shook her head, “Not a chance.”
“Whyyyyyy?” he moaned like a petulant child. He had been bugging her non-stop about what costumes she had picked out for the pair of them all day and it was really starting to grate on her. She had hoped to distract him by buying goodies and booze for the Halloween party he had decided to throw for his band mates, friends and crew after the end of a successful tour.
“It’s a surprise,” she stopped the cart and looked up at the top shelf which held life sized replicas of coffin tables, wondering how much space they would take up. She reached up to pull one down, hoping that Alex would intervene and help her out before he could ask any more questions. He continued to whine as she struggled.
“But babeeee.”
“Don’t ‘but babe’ me. Now help me get this coffin down to measure it before I start taking measurements for yours.
“What the fuck is this?” Alex laughed as held out their Halloween costumes, well joint costume, to him. She had finally decided to show him them.
She raised an eyebrow at him, “I know you can be a bit slow sometimes but I know for definite that you’ve seen a pair of boobs before.”
“But why are we dressing as a pair of boobs?” he asked pointing at the two t-shirts, each with a massive bra cup sewed onto it and stuffed to create the perfect pair of breasts.
“Because it’s funny and your band mates are perverted so they’ll get a kick out of it too. Plus; it was your idea!”
“I didn’t think you’d take me seriously!”
“Well tough,” she stuck her tongue out at him, “now take your half.”
“Err…. I don’t know,” he reached out his hand to take the left shirt from her but she wouldn’t let it go.
She handed him the other one instead, “No, no; this is your one.”
He furrowed his brows, “Why? They’re both the same.”
“Ah, but you see, my love, we are not.”
Alex looked at the shirts, “What do you mean? They look the same size.”
She gave him a smirk, “Well, I have to be the left boob because you, my dear, are a right tit.”
had just proposed a bet to her best friend, Zack to see who could win at “flip cup” and, ultimately, to see who would be picking out the loser’s costume for Alex’s upcoming Halloween party. Never being one to back down from a friendly challenge that could end in hilariously disastrous results, Zack had accepted, and given that they were both already at another party, it was fairly easy to gather the equipment needed.
“Five cup draw?” he asked, knowing that this setup was usually one that he won at.
She rubbed her hands together, “Why not? I’m feeling generous tonight.”
“Sixth cup should we draw?”
She nodded with a smirk; “Go for it. It won’t get to that but I admire you trying.”
He rolled his eyes at her, “You’re going down.”
“You wish I was,” she winked at him, leading him over to a card table that had been used for anything but card games. She saw his cheeks flush pink and grinned. This was how she was going to win; by psyching him out.
Zack set up two lines of five red solo cups from a stack on the table. went behind him and poured shots of vodka into them. A crowd, including Alex, Jack, Rian, , and gathered around them. addressed the crowd and told them of their challenge. Rian took over as the referee – complete with a party whistle that had been found in Jack’s pocket that he seemingly had no prior knowledge of acquiring (and no one was prepared to question him about) – knowing that he could be biased when it came to a match between two of his friends.
and Zack took your positions facing each other either side of the table.
“Ready?” Rian asked. Their friends started making bets on who would win; whoever backed the loser would have to take a shot.
She stared Zack down, him doing the same to her.
“Ready.”
“Ready.”
“On ‘go’,” Rian instructed.
They both nodded.
“3…2…1…Go!” he blew the whistle. Their friends began cheering their names.
sunk her first shot then flipped up her first cup. She cursed as it didn’t land upright. She peaked at Zack; he was already onto his second cup. She flipped it again and this time it landed on its bottom. She moved onto her second shot, the cup replaying the history of its predecessor.
By the time was onto her fifth cup, it looked like Zack was going to win. Both of their cups had failed to land upright several times and, being the competitive person that she was, was beginning to grow frustrated. Zack looked up at her and they locked eyes. They both flipped up their final cups simultaneously. As they watched them turned over, the room seemed to fall into slow motion and the cheers seemed to fade away, everyone seemingly holding their breath.
A cup landed upright and both ‘s and Zack’s eyes widened, their friends’ cheers became deafening. Rian blew his whistle and just like that; it was over. put her head in her hands and then threw her hands up in the air, Zack mirroring her moves only in defeat; she had won.
A few days later…
“Keep your eyes closed!” warned as she laid out Zack’s costume – or lack of – on her bed.
“Hurry up then!”
She continued moving around just to keep him waiting. It was funny to her to keep him waiting for as long as possible even though she had already laid out his costume and had nothing left to put out for him.
He huffed and puffed a few times, growing frustrated. He knew she liked to torture him.
She decided to put him out of his misery, “OK; open!”
Zack opened his eyes and as they adjusted to the light, they flickered to his outfit. His eyes widened at the sight of it; “Wha…?”
