Simon’s previously dejected green eyes suddenly lit up excitedly. It unfortunately made me see when he wore that look he resembled me. We had the same dark-brown hair and bright green eyes that could make us pass for twins. Miranda was the abnormal one with her strawberry-blonde hair and our mother’s hazel eyes.
“That’s it! That’s the perfect way to accidentally touch him and test out our theory!”
“Ohh no!” I said suddenly, realizing my stupidity for mentioning the party immediately. “Darren asked me to go with him tomorrow! I can’t use the date as an excuse!”
“Not an excuse,” said Erik suddenly. He blushed as Simon and I looked at him. It was sometimes easy to forget that Erik was around. He was a large kid but so quiet and stealthy when he wanted to be. His eyes were big and bug-like under the bulky frame of his glasses. He looked uncomfortable that our attention was suddenly on him. “As a cover,” he explained simply. “If you go with that one dude, no one will suspect you’re trying to get information on the other dude.” My eyes widened. His plan was short and simple enough. He wanted me to use my date with Darren to spy on Matt.
I was about to object before Simon offered Erik a fist bump. “It’s decided! Tomorrow you’ll find out if Matt’s the wolf while Erik and I look for ways to successfully kill a werewolf.”
Even while being the only adult of the trio, it seemed there was no winning for me against Simon and his friend’s dumb logic. “I don’t even have a costume!”
“Oh, c’mon, it’s the night before Halloween. Everywhere will have costumes available,” scoffed Simon.
Simon’s logic was flawed. He hadn’t taken into consideration that we were on the very edge of Adams County. We didn’t have any nearby clothing stores. The closest place to our house was a crummy gas station that also served as a small sandwich shop. Across the street from that was a bar. My lack of a costume was made worse because I stupidly waited until after work the next day to start looking. I thought for sure there would be some kind of costume available, but there was nothing. The closest clothing stores resided in Wisconsin Dells, and they were a Walmart and a Clayborne’s, respectively. Given the latter didn’t have any available adult costumes for purchase, I tried my luck at Walmart. But I had even worse luck there. It seemed everyone who was struggling to find last minute costume purchases had swarmed through the costume aisles and taken everything that was available or leftover. Simon and I eagerly filtered through the racks. Almost everything was far too small to fit my curvy body.
“How about you just wear a headband and a matching colored shirt?” Simon offered.
I scowled as I took in the sight of the bumble bee headband. “No, thanks. I’d rather not go at all then.”
“You can’t not go! You’re the only chance we have of touching Matt with silver.”
“I’m going to look like an idiot at a Halloween party!”
“If Miranda can find a costume to go, so can you,” huffed Simon as he continued scouring the racks. That caught me off guard. “Miranda is going?”
“Yeah. She’s going with Matt. It’s even more reason for why we have to prove he’s the bad guy. If we don’t, he’ll end up making Miranda have his puppies before eating her,” muttered Simon gravely.
“That’s not accurate lore, but I get ya,” said Erik nearby. His hand was shoved into a bag of puffy Cheetos. I had forgotten he was there. He brought a handful up to his mouth and crunched loudly as he watched us.
“Why did you even come with?” I snapped impatiently.
“Allies gotta stick together.” Erik shrugged indifferently. He continued to munch his food obnoxiously. He poked his head up to watch as Simon and I continued to look for a costume.
It was hopeless. The costumes were either incredibly too big, too small, or too hideous. Cat headbands or witches’ hats seemed broken or they just didn’t fit given they were child sized. There was hardly anything left on the shelves, and we were running out of time. I covered my eyes with both hands out of frustration. Sometimes I really detested my curves and extra weight. If I were two sizes smaller, there were an endless amount of costumes available. But I wasn’t two sizes smaller, I thought bitterly. None of these cute or revealing dresses would be able to pull up past my hips. Suddenly, Simon pulled out a velvet adult-sized blood-red cape with a hood. It was on the bottom shelf, forgotten under a large amount of headbands and body glitter. He paused his searching. A knowing smile suddenly lit up his face with an idea. “Your homecoming dress from senior year matches this color,” he said triumphantly.
