Lone Star in Jersey

by Anne Key

  “Well, for-real nachos made by a Chinese guy?”

  “I heard that!” Jian called from the other room. “Your daddy has hurt my heart. Try them, Sammy.”

  “Mean old Daddy. Come on, Eli. We’ll see what this interpretation of nachos is.” Because she’d been abused with a lot of types up here.

  Chapter 21

  “JIAN! CAN you help me? These stupid hair dealies are pulling!” And the last thing she needed was to have her costume pluck her bald-headed.

  Not since she was back to tight ponies four days a week. She grinned, checking her metallic makeup, the gear pasted on like a beauty mark. She’d done it. She’d made the team. Not just the team, the competition team.

  She felt about thirty-eight feet tall. Momma would have beamed from ear to ear.

  “Coming, girlfriend!” She heard Jian’s light footsteps hurrying up the stairs and into the bathroom. “Look at you. Steampunky and sassy. I like it.” He moved around behind her. Hands hovering over her head. “Show me.”

  “There’s something pulling right here.” She pointed to the mass of springs and stuff behind the pony on the right side.

  “Well, good Lord, honey.” He poked around gingerly. “I’m going to impale myself on one of these—aha. This has gotta be it.” He tugged and twisted something, and the pressure let up. “Got it? You know, if anyone messes with you, you can just pull one of these things out and poke them in the eye. Handy.”

  “Sammy!” Daddy’s voice cut through their giggling. “There’s a half-blind pirate down here to see you.”

  “You should see my pom-poms, Jian. They could tear someone up. Coming, Daddy!”

  “Well, a girl has to be able to defend herself, right?”

  “He’s coming up!” Daddy warned, and Eli appeared outside her bedroom door, grinning. He must have run up the stairs.

  She blinked at him, because the guy standing in the hall looked very little like Eli, at all. He looked kind of like a combination of Jack Sparrow and Killian Jones, only with more hardware.

  Eli stepped into the room, the gears and other objects sewn down one arm of his long coat clinking as he walked. He ran his fingers along the brim of his low top hat. It was already pretty beat up when they’d found it at Goodwill, and now, it had a red bandana as a hatband and a white skull and crossbones painted on the front. Eli lifted it off his head and bowed. “My lady.”

  “Look at you!” Oh, how cool. She bounced, her ponytail hitting Jian in the nose. “Sorry!”

  “I better get out of here before I lose an eye. Very handsome, Eli,” Jian said as he headed for the door. “Be good, children.” He winked at Sammy and ducked out of the room.

  “The boots kind of make me tall too. Right?” Eli straightened up and lifted his gold eye patch up onto his forehead. She was a little smug about his stompy boots since she was the one who found them. They definitely made him taller. “How cool is that gear? I love your makeup.”

  “Yeah? Thanks. I was going for not-quite robot, but metallic.” She’d worked hard.

  “It’s amazing.” He leaned in and kissed her lightly, then pulled away, smiling. “Had to. But I didn’t want to mess up your, uh, work. Lips.”

  “I have my lipstick hidden in my little pouch. Daddy helped me make it out of a camera-bag deal.”

  “I’ll keep that in mind.” He winked at her. “My fingers still hurt from sewing. My mom helped some, but I don’t think she quite got what I was trying to do. She’s still calling it ‘piratepunk.’”

  “What?”

  “Or metalpunk. Yesterday, she called it sodapunk.” Eli shook his head. “So anyway, my fingers hurt.”

  “Soda…. Wow. Here, I’ll kiss them better.”

  Oh, that color. Eli blushed until his cheeks just about matched the bandana on his hat. He stuck his hands in the pockets of his coat. “Yeah, uh. Later maybe. When I mess up your lipstick.”

  “You’ve got it. You ready to hasta?” She was excited. She’d never been to a party for Halloween before. Not a real party, anyway.

  “Way ready. Be warned, your dad has a camera. My mom made him promise to text pictures.” He took Sammy by the hand and led her down the stairs, where Jian and Daddy made a big fuss over them both. And Eli wasn’t kidding about the camera.

  “Sammy.” Daddy took her hands in his. “No drinking, okay? Call or text me by eleven for a ride, and I’ll bring you guys home.”

