More Than Friends (Friends, #2)(69)

“No.” She shakes her head. “Let’s keep it simple. Besides, aren’t you supposed to be a witch?”

“I don’t know what I’m supposed to be. I don’t think anyone really cares.” I glance over at my costume, which is hanging from the open door of my tiny-yet-still –a-walk-in closet. It’s black and long with flowing sleeves and an equally flowing skirt. The edges are jagged and the neckline dips to a low V, meaning I’ll have lots of skin on display but no cleavage since…you know. I don’t have any.

But whatever. I’m going full on in character this Saturday night, and I’m excited. This is the first time I’ve been excited about anything in a while. Halloween has always been one of my favorite holidays. I’m helping decorate the haunted house—aka the cafeteria—on Saturday morning before I go to my four-hour shift at Yo Town, which ends at three. Then I’ll come right back to the school, get into costume, have Livvy do my face, and we’ll be ready to scare by the time the carnival starts at five o’clock.

Livvy grabs my mirror and pushes it away, then sets in on creating my mask. She slathers on a blend of regular foundation mixed with white face paint, then works on my eyes. She slicks so many layers of mascara on my lashes I eventually ask her why I don’t just wear fake eyelashes, but she tells me to shush.

So I let the artist work her magic commentary-free.

When she’s finally done, she hands me the mirror and I blink at my reflection, stunned. She did an amazing job. My eyes are dark and scary. My skin is so pale I look like a ghost. My lips are an arresting shade of red, and she even drew faint, thin black lines coming from the corners of my mouth.

“Think we should do light black shading for blush on your cheeks?” she asks as I contemplate my face.

I meet her gaze. “Will that look good?”

“It can’t hurt,” she says with a shrug. She grabs her own mirror and starts lightly streaking black face paint onto her cheeks. “Maybe we need spiders drawn on our cheeks too.”

“We shouldn’t overdo it,” I warn.

Livvy rolls her eyes. “It’s Halloween. We’re working in a haunted house. Of course we should overdo it.”

I stand and go to my closet, grabbing the costume before I hide myself inside. I carefully take off my T-shirt, shuck off my yoga pants and slip the black dress on before I reemerge and twirl around for Livvy. “What do you think?”

Livvy looks away from the mirror, gaping up at me from where she sits on the floor. “Wow, you look great! I love that dress on you.”

“I’m not showing too much skin?” I glance down at my chest. The neckline on this costume is so freaking low I’m not sure if I can wear a bra, but it’s not like I have much to support, so what’s the big deal?

“You’re showing the perfect amount of skin” She smiles. “You look hot.”

Ugh. Ever since the whole thing happened with Tuttle, she’s been holding back, but I know she’s dying to hook me up with someone. Possibly Eli Bennett, who has asked his big brother about me multiple times. Ryan has mentioned this to both Livvy and me, and I never know how to respond. It’d be one thing if Eli was at least sixteen, but he’s not. He’s almost fifteen. Meaning he’s fourteen.

I can’t do it. I don’t care how cute he is or that he’s taller than me, and that he looks pretty much like a grown man. He’s a kid.

“I should’ve brought my costume.” Livvy mock pouts. “We could’ve taken photos together.”

Her costume is prettier than mine, but she spent more money, so that’s expected. The dress is similar in style, but hers is made out of alternating panels of black velvet and red satin, and came with a sparkly red rhinestone choker. The collar rises high around the back of her neck too, which makes me think she really is supposed to be a vampire.

“You’re going to have blood dripping from the corners of your mouth, right?” I ask her.

“I guess I should. I think I am a vampire. Maybe I could be a redheaded Elvira.” She makes a weird face, her teeth sticking out over her bottom lip. “I vant to suck your blood!”

We start laughing again and it feels good. It feels normal. And I haven’t felt normal in a while. Not since the beginning of summer.

“We’re gonna be busy Saturday night,” Livvy says as she starts drawing a spider on her face as she stares into her mirror.

I watch her. “It’ll be fun.” It’ll keep me occupied so I don’t think about the boy who so cruelly cut me out of his life.

“I hope you really mean it. That you’ll have fun.” Livvy’s gaze meets mine and I see the concern there. Uh oh. “I’m worried about you. After what Tuttle did, you haven’t been the same.”

“I’ve been down and out lately, I can own it.” I sit up straighter. “He walked out of my life without an explanation, so I think I have a right to be upset.”

“Well, yeah. Of course you do.” Livvy frowns, ready to say something else, but I hold my hand up, stopping her.

“But I don’t want to talk about him anymore, okay?” I try my hardest to keep my voice gentle. “It’s just—pointless. There’s no reason for me to try and get his attention. And I really don’t want to include him in any of our plans. What we had is over. Done.”