They walk off down the path.
I look up.
The guy in the doorway takes his mask off in one motion. “Lucy, baby.” His voice does a thing. Half shocked. Half wrecked. “God.”
He drops down to one knee, grabbing her hand.
All of us girls gasp as a collective.
“Baby,” Benson says.
Lucy makes a small sound that is somewhere between a laugh and anoh no, and Gianna walks past her brother and shoves his head with the flat of her hand.
“Disgusting.”
“Hi to you too,” Benson says, not fazed for one second.
“You look so hot, baby,” Benson mutters.
Gianna says, “Get up, Benson.”
Mila and I look at each other, wondering what’s going on.
Then Benson falls to the ground, puts his legs and arms straight and rests his forehead on the concrete.
Lucy chuckles, “Get up.”
One of the guys chuckles, smacking Benson on his ass. Benson plays it off, finally standing. He grabs Lucy and kisses her.
Mara inhales. “Okay.”
Gianna from the porch rolls her eyes. “I can’t watch this anymore.”
“Gianna,” Lucy says, taking Benson’s outstretched hand and stepping up beside him, “be nice.”
“He’s my brother.”
“He’s my boyfriend.”
Benson tugs Lucy into him. He kisses the top of her head because he is that much taller than her.
“Sticking up for me, baby?” he murmurs into her hair, and I get where Gianna is coming from — they are sickening in a way that is also somehow heart-stoppingly sweet. He leans down and kisses her.
Mara wolf-whistles.
Gianna gags.
Then Benson looks up.
“Happy Halloween, girls.” He looks at each of us in turn. “Mara, Penelope, Mila, and —” He looks at me. “Melly.”
It’s the pause that does it for me. He’s staring straight into my eyes, and it makes me feel uneasy.
I hold my breath and look up at the other mask.
I can’t see his eyes through the slits.
But I know.
