The Riley Curse | Ethan Landry

09. Happy Halloween

"Love at first sight," Chad said dramatically.

"What?" Ethan asked with a horrified look on his face. "You think Tatum's cute, don't you?" Chad asked.

"What? No," Ethan said, Chad could tell that he was clearly lying. "Right, of course not. You're a terrible liar," Chad said.

Then Tatum's bedroom door opened. "You need to tell Tara to stop giving me pirate costumes. If I had a dollar for every time she had us dress up as pirates, I would be a fucking millionaire," Tatum said.

"You look cute," Quinn said and Tatum's annoyance calmed down a bit. "Thank you, Quinn," Tatum said and she started to walk towards the door. "Let's go before I change my mind," Tatum said.

The two guys quickly followed her out of the apartment. "Where is this party?" Tatum asked and Chad hesitated. "At a frat house. I don't remember which one," Chad said.

"Oh, fantastic," Tatum said sarcastically as they reached the lobby of the apartment building. As they walked Tatum saw the guy that lives across from her. Sam has had a crush on this guy since she moved here but hasn't had the courage to ask him out. So since they didn't know a single thing about him, Quinn, Tara, and Tatum named him 'Cute Boy.' Their favorite thing was teasing Sam about Cute Boy, it is an entertaining pass time for the three of them. Tatum and Tara even got Chad, Mindy, and Anika to join in.

"Isn't that Cute Boy?" Chad asked in a whisper as they walked past him. "Yup. Tara and I have a bet going. She thinks they're already hooking up and I think they're not yet, but will soon," Tatum stated once they left the apartment.

"Oh, Tara might be on to something," Chad said and Tatum shrugged. "I'm kinda leaning towards that too," Tatum said.

"What are you guys talking about?" Ethan asked.

"There's this guy that lives across from Tara, Sam, and I that Sam finds attractive, but she's 'too scared' to talk to him," Tatum explained.

"And you think they are talking?" Ethan asked.

"Sorta. Tara thinks they are, I don't think they are yet," Tatum said, then the conversation went silent for a moment. That is until Chad started talking to Ethan about something random. Tatum wasn't really paying attention to what it was, mostly because her attention was on trying to make sure she was being observant.

The further she got away from the apartment building, the more nervous Tatum got. She would occasionally look over her shoulder to make sure they weren't being followed. She even jumped at the sound of a group laughing as they crossed the street behind her.

"You okay?" Chad asked.

"Yup," Tatum said, she was lying. She wasn't okay. She felt nervous and uncomfortable. She didn't like walking at night, even if she was with people. What makes it worse is that it's Halloween. This means people dress up as their favorite characters, for some people, that's Ghostface. She was just hoping that she wasn't going to see anyone dressed up like that.

-

They arrived at the party and just from the front lawn Tatum could hear the music and chatter. They walked in and Tatum stayed glued to Ethan and Chad's side until she found Anika and Tara who were grabbing drinks. Tatum tapped Chad and pointed at the two girls before walking toward them. She just did that because she didn't want to yell over the music.