Torn

8.

     "Are you just about ready?"  I yelled to Darry as I picked my keys up off the dresser.

     "Yeah, give me a minute."

     It was October 30th.  The day before Halloween, my most very favourite of holidays.  Darry and I had been a couple ever since that night at the beach house.  We made the move to Vancouver together, and never looked back.  He lived on campus and I lived in an extremely small, one room apartment.  Rent was crazy expensive here so I took what I could get.  Most nights he stayed at my place though, because I refused to stay in his dorm room with his really creepy roommate.

     We were supposed to be on our way to the costume rental shop by now.  I had mine special ordered.  I was going as a Gothic Vampire Princess, and Darry was going as Dracula.  

     Darry emerged from the bathroom with a rather annoyed look on his face.  "Have you seen my phone?"  

     I shook my head.  "No, not since yesterday.  You had it in your room when we dropped off your books."  I scanned my room, doing a quick once over, to see if it had merely been over looked.

     Darry mumbled something under his breath, and grabbed his jacket off my bed.

     "Are you okay?"  I asked, resting my hand on his back.

     He pulled away abruptly.  "Fine.  Let's just get going."

     I sighed.  Darry had begun to change over the last few months.  I didn't know if it was the stress from his second year of University getting to him or what, but he was definitely different.  He was having weird mood swings for one thing.  I tried to take them in stride.  A bad day here and there, wasn't too bad.  But nothing could have prepared me for what was really going on.  His normal calm and laid back demeanor had changed and he had become anxious and distant.  Long gone were the days of poetry and flattery.  I sighed and picked up my coat.  I pulled open the door and stepped out into the hall.  Darry stopped just outside the door.

     "Oh, Mila, can you just go on without me?  I just remembered where I might have left my phone.  Can you just pick my costume up for me and I will meet up with you later?"  He leaned over and gave me a brief kiss on the cheek.  "Thanks babe, you're a doll."

     I rolled my eyes and grumbled to myself as I headed down the hall.  It seemed more often than not now, he was blowing me off.  Fine, whatever.  I pulled my phone out of my coat pocket and scrolled to a familiar number.

     "Josh?  Hey, what's up?  It's Mila.  Wanna go with me to pick up my costume for the 604 Records Halloween party tomorrow night?  Yeah?  Awesome!  See you in like, ten minutes."  I hung up my phone and shoved it back into my pocket.  If Darry didn't want to go, then I would just have to find someone else who was willing to spend time with me.