“I bet you’ve never even had a cavity.” Elsie nudged him out of the way so she could pay for her own ticket. Because this was not a date.
He stepped up to pay after her, giving her a wary look. “I’ve had a cavity or two. Do you insist on paying your portion on all your dates?”
Jane and Charlie were listening so she bit back the words she’d been repeating in her head and gave a small smile. “I thought this was a group activity.”
The sound of a drill started up and several people screamed in the distance. Jane gripped Elsie’s arm. “I hate that noise.”
“Jane, be reasonable. It’s just a power tool. And look at that, they have a spider web made entirely out of dental floss.” Elsie put a finger out and touched it. A black spider flew down from the top and she jumped back, laughing. It probably had a motion sensor attached. Ingenious. She looked over to find Will watching her. He did that a lot, but she didn’t want to think about that right now. She’d been hoping he’d be so embarrassed by her costume that he wouldn’t even acknowledge her.
Charlie put an arm around Jane and together they walked towards the opening to the maze. Elsie and Will followed. She stuck close to him, but not too close. It was better to not show fear at places like this. They picked on you when you did. And she wasn’t scared yet. More like on alert. Hokey Halloween costumes didn’t scare her, but she’d never liked the rustle of corn stalks in a night breeze.
Three steps in, and she moved a little closer to Will. No use tripping on the roots at the edges that stuck out of the ground like skeleton hands. Her shoulder bumped against his, and she went ahead and looped her arm, holding onto his bicep. That way he wouldn’t get any ideas about holding hands. He smelled good. Like aftershave and cinnamon gum. Under his sleeve, she could feel the warmth radiating off him.
They hadn’t reached anything scary yet, but she knew it was coming. She gripped Will a little harder and forced herself to relax. And then a hand reached out of the corn and grabbed Charlie’s calf, sending him down into the dirt. Jane screamed and took off running. Charlie scrambled up and sprinted after her.
Will glanced at Elsie and took a cautious step forward. They were almost to the spot where Charlie had been grabbed. But instead of a hand reaching out, a giant dude in bloody scrubs jumped in front of them, brandishing a drill. A beat up Craftsman with no drill bit in it. Unless he lobbed it at her head, it was not a real threat. A laugh bubbled out of her and once she started, she couldn’t stop. The guy glared at her and headed back into the corn. Will turned her to face him.
“What is so funny?”
She laughed harder. “I don’t know. Maybe I’m too old for this.”
“Well, come on. Let’s go see what else your sick sense of humor finds funny.”
They jogged together, stopping when the path opened up to a mock waiting area, with beat up old couches draped in fake spider webs and inhabited by skeletons reading newspapers. A tiny skeleton boy in a ball cap kneeled at a wood coffee table covered in dusty toys. One skeleton was hunched over a wastebasket. Green slime oozed over the sides. As Elsie came closer to look, a zombie in scrubs jumped up from behind the couch and growled, reaching out for her. She stumbled backward, and Will caught her under the arms before she fell. She twisted around and hid behind him, but the zombie had already ducked down again. More people were running up the path.
“You can come back out now,” Will whispered over his shoulder, laughter in his voice.
Elsie unleashed her hands from his waist. “That’s what I get for trying to inspect slime.”
They grinned at each other and turned to watch an incoming group of teenagers get their own zombie scare. Elsie resumed her position on Will’s arm. If anyone was going to try to grab her leg tonight, he’d be going down with her. Or at least, that was the story she was going with. Those were not butterflies dancing inside at his nearness, just nerves.
They walked on until there was a break in the path. The teenagers had gone right, so they went left.
“We are never going to find Jane and Charlie,” Elsie said.
“I know.”
There was rustling in the leaves up ahead to their right, and they both froze.
“I know it’s stupid to be scared,” Elsie whispered.
“Let’s run anyway. Come get on my left side.” When she was in position, Will took her hand and squeezed. “Ready?”
She nodded, and they took off, both dodging as a girl drooling blood onto a dental bib tried to grab them.
They eventually slowed when they came to another fork.
“Which way?” Will asked. To their left, the sound of a drill started up, followed by screaming. “Right it is.”
He still had a hold of her hand, and she debated whether to pull away. Holding hands signified things she did not want with Will Darcy, and she definitely did not want to send him that message. She gently pulled her hand out and put it back in the crook of his arm.
“Elsie, I—”
“There you two are!” Charlie said, as he and Jane came running up, out of breath. “The exit is up ahead. Follow me.”
***
Will had been about to apologize, but maybe it was better to leave things unsaid. Maybe he shouldn’t have taken her hand, but if not here, then where? If he hadn’t been such a jerk when they’d first met … and again when they ran into each other the second time. Yeah, he was an idiot. He liked having the upper hand too much. Always had. And he wasn’t used to caring what people thought of him. Those who knew him well liked him despite his prickly nature. Maybe it was time to stop seeing that as a good thing.
