SIMON

If I'm honest, Halloween is not my favorite holiday. I only agreed to go to a haunted house because Penny's been a bit down lately and seeing her talk about the magic of Halloween ("The cloaks, Simon. The crystal balls and wands! The magical artifacts or yore! Just imagine!"), well, it's the first time I've seen anything like the old glint in her eye since Micah dumped her over the summer.

Personally, I think the magic of yore or whatnot, is a load of bollocks, but she's been with me through a lot and I'm happy (mostly) to do this for her. Plus Agatha has been hanging around with Penny lately and I'm pretty sure she'll be along for the evening as well.

I've been trying to spend more time with Agatha on my own, but my attempts never pan out. If I invite her along on a study date, she sits by Penny. Meals in the caf, she ends up chatting with Reese or Gareth. Or talking to Penny about Gareth. (The belt buckles he wears really do take the piss. Even I spend a fair amount of time talking about them when he's not around; it's a chore not to, honestly.)

Once, last week, I got up the nerve to ask her back to my dorm room but Baz, my roommate, was there (even though he's usually at football practice between 5 and 7 on Wednesdays) and he managed to be sufficiently dark and gloomy—not that he even has to try, it's like the bloke is perpetually in mourning over nothing—that Agatha ended up sitting next to him. On his bed. Listening to him share his feelings, if you can believe it. I asked later what they were talking about.

"Mostly riding," she said. (Agatha rides horses. She's quite good), but the whole thing seemed a bit off to me.

"He does have feelings, you know," she said to me later. "Even if you don't like him, you at least have to acknowledge that he's human,"

"Barely," I muttered.

She rolled her eyes. "And maybe treat him like a real person once in a while? It wouldn't kill you."

So that's my plan for tonight: be nice to Baz, impress Agatha, and find a way to let her know I'd like to be more than friends.

Baz is lounging on his bed with a book open and I'm keeping an eye on him. So I can stop him if he tries to leave before Agatha gets here and I can put my plan into action. There's a brisk knock on the door and before I can open it, Penny barrels into the room with Agatha and this new guy, Shep, from her Mythology and Occultism class in tow.

Shep's absolutely loaded down with a giant duffle bag, an oversize backpack, and a crate. He dumps them all on my bed and overturns them. A blinding array of colors and fabrics and sequins and theater quality maces and shields and wigs and helmets and who knows what else pours out.

Costumes.

"Penny," I'm tugging on my hair in frustration. "You promised no fancy dress."

"Sorry," she says, shrugging (and not looking remotely sorry). "Shep talked me into it."

"It's not Halloween without something unexpected," he laughs, digging through the pile until he finds a gigantic black witches hat and a purple wig, which he hands to Penny.

"Ugh. You know how I feel about costumes."

"I do," she says. "You're the biggest spoilsport there is. but it's Halloween, Simon. Get over yourself for one night."

"I'm not the biggest spoilsport when it comes to costumes," I grumble, casting what I hope is an evil glare in Baz's direction. No, that award goes to my piss poor excuse for a roommate.

Freshman year (You keep your same roommate through all four years at Watford University), there was a Halloween Ball and I thought Baz and I could go together, as friends. I got costumes for the both of us, I was pretty excited about it, honestly. First year, new to school, excited to make friends with my roommate who, back then, I thought was much cooler and more popular than me. (Now I realize he's just a moody son of a bitch who looks cool to people who don't have to put up with being alternately glared at and ignored any time they're in their own room.)

Anyway, I thought we'd get dressed up, go to the ball, have a laugh together, grow closer as roommates and all that bosh. He took one look at me standing there in the doorway, my arms loaded down and said, "Costumes?" in the most incredulous voice you can imagine, then he sniffed. Actually sniffed! Like a disapproving old dowager on a Victorian show! And that was the last time I tried doing fancy dress for anything.

I kick at the monumental array of rubbish (there's nothing else to reasonably call it) covering my bed and feel a grin sliding onto my face.

"Baz!" I call.

He looks up from his book so quickly that I'm not sure he was really reading it. Instead of being polite enough to actually reply to me, he fixes me with a glare, a menacing one. (How is it reasonable to expect me to treat this like a real person?) When I don't say anything either, he raises an eyebrow and makes a "Well, what is it?" gesture with his head.

I wave my arm in the general direction of Shep's glittery rubbish heap.

"Are you coming or not?"

He sits up a little straighter, trying to make it clear to everyone that he's taller than me, even from his bed. "I didn't realize I was invited," he drawls.

"Of course you're invited," I say, trying to sound as casual and devil may care as he does. "Why don't you come on over here and pick out a new look for yourself?"

He huffs disapprovingly but, to my surprise, actually does push himself up from the bed and steps over to my side of the room. It's unusual having him here, in my space. I can smell his ridiculously posh aftershave or whatever it is even more with him right here. It's not bad, actually. Woodsy. I've always rather liked it.

I turn my back on him and face Agatha both eyebrows raised. "There," I mouth. "I'm treating him like a human being. Happy?"

She frowns and looks past me to Baz. When he meets her eye she smiles. "Well, come on then. Come pick out something to wear."

