Halloween
"Come on Ari, what do you mean you still haven't opened the letter? It's been over a month!" Gaia groaned from across the room, shoving the box she held onto a table.
"I can't do it Gaia, what if what's in there is something I don't want to know?" I reasoned with her as I climbed the ladder with my small box of neon plastic streamers. I wasn't sure if they were really steamers if they weren't crepe paper, but alas, it was what I was calling them.
"I feel like the anticipation would kill me faster than the heartbreak of hearing something you already assumed." Her words barely reached me before she began making large amounts of noise digging through the plastic wrappers that held the table cloths. I decided to wait to respond and start prepping my streamers slowly, watching her open all the wrappers and toss the folded contents onto the tables they had been designated to.
"While that is a fair point of view, I just dont think I can do it… at least not now." I finally spoke when the noise died down, my hands slowly peeling tape for easy grab.
"Okay, well when you decide to open, at least call Ang or me so that we can be there for support?" Gi shoved the empty wrappers in the trash can and rested her hands on her hips, standing in the center of the gym with expectant but gentle eyes.
"I promise. Now help me hang up these streamers in the door. Who knew doing the neon theme this year would be so much more work than the gore theme from last year." I attempted to lighten the mood, though the dread in my heart was enough to drag me under at this moment.
"Oh, just to confirm, your Poison Ivy, I'm Cat Woman, and Ang is Bat Girl. Right?" Gaia asked as she made her way across the room to me.
"Yep!" I said as I strained to reach one of the spots above the door that I wanted to get before I moved the ladder. It all happened at once then. I heard Gaia yell something to the tune of "oh shit" at the same time that the door opened. Of course it wasn't the door that had knocked me off balance, seeing as the door opened out, it was instead my own clumsiness that allowed my foot to slide off the rung of the ladder that I had been so cavaliere with in the first place. I had been leaning, only one foot holding my weight, the other dangling as I pressed a hand to the wall. I had done it a million times before when setting up for homecoming, holiday dances, or even prom. A million and one appeared too much for even my luck to support, because I was falling in what seemed like slow motion. The scream that came out of me was half there, because the next thing I knew I had crashed into cold stone arms, which hurt nearly as much as the floor would have.
"Oh my god Edward you saved her life!" Gaia stopped mid sprint and leaned over, just a few paces away now, the panic obvious on her face. "Oh my god I was not ready to call any of our parents and explain that I couldn't maintain proper ladder safety." I could feel the humor in her statement as she turned around and walked to calm herself.
Just like on my birthday, I was caught in his gaze and felt myself enter the same enthrallment that had encased me before. The air around us thickened and I felt myself being sucked in, but I dug my metaphorical heels in and looked at him sternly. Put me down. He hesitated only a moment before gently placing me to the ground.
"Oh man, that was so lucky Edward, amazing timing." Gaia said as she walked back over, her nerves officially settled (well as much as they could be.) She seemed none the wiser of the brief moment Edward and I had shared, and instead moved on to another matter of business. "So what brings you in here?"
"Uh…" Edward cleared his throat and put on his very best human performance, scratching the back of his head and looking to the floor. "Well Chef Bartley said it was hardly fair for me to leave my lab partner to do all the dance prep, so I've been sent to help out."
"Oh fantastic!" Gaia smiled, then looked around, trying to decide what she could trust Edward with. "Uhhh, just help Ari for right now? I'm still making sure that they sent all the decorations, and I'm choosing blacklight locations." She then flitted off, pulling out her phone for a brief moment when I heard the notification sound that meant Paul was messaging her. If it weren't for the incredibly supernatural nature of my peers, I sometimes thought that Alice and Gaia would make perfect friends. Some selfish part of me wished Gaia knew everything, and another selfish part hoped she'd never learn it.
