“Starting now, I am making it my life’s goal to find a thing for us!” Noah declares.
Our laughter is cut off by a very irritable Aiden. “God, why don’t you guys get a room. I’m trying to learn about human society and your pathetic flirting is making it really hard for me to concentrate.”
I guess he’s back to being an ass.
“He’s just jealous he doesn’t have a thing with Amelia like we do,” Noah stage-whispers to Mason.
“I am not jealous!” Aiden roars, causing the whole class and, surprisingly, even the oblivious teacher to look up at us.
“Care to enlighten us as to what it is that you are not jealous of, Mr. Parker?” He addresses Aiden.
Aiden’s eyes narr
ow to slits. I can almost feel him trying to hold back an offensive response that would surely get him sent to the principal’s office.
Mason seems to pick up that vibe as well and jumps in before Aiden can get himself in trouble. “We were just saying that Aiden is jealous of us since we got the answer to a question that he didn’t, but don’t worry, we’ll explain it to him.”
The teacher, seemingly bored of the topic already, takes this as an appropriate response and goes back to his laptop.
“What the hell, man?!” Aiden turns his deadly glare to his best friend.
“Dude, Mason saved your ass. You can’t get suspended again, and we all saw it coming if he didn’t jump in,” Noah points out.
“You could’ve at least thought of a better excuse. One that’s more believable. We all know I’m way smarter than you kids.”
“Are not! I can out-sociology your ass any day! This isn’t math,” replies Noah.
“Noah, you get lost tying your shoes,” Mason points out.
“What’s that got to do with anything?!”
“Are one of you geniuses going to help me with question two or am I on my own?” I decide it’s time to intervene in their display of male bravado. God, boys are so competitive over such trivial things. Aiden mutters something under his breath as he turns back to his textbook.
“Screw that. Let’s talk about Halloween!” Mason says, completely abandoning their little dispute.
“What about Halloween?” I ask, fully turning my chair around to face them.
Noah looks at me like I just asked him where babies come from. “It’s this Friday.”
“And?”
“Do you have plans?” Mason asks.
I honestly didn’t really think about this Halloween. I used to love getting dressed up and going out with friends. I remember loving putting on makeup and dressing up as anything I wanted, and the best part was that no one could judge because the crazier the outfit, the better. Halloween was the one day you could be anything you wanted.
One year, my best friend and I went as a pair of giant pink fuzzy dice, like the stereotypical kind that would hang from a muscle car’s rearview mirror. We even had a fake giant rearview mirror with thin cardboard strips imitating string that attached us. We laughed all day as we kept bumping into everything.
But ever since that horrible, life-altering event I endured, and everything that followed, I can’t stand Halloween. It’s turned into a day when kids glorify murderers and serial killers, where the gorier and more horrifying the costume, the better. When kids take joy in being able to scare the crap out of one another. Now, ever since that day, I just can’t go through Halloween without thinking of him.
“Probably just going to watch a movie at home or catch up on some homework,” I say honestly.
“No you’re not,” Noah states.
“I’m not?”
“Nope, because you’re coming to Noah’s party.” Mason smiles at me triumphantly.
Me. Going to Noah’s house. Surrounded by drunk teenagers. On Halloween. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”