CHAPTER 2

Halloween somehow arrived in a blink of an eye and I promised Ethan we’d go to a party together. He dressed as a hula girl, but left the little bit of chest hair between his pecks unshaven and I dressed up as Waldo from Where’s Waldo. I know – what an odd combination, but then again, we weren’t a couple and had no reason to wear matching costumes.

The party was at a friend of a friend of a friend’s cousin’s co-worker and had quite a lot of guests dressed up for the occasion – pirates, playboy bunnies, minions, witches and everything else you could think of. Ethan wore his costume with pride, despite getting some peculiar looks from a couple of guys dressed as football jocks.

“Who’s party is this again?” I asked Ethan.

“I think Linda’s?”

“Linda?” I was confused as to who she was.

“Yeah. Linda.”

“Who’s Linda again?”

“I don’t really know. I think she’s the one with the bakery down the street from where we work? Or she’s the lady mechanic.”

“Isn’t the lady mechanic called Josephine?”

“Could be.” Ethan said, “I’ve never really been good with remembering names.”

He poured us each a glass of punch that was sweet and potent; making me nearly choke on how strong the mix was, but it helped me loosen up a bit. Ethan showed someone how to do the hula dance and it was the first time I noticed that despite being petite, he had a bit of a six pack going on which looked pretty fine as he swayed his hips from side to side.

I also noticed two of the football jocks talking to each other and one pointing at Ethan before laughing. They embodied their costumes and looked like a bunch of arrogant jerks who had no originality between them and liked to pick on others for expressing themselves.

We mingled, or rather, Ethan mingled and I awkwardly lingered around him and smiled every now and then. I never was really good with small talk – especially around a bunch of people I never really met. It also didn’t help that some of the guys walked around shirtless; looking hot enough to get a rise out of me – at some point I suggested to Ethan we go outside for some fresh air.

There were about ten other people mingling outside near the pool as music played muffled from inside the house. Ethan took a sip of the potent punch and it was evident that he knew something was up with me.

“What’s going on tonight?” Ethan asked.

“What do you mean?”

“You seem out of your element.”

“What makes you say that?”

“There are quite a few hot guys at this party and you haven’t even tried to chat up one of them. What gives?”

“I don’t know.” I lied, “I just don’t feel like making small talk with someone that might either lead nowhere or lead to a one night stand.”

“Forget about sex. Forget about meeting the one and try having some fun tonight. It’s, after all, Halloween.”

“I guess you’re right.”

“It’s the one night of the year you can dress up and be whoever you want to be, but judging from your choice of costume, you want to disappear.”

“Why do you say that?”

“Where’s Waldo?” Ethan asked with a raised eyebrow, “Anyway, you need to let loose a bit and enjoy the evening. You haven’t been yourself lately.”

I noticed Ethan was a bit tipsy as he eyed someone standing near the sliding door and to my surprise it was one of those football jocks from earlier. He had a bit of a devilish smile on his face which I didn’t like one bit. There was just something about him I didn’t trust.

“I’ll be right back.”

Before I could protest, Ethan walked over to the football jock and within a matter of seconds they were chatting. I could tell Ethan liked the guy, but I still didn’t trust him. I had this strange responsibility towards Ethan and always felt I had to keep an eye on the guys he got involved with – most of them weren’t who they pretended to be and on Halloween you could basically be anyone you wanted to be. It was a night of pretending and I could tell the blonde jock’s smile was nothing more than pretend.

“Hey.”

I turned around and (sort of) recognized Red Riding Hood as Samantha from accounting. I didn’t even know we had any mutual friends, but it was kinda nice to sort of know someone at the party other than Ethan whom left me.

“Hi.”

“Fun party, right?”

I stared off at Ethan and the jock and for some unknown reason I kinda felt jealous of Ethan. Sure he was my best friend, but sometimes it felt like we were meant to be together – not in a sexual way though. It was hard to explain and if I try and explain it I’d just start mumbling nonsense.

“Sure.” I said in thought.