“So, I’ll be a dork in a red dress and a cape?”
“No, stupid. You’ll be Little Red Riding hood!” He sniggered at the delicious irony of his costume choice.
I cackled with my own laughter. “No. No way, no. There is not a snowball’s chance in hell I’m wearing a knee-length dress with heels and a dumb cape. Sorry, baby brother, but absolutely, positively NO.”
“Well…” drawled Erik as he came into view. He had his open—and unpaid for—bag of chips in one hand. In his other was an ugly brown M&M costume that was three sizes too big in the other. “You could always go as this.”
CHAPTER 9
“I hate them both,” I complained a few hours later. I was talking to myself, but it didn’t matter. The thought of slapping both my brother and his harebrained friend was awfully tempting. I now felt stupid and overdressed considering I did not go with the oversized candy costume. Given there were no other options, I chose to go with Simon’s plan. My homecoming dress had been a sleeveless, knee-length red dress with a sweetheart neckline. Sky-high red pumps completed the look. Overall, I looked good. It was a very pretty ensemble but probably way too much for the occasion. I felt it was far too revealing for my liking. I had only bought it for homecoming senior year of high school because I had a boyfriend I had wanted to impress. That relationship unfortunately ended two days before the dance, so the dress had been sitting in my closet ever since. It had moved with me when I moved out of my parents’ houses and into college before back home again, but it was never worn.
It didn’t fit any differently than it did when I was in high school, but I still felt the need to cross my arms so my cape covered my sweetheart neckline. I was never one to think I looked attractive in any way, shape, or form, but I wasn’t bad looking tonight. If it weren’t for Darren, I wouldn’t even be going. I would have made an overabundance of excuses in order to avoid the nonsense that was Simon’s logic. Touch Matt with silver, he insisted. Not only was there no absolute solid guarantee Matt was a werewolf, but I wasn’t too sure all my mother’s rings were silver anyhow.
Getting into The Marina was easy. At the door, the bouncer required my name on a checklist for me to prove I was an employee. When I entered the building, the world turned darker. Neon strobe lights filtered the area and danced around the dimly lit club. Decorations consisted of blues, greens, and corals to represent the ocean and coral reefs. Cheesy colorful shark and fish decorations hung from different panels of the ceiling. The fish theme correlated with Halloween themes. Orange and black streamers and balloons decorated parts of the club as paper witch, mummy, and to my dismay, werewolf decorations floated above the crowd on strings strung from the ceiling. I mused that the club seemed unsure what decorations to commit to. Everything was either ocean themed for adults or sea creatures that looked elementary school themed. The Halloween declarations were just overkill for the already too decorated club. But no one seemed to notice the decorations. Everyone’s attention was absorbed in the party and who was there. It was a roaring event for employees. The lights were going crazy flickering bright before dimming. The DJ blared popular music from the large speakers next to his table. The club was half the size of a football field and completely packed with people. There was an upper deck that one could get to via two separate staircases across the room from each other. Upstairs, there were rooms or large sea-themed benches to sit at. I walked around the building to see if I recognized anyo
ne. I saw cooks from the kitchen, some servers, and mainly people who worked at the front desk. Two of the cooks I now knew named Tom and Nick either smiled at me or gave a friendly wave. It made me relax a bit. Even spotting Brian the friendly maintenance man calmed me. Seeing familiar characters from the hotel made me feel not so alone.
Randomly, I found a woman was glaring at me. I ducked my head and retreated to the bar as I recognized the person as my old supervisor. Laurel Reed wasn’t a friendly person. Leaving her department made the already tense relationship between us even more awkward. She was still glaring at me, but I carefully avoided eye contact. Laurel wasn’t a pretty girl to begin with. Her lips were paper thin and her eyes were spaced far apart. She had bushy brows constantly furrowed while her lips were always tightly pursed. She constantly looked to be sucking on a lemon, which made her facial expression even stranger. I knew that was what Laurel currently looked like without bothering to look back at her. She had worn that sourpuss look one too many times when I had worked with her and Jonna.
