Eye Candy

I nodded. “Not arguing with that.” I scooped out another handful of seeds and guts. “Am I weird in feeling like this is cathartic?”

She snorted. Her hand went back in and came out, covered in the same orange insides. “I’m imagining this is Channing.” She paused again. “Maybe I’m the one with the homicidal tendencies?”

I grinned. “You do seem to be enjoying that.”

She shrugged, her hand plunging back inside. We stopped talking after that. The pumpkins were cleaned out. We set them aside to start on two more pumpkins. Once they were all done, we hosed down the street and carried them inside. We were close to finishing the faces for two of the pumpkins when a stampede of feet came up from the basement.

The guys popped out, arms full of costumes.

“What are you doing?” I asked.

Logan asked at the same time, his eyes on the pumpkins, “What are you doing?”

Heather pointed at the one in front of her. “This is self-explanatory.” She waved the knife at them. “Your turn.”

“Oh.” Logan looked down at the costumes in his hands. He said to me, “We gotta take a bunch of these to the haunted house. We left most of the girly ones for you guys. Are you two doing the same costumes as last night?”

Heather and I shared a look. We hadn’t discussed it. Heather shrugged, going back to cutting out a tooth. “We’ll figure it out.”

Logan paused, watching me. “This is okay, right?”

I didn’t know why it wouldn’t be. “Yeah. We’ll figure something out with whatever we have here. It’s no problem.”

“Okay.” He started outside, leaving the door open. Nate flicked two fingers up in a salute, ducking out behind him.

Mason was last, and he came over to me first. “Hey.” He dropped a light kiss to my lips. “I’ll see you later tonight?” He glanced to Heather before kissing me again. “You’ll be okay?”

Heather let out a sigh, put her knife down, and muttered, “I need a cigarette.”

“Was that me?” Mason asked once she was gone.

“Channing broke up with her.”

He lifted his head up two inches. “Are you serious?”

“And he’s coming tonight to see you.”

“Fuck.” He looked to where Heather had slipped out the back door. Her back was leaning against the patio doors, the cigarette already lit. “That’s harsh.”

“Hence why we were so drunk last night.”

His eyes darkened. Remember our own rough patch. I’d gotten drunk a couple of those nights, but I knew he’d gone on a bigger binge than me. I felt him starting to pull away and caught the front of his shirt. “I love you.”

His eyebrows dipped together. “I love you.” His lips tried to show me too. When we were done, a few heavy-breathing seconds later, he cursed under his breath. “What are the chances we can send Heather in my place?”

I grinned against his lips. “So she can decorate with Logan?”

He nodded, grinning right back. “The two will yell at each other the whole time.”

“Pretty much.” I frowned and looked around him. “Where’s Taylor? Did she leave after breakfast?”

Mason shrugged. “I don’t know. Logan never said anything. I assumed she was with you.”

I shook my head, my stomach twisting. I stepped back, but my clean hand was still on his chest. It felt right, leaving it there, like he was anchoring me. I glanced around again, but I knew she wouldn’t have magically appeared in the last few seconds.

“I’ll call her.” I nodded at the pumpkins. “We’re going to set these out with tealights before we leave tonight.”

He rubbed his hand up and down my arm. “What are you guys doing today? We’ll be at the house the whole time. Logan’s gone all out with this party.”

I shrugged. We did have all day. I didn’t have classes on Fridays, and Heather was up for the whole weekend. We weren’t the type to do the salon. Saloon, yes. Salon, no. “I don’t know. We’ll figure something out.” I pressed myself up, bringing my lips fully against his again. Logan would be yelling any second. “Have fun. I’ll see you tonight.”

I could almost count it down.

Three.

Two.

And on ‘one,’ I pointed to the door at the exact instant Logan shouted.

Mason laughed, and pressed one last kiss to my forehead. “Okay. Love you. Be safe. Have fun. And if you start drinking early, call. I’ll be sober. I’ll come and pick you up.”

I flashed him a grin. “Bye, and all of that to you too, except the last part.”

He laughed, going out the door, and right as it closed, I yelled, “I won’t be sober tonight.”

“Looking forward to it!” he yelled back, his words muffled through the wood.

I knocked on the patio glass, and Heather turned. She nodded, putting her cigarette out. “Your perfect soulmate left?”

There was no bite to her words, but I frowned. “You and Channing will be fine. You know that, right? Your breakups are never permanent.”

She picked up her knife again, pulling the last pumpkin in front of her. The knife was raised and poised, and she said, “I don’t know about this time.” And she brought it down with a vehemence she hadn’t had earlier.

I went back to cutting mine, but looked over my shoulder one last time.

Where’d Taylor go?





Chapter 8


“All right.” Heather stepped out from the bathroom. We’d gone slutty last night, so we were going funny tonight. Bypassing whatever costumes were left downstairs, we spent the afternoon downtown. What we went home with had us both in stitches.

I was holding back my laughter again. I clamped my mouth closed and nodded. “Mmmm hmmm.”

She was dressed in a white onesie, the opening around her face lined with pink hair. She reached up to grab a sparkling, pastel-colored rainbow horn. Heather’s face was dead serious. “Is my horn in the right spot?”

Another laugh bubbled up. I stifled it, swallowing it back down. “Looks good.”

She lifted up her hand and motioned in a circle. “Okay. Turn around. I’ll check your ass.”

Her voice hitched.

I bit down on my lip. No laughing. Not yet. I turned. I was dressed in the same white onesie. There was an opening for my face, but it was only lined with white cloth. My hands were normal—they weren’t supposed to have attention focused on them—and my feet ended in two large black hooves. Heather’s arms had the matching two front hooves, but the back of my costume was where the action was.

A long white tail extended from my costume, pink hair at the tip, and underneath the tail was another small hole. A contraption hung from it on the inside, with a cord running from it down my arm, to a button resting on the inside of my palm.

We turned to face the correct way. Heather was in front of me. I was behind her. She was the head. I was the ass.

She said, “Ready?”

My finger moved to the button. In the same monotone, I replied, “Ready.”

“Push it.”

She had a similar contraption on her costume, and we pushed our buttons together. A loud horsey neigh came from a small speaker attached near her face, nestled in her pink mane, and at the same time, the tail on my costume lifted and a burst of glitter exploded in the air.