Eventually, the October days of scattered leaves passed and it was suddenly Halloween. I couldn’t say I was surprised to find that Hallowen was Kamilla’s favorite holiday.

“Don’t you just love Halloween!” Kamilla announced the Thursday before said holiday.

“When else can you get free candy!” Zephyr agreed.

“Yeah,” I said sarcastically. “I love going door-to-door, dressed like a child, talking to people.”

“We should go Trick-or-Treating together,” Kamilla exclaimed suddenly.

I coughed on my water. “Excuse me?”

“You’re excused,” Kamilla said dismissively before plowing on. “We should coordinate our costumes! And we can bring your brother and sister so that we can get even more candy, and-”

“Hold up,” I said, interrupting her rapidly expanding plan. “I never agreed to this.”

“You don’t have a choice,” Kamilla brushed off before diving into a long spiel of her candy preferences.

“Why am I even surprised?” I muttered to myself.

It seemed that being dragged into plans I had no say in was becoming a recurring theme. First, Mom made me join the band, then that play date, and now, this.

Trick-or-Treating.

I didn’t even get a say in what my fucking costume was.

“Do I really need to wear this?” I called from behind the closed door of my room.

“Yes!” Kamilla called back.

“But are the glasses necessary?” I asked.

“Yes!” Kamilla repeated.

“Ugh!” I groaned as I shoved my feet into my bright orange socks. Grabbing my black boots, I yanked the door open (perhaps a tad more forcefully than necessary). “Happy?” I asked as I glared at Kamilla.

“Very!” she beamed. “Let’s go. Zephyr’s already downstairs.”

I was helpless to follow as she dragged me through my own house. Halfway down the stairs, I had to adjust my glasses back up my nose.

“Ta-da!” Kamilla exclaimed as she jumped down the last two steps at once, bringing me stumbling with her.

“Oh, Lissie,” my mama cooed. “You look perfect.”

My mom snickered. “Very nice.”

I glared at the pair of them. “Ha-ha,” I deadpanned before turning away.

“At least you get to be human,” my brother whispered, leaning to me.

“At least you’re still at an acceptable age to be Trick-or-Treating,” I whispered back.

“Nah, you still have until college to be Trick-or-Treating,” Ben replied with a shrug and a twinkle in his eyes.

“Yeah, and I think I might be,” I told him, pointing with my thumb over to where Kamilla was, arguing with Rosie.

“You can’t be Harry Potter,” Kamilla was saying. “That’s the wrong franchise!”

“Well, you’re not the boss of me!” Rosie replied sassily.

“But it doesn’t work if it’s Shaggy, Velma, Scooby, Daphne, and Harry Potter!” Kamilla told my sister agitatedly.

As they continued to argue, Ben nodded with a laugh. “Yeah, I think you’re right.”

“Pray for me,” I whispered dramatically.

He laughed again as I went over to break up the costume fight between my friend and my sister.

“Okay, okay,” I said, coming between them to gently push Rosie’s wand down. “Rosie, let’s not stab Kamilla. Kamilla, let’s just let Rosie wear whatever she wants.”

“But-!”

“Okay, great!” I said as I clapped a hand over Kamilla’s mouth. “Let’s go.”

It was a hassle to get out the door. My mothers insisted on taking twenty-thousand photos of us before letting Kamilla finally drag us out to go Trick-or-Treating, but eventually, at around six in the evening, we were free.

And by free, I meant that we were free to get dragged around the neighborhood by Kamilla.

It had turned out that Kamilla’s favorite series from her childhood was Scooby Doo. It was why she had been so insistent on our costumes, and why she had had that argument with my little sister.

I spent the majority of my night watching after my little siblings while Kamilla led the way and Zephyr acted as the carrier of the candy. It was kinda nice, I guess. He gave me a few pieces of candy every other house.

Around nine, we came upon a neighborhood that was the most fucking festive street that I had ever laid eyes on. Pumpkins lined the sidewalk, LED lights circled around the trees as fake cobwebs hung from the branches. Not to mention the houses themselves—fog drifted from various smoke machines, large moving skeletons and zombies eerily stood over the Trick-or-Treaters, lights shone through the fog and lit up the street in creepy shifting glows. 

I didn’t quite recognize the area, but that may have just been because of the crazy all-out decorations. For all I knew, this might as well have been fucking Halloween Town.

Damn.

As Kamilla came up on the first house, I decided to join the throng at the door of the house. I usually hung back, but something about this neighborhood sent a tingle of anticipation up my spine.

It felt so… freaky here.

I loved it.

So I walked, just barely behind them, as they came up to the porch. A kind looking lady dressed like a green-faced witch passed out candy when Rosie led the group to the porch.