On the way past, he bumps my shoulder (on purpose) hard enough that I stumble into Shep, who catches me with one hand and shoves a set of fake vampire teeth into my mouth with the other. I check myself out in the mirror. Not bad. These are nice fake teeth. High quality; not all cheap plastic and fake blood. I feel a little ridiculous, but also kind of cool. I tip my head and open my mouth a bit to get a look at myself from another angle. When I tilt my head the other way I see Baz reflected behind me, staring. I snap my mouth shut. He probably thinks I'm being embarrassing. He's bloody fit-looking all the time. Doesn't need artificial fangs to lend him an air of posh mystery, that's just him on any day. I glare back in the mirror and turn to Shep's heap of costumes, running my tongue over the teeth in my mouth. I can definitely work with this. If you're Dracula you get to wear a posh outfit and, maybe even one of those nice silky capes. I am definitely into the whole vampire vibe, it turns out.

He starts riffling through Shep's pile and bumps me again, with his elbow this time.

When I turn to glare at him he raises an eyebrow. We're very close. His woodsy scent is almost overpowering. His eyes dart down to my mouth and back up again. I swallow, which makes me feel even more self conscious, which is stupid, because everyone swallows. I open my mouth to say something but before I get a word out Baz smirks and says, "Ah, that's more like it." He reaches out and with one swift movement he pulls the fangs straight out of my mouth, swishes them around in the mug of whatever he was drinking, and pops them into his own mouth, grinning around them in a mischievous way that sense shivers down my spine. Vampires are right fit, even when they look far too much like one's irritating arse of a roommate. Those are high quality teeth.

To add insult to injury, he snags a wad of red cloth from Shep's pile, shoves it onto my head and gives it a tug. Agatha starts giggling, and Penny says, "I love it, Simon. That's perfect for you." She swats Shep playfully on the arm. "I told you Simon wasn't vampire material. You need a certain, je ne sais quoi to pull that off."

"Sense of style," Baz says under his breath. Agatha laughs again, and Baz opens his own wardrobe up and pulls out the most ridiculously posh suit I've ever seen.

"Why do you own a full on vampire get-up already? I mean, seriously!"

"It's a tuxedo, Snow. I play in the orchestra? Remember?" He mimes playing the violin, like I'm some sort of idiot who can't understand words. I growl at him. Agatha rolls her eyes, Penny gives me a warning nudge and Shep pulls a midnight black cape out of his stash. The minute Baz emerges from the loo dressed in his far too nice suit, he drapes it over Baz's shoulders.

"Perfect," Baz says, looking at himself in the mirror. The cloak has a blood red lining that shines in the light. To complete his outfit Baz pulls on a pair of shiny black shoes that must have cost more than my entire wardrobe (which, granted, is not saying much) and then turns to the mirror and begins slicking his hair back away from his face.

"Don't do that," I say. "It makes you look like a tosser."

"According to you I always look like a tosser."

"Well, yeah, I mean— but this looks bad on you. You look better with your hair… " I gesture at his head and he raises an eyebrow.

"Down?"

"Yes. That. You look nicer with your hair down."

Baz frowns.

I'm not wrong. He does look better without his hair slicked back. Like this he looks bolder, less attractive (Not that I'm attracted to Baz generally. I don't mean that. Just, I've got eyes, you know?) He's all hard lines and sharp angles and the vampire hair makes the perpetual scowl on his face looks intimidating instead of, well… instead of how it usually looks.

I turn away from Baz, who's still ruining his hair in the mirror and catch Agatha's eye for a split second. She's got a curious expression on her face and she's looking back and forth between us—me and Baz—no doubt deciding which one of us to cozy up to in the dark when we get to the haunted house. Right now I'm well aware Baz is looking like the better alternative. Despite the hair.

Shep steps in front of me, holding out an unwieldy looking red fabric contraption fitted with buckles and wires.

It's wings. Giant, red, dragon's wings. I look in the mirror and realize I've had an utterly ridiculous red hat with a dragon's snout and big protruding eyes sitting on my head this whole time.

"No!" I yelp. "Absolutely not." I toss the hat off my head and stomp over to Shep's heap of rubbish. Enough of everyone else telling me what I should be. I can figure it out for myself. If I'm to stand a chance at pulling this evening, I need to find something attractive, something dashing enough to match Baz. There's a glint of metal at the bottom of the bag. I reach for it and find myself grasping the hilt of a rather well made costume sword. It's attached to a heavy leather belt that's wrapped around a green tunic. I can work with this.

I pull the tunic on over my t-shirt and straighten it out. Not bad. I look a bit like Robin Hood. And to clinch it, there's Shep dropping a green pointed cap with feather in it onto my head. He is eerily on the spot with accessories.

Finally we're all ready. Penny's dressed as a witch. Typical. She's in a deep purple robe with pointy toed black boots, a tall black hat with a wreath of bats around the brim to match, and a giant, very fake looking purple ring on her finger.

"What's that for?" I ask.

"It's to cast magic spells with!" She laughs, waving it in my face.

"No wand?" I say.

"I don't want to have to deal with having anything in my hands in the haunted house." She shrugs.

"Good plan," says Shep. He reaches out an arm—it's covered with Sharpie: swirls and briars and five pointed stars. I wonder what he's supposed to be— and takes Penelope's hand. Interesting.

I'm kind of jealous, if I'm honest, but—and my heart gives a little jump—hopeful as well. Maybe Agatha will see them holding hands and take the hint. But when I look up it's Baz with his eye on Shep and Penny's clasped hands. My heart squeezes in my chest. Jealousy. I don't want him getting any ideas about Agatha. "Right." I say, holding the door open for everyone. "Let's go!"