23. Nolan
Nolan
“I don’t know if we can call this a secret tradition,” Hadley says, eyeing the woods we’re waiting outside of.
Here at Camden, the special effects and theater department work with two neighboring colleges to create a haunted mile-long walk through the woods.
From here, we can’t see anything, but once you step inside, it’s like a movie set with props and entire scenery sets, not to mention the countless costumed actors.
Hannah nods. “The entire campus is here.”
Hadley points at her as validation. “It’s open to the public.”
Lenny grins, his ridiculous stick-on mustache catching in his mouth. He’s dressed as Hulk Hogan. He drapes his arm around Hadley and Katie. “Because it’s awesome.”
“The cookie run wasn’t a secret and was open to the public,” I remind her.
“Yeah, but…” Hadley objects looking at Hannah for help.
“Did you do the haunted walk last year?” I ask her.
“No…” she admits. “Because I hate horror stuff.”
Evelyn chuckles, leaning closer to Hudson.
“Weren’t we supposed to be dressed in costume?” Sadie asks from where she’s clutching Palmer’s arm and eyeing the half of our group who didn’t dress up. Palmer’s dressed as a doctor and Sadie is wearing a naughty nurse costume.
Hadley glances at the darkened skies that were becoming overcast before we left, and shrugs. “When I heard the woods were involved, I assumed they were optional.”
“Yeah. There’s no way I was going to run from someone dressed like that in a mini skirt,” Hannah says, pointing at someone approaching the front gate dressed like a zombie with plenty of gore.
“I just don’t wear costumes,” I say with a shrug.
Hadley looks at where Hannah’s pointing, eyes growing wide. “Katie was smart to bow out.”
I wrap my arm around her shoulders. “Skydiving, Cutlass.”
Hadley shakes her head.
Our group is large enough that they ask us to divide into two. Hannah, Ethan, Colin, Sam, Hudson, Evelyn, Grey, Palmer, Sadie, Corey, and a girl he invited whose name I keep forgetting, Lenny, and a couple of cleat chasers he invited are in the first group with Hadley and me.
“You guys are up!” A man dressed as a creepy clown says, offering Hadley a red balloon.
“No thanks,” she says.
Lenny takes it.
We only make it a few feet inside when a branch breaks to our left. Everyone stops, waiting to see if something jumps out at us. A dark-haired girl that Lenny brought clamps her arms around my waist, burying her face in my chest. A redhead is on my other side, gripping my arm.
My gaze turns to Hadley. Her only reaction is a slight hitch to her eyebrows before she moves to stand beside Evelyn.
Lenny grins at me. “I thought you brought a date?”
I pull my arm free from the redhead and then extract myself from the brunette. Lenny gladly takes my place.
I catch sight of Hadley and Evelyn near the front of the group, arms linked.
Hudson says something to Grey and then joins me. “Don’t you love unintended fuck ups?” he asks.
I want to say something flippant about Hadley and mine’s arrangement which is supposed to avoid things like jealousy and hurt feelings, but as I reverse the situation, picturing her clutching Lenny, Palmer, or even Hudson, jealousy hops into the driver’s seat, steering my emotions and thoughts.
I run a hand across my brow, considering my reply. “Are you worried the honeymoon phase will end?”
Hudson raises his brow, pausing as a werewolf-looking creature jumps out at us. The group screeches. As their screams calm down, Hudson shakes his head. “You haven’t even asked her out and you’re already worried about things going to shit. And you called me a cynic.”
I give him a sardonic look. “Even during the best of times with my ex, things were never as smooth and easy as…”
“As they are with Hadley?”
I meet his gaze with a silent admission.
“It’s not always going to be smooth and easy.
For you guys or with Evelyn and me. It scared the shit out of me, too.
I didn’t want to lose our friendship, but then I realized I’d rather fight to be together than fight to stay apart.
And—” A man holding a chainsaw tears out of the woods.
Hadley screams. I know her voice from the entire chorus.
I jog around Corey and Palmer with their dates and catch up to Hadley, putting my arm around her shoulder, and staring down the asshole with the chainsaw down. “Imagine it’s a movie,” I tell her. “It’s all fake.”
She buries her face into my shirt, keeping her other arm firmly wrapped around Evelyn until Hudson appears. “I’d rather be skydiving.”
I grin, pulling her closer to my side. “I’ve got you, Cutlass.”
We’re soaked, our collective expressions all revealing signs of exhaustion and relief as we exit the haunted trail an hour later. Hadley’s still glued to my side; hands wrapped tightly around my arm.
“Want to go again?” Lenny asks.
“No,” Hannah says, shaking her head as she pulls off her glasses and attempts to dry them with her shirt.
“I heard you scream, Lenny,” Corey says, swiping at his wet hair.
Lenny laughs, not even trying to deny it. “That prison scene…” He shakes his head. “I wasn’t expecting them to move. I thought they were fake.”
“Are we going out now?” Sadie asks, her voice clipped.
She turned mean and hateful before we made it halfway through the trail, swearing at anyone who jumped out at us.
I’d feel sorry for Palmer, but her reactions seemed to distract Hadley enough that she managed to breathe every time Sadie bitched at someone.
“Of course,” Lenny says, matching her tone.
“I think I’ve hit my fun limit,” Hadley says.
“Yeah, me too,” Hannah says. “It’s cold and wet.”
“Yeah … I think I’m turning in, too,” Corey says, pulling his wet shirt from his chest. “We have to be at the gym at seven.”
“It’s Halloween,” Lenny objects. “This night happens once a year.”