The next house had a man and women dressed like Gomez and Morticia Addams. They were very method as they observed us and passed us our candy.

The third house was the host of a young man dressed like a killer clown, complete with messy long hair and smeared red spikes lining his eyes. His features were sharp, too, and his eyes seemed to naturally pierce whatever they looked at.

It was a nice costume. It was cool.

“Who do we have here?” he asked kindly, a  contrast to his appearance. “It seems to be the Scooby Doo Crew! And-”

“I’m Harry Potter!” my little sister announced proudly for the millionth time that night, not even a bit afraid of the killer clown man.

“Ah, how could I miss that!” the man said with a chuckle. “Here you go, Harry.”

He passed out candy to each of them—a nice big bar of chocolate, much to their appreciation—before turning to me.

“For you, Velma,” he said as he reached over little Ben’s head as my little brother happily deposited his gains into the bag hanging on his arm.

“No, no, I’m-” I started, holding out my hands.

“Come on, Velma,” Kamilla said teasingly, giving me a playful shove towards the man’s outstretched hand. “It’s Halloween.”

I gave her a brief glare before looking back at the man.

His eyes were mesmerizing. I felt like I had seen them before, but I couldn’t for my life remember where I saw them.

His pale face seemed pasty in the lighting, his clothes hanging off him in tatters and covered in fake splatters of blood.

Hesitantly, I accepted his offered chocolate, my head brought back as if I would be able to place where I saw him if I looked at him from farther away.

“Thank you, sir,” I said with a small bow of my head.

“Anytime, Velma,” he replied with a warm smile. “And please, call me Ethan.”

Unfortunately, that was the beginning of a change in the night; the rest of the people in that neighborhood started to pass me candy, mentioning our ‘adorable’ costume coordination.

I tried not to scowl whenever someone called out to me with a wide smile. I told myself to just think about the candy and ignore my strong dislike of social contact. But if I was honest, I didn’t think I would ever be able to forget the feeling of being referred to as ‘Velma’, and the shudder that went through me every time.

It was lucky that the entire school district decided to cancel school the day after Halloween. We had returned home no later than fucking midnight, courtesy of Kamilla. She had apparently wanted to go on longer and had only relented because Ben and Rosie were “too young.”

I think I’ll bring them every year.

Either way, that left me with way too much time on my hands and way too much candy in the house for me to stay put for much longer. So instead, on a strange whim, I called Zephyr and Kamilla.

“Wanna go shopping?” was the first thing I asked when the call connected.

“Huh?” Zephyr asked blearily.

I could tell that I had just woken him up; it was eight in the morning.

“What? Why?” Kamilla asked, sounding much more awake than Zephyr did.

I shrugged, even though they couldn’t see it, shucking my sleep shirt in favor of my favorite hoodie. I smiled as the soft, fresh fabric slipped over me like a second skin. I didn’t bother with an undershirt; a bra would do me fine.

“Post-Halloween sales,” I told them simply as I pulled a fresh pair of black sweatpants up over my hips.

It was silent over the call for a moment before a hasty sound of running came through.

“I’m on my-!” Kamilla started before a loud crash cut her off.

I paused.

“You good, girl?” I asked carefully as I approached my phone.

“Yup! Yeah, all good!” Kamilla exclaimed, followed by the quick thuds of her ascending the stairs. “I’ll be at your place in twenty minutes!”

“Yeah I guess I could-” Zephyr started before a yawn cut him off. “I’ll be there then, sure…”

“Cool,” I said with a nod, unsure of why this made me so happy.

I shook my head, not wanting to think about it.

In less than twenty minutes, Zephyr arrived, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. I snickered when I saw that his shirt was inside out and he didn’t seem to notice.

“What’s so funny?” he asked, blinking lopsidedly at me.

“You’re shirt’s inside out,” I told him, nodding towards his chest as I said this.

He looked down at himself before swearing.

Zephyr pulled off his black jacket and handed it to me. And then he proceeded to pull his shirt off his body without even a second thought, right in front of me.

My jaw dropped at his blatant disregard for the fact that I was standing right there as he stripped.

I watched as he muttered to himself, frowning as he turned his shirt right side out. I forced my jaw shut as he pulled it back over himself, properly oriented this time.

I glanced away, like I hadn’t been staring the whole time as I handed him his jacket back.

“Thanks,” he said as he took the garment from me and put his arms back through the sleeves. “Oh, there’s Kamilla.”

I looked to where he pointed, and sure enough, there was our excitedly bouncing blonde friend.

“Let’s go!” Kamilla called excitedly, rushing the last few feet up to us.

I chuckled. “Yeah, let’s go.”

We made our way down my block, chatting as we walked.

I lived near the edge of the residential area, just a ten minute walk from where a whole bunch of stores and restaurants stood. It was pretty nice, living near the stores; you could always just pop out to grab something real quick.

