By 10pm the party was in full swing. There were over a hundred guests in costume dancing around the main hall and the conversation was flowing. Lisa was standing in the middle of the dance floor dancing with a man dressed as Indiana Jones. He seemed nice but was getting a little too 'handsy' for her liking. She was twirling around like mad when she felt a tap on her shoulder. She looked around to see Iris, the women she had bumped into a few weeks before in Starbucks, standing behind her. Iris pulled her in for a quick hug before introducing her.
"Lisa this is my boyfriend Eddie" She gestured to the attractive blonde man beside her who smiled and shook her hand politely. "Eddie this is Lisa. The women I met in Starbucks."
"Hi there." Eddie spoke. "Iris speaks highly of you."
"That's cause she's a bad judge of character." Lisa smirked and winked at Iris. "I love your costumes by the way." She looked at the couple, he was wearing a pinstripe suit and hat while Iris was wearing a small black pinstripe dress and matching hat. Both also had toy tommy guns in their hands. "Bonnie and Clyde?"
"Yeah." Iris replied. "We wanted something cool without being too cheesy. Your greek costume is stunning." Lisa nodded her head in thanks.
"Hey that guy friend of yours, Barry, is he here tonight?" Lisa enquired.
Iris got a mischievous look in her eyes. "Yeah. He's here somewhere. Want me to send him your way if I find him." Lisa nodded again and sent a small wink towards Eddie who blushed slightly. "It was nice to see you Lisa." Iris continued. "But I need to go find Barry myself and say hello first. I'll catch up with you later yeah?"
"Sounds great to me." Lisa answered and watched as Iris and Eddie waved her goodbye before disappearing into the crowd.
At the same time across the room, Mark and Axel were sitting at the bar having an animated discussion about the different costumes they could see. Axel had thrown a massive trenchcoat over his costume in the van on the journey here and told the others it was to 'preserve his modesty' however they had chosen to interpret that as 'to take off mid-conversation to deliberately surprise people.' Regardless, he and Mark were in the middle of arguing over the best costume in the room when a man dressed as a Ghostbuster came up between them and ordered a beer.
"Who ya gonna call?" Axel whispered in the man's ear while Mark yelled "GHOSTBUSTERS" at the other side. The man backed up slightly with a smile on his face as he looked at the two. His smile widened when he clocked Mark's Zorro costume.
"Great Zorro man!" The guy exclaimed. "I love the hat."
Mark grinned and said "Thanks. Nice Ghostbusters costume. A real classic. Name's Mark" He held out a hand for the man.
"My name is Cisco." Cisco replied before looking at Axel's closed over trenchcoat. "Are you Inspector Gadget?" He asked politely.
"What? NO!" Axel spluttered before jumping off the stool and unbuttoning the coat. When he was finished he held the coat closed before yelling "MY NAME'A BORAT!" and throwing the whole thing open.
Cisco gasped loudly and turned bright red as the man essentially appeared naked before him. "Woah dude. That's umm. Yeah. Wow. I like your confidence. Yeah so I uhh. Nice costume. Yeah." He reached for his beer which was still sitting on the bar. "I'm just gonna go and find my party squad. Have fun." He made a hasty retreat.
Mark laughed at the receding figure and pulled at Axel's green straps. "You did that on purpose. You need to stop scaring away everyone who wants to talk to one of us."
Axel used one of his hands to tap the end of Mark's nose and said "See Mark, now that's where you're wrong. I can go all night!"