The Boy Band Who Adopted Me!

Chapter 26 - The Rabbit Takes the Fall

The air was crisp and the staff and student council had decorated the whole school. The Fall Festival had been moved to early November, so instead, the cafeteria was selling caramel apples, brownies with leaf-shaped sprinkles on top, and apple cider to make up for the postponing. We all stocked up on treats, then hit the streets.

"So, Alex, the teachers told us we're too old to trick-or-treat in the neighborhoods and that they'll call the school," Gav said as he bit into his caramel apple. I sighed. Why can't I be eleven again?

"Buuuuuuuuut," he added, "we can still trick-or-treat at the shops. They're doing a huge event."

"What, really?" I asked, slipping my phone into an apron pocket.

"There'll be coupons like last year," Will said. "20% off coffee drinks, buy-one-get-one-free at the consignment shop. All the band tees you want at $6 apiece," he counted on his fingers. Jamie tugged on his Asking Alexandria t-shirt and grinned.

"Okay, I'm officially excited," I beamed. I looked at Gavin, and he smiled back with that cocky grin, one hand ruffling my hair.

We all cruised off campus down to the shops. Costumed teenagers prowled underneath the trees. A slight breeze shook the orange leaves down on us with every step. String lights hung between the two strips of shops, and I could see lions, witches and vampires coming from every direction with bags of candy.

Cody was shaking with excitement in his Mad Hatter costume. He had one hand on his teapot and his eyes on the strip. "We are going in every single store," he exclaimed, determined.

And so we did.

Every single shop had candy in it. Barsetti's had ice cream flavored taffy, the coffee shop had grocery-store bags full of wax lips and lollipops, the thrift shop had handfuls of individually-wrapped chocolate bars and fruity hard candy. The whole strip was full of childlike wonder.

Aside from the candy, most shops were also giving away coupons, which would come in handy near Christmastime. Even the ritzy candle shop with the perfume and oils. The laid-back girl with gauges who worked there slipped us discount waivers for some of her patchouli and cinnamon concoctions.

Cody flew from store to store, haggling for more candy like nobody's business. We went everywhere he did, and yet his bag was twice as full as ours.

"Everyone remembers him," Will said with a knowing look in his eye.

---

"But Reeeeeeese," Cody said with a pout. "Your fudge is the beeeest."

Reese was a tall, stern twentysomething who worked in the bookstore. At the moment, he was wearing a striped apron which looked comical on him, and a pair of oven mitts.

"It is the best," Reese said with a flat tone, towering above us. "That's why I'm saving it for the rest of the kids."

"You can't just slip me one more piece?" Cody asked. He innocently shook his teapot like he was begging for change.

Reese gave him a long look, then sighed, and tipped the plate a little into Cody's bag. Pieces of homemade, saran-wrapped fudge tumbled in.

"Thanks, Reese! I'll come back tomorrow for Adventures of Cosmo-Man!" Cody bolted out the door. We thanked Reese for our fudge and followed up behind him. Will looked like an exhausted mother.

--

We were all lounging in the Wonderland treehouse. "Our costumes are so appropriate right now," I joked. Even Jamie let out a little chuckle.

"Okay, I know we're all getting super old and stuff but we're still trading candy," Cody said with a serious look on his face. He dumped his bag out in front of him and looked at all of us.

"Okay, okay," Will said, and dumped his bag out too. Everyone else followed suit.

We ended up having a pretty perfect trade-off, with some minor issues. Will took the hard candy, Emmett took all the sour powdered stuff and bubblegum, Cody made a bid for the milk chocolate. Jamie was content with all of the candy nobody wanted - candy corn, strange off-brand gummies and marshmallows, and those sketchy chocolate eyeballs with suspicious origins. I hoarded most of the dark chocolate, and Gavin would take anything with caramel and nuts.

"So that Three Musketeers is mine," Gavin said, pointing to Cody's pile. Cody defensively crouched over it, like a dragon on a pile of gold.

"Actually, it's mine," the Hatter said with a devious smile. "You can have the Snickers though."

"No doubt," Gavin answered, "but I also want the Three Musketeers."

"You'll have to fight me for it, Cheshire Cat," Cody announced. "I'll throw boiling tea at you!"

"I'll claw your teapot into pieces!" Gavin growled. Cody tackled him and they fell over, laughing. Jamie pretended to secretly remove the Three Musketeers from Cody's pile, which made me laugh. 

Eventually we were all staring at the stars through the hole in the roof, in a teenage candy coma. Just as Cody was finishing a story for me about the one time he almost peed his pants on a rollercoaster, Will's phone vibrated.

I was laughing at Cody's story when Will sat straight up, looking like he'd just seen a ghost.

"Will?" Gavin asked, sitting up. The rest of us did too. Will ran a hand through his messy brown hair and readjusted his glasses on his nose.

"Uhhh... yeah. Um."

"Will, what's up? Seriously?" Gavin put a hand on his shoulder.

Will took a long breath before answering.

"My brother's back in town," he finally said. "My mom is insisting I come home for the holidays."

Um...

The guys looked mortified; their reactions shocked me. Emmett's eyes widened. He rested a hand on Will's knee. "You can come stay with me, I've got plenty of space, you don't have to go home--"

"My mom is probably going to come get me and take me home by force," Will answered back. "I'm really not looking forward to it though."

"Jesus, Will, what can we do?" Jamie said.

I didn't know what to say. Once again, I was dumbfounded by my lack of knowledge of the boys' problems. I didn't know it was this bad...

--

AN: Stay tuned!