2. bloody valentine
TWO
BLOODY VALENTINE
Halle
“I approve,” Mel says, her eyes scanning mine and Cade’s outfits up and down.
I sigh and reach up to wipe the nonexistent sweat from my brow.
“But Halle,” she adds, narrowing her eyes at me. “You’re not allowed to take off that jacket.”
“What? Why not?” I laugh, she’s ridiculous.
“It’s literally the only red you have on! If you take it off you won’t be dressed in theme!” Her hands wave around wildly in emphasis.
“She’s got a point, Hal,” Abbott chimes in. His full attention is on whatever video game he’s playing at his desk.
“You’re not even looking at us,” I argue.
“I don’t have to look to know she’s right.”
I turn to look at Cade, my face saying help me .
“Mel’s party, Mel’s rules.”
Apparently we’re not clear on what the help me face looks like. I cross my arms and huff in defeat. So much for being able to make the rules in my own house.
Growing up with an older brother I’m used to not making the rules, but I still don’t like it. Sibling relationships are so weird and hard to navigate, but when you start to get it right it’s so sweet.
Abbott actively ignored me in elementary school and avoided me as much as possible in middle school. My first year in high school started off on the same foot that middle school ended and I only really had Mel as a friend. I think it was sometime during my freshman year and his sophomore year that we started to become friends—that would’ve been about two years ago, and now, he’s getting ready to graduate in a few months. I’d even consider him my best friend now, after Mel, of course.
There wasn’t necessarily a big event or ripple in time to change the course of my and Abbott’s relationship, but more the culmination of little things that brought us closer. We both started paying more attention to and caring about each other’s interests, and that changed everything. I started going to his baseball games—I actually learned the rules (apparently ‘three strikes and you’re out’ comes from baseball)—and discovered he was good. Good enough to play in college good . He’s already got a full athletic scholarship to play next year at Hemlock State University in Seattle, which is thankfully only a quick ferry ride over from home.
Abbott asked me about my classes one time, I think to give me advice on teachers or something, and that’s how he found out about my love for creating. Abbott’s the sporty, achiever sibling—straight As, involved, going to be valedictorian. I’m the creative, adventurous sibling with no clue what I want to do with my life. After I showed him some of my designs and hand-stitched-embroidered sweatshirts, he asked me if I could do a couple for him. Then Cade saw and asked me to do one for him. Next thing I knew, it became a constant stream of baseball team sweatshirts getting passed my way from all their teammates.
We all started actually spending time together—post-game ice cream runs became a routine and led to us finding out we all get along pretty well, so that’s how Abbott and I found ourselves to be part of the same friend group. And I, of course, dragged Mel along with me. She loves being friends with the baseball guys and going to their games so much that she convinced the coach to let her be their student manager.
The more I think about it, I’m pretty sure Mel and Abbott are only together because of me. If I never brought her to games with me, we wouldn’t have all become friends, and they wouldn’t have ever had a reason to hang out and get to know each other better.
I’m really happy for her and my brother, now that I’m past their betrayal of not telling me they’re a couple. Because Mel is the team’s manager, she travels on the bus with them to away games that I don’t go to. Mel’s creative like me, and uses her time with the team to build a photography portfolio; she’s so good at getting action shots of the guys.
She’d sit with Abbott on the bus since she knows him best and that led to them secretly going on dates; they became official over the course of a year and no one told me until a few months ago. It was embarrassing to be the only person who didn’t know. I know that it’s not really my business, but considering the fact that they’re the two most important people in my life, it feels like my business. I was more hurt than anything that they lied to me for so long.
But I got over it because I saw how good they are together. They make each other better, they just make sense—the way they even each other out. She excites and energizes him, and he keeps her calm, cool, and collected through it all. Mel’s basically always been my sister anyway, and I don’t want to get too ahead of myself, but one day she actually might be.
“Hey, next time we see your parents, remind me to thank them for always letting us hang out and have parties here.” Mel drags me out of my thoughts about her and Abbott as we walk down the stairs to get to our setup duties.
“They love it, honestly.” I smile at the thought of my parents’ excitement whenever we tell them we’re thinking of throwing a party. “They say they bought the house with big spaces so that we can have lots of people over. My mom told me that they really don’t mind it all. That they like the noise and chaos, that it reminds them of their youth.”
