“You’re right,” Mako admitted. “But what Idoknow is that she practically shoved Poppy in the cafeteria so she could get youoff her. Doesn’t really seem like a match made in heaven, does it?”
“I just surprised her,” I mumbled. Because yeah, he wasn’t exactly wrong about that. But still, I was sure that if I’d gotten the chance to ask Lilah again, the answer might have been different. There had been a moment in the store when I grabbed the costumes for her. I was sure of it.
As if she knew that I was thinking about her, my phone lit up with a text from Lilah right then. I went to grab it so quickly that I missed and hit the edge of the phone instead, sending it clattering to the ground. I could feel the others staring at me as I picked it up, but I didn’t care because Lilah was texting me and that was all that mattered. As I stood back up, I shoved the screen toward Mako so he could see it.
“See?” I said. “She loves me.”
Mako squinted at the screen. “What’s with her contact name?”
“It’s a joke,” I said, pulling the phone back quickly. A couple of weeks ago, I’d changed her name in my phone to be “Lilah (My Future Girlfriend).” Once she found out about that, she stole my phone and added “(In My Dreams).” That wouldn’t help me convince Mako right now, though, so it was probably better I didn’t let him look at it for too long.
Lilah (My Future Girlfriend) (In My Dreams)
Poppy says bear said it was a costume party. true?
I wasn’t sure why she was texting me instead of Mako but I wasn’t going to complain about getting an extra chance to talk to her. I glared at Mako. “Is it a costume party? You never mentioned that.”
Mako whistled innocently and avoided my eyes. “Maybe.”
“What was your plan?” Crossy asked, amusement lacing his voice. “Force us to show up without costumes and be the only ones not dressed up?”
“No,” Mako said. Then he mumbled, “I was just going to tell you right before we left so you didn’t have time to argue.” Crossy and I both scoffed. “And anyway, it doesn’t matter because you found out now anyway.”
“Only because of Lilah,” I said as I texted back a confirmation.
“You know what?” Crossy said. He looked at me thoughtfully while tapping his finger against his lips, which immediately put me on edge. Whatever he was about to suggest was going to be a terrible idea, I already knew it. “We have almost no time to come up with a costume, right?”
He stared at me until I said, “Yeah.” Then his eyes lit up and he held his finger up as if he was just coming up with the idea right then.
“Why don’t you wear the costume you got today?” he suggested. He looked at Mako, an evil smile slowly spreading across his face. “What do you think, Mako? Wouldn’t Tino look just darling in that Flynn Rider costume?”
“No,” I said flatly but they both ignored me.
“Why, I think he would,” Mako agreed. “And I’m sure Bear would say the same.”
“It doesn’t matter what he thinks,” I said, “because I’m not wearing it.”
“You’re not seeing the bigger picture,” Crossy said.
“That’s because there isn’t one.”
“We can’t all show up without costumes,” Mako said.
“If we did, it would be your fault for not telling us,” I interjected, but I was once again ignored.
“It would be a waste to never use the costume again,” Crossy added.
“And maybe most importantly,” Mako said in a deep and faux-serious voice, “Lilah would love it.”
I wore the stupid costume.
I felt like an idiot for the whole walk, but it was too late to chicken out now—not only could I never convince my friends to turn around so I could change, but they would make fun of me for the rest of time because of it. If I acted like I wasn’t embarrassed and wore it with pride… well, they still might make fun of me a bit, but they wouldn’t have nearly as much ammunition. It was no fun to make fun of someone who refused to act embarrassed by it.
“How much farther is it?” Bear asked gruffly. He wasn’t looking too happy right now, since we’d practically shoved him into some bear ears Crossy had found in the back of his closet (I was choosing not to ask about that), a brown sweater, and a little bit of black marker on his nose. Apparently, him telling Poppy about it being a costume party had been because he wouldn’t be dressing up. The rest of us weren’t having that, though.
“It’s up here,” Mako said. “The house with a skeleton on the lawn.”
It was already mid-November so most people had taken down their Halloween decorations, and in some cases, put up their Christmas ones, but the house on the corner was still fully decked out for October 31st—I could only assume whoever was throwing this party was a massive fan of Halloween and decided to continue the festivities with both the decorations and the costumes.
