Don't Fear The Reaper

{xii. making enemies of friends}

❝Someday, somebody's gonna see inside. You have to face up, you can't run and hide.❞

-'Lonesome Loser' by Little River Band

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As the sun quickly makes its descent across the sky, Ashdown is swathed in amber light, making every brick colonial and sugar maple glow with the feeling of October. I know that soon enough, jack-o-lanterns and fake cobwebs will be dotting every house from here to Portland, and I can only imagine the deathly imagery that will come along, but for now, I just pull my jacket tight around me and savor the last moments of September.

Today the sky is blue and bright for once, despite the wind. Every now and then, the breeze will settle for just a moment, and I can almost feel the sun, but then it's gone without remorse.

Macy spends about 20 minutes in her house begging her mom to let her go to the lantern festival, before coming out and saying, "Thank god for Bass."

"What does your cat have to do with anything?"

"The only reason my mom let me go," Macy explains, her cheeks rosy with ebullience, "Is because I promised her I'd start cleaning Bass's litter box from now on. Instead of leaving it for... whoever does it now."

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Up next is Trevor. When we ring his doorbell, it takes a few moments for him to lumber over and greet us with stress in his eyes. "Macy?" he asks tiredly, "And Lila?"

Macy shifts like she's about to hug him, but then thinks better of it and says, "Hi. Are you busy tonight?"

"Wait," I interrupt without thinking, "Don't you guys have a game to attend?"

Trevor takes a deep breath, and I can hear the tension in his voice. He speaks stiffly, like we caught him in the middle of something important and he wants to get this over with. "They had funds left over from the cheer uniforms, so they started re-doing the Ridge tonight. They're fixing the lights first, so we can't play here. But we're playing Mill River, and they don't have lights at all, so we're playing tomorrow afternoon before sunset."

This is news to me, but as always, I'm not surprised I wasn't aware of this. Although probably old to her, these facts make Macy smile slightly. "So you're free tonight, then?"

"What do you have in mind if I were?"

I hold up the tickets, and sheepishly say, "I got tickets to a Lantern Festival in-" I pause to quickly scan over the gold slips- "Lake Placid!"

Hoping to the heavens above that he'll say yes, I cross my fingers behind my back and together with Macy give him a pleading look. Trevor gazes at me, sighs, gazes at his girlfriend, and sighs deeper. "Who else is coming to this thing?"

"I was gonna invite Veronica," Macy answers, surprisingly aware of the fact that it would make no sense for me to invite her.

"Veronica." Trevor echoes warily. "I didn't realize Lila and Ver-"

Before he can finish, I quickly add, "I let Macy choose who to invite. And, um, anyways, I have a guest of my own. He's waiting in the car."