Chapter 12
Friday
Brooklyn
I took a deep breath as I walked into the foyer of the Caldwell mansion. It was decorated very similarly to how it had been the last time I’d been to one of their Halloween parties. Fake blood oozed down the banister and cobwebs wrapped around the chandelier. And down the hall to the left, screams could be heard.
I’d been so in love with Matt that Halloween. But for some reason, all I could think about was the first time I’d ever stepped foot inside here. That party I attended with Felix and Kennedy. I’d had no idea the party would be here or I probably wouldn’t have agreed to come. I’d hated Matt. Loved, hated. It was definitely a fine line when it came to him.
But what I remembered best about that night was that I felt…hopeful. Hopeful for my future. And definitely a little scared. Especially when Rob pushed me into Matt’s dark room. My eyes wandered up the stairs.
And God, who was I kidding? I hadn’t hated Matt. I’d been so desperately in love with him. Yeah, stepping into his childhood home made me feel so freaking hopeful. Especially if I didn’t think about how that night ended.
“What are you thinking?” Matt asked.
“That I feel 16 again.” I smiled up at him.
And he smiled down at me.
“Well, there’s one thing I can promise about tonight. It won’t end the same as the last Halloween party we attended together.”
“I should hope not. I also hope it doesn’t end like that other party. The first time I was here.”
He winced. “I owe you a thousand apologies, Brooklyn.”
“For making me hide in the closet while you flirted with Wizzy? Mhm,” I said with a laugh.
“I’m sorry.” He kissed my forehead. “I’m sorry.” He kissed the tip of my nose and I laughed again. “I’m so sorry about all of it.” He placed a kiss on my lips.
“You are officially forgiven. Besides, before she showed up, it was one of the best moments of my life. Remember how I punched you because I thought you were a vampire?” That night really was crazy.
He tucked a loose strand of hair behind my ear. “I remember every second.”
I was smiling so hard it hurt.
“Thanks for coming tonight. It means a lot to me.”
Standing here with him, it was easy to not be scared. I was doing my best to try and keep the thoughts in the back of my head where they belonged. We were safe. Jacob was safe. I put my arm in front of my stomach and then immediately dropped it. I had no idea why I kept doing that. “Thanks for being patient with me. I know the past couple weeks have been hard. I just…”
“Wanted to be home, I get it. I love that I’m a part of that. And like I said, nothing is going to happen tonight, because you’re not leaving my sight.”
“Oh, I know, I’m not leaving your side for a second. There’s a reason why I chose this couple.” I gestured to our costumes, trying not to get distracted by what his fig leaf was hiding. “I’m going to be such a stage five clinger tonight.”
He laughed. “Should we get in there?”
“Yeah, Nigel’s costume doesn’t make much sense without us.” Matt insisted that Nigel go in while he took off his clothes in the car. But I was pretty sure he just didn’t want to be seen in the party next to Nigel.
Matt groaned. “I hate his costume.”
“It’s hilarious.”
“It’s really not.”
It so is.I tried to hide my laugh as Matt tucked me into his side. We made our way down the hall with the eerie music. Each step grew a little darker. I was gripping his hand so tightly, looking left and right, waiting for something to pop out. But…nothing happened.
The hallway was decorated with tons of tombstones. But there were no coffins for zombies or skeletons to pop out of. It was just tombstone after tombstone. The music had grown more sinister, but nothing else had.
I took a long, slow breath. “This isn’t nearly as scary as last time…”
A ghost fell from the ceiling right in front of us, cutting me off. I screamed at the top of my lungs and pressed my back against the wall. Okay, yeah, this definitely felt like the Halloween party, not the other party. My heart was racing so fast.
Matt laughed.
“Not funny!” I said. “I nearly had a heart attack.”
Matt caged me in against the wall. “I love making your heart race.”
“You probably shouldn’t make my heart race too much. Because it’ll just get you excited too and you might tent your fig leaf.”
He laughed and pulled back. “Fair. You really should have sewn on a bigger leaf.”
“That’s the biggest one I could find.”
He smiled. He seemed very content with that explanation.