Reluctantly, I turned to face Edward. "Okay. We need to put the streamers in the door here and then we have to put the arch up and hand them from inside it. I guess Gaia found blacklights to make a glowing tunnel right outside the door." I started climbing back up the ladder before Edward grabbed my wrist. "No. Just hold the ladder." I pulled my hand against his iron grip until he relinquished it. We worked in silence for thirty minutes before Gaia announced that she needed to respond to a Newspaper issue, apparently there was a misprint she absolutely must handle.
Once she had fled from the room I looked at Edward, knowing he was about to start speaking, but he remained silent for a moment. His hands were making quick work of the delicate building process of the archways we would be placing on the path to the gym door. They were just small enough that we didn't have to sit outside while we built them and added the streamers. We were going to wait until tomorrow when the actual dance would be happening to put the blacklights outside. "I want to talk to you." He spoke, his voice gripping my heart once more, despite how hard I fought it.
"What could you possibly want to talk about now." I felt the hostility leak out of me, a result of my fight against my love of him.
"I want to talk about what happened by the road. I want to explain why I wouldn't let you call for Paul." He kept his eyes trained on the arch, not struggling even a little with the more tedious pieces.
"Well why didn't you say anything before?" I had stopped working all together, training my eyes on him.
"I knew you weren't ready to hear it. I knew no matter what I said in that moment you would never believe me." Edward still refused to look up at me.
"Well… go on then." I huffed.
"I stopped you from flagging down Paul because Gaia was in the car too. They liked the song that was on so they drove around the block again. If you had flagged Paul down he would have shifted in front of her, and I know you don't want Gaia a part of this world."
"And how do you know this?" I started working again, frustrated that there was any logic he could use with his actions. He had terrified me, and he knew that it would before he had done it.
"Because Alice warned me before I left that night." He said it so frankly that I almost stripped a screw in anger as I twisted my screwdriver.
"Yet you still chose to come, to essentially stalk me." The bitterness in my voice unmistakeable.
"Because Alice also saw you making risky decisions, and believe it or not we all still love you." He sighed, as if he had been holding these words locked in his lungs for months.
"All?" I froze, the screwdriver in my hand clattering to the floor.
"All." He said matter of factly, breaking his eyes away from the structure for the first time since we had begun, locking on to mine. They were black today.
"Well." I huffed, standing abruptly. "You… finish this, I am going to go do something else, clearly you don't need me." I walked away before he could protest, determined to finish the decorating on my own at this point.
We managed to finish all of the decorating by five, Gaia and I swinging by Donnie's to get burgers, as well as harassing Angela for a moment, as she was a part time waitress there on the weekends, and had picked up an extra shift tonight so she could have halloween off. "I think it's going to look great. I am going to get there a little early, Paul is coming too, and I will make sure all the lights are set up right." Gaia said as she took a break between bites of her burger. We sat in my car in the parking lot, both of us sitting criss cross and sideways in the seats, our milkshakes resting between us. The bag was on the floor in front of Gaia's seat, we had decided that it was for trash, and both of us had placed our fries in our laps, but I expertly balanced a small container of honey mustard on my knee.
"Okay, so Angela is going to ride with me, and I will meet you there say… ten minutes before the dance?"
"Yeah that works!"
"Which freshman do we have on pictures?" I asked as I washed a bit of burger down with a shake.
"Oh actually we have Rose on them, she insisted she would rather take pictures at this dance and get to participate at Prom." Gaia clarified with a full mouth.
"And Paul is coming?" My body felt like it had been dipped in ice, even though Sam had basically healed the relationship between the tribe and the Cullens, Paul was still new and a bit of a loose cannon, and the tribe still felt reasonably wary.
"Yeah?" Gaia responded, confused.
"I just know that the tribe doesn't really like them for some… weird reason. Just curious how that is about to go." I laughed awkwardly, shoving fries into my mouth to hide the apprehension at our dance attendees.
