I had lost sight of my sisters, but I managed to get one of my clones to catch up with Percy. I found him sitting on a bench, his face buried in his hands. He looked pale, weak, as if his soul had been stolen. At first, I thought it was part of his undead minister of magic costume, but now I wondered if he was actually sick. Though, to be honest, knowing his objective at this party, it was most likely just drama.
"Percy?" I asked, approaching cautiously.
"Red?!" He jumped and quickly tried to wipe away the tears, as if that would fix anything.
"Is everything okay?" I asked, though the answer was obvious.
"Yeah, everything's great..." he said, forcing a smile that was more pitiful than reassuring.
"It didn't go well with Penélope, did it?" I sat beside him, knowing that his state had something to do with her, almost for sure. I had forgotten to remind Penélope about Percy, and considering the time since I left her, something had clearly happened.
"No, everything's fine. We're... good friends," he replied, but his voice sounded broken.
"But it's not what you wanted, right?" I insisted, with compassion.
"No." His shoulders slumped as if a weight had been taken off, but in its place, a bigger one had been given.
"Did she reject you?" I asked the obvious.
"Yeah... well... not exactly," he answered after a loaded pause.
"Your tricks didn't work?" I asked, a little morbidly curious. I admit it was cruel, but who wouldn't want to know what he had done to make Penélope respond with something that had made him look so bad now?
"No, not at all." He sighed with a defeated air, clenching his hands together. After a moment of hesitation, he murmured, "But it wasn't my fault. We just... weren't meant to be together."
"How's that?" I frowned. His tone had an air of tragedy that I didn't understand.
"She... likes women," he said finally, with a mix of sadness and resignation.
"No." I said it automatically, convinced that couldn't be true. But then I reconsidered. "I mean... shouldn't she? Or... should she?"
"Yeah... now I understand why she was always so distant. But it hurts. She was the woman of my life." (Percy)
The only thing I could do was pat him on the back while trying not to tell him that this was probably the dumbest thing he had ever said.
"There are other fish in the sea, birds in the sky, and... prostitutes on the street," I said, trying to sound philosophical.
"What?!" he looked at me, confused.
"Sorry, an old saying... maybe not the most appropriate." I shrugged. "What are you going to do now? Go back to the party?"
"I can't... I don't have the energy anymore." (Percy)
"Come on, don't you want to try those tricks you were going to use on Penélope with some other girl? Not all of them can be lesbians... Merlin forbid!" (Red)
"No... I don't have the confidence for that anymore. Also, I don't think I'm very good at them. I actually just learned them recently, and honestly, I don't think I know how to use them well. I'm not as skilled as my friend, he seems to understand women. Maybe I should go ask him what to do... maybe he can help me make Penélope like guys again." He said, with a smile that convinced no one.
"Percy, no. Forget her and find someone else." I tried to get that absurd idea out of his head, but then I shrugged indifferently. "Although, well, do what you want. Go with your friend, just don't turn gay too." I patted him on the back a couple of times, ready to leave.
"No, no, of course not... I mean, he's awesome. He's smart, clever, has a lot of merits, good student, wise..." Percy stopped when he saw me raise an eyebrow, and immediately blushed. "But it's not possible that...! Why am I talking about this? Stop bothering your brother!" He stood up abruptly, clearly embarrassed.
I watched him walk away, shaking my head to push away unwanted thoughts. I headed back to the party since the shows were about to start. As I walked, I took the opportunity [Message] to ask Penélope exactly what had happened. I didn't think Percy was this bad just because of that... though, with him, you never know.
[Red: So... are you a lesbian? Because it didn't look that way when you were devouring my dick with your lower mouth.] I asked sarcastically.
[Penélope: You found out?]
[Red: Oh, yes. And don't you think something that important you should tell... I don't know... your damn boyfriend? Here I am, trying my best to satisfy you, and it turns out you like pussy! At least tell me if I need to grow my hair or something.]
[Penélope: STOP! Stop making fun of me. I was desperate, okay? Percy was being way too persistent. I couldn't escape him. He was even acting weird, way too confident, and... it grossed me out. I remembered what Lavender said and... I did what I had to do.]
[Red: Did you kiss another girl in front of him to ruin him? Because he was shattered. By the way, if you did, I hope you're ready to not walk for months... or well, maybe never again. Even to save your life, your infidelity deserves punishment. Your pussy won't be the same after I give it what it deserves.]
[Penélope: I'm NOT gay and I didn't cheat on you, idiot! I didn't kiss any girl or anything. I don't like women! I just went hugging some friends.]
[Red: Really? Not even a little butt squeeze in the process?]
[Penélope: Do you always have to think about perverted things? I didn't squeeze any butt...! It was Brita who squeezed mine...]
[Red: What? Who's Brita? You know what, never mind. I'll look into it later and take the necessary actions. But I still don't understand how Percy ended up so pale.]
[Penélope: Well...]
[Red: Yeah?]
[Penélope: Maybe he was being too persistent... and when I told him I was a lesbian, he didn't believe me at first. He said it clearly wasn't true because I supposedly hadn't been one in previous years.]
[Red: And?]
[Penélope: Maybe I was really mad... and with all the stress from lately...]
[Red: Just say it.]
[Penélope: Well, maybe in my anger, I hinted that it was his fault that I don't want anything to do with guys now... and that maybe I was trying with women.]
