It’s finally Saturday. It’s finally Halloween. And it is finally time for the Halloween party. I heard Autumn’s car pull into the driveway and I headed out of the house. I hopped into the back seat of the car since Autumn’s father was driving us.
“Evening Grace.” he said from the front seat.
“Hi Mr. Norson. Hi Autumn.” I said with a smile.
“Hey Grace!” Autumn said while turning in her seat to face me. “You excited for tonight?”
Yes and no. I’m excited to be spending some time with my friends, but I’m also worried about Malum. Is he going to be at the party? I haven’t spoken to him since yesterday afternoon.
“Yeah. I’m totally looking forward to it!” A total lie.
“Me too. Hopefully I meet a cute guy. There are barely any around here.”
Malum is cute. But I want him to be mine, not Autumn’s. Oh gosh, I can’t believe I’m thinking about him like this.
After a 15 minute drive we pulled into Laura’s driveway. We got out of the car and Autumn’s father told us to have fun.
We knocked on the front door and Laura’s mother answered.
“Hello Grace! Hi Autumn! Thank you so much for coming, I know Laura is very happy to have you here.”
“Hi Mrs. Travis, we are happy to be here.” Autumn said with a smile.
“Laura, Scarlett and some of the others are out back in the other room, let me show you the way.”
We followed Mrs. Travis through her large house. Once we reached one of the rooms in the back she opened the door for us and wished us a good time.
The room was huge. Bigger than my bedroom. It was decorated with orange and yellow string lights running along the ceiling. Pumpkins, ghost decor, and fake gravestones were displayed around the room, adding on to the Halloween ambience. There was a table of food in one corner. It smelled delicious.
Laura got up from her chair to come and greet us.
“Hey there. Thanks for showing up. Tonight is going to be so much fun!” she said over enthusiastically.
Laura has always been friendly towards me, but damn I often found her annoying.
I gave her a brief smile. “Thanks for inviting us. We are excited to be here.”
Laura led us over to the other kids who had arrived before us. I didn’t recognize some of them but that didn’t bother me. I was looking for Malum, but it seems that he hasn’t arrived yet.
“Grace, do you think Michael and Ella will show up?” Autumn asked while searching around the room.
To be honest, I forgot to ask if they were coming.
“Who knows, probably.” I didn’t care whether they showed up. I would be too distracted to give them even a sliver of my attention this evening.
“Well I hope they do show up, the more of our friend group here, the better!”
We walked around the room saying hi to a few of the people we knew while making our way over to the food table. There were lots of options to choose from, but half of the table was covered in candy so I ate a few of the chocolates. It is Halloween after all.
Another 20 minutes passed and Malum still hadn’t arrived. I guess he wasn’t going to be attending. Why would he? He has barely spoken to me in the last 24 hours anyway and I highly doubt he was going to show up to this party to hangout with people he didn’t know.
Scarlett came over to me and tapped me on the shoulder.
“Grace, how are you? We have barely spoken lately. I miss you.” She said with a genuine smile.
“Hey. I’m okay. I miss you too. Thanks for throwing this party. I’m having a lot of fun.”
“That’s great to hear! I’m glad you and Autumn are here. You and I need to hangout again sometime soon. It has been way too long since we last saw one another outside of school.”
It had been awhile. Scarlett was really friendly but she and I didn’t have a lot in common. She was more of a typical blonde, popular cheerleader type that you see in the movies. On the other hand, I’m plain. There isn’t anything super special about me. I usually feel out of place around her and Laura, but they are too nice to ignore.
“Yeah definitely. Text me sometime and we can make plans.” I smiled. She probably wouldn’t text me but I didn’t care.
Scarlett nodded and went back over to Laura. During my conversation with her Autumn had disappeared. I wonder where she had gone off to? Oh well. I’m sure she is just lost in the crowd. It’s amazing how many people have showed up. There has got to be at least 30 people in this room. It’s a big room, but I didn’t think it could hold this many people.
I didn’t realize how loudly they had the music blaring. Looking around the room I noticed a door. It looked like it led outside. I opened it and ended up outside on Laura’s back patio. The room had been heating up, so feeling the nighttime air wash over my body was cool and refreshing.
I looked up at the stars for a few minutes. They were all shining bright tonight. The moon slowly started to peak out from behind the clouds. It was a perfect kind of moon for Halloween. I chuckled to myself.
“What’s so funny?” A voice from behind me asked.