Next, I saw banquet servers and people from housekeeping. The overly bubbly but fake bar manager named Carrie smiled and waved as she walked past me.
“You look amazing,” breathed a nearby stranger as I approached the bar. I winced as I saw who made the comment. I couldn’t quite recall the man’s name, but I liked to avoid him as much as I could. Granted, he wasn’t wrong; I did look nicer than I usually did. My dark hair was styled to perfection, curling at the napes and kept in place with hairspray and styling gel. I wore black eyeliner and eyeshadow to enhance my green eyes while red lipliner and lipstick enhanced my lips. I wasn’t fond of how much cleavage was shown, but I knew I looked pretty cute. Still, I didn’t care to have the middle-aged maintenance man from the hotel comment on my looks or stare at my chest.
“Thank you,” I replied quietly. The bartender took my order of a ginger ale. The guy got distracted by someone across the bar shouting his own order. By the time the bartender came back with my ginger ale, I was surprised the maintenance guy was still by me. I was still working on remembering names of people from neighboring departments, but I believed his name was Marlon.
“And how are you today?” Marlon was still staring at my chest as if he expected the answer to come from there.
“Fine,” I said curtly. The man was so close I could smell the beer on him. The party had commenced an hour before. I had been late. I spent close to an hour and a half wallowing in self-pity about my costume and waiting for Darren to text me when he was coming. Marlon had obviously been on time to have consumed a great amount of alcohol. Then again, the only other times I had seen him around the resort he had smelled of beer as well.
“Aren’t ya gonna ask how I am?” I almost winced. I couldn’t honestly care less about how the man was. I only silently hoped he walked away. Before there was a moment to answer, Marlon was prattling off again. He had noticed my nonalcoholic drink. “That’s not a good drink for a party. You should have a beer,” he said, motioning for the bartender to return.
“No thank you—”
“I insist!”
Before I could object, Marlon placed a hand on the small of my back to bring me closer to him. I cringed from the sudden closeness, but I had nothing to worry about. A new arrival swiftly intervened to separate the contact. Matt was there, arriving out of nowhere. One of his hands gently pushed my shoulder away from Marlon while his other hand was on the burly man’s shoulder. He tightened his hand on Marlon, his expression unreadable.
“I believe she said no thank you,” said Matt briskly, his hand tightening once more. Marlon was barely two inches shorter than Matt, but he was a lot broader in the chest. If it came down to a fight, it was debatable as to who would win. Marlon had body weight advantage. But it was strange what happened next. Matt didn’t do anything other than provide a blanketed stare and squeeze of his shoulder. But it was still enough to strike instant fear in Marlon. He gave a curt nod and a muttered apology my way before hurrying off. An awkward silence soon ensued that I didn’t know how to break. It took me looking at Matt’s pale hand still on my shoulder before he removed it. “You’re better off staying away from men like him while looking like that,” said Matt without looking at me. I blinked away, confused. Did he think I looked bad? Slutty?
I tried to conspicuously tie my cape to keep it closed around me to avoid showing off my chest. I was about to walk away before Matt spoke up as a louder song began to play. “What, no gratitude?” I turned to find he had an eyebrow raised. It was hard to tell if he was joking. He didn’t seem to be, and that really bothered me.
“You did one kind thing after weeks of treating me horribly. Forgive me if I’m not showering you with praise.” My words were a near sneer.
“I believe I also saved you from having a bottle hit your forehead once,” recalled Matt, stepping back before looking at me. An impish grin sat on his face. “So, I’m not a completely horrible person.” He nodded seriously.
Matt was one of the few people in the club not dressed in a Halloween costume. He wore simple dark jeans and a form-fitted long-sleeved shirt. The royal blue color enhanced the powder blue in his eyes. As much as I didn’t like him, I had to admit he was very attractive. “Well, when you put it that way, you’re my hero,” I mocked coolly.
