Two and a half weeks till Halloween.

"Look mom, I don't want talk about this anymore. I'll be there, okay?" I angrily run my fingers through my messy hair and toss the phone onto my unmade bed.

"Are you alright cupcake?" Kyla's voice is muffled under my blankets and layers of stuffed animals.

"Yeah, just my mom bugging me about coming home on Wednesday" I let my eyes wander to the picture of my family on my wall. Everyone's in it, Glen, Clay, Me, and mom and dad. We all look so happy but that isn't the case these days.

"Don't you have class Wednesday?" Kyla sits up and leans against the wall sleepily. She forced herself into my room last night and crawled into my bed while I was sleeping. She was too drunk to sleep by herself she said. See, we made this pact a few years back that we would never sleep alone when drunk, so when she or I aren't sleeping with other people, we are in each other's beds.

"It's college, I'm not expected to actually attend class" I grin at her and she rolls her eyes at me.

"Um, sure, if you don't want to pass any of your classes" She deadpans.

"I have all A's thank you very much" I say matter-a-factly.

"Uh-huh" She giggles and then becomes very quiet.

My throat is becoming dry just thinking about Wednesday and my hands begin to shake. "Ky" I say softly.

"I'll go with you" She takes my hand in hers.

"Thanks"

"Hey wait up!" I shout out to Moriah as I exit the dorms.

She turns around waits for me. "Where have you been?" She asks.

I look at her. "I've been here"

"Why haven't I seen you since Saturday night?"

It is now Tuesday and it's true, I haven't seen her since then. I haven't actually seen much of anyone the last two days except Kyla.

"I've been busy" I say defensively.

"Busy fucking Ashley?" She accuses.

"God, no! I have not been fucking Ashley. She has a boyfriend" I hear my phone ringing and I answer it. "Yeah?" I give her an apologetic look.

"When are getting here?" My mother says rudely to me.

"Love you too Mom" I say rudely back.

I hear her sigh into the phone. I can just picture her rolling her eyes at me in disapproval. "Look, I'm leaving tonight with Kyla after her 4 O'clock class which gets out at 5, so we'll be there around 8, okay?"

"Alright, see you then"

"Bye mom"

"Spencer, wait" She says.

"What?" I deadpan.

"I love you"

I smile "I love you too mom" I hang up and Moriah is trying to figure out what I was talking about, I can tell by the way she is looking at me.

"You're going home tonight?"

I scratch my head. "Uh, yeah"

"But it's like, Tuesday" She says it as if I don't know.

"Yes, thank you captain obvious" I nudge her.

"How come you're going home?"

"I have some family things to take care of" I say mysteriously.

"Oh"

"Yep" and then I realize we are at the main building where my class is. "Well, I'll see you later" I wave at Moriah and walk inside.

I am taking my trash out when I see Ashley sitting in her Subaru outside the dorms. She doesn't see me at first and I try to walk by without her seeing me completely, but that effort fails quickly. As I am throwing the bag into the dumpster I hear her call my name. I stick my hands in my pockets and walk towards her. "Hey Ashley" I smile at her.

She leans against her car.

"Taking the trash out?" She asks as if I didn't just walk from the dumpster.

"Yeah" I sigh. I'm really not in the mood to talk to anyone right now. I like going home, but not for the reason I have to go home tonight.

"If you didn't want to talk to me, you didn't have to" She gets upset and gets in her car.

It happens so fast I can't even protest. I tap on her window and she reluctantly rolls it down. "It's not that I don't want to talk to you. I actually enjoy hanging out with you. I just have to go home to take care of some family stuff and I'm pretty stressed about it, so don't take my crappy attitude too personally, alright?" I am leaning pretty far into her car, our faces are inches apart.

She picks at her steering wheel and shrugs her shoulders. "Are you sure it's because you don't like me?"

"I'm positive. I actually think you're kind of adorable" I put my charm on and she gives her killer smile.

"You're really gay" She pushes my head out of the car.

I stumble back and stare at her confused.

"Have fun at home" She waves to me and then Aiden get's in the car and she starts to drive away.

I flip them off as they drive off. "Fucktards" I mutter under my breath. I turn around in a hurry and before I can stop myself and run right into Kyla making her fall to the ground.

"Geeze Spence, angry much?" She gives me a dirty look and I immediately help her up.

"I didn't know you were behind me" I put my arm around her shoulders. "I heart your face" I say affectionately.

"I heart yours too" She smiles at me and then kicks me in the butt. "C'mon, we are leaving in fifteen minutes, meet me back here!" She goes dashing down the hallway as I walk up the stairs to my room.

I get back to my room and hurriedly pack my stuff. I will be home till Saturday and I hope I have everything I need. I am leaving my room when I see Ashley is calling me. "Hello?"

"Hey Spencer"

I shuffle out of my room with my three bags. I always pack too much stuff, my parents are the same way. "What's up?"

"Nothing really, I just wanted to say that I'm sorry for pushing you out of my car"

"You think that bothered me?" I ask amazed.

"Well you did flip me off as I drove away"

I laugh "I was really just flipping Aiden off for being such a douche the other night" I explain.

She laughs at my humor, which is always good. "Oh, well, I guess I can understand that"

"Yep" I struggle to walk down the stairs with all my bags. "Hey, I'm about to leave and I'm having difficulty talking to you and getting these bags downstairs, so I will see you when I get back, alright?" I drop one bag and then as I'm stepping over it, I trip and fall down the last few stairs. I end up sprawled out and I look up to see the front desk has about fifteen people surrounding it who are all staring at me.

Awesome

I groan and stand up. "I'm okay, thanks for asking" I say sarcastically as I gather my bags and my phone. I am still connected to my phone call with Ashley. "Ashley?"

"Are you okay?" She says worriedly.

"Yeah, I just fell down a flight of stairs" I say nonchalantly and continue walking outside.

"Well I'm glad you didn't die" She says, which leaves me smiling when she hangs up.

Kyla sees this. "Why are you smiling so much?" she opens the back of her car.

"No reason" I answer quickly and then get into the passenger seat.

"I'm sure" She winks at me and starts the car.

"Come on Sherlock Holmes, let's get this show on the road" I smile at her.

"Heck yes!" She puts the CD I made for her when we moved out here in August.

I can't help but laugh when I'm with her but it still doesn't make the knots in my stomach go away.

It's been exactly two years tomorrow since he died, and it still haunts me.