  “It’s totally walking distance, Mr. Moore.”

  “Not at eleven o’clock at night it’s not, Eli.”

  “Right. Sorry.” He winced and added, “Yes, sir.”

  “I promise—on both.” The dance team was a zero-tolerance thing and really? She didn’t like the taste of anything she’d tried. “Love you, Daddy!”

  He gave her a quick hug and smile. “Have fun, sweetheart. Plenty of it.”

  Eli was at her side instantly, and they headed out the door. “We look so awesome.”

  “We totally do. You look like a dream.” She couldn’t stop stealing glances, stop watching him. He made her tingle all over.

  “Aren’t you chilly?” Eli put his arm around her shoulders as they crossed the street. He seemed totally confident about where they were going. “You want my coat?” Mari told her nobody wore winter coats to a party like this one. There was never anywhere to put them, and they either got lost, went home with someone else, or got puked on.

  “No. No, I’m okay right now. Are you excited?”

  “Are you kidding?” She felt him kind of hop beside her. “First of all, I love Halloween, in case you hadn’t noticed. I love the whole costume thing. I started planning this costume over the summer. No lie.” He laughed at himself. “And you can go ahead and snicker at me because I’m sure this is another one of those things you’ve done twenty times, but this is my first high school party. I usually go out in the neighborhood trick-or-treating with a pillowcase and my stupid sister and get candy. This is way cooler.”

  “This is my first Halloween party ever, Eli.”

  He stopped a little and blinked. “No shit?”

  “Not even a wee turd.”

  Eli stared at her, grinning. “You said ‘turd.’”

  Sammy beamed at him, and they both started to laugh. “I did.”

  “Oh my God.” Eli was laughing so hard she wasn’t sure he could walk. “I love you, Sparkles.”

  “Good. It would be totally weird, otherwise.” She managed to say that with a straight face too. Take that, Mr. Ashford.

  See, Momma? Drama class is totally paying off.

  “Totally.” Eli straightened up. He was grinning but still catching his breath. “Damn, I was counting on you to teach me some party etiquette. I suck at social stuff. The whole ‘meeting new people, one-on-one conversations’ thing. I mean, I’m doing it because it’s Halloween, and honestly, I feel a little braver when I’m around you, but it’s a mile outside my comfort zone, you know? A superlong mile.”

  “I’m pretty good at it. Really, most of it is smile and nod. If you get into a bind, compliment them. Like, ‘wow, cool shoes’ or ‘gee, that’s so smart,’ or ‘and all your tattoos are spelled correctly too?’”

  Eli nodded. “‘Are those real boobs?’ Got it.”

  “Make sure you couch it in a compliment, honey. Like, ‘those boobs look incredibly real,’ or ‘who’s your plastic surgeon?’”

  “Man, there’s just no shocking you anymore, is there? And I was doing so well for a while there.” Eli snickered gave her shoulders a squeeze. They turned one more corner, and Sammy heard the party up the block.

  “At some point, you just have to rise to the occasion.” Besides, she’d taken some hard hits lately. She must be building a skin.

  He turned and kissed her cheek. “I did say I love you, right?” He stopped them at the end of the driveway. The house was lit up, the garage door was open and the inside decorated; there was Halloween-themed music, and kids all over the place. “Woo. I’m so ready when you are.”<
br />
  “Let’s do this.” God, she was scared. Really, truly, deeply. No way she was letting on, though, not with Eli needing her to be brave. She was her momma’s girl; she had this.

  She just walked right up to the first gaggle of kids. “OMG. Harley Quinn. That’s so cool.”

  Please, God, let me do this.

  The girl grinned and swung her ponytails. “Thank you, the makeup took me forever. Uh… steampunk cheerleader?” She laughed. “You look awesome. Oh my God and your pirate is so handsome. Are you friends of Kyle’s?”

  “My boyfriend is. I’m just the date.” She spun and shook her pom-poms, which made them light up.

  “Oh, okay cool. Those things look dangerous.” She brandished her baseball bat, defending herself. “I’m Taylor, and Kyle’s up in the garage, I think.”

  “Cool. Thanks,” Eli interrupted. “Hey, do you know Erik Foster? Tall kid, skinny, zombie?”

