Morgan shrugged, looking over at Ava and Kevin. ‘Kevin’s all right.’
‘Gabe told me he had totrainhim not to use “gay” as an insult.’
Morgan smirked. ‘Oh, train him how?’
I retched while she laughed.
‘Teenage boys are stupid and say very stupid things. We hung out with them at Amber’s last month after you guys left, and they weren’t so bad. I’ve met a lot worse Murphy boys than Gabe’s friends.’
I brought Ava her drink, and she – ever the room reader – asked Kevin where Gabe was. Kevin spun, scanning the garage and driveway, but I spotted him first. Gabe was heading toward us from the house, wearing a well-fitted astronaut suit.
‘Whoa,’ I said, loud enough only for Ava to hear. She nudged me.
Gabe’s eyes went wide as he gave us an up-and-down. ‘Wow, you guys look great.’
‘Thanks!’ Ava curtsied in her mermaid dress.
‘Eighties slasher movie victims?’ he asked. ‘Prom Night II?’
‘Youwouldthink it’s a movie,’ I said. ‘We’re just a dead prom king and queen.’ Ava had done our makeup, putting a little blood spilling from our mouths and noses, but the crown and tiara from our eighties prom king and queen costumes came from winning the costume contest at Sophie’s party.
‘Well, you look great either way,’ he said, holding out a cup to toast us. We clinked our plastic Solo cups together. ‘And, Morgan, I love your—’
‘You don’t have to pretend I put in any more effort than throwing on a black dress and a witch hat.’ She shrugged and spun the witch hat around. ‘I’m not big on Halloween.’
‘Gabe sure is,’ Ava said, looking up at the skeleton and pumpkin lights hanging from the carriage-house rafters.
‘Our kind usually is,’ I said.
‘Right, but this …’
‘Yeah.’ Gabe looked up at the lights with pride. ‘You guys should come by on Halloweennight. My family goes all out. We decorate the front yard, and we turn the porch into a haunted house walk-through. All my uncles, aunts and cousins come over and play different roles.’
I looked at the porch, already half decorated for the haunted house. Then everything clicked into place. Why this place had looked familiar when Gabe first brought me here.
‘Holy shit!’ I said. ‘I’ve been here!’
Gabe frowned. ‘Yeah … You’ve come over before.’
‘No, no, for Halloween.’
I walked out of the carriage house to the driveway, taking it all in. Gabe, Morgan and Ava followed. It had looked familiar when we first pulled up, but I had been too distracted by how big the house and its property was.
‘My dad took me here when I was … I don’t know, six? Seven, maybe?’ I turned back to Gabe and gave him a smirk. ‘It scared the shit out of me.’
Gabe pumped a fist in celebration. ‘Your dad has good taste.’
I didn’t correct the present tense.
‘Oh my God,’ Ava said, jumping on the moment – probably knowing full well that I was spiraling into Sad Nostalgia Land about my dad. ‘That means the two of you were probably seven-year-old ghost ships passing in the haunted night.’
‘We were!’ Gabe did an adorable little dance in his space suit and beckoned for us to follow him as he walked up onto the porch. He pointed to a small stand in front of a pillar. ‘Do you remember a kid vampire who popped out from this corner?’
Holy shit, I did. My heart raced at the memory. The stand was painted black and hid most of the white support column that was a real architectural feature of the porch. And when Gabe stood on top of it, hiding behind a black cape, trick-or-treaters wouldn’t see him. Until he opened the cape and hissed through his plastic fangs.
‘And you were tied to that pole.’ I pointed. ‘So it looked like you were going to lunge out at us, but the rope stopped you from falling.’
Gabe jumped up and down, excited, reminding me again of that spooky kid vampire. ‘Yes!’
