The Four Sisters

Chapter 8

    The Halloween party was in full swing by the time that Spencer decided to go downstairs to join in. She was thrilled to see her friend Brian, and his boyfriend Marcus sitting at the kitchen table as she made her way through the thick crowd of people that she didn't know. The house was packed. It seemed that Parker, Rose and Charlotte invited every person that they met in their lives. Marcus and Brian were dressed as the Property Brothers which had her howling with laughter.

  "Aren't these the gayest costumes of all time?" Marcus asked as he proudly posed next to the old kitchen table where they'd saved her a seat. "Hurry up and get in your chair! These idiots keep trying to steal our seats!"

  "It's the best seat in the house," Brian said as he gave Spencer a big hug. "We have a whole crew of guys dressed like Britney Spears. We have all the different eras in here!"

  And they certainly did. A group of their friends had dressed as different Britney Spears videos, and it delighted Spencer who had to take pictures with them even if her seat was in danger, but she figured she was the home owner so she had a right to her own table. She was almost thirty, and she would happily yell at people now.

  "Your costume is so sexy," Brian said at Spencer's witch hat that she wore with the black dress, a green amulet that was costume jewelry that Victoria had found her at a thrift store when she was looking for her own costume (a boring pair of cat ears and a tail), and Spencer took Charlotte's 'witch' shoes again which were just pointy, black boots. She wore a pair of glittery black tights and purple socks to complete her ensemble.

  "Oh, it is not," Spencer said; embarrassed at the compliment.

  "It is!" Brian insisted. "You look amazing these days. You're so toned."

  She showed him her muscle. "That is from lifting all sorts of furniture and dusting."

  "I'll have to try it sometime," Marcus said as he gave her tiny muscle a squeeze. "Nice!"

  "It feels like so long since I've seen you guys!" Spencer complained. "You both look so grown up in your costumes!"

  "It's all an illusion," Brian said reassuringly. "We're still the same immature douche bags that we always were although now I'm working at an office, and I actually have to wear this suit."

  "You work at an office?" Spencer was shocked as Brian had worked at bars since she'd known him. "What happened to bar-tending? You were making great money!"

  "I'm trying to stop the whole party thing," Brian said with a shrug. "So now I'm working at my Aunt's insurance company which is incredibly boring, but Marcus and I are living together now, and I don't want to be out all night working anymore. It's hard to have a relationship with someone who is out at all hours and gets in at five in the morning!"

  "It does suck," Marcus said. "It wasn't about trust 'cause there was complete trust or I wouldn't have moved in with him, but now we can actually see each other! We can even have lunch as his office is right across the street from the hospital."

  Marcus recently graduated medical school, and he was doing his first residency. He was so busy that Spencer didn't often get to see him, but she'd connected almost instantly with Brian and Marcus when she met them a few years before. She didn't have many friends so she cherished her friendship with them even if she didn't get to see them very much.

  "So are you going to start student teaching soon?" Spencer asked Brian.

   Brian quit college a few years ago, but he was going back to get a teaching degree. He struggled his first few years, and for a while he slept on the sister's couch in the apartment when he was evicted from his own place.