by BJ Hyman
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Craig slipped up behind Charlie after he finished up with a Facebook ad for the store. She was deep in thought over the day and didn’t hear a thing. Seeing an opportunity, he leapt at her with a loud villainous laugh and grabbed her by the shoulders. Her shriek could have been heard two blocks over. Her hands flew up defensively in a kind of flapping motion, dropping the paintbrushes she had been washing all over the floor with a wet clatter.
He doubled over in laughter that stole his breath. Charlie blinked several times in shock before swatting at his back with both hands. “You son of a …! I can’t believe you did that! I almost had a heart attack!”
Wiping tears from his eyes, he stood up as straight as he could while still laughing. “You should have seen your face. Oh, that was good! That was fun! I haven’t gotten you that good in a while.” His body curled in on itself while he chuckled and ducked from her still slapping hands. “I was just coming to tell you that everyone is going to take you out to eat to help you celebrate. We’ve reserved a room and the meal’s on us!” His words came out in short breathy phrases while he tried to control his laughter.
Charlie dropped her hands and shook her head at him. “You better be glad you had good news.” She gave him one more pop for good measure. “Let me go get my stuff. Is everyone meeting there?”
He was still wiping his face. “Yeah. I’m taking you though. Why bother with the car?”
Charlie chewed her lip. “I won’t have a way home.”
His brow furrowed. “What about Eli?”
“I’d rather not have to rely on that.” Seeing the look of shock on his face, she rushed forward. “I don’t know what that means, so don’t ask.”
He leaned against the table. “Can I ask why?”
“You can, but I am not going to answer.”
He dropped his gaze to the floor. “Dean?” He looked back up into her face.
Her shoulders slumped. “That’s part of it.” She flung a hand out. “I don’t know what to do. It’s a mess. I don’t know. Can anyone completely let go of their past?”
He rubbed her arm with a companionable grace. “It’s going to work out. Somehow. It will all work out for the best.” Then he clapped loudly. “So, let’s get out of here so we can celebrate!”
With a laugh she started toward the storage room. “Let me go get my stuff.”
He watched her back for a moment with a sadness only the unrequited know before leaning down to pick up the paintbrushes scattered across the floor.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Frightening Things
The next day, Charlie and Kellie searched the costume shop for outfits for Sabrina’s party. It had been picked clean of all the prime costumes. Charlie looked over at Kellie. “Halloween isn’t the best day to try to find your costume.” Her lips twisted ruefully.
Kellie pulled out an indescribable green outfit that had no easily recognizable purpose. “I guess one of us could be mold. Or snot? Mucus? Or some sort of radioactive blob? What the hell is this supposed to be?” She searched the fabric for some kind of label. There was none to be found. She shoved it back on the rack.
“I guess, if nothing else, we can use your fabulous make-up skills to turn us into something worth being.”
“I could probably cover the two of us, but what am I supposed to do with Eli and Mitchell? They are completely relying on us.”
Charlie silently moved toward another rack of brightly colored costumes. Kellie peeked at her over her shoulder before testing the waters of asking what she’d been dying to since the awkwardness of the night before. “So…Eli tell you what he might want to be? You two going as a couple costume thing? Maybe you two could be Gomez and Morticia? That would be pretty easy to pull off.”
Charlie flicked her eyes over toward her sister before burying herself arm deep in a box of loose masks. “Um. No. I don’t think we should pick out matching outfits for this.”
Leaning on the box, Kellie folded her arms across her chest. “Spill it. It was very noticeable last night at dinner. Something is up.”
She pulled out a clown mask with its mouth stretched to inhumanly wide proportions, revealing rows of razor sharp teeth. The eye holes were slanted with angry eyebrows. The effect was horrifying, and she dropped it instantly in distaste. She shook her hands as if she had touched something particularly dirty and wet. “Things are complicated. There’s a lot of stress and it’s affecting us. That’s all.”
The anger was instant. “What the hell?! You’re being tormented and he’s cutting out on you? He worried he’s gonna get it next? Is he some kind of coward, or something?”
Charlie’s hand came up to stop her. “Nothing like that. It’s…more complicated than that. He still wants me and still wants to protect me. Okay? Don’t go instantly at him for this. Things are just…difficult right now. I can’t explain it.”
Kellie’s eyes became slits. “What are you not telling me?”
Steeling herself, she turns to face Kellie. “I don’t think I’m over Dean. And Eli is starting to feel it. I can’t help pulling back a bit.”
“You’ve GOT to be kidding! Come on, Charlie! I thought we’ve been over this! How long is this gonna drag out?”
“I still love him. I might not be able to be with him, but I do love him.” Kellie started to talk but Charlie stopped her with a hand. “That didn’t change when I ended it. You all pushed me! And his sorrow didn’t make me stop loving him. I just couldn’t drown in it like he was. Can’t you get that? What if it was you and Mitchell? What if he lost someone close and fell in a well of depression so deep that he dragged you with him? Would it be easy to quit loving him? That person is still there. It’s just buried.”
