"Who was that?" I heard my aunt Charlie's voice coming from the living room.
"Wow, not even a 'hello my favorite niece, how was school?'" I joked, running into her room upstairs.
"I ask that everyday and you always give me the same answer: 'Same as always.'"
I wanted to give her a comeback, but I stopped when I entered the room and noticed the huge mess. Her closet was open and all her clothes were either on the floor or the bed.
"Wow, and I thought the messy one was me."
"Lizzie, I'm trying to find something to wear tonight, can you help me?
Charlotte Bowen was wearing a tight yellow dress, some white tights and her dark curly hair was caught up in a messy ponytail. It was obvious by the tired look on her face that she's spent the whole day in the diner working.
Tonight, she and some of her friends from work were planning on attending a Halloween party that the town organized every year, but she never had any time to attend because she was too busy working.
I sat on her bed, where our cat was laying. "Hey, Buttercup." I put her on my lap, petting her head. I directed my attention to my aunt. "Alright, what kind of costume do you have in mind?"
"I don't know, I don't own any costumes so the best I could do is see if any of my clothes remind me of any character."
I grabbed a black dress that was laying on the floor. " You could wear this and be Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany's." I suggested.
She took a look at the dress. "Nah, I would need the diamonds and a fancier dress."
"Charlie, no one will care about that."
"I will. If I'm gonna dress as someone, I better do it right."
"You're impossible." I laughed. "What if you wore that leather jacket of yours, put on some sunglasses and then bam, you're the Terminator."
"That's a good plan, but I always wear that leather jacket, it wouldn't be special."
"Oh boy!" I rolled my eyes, still going through my aunt's clothes while Buttercup decided to take a nap on top of some overalls.
"What about you, aren't you wearing a costume tonight? I know how much you love Halloween." She asked me.
"Yes, I'm dressing as a black cat and Allie's probably putting on some clothes that her parents are going to make her wear."
"So it's just Allison and you?"
"Yep." I nodded with my head.
"No boys?" She gave me a smirk.
"God, no! We're just going to spend the night watching scary movies and eating junk!" I confessed.
That was our tradition. When we were kids, my mom would take us trick or treating every year and let us spend most of the night watching a movie. I didn't stop with the trick or treating because I grew out of it. I stopped because I just couldn't do it without my mom. It just seemed wrong.
Allison never seemed to mind. I always told her that she could go trick or treating if she wanted to, but she never let me spend one Halloween without her. Instead, we just changed the tradition. Now, we would stop at the market to get candy and rent a horror movie. It was simple, but we loved it.
"Wow, that is so much different than my Halloween plans when I was your age." Charlie smiled. "In 9th grade, I went on a trip in the weeked with my friends, got drunk and I woke up in the beach with my friend Sasha, only in our underwear."
I looked at her, horrified. I mean, I knew that my aunt was kind of the troublemaker when she was a teenager, but every new story of hers would never not terrify me.
"What happened to you guys?"
"We probably decided to go swim at night or something." Charlie laughed. "And I remember that someone stole our car, so I had to call your mom because we were all so scared of calling our parents." I smiled with the mention of my mother. "I regretted it when she arrived and just yelled at us for like an hour. Plus, we were all hangover so it was extra painful."
I laughed so hard when she said that. I could easily see that moment in my head. Note, don't get drunk in the beach.
But to be honest, I don't think there's any chance that that might happen. Last year, Allie and I stole some of her dad's bottles and we didn't really liked it. Seriously, how can people drink that shit so much?
"God, I should've decided on my costume earlier."
"But why is that so important to you? No offense, but I thought adults didn't care about that sort of stuff." As soon as I finished that sentence, it hit me. "Holy crap, you want to impress someone, don't you?"
"Wow, that is so sexist! A woman may want to look beautiful without a man involved."
"Is it Todd?" I furrowed my eyebrow.
"Damn it, how did you know?"
Even though Charlie is my legal guardian and parent figure, most of the times she acts like we're the same age. That included talking about her love life.
"Because you've been in love with the guy for almost a year."
"Uou, love is a strong word." She replied. "Besides we work together. It would be weird."
"Weirder than dating Jay's dad?" I reminded her. Jay is the local bully and he goes to my school. He's a guy who spends his time tormenting other kids with his best friend Ice (i'm not kidding, that's how people call him), but I find him more stupid than evil.
"For your information, he was nice guy. We just wanted different things."
"Please, you just didn't want to be Jay's stepmom." I laughed. "Hey, I don't blame you, that guy is an ass." Charlie gave me a serious look. "A jerk, the guy is a jerk."
She sighed, sitting next to me. "I just don't want to ruin a good friendship. Sometimes, the people that we like don't like us back."
I thought of Max. "Believe me, I know that."
I grabbed Buttercup and caressed her head. That's when I noticed the brown overalls that she was sleeping on before.
"Hey, do you still have that baseball bat?"
"Yes." Charlie replied, confused. "Why?"
"Shelley Duvall in The Shining. It's an iconic costume."
She smiled at me. "I love it. You're a genius."
"I know." I joked.
We started to put the clothes back in the closet, while sorting out the ones that my aunt needed for her costume.
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I feel like this chapter was probably a bit boring and short, but I wanted to show a bit of Lizzie's life at home and her relationship with her aunt. Do you guys prefer long or short chapters?
Please vote and comment, that will motivate to keep updating this story.