  Taylor shook her head. “I know him, but I haven’t seen a zombie, yet.”

  “No problem.”

  “You guys go to Brentwood?”

  Eli nodded. “Sophomores.”

  “Weird, I don’t think I’ve ever seen either one of you.”

  “No? Maybe you don’t recognize us. Who do you have for English?” It’s not like they were invisible.

  “Mr. Thomas. Wait. I do know you. I think you guys are in my precalc class. Do you have Grissom on Thursdays?”

  “Yeah. With Erik too.”

  “And Mari. Yeah, I know you guys. Wow. Your makeup is amazing. You totally don’t look like you.”

  “Thank you. I worked on it all afternoon.”

  “Eli? Is that you, man?”

  Eli turned toward the kid coming down from the garage. “Yo! Kyle. What’s up?” Eli and Kyle shook hands, bumped shoulders, and finished off with a fist bump.

  “Glad you could make it, my friend.” Kyle waved his hand in front of Eli. “The pirate getup is pretty rad.”

  “Thanks. Steampunk.”

  “Yeah? Wild. You gotta check out inside. It’s all done up for Halloween and shit.”

  “Oh yeah? We definitely will. Oh! Kyle.” Eli finally stepped out from between Kyle and Sammy. “This is my girlfriend, Sammy. Sammy, this is Kyle.”

  “Whaaaat?” Kyle punched Eli in the shoulder and then held out his hand to Sammy. “Nice to meet you, Sammy.”

  “I’m tickled pink that y’all invited us. Thank you.”

  “I didn’t know my boy Eli had a girlfriend from…. Texas? Sounds like it?”

  “Yeah, right outside Austin. Good guess.” She felt her cheeks heat, but under the makeup, no one could tell.

  Eli slipped an arm around her waist. “Doesn’t she look great too?”

  “The gear belt is awesome. So many details.” Taylor stepped closer to Kyle. “I need another drink, Ky.”

  “Right. Catch you guys later, yeah? Have fun!” Kyle took Taylor by the hand and pulled her toward the house.

  Eli laughed. “If she hadn’t stepped in, I was going to.” He winked.

  “He was just being friendly.” Wasn’t he? Surely, he was.

  “‘My boy Eli has a girlfriend from Texas?’” He circled his other arm around her. “He was so flirting.”

  “I didn’t notice.” She knew how that worked. You acted like there was one person who saw you in that way. Just one.

  “Good.” He kissed her quickly and grinned at her. “Because Taylor was totally jealous.”

  A big guy in a leather jacket walked by slowly. Had to be Kyle’s daddy. “Uh. Wanna check out the house?”

  “I do. Stay close, huh? I don’t know anybody.”

  “Yeah. I know Kyle, and that’s it. Maybe we’ll find Mari and Erik.” Eli took a good hold of her hand. “I got you.” He seemed way more relaxed now that he’d talked to Kyle. Maybe he didn’t need her to be so brave after all. Maybe it was his turn.

  They headed up to the garage. Eli snagged a weird little bat-shaped cookie off a tray for her. “Here,” she thought he said. It was hard to hear him over the music.

  “Bat cookie!” Lord have mercy, what a crazy setup. There were spooky things hanging everywhere and huge cauldrons of candy scattered around. A couple of kids were playing some game with a blindfold, an egg, and a wooden spoon.

  Eli steered her around the game and over toward a door that led into the house. It was quieter once they got inside even though there were still people everywhere. There were a bunch of adults in the kitchen, but farther back was a split-level living room. There was a creepy-looking movie on a big TV at one end and another table full of food.

  “This is a cool house.”

  “I’ve never seen one like this.” It was bizarre. It was like someone had smooshed two houses together.

  “I bet half the houses in the neighborhood are like this.”

  Well, Eli’s house wasn’t part of that half, so she wasn’t completely crazy.

  “There’s a basement. Come on.” Eli sure did love houses. She followed him, her hand still in his, across the hall and through a door to a finished basement. It was darker and there was music playing but more dance music than Halloween, and a bunch of kids were dancing.

  She was never, ever in her whole life going to get used to this whole basement idea. It was just wrong, being underneath a house. She didn’t care how many times Daddy said it was normal. It was deeply wrong.

