The New KISS High School

Ch 28: Halloween (Gene)

"Hey you free tonight?" I asked, falling into step beside Eric. "I am, actually! Bruce is out with the other Eric tonight. Why, what've you got planned?" he asked, giving me a grin. "The four of us are going to the corn maze an hour or so away since no one's really gonna go trick or treating tomorrow but we still wanna do something for Halloween. Well, except Peter since he's gotta take his siblings. You know the place, right? They've got like a pumpkin patch and a haunted house and all that?" I said. He frowned, nodding slowly. "Yeah, I know the place. I hate haunted houses though." "I'll take care of you," I teased, and he rolled his eyes. "Fine, fine. Pick me up whenever!" he said. 

I had managed to get everyone crammed in my car by around 8, finally reaching the corn maze an hour later. The three of them tumbled out of the backseat while Paul took his sweet time to get out of the passenger seat, leaning on his crutches. 

"Okay so Ace and I are gonna go beat the corn maze, what are y'all gonna do?" Peter asked. "Hmm I kinda want to try the haunted house," Paul mused, and I nodded. "Yeah, sounds good. Eric, how about you?" I asked, turning to him. He froze, staring blankly ahead for a second. "Uh...I guess I'll just go with you guys?" he said slowly.

"Sounds good! We'll meet up back here later then!" Ace said, grabbing Peter's wrist and dragging him off toward the entrance of the maze. I turned to Eric, giving him a smile. "Hey, it'll be fine. Don't worry about it," I murmured, and he nodded. "Yeah. Hopefully." The three of us started to walk toward the haunted house as Paul hit me with one of his crutches. "Hey what's up with Eric?" he asked in a low voice. "He hates haunted houses. Don't be a bitch about it," I muttered back.

He gave me an offended look. "I won't! Why the hell would I do that?" he snapped. "I dunno! But just don't!" "Yeah come on Paul, don't be a bitch and make fun of me," Eric said with a grin. "Again, I would never do that, Gene," Paul said, hitting me again. "And we don't have to go to the haunted house if Eric doesn't--" "No it's fine! No I don't care, we can go. I'll just like uh...I dunno. Close my eyes if I have to," he said with a shrug, face going pink. I put a hand on his shoulder with a smile. "We'll make it work. It'll be fine!" Heaving a sigh, he ran a hand through his hair. "Yep. It'll be fine," he said under his breath.

It did not end up being fine.

The instant the doors to the haunted house shut behind us, Eric went from slightly on edge to extremely on edge. "Ummm actually I changed my mind I'm just gonna wait outside," he said in a small voice, backing toward the door. Paul and I exchanged glances. "Uh...you can't go back out through the entrance. We have to go through the house to get to the exit," I said slowly. The blood drained from his face and he stared at me in horror, eyes wide in the dark. "Oh no," he whispered.

"Hey, don't worry about it! It'll be fine!" I said, slipping an arm around his shoulders. "We'll guide you through it, just don't look if you don't want to," I said reassuringly. "Yeah exactly! Gene and I are both like...what, at least six feet tall? We'll keep you safe!" Paul said, ruffling Eric's hair affectionately. "Yeah you better," he muttered, trying to put on a brave face but also looking absolutely terrified. I pulled him against my side, starting to walk down the hall. "It'll be fine. Don't worry about it!" I said soothingly.

The three of us walked to the first room and Eric winced, clinging to me. "Yeah I'm just gonna not look at anything," he whispered, burying his face in my side. "Don't worry about it man, we'll make sure you don't trip," Paul said with a smile. The haunted house wasn't terrible as far as haunted houses go. It wasn't exactly terrifying but there were still enough scares that made Paul and I jump. Eric didn't see any of it since he kept his eyes tightly shut the entire time, clinging to me.

Finally, we stumbled through the exit and back into the outside. "Yeah see now I remember why I never go to those," Eric muttered, detaching himself from me. "Hey, they're not for everyone, don't worry about it," I said with a shrug, and Paul nodded. "Yeah, it's no sweat." Eric shuddered, running a hand through his hair. "I'm gonna go get myself something to eat, I'll be back," he said, walking toward the food booths. I was about to suggest to Paul we join him when my phone started to ring. "Oh, it's Ace," I said, answering the call.

