Cassie invited Brooke, who invited Gordie, who invited Chris, who invited Anya, who invited Lorelei, who invited Teddy, who had already been invited by Vern, who had invited Cassie. Besides them, there was quite the turn out for Billy Tessio's Halloween party.
Lorelei and Teddy arrived the Tessio house first. Just as they were about to enter, four kids in varying costumes pushed in front of them, holding pillowcases.
"Hey, back of the line, you little ankle-biters," Teddy said to the children.
"Teddy," Lorelei laughed. "Don't be the Halloween Scrooge. There's no candy at this house, little people. They're only serving beverages with high alcoholic contents. Happy Halloween!"
As the nerve-wracked kids went back down the porch steps, Teddy looked at Lorelei suspiciously. "Why are you so chipper?"
"Maybe I have Halloween spirit."
"So you admit that you're a witch…"
She giggled and linked her arm through his. He pushed open the front door, taking in the party scene.
"Hey look, drunk half-naked dancing!" Lorelei pointed out to Teddy cheerfully. "I love the nightlife."
"Hey guys!" Vern yelled, veering past a couple making out intensely. "I was beginning to think that no one was going to show up!"
"Um, Vern, there's like fifty people in your living room," Teddy told him. "I think it's safe to say that the turn out is good."
"I meant people that don't get their kicks out of giving me wedgies."
"Yeah," Teddy said sympathetically. "Your brother's got some unique friends."
"ANYAAAAAAA!!!!!" Lorelei squealed, jumping up and waving the hand that was holding Teddy's above her head. "Over HEEERE ANYA!!!"
"You never greet me that way," Teddy said indignantly.
"I think it's the party atmosphere," she explained calmly. "I feel awfully light-headed, but in a good way. Like I'm on like…helium. Yeah, helium. That's what they put in blimps, I think?"
Vern turned around and shouted, "No one give this girl anything to drink!"
Anya and Chris made their way over to the group, dressed in full costumes.
"Are you supposed to be a priest?" Vern asked Chris.
Chris looked down at his long brown robes. "Actually, I'm a monk."
"Why do you have a sword?" Teddy asked.
"Because I wanted to carry one around. I guess I'm a monk crusader."
Anya, who was a nun, said proudly, "Chris gave me a sword too! I'm not allowed to stab him anymore though." She patted her belly, which was large, due to the fact that she had stuffed pillows under her costume. "I'm a sword-wielding pregnant nun."
"CHRISTOPHER!" Lorelei scolded. "Impregnating my holy friend with your, uh, holy, uh, crusader? Wow, can you imagine if a monk and a nun really did--"
"Hey look--Gordie!" Anya interrupted.
Gordie, accompanied by Brooke and Cassie, spotted them right away. "Hey," he said. "Vern, Billy's already puking. He actually puked all over the door."
"He doesn't hold in beer to well," Vern explained. "I do. I'm not a pussy like him. Nope."
Teddy poked a costume-less Gordie in the chest. "What are you supposed to be?"
He raised an eyebrow at Teddy's lack of costume and shoved him in return. "Same as you."
"You're a superhero disguised as a teenage boy TOO?" Teddy gasped.
"Yup," he laughed. He glanced at Brooke, who was looking shy, and put her in a friendly headlock, taking her off guard and making her give a startled laugh. Then he turned to Anya, taking in her nun-ness. "Blasphemy."
"Hey, no one ever said how I get pregnant. Maybe it was an Immaculate Conception. It's happened before you know."
"I wasn't referring to your pregnancy. I was referring to you as a holy woman. God's probably ready to throw lightening bolts at you."
There was a quiet moment, when the group of eight just stood there together. Gordie, Chris, Teddy and Vern exchanged looks. It was almost like old times, they thought--until they looked at the other four members of the group. Times do change.
After awhile, they split up to mingle. There weren't many other high schoolers at the party. Most of them were college-aged, although probably none of them were college students. All the original Cobras had shown up, as well as pretty much everyone who had heard about the party and were considered cool enough to not be thrown out.
