The Punk and the Ballerina

Halloween Hero

Sebastian's point of view. October 2005.

I think me and Ari were about to fucking kiss. We held hands. This girl had my insides all twisted up in so many thick knots. I got excited to seeing her at rehearsals. Whenever I thought of her, my heart felt all fluttery.

What the hell was wrong with me? This was Ariana Townsend. I knew her forever and up until a month ago, she meant less than the gum on the bottom of my broken shoe. She had a bright future without me, and she certainly didn't fit in mine either.

After being teased by her friends, I only saw Ari at rehearsal. She would always run out when it was over, trying to avoid me at all costs. That was fine with me, I needed space, I needed time to figure out my thoughts. This is why I shouldn't have mixed business with pleasure, I was losing sight of the lines we firmly drawn in the beginning.

I wanted to just get the play over with and forget any of this ever happened.

                                                                                      ***

It felt great getting lost in band practice. We were finally coming together, our sound getting stronger and more what we envisioned. We had written our first song, "Garage Song", a loud, rock anthem we were proud of. Mace proved to be a great addition to our band, the missing ingredient we didn't know existed.

Cody was our tech nerd and was busy uploading the song on our MySpace page. We finally had our band name. Sinful Joy. We wanted a name people would remember and we liked the contrast. With the band going for a metal sound, we needed to sound tough. Remembering that Ari's mother dissing rock music gave me the idea of the name. Our logo was a graffiti devil face with a halo. We were okay with pissing people off, as long as the music was good. It felt so good pushing the limits

Kelly took our first band pictures. We stood in front of a graffiti wall. Generic but it worked. We were hoping to sneak back and spray paint our logo here, didn't want to get busted, my mom would kill me.

                                                                                          ***

Finally, Halloween, my favorite holiday. The guys and I were going as the band KISS. I was Gene, Mace was dressed as Paul, Jeremy was Peter, and Cody was Ace. Since none of us could afford the KISS costumes, we just wore the band t-shirts and makeup. It took a good half hour or so to finish the makeup, I don't know how the band did this every show, I guess that was part of the dedication of being a rock star. Kelly was dressed as a devil and Natasha was an angel. We all had a stupid curfew because Halloween just happened to be on a Monday that year, my mom wanting me home at 11 instead of my usual 10 (we compromised).

We hit up the usual spots in the neighborhood. Then we made our way to the ritzy houses almost two miles away. One nice old man complimented our costumes, he had seen KISS twice when he was younger, pretty sure he gave us extra Snickers. Score.

One of the houses had loud music blasting. Some rich kid having a Halloween party.

"Maybe we should crash the party?" Jeremy said with that mischievous look in his eyes.

"Hell yeah, they probably give out cash instead of candy at those things," Natasha said.

We marched to the mansion gate, finding it open and costumed teens leaving the gate door ajar behind them. This was way too easy. "Monster Mash" was playing, typical Halloween song. I didn't have much hope for this party if they were playing this cheesy overused song.

Teens were all over the place dancing, drinking, grinding against each other. The fancy furniture were either occupied or flipped over. I chuckled to myself, some kid was going to get in trouble with his parents.

My eyes stopped on a pink sight. Ari. She was wearing pink angel wings, a pink corset that hugged her curves perfectly, black fishnet stockings, and pink high heels. God she was gorgeous, sexy. She was posing with Mali and Olivia as someone took their picture. Mali wore a red corset with her lacy red bra push up with red angel wings while Olivia wore the same outfit but in white. Their friend Parker wore a suit and hat that looked like a mafia member. A mafia guy and his Victoria Secret angels? I was pretty sure Parker was gay, the irony.

Our eyes locked. Did she blush? She gave a small, discreet wave.

Mace loudly whistled in my ear. "Your costar looks hot tonight."

Why did his stupid comment agitate me? "Don't objectify her."

"I'm just saying, she looks good. And if I were you, I would take her before some other dude does."

I turned back to find Ari but saw she separated from her group. She slipped away fast. Something about Mace's words worried me; with the way she was dressed tonight, I knew the boys would be eyeing her like a piece of virgin meat. I wandered through the crowd, hoping to see Ari, make sure she was okay. Even when we weren't at school, I was still thinking about her.

I needed some air. I went out the backdoor and was face first with the source of my problems. Ari was backed against the wall of the house. Josh McMadden had her cornered. He was such a fucking tool, always sleeping around, there was a rumor he got two girls pregnant at the same time, but they left school before anyone could figure that out. The fool always had to get his dick wet.

"Come on Ari, you're so much sexier than your friends," his words slurred. Of course he was drunk.

"Leave me alone, Josh," her voice loud and shaken. She looked around for help. I never saw her eyes that big before.

If it was one thing I couldn't stand, it was some douchebag that didn't respect when a girl said no, not on my fucking watch. I stalked over and roughly pulled Josh away from Ari.

"The fuck's your problem, man?" Josh tried to size me up.

"Get the fuck away from her," I pushed him, causing the idiot to fall backwards into the pool. I turned back to Ari. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine, but you better make sure he doesn't drown." We both watched Josh drunkenly float in the water. I shook my head and grabbed him under the arms and hoisted him out of the pool. He laid on his back and he started babbling about the stars.

"Want to get out of here?" I finally asked Ari.

She nodded and grabbed my hand. My angry heart softened at her gentle, scared touch.

Here we go again.