[Red: ...]
[Penélope: Sorry.]
[Red: ...]
[Penélope: ...]
[Red: It's fine. I'll interrogate you about this Brita later.]
I ended the chat, sighing in pity for Percy. That must have hurt. To have the girl you like tell you she turned lesbian because of you... that's not something you easily recover from. But well, that would be a problem for later. Now I had to make sure this party went back to running as it should.
...
Before the shows started, I made sure to place the snacks on the tables. It was there that I finally found Hannah and Susan, who had been missing for almost the entire party. When I asked them where they had been, they told me they were in the kitchen helping the house-elves prepare more food. I told them it was nonsense and that they should be enjoying the party. However, both of them insisted that, as the ones in charge of the kitchen, they felt responsible. Although... I noticed a slight blush on their faces, as if they were hiding something. And they were, but they weren't going to tell me that their delay was caused by some teenage stupidity and their costumes, not the food.
Hannah was wearing a pumpkin costume. Literally, it was a giant pumpkin that made her look like a ball. But it wasn't just any costume: it was made from a real pumpkin. A huge pumpkin from which her arms and legs stuck out like they were part of the pumpkin itself. The only noticeable hole was at the neck, from which her head peeked out, and it seemed like the pumpkin contained some strange liquid.
I couldn't resist and took a bite of the edge of the pumpkin.
"What are you doing?!" she screamed, blushing and clearly outraged, afraid that the contents of her pumpkin would spill out.
She scolded me harshly because, as it turned out, her costume wasn't just hollow; the pumpkin was filled with pumpkin juice, a juice that could be seen from the neck hole. Apparently, she and Susan had come up with this brilliant idea during a moment of boredom. The funny thing was, they had managed to cast spells to lighten the weight because Hannah moved quite agilely despite technically wearing a pumpkin filled with juice.
I couldn't help it. I took a glass from my inventory, slid it through the neck of the pumpkin, and poured myself some of the juice. I took a sip, and to my surprise, it was delicious. But Hannah turned as red as a tomato and ran to the bathroom, covering her face with her hands.
"What's wrong with her?" I asked Susan, who was also blushing as she timidly sipped from her glass.
What I didn't know was that, in reality, Hannah was supposed to wear a protective mesh inside the costume to separate her from the juice. But, after a couple of silly bets with Susan that got out of hand, she had ended up wearing the costume without the mesh. Yes, that meant the juice was in direct contact with her naked body.
As I was left alone with Susan, I looked at her costume. It was a bat, but not just any bat. It looked more like a bat made of cake, covered in shiny icing. I had no idea how they managed to turn food into costumes, but both of them deserved a round of applause for their originality.
"Do you want to try my costume?" Susan asked, in a shy tone.
"Sure, why not?" I said, intrigued. After all, Susan had become quite a good cook lately. Well, average, but my affection for her made everything 'acceptable' taste 'delicious.'
"What flavor do you want?" (Susan)
"Hmmm..." I murmured, looking at her costume. Although it looked like cake, most of it was covered in a pretty uniform white cream. "What do you have?"
"Lemon, strawberry, chocolate, vanilla, caramel... lemon..." she said, lowering her voice more and more, to the point of wanting to nickname her Fluttershy.
"You said lemon twice." I questioned.
"I have a lot of lemon..." she admitted, blushing slightly.
"Well, give me lemon and strawberry." I decided on the fruity flavors.
"Coming right up," she said, waving her wand. Her enchanted wings closed around her body, covering her as she extracted the flavors.
The truth was, she also had her costume stuck directly to her body with nothing underneath due to the bet. With a mix of nervousness and embarrassment, she removed some of the icing from her costume, making sure no one saw her. She felt guilty and embarrassed for lying, as she didn't have much lemon, just one place with lemon, but she wanted to give it to me... the fact that I chose strawberry was pure luck, as there were only a couple of places with strawberries as well.
When her wings opened again, the costume still looked the same, with the icing covering her body, but she handed me a plate with pink and yellow pieces that she now had in her hands.
"Here you go..." she murmured, still blushing.
I took the plate and tasted the pieces. They were surprisingly good, with a unique flavor that I couldn't fully identify but that was delicious.
"Make sure you eat it all yourself and don't share it with anyone," she said before running off after Hannah, unable to bear the embarrassment of seeing me eat 'that' part of her costume.
I stood there, chewing and watching Susan leave. This party was making everyone act weird. I'm glad I didn't put alcohol in the drinks because people were already pretty crazy without it. Some students, hidden behind their costumes, were daring to do things they normally wouldn't. Luckily, the teachers were present to stop anyone going too far.
Although, honestly, I wouldn't have minded if the party were all girls. But I didn't want any other guy messing with my territory... Damn, there it was again, my animal side...
Speaking of which... how's Newt doing?
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3rd Additional Chapter
patreon.com/Lunariuz
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I'm also mentioning it in case you want to read another small fanfic I made. It's an erotic parody of Stardew Valley and it will be short, about two chapters per female character. It was just simple entertainment, but I'm not sure how regularly I will update it since I'm terribly busy with something I have to do and don't know how. Well, if you want to check it out, it currently has two chapters and will be part of a series of relatively short fanfics I'll work on whenever I find time.