The next day I woke up with so much excitement I could barely contain it, taking my time to take a shower and curl my hair just right. I had a very clear idea of what Poison Ivy looked like in my head, and would settle for nothing less than perfect. I carried my CD player into the bathroom, spending extra time doing my makeup, thankful the black eye had healed nicely. I contoured with green, as well as used a light shimmery color to highlight with a green tone as well. Before I knew it, I had gotten through two CDs and finished my makeup. I carried my CD player back from the bathroom, plugged it back in and set it in its spot, as well as returning all the CD's to its rack and pulling my phone out. There was still several hours until the dance, so I decided to facetime Angela while she got ready. She would be wearing a mask so I knew she wasn't doing much makeup, but that she did want a dramatic eye moment to be seen through the mask.
We had talked for hours before agreeing to text updates so we could both finish getting ready, and that was when I began the struggle that was putting on the highly decorated leotard without putting a run in my green pantyhose or ruining my curls. Once it was on however, it was perfect and I could drive no problem. I began adding in the extra vines that twined down my arms and legs, clipping in a couple to my hair, the excitement ricocheting through me like I was a pinball machine. I had an incredibly good feeling about tonight, something just felt right, it was like a buzz in the back of my head. With one final check, I grabbed my phone and keys, shoving my ID and extra cash in the back of my phone case before running out the door to pick up Angela.
Angela looked like an absolute goddess in her Bat Girl costume, and as soon as she jumped in the car, she took over the aux and showed me a song she had never heard before. She said it was a little sad sounding, but beautiful, and called it Oxytocin by an artist named Gnash. Immediately after it was done she switched to our usual playlist, claiming she wanted to increase the excitement before the dance began. "Oh did you want to get dinner after? I heard the pizza place by the playground is going to stay open later tonight because of the dance."
"Yeah! They do eat in right?" She started scrolling on her phone, trying to find the answer to her own question.
"Yep they do, I think they added ice cream to the menu too, and honestly I don't care what it does to my stomach, I want to destroy a bowl of mint chocolate chip right now." I laughed, pulling into our parking space and looking over at her. I realized then that she had stopped searching her phone and was just studying my face, a small smile on hers. "What?" I flipped my sun visor down to check the mirror. "Do I have something on my face? Did I smudge my makeup?" I couldn't see anything so I looked back to her in worry.
"No, you don't have anything on your face right now!" She laughed, catching my hands in hers. "I just… you're so beautiful." I swear my heart stopped right then and there in the dying light. She saw the speechlessness clear on my face, and bit her lip with a smile. "God I love you."
That was when I knew my heart had stopped. "You… you do?" I managed to say, watching the red spread across her cheeks. She said those three words so effortlessly, three words I had said to another but never been told back in such a way. I couldn't contain myself, I lunged forward and planted a kiss on her lips, nearly knocking the mask from her face. It wasn't until we both started laughing did we break apart. "I love you too." I whispered as I pulled away, taking in every inch of her face that I could memorize at this moment, and acknowledging that this would be a story for the ages.
"Okay, we better get inside before Gaia kills us for being late." Ang laughed, climbing out of my car at the same time that Rose and Emmett rolled up in her shiny red car. "Oh my god, I knew was rich, but that rich!?" Angela shot me a surprised look before dropping it, remembering my intimate knowledge of their family and dropping it.
"Yeah," I said without missing a beat, "I think Edward's exact choice of word for that car was ostentatious." I laughed, climbing from the car myself. "Now we really need to get in there, I'm afraid she really will murder us if we don't at least set up the punch bowl."
"Fair point!" Angela laughed, and just like that, we were running to the entrance. The tunnel wasn't fully glowing yet, but it was dark enough that I could see the way it changed my outfit. I looked like I was a barrel of toxic waste in a comic book. Rather fitting for my choice of outfit after all.
The dance seemed like a success right away, everyone was having an amazing time, Rose was getting tons of pictures that I had no doubt would turn out great, and the dance floor was packed. Paul and Gaia split time between manning refreshments and dancing to songs of various tempos, Alice and Jasper never seemed to leave the dance floor, and Edward moved about like he was lost. He had clearly been dragged along, no doubt by Alice, and traded to dancing with either of his adoptive sisters while dodging some of the groupie girls who had decided since he was free that they would be next in line. I danced with Angela as much as I possibly could, stopping only to get a sip of punch or one of the cookies that had been supplied by the senior Home Ec class. This night was shaping out to be everything I hoped and more, even the slow dances were perfect. Of course I had to do at least one slow dance with Gaia, it was tradition after all. "Better than last year?" Gaia asked with a smile.
