“I think I know what you are, but who is she supposed to be?” Isa tilted her head as her eyes roved over mine and Hayden’s costumes.
I raised my brows, mouth gaping even though she couldn’t see my face under the mask.
“Isa, have you never seen the Marvel movies?” June gasped.
Isa grimaced, a flush spreading across her cheeks. “Guilty?”
“Well, that’s an arrestable offense in itself.” Mikey laughed. “Maybe you should be the one in handcuffs tonight.”
“Okay, well, you still haven’t answered the question.” She rolled her eyes.
“She’s a female version of Bucky Barnes’s The Winter Soldier”—Hayden gestured to me—“and I’m Flynn Rider.”
Isa pouted her lips. “Huh. All right, then.”
“Wasn’t it supposed to be a couple’s costume contest?” Ellison raised her brows.
“Yeah,” Juniper and Hayden said in unison.
Hayden added, “She told me she was going to be Rapunzel, but apparently she lied.”
I shrugged. “Not a fan of blonde hair.” When Isa and June looked at me suspiciously, I added, “On me. You guys look great as blondes.”
“Now that we’ve got that all settled, should we get going?” Jake asked.
“No!” Isa protested. “You need a costume!”
“Just cut some eye holes into a white sheet and throw it over him. He can be a ghost,” Ellison said dryly. “I’m sure we have one somewhere.”
“That’s so lame,” Isa muttered.
“I’ll be right back.” Colter chuckled before disappearing into one of the bedrooms. He emerged with aScreammask.
“Why do you have this?” Juniper took the mask from him, inspecting it. “And why was it in your bedroom?”
He shrugged. “You never know when you need a mask. According to Isa, all the girls on the Internet are obsessed with masked men. Thought Ellison might be into it, too.”
Mikey burst out laughing. “Was she?”
Ellison rolled her eyes. “No. God, no. It doesn’t help that he scared the shit out of me one day with it, and I almost broke his nose. I would have probably broken his dick, too, if he hadn’t stopped me.”
“Wait, wait, wait, I need more context. Was he naked and had the mask on?” Jake laughed.
“That’s enough of this conversation,” Colter interjected. “Just wear the fucking mask.”
“Wait, we should get one of those,” Isa whispered to Reid, just loud enough for me to hear. “It’ll be like that book I read last month.”
Suppressing a laugh, I shook my head at her, and she shot me a wink.
“All right, now that we’ve gotten that all figured out”—Juniper gestured to our whole group—“let’s get going.”
Rudy’s bar was packed as usual, but instead of the normal rustic look, the place was decked out in Halloween decor. Fake cobwebs were draped across the bottle display behind the bar, a giant stuffed spider hung from the loft, and tonight’s “barrels” were plastic jack-o’-lanterns.
The DJ was playing mostly Halloween remixes, but would occasionally throw in a country song or two.
“Are there no other bars in this town?” I nudged Hayden, leaning in to ask the question in a low voice. We were up at the bar waiting for drinks, and while it wasso loud it was unlikely someone would overhear, I didn’t want to offend anyone.
He shrugged. “There are, but they’re not as special as Rudy’s. If you’d come here three or four years ago, you would have assumed it was a completely different bar, but business has really boomed since they started the theme nights. It used to be mostly locals and regulars that came in, but now the college kids have started hanging out here. Normally, it would be annoying, but Rudy’s a good man and he deserves the business.”
