Chapter Fifteen
“Huge, huge news. Mom and Dad are letting us have a Halloween party,” Paige says on Friday, the day before Halloween.
They’re all sitting together backstage, taking a break while the paint on one of the trees dries; beyond the curtain, Mr. West helps the actors with blocking.
“It took, like, three hours of negotiating, and we’re only allowed to invite six people. ”
Isaac snorts, not looking up from where he’s copying his Physics homework down for Parker. “So, it’s not a Halloween party. It’s a Halloween get-together.”
“Our parents won’t be home,” Paige insists. “So, it’s kind of like a party.”
“Rebecca and Henry will be getting toasted at their rich friends’ house all night,” Parker says. He’s scribbling all over the margins of his stolen script, chewing on the cap of a pen. “In turn, I propose we also get sloshed.”
“You are the rich friend,” Isaac says. “You know that, right?”
“We are not getting sloshed,” Paige says firmly. “Dad has a lock on the liquor cabinet, anyway.”
“But not on the wine cellar,” Parker points out.
“You have a wine cellar?” Isaac gapes. “Jesus, dude. How rich are you?”
“Our parents are rich,” Parker insists, looking uncomfortable. He goes back to scribbling in his script.
“Um, there’s like—there’s a lot of research on how bad drinking is for your brain,” Zach pipes up—half because he wants to take the heat off Parker, and half because he really doesn’t want to have tonight be his first time getting peer-pressured into alcohol.
“Like, when you’re still a teenager and stuff. ”
“No, really, how rich are you?” Bea says, shoving Parker with one hand. She’s sitting cross-legged on the floor next to Paige.
Parker rolls his eyes. “Okay, fine, babies, don’t try your first sip of alcohol until you’re twenty-one.”
“My parents have been letting me have half a glass of wine on Rosh Hashanah since I was, like, fourteen,” Isaac says.
“Anyway,” Paige says. “You should all come. I’m going to invite some of the guys from the school paper too.”
“I don’t have a costume,” Zach says.
“Teenagers don’t dress up for Halloween anymore,” Isaac scoffs.
“Oh, costumes are required,” Paige says, hands flat in front of her, voice grave. “It’s my party, so I say so.”
After practice, Zach and Isaac go to the nearby Walmart to find suitable Halloween costumes.
The night before Halloween means there’s slim pickings—Isaac finds a cape and some fake vampire fangs.
He even gets a little packet of fake blood to squirt all over his mouth.
Zach struggles a bit—he has no idea what to dress up as.
Ever since his mom stopped buying his costumes for him, Zach has spent Halloween sitting on the porch with a bucket of candy for the neighborhood kids.
Digging through the costume section leftovers, Isaac finds a beige-on-beige costume that’s labeled Park Ranger.
It comes with a wide-brimmed hat and a pair of weird shorts and everything.
It even has a generic patch on the arm that’s supposed to look like a National Parks patch.
Zach is worried he’s going to look stupid.
“That’s the point,” Isaac says, shoving the costume into his arms. “Come on. Let’s get out of here.”
Zach’s mom wakes up around 2:00 p.m. on Halloween, and Zach knows that he can’t avoid telling her about the party.
She’s going to say yes, because she wants him to have friends, and the more he has friends, the less she has to worry about him.
The more he does normal things, the less he looks broken.
When he asks her if he can go, her eyes light up, her smile deepening the wrinkles in the corners of her eyes.
Zach used to think that his mom was a young mom.
She’d had him when she was only twenty-one, and the older he gets, the younger that seems. He can’t help but think that all the things that she’s had to sacrifice for him have aged her beyond her years.
“Of course you can go,” his mom says, sitting up straighter. “Do you need help with a costume?”
Zach flushes. “No, Isaac took me shopping yesterday.”
His mom insists on seeing the costume. There’s a short, fifteen-minute fashion show where Zach puts it on and comes out to the living room to show his mom. She finds it delightful and even makes him put on the hat.
Around six, after Zach has thoroughly convinced his mom that he doesn’t need her to pull out her sewing machine, he crosses his yard into Isaac’s. He meets him on the porch, and they climb into his car. Mrs. Brackenborough waves at them from the doorway.
There are already several cars crammed into the Reids’ driveway when they pull up, so Isaac has to park his car on the street, wedged up beside the mailbox.