“It feels like there’s a puddle between each of my toes,” Hadley says. “I can’t.” She releases her grip on my arm and takes a step back as she looks at me. “But you guys have fun.”
“Where should we start?” Palmer asks, looking at me.
I shake my head. “I’m out, too, man.”
Lenny grins. “I could’ve guessed. You guys have fun.”
Ethan, Hadley, Hannah, and I cross the gravel parking lot. “We’ll see you guys at the house,” Hannah says, ducking into Ethan’s car.
“You don’t have to go back to the house with me,” Hadley says. “I mean, I know you know that, but if you want to… You don’t need my permission if you want to go and hang out or…”
“Cutlass,” I say, taking a step forward as the rain continues to fall, faster and harder now. “Get in the truck.”
“I’m serious. I can catch a ride with Hannah and Ethan.”
I pull open the passenger door. “I’ll pick you every time, Cutlass.”
Her blue eyes dance across my face. If it wasn’t pouring down rain, I think she might wait for me to expand upon my admission, but instead, she climbs into my passenger seat.
We stop to pick up fast food on our way home.
“Hannah says they went to Ethan’s because he didn’t have any extra clothes,” Hadley says, reading the text as we walk into the house. She proceeds to flip on every light.
The house groans, a sound that occurs every time the furnace or air conditioning kicks on. Hadley jumps, eyes round as she looks toward the living room.
“A little on edge?”
“I have full confidence that the nightmares induced from that trail will go away in about a decade.”
I chuckle. “Oh, Cutlass. Want me to go upstairs while you change?”
“Will you mock me for all of eternity?”
“Only for tonight.”
“And you won’t pull a prank and terrify me?”
I draw an ‘X’ across my chest. “You have my word.”
“Will you please?”
I grin, setting the food on the table before following her upstairs.
She leaves her bedroom door open. “You’ve already seen everything,” she calls when I remain in the hall.
“But we’re friends, Cutlass.”
“Ahhh, right.” She comes back to the doorway, topless without a bra. My mouth waters and blood whooshes through my body.
She closes the door.
Minutes later she reappears wearing sweats and socks.
“I can’t believe you sleep with socks on.”
“My feet get cold.”
“Only sociopaths sleep with socks on.”
“At least I’m upfront about it.”
We head back downstairs where Hadley takes a solid minute to decide she’s going to wait in the living room while I change rather than go down into the basement with me.
When I make it back upstairs, she has a blanket wrapped around her shoulders, dunking fries into barbecue sauce.
“Barbecue sauce?” I ask, settling in beside her.
“First my socks now my condiments?”
“Ketchup or mustard. Those are the only two options for fries.”
“Mustard?” she sounds disgusted.
“Mustard’s delicious on fries.”
“I’ll take your word for it.”
I hand her the remote and pull out the rest of the food, spreading it across the coffee table like a mini buffet. “Since your mom didn’t like to cook, did your dad cook? Is that who taught you?”
“Not really. We were more of a fend for yourself, eat when you’re hungry, type of family.”
“No family dinners?”
“Our kitchen table was dedicated office space.” She laughs.
“I don’t think we actually used it for dining until Geoff brought home a serious girlfriend for Thanksgiving when I was like fourteen.
” She grabs another fry. “Lanie, Geoff, and I ate together most nights when I was younger. We’d make grilled cheese or get a bowl of cereal and watch cooking shows of all things—not the competitions, but the ones where they show you how to cook.
Lanie hates reality TV almost as much as Geoff.
But Geoff went to college when I was nine, and Lanie left when I was eleven.
” Her gaze trails down the listing of shows.
Sometimes I forget about the age gaps between her siblings because she’s so close with her sister.
I often think of the noise and chaos of my own family and assume she can relate but I realize with startling clarity that she likely experienced large bouts of being an only child.
I imagine Hadley eating a bowl of cereal alone in front of the TV, and something in my chest aches in protest.
“Are you going home for Thanksgiving?”
Hadley shakes her head. “I did last year, and between two canceled flights and three delays, I think I was home for like sixteen hours.” She laughs. “What about you? Can you even go home for the holidays with football?”
I shake my head. “No. But Hudson’s dad hosts a big Thanksgiving. You’ll have to come.”
“He’s seen me in my underwear. No way.” She shakes her head in swift motions, cheeks reddening.
“He couldn’t see you, and even if he had, your bra would pass for a swimsuit.”
“I’ll probably stay here, and order takeout.”
I shake my head. “You’re not staying here alone on Thanksgiving.”
“We’ll see.” I can’t tell if her words are a challenge or a consideration. With Hadley, it can sometimes be tough to know. “Do you miss going home for Thanksgiving?”
“Yeah,” I nod. “I do.”
As we open our sandwiches, Hadley picks a movie and our conversation shifts into amicable silence.
She falls asleep halfway through the movie, tucked into my side. She does most nights when we try to watch something.
I flip off the TV, clean up our mess, and shut off a dozen lights throughout the downstairs before scooping Hadley up and carrying her to her room.
“You smell like showhouses,” she murmurs, clenching my tee.
I glance down at her curled lips. “Like showhouses?”
“Mmhmm. I like it.”
I walk to Hadley’s bed, gently setting her down.
“Need me to do a monster check? Look under the bed? In the closet?”
“Will you stay?” she asks, eyes still closed. “Platonically. Just snuggle. Friends snuggle, right?”
It’s another mixed message, another blurred line that has common sense instructing me to go, but fuck if I’m not already horizontal, tucking my arm under her head so she can cuddle as close to me as possible.