"Absolutely." I grinned back, looking around at the fantastic decorations. "We outdid ourselves, I think it's time we go into retirement for this dance, maybe take over the Homecoming committee, they never do it justice."
"Please, hoco is the minor leagues!" Gaia laughed, shaking her head and adjusting her catwoman mask. "We are going to maintain our control on the Prom committee, and then also take over the senior breakfast and graduation planning."
"Doesn't the admin office plan those?" I cocked my head to the side, recalling the previous year's set up.
"I'm not against corporate espionage if it looks good on my college applications." She shrugged, bursting into laughter again.
"There has to be something in that punch, you're willing to go a tad bit further than I thought."
"Anything for a good college rec." I shook my head as she spoke matter of factly.
"Okay, well as soon as this song ends I have to pee, so don't start your scheming until I get back okay?" Just as she nodded her head in agreement, the music faded and the next song began. It was a thumping high tempo one, so I mouthed that I was going pee to Angela, then made a beeline for the bathroom, already pulling some of the extra vines out of the way so I could peel off the complicated costume. It was a rather long endeavor, using the bathroom, and one I couldn't even complete in peace because a couple of freshmen were crying at the sinks about some drama that was going down.
Finally returning from the bathroom, I made the shocking discovery that I couldn't find any of my friends. Angela wasn't on the dance floor like she had been when I stepped out and Gaia wasn't manning the table or harassing the DJ with Paul in tow. I noticed only the Cullen's remained where I had left them. Emmett and Rose laughing at a table in the corner, Jasper and Alice dancing in a way that laughed at modernity, and Edward standing by the punch table attempting to ignore Jessica and Lauren's obvious flirting. I spotted Tyler Crowley and Mike Newton scoping the room, showing some obvious favor to Jessica and Lauren, which had been growing slowly since sometime in freshman year.
I kept looking around, working my way through the gymnasium slowly, the thumping music making my whole body thrum. I only stopped a few times, scanning the room again, before deciding to check outside. Maybe they needed fresh air, it is getting really stuffy in here. I thought wistfully as I walked out the building, the freezing air hitting my legs. How I had convinced the school this was an appropriate garment still remains a mystery to me, I hadn't even laid it on thick. Maybe it was the insinuation that they were sexualizing a sixteen year old, that seemed to shut the old men up fairly quickly.
I made my way out of the glowing tunnel, still giddy about the way it made my outfit look almost like toxic waste in color as it glowed. Once I was in the parking lot, I began scanning again, but I didn't see them. I did, however, hear Gaia's sarcastic laugh, one I knew like it was my own. I immediately headed in the direction of the laugh, their conversation becoming more clear to me as I made my way over. "Paul! What are you talking about?" Gaia continued to laugh. "You sound crazy."
"I'm serious Gi, I've been trying to tell you this since the summer." Paul sounded desperate, almost pleading.
I was confused about what the context was, but continued around the side of the building. They were standing closer to the tree line, Paul stood about fifteen feet from Gi, his hand extended out like he was begging her not to come closer. "Paul, what do you mean you're a werewolf?" My heart stopped, I froze, and what was happening around me seemed to happen in slow motion.
"Just, let me show you." Paul had said, peeling off his costume. He had dressed as Batman, but the costume was now crumpled on the ground, and he stood there in boxers.
"Paul!" Gaia laughed hysterically, shaking her head. "Put your clothes back on, it's cold!"
"You won't believe me any other way." He tipped his head down, backing up, and slowly growing taller right before our eyes. I couldn't see Gaia's face, but I didn't need to, I could read her body language like an open book. She could see the change happening and she was frightened, and I didn't imagine the scream that yelped out of her when the boy in front of her turned into a giant gray wolf. I was used to this sight by now, and felt no shock whatsoever, if anything I thought Paul looked a little small compared to Sam.