I grabbed his hand. “Come on. Let’s get out of this hallway as fast as possible.” I started running, pulling him with me.
He laughed when another ghost fell from the ceiling and I screamed. This shit seriously wasn’t funny. This party probably wasn’t the best choice after being too scared to leave the house in weeks. I stepped to the side to avoid another ghost. I knew it was all fake, but I couldn’t seem to calm my racing heart.
There was a big wrought iron gate near the end of the hallway, several feet in front of the closed door at the end of the hall. We pushed it, but it didn’t budge.
“What the hell?” Matt said and tried again to no avail.
There was a low groaning noise behind us and the floorboard in front of one of the tombstones shifted to the side. A zombie started slowly sitting up.
“Open the gate!” I yelled.
“I can’t. It’s locked.”
Someone screamed behind us.
I turned around to see Penny clinging to James. She was waving around a flute like she was going to hit a ghost or zombie with it. And from her band camp t-shirt, I knew immediately that she was the girl from American Pie. But James’ costume completed the couples’ costume perfectly. His hair was really curly and he was dressed almost exactly like Matt. But instead of a fig leaf on his boxers, he had a pie tin over his junk.
I would have laughed, but the zombie was starting to climb out of the floor.
“Open it!” Penny yelled.
“It’s locked,” I said.
“Oh my God, how do we get out of here?!” She grabbed my arm.
Matt rattled the gate again. “Seriously, what the fuck?”
“I think we need a key,” James said.
“The key!” Penny said. “The one in the invitation! Of course!”
I’d never seen the invitation. Matt had just told me about it. But I liked the idea of the extra security layer.
James put the key into the lock and turned it. The gate squeaked on its hinges, sending a chill down my spine.
The four of us ran toward the door at the end of the hall.
“Matt, your parents are sick,” Penny said with a laugh. “Every year gets scarier. Where do they come up with this stuff?”
“They watch a lot of movies,” Matt said. “Too many probably.” He was just about to push the door open when it opened on its own. The hinges squeaked worse than the metal gate.
“Come in if you dare,” boomed a voice from a hidden speaker.
I agreed with Penny. Matt’s parents were twisted.
But when the doors finally opened all the way, the ballroom was significantly less scary. Creepy? Yes. But the zombies and ghosts were serving hors d’oeuvres instead of trying to attack us. Which I much preferred.
Cobwebs cascaded down the walls with huge spiders that were somehow moving about on them. Blood was splattered all over the cobwebs and the sound of chain saws could be heard beneath the music the band was playing. The side of the stage was decorated to make it look like the band was standing on top of an old VHS tape. But the music was upbeat and fun. And everyone dancing and drinking and chatting over in a pumpkin patch definitely calmed my nerves.
“I’m going to go get us drinks,” Penny said. “I’ll be right back.”
Rob walked over to us. “Hey pie fucker,” he said to James.
James laughed. “I’m obviously Jim from American Pie.”
“Or you’re just a pervert.” He turned to me. “This party is great and all, but wanna come to the party in my pants, Sanders?”
“Um…what?”
He gestured to his costume. He had glasses on, a brown suit that looked like it was from the 80s, and he was holding a hand grenade. “I love dress.” He poked my stomach. “I love breast.” He poked the side of my boob. “I love nipp…”
“Dude, stop saying random stuff you love and poking Brooklyn.” Matt swatted his hand away. “We know who you are. You’re the weatherman from Anchorman.”
Rob smiled. “Nailed it. Yup, I’m Brick.” His smile grew. “I stabbed someone with a trident earlier.”
I started laughing. “Ah, I remember that!”
“It’s better with Daphne. Where is she? Oh, there she is.” He pointed to the man walking up to us.
Wait, no. Oh my God.
Daphne was dressed like Ron Burgundy from the movie. She was wearing a fitted burgundy suit and had a fake mustache on.
“Hey, toots,” Daphne said and slapped Rob’s butt.
I wrinkled my nose. “What’s that smell?”
“Do you like it?” She adjusted her tie. “I call it sex panther. It’s illegal in eight countries.”
I couldn’t stop laughing. “You two are ridiculous,” I said.
