We plopped down on the cool cement of the front porch, bottles of pop in our hands. Sabrina placed the box of candy next to one of the column's on her sister's house. She and I were handing out candy since we were "too old" to trick-or-treat. Whatever. You're never too old to trick-or-treat.
It took a long time to convince my grandmother to let me go. I'm not kidding. The first thing she said when I told her the address was, "Isn't that next to where the Chins live?" She did a whole sassy lady thing and put her hand on her hip. It was indeed, four doors down. But they weren't bad kids so I don't see what her problem was.
"So we have about a half an hour until the kids start filing in, right?"
"Yeah." Sabrina responded, taking a swig of her root beer.
"Blah~!" I fell back onto the porch and my hair fanned out around me. "What do you want to do in the mean time?" I asked, turning onto my side to face her. She hesitated for a moment.
"Eat some candy?"
"Okay." I laughed. We both reached into the candy crate just as her father walked out. He stopped in the doorway, paused for a moment then spoke.
"Whatcha doin?" Though I reeled my hand back, Sabrina pressed forward and reached into the box and scooped up a handful of candy. Her father walked over and I tensed up for fear of him yelling at us for stealing the candy. But he sat down on the steps and helped himself. It was only when Sabrina's mother came out with granddaughter did the candy eating stop.
The baby was dressed in a bunny costume with a carrot plushie. It was all cute and stuff to Sabrina and I, until her mother handed us both a pair of bunny ears. "I want you two girls to match the baby." Uncertainly, I looked to my friend. She was grimacing.
"Really...?" She asked.
"Yes. Really. Put them on." With a huff, Sabrina placed the ears on her head. She looked pretty adorable, whereas I however, probably looked like an idiot.
Eventually, the trick-or-treating started. Sabrina held the crate in her lap, and held it out to any small child who walked by. But made any kid over about twelve get it themselves. We saw several people from our school actually. Freshmen. The girls dressed as "sexy" fairies and such. One girl dressed up as a cheerleader... And she was a cheerleader. She just used her uniform as a costume. The boys dressed up as things such as werewolves, stuff like that. And once again, someone used their uniform as a costume. A football player this time.
There was one boy who was going with his little brother. He was also a Freshman, dressed as a baseball player to match his sibling. But he was so tall that I mistook him for the boy's father at first, so I was a little surprised when he reached in and got candy. That was, until Sabrina said, "You know him." And it hit me. It was Bryson Hall. Or, Tall, as some say.
For a while, Sabrina and I picked out random costumes we liked, and secretly gave those people extra candy. There was a man (however not trick-or-treating), who was dressed as Rick from The Walking Dead. A woman dressed in all gray, with various color sample swatches pinned on her, was Fifty Shades of Gray. Clever I thought. A creepy guy in an inflatable duck costume who would go around just staring at people. Then a cute little boy dressed as Sully from Monster's Inc.
It was almost an hour before Sabrina spotted a lean, confident figure making his way down the road toward us. Sabrina squinted. "Is that... Thomas...?" I squinted as well, also in need of a pair of glasses.
"That's Thomas!" Almost simultaneously, the two of us tossed our rabbit ears into the candy crate.
"Hey," Thomas said when he finally made his way up to the porch. "Chin wanted to know if he could come over." He shifted his weight onto his right side and placed his hands on his hips. The teen ran a hand through his hair as he waited for a response. A small child sheepishly reached around him for a Twix bar in the candy box.
"I don't see why not." Sabrina finally responded. Her parents wouldn't care and I knew they wouldn't tell my grandparents but I immediately felt antsy at her response. I felt my stomach do a flop and suddenly regretted gorging myself with candy.
"Cool..." Thomas said. "I'll be back I guess." He spun on his heel and started back down the road. I swallowed a nervous lump in my throat and slipped the rabbit ears back onto my head.
Several long minutes passed and we still hadn't seen anything of either of the boys. With each minute, I became more and more nauseous. "Sabrina..." I started, stopping to press a hand to my mouth when the nausea became more intense. "Where's your bathroom...?"
"Down the hall first door on the left. Why? Are you feeling okay?"
"Yeah..." I shook my hand, dismissing my look of pain. "I'm fine..." Though clearly not convinced, Sabrina continued with her job.
Finally, the two boys were visible down the road. I took off the ears again and leaned into Sabrina's shoulder. I had never really done anything rebellious before, this was almost killing me.
