screaming color // n.h. au

part 4

this is the worst halloween of cole's life.

she's never been much for holidays, halloween in particular. she's terrified of people in masks, has been ever since a trip to disney world when she was five. a six foot tall goofy approached her so suddenly that she dropped her $6 churro. she burst into tears, and her mind was made up. no costumes for cole jacobs.

except she let april talk her into it this year, into a party at some junior's house, some guy named harry that april knows from her poli sci class. harry's beyond delish, april'd said. and because he'd invited her, she had to go, and cole absolutely had to come with.

so cole chooses the easiest costume she can think of, a black cat. black turtleneck, her favorite black jeans, black boots. black nose and whiskers drawn on with eyeliner, a pair of felt ears glued onto a headband, felt tail attached to her belt. the costume takes her a half hour to pull together, and she leaves it till the very last minute. april sits on her bed, wearing the most beautiful homemade fairy costume cole has ever seen. a tulle skirt flows around her, and a flower crown sits atop her head. cole tries not to be too jealous.

"are you almost ready?" april complains, resting her chin in her hand and looking as bored as earthly possible. "we're going to be late."

"isn't that fashionable?"

"cooooole," april whines, ever the drama queen.

cole turns back to the mirror, where she's been glaring in frustration at her crooked eyeliner for the past few minutes, and rolls her eyes at her reflection. cole is pretty sure that april has a crush on this harry kid, but april has a new crush every week. and cole's also pretty sure that niall's best friend, zayn, has a thing for april, and cole feels a little bit of unexplainable loyalty to him.

cole gives up on the eyeliner, tossing the pencil onto her dresser. she turns around to face april, who's occupying herself by examining her nail polish for nicks.

"okay, let's go," cole says.

"finally!" april says, leaping off of the bed and practically flying out the door. cole shakes her head, grabbing her purse and following.

the party is in full swing when they arrive - fashionably late, just as cole'd said. april dashes away from cole as soon as they enter to, cole assumes, go find harry. cole scans the room. unfamiliar faces, made even more foreign by their facepaint and headwear and masks, fill the grungy living room. the place already smells like beer and cole .

"nice costume."

cole knows the voice before she looks, before she feels another shoulder bump her own. it's niall and, judging from his tone of voice, he's got a few beers in him.

she'd known that niall was going to be at the party, of course. he'd mentioned in a few days ago, as he sat on the floor of her bedroom, painting designs on his notebook with her nail polish. she'd been focusing, or trying to, on her poetry reading, so she hadn't paid much attention to what he'd been saying. and a few hours ago he texted her, asking what she was wearing. she hadn't bothered to reciprocate the question.

maybe she should've, though, because niall's standing in front of her now, grinning like an idiot and clutching a beer, dressed in a dog costume. floppy ears on his head, the tip of his nose colored black, white circles of felt pinned onto his t-shirt for spots. he looks adorable, but she won't tell him that.

"you too," she says.

"c'mon, you need a drink." in the dim lighting she doesn't realize that he's reaching for her hand until he's already grasping it. he pulls her behind him through the crowd. "you know harry, right?" he says over his shoulder.

she shakes her head. "not really." she speaks louder than usual so that he can hear her over the music. something lana del rey, something rihanna. she doesn't really know.

"you'll love him," niall says. "everybody does."

they're in the kitchen now, where it's stifling hot. niall lets cole's hand loose and shoves a plastic cup of something into it. she knows she won't drink it, but holding it makes her feel less like a wallflower.

"oi, there he is!" niall says suddenly. he cups his hands in front of his mouth and shouts across the kitchen. "hey, harry!"

cole knew the boy was harry even before niall shouted, because right behind him is april, a beer in her hand and a smile on her face. cole stands practically frozen as niall swings an arm around her shoulder.

"hey," harry says when he approaches. he smiles a big smile, and right away cole can tell why april's so infatuated. this is the kind of boy that breaks hearts without trying. "this your girl?"

the question makes cole uncomfortable, but it doesn't seem to bother niall. "this is cole," he says.

"oh! april's friend." harry grins over his shoulder at april, who's hovering by his side like a puppy. cole can tell that this one is going to end in flames. "nice to meet you."

"you too," cole says.

a month later cole will sit on the floor of april's room beside her, nursing her broken heart with packets of twizzlers and hershey bars. for now, she watches harry smile at her one last time and then put his hand on april's back and guide her back into the crowded living room, whispering something in her ear that makes her laugh as they go.

"i like your cat ears," niall says to her now. she looks up at him and he's leaning over her, reaching a hand up to pet one of the ears on her head.

"i like your nose," she says in response. it's hot in the kitchen and niall is too close and she can feel every little bit of her skin, the cold surface of the counter pressing into her side and the cabinet brushing against her leg. "let's go outside."

she doesn't think about it, just turns and starts to push her way through the crowd to get out of the room. she doesn't look back. she knows that niall is following her.

the air on the back porch is clear. it nips at her nose, almost makes her forget about the stifling heat of the kitchen. she sits down on the step and brings her knees up in front of her. a second later, niall's beside her, kicking his legs out and leaning back on his hands.

"tell me a story," she says. this is a thing that they do, the two of them, that they've been doing for a few weeks now, maybe a month - has it been a month already? cole will get tired of her poetry reading or her french and she'll close her eyes and say, "tell me a story" and niall will spin one like it's nothing.

tonight, on all hallow's eve on harry's back porch under the cover of darkness, the story is about a dog and a cat and a trip to the zoo. it's crazy and it doesn't make much sense, but cole loves it anyway, loves that niall can come up with something like it at the drop of a hat. loves it enough that the music drifting from inside the house fades away. loves it enough that when niall scoots closer and puts his arm around her, she leans into him, breathes in the scent of him and thinks that maybe she could sit here like this forever.

"you didn't tell me that you and niall are together now," april will hiss in cole's ear later, swishing her skirt around wildly, half-drunk.

"we're not."

"but you're wearing matching costumes," april says, like it's obvious, like that's what matching costumes must mean.

cole groans. "i told him what i was dressing as. he fucking did this on purpose."

april laughs. "course he did. boy's half in love with you."

cole will decide, as she and april walk home with the cold fall air biting at their ankles, that she will pretend that she didn't hear that.