“Definitely.” Matt nodded. He cracked a grin, and it caused me to smile involuntarily. I couldn’t help it. His genuine smiles made him appear as a much kinder and softer person opposed to his mocking ones. “I saved you from a night of cuddling with a greaseball.”
“I don’t know what I’d do without you.” My comment was meant to be snarky, but it came out more playful than I intended. Matt and I smiled at each other once more.
We watched one another for a few, long moments. With anyone else, it would borderline uncomfortableness, but this was strangely pleasant. Matt looked even more handsome under the powerful glare of the strobe lights. He stepped closer, and then so did I. We were now just a few inches from each other. My thoughts turned to how easy it would be to touch him with my silver rings, but the asinine thoughts of Matt being a supernatural creature weren’t filtering through my head. As we watched each other, it very well seemed as though we might kiss. We were close enough for the contact. My eyes flickered toward his lips before back to his eyes while his copied my motion. His lips looked soft and inviting, inspiring me to wonder what would happen if either of us closed the distance between us.
That was when I suddenly looked away. I watched people on the dance floor. I paid specific attention to the details of some of the costumes the men and women wore. Some were obviously run-of-the-mill costumes while others were more intricate and showed a lot of thought and effort. Some costumes had special sewing or bought wigs. A few women bought fake fingernails or pretend swords for their costumes. I didn’t make eye contact with Matt again as I specifically paid attention to everyone else. I couldn’t think my sister’s boyfriend was handsome. I couldn’t want to be closer to him. Even though nothing happened, it already felt like I had betrayed her.
“No one else from our department is here, if you were looking for them,” said Matt quietly. He was still watching me, but I couldn’t look back at him. I suddenly felt a wave of embarrassment at my naïve and childish notions that he could ever be a werewolf. A hot blush crept on my cheeks at my own stupidity. I released a low breath.
“Thanks, but I’m waiting for someone.”
“You’re meeting someone here?”
“Um, yeah.” I wasn’t quite sure whether Darren cared if people knew this was a date. He still hadn’t texted me back the last forty-five minutes. I had sent a text fifteen minutes previously saying I had arrived at the club. Still, Darren didn’t reply.
“I’ll leave you alone before your date arrives,” said Matt as he started to head toward the staircase. He had a strange tone to him, one that I couldn’t read.
“How did you know I’m expecting a date?”
Matt turned
and provided a small smile. “You wouldn’t look like that if you weren’t trying to impress someone.”
CHAPTER 10
Did I look bad?
I couldn’t tell if what Matt said was a silent compliment or a hidden diss. I didn’t give too much thought to wondering which it was. Thoughts were proving dangerous for me. They brought me back to thinking about everything having to do with werewolves. They brought me to thinking about nearly kissing Matt. Even if he wasn’t Miranda’s boyfriend, he was still my supervisor, who was off limits.
I tried to mingle myself with partygoers only to realize I didn’t really know anyone. The party was turning out to be boring. It was uneventful watching people who worked at the resort. No one really danced or seemed to care they were inside a nightclub. They merely talked amongst themselves as if this was any other day at the resort and not a party. The rest of the night slowly passed in a blur. It was an uninteresting blur in which nothing notable occurred. I idled near the door of the club waiting for Darren. A half hour passed and then an hour. After the first thirty minutes, I had sent a text asking if he was running late. I didn’t receive a response. After the full hour passed, I took a break from watching people dance to use the bathroom. Using the women’s restroom was a nightmare. There were too many women standing around mirrors either admiring or fixing themselves. They spent their time doing their hair or adjusting their makeup. By the time I was done, I found difficulty in trying to navigate around the women to simply wash my hands. Reality soon began to settle in that Darren was standing me up. He would have been here by now if he planned on showing. If something delayed his coming, he would have at least sent me a text explaining he was running late.
As my phone finally pinged indicating I received a text, I scrambled to pull it out of my purse.
The Wisconsin Werewolf Page 7