"Oh my god!" The words made me jump, because it wasn't Gaia's voice, and it was so much closer to me than I was expecting. I spun around to the corner of the school, and not ten feet from me, Angela stood. The fear in her eyes painted her entire face, her hand covering her mouth and her other covering her stomach. She looked like she was debating between running away and running to, like she couldn't decide between saving herself and saving me and Gaia.
"Angela!" I gasped out, my attention whipping back around to wolf Paul, who was now looking in our direction. I wasn't great at reading the wolf faces of the pack, but I could swear the shock on his was almost palpable. When I spun back around, Edward was standing a few yards away from Angela. "Edward no I've got this." I spoke in a normal voice, but it didn't matter, Angela turned around at the perfect time to not only see how far Edward was, but then how fast he could move to be by my side. "NO!" I yelled as I backed away from him.
"I'm not allowing you to be near him when he's like this." Edward growled out, and when I looked to Angela, she looked almost shattered, her back now pressed against the wall and her jaw dropped limply. At that same time, the rest of the Cullens came around the corner.
"Edward!" Rose scolded, a slight shock of fear flashing on her face as she took in the whole situation.
I spun around, choosing to ignore what was happening behind me for just a moment and focus my attention on Gaia. She had turned her attention to the scene over here as well, and at some point she had fallen backwards onto the ground, propping herself up on her hands as she pushed her mask back slowly. "Arabella?" She said, almost broken.
"Son of a bitch." I held my head in my hands, attempting to pull myself together mentally. "AHHH!" I screamed out in frustration and then spun to face Edward. "You just made it all so much worse!" I felt it welling inside me, more intensely than I ever had before, the raw power that I feared so dearly.
"Ara…" Jasper said cautiously, I felt the tiny tickle of his attempt to calm me and quell the power, but it seemed to slide off me like it was nothing. I had no control at that point, my head feeling like it was going to explode if I didn't release some of the building pressure.
"I want you to leave. Go home." I made eye contact with Jasper, Alice, Emmett, and Rose; my words flowing so powerfully it felt like I was just a husk they had to pass through to reach their destination. I then spun, looking directly at Paul. "Go, turn back to human in private, and finish what you just started here. Do it properly though. Get Sam." The words still held just as much force, and he obeyed immediately. I looked at Gaia, sad that I hadn't been able to protect her from this world of monsters and mayhem, and then I heard a whimper. I turned back around, four of the Cullen's now gone, and found Angela shaking in a small ball against the wall with her eyes trained on me. Sympathy ran through me and I began to walk over to her, but she flinched as I drew nearer. That was when I knew what I had to do. I walked over, the power still thundering in my skull, I crouched down, gently brushing my hand over her cheek that was damp with tears.
"What's happening?" Her words shook as she reached forward hesitantly, grabbing my free hand.
"What's happening is, you came out here to see where I was off to, and we had a long conversation, one where we talked about everything important." I felt dirty for what I was doing, but this was the only way I knew how to keep her safe. I could never see her in the hospital, and if there was something I was sure of, knowing about the things that go bump in the night put you there. "At some point in the conversation, you realized that you don't have feelings for me anymore, but it's okay, you were upset at first because you were going to break up with me, but you ultimately decided it was for the best. We would both be better off this way." Angela's eyes had glazed over, I wasn't sure how well this was working, this was the longest I had ever done this for, but she had a similar look to my father the time I had accidentally done it to him. "You sat with me while I cried, that's why your costume is wrinkled, and why Gaia and I didn't come back." The tears were now flowing from my eyes, where hers had dried up. "You're happier now, you're going to go inside and have an amazing rest of your night, and when the dance is over you are going to go home and forget all about what you saw happen tonight. You won't remember how afraid you are, or what happened tonight other than what I've told you. You are happier without me than you ever were with me." I felt like I had completed it, and the power in me began to quickly fade off again.
