Chapter SevenKami
When I got off work, I went to the Di Biancos’ to help decorate for the party that night, to my mother’s dismay. She wouldn’t let my little brother come along, and he kicked and screamed, throwing a fit in a way that was completely unlike him. I couldn’t do anything to convince her to let Cam help us decorate, and I could still hear him crying in his room when I left. I promised to bring him a bag of candy, but not even that calmed him down.
As Taylor and I began setting up, I asked, “Are you sure people are going to come?” After all, Aaron had been planning his party for weeks.
Cocking an eyebrow, Taylor said, “Don’t insult me.” He was wrapping a fake spiderweb around a tree. We put up lights, plastic skulls, plastic skeletons, giant plastic spiders, and lots of jack-o’-lanterns after almost three hours in the kitchen scooping out the seeds and carving spooky faces. Taylor’s mother had helped us at first, but she’d gone upstairs to take a nap after a while because she had to work the late shift that night and she couldn’t stand to witness what we were doing to her home. Taylor was determined to make the downstairs look like a haunted house.
“Don’t you feel like you’re overdoing it a bit?” I asked.
“Maybe I need to remind you, but Halloween is one of my favorite holidays.”
“Is there a holiday you don’t like?”
“Not really,” he said, stopping what he was doing to give me a kiss. “What are you going to dress up as?”
“I don’t know. You?”
Taylor grinned and said, “I’ve got a good costume planned—it’s gonna scare the shit out of people. But it’s a secret.”
I loved the way he could still get excited like a little kid. He really wanted the party to be a success, and I knew he was doing it all for me, which was sweet. I would have felt uncomfortable and out of place at Aaron’s party, and Taylor knew it. Here, though, I could just relax. “Is that your goal? To scare the shit out of people?” Of course, I knew it was.
“You know what my goal is,” he said, coming up behind me and pushing me against the tree. “Finding dark corners where I can kiss you.”
I smiled. “Now I know why you spent half an hour screwing in those red light bulbs all over the house,” I responded.
“You know,” he said, grinning and showing off his gorgeous teeth, “you’re even smarter than you look.”
He kissed me, cupping my face in his hands and thrusting his tongue deep into my mouth. I felt him get hard as he pressed his body against mine.
“I need to stop myself,” he announced, pulling away just before he lost control.
“You sure?” I asked, tugging his T-shirt and going in for another kiss. I loved feeling his body against me, smelling his scent, that mix of masculine cologne and fresh pine…
His hands felt their way under my shirt and squeezed my breasts. “If you insist…” he said. I shivered and bit my lower lip,feeling overcome with desire. He pulled down my bra, and with his skin on mine, suddenly the cool outdoor air felt like a sweltering summer day. “Let’s go to my room,” he said, kissing me again.
I couldn’t respond at first because he was smothering me in kisses. “We can’t.” I sighed.
“Why not?” He was panting against my neck, pressing his mouth against the most sensitive skin on my body. “God, I love it when you tremble like that.”
I pushed him back as he started unbuttoning my jeans. “Tay, it’s late already. If we’re supposed to dig up our time capsule and have everything ready for when people arrive…”
“Shit. That’s true,” he said, but he couldn’t keep his hands off me. “Why don’t we just let Thiago dig up the time capsule and he can tell us what he finds.”
I laughed and shoved him away.
“OK, I give up,” he said, raising his hands in surrender.
I rearranged my clothes and took a step back. “See you later at the tree house,” I told him with a quick kiss.
Back at my house, I found my brother waiting for me on the steps. I grinned at him and took a bag of candy I’d gotten at Tay’s out of my back pocket, warning him not to tell Mom. He looked a little better now. I kissed him on the top of his head and went to my room.
So now I guess I had to come up with a stupid costume. I opened the box where I kept my Halloween stuff from previous years. God, some of these costumes were terrible. My friends had this thing that we should all wear matching outfits. I hated that, it was so unoriginal, but I’d always gone along with it. There was the bloody nurse costume, the wicked angel, the witch, the Bride of Chucky, the cowgirl… No way I was reusing any of those. What would they all be dressed as tonight? I wondered. Killer maids? Playboy bunnies? I thought about copying Thiago and dressing up as myself, but that would probably just attract more attention.
I looked back at my bed and saw my winter cheerleading outfit folded on the chair. It had come in the mail the day before—I guess whoever sent them out hadn’t known I was off the squad. I’d had to pay for it, and now I wasn’t even going to wear it. But I could, for one night…
I went to my brother’s room and found him with chocolate all over his face and half the bag of candy gone.
“Cameron! You were supposed to eat just a few!”