Daphne kissed his cheek.
“Stop that, it tickles,” he swatted her hand away. “What are you supposed to be?” he asked us.
“You motorboatin’ son of a bitch,” Matt said. “You old sailor you!”
Rob just stared at him. “You want me to motorboat, Sanders? I mean…if you really want me to.”
“I gotta get out of here, man,” Matt added. “I got a stage five clinger. Virgin clinger.” He pointed to me.
“If Sanders is a virgin she won’t be for long in that dress.” Rob winked at me.
How was he not getting who we were? “If you ever leave me I will find you,” I said and booped Matt on the tip of his nose.
Daphne, Rob, and James were all staring at us like we were crazy.
“It makes more sense with Nigel,” I said. “But I don’t know where he…”
“You called, mademoiselle?” Nigel said and appeared next to Matt.
Matt jumped.
“We’re trying to get them to guess our couples costume,” I said.
Nigel nodded. “Our throuples costume, yes.” He stared at Rob for a second. “Wait, why are you being me?” he asked.
“What?” Rob looked truly offended.
“The hand grenade. That’s me from when I saved Brooklyn.”
Rob laughed. “No, I’m Brick.”
“Did he just call himself a brick?” Nigel turned to me.
“Forget about Rob’s costume,” I said. “Help us explain ours.”
“Right. Let me get into character. I’m a homo painter, you see.” He tossed his scarf over his shoulder and turned toward Matt. “I made this painting for you. Because of the moment we shared at the table.”
“Nigel…” Matt started.
“Shush.” Nigel said and put his finger to his lips. “Don’t you love it? It’s so sexual and violent.”
Matt looked disgusted and moved his face away.
“Stop touching me,” Matt said.
“But they need to know about us!”
It was actually a perfect rendition of him being tied to the bed in the movie. And I wasn’t sure Matt even intended it to be. I could barely breathe I was laughing so hard. Rob, James, and Daphne were all laughing too. They had to know who we were now.
“Quit it, Nigel!” Matt yelled and slapped his hand away.
“Do you want me to hide in the closet?”
“Um…sure?” Matt said.
“Great! I’ll pop out at just the right moment.” Nigel sprinted off.
James laughed. “Wow, okay. That was a lot. But you guys are from Wedding Crashers.”
“Bingo!”
“We actually have a third to our costume too. My dad is around here somewhere being super awkward and giving out sexual advice like the dad from American Pie.”
I couldn’t wait to see that.
“Wait, didn’t the girl from Wedding Crashers have red hair?” Rob asked.
“Yeah.” I shrugged. “It was last minute.”
“Or was it because you didn’t want to accidentally seduce my brother?”
I felt my cheeks turning red. “Definitely not.”
“Or maybe it was because you were worried Matt would like you more with red hair? Because of his crush on Penny and all?”
I actually had thought about that…
“Shut it, Rob,” Matt said. “I don’t think Brick is supposed to think that much about anything.”
Rob shrugged. “Fair. I was just curious. I feel like it was a little of both though, right?” He turned back to me.
“What did I miss?” Penny asked. She was somehow balancing a ton of shots in her hands.
Daphne turned to her. “I’m in a glass case of emotion!” she yelled and knocked the glasses out of Penny’s hands.
“Jesus, Daphne,” James said.
Penny just laughed. “You’re getting the next ones, Ron Burgundy.” She turned to me. “It took me a minute, but you’re from Wedding Crashers, right? The stage five clinger and the Celebration portrait? Epic.”
She didn’t seem to remember that the girl had red hair. Or didn’t care. Because it didn’t matter.
“I love boob,” Rob said and poked the side of Penny’s boob.
“Stop it,” she said and swatted his hand away.
“I love redhead.” He poked her hair and winked at me.
Rob loved stirring the pot.
Matt pulled me in close. “I don’t have a crush on Penny,” he whispered into my ear.
“I know.” I did know. He’d been in a bad place. Because of me. I looked up at him, but I caught sight of Mason and Bee out of the corner of my eye. “The Caldwells seem to prefer blondes. Speaking of which…why the hell are Mason and Bee dressed like that?”