“That’s so awesome. And it’s cool that they trust us to have a party while they’re not here tonight.”
“Hey, Abbott and I are good Cooper kids. And they’ve been around for enough of our parties to know it won’t get too wild, and it’s not like they’ll be out all night. Just on their annual Valentine’s Day date.”
“Ahhh.” Mel fake swoons. “Love is not dead.”
We giggle.
“But seriously, I need to thank them for letting us do this kind of stuff all the time. Tonight, we’re on our own, and I do not want to leave a bad impression!”
“Then let’s get to work.”
We fake salute and go our separate ways.
Mel and Abbott claimed the “easy job” for setting up the party—snack arrangement—which leaves me and Cade to decorate the place with streamers and blow up balloons. I made Cade blow up most of the balloons because I’m historically bad at it, and he has the lungs of a singer. The only part I can do right is tie the knots.
We somehow got everything set up and ready way before anyone showed up. It was nice not having to rush around making last minute adjustments while people roll in like we usually do.
It’s not like it’s a massive party, it’s just us four, and like ten to fifteen other people, all depending on if anyone else shows up or not. The Cooper Fam likes to have fun, but we don’t love to get too rowdy. That would only create more work for us in the end and we’re not about that. And Mel is the best party planner I know—she has a spreadsheet for everything, which is an immense help. And Cade, well, he’s just here for the ride. He’s so helpful and is always willing to run and pick something up from the store if we forgot, or blow up all the balloons, or literally anything the rest of us don’t want to do. It also helps that he’s nice to look at, I’ll never say no to a little extra time with Cade.
Thrifting with him for Mel’s dress code was so much fun. I’ve known Cade basically my whole life. He’s been my brother’s best friend ever since we moved in next door to the Walshes about ten years ago. I’m only seventeen, so ten years is basically my whole life. He’s always been my favorite friend of Abbott’s. We don’t spend a lot of time alone together, but when we do, it’s always filled with fun conversation or blasting our favorite music, and today was no exception. It’s so easy to be around him, I wish we had more opportunities like that.
Today’s been a little different though, and maybe I’m misreading things, but Mel and Cade have both seemed a little off, a little jumpier than usual. To be fair, Mel’s always jumpy. I don’t know where she gets her energy from, but I guess it helps her when she’s at every baseball away game taking photos for the team and her portfolio.
Cade, on the other hand, is usually so calm and laid back, but he seems almost…nervous? He’s been fidgeting a lot, I don’t think I’ve ever seen him do this before. He keeps pulling at the hem of his shirt, tapping on his phone screen constantly looking for a notification, and staring down at his feet. I feel like his head is somewhere else. Boys are weird, so I just shake my head to clear my thoughts and make my way to the kitchen to get some water.
“Hey, pookie bear, haven’t seen you in a while, what’ve you been up to?”
I don’t even know when or why this started, but ever since I can remember Mel and I have always come up with the cringiest, grossest, and most ick-inducing pet names to call each other.
I put on my best baby voice and reach to pinch her cheeks as I say, “Shnugglewumps, I’ve missed you.” We both laugh at that. “I’ve just been hanging out, seeing the sights, sitting and snacking, the usual.” I check my phone for the time, it’s only 9:30 and I already feel ready for bed. I try to stifle the yawn I feel coming, but it gets loose.
“Nooooo, Halle! You can’t be tired! We haven’t even gotten to the fun part yet!” Mel whines in a jokey way.
“Fun part? What are you talking about?” These parties are always the same—we grab snacks, the girls and guys split up into groups to gossip, and then when the pizza comes, we all merge. We’ll maybe play Uno, but throwing on a movie we’ve seen a million times before is guaranteed. “I might be tired but I’m not going to go to bed with a bunch of people still in my house.” We both giggle at the thought. I’ve never liked going to sleep when people are at my house. Call me paranoid, but I just can’t do it, unless they’re staying the night, but even that’s a little difficult for me sometimes.