“So, is it over with Eli?”
Charlie ran a hand over her face. “No. I do love him, at least to an extent. I love them both. That’s what’s wrong. How am I supposed to handle this?”
“Eli is more stable.” Kellie shoved a purple costume that looked like a raisin back into the racks.
“We don’t know that. We haven’t been around Dean enough to know that. He seems very well adjusted now.”
“Look, I always liked Dean. I did. But I didn’t like who you became after the accident. If he isn’t stable, I don’t want you in that position again. He was killing you. It was the black hole of despair that took over the whole world!” Kellie reached out to take one of Charlie’s hands. Tears glistened at the corners of her eyes. “It’s not about him. It’s about you. I’ve already lost Mom and Dad. I’m not losing you, if I can do anything about it. I will fight it with my very last breath. You are all I have left in this world.”
Charlie pulled her into a hard hug. “You’re not going to lose me because I’m not going anywhere. Even if I have to swear off all men.” They both began to laugh.
Kellie’s voice was tear-soaked and humor-filled. “You would never be able to do that.”
Charlie buried her face in Kellie’s bright pink hair. “You’re right. I know. You’re right.” She leaned away and wiped a tear from her sister’s face. “But, no matter who I end up with, I need you to stand by me. I need you to make sure I’m doing what’s best. You’re my Jiminy Cricket. You keep me sane.”
Just then, a familiar face popped up over the nearest costume rack. “You girls are getting emotional in a costume shop. Have you no dignity?”
“Sabrina, mind your own business. We’ll get emotional wherever we want to. You’re just jealous that you aren’t a part of the hug.” Charlie smiled at her. But her smile became tight as Sabrina came around the rack with Kyle following closely behind. “Oh, hi! I didn’t see you there.”
Sabrina wrapped her hands around his bicep and pulled him closer. “Kyle is helping get a few last-minute things for the party. I needed his muscle.” Her fingers trailed up to his shoulder. He looked at her indulgently.
Kellie and Charlie shared a wide-eyed look before both trying their best to be casual. “So…are you all ready
for tonight? Got your costumes?” Kellie picked up the clown mask and shook it at them. “This would be good for someone.”
Sabrina frowned at the mask. “No. We’re going as Gomez and Morticia…the sexiest spooky couple out there.”
Kellie flipped a hand up to Charlie. “What did I say? Great couple costume! Aren’t you glad you hadn’t already decided to do that?”
“Incredibly.”
“Well, we’ve gotta go! I still have some decorating to finish and we have to pick up some of the food. I can’t wait for tonight! See ya!”
They sashayed away like they couldn’t make a move without being joined at the hip. Kellie swung around to Charlie. “What? Have they gotten that serious this fast? Could that possibly be for real?”
“Who knows with Sabrina? I would normally say no but…I just can’t say. I’ve not seen her like that in…well…ever. Wow. Has she finally found…gulp…The One?”
Kellie began yanking costumes out in earnest. “We’ve got to get back to the store, so we can talk about this with Craig and Megan. Get your butt in gear. Anything will work! Let’s go.”
Who was Charlie to stand in the way of sharing good gossip?
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Craig leaned forward with his elbows on the counter. “So, they were acting like this was some serious thing?”
Kellie bobbed her head up and down with her eyes wide. “Yes! You would have thought that they had been dating forever! She was draped all over him. Come to think of it, I don’t think he said a single word the whole time. Did he, Charlie?”
She scratched her head. “I think you’re right. Well, no wonder Sabrina likes him so much! She gets to do all the talking! He’s her perfect man.” She smirked.
Megan sat down on a nearby chair and crossed her ankles in front of her. “Maybe it’s the third wheel thing. You know that it’s been bothering her for a while. I don’t remember him saying much last night either.”
Craig pointed at Megan excitedly. “You might be on to something! I tried a couple of times to talk to him but all he did was watch Sabrina talk to Charlie about the DesignTV thing. That was an interesting conversation, but I would think he’d have at least something to say or ask about it himself.”
“Maybe he’s shy.” Kellie shrugged. “I wouldn’t have said so from how he acts on the job, but maybe crowds make him quiet.”
“Benefit of the doubt. How understanding of you, Kellie.” Charlie gave her a pat on the arm which Kellie instantly shrugged off.
“I’m just thinking out loud. And I’m capable of empathy, Charlie. I might never have felt that way myself, but Mitchell can be like that in certain crowds.”
Craig’s stomach growled loudly. “Not to change the subject, but did you say you had some leftovers from your lunch out, Charlie? I never got anything.”
She hopped down from her perch on the counter. “Sure! I’ll go get it.”
In the back room, they had a very small utilitarian refrigerator tucked into a space between their lockers and a supply closet. She opened the door and looked into the dimly lit interior. The unmistakable black clamshell container from the restaurant was nowhere to be seen. She went to the door of the storage room and called out. “Kellie, I brought those leftovers in, didn’t I?”
