The shirts were clearly part of some line, but they certainly weren't for the fantasy author either. Kyla's shirt was red with black lettering that said STUDLY MAN, while Jay's shirt had the colors inverted and the message saying MANLY STUD. On both shirts, the Y was made to look like a male symbol.
"I really don't think these are the right shirts," Jay said again.
"I heard you the first time, you dope," Kyla said. She punched Jay on the arm, then stopped and realized what she just did. It wasn't a hard punch, and Jay looked more annoyed than hurt, but the blow still seemed uncharacteristic of her.
The pair looked around, but saw that none of the other people in the bookstore were wearing anything like what they were wearing. Deciding they must have somehow received shirts from the wrong distribution, they approached one of the nerds in line for book signing. "Hey, where did you get that shirt?" Jay asked, still a little miffed from Kyla's outburst.
The nerd, a pudgy little man with overlarge glasses and pimples all over his face, gave Jay and Kyla a strange look. "What are guys like you doing here?" he asked, sounding annoyed yet also a little intimidated.
"What do you mean, guys like us?" Kyla retorted.
The nerd looked around the bookstore nervously before replying. "I mean... you two don't look like you exactly belong here, is all," he said.
Kyla was livid now. "Don't belong here? What do you mean-"
Jay grabbed Kyla by the arm before she could fly off the handle. "Whoa, easy there. No need to go berserk. Forget these guys, they're not worth it. We'll find something else to do."
Kyla stared the nerd down for a long moment before pulling free of Jay's grasp and storming out of the bookstore. As Jay hurried after her to catch up, neither he nor she noticed as the pair of them began to grow, both in height and mass, Kyla a little more so to match up with Jay.
