Splinters: Part One

Part One | 11

Chapter 11

Feel Like This Forever

"We should be something together!"

I stared at Grady. "No."

"C'mon! It'll be fun! A sign of our friendship!"

I grimaced. "No," I repeated. 

"I have an idea," Ursanne said. "How 'bout one of you is Batman and the other is Robin."

I glared at her while Grady's grin only got bigger.

"That's a great idea!"

"I was kidding," Ursanne deadpanned.

I rolled my eyes. "You knew he'd like the idea."

She burst into laughter. "Not enough to actually agree!"

I sighed. "I'm not being a lame superhero."

"Batman is not lame!"

I shook my head. "I've always been a Spider-Man fan."

Ursanne shrugged. "You can be the red Spider-<an and Grady can be the black one."

"That's stupid."

I'll admit it. I haven't been in the best of moods. All I could think about was Collie. All day I was hoping to get an explanation from her at school, but she didn't even look in my direction in our first class together. After that, I just gave up.

I was mad, upset, and angry and even though it wasn't fair, I was taking it out on Ursanne and Grady, treating the both of them as if they're wasting my time. I know I have to appreciate their determination to make me feel better and keep my mind off of Collie, but their attempts were almost pointless.

"I think it'll be fun," Grady said.

I shook my head. "I don't even want to dress up for Halloween. Can't I just stay at the door and hand out candy?"

Ursanne stared at me. "No!"

"You guys, I don't want to-"

"It's your first Halloween with us. Don't be lame and stay home and do nothing."

I sighed. "Fine. We'll be Spider-Man."

"Yes!" they both said in unison as they gave each other a high-five.

"First, we actually need to find the costume. Where do you think they have it?"

Grady looked up and down the aisle. "Not here, that's for sure."

"The place next door might have somethin'."

"Let's go then."

Grady, Ursanne, and I all left the outlet and headed toward the next store over. To my surprise, it was a lot bigger with a ton more decorations. Giants spiders moved robotically on the side of the walls, creepy costumes hung from countless racks, shelves of fake blood and body parts were stacked with price tags. It all made me a bit uncomfortable.

I wondered how this Halloween would go. I hadn't done real trick-or-treating since I was with my dad, but I was so young, I barely remember it. The last Halloween I had with him, we didn't even go out. I remember we ate something small while my mom went sleep and then my dad took me out to the fire escape where we watched some kids walk along the alleyways.

When I was with my grandma, it wasn't really different. She was never really well enough to take me out like that , so the few Halloweens I had with her, she bought some candy and I handed it out to some kids. Because we lived in a senior citizen's area, very rarely did my bowl of candy ever return to the kitchen empty for a refill.