"Gene! What the hell curly I've been calling you for like ten minutes!" he snapped. "Sorry! I was in a haunted house, I didn't feel my phone ring. What's up?" "Ok well someone had the bright idea of not getting us a map because we 'don't need one' and so now we're completely lost in the corn maze. The someone is Peter, by the way. Please come rescue me, he can find his own way out."

Trying really hard not to laugh, I nodded. "Yeah okay, Paul and I will come find you. Give us awhile though, takes Paul ages to hobble places," I said, hanging up with a laugh as Paul smacked me with a crutch again. "Oh shut up," he muttered. "Peter decided they didn't need a map so they're lost as shit. Let's go tell Eric what's up and then we'll go find them." Grinning, Paul shook his head. "Oh, they would do that."

We found Eric sitting at a picnic bench, halfway through a funnel cake. "What's up?" "Hey so Ace and Peter are lost in the corn maze and we're going to go find them. Want to come with?" "Yeah sure. I like mazes, those are fun. Probably should've just gone with them to begin with," he said, rising to his feet and grabbing the plate. We grabbed a map from the box and set off, with Eric eating his funnel cake as we went.

Frowning, I squinted at the map once we reached the first fork in the path. "Okay so I suck at these, I don't know where we go," I said. "Left," Eric replied, already walking that way. "But you didn't even look at the map!" Paul protested. "I did earlier. We go left, left, then right, forward twice, left again, forward, and then right and keep walking right until we reach the center," he said, making another turn. Stunned, I put the map in my pocket. "If you're right I'll be very impressed." "Bet you a candied apple I am!" he said cheerfully. "Oh you're on. I'll throw in a caramel one too," Paul said with a grin.

To our surprise, about ten minutes later we had reached the center of the maze, without Eric ever having to use the map. "What...the hell. How did you do that?!" I cried. He shrugged, finally finishing off the funnel cake. "I told you, I saw the map earlier! Where are they though? I kinda thought they'd be in the middle," he said. "I'll call them," Paul said, pulling out his phone. "Hey! The hell are you?!" he snapped. There was a pause before he shook his head. "You guys are so dumb, like honestly. Call Eric, he's good at mazes," Paul said, squinting at Eric, who gave him a smug smile.

"I still don't know how you did that," I grumbled. "I told you! I saw the map earlier!" he said, answering his phone as Ace called him. Shaking my head, I just walked behind him slowly with Paul as he had Ace basically navigate him to where they were. "Amazing. I really don't get how he does it," Paul said, and I shrugged helplessly. "I don't know man. I don't know. But hey, I'm glad he does."

Within fifteen minutes, we rounded the corner to find Ace and Peter standing between the corn, arguing with each other. "Geez there you are! Dumbass," I said with a grin. "No! I'm not a dumbass, he's the dumbass!" Ace snapped, giving Peter a shove. "I said I was sorry! I thought I knew where we were going!" he protested. "We could've just brought the map anyway!" "Hey relax, Eric will get us out of here," Paul said. "Yeah, lemme see the map for a second," he said, and I handed him the map, looking over his shoulder as he frowned at it, tracing it with his finger and muttering to himself. "Okay yeah I've got it," he said, turning and starting to walk off, handing the map back to me.

"Wait don't you need the map?" Ace asked. "I already saw it," Eric said with a shrug, rounding the corner. "But doesn't he--" I shook my head. "Nope. It's freaky man, he just has to look at it like once." "See maybe if you were like that we wouldn't be in this mess," Ace said, giving Peter a glare. "I said I was sorry," he grumbled.

It took Eric about ten minutes to navigate us back out of the maze. "Damn alright what do I owe you?" I asked with a sigh. "Candied apple. And Paul owes me a caramel one," he said with an extremely self-satisfied grin. "Okay so I'm just gonna take Eric with me next time. Or a map," Ace said, sticking his tongue out at Peter, who rolled his eyes. "Alright, alright, you've made your point plenty of times."

It was pretty late by the time Paul and I had gotten Eric the apples we owed him so we all just headed back to my car. "Look I know you're an adult but also please don't eat those in my car," I said, giving Eric a look. "I'm not gonna, I'm sleepy anyway so I'm just gonna save them for tomorrow," he said with a yawn. "Worn out from the haunted house?" I teased, and he gave me a glare, flipping me off. "Shut up. I saved you so much time getting through the maze, next time I'm just going to let you stumble through blindly on your own," he snapped. "I'm kidding, I'm kidding. Thanks for that, by the way."

"Any time!"