  “Cool.” Eli boogied right into the middle of everyone and gave her a little twirl around. “Dance?”

  “I’d love to! Where should I toss my pom-poms?”

  “Oh, uh.” He took them from her and looked around. “You hang here.” Eli cut through the crowd, disappearing for a second, but he was back pretty quick. “They’re safe in the corner over there.”

  “My hero.” She kissed the corner of his mouth. “Let’s dance.”

  “You know it.” The crowd was in motion around them, and it was pretty natural just to jump right in with them. Eli gave her some space to move, and he picked up the beat smoothly. This was easy, so she let herself relax and enjoy it, laughing with pure joy.

  The lighting in the room was neat. There were white stars projected on the ceiling, and a multicolored disco ball turned around and around, sending beams of red and purple and blue in all directions.

  Someone bumped her shoulder and she turned to find a zombie in pigtails, heeled boots, and a leather skirt grinning at her. “Hey, girl!” Mari shouted over the music. “You look fantastic!”

  “Thanks!” She gave Mari a hug, then backed off so Eli could hug her too. “Where’s Erik?”

  “Uh.” Mari looked around. “He was just… here he comes. My tall, handsome, brain-eater.”

  Eli gave Erik the thumbs-up once he’d danced his way over. Erik stuck his arms out like he wanted Sammy’s brain.

  “Don’t you eat on me, now!” She cracked up because she could, because she was having a good time with her boyfriend and her friends.

  Erik leaned in for a quick hug and then backed up enough to get a look at Eli. “Dude, we’ve been looking for you. We thought you guys were blowing us off.”

  “Never! We just got here a little while ago.”

  “This whole ‘coat and hat’ thing works, man.”

  Eli beamed at him. “Thanks!” It was kind of adorable how proud he was of his costume. He’d worked hard on it and had a knack for putting things together.

  Mari danced close enough to Sammy that she could be heard without shouting. “So? How is love treating you?” She winked.

  “Pretty good, you?”

  Mari’s cheeks went bright pink. “Shut up! You want to come spend the night tonight?”

  “I can’t. I’ve got plans with Daddy and Jian tomorrow early.” They were going to take Jian home and explore.

  “Bummer. Maybe next weekend? Did you talk to your dad about all those costumes you need to buy for the dance team?”

  “Totally.”

  “Did he freak?”

  “He was
really cool about it. He didn’t even blink.” She thought they were figuring this out, her and Daddy, starting to learn how to be a family.

  “Awesome. You’re going to tell me where your first competition is, right? I’m so coming. Eli says you kick ass.”

  “Yeah? You rock. It’s going to be fun, I think. We’ll be fierce.”

  “Duh!” Mari danced a couple of steps away again, making way for Erik and Eli, who’d moved right in between them.

  “Dangerous to let you two scheme.” Erik winked at Sammy.

  Eli laughed and slipped his arms around Sammy’s waist. “You doing okay? Thirsty or anything?”

  “No. No, dance with me. This is….” She didn’t even have the words. Who did? “Just where I want to be.”

  “Arrrr, shiver me timbers! As you wish, me hearty.” He pulled her closer.

  “Go team?” She could play along. Would steampunk people have teams? She was going to have to look into this sometime.

  “What? That was the least convincing cheer I have ever heard! I might have to throw you in the brig and have my way… with you.” His eyes went wide, but he had a silly grin on his face. “Uh. Sorry. That might be taking this pirate thing a little too far.”

  “It would if I was scared, but I’m not. You love me.” And hell, she might be willing to them having their way with each other someday.

  Eli seemed to light up from the inside, and he smiled at her. “I do. And I’m glad I don’t scare you.” He leaned in and kissed her, his tall boots making him have to bend more than usual.

  She wrapped her hands around his waist, underneath his jacket. “This okay?”

  “Yeah. I like it.” He danced her in a slow circle, keeping his face close to hers. She could hear him breathing in her ear.

  She did too. It felt a little wicked, a little sexy, a lot right. She seemed to be saying that a lot with Eli—that she was going with what felt right.

  After that amazing slow dance, Erik and Mari joined them again, and they all goofed around, laughing and dancing together for three or four more songs. Sammy didn’t realize how thirsty she was until Eli suggested they all go get something to drink.