A minute later Abby once again pushed her notepad over to Mick. She had scratched-out her previous words and wrote, "I got you Batman." "Batman," pondered Mick. "Guess that's not so bad. Hope the utility belt has a pocket flask built into it," he thought to himself.
Mick collected his costume from Abby after their study session on Tuesday night and hung it on the back of his door. "Must be pretty nice," he thought, as it came in a protective suit bag. Between classes, studying and work, he did not have a chance to look at it until Thursday evening just prior to the party.
After downing a couple of rum and cokes in his room Mick sighed heavily and went to put on his getup. "Let's get this over and get on with the evening," he thought to himself as he unzipped the bag. He reached in the bag and found a dark blue boot in the bottom of the bag which he dropped on the floor. Next he retrieved a yellow utility belt and tossed it over on his bed. Then he found the hood.
Mick pulled the flimsy mask out and examined it for a second before looking again at the boot on the floor and the belt on his bed. "Looks kind of chintzy," he said out loud. He appreciated that Abby had taken the time, not to mention the expense, to rent him a costume but this was not what he presumed he would find in the garment case.
He took the bag off the door hook and slipped the hangers free from their container removing the costume. Mick glanced quickly at the dark blue satin cape before turning the garments around to see the rest. "Oh shit!" he shouted, as he spied a yellow, oblong circle with a bat silhouette inside it adorning the chest of the costume. Instead of the modern, muscular, rubber-type suit which the character had worn in the modern movies, this tacky costume was reminiscent of the 1960's television show.
"You have to be fucking shitting me!" Mick shouted once again to an empty room, as this was not what he was expecting at all. Agitated, he ran his fingers through his hair before returning the outfit to the back of his door. He walked over and sat on his bed, leaned forward and placed his head in his hands in disbelief. Mick wasn't thrilled about going to the party to begin with, but having to go in this costume was more than he thought he could stomach. He got up and made himself another drink. For several moments he pondered the repercussions of not going to the event while banging back his cocktail, but the look of disappointment on Abby's face that previous Monday kept creeping into his mind.
After several minutes of contemplation, he had talked himself into putting in an appearance and figured that after half hour or so he would quietly slip out of the party for a quick change before heading to The Boulevard to find his buddies. Mick donned the outfit and looked in the mirror. The suit was very tight but he had the body to actually pull it off. He could see that the outfit accentuated every muscle including the one between his legs. There just was no getting around it. Mick had nothing to be ashamed of but was embarrassed by his own outward display nonetheless.
Mick walked into the student center on a mission to find Abby as soon as possible so he could start the clock running for countdown in his mind to finding the exit. As he roamed throughout the party in his search, he noticed more than a few people gawking at him and even though most of them were girls, he still felt very self-conscious.
A familiar voice from behind shouted, "Hey there caped-crusader!" Mick spun around to see the whole group walking towards him--Abby, Jimmy and Zoe.
"Hey," he said unenthusiastically.
"What's wrong?" Abby asked.
"Nothing," Mick replied again in a dispassionate tone.
"You look great," Abby replied as she thrust a cup of punch in his hand. Out the corner of his eye, Mick could tell that Zoe was checking him out from below the belt which made him feel even more self-conscious than before.
"Thanks," he flatly replied to Abby for giving him the drink. Before he could say another word she looked past him and said,
"Ooh, I see Mark. I need to talk to him about tonight's festivities." And with that she was gone.
There was a long moment of silence as no one wanted to be the first to break the awkwardness. "Well at least you got Batman," Jimmy interjected.
"What?" Mick asked annoyed
"Wish I had got your costume," Jimmy replied.
"Grow some balls then," entered Mick's mind as he surveyed Jimmy in his Raggedy Andy getup, but he bit his tongue and said nothing. Agitated, Mick swallowed his Solo cup of punch before mumbling, "I need to go hit the head," and walking off.
Mick walked into the bathroom and looked at himself in the mirror. He felt ridiculous and was tense. He took his utility belt and gloves off and laid them on the counter before entering a stall and closing the door. Mick could not use a urinal because he had to pull his tights and brief down too far and didn't want to be standing there with his ass hanging out while peeing. "Christ," he said to himself. "It's a major production just to take a piss in this suit."
The drinks had caught up with him and he never thought he would finish going. He adjusted his suit so everything was properly in place and walked out to wash his hands. As he did, Mick noticed that his utility belt was not on the counter where he left it with his gloves. He looked on the floor under the sinks and then searched around the men's room. "I know I haven't had that much to drink," he announced aloud to what was apparently an empty bathroom. He checked inside his stall for the belt before checking all the rest. "Damn it," he bellowed. "There must have been some drunk or asshole in a stall when I came in and they took it," he thought to himself.
He bolted out the door and began to walk through the party hoping to catch the person who had snatched his belt. As he searched, he noticed that the eye candy at the event was not bad at all. There were tons of females dressed as schoolgirls, cheerleaders, and adorned in other assorted slutty outfits.
Mick saw one girl dressed as a French maid and decided to wander over for a closer look. As he neared she spun around and Mick could see it was Whitney Harrington. "Whoa," he said under his breath. She looked stunning and Mick could immediately feel movement in his briefs so he quickly turned around and headed in the opposite direction.
He searched for another fifteen minutes but couldn't find the belt anywhere. Mick didn't know how he would tell Abby. His frustration started to turn to anger as he had enough of the party, so he left for his dorm to change into his clothes and catch up with his friends on the Boulevard.
When Mick returned to his dorm room and got undressed and was still seething. He hung his costume up on the back of his dorm room door and tried to put it out of his mind because he wanted to go out and enjoy the evening. Mick had just pulled on a pair of jeans when there was a knock at the door. He sighed, figuring that some of the girls in the dorm were either trick-or-treating or wanted him to buy them some alcohol for the evening. "I'm never getting to the bars," Mick thought to himself. He opened the door and was stunned by what he saw standing before him.
There in his doorway was a slender girl dressed in a Catwoman outfit. The one-piece lycra black body suit clung to every curve of her body and she had obviously forgone a bra. She was wearing knee-high stiletto heel boots and a mask with ears that covered most of her head and face. The beauty was leaning against his door frame with one arm and had one leg crossed in front of the other. "Meee-ooow," she let forth seductively.
Mick looked her up and down a few times before he realized that in her other hand she was holding his utility belt. "Where did you find that!" he exclaimed as he reached for the belt, but she immediately pulled the belt back away from his outstretching hand. Mick looked at her confused and the girl shot him a very sly smile.