“It’s not just any other party, it’s Valentine’s Day! It’s an occasion! Of course we’re adding an extra fun part.” It almost feels like she’s trying extra hard to convince me to have fun. So many thoughts are racing through my head trying to figure out what she’s got up her sleeve, but that’s half the fun of having Mel as a friend—she always keeps me guessing.
“What does that even mean?” I give her a quizzical look, but it quickly dissolves into the kind of smile I can’t seem to keep off my face when I’m around her. Her joy is contagious.
“Shh! Stop asking questions and just trust me ,” she says convincingly and grins back at me. If I’m being honest she’s never truly led me astray, so what else is there to do but trust my best friend?
I playfully roll my eyes at her and let her take me by the hand and lead me upstairs where Cade, Abbott, and a few of our other friends are sitting and chatting.
“We’re here, now the fun can start,” she says, as if everyone was waiting for us to show up.
“Mel, what are you talking about? Aren’t we already having fun?” Oh, Abbott, it’s like you don’t know your girlfriend at all. She’s a bit on the dramatic side, to put it lightly.
“Abbott, shut up,” she tells him playfully and blows a quick kiss his way. “It's Valentine’s Day, so I thought it would be a fun change of pace to play a party game like spin the bottle or something! How about seven-minutes-in-heaven?” She poses the game to the group and everyone’s down to play.
My chest tightens and I feel my hands get clammy. People actually play those kinds of party games? They aren’t just in movies? I’m not nervous to play, only nervous about who I could end up with. Kissing someone in a game is no big deal, as long as it’s not anyone I’ve ever had a crush on. And technically, I don’t even have to kiss them! I could hypothetically spend the entire seven minutes talking their ear off.
“If I knew that’s what you had in mind I wouldn’t have questioned you.” He starts to stand up from the couch, smirking as he reaches for Mel’s hand. “Babe, let’s go first.”
“Abbott, ew. I’m right here, stop that.” I know we’re all part of the same friend group, but I do not want him to say things like that in front of me ever again.
“No!” Mel’s eyes go wide. “Um, I mean, Abbott, no, let’s let other people go first.” She gives him a look like he should know what she’s talking about, but it’s Abbott, and for as smart as he is, he’s also kind of an idiot.
A flash of recognition crosses his face, then quickly disappears. “Oh, sure. Cade, you wanna go first? Don’t worry, we’ll pick a good one to go in with you.” Abbott winks at him and I don’t think I like where this is going.
My heart starts to beat hard, Mel definitely knows about my crush on Cade, but does Abbott? I feel like it’s not a secret, but it’s not something I’ve openly admitted to anyone but Mel. But shoot, there are a couple of other girls here, and why would Abbott send his little sister into a dark closet to be with his best friend for seven whole minutes? Alone!
I’m doing everything I can to keep my face neutral and act like nothing’s going on inside my head or heart. It feels like I’m playing a mental tug-of-war, my mind bouncing back and forth between not wanting any other girl here to go in there with him, and not wanting it to be so obvious that I want to go in either.
“Sure, I can go first.” Cade pushes himself off the couch, casually walks over to our linen closet, glances over his shoulder at Mel, then opens the door and slides himself in. That look back to Mel is replaying in my head, it feels suspicious. What the heck is going on?
“So, does anyone want to go in?” Mel scans the room, making eye contact with all the other girls, but none of them say anything. She finally looks at me and says, “Halle! I don’t think you’ve ever played this game before, you should be the first to go in.”
I now fully recognize Meddling Mel as she’s sitting across from me, blinking up at me with wide eyes and an almost imperceptible smirk. If Mel’s anything, she’s a doer. Once she has her mind set on something, she goes after it. She’s always been the mastermind behind the hijinks of our friend group. Plotting, scheming, doing, it’s just what she does. I don't really mind it, but I do wish she would’ve given me a heads-up or something today that she was going to put me up to this.
“Um, yeah, sure. I can go.”
Oh my gosh, every eye is on me. The embarrassment I feel from all this attention floods my cheeks and my head begins to spin as I start to move in the direction of the closet.
Mel walks the ten steps with me and before I go in, she whispers in my ear, “I’m going to count as slow as I can. Relax, Hal, and have fun.” She all but pushes me in and closes the door behind me. Now it’s just me and Cade. Alone. In the dark.