Carving Pumpkins (Frank Iero)

Carving Pumpkins

Him

"Hurry up!" I called up the stairs. She was taking an immense amount of time to put on a tiara.

I heard a crash and a squeal. I lunged for the stairs and bounded up, two by two.

"Pen!" I called frantically, banging her door open and stomping into her room.

The blonde-haired little girl erupted into a fit of giggles and flopped down onto her bed. I relaxed and ran a hand through my hair anxiously.

"Jeezy cow, Frankie," She laughed, twirling her braid in between her fingers. "I didn't mean to scare you."

I leaned on the dresser behind me and attempted to catch my breath. "Are you okay?" I managed to get out.

Penney nodded fervently and smiled. "Yeah, I just dropped my bat."

I sighed and looked to the pink metal bat that was on the floor next to her bed, relieved. If anything happened to Penney, I would probably go insane. Ever since mom died, and dad went crazy, the only thing Penney and I had was each other. I had insisted that she put her old softball bat by her door, just in case. I was a little overprotective; but, again, she was all I had.

"You ready?" I asked, glancing at my watch. If we didn't leave soon, we wouldn't be able to hit a lot of houses.

"Yeah," she said quietly, looking at her reflection in her vanity mirror. "Can you redo my braid first, Frankie? It's falling out."

I smiled at the little blue-eyed girl and began to undo her hair. Braiding hair is not as easy as it looks. The first time I tried it, I almost ended up tying my hand up in Penney's hair.

Once the braid was finished and Penney was satified, we set out to collect her candy.

It was Halloween night, and much too cold for it. I had two jackets, my skull gloves, and my beanie on; Penney had insisted on just wearing just a pink long-sleeved shirt under her princess dress, but I made her wear another jacket. She wasn't happy, and, whenever she's unhappy, I'm unhappy. I was just glad that she wouldn't freeze.

It was nearing nine thirty, and I was beat from walking for a little under two hours with a six-year-old princess hopped up on Milky Ways. 

"Awe, just one more house!" She begged, waving her bag of candy in my face. "Please, Frankie?"

She put on her best puppy dog face and I huffed. I loved her more than anything, but she sure did know how to push my buttons.

"Okay, fine," I sighed. She squealed and ran up the drive to an old, Victorian-style house. "This is the last one!" I yelled after her, kicking a stone along the ridiculously long drive and following her. 

We were in the middle of town, but this house was definitely the largest and oldest. I received many strange and distatsteful looks from the parents taking their young ones trick-or-treating. 

Sure, when you take your children out to pick up candy on a basically obligatory holiday, you're praised unconditionally, but when the new, freaky punk kid takes his little sister out he gets stared at? I see how it works.

I looked up at the house. It was pretty cool. It was tall and bigger on top than it was below, so it gave the it-kinda-looks-like-a-balloon effect.

Wait, where's Penney? Shouldn't she be back by now...?

I looked up from the ground and discovered that I was about to trip over the concrete steps of the Victorian-style house. Thankfully, my cat-like reflexes came through for me; I ended up slamming my hands down on the third step, trying futilely to regain my balance. 

When I looked up and shook off my impending heart attack, I was met with a pair of green eyes. A pair of green eyes whose image will be engraved in my memory forever.

The girl sitting on the front stoop looked at me skeptically, as if to study me. I tried to straighten myself up and brushed my hands off on my jeans.

"Um, s-sorry." I stuttered, embarrassed. Her piercing green eyes tore through my attempts to study her. Everytime I met her eyes, she would look at me intensely, as if to try and communicate with me without speaking.

She had blonde hair that barely reached her shoulders. Her bangs, which were sitting neatly over one eye, were dyed a light pink with a tint of red. She was wearing a green sweater, which was the exact same color as her piercing eyes. She was holding an orange bowl between her black-skinny-jean-clad knees, and its supply was dwindling. I took a mental note of her gray converse. They had pink skulls on them.

There was something about this girl that I couldn't take my mind off of. I couldn't put my finger on what was so intruiging about her, although, somehow I knew she was different.

"Frankie, let's go." Penney's voice snapped me out of my trance. "I'm cold."

I waited for a moment and looked at the girl again. She was looking at me. We were staring silently into each other's eyes, and it was more awkward than twelve-year-old me. 

"Frankie!" Penney squealed impatiently, tugging at the hem of my jeans. "C'mon!"

I nodded and gently nudged Penney back toward the long drive that lead out to the sidewalk, reluctantly breaking my gaze with the girl on the steps.

On the way down to the street, I stealthily stole a glance back at the girl. She was still looking at me, almost curiously, it seemed.

How odd.