Chapter 17 – TrickTreat
Friday
I threw my elbow back, slamming it into the intruder’s hard abs.
He cursed under his breath and released me.
I tried to run, but he grabbed me again, his arms wrapping around me from behind. “Why the heck did you just hit me?”
I elbowed him again and tried to scream for Porter. But I barely got the P out before the masked man clamped his hand over my mouth again.
I bit down on his palm.
He dropped his hand, but kept me firmly pressed against him. “Damn it, Scarlett, it’s just me.”
Wait. I knew that voice anywhere. “Axel?”
He released me. “Why did you bite me so hard?”
I spun around to look at him to see him shaking off his hand. “What the heck is wrong with you?!” I shoved his chest.
He laughed and pulled off his mask. “I thought you’d be thanking me for the soup, not assaulting me.”
“I thought you were a murderer!”
He laughed. “Were you really watching scary movies alone? Rookie move, Scarlett.”
“You knew that! And you purposely scared me!” I took a few deep breaths to try to make my heartbeat return to normal.
But calming down just made me feel my scalding skin from the soup.
I started fanning the front of my flannel pajamas to soothe it.
“What are you even doing here? Why aren’t you at the party? ”
“Well, it seemed like you needed me. And the party would have been lame without you anyway. I have a better idea for tonight.” His eyes trailed down to where I was still fanning myself. “Are you okay?”
“No, I’m not okay! You scared me half to death and I dropped my soup and burnt myself.”
He grabbed my hand to stop me from fanning my skin. “Let me see.” He pulled my hand down and then pushed the collar of my pajama top to the side. His fingers gently trailed along my collarbone. “Your skin is a little red. Give me one second.” He went to the bathroom and came back with a washcloth.
I just stared at him as he unbuttoned the top button of my pajamas and pressed the cold cloth against my skin.
“Better?” he asked as he gently blotted the spot. Before I could respond, he lifted the cloth, leaned down, and blew on my skin.
Him taking care of me was even better than the soup he’d sent. And his lips so close to my skin made my heart start racing again.
“Scarlett?”
I swallowed hard. “Yes?”
He chuckled and pressed the cloth back down on the burn. “I asked if that felt any better?”
I nodded and then cleared my throat. “I should probably change.”
“That’s the plan,” he said. “Hold that.”
I grabbed the washcloth as he wandered over to my closet. “What do you want to be?”
“For...what?” I asked.
“We’re going out.”
I sighed and removed the washcloth from my skin. “I’m not going to the party, Axel.”
“I’m not talking about the party.” He pushed some of my clothes to the side as he looked around.
I quickly cleaned up the soup and grabbed a hoodie. “I’m going to go change into this and then finish my scary movie.”
Axel laughed. “No, we’re going out. Here. This is perfect.” He pulled a floor-length gown out of the back of my closet.
“I’m not wearing...”
“It’ll go perfect with my crown.” He picked it up off my desk. “I was wondering if you still had this.”
My mom had put Axel’s homecoming crown on my desk a few days ago. She said she’d held on to it just in case. And I’d snapped at her. It was like she’d willed Jacob to break up with me. For God knows what reason.
“You can be a princess.” He put the crown on my head. “And I’ll go as a psycho murderer.”
“Go where?”
“We’re going trick or treating.”
I laughed. “No. We’re not.”
“Yes we are.”
“We’re seniors in high school, Axel.”
He smiled. “Which is why I’m wearing a mask. And we’re not trick or treating anywhere around here. Come on. It’ll be fun, I promise. You loved trick or treating. I don’t even know why we ever stopped.”
“Because we grew up.”
“It’s free candy.”
I laughed. We’d stopped trick or treating years ago. But I had always loved it... I sighed. “I need a shower.” I pointed to my rat’s nest of a hairdo. “And I’m wearing glasses and...”
“You look perfect. Just put this on.” He tossed me my dress.
Perfect. I pressed my lips together. How many times had I wanted him to think I looked perfect? For a second I just stared at him. My heart hurt. But going out trick or treating would surely make it ache a little less. And the candy wouldn’t hurt either. “We could just order in some candy.”
“And where’s the fun in that? Come on, get dressed. We’re going to make you all bloody anyway.” He pulled some red lipstick he’d snatched from my bathroom out of his pocket. “You’re my homecoming queen murder victim.”
I laughed. “Okay. Fine. Turn around.”
Axel sat down on my bed and turned his head.
I quickly changed into the dress and held it tight to my chest. “Zip me?”
Axel walked over. His fingers trailed up my spine as he zipped my dress up.
