As soon as I heard the horn honking outside, I hurried to grab my wallet, keys, and a little glittery purse Sixx and I found at the thrift store. It matched my new silver skirt perfectly, which we also found on our clothes hunt several hours earlier. Sixx had finally dragged me on one of her epic thrift store runs and we had both scored huge. I found the skirt, the purse, and an amazing jean jacket with a gold lame pyramid on the back exactly like the one Madonna wore in the movie Desperately Seeking Susan. Of course, I matched the whole outfit with my trusty Converse sneakers. Sixx did even better than me. She scored the whole outfit she would be wearing tonight to the party, from head to toe, including a pair of killer 80s style disco sandals.
The horn honked again. I tossed a little compact and my pink lipstick in the slinky purse and flicked out the light in my room. My head spun with everything that might happen tonight as I headed out to the driveway. First, I was excited to see Creepshow. I hadn’t seen or talked to him since Friday after school and I found that more and more I missed him when he wasn’t around. And that feeling kept taking me completely by surprise.
Second, I still had a semi-date with Mason tonight. I knew Creep was aware of that, but I still wasn’t sure how it would go down. And lastly, and maybe most important, because it happened to be the whole reason we were going to the party, I needed to keep my promise and find a host body for Shane. Even if it meant deciding that body would be Mason’s.
With so much to consider, I felt dizzy by the time I reached The Gator, parked in my driveway and waiting for me with the engine running. Here, though, we veered from the norm. Instead of the side sliding door open for me to climb into as usual, Creepshow stood by the passenger door, grinning wide and holding it open, clearly waiting for me.
“Hey, Creep. Don’t you look snazzy?” And he did, too. He wore a great throwback bowling shirt over chinos and had on a trilby hat at a rakish angle. As I approached, he pulled it off and bent low in a mock bow.
“Glad you approve, Juice. Wanted to look different for the big bash tonight.” He held out his hand to help me navigate the high step up onto the passenger seat in my short skirt.
I rotated toward the back to see who was joining us. Jett lounged against the back seat all decked out in black, of course, and Sixx sat on the opposite side, busily applying a thick layer of black eyeliner to her already perfectly applied makeup.
“Hey, Jett. Hey, Sixx. You guys look great. Is it me, or do we need to dress up more often?”
“It is not you. We clean up way too nice to be wasting this on a once a year thing. From now on, we dress up once a month, even if all we do is hang out at the 7-Eleven.” She shouted to Jett. “Deal?”
Jett lowered the ubiquitous sunglasses and nodded. “That’s affirmative.”
Sixx hollered forward at Creep, who had started backing The Gator out of the driveway. “You in, Creep? Dressing up for no reason at all? Just because we look so fine and beautiful?” Creep looked at me before he answered and nodded. “Oh, yeah,” he yelled back to Sixx. “Totally in on that one. Like what I see.” Without another word, he wheeled The Gator around and headed down my street.
“Do you have the directions, Creep?”
Jett hollered from the back of the van. “He’s not only got ‘em, Juice. He memorized them.”
I looked at Creep. “Memorized them?”
“Didn’t want to get us lost.” Creep defended himself. He looked so cute when he did it, I wanted to kiss him.
I couldn’t believe some of the thoughts I had been having. When did I start thinking like this? I guess when Creepshow started finally revealing his feelings for me, I began to realize I had feelings for him. I looked back over at him, casually driving The Gator. He looked so handsome, it bummed me out that he wasn’t my technical date tonight. But, I had to honor my commitment to Mason. He didn’t know that in the time since I last spoke to him on the phone, I think Creepshow and I had fallen for each other.
As for Creep and me, I couldn’t wait for the time when we could go on a real date together. As if he could hear what I was thinking, Creepshow looked over at me and grinned. We were too far apart in the van to hold hands, but he winked at me and a warm shiver ran up my spine.
Before too long, we arrived at the house of Mason’s friend. It wasn’t hard to tell we were at the right place. The house was lit up like the Las Vegas strip and there were about four hundred or more cars parked up and down the street starting from almost three blocks away from the actual address. This clearly had the makings of one rager of a party.
Creep got lucky and grabbed a spot close to the house from an arguing couple who were leaving in a hurry. He snugged The Gator into the vacated space near the curb and killed the engine, and we piled out. Although he rushed around to open my door, I had already gotten out and helped Sixx out of the sliding side door. She had on those killer high heels and needed help negotiating the step down to the sidewalk. Creep came over to the passenger door and we both took a hand and helped her down.
“Sixx, are you going to be able to walk in those things all night?” I had some concerns about her clomping around in those stilts in an unfamiliar house.
But Sixx waved me off. “No sweat, Juice. Are you kidding me? I love these shoes! I am not taking them off for any reason at all.” I could tell by the tone in her voice she meant it. She would rather die than not be remembered for fabulous footwear.
“They are great kicks, Sixx. I’ll give you that,” said Creepshow with a smile of appreciation.
I shot a surprised look at him.
“Well, they are,” he said defensively.
“I’m not denying that they are,” I explained with a laugh. “I’m just surprised you think so.” I leaned in and gave him a quick hug. “I think it’s great.”
Jett came around and slung his arm around Creepshow’s. “All right, comrades. We ready to crash this pad?”
“Jett, we were invited. Remember?”
“Yeah, Juice. But I maintain you were the main attraction. We were just the side dishes our host felt obligated to order along with the entrée.” I cast a sidelong glance at Creep, who was doing his best to pretend he didn’t care. Then I glared at Jett, who immediately looked contrite. Sixx did me one better.
“Come on, Jett! Ever learn to shut up?” And then she socked him in the arm.
I felt as though a big show of solidarity would be in order here and it was now or never. Creep needed to know he had nothing to worry about. Because as far as I was concerned, he didn’t. Stepping close to him, I slid my arms around his back. I looked up at him and locked my eyes with his. Taking a deep breath, I told him how I felt.
“Creep, I want to be clear about something. I’m totally into this new thing going on with you and me. You know I made the plans for tonight with Mason before you and I had our, well, let’s call it our coming out, for lack of better words.” I pressed into him and grabbed both of his hands. “I intend to honor my obligation with Mason in the same way I intend to honor my obligation to help Shane find a host body. This party tonight is important. I made a promise to Shane and I’m going to keep it.”
I stopped to see how Creep was taking this. He didn’t say anything, but he pulled me more tightly to him. I could feel Jett and Sixx behind us, not moving and not wanting to for fear of breaking our spell. I continued. “If you can take just one more promise, I want to make one to you, Creep. I promise it’s you I want to be with. Okay?”
Creepshow stepped back away from me and I almost stopped breathing. Did I say something wrong? Could it all just be too much? Then he took my face in his hands and leaned down and kissed me very gently, very softly, on the lips. With an unreadable expression, he straightened up and looked at me. He could have said anything at that moment, but what he said sounded perfect to me. “Okay.”
Jett cleared his throat behind me. “Hey, you two. Should we get going into this bash, or what?”
Creepshow winked at me and walked over to Sixx. He linked his arm through hers and said, “Let’s do this.” Jett slipped his arm through mine and that’s how we walked up the street to the party.