I turned around and there he was, leaning against the side of the house like he owned the place. Malum decided to show up after all.
I just stared at him for a moment, I didn’t know what to say so I blurted out the first thing that popped into my head.
“Nice of you to show up. You’re about an hour late.”
“That’s true, but I would like to consider myself fashionably late.”
“Well Malum, in my book, you’re late, late.” I rolled my eyes at him and then turned my attention back to the night sky. If he wanted to give me the cold shoulder yesterday I decided I was going to do the same to him tonight.
I thought seeing him tonight would make me forget all about yesterday but it didn’t. Yesterday I was hurt and today I am mad. Mad that he ignored me for no reason. I wanted answers. No. I needed answers. Right now.
“Malum what was with you yesterday? You were acting really weird. It seemed like I was bothering you. Is everything alright? Did I do something wrong?”
He stood there for a moment with his head down, lost in thought, then his head snapped up and he started walking towards me.
My breathing accelerated. My heart began pumping faster and faster. What was happening? I was angry ten seconds ago and now I’m flustered and can barely breathe. Why does he have this effect on me?
I tried regaining my composure. “Malum, seriously what is wrong?”I asked, still trying to sound angry with him.
He stopped an arms length away from me and stared at me like I was speaking a foreign language. Then a smile slowly crept across his face.
“Grace, I’m sorry about yesterday. I wasn’t feeling well. I should have gone home early instead of being miserable all day long. I apologize if you thought that I was upset with you. You did nothing wrong silly girl.” He stepped closer and brushed some of my hair back behind my ear.
What was happening? I didn’t know what to say or do. His response was so simple, but our friendship didn’t feel simple. Something was definitely off about yesterday, but if Malum says he was truly feeling ill yesterday, then fine. I would accept it. For now.
“Are you feeling better today at least?” I asked with concern.
“Yes. Absolutely. I did come to this party afterall.”
“That you did.” I smiled.
“So, how has it been so far? Did I miss anything exciting?551Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAImZvud7xC
“Well, unless you consider Autumn and I stuffing our faces with candy, then no. You have not missed anything exciting.”
He laughed. “I would have loved to see that. Is there even candy left for anyone else?”
“Of course there is silly. We aren’t complete candy hogs. We share!”
“Sure, sure. Whatever you say Grace.”
We stood there for a moment. Not knowing what to say next. Small talk usually came easily with him but for some reason tonight was different. I guess I would just go ahead and ask him another question that was on my mind.
“Why did you show up late to the party? Did you have something else going on?”
“No, not really.” He said to me while avoiding eye contact. I watched him as he walked over to one of the chairs near the stone fence. He moved it around for a moment, trying to decide if he wanted to sit down or not. Eventually he pushed it back a few inches and sat down. He waved for me to come over and sit in the chair next to him.
I walked over and sat down. The chair was cold. I shivered.
“Are you cold?” Malum asked.
“A little, this damn chair isn’t exactly a heated seat.”
“Here, wear my coat.” He took off his jacket and handed it to me. The jacket was a few sizes too large for me, but I didn’t care. I wrapped it around myself and immediately felt warmer.
“Thanks Malum. Aren’t you going to be cold now though?”
He chuckled. “Don’t worry Grace. After living in Alaska for most of my life I have gotten used to the cold. It doesn’t bother me anymore.”
“Whatever you say macho man.” We both laughed.
I had forgotten that I asked him a question earlier. He was rather good at distracting me.
“So Malum, are you going to answer my question from earlier?”
He was looking up at the stars and not paying attention to me. I groaned a little.
“Malum, earth to Malum.”
“Grace, shush.” He told me without looking away from the night sky.
“Don’t tell me to be quiet. I asked you a question. Now answer it or I’m leaving you out here to freeze to death.”
He smiled and then finally looked at me.
“I was only admiring the stars and moonlight. My apologies Ms.Diva.”
I let out an over dramatic gasp and smacked his arm. “How rude!”
He was laughing hysterically now. “Grace, I’m sorry, I’m kidding, don’t worry. Look, I was late to the party because I was dealing with a few things at home. Nothing serious so don’t worry about it. I’m here now aren’t I?”
I was relieved to hear everything was alright.
I smiled at him. “I’m glad to hear you’re fine...and I’m glad that you came to the party.”
He smiled back. “Yeah, me too. Speaking of which, why don’t we go inside and join in on the fun?”
“Alright, sounds like a plan.” We both stood up from the chairs and walked back inside to rejoin the party.
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