Friday, Friday. Sigh. You have been a long time coming. I have had enough of this week! 10, 11 and 12 hour days are now behind me! (does very long and extended happy dance... then passes out on the floor)
I am off to Hotlanta to see Mat Kearney! Oh, Mat, though you are now married and my heart will be forever broken, I will forgive you because your music makes me happy. Favorite line of the day: "Sometimes the hardest things are the dreams that we've been given." Now, come on, yall. That's some good stuff. :)
Voting is now open for the Underdog Awards! You can find all the info on my blog noteventhetreesff (dot) wordpress (dot) com All of the voting information has just been added to my blog, with step by step directions and links to all the pages you need to submit your votes. There are some other really great stories nominated! (But, you know you want to vote for All I Have's two entries!)
I don't stake claim in any of the characters or tunes mentioned in this chapter. I'm okay with that-I have my own much more fun characters under construction that I can claim. Well, they keep me entertained at least, haha.
Beta props go to llynn20 who helped me come up with the pumpkin carving ideas. We had lots o fun throwing ideas around. But, for real, I am a very, very blessed and lucky girl to have her as a friend. Yall should thank her, too. She had kept me sane today (I really, really needed some sane today... I didn't even think I would get to post this before we hit the road) and let me send her multiple all-caps email yell-a-thons. It was not pretty. Not at all. But, she is fab-o and just let me holler. REAL LOUD. And now I am sane again. So thank her for saving the few brain cells I had left after this crazy, crazy week. Thanks, ficwife. I owe you one! :)
Part One: Autumn
Here we go at it three years later
Will you help me to dream it all up again?
Tired of the same song everyone's singing
Rather be lost with you instead
Chapter 9: Disguises
"Are you ready for the magnificence that is your pumpkin?" My enthusiasm is somewhat fake, but I'd never, ever let Bella know that. I'm second-guessing what I carved based on my previous promise to be whatever she needed me to be. But what's done is done and I can only move forward from here. I don't even bother to turn the lights back off.
"Yes!" She shouts back to me, full of excitement.
"Okay!" I place my hands on the pumpkin. "Here you go! Presenting Bella in pumpkin form!" I wave my hands over the still-lit pumpkin that is facing her. "Ta-da!" I exclaim, like a magician.
Bella looks at the pumpkin for a second before smiling. "Oh, Jake, it's perfect." She looks down at the bell I carved using different levels of shading, the little dash, and finally the lowercase "a."
"Were you going to leave it on the porch for me and hope I'd see it?" She's got a twinkle in her eye.
"Well, the countertop is more like it. Sorry if you think it's too much. I couldn't help myself. I wasn't expecting any kind of happy ending." My tone drops off a little at the end and I remind myself again that I will be whatever she needs me to be.
Silently, Leah reappears in the living room. "Jake," she says lazily. "We need to discuss costumes for Sam and Emily's." She grabs her keys and leaves the apartment.
Bella just watches the door Leah all but slammed. "I'm sorry if I'm making your life difficult," she says to the door. I'm not sure if she means my life or Leah's.
"You're not. But I was going to ask you if you had plans for Halloween. My best friend Sam and his fiancée Emily have this crazy Halloween bash every year. Do you want to go with me?"
"When is it?" There are heavy amounts of caution present in her voice.
"I did the math already; he won't be back yet. Its Halloween weekend. He should come back the week after, right?" She looks surprised. "It wasn't that hard to trace your line of thinking." I tap my head with my finger.
"Well. Yeah, he will. But I don't know, Jake. It might not be the best idea."
I have to catch myself from pushing her into going. "If that's what you think, I'm okay with that. Maybe we can just hang out then? Together?"
Bella finally smiles at me. "That I can do."
She hangs around till that awkward do or die time for dinner. Before we can talk about eating, Leah comes bustling back into the apartment.
"I got us dinner, Jake. Mein Moon—your favorite." She plunks the white to-go bag right in front of Bella. "Oh, are you staying? I didn't get you anything… that's just too bad!"
I give Leah a murderous look before looking at Bella trying to gage her reaction. "You can stay if you want, I'll share mine with you. I'm sure Leah would even be glad to share. We all know the portions are huge."
"Yeah," she snorts. "Like I'd share—"
Before she can finish, I cut her off. "So maybe that's a no on the Leah sharing part. But you can certainly have some of mine."
Leah sighs. "Jake, I brought dinner for me and you." She stops taking the food out of the bag and stares at Bella who is cowering behind the counter like it's her protective shield just trying to stay out of the whole thing.
But before she can get any further, Bella speaks up. "It's okay, Jake. I should probably get home anyway. I have to feed the cats and I have leftovers from last night to eat."
She is far too kind to Leah. I shoot Leah another look. She just looks back at me like she's the poster child for innocence. I roll my eyes and walk Bella to the door. She opens it and I follow her out into the hallway. As soon as she's out of the tension in the kitchen, I see her relax.
"You don't have to leave, you know."
"That's very nice of you to say, but I kind of do. I do need to feed the cats and I don't want to cause any more problems between you and Leah."
