So it's came around to Halloween again, and passed by quickly. This was planned on Halloween but I've only just gotten through to writing it during my NaNoWriMo month.
Of Goths and Cheerleaders
Fixing the back of her skirt and the hem of the cheerleaders top, Mohini looked around, feeling somewhat self conscious. The truth was her father would have killed her if he even knew she were to wear this, luckily it was Halloween. The one day he allowed this. Of course, the skirt length had to be to his approval, and she had to wear tights (which she hastily removed after leaving the house). Now she stood at her boyfriends front door, nervously delaying knocking on the wooden frame. Biting her lower lip, her hand connected with the wood, once, twice, three times and then she waited.
A clatter was heard in front of the door, and she heard a distant "Sorry!" shouted before the door opened. It was him. Not the 'him' she was looking for, but he would do.
"Hey, Charlie." Mo smiled, "Nice costume." She commented. Her eyes looked up and down at Charlie, who had managed to make his face extremely pale, applied black lipstick and black eyeliner. He wore black nail polish and a black leather jacket. "A goth?"
Charlie nodded, "A cheerleader I see?"
Nervously, she fiddled with the back of the skirt, reconsidering putting the tights from her bag back on, "Yeah." Her eyes fell to the floor.
"You look really pretty." Charlie complimented her.
"Well…" She tucked her hair behind her ear, "Thanks. You look very… Gothic?" A small shrug came of her shoulders.
Charlie laughed, "That's what I was going for. It was either that or Edward stupid Cullen."
"Edward Cullen?" Mo scoffed, "I'm more of a Jacob fan myself."
"You only like him because he barely wears a shirt!" He rolled his eyes.
A faint blush crept across her cheeks, "Yeah, maybe." She pushed past him into the hallway of Scott's house, impatient of waiting too long to be let in.
"Well, come in then!" Charlie said.
Mo's eyebrows raised, "It's not even your house!" She laughed.
A smile grew on Charlie's face, her smile did that to him, it was almost infectious, "They're outside getting set up on the patio."
Mo gave a soft nod to Charlie, walking through Scott's kitchen to the back door. When she reached the patio, Mo was welcomed by the sight of Olivia White kissing Wen Gifford. She coughed slightly, and the pair pulled apart.
"School Girl?" Mo asked, looking at the shirt, tie and skirt on Olivia.
"Yeah. That obvious?" Olivia began to turn less red from being caught kissing Wen.
"Not as obvious as a Cheerleader." Mo told her, looking to Wen. "And you are?" She thought for a moment, nothing coming to mind.
Wen raised his eyebrows, "Oh, come on, you can't tell?" She shook her head. All he did was point to his ginger hair.
"Because that's helpful, have you gone as a more shiny version of Wen?" She could see he had made his face a little more shiny. His hand pointed to the dungarees he was wearing, "Hillbilly Wen?"
"Chuckie!" Wen exclaimed.
Mo shivered, "You couldn't have gone as something less creepy? You know that thing creeps me out!" She exclaimed.
"Well I was going to go as It, but Olivia reminded me how even more terrified you are of that, next year I won't be so considerate." Mo lightly punched him in the arm, laughing slightly.
"Don't you dare." She warned him.
"You know, I say we watch some horror movies after this party is finished. I am sure Scott has both Chuckie and It, watching Mo shriek in fear would be quite the topping to my night." Stella commented, walking behind Mo.
Upon hearing the voice, Mo jumped into the air, looking around and staring wide-eyed at Stella, "Not cool!" She warned her. "Please tell me you haven't gone as someone from Twilight." A soft groan of disapproval came through in her words.
"Definitely not!" Stella crossed her arms over her chest in defence, "I'm just a regular old 'run away from the sunlight' vampire." She slipped the fake vampire teeth into her mouth, chattering them.
Mo laughed, looking at the fake drip of blood she had added to the corner of her mouth, "Remind me to bring a steak next year, I'll come as Buffy!"
"Why would you do that when you are such a sexy cheerleader?" Scott commented, off to the side of them where he was helping Charlie set up his drums.
"Shut up you!" She blushed slightly red again, "And you are?" Her eyebrows raised, "No, let me guess." Pressing a hand to her mouth in thought, she questioned, "Scott Pickett, guitarist of Lemonade Mouth. So cool he goes as himself."
He spun to look at her, "I'll take note of that for next year, but no." Scott slipped on a pair of glasses, and Mo knew now who he was.
"Ahh! I didn't notice the robe, or the scar." Mo laughed, "Harry Potter."
"Yeah, you're officially dating a wizard." Slowly he walked over to her, pulling a wand out of his robe pocket.
Rolling her eyes, Mo asked, "Do they even have cheerleaders at Hogwarts?"
