Two years ago, Ricky and I went trick or treating together just as we always did. Bella and Kailey were with us at first, but as the night progressed they grew tired and eventually went home. We continued trick or treating until we had hit every single house in his neighborhood, which took until eleven o’clock at night. His neighborhood was great because the candy-givers stayed out late unlike other neighborhoods where they were finished by eight o’clock.
We had starved ourselves that day because we wanted to be able to eat as much candy as possible once we got it. The moment we got back to Ricky's house we ate over half of the treats we collected combined. It was amazing. Well, until it wasn't. We were so sick afterwards that we swore to never have sweets again. It was totally worth it, in my opinion.
I had hoped that we'd never grow too old for trick or treating, but that was unrealistic. We made that year our last year because of all of the dirty looks we got from the adults giving out the candy.
"The last time we trick or treated was two years ago," Bella said. "Now we only go to Poppy's parties."
Poppy was not fond of me and I wasn’t fond of her, but she wanted as many people as possible at her yearly Halloween party. That meant that I got an invite.
"Yeah, I remember seeing you guys last year," Javier spoke over the cheers from the crowd.
"Come on, we're missing the game!" Diane pouted as she tugged on Javier's arm like a child.
Javier gave her a blank stare before subtly shaking Diane off of his arm. She rolled her eyes and then turned to Justin. "Come sit with us?"
Justin agreed without a second thought and he and Diane skipped off toward the bleachers. Diane, remembering her boyfriend and his friend were still with her, spun and beckoned for Javier and Paxton to follow.
"See you guys at the party, then?" Javier asked us all, but his focus was on me.
No one had to ask me twice about going to a party. “Of course.”
With that, Javier and Paxton went along with Diane and Justin. I was so grateful that Diane had taken Justin out of my vicinity. It was funny how much nicer the world was when I didn't have any imbeciles around me.
The rest of us found a spot in the middle row of the bleachers. We had to step over multiple people to get into the spot and people were not kind enough to make room to let us in. Bella knocked over some kid's plate of nachos and the child’s father was not happy. Bella apologized, though it wasn't her fault that whoever designed the bleachers made them so narrow.
The rest of the game went by uneventfully. Our school won, so yay us. According to the people around us, we won by a landslide. If I had been paying enough attention or decided to look at the scoreboard I could have seen for myself.
All I could do for the whole game was watch Javier out of the corner of my eye. He was sitting a little farther down the bleachers than us. He was next to his girlfriend, but she was doing more talking with Justin than her boyfriend. I wasn’t sure why, but that made me feel a bit better.
And sometimes when I would glance at him, he'd already be looking back at me.
***
"Sexy gorilla?" Bella asked as she held up a gorilla costume and posed for the imaginary camera.
Kailey picked up a lion costume next to the bear one and held it up. "Sexy gorilla and sexy lion. What do you think, boys?"
Her question was directed to Ricky, Justin, and I. Justin merely shrugged at them which earned an eye roll from Bella at his unhelpful response.
Ricky leaned close to my ear and whispered, "I think this is a trick question."
I chuckled. The costumes were anything but sexy. They were bulky and unflattering animal impersonations that I didn’t believe should have made it onto the shelves.
“What doyouthink?” I challenged with a wiggle of my eyebrows.
Bella and Kailey shared a look before bursting into giggles and hanging the costumes back in their rightful places.
We were at the costume store to find outfits for the Halloween party because it was in a few days and we had nothing to wear. I would have worn my costume from last year, but it was unfortunately set on fire a couple months ago. That night things between the family got heated and my aunt needed to prove a point. She burned it out of spite toward Easton, since he was the one who bought the costume for me. It was an ordeal.
Since it was our last high school Halloween party at Poppy's we needed to have the best costumes possible. It was a mission, and we were determined to complete it.
I heard a loud gasp and everyone's heads whipped to see who it came from. Kailey was standing in front of an assortment of costumes, so I couldn't tell exactly which one she was gasping at.
Kailey whispered something to Bella, then Bella immediately agreed to whatever Kailey was saying. They both looked at me with a mischievous look in their eyes.
"Eliiii," Kailey sang my name. "We found the perfect costume for you!"
I was nervous to see what they had picked up. Sometimes the things that they would choose were...questionable.
