“Good to know.Anyway,”he mimicked my earlier emphasis. “I was thinking about Halloween.”
“Why?”
That was still a few weeks off. Not that everything wasn’t closing in on us. We were barely three weeks out from Homecoming, Coop’s birthday was around the corner, and we had to have our applications in at the first of October. We got a small breather, then Archie’s birthday was right before Halloween. So much more going on than Halloween.
“Because—I want to go trick or treating.”
Wait… what? I stared at him.
“Hear me out.”
“I’m listening,” I said, uncertain of whether I should be or not. This sounded like a trip to crazytown.
“You remember when we were kids, and we’d coordinate our costumes?”
“Yeah, I don’t remember it as coordinating. We were supposed to be Jessie and Woody one year, but you decided you wanted to be Dash instead. The year after that, we were going to go as villains, but Mom didn’t want me to dress up as the Queen of Hearts, so I got to be Alice and you were…” Wait, what was Coop dressed up as that year?
“A cop,” he admitted with a wince. “And you painted your face white and became a zombie Alice.”
“Right, oh—right.” I’d even added blood and used oats from the oatmeal to create flecks of brain. My mom had not been amused. I giggled. People had been so grossed out, and Coop kept offering to arrest me.
“So, this year—we should coordinate. Maybe pick out something fun, we can do it and give out candy, or we can roam around like when we were kids and do it all over again.”
I laughed. “Coop, most people get snotty when teenagers trick or treat.” We’d kind of outgrown that, right?
“Screw ‘em,” he said with a shrug. “We can roam and have fun, be silly and relaxed. How many chances are we gonna have to bekidsagain after this? Next year, we’re at college.”
It loomed over us like a juggernaut on relentless approach. “Yeah…” I could concede that point. “Archie will probably throw a party though.” He loved his parties. Well, he had loved them. Last night might have changed some of it. I winced. “It’s also right around his birthday.”
“So we go to the party after. C’mon, Frankie—just think about it?”
“What are we gonna dress up as?” It wasn’t agreement, but I had to admit, the idea wasn’t bad. Our ride pulled up before he could answer. Our driver was a woman named Yolanda, and she was really nice. She was older than Mom, but she chatted with us on the way to Archie’s house, but with an audience, Coop and I put our earlier chat on hold.
We arrived all too swiftly, and she let us out at the base of the driveway.
“What about Green Arrow and Black Canary?” Coop suggested as we walked up the drive.
“From the show or the comic?” I hadn’t read the comics in forever, but Coop had loved almost all of them.
“Fishnets, like the comic.” His playful leer made me roll my eyes. “Or we could do cops and robbers. You can even be the cop this time.”
I snorted.
“I know—Anakin and Padme.”
“She had dark hair.”
“Details,” he said with a wave.
“Supergirl and you can be Jimmy Olsen.”
“Ouch.” He clutched at his chest. “Where’s the love?”
The pack of cars from the night before was gone. My mouth went a little dry as I spotted my car, sitting by itself. “I’d say Violet and Dash, but again—I don’t have dark hair.”
“Well, we don’t have to go as characters. We could go as Joy and Sadness.”
I slanted a look at him. Yeah, I’d already been labeled the sad one. “Maybe not so meta.”