where only the sweetest words remain

chapter fourteen

A/N: ty to those of you who have been so patient with me <3 again, this story will never get abandoned, life is just stupid sometimes and writing takes a lot of concentration. i really do love this chapter though and i hope you guys do too :)

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October 2032

A soft thump next to Samuel's hand signifies that Bruno has jumped on top of the bed with him, confirmed by how the cat flops against his arm half a second later—not because he wants to snuggle, but because he's demanding pets under the threat of scratching Samuel, otherwise. The way Samuel obligingly smooths his fingers over Bruno's thick black fur is absent enough that his conversation with Carla isn't interrupted.

"Why do I even have to get dressed up, anyway?"

He can't see her because he's lying on his back, eyes stuck to the ceiling, but her voice, when she replies, comes from a little ways to his right. It's semi-muffled on account of how she's been rummaging through their closet since he plopped on their bed a few minutes ago, after putting Eva down for the night.

"Because it's Halloween."

"People don't dress up for Halloween all the time. Technically, it's an American holiday."

"No, people don't trick-or-treat here," she corrects him. "There are plenty of people who get dressed up for the sake of partying."

"We aren't going to a party, though," he argues.

"Yes, we are. Lu's throwing one, remember? We'll go after the haunted house."

Samuel lets out a casual hum. "Or we could skip the haunted house altogether and just go straight to Lu's place."

Even though she's still out of view, he knows that she's probably wearing a vaguely impatient expression.

"We'll take Eva to the haunted house earlier, drop her off at your mom's for the night afterwards, then go to Lu's." Samuel grumbles under his breath as her soft footsteps pad against the floor. Her hip brushes his knee as she appears at the end of the bed and sets something down on the blanket next to him. Predictably, Bruno abandons him in favor of rubbing up against her. "And you're going to wear a costume, because I said so."

"Because you said so, huh?" He scoffs, lifting his head and recognizing the box touching his thigh as one he'd stuffed with a bunch of random things from his old apartment when they first moved in together. Carla makes an affirmative sound and removes her hand from Bruno's head to open the box, digging inside. The cat meows unhappily and saunters out of the room. "I doubt you're going to find anything in there."

One of her eyebrows arches as she pulls out a teal dog collar. "Considering you've never owned a pet before Bruno, do I even want to know what this was for?"

"Omar made me do a couple's costume with him in college one year," he mumbles, face turning pink. "I was the Scooby to his Shaggy."

She laughs and holds the collar out of his reach when he tries to snatch it from her. "Why is this the first time I'm hearing about this?"

"I swore him to secrecy and burned all the evidence."

"Except for this, obviously," she replies. "Sentimental value?"

This time, she lets him pluck the collar from her fingers without any resistance. Carla smirks teasingly at him as he drops it back into the box, out of sight. She goes back to searching within, occasionally lifting out an errant piece of clothing. He's tugging a beanie that he's been looking for forever onto his head when she suddenly laughs in disbelief.

"Shit, you still have this thing?"

"What?" He pulls the beanie up from over his eyes and looks at what she's holding. "Fucking hell. Yeah, I forgot. I never got rid of it."