"Hey." Michael smiled as he approached.
"Hi." I returned a smile though not as strong. Michael gestured to the spot beside me on the porch and I nodded.
"So where's Alex?" Sabrina asked. Her question was directed toward Michael, but I knew the answer.
"He's at the college. And I think his mom is taking him shopping afterwards." Alex took extra classes at a near by college for college credit. "That's why you can be here, right?" Another question directed toward Michael, though answered by someone else.
"Yeah." Thomas said. "And I don't want to be down here if you get caught so I'm headed back." Much to my surprise, Michael didn't really react and Thomas went back to Michael's house alone.
I looked at him, a little concerted. As if he could read my mind, he said, "I won't get caught." He made a sudden subtle move closer to me and I could feel the warmth from his arm on my own. My cheeks heated up.
We all sat in silence for a while, Michael occasionally sending me messages saying "I love you" or "You're so adorable". But then we forced a pair of ears on Michael and told him to say "Trick-or-treat" to the drunk man across the street handing out kind sized candy bars. And he actually got candy.
The three of us sat together for a while, sharing a large Hershey bar and admiring or judging costumes or people. There was one time that a large group of teens started to congregate in front of the house to chat, blocking the way for the younger kids. So I pelted them with crappy candy. And then a boy who followed Sabrina and I around at the Halloween dance the year before actually took candy from us, which was kind of startling. Because when he started to walk away, Sabrina stood up and simply shouted, "YOU!!" Gaining the attention from pretty much everyone within a thirty foot radius. It was pretty calm from there on out.
That is until Michael got a phone call. "Its my mom." He said, standing up and moving away.
"Hello? You're almost home? On our road? Oh. Okay... Bye." Panicked and pale, Michael bolted from the scene. Not even seconds after he was out of view, Alex and his mom drove by in their red car. Though I was slightly upset at not getting a proper goodbye, I was glad Michael made it back hopefully without being discovered.
"Who was that boy with Michael?" Sabrina's mom asked with a sneer.
"Thomas." Sabrina stated bluntly.
"What a show off." My heart jumped at the harshness in her father's voice.
"Dad..."
"I'm just saying. He kept flexing for you girls and stuff." Her father huffed.
"He has a girlfriend."
"So?" Sabrina hissed and rolled her eyes, obviously not wanting to deal with her father. I've always thought he was a nice man. But maybe there was something about him that I didn't see.
It started to get dark, so Sabrina and I were gathering up the remaining candy when I noticed a dark figure making its way over through the grass. I got excited, my first thought being that it was Michael. But then my bubble burst at the sudden realization that the silhouette that I was currently laying eyes upon was too lean, the shoulders weren't broad enough and the walk wasn't as confident. It was Alex. I felt slightly deflated but felt guilty for feeling so.
"Hey, guys." Alex said upon reaching his destination. He looked nervous, his arms were pulled in tight to his sides and his hands were shoved deep into his pockets. His eyes flicked quickly from me to Sabrina and he fixed his gaze there, avoiding looking at me. Sabrina didn't really look at him. Her attention was on her Tumblr news feed.
"Hey, Alex." I said, a little late, to break the tension that had started to build. Much to my dismay, it only caused the cloud to thicken and Alex simply turned his body away from me.
My mind wandered as we all sat or stood together. Sabrina's parents had retreated inside the house so it was just us and the awkward silence. At once more attempt to make things less awkward, I leaned over to Sabrina and cupped my hand over her ear. "Sneak up behind Alex and put the bunny ears on him. I'll get a picture."
"Okay." She said with a smile and a laugh. Slowly her hand made its way to the headband and up into her lap. After a few minutes had passed, she jumped up and forcefully stuck the ears on his head. I hurried to her phone and not being entirely sure how to use it, snapped a few blurry shots.
"What? Come on guys!" Alex growled. He tossed the source of his embarrassment to the ground. Sabrina and I took in the details of the glorious photo while he repeatedly told us to delete it. It was at about this time that my grandmother pulled around the corner and into their yard. Because apparently being a decent person and parking in the driveway is too mainstream or something.
"Thanks for a laugh." I gave Alex a friendly slap on the back before hopping into the backseat of the car. Front isn't my preference. After dismissing myself from my friends with a bye and a goodnight, my grandmother pulled out.
"So what do you owe the honor of Alex's presence?" My grandmother asked with a hint of anger. I expected her to. Of course. Typical her.