Of course, I was right about the sales. Big red signs hung from most of the stores, a big white “SALE” spelled out in block letters in the center. Kamilla dragged us to the nearest one, which was a classic bakery.

They had big pies and fall-themed cakes that we passed—though Kamilla stopped to gaze wonderingly at the designs. In the end, Zephyr pulled her away from the cakes, though I didn’t miss his slightly longing look at them.

“We’re not here for a full-ass cake, Kam,” Zephyr said.

I rolled my eyes. “Even you couldn’t finish that by yourself,” I added.

“Obviously not,” Kamilla said matter of factly. “We’d share it!”

I snorted, pulling the two towards the smaller baked goods. “How about something a little smaller?” I offered, gesturing towards the various cookies and croissants.

“Ooh, yeah!” Kamilla said, automatically distracted.

She bent over, inspecting the display carefully. I chuckled once before looking up at the above menu.

“Hi, are you guys ready to order?” the guy behind the counter asked as he came through from the back.

“I think we’d like another minute,” Zephyr said with a smile.

I leaned towards the other two after a moment. “I think I’ll just go with a small mocha,” I told them.

“What, no cake?” Zephyr asked teasingly.

“Nah,” I said. “I have enough candy at home, thanks.”

He laughed before nodding. “Yeah, I think I’ll go with a hot cocoa,” he said after a quick glance at the menu.

“Well, I’m getting a chocolate chip cookie, that chocolate croissant thing, and a hot cocoa!” Kamilla stated happily.

I nodded before turning to the guy behind the counter.

“We’re ready,” I told him simply before giving him my small order.

Zephyr went next, ordering his simple hot chocolate before Kamilla went and bombarded the dude behind the counter with her somehow short but also long order.

The next store Kamilla dragged us into just so happened to be a supposedly ‘fashionable’ clothing store meant for teens.

Kamilla darted around inside, going from shirts to dresses to shoes like a dizzying tornado of excitement.

“If I had known she liked shopping this much, I would’ve suggested we go sooner,” I told Zephyr as we slowly made our way over to the jackets.

“Nah,” he countered, reaching out to touch the thin sweater draped stylishly over a mannequin’s shoulders. “You never would’ve suggested it in the first place.”

I laughed because he was right. Partially.

“I don’t know,” I said, watching as Kamilla waved over at us, pointing to a pair of way too sparkly shoes. “She’s growing on me.”

“What about me?” Zephyr asked.

I turned to look at him, but he wasn’t looking at me. He was inspecting a graphic tee with holes in various places, acting like he hadn’t just said what he did.

I tilted my head to the side, thinking too many thoughts at once.

“I… guess you’re growing on me, too,” I finally said.

He lifted his head, meeting my gaze, blinking once.

My eyes fluttered, and I dropped my head to stare at a black dress on its hanger, doing the same thing that he had just done: acting like I hadn’t said what I did.

I tried to focus on the dress.

It was pretty, I guess.

Thin spaghetti straps and various folds of overlapping fabric along the torso. Rhinestones went up from the bottom like backwards raindrops. I could tell that it was designed to pull taut on whoever wore it.

“It’d look nice on you,” Zephyr said.

I looked up to see him gazing at the same dress I was.

“I don’t know,” I said, picking up the hanger.

“Kamilla!” Zephyr called out of nowhere, startling me. “Come tell Amaryllis she’d look great in this dress!”

He grabbed the edge of the dress in my hand, holding it up for Kamilla to see from across the store.

“Ooh, lemme see!” Kamilla exclaimed, bounding over, her arms full of clothes I’d probably have to talk her out of. “Oh my gosh, yes!”

“Go try it on,” Zephyr told me, nudging me toward the dressing rooms.

I wrinkled my nose. I didn’t really do dresses…

“Oh, I’ll go with you,” Kamilla added. “I need to try some of these on.”

All of a sudden, I was herded toward the changing rooms, given no room to protest.

But I found that I didn’t want to protest.

“Fine,” I said with a sigh. “But I’m not sharing a changing room with you!”

Kamilla snorted. “As if!”

We laughed, entering opposite dressing rooms simultaneously.

But once I was alone in the changing room, my doubts hit me again.

This was a dress. And not any dress; it was a showy dress… One meant to show off everything a girl had. Did I feel comfortable wearing it?

I was unsure as I began undressing from my clothes, dropping them hesitantly on the stool in the corner.

Avoiding the mirror, I slowly pulled the dress from the hanger. I breathed deeply before I slipped it over my head.

I still didn’t look at myself in the mirror as my hands carefully adjusted the dress.

I brushed my hair back from my face, steeling myself.

Then, I stepped out of the changing room.