To All Those Brave and Lovely

Halloween

She had always liked Halloween.

Nora isn't sure why, because its not that she's a fan of horror movies or ghosts or anything like that.  She thinks it has something to do with the fact that every other holiday was such a major let down that Halloween became her favorite by default, even if the only fun thing she ever did was eat a lot of candy with Eden and puke it up the next morning.

"Why are we doing this again?"  MJ asked, talking through a mouthful of popcorn and motioning at the tv screen.  Tony let her have people over- though let maybe wasn't the word, didn't kick out her friends when he found them in his house might have been the better description.  "None of us even like horror movies."

Eden couldn't come.  Nora's trying to ignore the stab of anxiety she feels whenever she looks over at the spot where she would be sitting, because that opens a lot of doors she doesn't want to examine too closely.  The ones where she starts to think about how the calls are becoming less and less frequent, how the homecoming dance passed and someone else must have gone to try on dresses with her, how she can feel Eden ever so gently extracting herself from Nora, because it's easier for both of us, we can't be tied together this closely when we're so far apart.  Eden likes to explain a lot of things away with her philosophies and those poetic, soulful quotes she has memorized, but this one, Nora knows, is bull shit.  This is just two people growing apart just like they should, but she can't let go.

"Because it's Halloween,"  Nora shot back, ignoring the way that Ned flinched back when the chainsaw man popped onto the screen.  She does like horror movies, though they were never her first choice, and had been absolutely appalled to find out that the other three had never seen Chainsaw Massacre.  Or Saw.  Or anything good at all.  "And on Halloween you watch scary movies."

They humored her.  They humored her because they had all been there when Eden called and said that she wasn't coming, that the school was throwing a party and she didn't want to miss it, that she was going there and then to her girlfriends house and maybe they could do something next week?  And then they had sat and let her pretend that she wasn't upset about it until Ned finally said that they would just come over and keep her company instead, and when Evangeline had found out about it she had gotten huffy and insisted that she come, and then Wanda had to be invited because it felt wrong not to, even if she couldn't come because she was off saving the world.  

They watch one movie, and then two, and then Ned leaves in order to catch the subway home, and MJ and Evangeline disappears down into the basement, promising not to touch anything that looks like it could explode.  Nora didn't really believe them.

"I kind of hate horror movies,"  Peter says, after they've gone and the two of them watch three other hot girls in bikinis get murdered.  "Like, really don't."

"It's tradition,"  She whines, but when she looks over at him he does look a little pale, so she just turns the light back on and pauses the television.

"Let's make a new tradition, okay?"  He gets up, drags her to her feet and out into the kitchen, gets out everything he needs to make cookies and then blasts Monster Mash through the speaker system, which draws Evangeline and MJ out from the basement.  "This ones better.  And has nothing to do with Eden, so you won't be sad anymore."

Nora stares at him, which is right around the time she gets sent a picture of all her old friends together, and throws the phone onto the couch, which is where it stayed for the rest of the night.  "Yeah,"  She says, ripping open the packet of chocolate chips and passing them over to MJ, who had produced a book out of thin air.  "New traditions are good."

New traditions are good, but Tony coming home to find his kitchen completely ruined isn't.