"Sure they do, you help me to win quidditch." He finally reached her and pressed his lips to hers.
"Hello, guys, PDA!" Stella commented, after trying to ignore them for a moment.
"So wait," Mo asked, pulling apart from him. Scott walked back over to his guitar, starting to tune it up, "When Miss Olivia and Wen make out, they can go ahead, but when it's me and Scott, it's too much PDA?"
Stella laughed, turning back around to one of her best friends, "Yeah, we don't have to watch Wen and Olivia flirting and God knows what else all day, we do with you two."
"Get used to it." Mo commented, walking back over to Scott and giving him a quick kiss, starting to set her own guitar up.
His frantic eyes searched through frantically moving bodies, looking for a specific one. He had been doing this for the past half an hour, since they had finished playing their half set of music and put a CD on for the next hour. Finding her, leaning against the counter in the kitchen, on arm around his waist, lips locked tightly with her boyfriends. All Ray knew he could do was wait.
To bypass the time, Ray busied himself by taking to the nearest person to him. A strange boy he knew helped Lemonade Mouth set up at times.
"Hey." He looked down, "A unicycle? Really Lyle?" Both eyebrows raised.
"Spiffing Ole' Chap. It's Watson, Sherlock Watson." Lyly introduced himself, with a thick, fake British accent and a cigar.
"Why the unicycle?" Ray asked.
"Spiffing times." Lyle joked, looking around and leaning forward, whispering, "I lost a bet," He informed him, in his normal voice.
Ray laughed, observing the unicycle riding, top hat and tailed boy, before nodding and watching him shakily ride off. With an eye roll, he went back to watching Mo talking to Scott. Waiting for either one or the other to walk away, leaving him to begin his phase one.
It did not take long.
Scott was soon pulled away by one of his friends to talk to a bunch of other kids at the party. Mo was alone, now was his chance.
"Hey, Mo." He spoke, replacing the spot where Scott once stood.
"Hi, Ray." She greeted, not too coldly, but not warmly either. Slowly they had built bridges the past few months, especially since Scott was now in the band, it was the least that they could do. "Who are you supposed to be?" Wasn't it obvious. He was Ray Beech after all, there was only one person he could possibly be.
Looking at her through his sunglasses, Ray smirked, "Only the greatest guy ever." She should have guessed, "Ray Beech. Have you heard of him?"
"Unfortunately." She mumbled. Putting on a fake smile, she asked, "What do you want, Ray?" It came out a little harsher than she had planned, but she was getting fed up of having to spend time with self-centred him.
"Ouch!" He shook his hand as if he had just been burned, "Anyone would think you wouldn't want to be spending time with me!" She rolled her eyes, raising her eyebrows expectantly. Almost nervous, Ray looked around him, seeing if Scott or any other member of Loser Mouth was around at the moment. No? Good. He slipped his phone from his pocket and got up a picture. "It's kind of hard to show you this, but I think you should know…" He passed her the phone.
The moment Mo saw the photograph she wanted to run away. Her body went numb, almost dropping the phone. Eyes wide, "Is that?" She asked, unable to finish the rest of it.
Ray only clicked onto the next image, one of Scott standing next to the girl, the one he was previously kissing in the image he had shown Mo. "Yeah, it's him." He looked to the floor, taking the phone back, "Sorry to have to tell you, I just thought you should know."
Her eyebrows creased, tears welled up in her eyes, "Why are you showing me this? Don't pretend it's because you like me, we both know this 'liking each other' game is just to amuse Scott."
"He's my friend, but I know what he is doing is wrong, Mo. And you do to."
She did all she could, ran. She was always running. She ran through the living room, down the hallway and up the stairs, choosing the room the furthest away from where Scott's was. Mo knew this room to be the guest room. Her body pounded down on the beige quilt, her head missing the pillow by an inch. Hands covered her face as she began to cry, sobs escaping from her body. Tears cascading down her cheeks. Mo only hoped she was far enough away from the party that no one found her crying here.
Charlie observed from the doorway as Mohini's eyes watered with tears, and she ran. There was an internal battle going on inside himself, to follow her, or to ask what the hell Ray was playing at. He decided on the latter after watching the smirk appear on Ray's face as he saw Mo leave.
"What are you playing at, Beech?" Charlie asked, acting as if he was not scared of him. Screaming at himself on the inside to stop being so stupid.
"I only told her what she needed to know." Ray pushed Charlie out of the way, walking away from him, as far as possible. Waiting to watch the repercussions of his actions.
Charlie watched Ray, then in Mo's path, and then to Scott. Trying to see what he should do. He decided to climb the stairway to find Mo, knowing she needed a shoulder to cry on. It took a few minutes in which he searched each room he passed. When he arrived at the last one, hearing soft sobs, Charlie wondered why he had not guessed Mo would pick the furthest away. Carefully he entered the room, as quietly as he could manage.