“That’s right, Zachary. I hope you haven’t been skipping out on leg day because tonight you shall be wearing nothing more than a shell necklace and a grass skirt.
The voice made her jump; it was her boyfriend, Rian’s. She had barely seen him all week despite living together and him being on a break from the band. He had started going out earlier and earlier in the mornings and not returning until late at night – sometimes not even returning until a couple of days later. She looked up from your laptop;
“Yes, love?”
“I kind of fucked up.”
She felt her heart plummet. She set the laptop on the coffee table in front of you, “What did you do?” She had been afraid that he had lost interest in her and she worried that this was him finally telling her so.
“I… er…” he leaned against the door frame, his hand raised to neck, rubbing it uneasily.
She felt her eyes narrowing at him, “Just say it.”
“I… I kind of forgot to get our costumes for tonight and there’s none left.”
Her shoulders fell in relief, “Is that it?”
He looked at she confused, “What do you mean?”
“You had me worried; I thought you were breaking up with me.”
He walked over and sat beside her, putting his hand on her knee, “I would never do that. What made you think that?”
“You’ve just been MIA a lot since your break began and I’ve maybe seen you for a total of 6 hours in the past fortnight – and that includes the time you spent asleep the one night you came home.”
His eyes became sad; he hadn’t realised he hadn’t been that present; “That’s only because I’ve been driving to different costumes stores literally across the entire state trying to find us anything that even resembles a costume, or even bits and pieces to string together but all I’ve managed to get are feathered masks and Mardi Gras beads. There’s nothing left.”
“Why did you not tell me that that was what you were doing?”
“Because that was my one responsibility and I didn’t want to let you down.”
She put her head in your hands then sat back laughing away to herself.
“What’s so funny?”
“I’ve been going crazy thinking I was losing you and all this time you were just trying to make me happy.”
He managed a smile, deciding to test the waters; “So you’re not mad?”
She shook her head, “How can I be? You went out of your way to make sure we had something, even if you did turn up with odd bits.”
“What are we going to do, though?”
“Luckily for you, I have some costumes stored away from a party had whilst you were away,” she stood up, taking his hand. He stood up with her and she guided him to the spare room.
“What kind of party did she have?” he was getting nervous and she was kind of glad; it was time for some payback over the grief he had given her over the past few weeks.
She dropped his hand as she opened up the wardrobe, “Tarts and vicars.”
had offered to clean his apartment for him before he got back from tour and it was one of the many questionable things she had found in the process. It wasn’t just questionable; it was plain bizarre. She had decided to call him to ask about it in case it was important to him.
“Well hello to you too,” he laughed down the phone.
“Hi. Hello. Why is there a sign on your floor saying “to women” on it?”
He laughed again; “You weren’t supposed to see that; it’s for Halloween. Speaking of which; do you want to go to Alex’s party with me?”
“When is it?”
“It’s a week on Saturday.”
She thought about what may be on her calendar at home but couldn’t quite visualise anything that may have been on it, “I’m not sure.”
He paused, “Please?”
She sighed; “I don’t know, Jack.”
“Is this because I left before you woke up?”
This completely threw her. Before Jack had been picked up to go to the airport things had been a little awkward between the two of them. They had had a drunken night together which had resulted in him blacking out after confessing his love for her. His confession had kept her up all night as he slept soundly beside her, trying to figure out whether drunken words did indeed equate to sober thoughts. When she had woken up a few hours later after finally succumbing to a restless sleep it was to an empty bed and no trace that he had even been there. wondered whether she had dreamt it but as she laid her head back onto the pillow on which she were sure he had slept, a burst of his all too familiar aftershave had wafted upwards, assaulting her senses.
When he didn’t receive a response he sighed. He could almost hear her thoughts ticking over.
She couldn’t bear not to answer him; “I’ll think about it, Jack.”
“I’m sorry. I was planning on asking you earlier – when you woke up – but I got a call saying I had to leave earlier so I had to go.”
“And you couldn’t let me know you were going because…?”
“I didn’t want you to freak out when you saw we were both naked and think I’d maybe taken advantage of you.”
snorted with laugher, “Jack; I know were naked. I wasn’t that drunk. We had sex. Nice moves, by the way.”
He chuckled, “So will you please go to Alex’s party with me as my date?”
“As in a date-date?”
“As in a date-date,” he clarified.
She smiled to herself, “OK, then.”
He grinned down the phone, “I’ll send a cab to pick you up on Saturday.”
“Just let me know the details and I’ll be there.”
He paused before he hung up, “Oh, and ?”
“Yeah?”
She could hear the cheek in his voice as he spoke his next words; “Wear something slutty.”