“I was just playing,” I chuckled.Sort of.“How did you end up crying in a random parking lot after what Faith started?”
“My parents got on me for causing a scene,” Elise rolled her eyes and tears quickly rimmed them. “I don’t want to talk about that, though. I want to get out of this dress.”
“So you came here?” I looked around, allowing her to change the subject. “I could’ve grabbed you something on the way if you told me.”
“Yes, I came here. We still have time to participate in Halloween. We can start this year instead of waiting for next year.”
“You want to dress up?” I wondered.
“Yes,” she nodded, her eyes brightening at the thought.
“You know Essex was dressed up as Fred from Scooby Doo today. Y’all never far behind each other. This is the first Halloween I’ve seen him dress up too,” I informed her, reaching into her truck to kill the engine and grab her keys from the cup holder.
“Really? I know Nariyah said she was going to get him to dress up. But Nash told herheck no, so I thought Essex would follow suit,” she snickered.
“Nah, he out there matching with Nariyah and Nova. Looking all cute and shit,” I grabbed Elise’s hand and led her toward the entrance. “I can’t wait until we can share moments like that with a son or daughter.”
“Let’s slow our roll and focus on getting through your probationary period,” Elise advised.
“I’m nine months in. In ten days, we will be ten months in. What you don’t have faith in me?”
“I do. I just don’t want to get either of our hopes up until that time comes.”
My lips flattened, and I bit back my response since Elise was already having a terrible day. However, Elise definitely wounded my heart with that response. Our situation had been a hot and cold journey on a pendulum of conflicting emotions. The issues always rested with Elise; I always knew what I wanted. While she was three hours away at college, it was easier to swallow, especially since I was young and doing my own thing back home. Even back then, I wanted more, but Elise let her parents get in the way. In a major way, rejection was definitely our protection. I wasn’t ready to be a one woman man and probably would’ve ruined us when we were eighteen.
Now that we are grown as fuck and I’m out of the streets, I thought I did more than enough to make my intentions clear. I dropped all of my hoes, changed my phone number, enrolled in school, and have been on the straight and narrow ever since. Elise even had a nigga practicing abstinence with her for the past year. Whenever Elise said shit like that, it felt like she didn’t have faith in me. Like she was waiting for me to fuck up so she could end us before we got startedagain.
We maneuvered through the store, and Elise was enthralled by the over the top Halloween decorations for the interior and exterior of a home.
“This stuff is all so detailed,” she sputtered, admiring a ten foot animatronic wolf.
“Yeah, it is. You want it?”
“No,” she animatedly shook her head from side to side. “I don’t even have a yard to put it in. My neighbors would have a fit if I placed this in between that sliver of grass separating our driveways.”
“I could keep it for my yard.”
“No, thank you. I do want this, though,” she batted her lashes at me, skipping over to the light up Ghost Face wreath.
Scream was the only scary movie Elise watched growing up. Essex actually asked to borrow the DVD from my house so they could watch it after their parents went to sleep. It was their favorite, so we would sneak and watch it all the time.
I reached over Elise and grabbed the wreath. “Thank you, handsome.” She bubbled. Then her smile fell and her face turned devious. “I know what I want to be. You’re already wearing all black,” she waved at my black Nike jogger set. “We can both be Ghostface.”
“I’m with whatever you with,” I confirmed. “Where we going after you get changed?” I wondered.
“Hmmmm, I hadn’t thought about that yet.” Elise stopped moving and rubbed her chin.
“Relax. I already have somewhere for us to go. It’s out of the way, too. I was thinking we could go there soon, but let me see what time they close today,” I detailed, pulling my phone out.
“Where?” Elise inquired, leaning over to view my screen.
“Nah, let me surprise you. Lead the way to the costumes,” I urged.
Elise perked up and led the way. “We need to get changed and slide, it’s almost six o’clock, and it’s an hour drive.”
“Okay, they don’t have any cute Ghost Face costumes for women. They barely have anything left,” she poked her bottom lip out.
“Yeah, we last minute like a motha fucka.”