Zach recognizes Paige’s car, but he’s never seen the other two cars.
They walk up the drive, and Zach agonizes over whether or not to knock, or try the handle, or ring the doorbell.
When they reach the door, Isaac doesn’t seem to have the same dilemma.
He grabs the handle and pushes. The front door swings open easily.
Zach follows him inside. He can hear the swell of voices, but they don’t sound like they’re coming from inside the house.
Isaac leads him through the foyer, into the dining room, then back through the kitchen.
The sliding glass doors leading out onto the porch are open, and the sound of laughter and music is coming from the backyard.
Zach feels a familiar pulse of panic in his stomach.
He doesn’t do parties. He doesn’t do people.
His chest aches as he follows Isaac, who is fearless and doesn’t overthink walking into someone else’s house.
The back deck overlooks the backyard, sitting on a hilly incline.
At the bottom, by the back fence, is a firepit.
It’s already lit, and Zach can see a gathering of people on various folding lawn chairs.
He follows Isaac down off the deck and into the grass, his heart thumping anxiously in his throat the closer they get.
Zach immediately spots Bea—her costume is a purple dress with big sleeves, a yellow-and-blue-striped apron wrapped around her waist. He has no idea who she’s supposed to be.
She’s talking with someone Zach doesn’t know, a handsome Black boy who looks even taller than Parker, dressed in some kind of yellow-and-black sports jersey that Zach doesn’t recognize.
Aside from the guy in the jersey, there are two other people that Zach can’t place.
He assumes these are Paige’s friends from the school newspaper.
The first, a pretty Asian girl with short hair and flushed cheeks, is wearing one of those store-bought pirate costumes and chatting enthusiastically with Paige.
The second is a short, blond boy who is not wearing a costume.
All in all, including Zach and Isaac, there are six guests.
Paige is wearing a blue dress, with a white apron splattered with fake blood that spells the word: RED. He doesn’t understand what she’s supposed to be until he spots Parker, being talked to by the blond boy, on her other side. He didn’t recognize him at first, because he’s…
Zach stares. He feels bad for staring, maybe, but he also can’t help it. Parker is wearing a matching blue dress, with a matching white apron splattered red. On his apron, the fake blood reads: RUM. Paige and Parker are dressed up as the twins from The Shining.
“Zach!” Paige calls, when she spots them over the flickering blaze of the firepit. The sun isn’t quite down yet, so it’s not all the way dark. But the sky has turned a hazy blue-gray color, and most of the light comes from the pit. “Isaac!”
Parker lifts his head when he hears Zach’s name, and Zach can’t place the look he gives him. It’s entirely new and it makes Zach feel nervous, but maybe in a good way this time. Parker’s face is lit brightly orange by the fire but the flickering shadows make it look like it’s ever-changing.
Paige introduces her friends—George, the boy in the jersey; Alicia the pirate; and Ben the blond—and then introduces Zach and Isaac in return. She’s grinning, and she looks like she’s having a lot of fun already, sitting here with people she likes.
Zach has never been to a party before. He doesn’t really know what to do, or how to hold himself. He’s a little distracted by Parker and how his gangly limbs look even longer in the dress.
“Nice costume,” Parker says, after he’s extracted himself from his conversation with Ben and sidles up next to Zach. He’s wearing his normal boots, which Zach doesn’t really think are part of the creepy hallway-girl look. “What are you supposed to be?”
“A park ranger,” Zach says with a nervous laugh. “Isaac and I found it at Walmart. It, um, kind of looks like something out of Yogi Bear. It came with a hat, but I look really bad with hat hair, so.”
Parker’s brows furrow over his mismatched eyes, and he thins his lips like he’s maybe trying not to laugh. “Jesus,” he says.
“You and Paige are the twins from The Shining,” Zach points out, trying to smooth over whatever that reaction was. Does Parker suddenly think he’s too much of a dweeb to be seen with?
Parker shifts his weight, brushing down his blood-stained apron. “Paige thought it would be funny,” he says.
There’s a small folding table just beyond the firepit where an array of snacks has been set up, but they look like rich, healthy-people snacks.
There are some weird, flat pretzel things, dried fruit, mixed nuts; something that Zach thinks looks like kale chips.
An open cooler in the grass has brand-name, sugar-free cola and sparkling water with a hint of fruit flavoring. The snacks sit entirely untouched.