door. He wouldn’t tell me what his costume was, and he’s mine. I get to see first.”
“I’ll kill you if you squeeze out without letting me say hi.” She glanced down and suddenly ripped Audrey’s clutch out of her grasp.
“Hey! That’s—”
“Where your keys and phone are, yes.” Violet grinned wickedly at her. “You get it back when I’ve met the Sasquatch.”
Audrey groaned, but she didn’t have time to protest further before there was a knock at the door. She yanked it open eagerly.
Theo stood in front of her, tall and straight, his arms crossed over his chest. He looked like he was about to do something else when he fully registered Audrey in front of him—and audibly gasped.
Both of his eyes were visible tonight, and they widened, the left more than the right, as he took her in before him.
He was not wearing a mask.
“Oh wow,” he breathed. “Audrey, you—”
“Theo, what are you? Like, a—a Blues Brothers mummy?”
He was wearing a suit and a tie with expensive-looking shiny black shoes. A matching fedora topped his head, and he clutched a pair of dark glasses in one gloved hand.
But it was the bandages that threw her off. His entire head, all of his face and neck and hair, had been wrapped in thick, overlapping layers of gauze, covering everything but a sliver for his eyes and a slit where his mouth should be.
Clever.
Not a mask, but certainly not not a mask.
“A—a what?!” Theo looked down at what he was wearing, and what tiny bit of his brows she could discern furrowed.
“Are you joking?” He put on his glasses and gestured indignantly at his chest. “I’m the Invisible Man!
From the classic Universal sci-fi horror film directed by James Whale in 1933?
Starring Claude Rains and based on the novel by H.
G. Wells?” He crossed his arms over his chest and hunched his shoulders pointedly.
“You know.” He uncrossed his arms and held out a hand as if he were trying to offer her literally anything to grasp on to to get the reference. “You know, right? The iconic film?”
Audrey shook her head and tried not to bite her freshly lacquered lip. “I’ve never seen it.” She grinned sheepishly at him.
The meltdown was imminent.
“Oh my god,” he muttered, ripping the glasses off and rubbing at his eyes with one of his gloved hands. “We need to have another movie day, and soon.”
She was just about to agree when Violet shoved her roughly out of the way and took her place in the doorway, thrusting her hand out to Theo.
“HI I’M VIOLET TAN I’M SO EXCITED TO MEET YOU.”
“AH!” Theo startled and jumped backward from the door, scrambling to tilt his hat further over his face to conceal his right eye.
But Violet’s grin only grew wider, and she waited patiently while Theo gathered himself enough to take a cautious step forward again, one hand over his heaving chest. His left eye was wide in terror, but he managed to tentatively lift his trembling right hand to slide it over Violet’s anyway.
“Uh…h-hi, Violet. I’m Theo.” He winced as he shook her hand gently, his absolutely swallowing hers. “I’m sorry, I didn’t know anyone else was here, and I—”
“No, no, don’t worry about it! I was heading out myself, but I’ve heard so much about you, so I wanted to meet you—and find out what you thought of my handiwork.” She winked cheekily at him. “Good makeup on Audrey, right? She looks gorgeous, huh?”
“Yes. Yes, she really does.” His eyes shifted back onto Audrey’s face.
“She always does, though,” he muttered softly.
Then his eyes landed on Violet’s costume, and the gauze shifted up as he raised a brow.
“Oh shit—really cool costume.” He motioned at Violet’s sleek bodysuit.
“Are you The Radioactive Birds of Wall Street, by any chance?”
Violet’s mouth dropped open and she shoved at Theo’s shoulder in excitement. “Holy fuck, I can’t believe you got that!” She gestured down at the outfit she wore, hot glued with carefully placed but as of yet unsnapped glow sticks. “No one knows that Lightm4st3r piece. It’s super obscure.”
Theo chuckled. “Well, I do sort of run in those circles. I liked that one a lot, but it didn’t get much press back in 2019. Kind of a disappointing flop, really.”
“I didn’t think it was disappointing at all!
It might be my favorite.” Violet cracked one of the glow sticks hastily attached to her long-sleeved shirt.
After a slight shake, it began to glow a bright neon green.
“It’s just that there were hardly any pictures of it.
They only revealed it for about five minutes once at that charity auction before it was snapped up by a private collector.
It’s a miracle a grainy photo of it even leaked onto Twitter. ”
Lightm4st3r was Violet’s favorite artist. She was really into contemporary art and aesthetics and was one of his 1.
2 million followers on Instagram. While he was certainly an enigma, he was also one of the most popular New York accounts on the app, and every time he dropped a photo, it managed to make it all the way into Page Six—and often beyond.
He was a reclusive, faceless street artist who posted cryptic images of whatever piece he was working on, often after he’d placed it somewhere guerrilla-style.
He’d started with graffiti, scrawled quickly in the night as highly stylized text on the sides of buildings set to be demoed.
More often they were sculptures these days, like the one Violet had decided to embody tonight.
But lately, it had been nothing.
He was something of a ghost anyway, but he hadn’t posted anything on social media in well over a year, though Audrey didn’t really follow him herself.
She only knew this because of how often Violet had prattled on about him, and because he made headlines whenever the glitterati fell all over themselves to bid exorbitant amounts on his art.
The only way to acquire a verified piece was through charity auctions, with all of the proceeds going to exactly where the artist directed them, which were always reputable organizations that desperately needed those funds to survive.
At least he seemed to have a conscience.
Audrey did like that.
“Okay, you two can wax poetic over the art scene some other time, but we need to get going.” Audrey stepped out of their apartment, swiping her clutch back from her roommate with a glare before sliding her hand into the crook of Theo’s elbow. “We need to get there early so I can help set up.”
“All right, you kids have fun!” Violet waggled her fingers at them before shutting the door with a smirk. The lock clicked shut and Audrey guided Theo toward the stairs, but he nearly tripped on the first step down.
He was too busy staring at her costume.
“What are you supposed to be?” he finally asked, his brow furrowed once more. “Are you a…disco ball?”