Costume Design
by Cole Parker
a 1,000-word flash fiction
My friend Gage is a comic book fanatic. I think he has every superhero book ever written. It's a good thing his parents are loaded because he's dropped some big-time cash on those books.
I'm not into that shit. I'm more down to earth. But I tend to go along with what Gage is into because he's rich and I'm not, he has a backyard swimming pool and I don't, and he's bigger than I am. There's another reason, too, but it's kind of private and occurs in his bedroom, so maybe you get the drift.
We're both 14, closing in on 15. We've been doing those bedroom things in his room since we were 12 and by now are good at it. I wouldn't want it to stop. I'm sure Gage feels the same way. We're tight.
I do have a problem with him, though. He's into cosplay; I'm not. I get embarrassed dressing up like some sort of fruity fantasy figure and going out in public like that. Gage loves dressing as one of his superheroes and strutting his stuff. I go along because, well, if you really need a reason, read the paragraph above. If going out looking like a moron is the price I pay for our shared happiness in his room, I'll pay it. We don't dress up all that often and do spend time in his room at least a couple of times a week, often more, so on balance, I'm way ahead.
The latest event Gage had got us costumes for had a comic-book-hero theme, and my boyfriend wouldn't miss attending that for the world. He was going as Roy Harper in his role as Speedy, the Green Arrow's sidekick.
There was a problem with this, however. Gage wanted me as his sidekick, and Speedy didn't have a sidekick. So my role? Gage said I'd be Speedy's sidekick anyway. I was shorter and a month younger than Gage, so he felt I'd fit the part.
His costume was all red, sort of a trademark of Speedy. It also had an S on it which designated him as Speedy in case anyone couldn't figure it out from just the looks of the costume and the bow and arrows he would carry.
My costume would be meant to accent Gage's. The notable things about it were the black cape, the red and yellow colors and black domino mask to go with Speedy's favored colors and eyewear, and the black gauntlets which had spikes trailing off the cuffs. Because of those, Gage named my character Spike.
I'd only tried my costume on briefly before the event. That was because Gage designed it himself to go with his, and he had it custom made. It was only completed in the nick of time. I'd tried it on only a day before the event, and it needed some slight alterations, so the first time I'd put on the final product was when I dressed for the event.
I'd had to try it on for the final fitting in the dressmaker's shop the day before the event. It fit pretty well, except for the cape being a little long and the tights being a little snug around my butt. I'd been impressed with how well those red tights fit over my legs. I guessed her measurements had been good. I'd squirmed some when she was taking them.
When the dressmaker had done that, I'd had to strip to just my tighty whities, and she'd measured my legs up close and personal, then built the leggings to her measurements.
What I hadn't let her do was measure any higher up than she'd wanted to go. A boy has his modesty to protect, and having her fooling around with, rubbing against, maybe even handling my goodies wasn't something I was prepared to allow. Just measuring the tops of my thighs was enough to get things tingling. Fussing around any longer would have made her measurements for my black underwear—which was worn as outerwear for this costume—way larger than would be appropriate. Hey, if you're 14 and a boy, even if you were pretty sure you were a gay boy, it doesn't take much more than an active imagination before you're raising the mast.
So I put on the costume for real for the first time in the dressing room at the event. Everything fit. The outer underwear was snug, but that was okay. I didn't mind just a suggestion of what was underneath showing. It was a very minor bulge, but it was indeed a bulge, and I was proud of it.
We went out on the floor. Gage was living it up, enjoying every moment of being Speedy and of having his own sidekick. I wasn't nearly as happy; I looked like a dork. We were asked to pose for pictures several times, and I didn't manage a smile for any of them.
I got to see one of those after the event. Gage had given one of the photographers his address, and he'd received the picture in the mail. I looked at it and then froze.
Was I seeing what I thought I was? Sure looked like it. I tried to remember what was happening at the time the picture was taken, and it came back to me in a rush.
We were posing for the shot, and behind the cameraman other costumed figures were watching. One who caught my interest was a young boy, probably our age, wearing a Robin costume. He quite obviously didn't share my modesty, because his legs were bare up to a small, Speedo-like cover hiding very little and showing a pronounced bulge, not just a suggestion like I was showing.
As I watched, just before the camera clicked, he winked at me—I'd swear it was at me—and reached down and adjusted himself.
Which is why Gage now has a picture of himself and his sidekick, who has a boner.
Voting
This story is part of the 2021 story challenge "Inspired by a Picture: A Grand Day Out". The other stories may be found at the challenge home page. Please read them, too. The voting period of 17 Dec ember 2021 to 7 January 2022 is when the voting is open. This story may be rated, below, against a set of criteria, and may be rated against other stories on the challenge home page.
The challenge was to write a story inspired by this picture:
The picture is provided here under the doctrine of 'fair use' which is believed to apply. It is not the site's intent to infringe copyright. Copyright owners considering that this does not apply to their work should enter into dialogue with the webmaster by email [for their convenience they may use the submissions email address]. Items where copyright is asserted will either be taken down, or attribution made, at the copyright holder's choice.
Authors deserve your feedback. It's the only payment they get. If you go to the top of the page you will find the author's name. Click that and you can email the author easily.* Please take a few moments, if you liked the story, to say so.
[For those who use webmail, or whose regular email client opens when they want to use webmail instead: Please right click the author's name. A menu will open in which you can copy the email address (it goes directly to your clipboard without having the courtesy of mentioning that to you) to paste into your webmail system (Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo etc). Each browser is subtly different, each Webmail system is different, or we'd give fuller instructions here. We trust you to know how to use your own system. Note: If the email address pastes or arrives with %40 in the middle, replace that weird set of characters with an @ sign.]
* Some browsers may require a right click instead
