𝐏𝐑𝐎𝐉𝐄𝐂𝐓 𝐖𝐈𝐋𝐃𝐅𝐋𝐎𝐖𝐄𝐑⁰¹ʰᵉᵐᵐⁱⁿᵍˢ✓

³⁶the bitter taste of 'almost'

clementine

Just when you need time to slow down so you can catch up, it runs at its fastest and leaves you so suddenly at October thirty-first.

As I gently wrap the finished album cover, folding the corners of the wrapper with care in my touch, Marisse watches and sticks clear tape once I finish.

Only three weeks ago, I was all caught up on finishing the painting, but now that I'm wrapping it up, I feel nothing but relief settling in me. I can soon move on to another painting as I search for my LA flat.

"Any plans for tonight?" Marisse asks as I smoothly run my hand through the side of the canvas, carefully folding it so Marisse can tape it down.

Of course, as Halloween evening goes, I'll stay in the studio and wait for people to ring the doorbell so I can put on my vampire cape and give out candy and chocolate to little kids.

It's been the same since I first worked here and I've never really desired for a change.

Mara would go off to a party with Cameron and Harish, and I would stay in the studio with the same vampire cape and teeth and carry my pumpkin pail of candy and chocolate.

Since I was eighteen, I've seen some familiar children, wearing different costumes each year, always dragging their parents along behind them with a toothy grin.

Every year, they pass by Ackerman's door and I always wait for them.

"Just as usual. Stay here, give out diabetes to the public for free," I give a grin and fold up the last corner of the canvas, Marisse taping it and pressing it down to secure it. "A'ight, that's well and done,"

Marisse returns the tape and scissors. "So when's the band coming to pick it up?"

I shrug. "Tomorrow afternoon, and they won't be picking it up, their management is," I shy away from showing my disappointment.

"Well, they're going to love it," She rests an arm around my shoulder as we walk out of the studio and into the hallway, a sway in our step. "I'll miss you, you know," She says, looking away.

I slightly furrow my brows, knowing her certain habit of avoiding eye contact when she's emotional. "And I'll miss you," I smile, wrapping an arm around her waist as we made it to the waiting room.

"You're moving all the way to Los Angeles but I feel like you're still eighteen," She tells me, sniffing and letting go of me as she reached into her bag for her phone. "And you were so clueless when we met, you even got lost trying to find the bathroom - "

I take her arm and turn her my way, pouting. "Marisse, please don't cry," I ask of her, seeing her looking down with a furrow between her brows. "You don't know how much I'll miss you too," I pull her figure into my arms and take her into an embrace, feeling her softly cry against me. "I wouldn't have survived here if it weren't for you. I'm so grateful for you,"

She lets out a laugh. "You would've been stuck wandering in the backroom for much longer if it weren't for me,"

We let go of each other, heading whipping to the door when the doorbell rings, childlike giggles sounding from outside.

Marisse quickly wipes off the few-shed tears and grabs my vampire coat from the blue armchair, throwing it to me as she fixed her vampire fangs into her mouth.

I grab my fangs from my bag and hurriedly put them on before snagging the pumpkin pail and making a run for the door.

Marisse opens the door and reveals two children before us made up of one girl as Moana and one older boy, around fourteen or fifteen, as a chicken with ginger feathers.