This wasn't Cassie's idea of a good time. Some stranger, missing his pants, had shoved a bottle of beer in her hand. Since then, she had been sitting alone on the counter of the Tessio's kitchen, staring at the unopened drink. She was lonely. And she was feeling how out of place she really was.
"I am not your barf bucket bitch, Billy!" Vern shouted over his shoulder as he entered the kitchen, his arms full of empty bottles. He looked up, saw Cassie, and almost dropped everything he was holding. "Cassie, hi!" he exclaimed.
"Hi Vern," she said back. "Do you want help with those?"
He looked down at the bottles as if just noticing them for the first time. "Oh, no, I'm good, thanks." He dumped them into the recycling bin. "Why are you sitting in here all alone?"
"I'm not alone," Cassie said, smiling. "You're here."
Vern grinned, crossed the kitchen, and hopped up next to her on the counter. "I take it you're not having a good time?"
"I just…" She shrugged. "I don't fit in."
"Sure you do," he protested. "I wanted you here, Cassie."
"I don't mean just here. I don't fit in anywhere."
"What do you mean? You have tonnes of friends."
"I guess I've spent all my time trying to be the best that I forgot to learn how to be a part of everyone else," she said, with another shrug. "And, yeah, I have friends, but I'm not the girl they call for slumber parties or to hook me up with some guy or whatever. I'm the girl they call for math help."
"Well--" Vern tried to think of something nice to say to her.
"I mean, I have no idea how to behave in this kind of setting. I'm always holding back."
"Um--"
"And you're the worst," she said.
"What?"
"I just want to be around you, but I don't know how to be."
Vern looked at Cassie, too shocked to smile at the words he had dreamt of hearing. "Cassie…"
She peered up at him.
"You're around me right now, and I think you're sincerely cool. And if you're holding back…then wow."
Her eyes lost cynicism as they searched his face for sincerity and found it.
"Cassie, you don't have to hold back around me because I already know how boss you are. So don't hold back."
She decided to obey. In one quick motion without a second thought to doubt, she leaned forward and kissed him on the cheek.
Vern giggled as if he were twelve years old, and kissed her in return.
In shock over her first kiss, Cassie dropped the beer she'd forgotten she was holding.
As they stared at the foamy mess on the floor, Vern laughed. "I said 'don't hold back,' not 'don't hold beer.'"
"Let me HAVE SOME!" Lorelei pleaded.
"No," Teddy replied.
"GIVE IT."
"No."
"Please?"
"Ummmm…"
"Yes! Yes?"
"No."
"Damn you!" she cried. "I just want a sip."
"You're already bouncing off the walls, Lore," Teddy told her as they stood by the blaring record player. He was flipping through the records that Vern's brother owned. "I'm able to drink responsibly at parties. You, obviously, can't even breathe air responsibly."
"You're my boyfriend. You're supposed to give your girlfriend beer. I'm sure it's in the dating handbook."
"That's only when I want to get you faced so I can have drunken yet consensual sex with you."
"You don't?"
"Jesus. I can't win with you." Teddy rolled his eyes and handed her his mostly empty drink. "Don't take too much. If you do, you're getting me another one."
"Goody!" Lorelei grabbed it and took a generous swig. Her delighted expression turned to horror and disgust. "Eww! That's NASTY! Let me try some more."
"I'm enrolling you in AA, my little junior alcoholic."
"Do they serve drinks there?"
"Brooke!" Cassie hissed, sticking her head into the bedroom where Brooke and Gordie were in, playing Go Fish together. Neither of them were very social people. "I have to talk to you!"
"Okay, just give me a few minutes. I'm actually winning this hand," Brooke told her, not looking up from her fan of cards. "Got any three's?"
"Nope," Gordie replied, grinning smugly. You can never be sure of anything in the game of Go Fish, Brooke. Got any nine's?"
