New Dawn

Halloween

AS THE DAYS PASSED, MY LIFE BEGAN TO FEEL FULL. The void that had once lingered in the pit of my stomach had been muted but never completely left. I had learned to embrace what I had and it helped the situation. Luckily for me, I was able to distract myself with friends and school. The weekends were a lot harder to fill my time with. I wanted to spend all my free time in La Push but Nahuel made it hard to, so my visits to the reservation were few and far apart.

The week finally came where Nahuel decided to throw a halloween party at his house and said I could invite any of my friends. Without hesitation, I called up Embry, Seth, Brady, and Eli to invite them. They all seemed excited to hear from me but were a little unsure if Nahuel would be okay with their presence. After assuring them that he would be civil, they agreed to come.

When the party day finally came, Eli and I made plans to get ready together. Brady dropped her off at my house in the morning, she spent most of her weekend nights at his place and I couldn't help but wonder about how fast their relationship was moving.

Smiling, Eli tossed her bag down on my bed, "How you

doing today?"

"I'm excited to see everyone tonight."

"We've missed you down at Brady's place. Everyone's always asking after you. Why've you made yourself a stranger?" She looked a little upset.

"Nahuel. He makes plans for us every weekend and doesn't give me time to visit."

"Why don't you just tell him that you have other plans?"

"Can we not talk about him tonight? I just wanna have fun and see the guys."

"Okay." She forced a smile, "So what are you going to be tonight?"

"Well...Nahuel is going to be Tarzan and he wants me to be Jane but I kinda want to be a vampire. Is that weird?"

Eli's eyes grew wider and her smile brightened, "You would be a perfect vampire. Do you have a costume yet?"

"I have some of the fake teeth and I figured I could be a modern one and just wear some of my clothes."

She laughed, "Come on. Halloween is the one time of the year girls are expected to dress inappropriately. Can I dress you?" Her smile brightened in anticipation.

Rolling my eyes, I took a deep breath, knowing that I would regret allowing her to. "Sure. Just...don't go too hard."

"Yay!" She squeaked in excitement and began to dig through her bag.

"What are you going to be?"

She pulled out a tiny, sparkly, green piece of material, "Tinkerbell." Her smile faded as she continued going through her bag, "I left my wings at Brady's though. Can we swing by there later? Brady has to work right up to the party so he won't be able to bring them."

"Of course we can." I smiled and moved to my closet, "I don't have anything like your outfit."

"That's okay. I'll find you something." She moved in beside me and started to rummage through my things. "I even have fake blood we can put on you. You'll look amazing."

"You're really going hard tonight Eli."

"I love this time of year. It's always the best and most fun. You need to get more pumped about tonight." She smiles and