Leaning forward, I pressed one last kiss to Angela's sweet fruit punch flavored lips, choking back a sob that fought forward. Once the kiss broke, I crashed to the ground weakly, and Angela rose robotically, slowly transitioning from fear to joy as she made her way back to the entrance to enjoy the rest of the dance. The tears that raked through me made my whole body shake, and I felt the ice cold arms of Edward lift me. "No, no put me down." I said weakly, no power left in my words to compel him too. I had used it all up and forgot to make him leave with the others. I pushed harder against him, knowing it was a feeble attempt in the first place, but then gasped hard and spun to look as I blinked away the thick tears. "Gaia!?"
"Shhh, Paul came back while you were compelling Angela, Sam was with him. They took her to Sam's house to explain what imprinting is. Figured Leah would help her through it well enough." Edward murmured as he carried me towards my car. He didn't move at a blinding speed, he took the human pace this time, giving me as much time as physically possible to gather myself. All of my limbs feel heavy, and my head was made of lead at the moment.
"What did I do…" I sobbed out, burying my face in his shoulder.
"You did what I wish I could have done for you. You set her free." Edward's voice was soft, and I barely noticed the temperature change as he placed me into the passenger seat of my car.
As Edward climbed into the driver's seat, I began rambling all of my inner thoughts. "I should have never fallen for her, I should have never thought that I could love someone normal in this town. I should have known how st-"
"Stop!" Edward gently scolded me, grabbing my chin gently and turning my face to him. "It is not your fault that your very human life was upended. It's mine. If you are going to blame anyone, blame me."
"How can I blame you, you didn't make me fall in love with someone else, you didn't make me make her forget that she loved me too." The words hurt so desperately coming out of my mouth. "Edward, she just told me she loved me. Right here, Right in this parking space. I told her I loved her too. How could I have done that to someone I love? How did I just take away her choice without thinking twice? Did it even work?"
"Oh it worked. Trust me." Edward sighed, throwing his gaze to the gym where the windows leaked colored light onto the pine trees surrounding us. "She is in there bonding with Jessica right now."
"Oh that doesn't make it any better." I groaned, the tears falling once more as I curled into a ball with my feet on my dash. That was when I felt my car moving, but I couldn't care less where we were heading, nothing felt real at the moment. We rode in silence, it was a fairly long ride as far as Edward's driving usually went, but when I glanced up I realized not only was he taking me home, he was doing the speed limit too.
"I thought I would give you a moment. Let you calm down a bit before I parked the car and left you… since your dad is working the night shift anyway." Edward explained as he likely heard my thoughts trying to work it all out.
"Thank you…" I mumbled, resting my head against the cool glass of the window and watching the night landscape pass by. After a few more minutes of silence, we pulled into my spot in the driveway. I took a quick glance at the clock before Edward removed the key. I had made it to eleven thirty, not even able to say it was a new day so it would all be okay.
I bid farewell to Edward, sending him on his way as I made my way to the front door. Once inside, I let the emotions roll over me, locking the door and grabbing a bottle of water from the kitchen. Each step to my room felt like I was embarking on my own odyssey, my whole body tired from the energy I had spent on such a large display of power. I knew I would have to have my own conversation with Gaia at some point to explain my own predicament, but I wasn't sure how long it would be before she wanted to speak to me after she learned the truth. Once I was in my room, I grabbed a CD from my rack, sliding it in its slot and letting the sound of Taylor Swift fill the room. I needed to cry it out, and who better than her to do that to. The lyrics to Mine hurt, but I knew there were more songs that would pull my world apart if I sat and thought about it too hard. I shook my head, turned the music up just loud enough I could focus on it or tune it out if I needed, and began to rip the vines of my costume off and throw them onto my bed. Something about falling apart made the irrational thought process easier, and I found myself rifling through my desk for the cream colored envelope that had been taunting me.
If I was going to have everything else fall apart around me, why not bite this bullet too?