Mo never heard anyone enter the room, obviously due to the fact her sobs were pretty loud, but she was aware of another presence the second there became a dip in the bed on the empty space around her body. She stopped, frozen and peeled her hands away from her face.
"It's only me." Charlie told her.
Mo's body relaxed and she sat up on the bed, wiping the tears away from her eyes, "I'm okay." She informed him, but contrary to her words, a sob escaped her mouth, followed by another. She gave up the 'I'm okay.' act and let herself cry into her hands once again.
"Mo." He said, looking at her with the deepest sadness in his eyes. Scooting closer to her on the bed, Charlie wrapped his arms around her, at first she tensed into his hold, before melting, resting her head on his shoulder and crying onto it.
Neither spoke again until they were interrupted by the sound of Stella looking for them, "Mo? Charlie? We're due on in fifteen!" She repeated, over and over, entering each room.
Mo sat back, wiping her eyes and trying to calm her breathing, "Are you okay?" Charlie asked.
All she did was nod, "Yeah, I'm fine. I'll be fine. Whatever it is, the show must go on, eh?" She peeled her body from the bed and stood up, walking over to the door. "Thank you." Her eyes fell onto his worried ones.
"For what?" He asked confused.
"Being here." Was all she responded before she walked out of the room.
Throughout the set, Mo felt herself doing anything to avoid Scott and his gaze, to which he obviously noticed. This did not go unnoticed by Charlie, who was carefully watching her due to the outburst. The rest of the band started to notice something was up when Mo began to avoid her walks past Scott, going the opposite way sometimes, making the arrangement of the stage mess up. At least her bass playing was still on form.
The second they finished their set, Mo could not be more relieved to be out of there. Storming into the kitchen of Scott's house, she greedily drank at a cup of water. Waiting. Soon they all arrived, obviously concerned enough to follow her. All she wished were for them to do as the rest of the party had done and migrate to the backyard for the next hour or so. No such luck.
"What's wrong?" Scott asked, putting his hand on her shoulder.
Mo moved away from his touch so fast the drink almost spilled out of her cup, "Don't you come near me ever again." She warned him.
His hands fell in front of him in mock surrender, the rest of the band watching on in confusion and protection came to stand by Mo, almost blocking her from Scott. "Mo, whatever it is that I haven't done, I am sorry." He apologised.
"You know what you have done." She told him, looking hurt.
Scott shook his head, "I wish I did, but I haven't got the slightest clue."
"Ray showed me." Mo informed him.
Scott cursed; he should have known Ray would be the person behind all of this, "Showed you what?"
"The picture!" She exclaimed, the plastic cup hitting the counter so hard the liquid splashed out around the edges. Right now, that was the least of Scott's worries.
"What picture?" God, it was as if he were being slowly drip fed while starving.
"You, kissing some other girl!" She blurted it out, she had not meant to, but she could not help herself.
"Mo? I haven't kissed another girl. I swear to you."
She could not believe his lies, and did all she could do. Once again, she ran. Heading straight for the room, hoping that the one person she needed found her there again.
"What is she talking about?" Stella now asked, looking directly in Scott's eyes with an evil glare, arms crossed over her chest.
"I swear, I have no idea what or who she is even talking about. I haven't cheated on her! I would never do that again, I've go too much to loose." In that moment he walked away, expecting one of his band mates, or ex-band mates now, to stop him, hit him, say something. Nothing. So he kept on walking, in search of Ray Beech.
"I'll go and talk to her." Olivia said, stepping forward.
"No." Charlie cut her path off, "I will. Just give me ten minutes with her. I will come and find you guys once she is okay." He never waited for the protests, not able to argue back with them, he went in the direction of the broken girl, knowing exactly where she had ended up.
He was right, there she lay, again, sprawled on the bed, hands over her face, in that all too attractive cheerleaders outfit. Charlie had to tell himself to stop being a boy for half an hour before sitting in his place once again. Her head found his shoulder and she cried into it.
Softly, Charlie's hand rubbed up and down her back, doing anything too sooth the streaming tears, sobs and the quick gasps for breath, she never seemed to calm down. So he hummed. He hummed anything that came to mind. The first thing that came to mind. It just happened to be She's So Gone.
She heard him humming the song. Her song. It slowly calmed her down. Soon the tears stopped and Mo pulled away from his embrace, tear stained cheeks flushed red. Gazing directly into her watery eyes, Charlie smoothed his hand over her cheeks, wiping away the tears.
"I'm sorry." Apologised Mo.
