We Have Each Other

Part 22: This is Halloween

Sunday, October 31, 54 days
6:58 P.M.

Ding! Dong!

Josh froze with the stick of a half-dipped caramel apple in his hand. He quickly pulled it out of the goopy caramel sauce and set it in a bowl filled with crushed nuts.

He turned his head toward the living room where his mom was putting on Hocus Pocus, their favorite Halloween movie. "Lana or Tristan are here, Mom," he shouted.

"Already?" his mom shouted back. "I don't even have the movie on yet! The stupid TV isn't working right!"

He heard a frustrated groan from the living room followed by a celebratory hoot. Josh assumed that meant she had gotten the movie up and ready.

"We planned for around 7:15," he responded. "So I'm guessing it's Lana who's here. Tristan is always unfashionably late."

Another ring filled the kitchen as Josh rushed over to the kitchen door. "I'm coming," he yelled over the opening soundtrack of the movie and his mom's boasting about how she's smarter than the supposedly 'smart' tv.

Josh laughed to himself as he opened the door. Standing on his front porch was Hermione Granger. She was wearing a gray sweater with a white polo shirt underneath and a black robe as the top layer. She also had a red and yellow striped scarf wrapped around her neck and a gray skirt that went down to her knees.

Lana's costume wasn't an exact replica of Hermione's outfit, but with her hair loosely curled and her nose stuffed into the middle of a huge, old-looking book, the resemblance was uncanny. After a second, she looked up and smiled brightly.

"How do I look?" she asked, looking down at her costume and then back up at Josh.

"Amazing as always," Josh said, grinning back at her.

"As good as Emma Watson?" she asked.

"Better," Josh replied instantly. "I really mean it."

Lana's cheeks tinted pink, but she held her composure and gestured toward the street.

"Tristan is coming. He wanted to put on his costume in my car so that we could both see it at the same time. Apparently it is going to knock our socks off. His words," she clarified with a laugh.

Josh's eyes widened. "Oh. Tristan came with you?"

Lana nodded. "His truck broke down or something. It's in the shop so he needed a ride."

"And he asked you?" Josh asked. His tone came out a little more suspicious and offended than he meant for it to.

It wasn't like he was upset that Tristan asked Lana to drive him. He knew she would happily drive miles out of her way to pick up any friend. But after seeing Lana and Tristan in Lana's car a few days ago, there was just something that didn't sit right with Josh.

Lana raised her eyebrows and furrowed them at the same time into a silent, questioning expression.

Josh shook his head. "Nevermind," he said, literally waving the moment off by throwing his hand in the air. "So Tristan has an amazing costume?"

"Supposedly. I would say the same thing about you, but you aren't even in costume." She looked Josh up and down. "This isn't your costume, is it?" she teased.

Josh shook his head. "I'll put it on later. I didn't want to get caramel on it when I was dipping apples."

Lana's jaw dropped slightly, her sly expression suddenly gone and replaced with surprise. It was like she had just opened a Christmas gift from her grandmother and pulled out an ugly handmade sweater that took months to knit but looked like it should have only taken minutes.