"Sometimes I want to whack her upside the head with a stick. She's so… ugh."
Bella somehow offers me a small laugh. "I had a really great time today, Jake. Thanks for an absolutely perfect afternoon." She leans up on her tip toes, kisses me on the cheek, and walks down the hall, without looking back once. I'm left frozen watching her walk away.
Leah's getting two plates out of the cabinet when I walk back into the apartment.
"Oh good, the trash went back to where it belongs," she says, in her sickly sweet voice.
I stare at her. I am seething. Nothing I could say to her will be good. At all. So I don't say anything as she plates up my pepper beef and fried rice. She even puts two packs of soy sauce on the edge of the plate. I grab a fork and a napkin. When she's done, she hands me the plate.
I take it from her and turn out of the kitchen. I hear Leah follow.
I put my plate on the coffee table and sit down on the sofa. Leah sits beside me a moment later. The sauce smells just right, that perfect blend of spice and sweet that only Mein Moon can master. My nose is tingling from the hotness and my mouth is watering.
My fork is almost to my mouth when Leah speaks. "Now this is how I expected my night to be. Nice and quiet, just me and you. No riff-raff."
I practically throw my fork down. I push my plate away and stand up, pulling out my wallet in the process.
"What's wrong now?" She whines.
"I can't eat this, Leah." I throw a ten on the table. "There are too many strings attached."
Awake.
I am awake, but I don't know why. As I slowly come to, I realize my phone is blasting its merry jingle of a ring. I slap my hand onto my bedside table, seizing my phone in my hand and bringing it to me. The screen glows a bright blue and I can hardly focus enough to see who's calling me. I answer the call and hold the phone to my ear, grunting out a greeting.
"Hey."
More grunting on my end.
"It's Bella."
My head clears a little. I roll over to check the time on my alarm clock. 2:41. In the morning.
"What's wrong?" I ask her, fearing the worst.
"Nothing!" Her response is entirely too chipper for almost three am. "Are you sleeping?"
I grunt. And roll my eyes. Granted she can't see that, but it makes me feel better.
"I want to go."
"You want to what?" I mumble into the phone, not really awake enough to enunciate any better.
"I want to go to the party. Sam and Emily's. If you'll still take me."
"You called me to tell me you wanted to go to the party."
"Yeah… should I have waited till in the morning?"
"Uh, yeah, maybe."
"Okay." She pauses for two beats. "Well, can I?"
I sigh. "Can you what?"
"Can I go? To the party? I had this brilliant idea for costumes that aren't that complicated and I can get them done in time and I think it would be a lot of fun because, really, when do I ever get to have fun? When I'm with you, that's when. So why would I not want to go? Oh, and I need your pants size."
"Why are you awake?"
"What?"
"Why are you awake, Bella? It's the middle of the night."
"I know, but I was writing and, well, I've had about a pot of coffee and I was just thinking about it. I don't think I'm going to tell you what we're going as. I think it needs to be a surprise. But I think you'll like it. If you agree. To take me. And to the costumes."
"Okay, Bella. Okay. Yes, I still want you to go. Yes, you can do costumes. May I go back to bed now? Please?"
I hang up and drop my phone into the bed with me.
I lie on my back, staring at the ceiling. The light from my window and the trees outside make all kinds of patterns with the shadows and I watch them turn into elephants and houses and shrubbery before eventually falling back asleep.
As usual, when you're waiting for something good to happen, time drags. Leah has been avoiding me just as much as I've been avoiding her since the dinner disaster. When I finally tell her that I'm not going to the party with her, she is relatively calm.
"Who are you going with then?"
"A friend," I tell her, which technically isn't a lie.
"Okay, well then I guess I'll see you there."
To be honest, her nonchalance about the whole thing is kinda creeping me out. It makes me worry she's got something up her sleeve. What, I can't even begin to fathom.
I haven't heard a peep from Bella since we carved our pumpkins. We don't have a window that faces the street, so I put the pumpkins in the hallway of the building. A lot of other people do it too so I'm not really worried about them getting busted or going missing. When it's time to light them, I'll use these little electric tea lights Leah got from somewhere for something.
Bella did text me this week to ask me my pants size.
Why do you need to know?
For the costume. No, I won't tell you anymore. So spill. Pants size, please.
It was pointless to argue with her. Finally I gave in and told her. I didn't even get a thank you.
But, no matter how much thinking I do about our costumes, I can't come up with anything she could possibly be planning. The ideas that do pop into my mind frighten me more than anything else. And there's plenty of "anything else" that I would rather imagine.
Finally, a day before the party, she calls.
"They are done. I am proud of myself!"
"Will you tell me what we're going to be now? Please?" If I were looking at her, the puppy dog look would be much more effective. It doesn't translate through the phone lines well.
"Nope, but it's epic. Epic, I say! Epic!"
"Bella, I don't know when I've heard you this excited."
"Hum." I can almost hear her thinking. "You have a point. I'm just really excited about this weekend. It's been ages since I've been to a party. Why don't I bring everything over around 8:30 and we can get ready and head over there?"