Charlie raised his eyebrows, "Sorry for what?"
"Everything." His head cocked to one side. Giving a sigh, Mo expanded, "Creating a scene down there." Her eyes fell to the quilt they were sitting on.
"Mo," Tenderly, his hand moved her head so she was looking at him, "You do not need to apologise. Especially not for that."
There was a moments silence, where Mo struggled to think of something to say. All she wanted to do was protest, argue back with Charlie, anything to make her forget this day happened, but she never did. Not wanting to see him hurt like that. And then she softly spoke, "He cheated on me, again. I can't believe that after last time I would be stupid enough to fall for the lies."
A suspicious vibe came from Charlie, "Did Ray tell you that?"
"No." Mo shook her head, "He showed me a picture of Scott kissing another woman, and then a picture of them together just so I knew it was him."
Charlie only nodded, rubbing a hand up and down her back as she began to cry once again. Then it was like a tonne of bricks hit Mohini, as everything came into her mind and realisation hit her.
"Oh God, I'm going to have to leave the band!" She exclaimed, with another bout of tears.
"Why would you need to do that?" Charlie asked, moving some of her hair out of her face.
Her voice shook as she replied, "I don't want to have to see him. I can't do that. Please don't make me do that." She begged.
"Mo, listen to me, you are not leaving the band. Trust me, if things ever came down to keeping you or Scott, we would let Scott leave the band. You've been with us from the start, nothing is changing that."
"Yeah?" He nodded, Mo took a calm breath, letting the tears from her eyes dry up and her voice steady once again. Looking at the boy in front of her, Mo laughed.
"What's so funny?" Charlie asked, an amused smirk on his face.
"Here I am, crying my eyes out, in a cheerleaders costume, while being held by the Goth."
He became defensive, "Hey! There's nothing wrong with being a Goth!"
Mo wiped her cheeks, "I know." She smirked, "But it wasn't how I thought my Halloween was going to go."
"What? You saying you liked this?"
She shrugged, "Some part of tonight, yeah."
Charlie stopped thinking for a moment, letting his body decide for him, "Maybe this will make up for the rest of your night." He said, letting his lips fall into a sweet kiss with Mo.
Surprisingly she did not move away and start questioning his actions, complaining that she had just broke up with Scott. That's what Charlie had expected. No, she began to kiss back. Her hand rising to the back of his head, stroking his hair. His own hands framed her face, holding onto her cheeks.
Neither knew how long they had been kissing like that, or at what point they were going to need to actually breath again, until they heard the soft.
"Oh my God." From the doorway.
Both pulled apart pretty quickly. Mo's eyes stayed shut, not wanting to know who was in the room with them. Please do not be Scott. Please, please, please. Her hand came up and touched her lips, remembering where his soft ones once touched her own so tenderly. Already missing the passionate touch. Gently she peeled her eyes open.
"We only came up to see if you were okay, but I am guessing Drummer Boy has that area covered." Stella Yamada quipped, a smirk on her face and a single eyebrow raised.
"I am so sorry!" Mo began to apologise, the stun of Charlie's kiss no longer paralysing her. "You guys were not supposed to see that!"
Wen raised his hands in surrender, "Hey, that PDA was a lot better than seeing you and Sc-" An elbow to his ribs stopped his words.
"What he meant was…" Olivia tried to get Wen out of digging his own grave.
Mo cut her off, "I got what he meant, and I am not bothered by it. Scott can do whatever he wants." She softly shrugged.
"Speaking of, he's looking for you. Well, he was right before he pinned Ray to his kitchen wall and punched him anyway. I think we should leave." Stella informed her.
With a nod, Mo stood up, adjusting her short skirt and helping Charlie to stand, "What are we going to do then?"
Stella smirked, "Well, I am thinking: Trick or Treating around my block and then horror films all night."
"Trick or treating, at this hour?" Exclaimed Mo.
"It's only half ten. Not so bad."
With a soft nod, Mo agreed and they all started to leave the room. Charlie's hand held her own, stopping her from walking out of that door, "The kiss, I'm sorry."
She leaned forward, locking lips with him again, this time only briefly, before pulling apart, "Don't be." Mo smiled at him, pushing his hair back, "It definitely made this Halloween a lot better."
"So does this make us… I don't know… A couple?" Charlie stammered out when he saw those beautiful eyes gazing into his own again.
"I think it does. If you want?" He nodded, "Good, because with those 'horror films' Stella has planned, I'm going to need someone's arms to cower into like a four year old, that and trick or treating, right now? Scary enough idea!"
Charlie laughed, "It would be my honour to be your protector, Miss Banjaree."
She whacked him lightly, "Stop being nerdy." Mo laughed, linking her arm with his and walking out of the bedroom.