I stared in the mirror, trying to ignore the way his fingers made my skin tingle.
The dress was from a few years ago and didn’t fit quite right.
But the tight fabric actually made my boobs look better.
Which was a confidence boost I needed. For some reason all day, I just had this terrible fear that Jacob would start dating Olivia.
God I hated Olivia. I’d just die if that happened.
I pushed my glasses up the bridge of my nose. “What do you think?” I turned around to look at Axel.
“Perfect,” he said again. “You’re just missing one thing.” He took off the cap of the lipstick and ran a line from the corner of my mouth, down my chin and neck. He stopped at my clavicle bone.
I tried to force myself to keep breathing normally.
He placed the cap back on and tossed it on my bed. “Ready for the best night ever?”
***
Axel parked his car on the curb next to an old brownstone.
The street reminded me of the one Jacob’s house was on.
But I knew why Axel had brought me here.
The whole street was decked out in Halloween decorations.
It was almost vulgar, in the best way possible.
Kids were running down the sidewalk with bags full of candy laughing.
And by kids, I mean, little kids. No one looked as old as us.
“Are you sure about this?” I asked. “What if we get turned away?”
“Then we grab all the candy and run.”
I laughed and climbed out of the car.
Axel grabbed my hand and pulled me up the steps of the first brownstone. He dropped my hand and knocked. Instead of a normal knocker, it was a white skeleton head. Why hadn’t we come to this street when we were little? It was epic.
A man with gray hair answered the door. I was pretty sure he was dressed as Einstein. His hair was everywhere and he was wearing a lab coat and glasses.
“Trick or treat,” Axel said.
The guy didn’t seem at all surprised by our ages. But then again, he couldn’t see Axel’s face. And I had no idea what he thought of me. He took one look at me and accidentally dropped the piece of candy he was about to put in my bag.
I picked it up off the ground, and Axel grabbed my hand to pull me back down the stairs as he burst out laughing.
“I think you gave that old man a stroke,” Axel said.
“What? No, he just dropped the candy.”
“After looking at you.”
I shook my head and laughed. “I have no idea what you’re talking about. Maybe he was horrified by my messy hair.”
“I think it was more likely your tight dress.”
I didn’t have time to respond. He’d pulled me up the steps of the next brownstone. A couple answered the door dressed as zombies. They didn’t react to our ages either. We went from one house to the next laughing.
I was kind of kicking myself for not trick or treating the last few years. The air was unseasonably warm for October and for the first time since Jacob had broken up with me, I didn’t feel so cold.
Axel and I ran around like all the little kids. In a race against time for when doors would no longer be answered and all the candy would be gone. But we also took a ton of breaks to eat candy. I was having the time of my life. The sugar rush was definitely part of it.
“Race you to the next street,” Axel said when we reached the end of the decorated lane. He pointed to another decorated street a block away.
Before I could agree to the race, he took off.
“Cheater!” I yelled. I picked up my skirt in my hands to run after him. I laughed as he crossed the street and almost didn’t see a little kid dressed in all black. Axel jumped out of the way and almost tripped.
But even that little hiccup didn’t let me beat him. He was sitting on the curb of the decorated row of houses when I reached him.
I laughed and plopped down beside him. “Candy break?”
“Candy break,” he agreed.
I grabbed a Snickers bar, tore it open, and shoved the whole thing in my mouth.
Axel pulled off his mask. “I’m glad you’re eating again.”
I slowly swallowed the Snickers. “I’m not sure this really counts as food.”
He laughed. “Yeah, well. At least it’s something.”
“I also ate some of the soup you sent me before I spilled it all down the front of myself. Thank you. For sending that. It’s enough to feed an army.”
“I didn’t realize you were upset that I never sent it to you before.”
“I mean...” I shrugged. “I don’t know, Axel. I didn’t think I was. I was just upset today. But sometimes it feels like I care more about you than you care about me.”
“For the record, I wanted to send you soup lots of times. I just figured your dad might take it the wrong way.”
“The wrong way?”
Axel shrugged. “I thought he’d think I was hitting on you, and I didn’t want to make him mad.”
I wanted to laugh, but he looked deadly serious. “You were worried my dad would think you were hitting on me? By sending me soup when I was sick?”
Axel looked up at the sky even though we couldn’t see the stars with how many lights were decorating the street. “Yeah.”
I took a second to stare at him as I unpacked everything he’d just said. I was pretty sure he was saying he didn’t want my dad to think he liked me. Since he didn’t. Right? And I certainly knew what being on my dad’s bad side was like. Mr. Halifax’s face was proof of that.