"Okay," I tell her wearily. No matter how much reassurance she's trying to give me I'm still worried she's going to dress me up in something crazy. For all I know she could have duplicated one of Lady Gaga's "masterpieces" and made a matching outfit for me. We could be Lady Gaga… and minion. I can almost picture the lobster hat already on my head. I shudder. "See you then."
When Saturday arrives, I'm a ball of mess. I'm nervous about the costumes, I'm excited about taking Bella out, I'm worried about what Leah's up to, I'm relieved I don't have to worry about it anymore. At 8:43, Bella knocks on the door. I open it and she's standing there, out of breath.
"I had to lug this up all your stairs," she pants at me, pointing to the huge black garbage bag beside her. "I'm afraid I sweated off all of my makeup."
Since she gave me an excuse, I look her over. Her hair is in ringlets, pulled half up and tied with a black satin bow. Bouncy looking curls hang on her shoulders. Her brown eyes are dark with shadow and what I think is eyeliner; they are smoky gray and black with something I don't have a name for other than shimmer dusted over them. Her lips are red, begging me to do things to them I can't.
To avoid temptation, I shift my gaze to examine her outfit. She has on knee high boots and a black skirt that is just tight enough to show her curves, but not too tight to be tasteless. Her top is also black. It is very, very fitted. And it leaves nothing to my imagination. She is in head-to-toe black and I almost don't want there to be a missing piece to her outfit. I can't imagine her looking any more delicious.
"You look stunning, Bella." My voice is a bit huskier than I meant for it to be. I cough. "Come on in." I reach out and try to take the bag from her but she swats my hand away.
"Nope, you'll peek." She brushes past me and into the apartment. With a sigh I let the door drop shut and turn to face her, ready for my worst costume dreams to come true.
"Maybe I should have told you this before, but I have veto power on whatever comes out of that bag."
"No, no veto. You'll love it." She untwists the bag and pulls out a piece of fur.
"Fur? There's no way in hell I'm wearing fur."
"Oh, just calm down!" She pulls out another piece of fur. I realize they are hands. Fur hands.
Then she pulls out a pair of blue jeans. Really dark denim fade front jeans. "If those are those emo tight fit jeans, I'm not wearing them." No way am I leaving the house looking like a furry emo.
She stands up and looks at me. "Come on, do you think I have no ability to dress you?"
I shrug. "Two words: Veto. Power."
She rummages in the bag again and pulls out a plaid shirt. It's not a lumberjack plaid shirt. It's a thinner material and… "Are those pearl snap buttons?"
She tosses me the shirt. The reds and greens and blues are kind of cool.
Next out of the bag are fur feet. "To go over your shoes," she says.
I have absolutely no idea what I'm supposed to be until she pulls out the final piece of her costume. At the very bottom of the bag is a neatly folded piece of red cloth. She unfolds it and shakes it out. Once I see the entire piece, I realize it's larger than I thought. And the fabric is thick and had some sort of shimmery quality. She wraps it around her neck and ties it, pulling a hood I didn't notice over her curls. The deep red of the cape is the exact shade of the red on her lips.
She's Little Red Riding Hood.
"I'm the Big Bad Wolf, aren't I?"
"Yeah! Isn't it a great idea? You're already the big, bad boy in my life, so why not just put it into action? Big Bad Jake."
"Well, you do have a point there," I concede. "Let me change." I gather up all of my little costume pieces and head back to my bedroom. It only takes a minute to put it all on. The jeans are tight, but not too tight. So is the shirt. It's fitted enough to show the muscles underneath, but not make me look like I should be on Jersey Shore. With a heavy sigh, I slide on one of the fur hands. Totally surprising me, it's actually quite comfortable. She got a pair of mittens (how she found mittens to fit my huge hands blows my mind), cut the fingers off, and somehow stuck the fur to the part that covers the top of my hands. I still have the use of my fingers but at the same time I'm part wolf. I look at the pieces that fit over my shoes. They lace up the back. I place it over my sneaker and tie the fur on. It flops over my shoes making them look hairy. I pull the cuffs of my new favorite pair of jeans over the tops of them.
I will never forget the look on Bella's face when I come back into the living room.
She is standing across the room, with her back to me looking through Leah and I's pile of DVDs. I clear my throat and she turns around.
Even from where I'm standing, I can see her eyes go dark.
And then she licks her lips.
I make my feet grow into steel beams so I can't grab her and kiss her senseless.
"Are you ready?" I can't hide the desire in my voice, however. It is what it is.
"Almost." She walks over to the black costume bag and reaches inside. Whatever she pulls out she hides behind her back as she approaches me. When she's standing in front of me, she stands on her tip toes and reaches up towards my head, brushing her body along mine in the process. I have to stop the growl that is building in my chest. I feel her slide something on my head. She adjusts it for a minute and then steps back. She turns me towards the mirror hanging in the living room.
"Oh, no. No. Veto!" I holler as I pull the set of ears off my head. "No. I will not wear ears!"
Don't forget! Voting for the Underdog Awards opens today! The (I'm guessing) will be open sometime today. As of noon EST, I couldn't find the link on the site. But keep checking my blog for it because as soon as I find it, I will post it! :)