“Yeah! You handed them to me and I stuck them on the top shelf in the fridge.”
With a frown, she went back to the fridge. Still nothing. She felt it was unlikely, but she grabbed her keys to check the car. The heavy metal back door to the shop was slightly ajar. She paused with her hand in the air before pushing it the rest of the way open. With anxious eyes, she scanned the alley that she and Craig always parked in behind the building. It was a dead end, and they were the only shop that used it. Nothing seemed out of place, so she walked to her car. There had been a small autumn shower and her shoes slapped wetly on the pavement.
When she got to the car door, she was surprised to find it already unlocked and the lunch sitting on her front seat. Her heart skipped a beat before shifting faster. Something about it made her nervous. It wasn’t that she left it in the car. It wasn’t even that she left the car unlocked. She had done that on occasion when she was in a hurry or had things on her mind.
The food was sitting in the driver’s seat.
She had put it in the back seat. And she very clearly remembered opening the back door to retrieve it when they got back to the store.
She slowly picked up the container and closed her door. She hit the door lock button twice so that, not only did she hear the locks engage, but she got the quick, loud horn to let her know it was locked.
When she entered into the back, she made sure that the back door was closed completely and locked before throwing the food in the trash can.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Queen of Halloween
Sabrina’s Halloween party was becoming a yearly event. This one marked the fourth year in a row that she threw a blow-out costume party and they got better with each one.
She had bought her parents’ house after they had divorced. Her father had paid out her mother as part of the settlement but, afterward, she decided she didn’t think she could live there with the memories. Sabrina offered to buy it as a first homeowner purchase. It was way more house than she could have afforded otherwise. Her mother carried part of the loan to help her out and it had worked out beautifully for Sabrina.
The others often wondered how it felt to be in her childhood home after the ugliness, but she had slowly refurnished, redecorated, and renovated until the house barely resembled the home she grew up in. It was all Sabrina now…scrubbed clean of bad memories.
For the party, it was barely recognizable as her house anyway. She had decorated every available surface, nook, and cranny with spookiness. There were cobwebs, black cats, spiders, witch brooms, cauldrons, spell books, skulls, weird things in jars, ghostly forms, and all manner of scary ephemera everywhere you looked. Every guest who walked up the steps to the front door was impressed. There was no way around it…she was now the Halloween Queen.
Charlie and Eli had found matching costumes after all. He was a baseball player and she was a bat girl. It was the first actually comfortable Halloween costume she had ever worn. It was practically exercise wear. And she got to carry a bat around which kind of made her feel like Negan. If only she had wrapped it with barbed wire… Holding it in her hands reminded her of the night at the Arctic Circle Bar arguing over Walking Dead trivia. Things were so much simpler that night. It felt like it was years ago.
The ride over had been fairly quiet. It wasn’t uncomfortably so, but, if the ride had lasted much longer, it would have gotten that way. Charlie marveled at how quickly things can shift. This had been becoming a very comfortable place to be, her place by Eli’s side.
But then Dean was called back into her life.
None of it was fair to Eli. He hadn’t done anything. He hadn’t changed. He was still the same wonderful, generous man he had always been. But a ghost from the past was now part of the present.
That was part Kellie’s and part Charlie’s fault. Kellie shouldn’t have instantly thought the person sneaking in and doing things to her was Dean and Charlie shouldn’t have followed her advice and contacted him. If those two things hadn’t happened, it would all be the same.
Well, no it wouldn’t have been. There was still her tormentor. That was one of the changes too.
You learn who people really are under stress and, right now, there was almost nothing but stress.
So far, Eli had done nothing but be supportive and giving. Thinking about it made Charlie feel just awful.
Charlie sighed and reached over to take Eli’s hand as they walked up the stairs leading into Sabrina’s house. He looked down at their entwined fingers and back up at her face. The smile he gave her made a lump swell up in her throat that she could hardly swallow around. She smiled back at him with lips that felt like they were made from surfboards…overly large and impossible to bend. His eyes took
in the difficult smile and he glanced away into the house.
Once they stepped over the threshold, his eyes swept over the interior with intense interest. “The decorations are just amazing!” His hand left hers to gingerly touch some torn black lace dangling from a nearby shelf. When he dropped his hand back down to his side, she looked at his strong fingers and realized she missed how easily they used to be to reach for. Now she just felt awkward and didn’t know if she should reach out again or not. So, she didn’t.
“I’m gonna see if I can find Sabrina. I’ll be back.” Charlie slipped off into the corridor leading to the kitchen and away from Eli. As soon as she was out of his sight lines, she put a hand to her chest. She wanted to beat her head on the wall. Why does life have to be so difficult? She leaned back against the wainscoting and closed her eyes. Her cell phone was in her back pocket and vibrated pleasantly against her buttock. She pulled it out and, lo, and behold! That familiar skip of the heart.
