I descended the stairs as I tried to guess what Blake’s costume was supposed to be. “Hey.”
“Hi, Maddie. Nice costume.” He stepped forward like he was going to hug me, then stopped himself.
I’d told him so many times that I still wasn’t sure if I wanted to be his girlfriend. My mind was muddled when it came to our relationship and I couldn’t work out why. And Alina’s suggestions of me having a ghost as a boyfriend didn’t help the situation.
“Thanks.”
He was wearing a suit and tie and had thick, black-rimmed glasses on and I tried not to frown.
What is his costume? Will he get offended if I ask him?
I decided to wait until we got there and hoped that he would tell someone what he was dressed as. No way was I going to embarrass myself in case it was something super-popular that I had no clue about after being in the hospital and Mirrabooka for so long.
Anna-Marie told us how great our costumes looked and we thanked her and said goodbye. I glanced up before we stepped outside and Jackson had an unreadable expression on his face as he waved goodbye.
Blake opened his car door for me and I smiled. “Thank you.”
I got in carefully, making sure that no part of the dress was hanging down over the door sill before he closed the door. I loved this dress and didn’t want anything to happen to it.
Once Blake started to drive, things suddenly felt awkward. I couldn’t think of anything to talk about. The main thing on my mind was Emily going missing, but I didn’t think that was a good topic of conversation right now.
I looked around at the leather trimmings. “Nice car.”
That was lame, but I had to say something.
“Yeah, it’s a classic. I’m glad you like it. I didn’t want to get the latest Porsche — that’s what everyone else is driving. I wanted to stand out.”
Yep. You’ve managed to do that. No one else had a brown Porsche. It was a terrible colour. The colour of mud. It didn’t even have a metallic fleck through the paint.
“Okay.”
Why was I so hung up on the colour of the car? I had no answer.
The awkwardness continued the whole way to the party and it was stressing me out. He told me all about the car and the year model and where he’d bought it. It seemed that unless you talked about cars or football, he didn’t have much to say.
We turned off the road onto a dirt track and my nerves jangled. I questioned the wisdom of going to a party at an old abandoned church. The church hadn’t been used for about a hundred years, but it had a graveyard. There were bound to be spirits there.
“The party isn’t actually at the church,” he informed me as it came into sight. “It’s a bit further away where there’s a good spot for us to sit and a pit for the fire.”
I relaxed a tiny bit at this news.
As we drove past the church and graveyard, I could see movement in the shadows amongst the headstones. Great.
I tried not to look.
“See how the windows are all boarded up? That’s because they reckon the church is haunted and people kept seeing the ghost of someone who was hanged from the rafters in there. So they covered the windows.”
My stomach sank. That’s all I needed.
He turned to me. “Do you believe in ghosts?”
I took a deep breath. “Yeah. I do.”
He laughed. “Really? I don’t. I think it’s all a load of shit. All those haunted house shows are total fakes. Ah, here we are.”
I bit my tongue and forced myself not to react to him dissing part of who I am.
We found a spot near some cars that were parked haphazardly in a large clearing and he pulled in next to a metallic-green BMW, which was a lot nicer than our ride.
He made me wait until he’d come around to my side so he could open my door again. I felt very self-conscious; I wasn’t used to being treated like this or the stares from the people at the party as we walked toward the group.
I glanced back at the cars. Alina wasn’t here yet. It was good that she hadn’t gotten here first and ended up stuck with people she didn’t know.
There were lots of people here and they already had a huge fire going and were cooking food on the barbecues that were set up in a cleared area away from the trees.
As we approached the fire, I recognized a few faces from the park. Marco came over and slapped Blake on the back and they immediately started talking about a football team they both liked.
On the opposite side of the fire, which was a roaring tower of flames, Felicity and her gang of girls stood together talking and laughing. If they knew I was here, they didn’t show it. I hoped they kept away from me tonight, but was ready if they wanted to start mouthing off.
I was still amazed at how well Felicity had recovered from having the dark magic backfire in her face. I replayed the event in my mind and I was positive Ruby had said that she had done all she could and that the damage was permanent.
I shrugged and tried to find someone else I knew. That’s when I spotted Hunter and Chase.
Chase gave a nod and Hunter smiled and waved. They were in the middle of a conversation with some other guys, so they didn’t come over to talk.
Justina had dressed up as a witch with a gorgeous black dress with dozens of pointed sections on its skirt and Kellie was in an amazing multi-coloured fairy outfit, complete with gossamer wings. I’d thought she looked like a fairy when I first met her, so it was kind of surreal seeing her now. All she needed was a wand with a star on the end.
There were other witches and fairies there, with zombies and vampires. All the usual costumes. And a ghost. No, not a person wearing a ghost costume. I mean a real ghost. I tried not to look at him and he didn’t make eye contact. I turned away from him and sighed.
Blake was still talking to Marco, so I walked over to the girls. Justina didn’t scowl, so I guess that was progress. Kellie gave me a hug. “That costume rocks! And I love the spiderweb on your face.”
“Thanks. It’s just drawn on with eyeliner. Your wings are magnificent!”
We talked a while and I kept one eye out for Alina and the other out for Felicity and her friends. They’d seen me and were giving us death stares from a distance. That was fine with me, as long as they stayed over there.
I was seriously starting to wish I’d just stayed home when Alina strode over in her witchy outfit. She had a spiderweb on her face too, but we hadn’t talked about it, so it was a total coincidence.
We talked for a while and listened to the music someone had pumping out of their car stereo.
Blake wandered over with two plates of food. Hey, Babe. I brought you some food—”
“Don’t call me Babe!”
“Oh. Okay. Sorry.”
He directed me to a log so we could sit and eat and I gave the girls an apologetic look. I smiled up at Blake. “Thanks.”
He’d placed two cans of soft drink on the ground next to the log, so we were set.
The girls went over to get their own food and I was glad that Alina seemed to be getting along with them — well, as well as anyone could get along with Justina.
Blake didn’t talk much while we ate, but that was fine. I ate my sausage on a roll and was glad that he’d put some barbecue sauce on it.
When we’d finished eating, Kellie asked me to dance.
I looked to Blake. “Wanna dance?”
He shook his head. “Nah. I’m not really a dancer. You go ahead.”
I was disappointed, but not surprised. Most guys didn’t dance.
I danced with Alina and Kellie and some other girls for maybe half an hour and my legs were starting to feel it. I needed to work out or something. It had been months since I’d danced like this.
A song I loved came on, so Alina and I started to bump our hips together to the beat while laughing like idiots, but then someone ran into me and knocked me over.
17Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡF2iAlrlau5
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Author's Note: Some people don’t really care about Halloween. It’s just another day and the kids knocking at the door is annoying. Some people go all out with decorations and costumes and have a lot of fun. Which one are you? Or are you somewhere in between?
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