She resentfully handed her nine of clubs to him, then looked at Cassie, surprised she was still standing in the door frame. "I'll meet up with you downstairs, okay, Cass?"
"Downstairs where?"
"Uh, the kitchen."
"Great." She smiled. "I'll leave now, in case this turns into a rousing game of strip Go Fish." She turned and left the bedroom.
Rearranging his cards silently, Gordie then asked, "Five's?" She had one of those as well. "Um…Jack's?" Go Fish was not Brooke's game. "Bahaha I'm rich. Seven's?"
"Screw you." She flipped him a card. "This game is stupid and so are you."
"I like it," he laughed. "Two's?"
"No. HA!" She was happy once more. "Do you have that three yet?"
"Nope. Got any king's?"
A king she did have indeed. But something had been on her mind all week, and she felt like she was procrastinating. "Gordie?"
He glanced up from his cards, a lock of hair falling over his forehead. Damn his faulty hair products.
"I have many faults, you see. For example, I'm terrible at even the most simplistic of card games. Also, I can't dance. And I always leave my socks all over the house, especially in the couch cushions. And I'm really bad for eavesdropping. And I drink from the milk carton when no one's home."
"That's nice. What does that have to do with you having any king's? Gordie's eyes narrowed. "Heyyy, what do you mean by you're bad for eavesdropping?"
"Well…"
"You were listening to my conversation with Cat."
"That's what I like about you--you're very smart," she said cheerfully.
"I'm highly embarrassed."
"Don't be, Gordie--"
"I confessed my feelings for you to a homeless animal while you stood outside the door!"
"Gordie, what does it matter? You know I feel the same way about you," Brooke told him, somewhat irritated, but still gently forceful. "I always have."
"Because I can't let go of Denny."
"What?"
"You make me think about his death. And the finality of it and the fact that I'm never going to see him again. The reason he's dead is the reason you're alive, and that keeps running through my head."
"Dammit Gordie, my dad has nothing to do with this! And neither does Denny. It's about you and me. Not old mistakes I am in love with you, Gordie, why can't you think of that when you think of me, and not the family I come from? You don't do that to Chris."
"Don't bring Chris into this, because it's totally different with him." He sighed deeply. "I just miss him so bad, Brooke."
"I know! Jesus Christ," she said, rising to her feet as tears filled her eyes. "But he's gone, Gordie. I'm so sorry, but he died, six years ago. I'm right in front of you. I think I've started to love you. I want to be here for you when you need someone. Don't lose me."
"Lose you?" Gordie repeated, his eyes wide and innocent. He gingerly took her hand to pull her back down to the floor, to his level. "Where would you go?"
"I'm not going anywhere, Gordie, that's what I'm trying to say. I can be here for you, now that Denny can't, not physically. I'm just saying, the more you push me away…the more you lose me."
"Brooke…"
She swiped at her eyes. "God damn you, Gordie Lachance. You make me cry."
Gordie's expression softened as he tucked his hand into the sleeve of his sweater and wiped away her tears and streaks of mascara from her rosy cheeks. As more tears flowed, he gave up and pulled her into his arms. "Why are you crying, Brooke?"
"I've never…wanted anything so much that it hurts…and what I want won't have me because…I hurt him just with my presence."
"That's not true," he told her.
"Then prove it."
Gordie looked down at her. She had her head resting on his shoulder, trusting him. Her lips had never looked more soft, or cherry pink, or vulnerable to him than they did right then.
I just want to kiss you, he thought, and grimaced. "I can't prove it right now, Brooke. But I can promise that I'm going to love you, okay?"
"Don't bother, you asshole. You'll never say it and you'll never show it." She struggled out of his arms, fed up.
He pulled her back down again, strongly enough that he almost hurt her. But his hands were gentle as he took her face in them. He moved her hair out of her face, pressing his lips to her forehead. "That's me showing my promise," he muttered. "That's all I have."
"It's not all you have," she murmured.