Sincerely, Jonah

Chapter 9

That afternoon I come home and open the door and a loud, terrifying scream starts playing. My soul jumps out of my body. There's a little motion speaker at the top of the door frame.
I hear dad standing on the stairs, giggling. "Sorry kid," he says walking down. He had a bowl of cereal in his hand.

"I thought you were staying at V's tonight."
I take off my shoes as I shake my head. "She has to finish her um.... portrait for art.

That's a lie. The thing is, all made plans to walk to her house after school but when she never texted us back, we called it off.
I walk into the kitchen, past the big bowl of candy  and open the medicine cabinet. I'm actually in the mood to take my pills today.
"Guess what?" Dad asks as he opens his laptop and starts typing. "What?"

"The company will let me know if I get the job one not tomorrow."

I grin. "That's great dad." A pause. "What's gonna happen if it gets declined?"
He looks at me and shrugs, his glasses hanging on his neck. "To be honest, I'm too anxious to even think about it. We're just gonna hope for the best."
After swallowing the pill with a cup of juice, a picture of mom and him on the fridge catches my eye.

I'm in it too, but you can't see me because I'm in a stroller. They look young. Her curly hair is shoulder length and dad doesn't have a mustache. It looks like they are both laughing and someone took a picture at that moment.
"Yeah," I said. "Let's hope for the best."

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V met Fin and I at the end of the street, under the flicking light. V is dressed up as Cher from clueless, with her yellow and black skirt. I remember her telling us it's her favorite movie and after we watched it, I could definitely see why.  Fin is......
"What are you exactly?"

He holds his arm out, as in, 'Okay, you've clearly been living under a rock.'
When I don't answer, he says, "Kurt Cobain."
I take in his red and black striped sleeved shirt, and baggy jeans. "Ohhh. It looks more like freddie kruger."

Finn lets out a laugh & shakes his head. "You are something else." V pats his shoulders before she begins walking. "I told you, you should've bought that blond wig.

The first house was my own since they wanted to say hi to my dad. I warned them about the loud screaming jump scare by the door and yet they still almost managed to fall into the bushes. Dad comes out this time wearing a scream mask and a black gown. Since he's so tall and thin like me, he looks exactly like them.

"Oh, just you guys," he says as he takes off his mask, still holding out the basket of candy. "Take one each."
I snort. "Really dad?"
He shrugs.

"Yes. I didn't see the buy 1 get 3 free sign at the store so this is all I got."
Fin takes a tootsie roll, I take a sweet tart, and V takes a dum dum candy.

Dad shoos us away. "Now go. There's people waiting." I turn around to see a line full of kids in costumes, with their parents. I keep forgetting how small this place is.

Elisa was of course giving out free samples of her muffins and pies instead of candy. They were packaged in cute halloween decor. She was sitting out by her door with a small table in front of her, wearing 5 nights at freddy's pjs. "Hey Jo Jo!" she says to a little girl. "What kind of pie would you like to try? I have my traditional pumpkin cow web pie."