Babysitter or Boyfriend?

Chapter 19

Chapter Nineteen

For as long as I could remember, Halloween had been my favorite holiday. I loved putting on a silly costume, watching horror movies with friends, and stuffing myself full of absurdly sugary treats. Although Jake and Alex managed to somehow scare me out of my wits every year, I loved it.

This year, however, something seemed very...off. Alex and his roommates were throwing a Halloween bash and inviting everyone within a fifty-mile radius, but I wasn't as excited as I had been in the past.

Maybe it was that, for the first time in forever, Jake wouldn't be at the party. Maybe it was that I was still recovering from the accident three and a half weeks earlier, and could barely walk without feeling pain of some sort.

Or maybe it was the fact that I was madly in love with my best friend, and could hardly be myself around him anymore. No matter how many times Alex asked me what was wrong, I couldn't bring myself to say those three little words.

Guess the fact that our entire friendship was on the line complicated things.

I sighed, staring a bit mournfully into the bathroom mirror as I put the finishing touches on my sparkly green make up. I'd dressed up as Tinkerbelle, from the classic Disney film Peter Pan. It was a little juvenile, sure, but at least I wasn't dressed as a swimsuit model like Brooke.

Seriously. She might as well have gone naked and called herself a pornstar.

"Ave, you in here?" Alex's familiar voice broke into my thoughts and I felt my stomach do that strange little flip-flop-for about the millionth time in three weeks.

"In the bathroom," I responded simply.

"Are you decent?" he asked a moment later, his voice much closer than before.

I opened the door and forced a smile at him. "You tell me," I said, then gave his Jack Sparrow costume a once-over. "You look great." It was true-Alex didn't bear any strong resemblance to Johnny Depp, but he definitely made a sexy pirate lookalike.

Alex grinned. "Me? Look at you!" he placed his hands on my shoulders, causing a wave of heat to rush through my entire body. "Dang, Ave, you make a great Tinkerbelle."

I laughed in spite of myself. "Thanks," I mumbled. "It's the blonde hair."

Alex rolled his eyes. "Whatever," he teased. "It's you-all of you."

A little uncomfortable, I slipped out from beneath his grasp and brushed past him into my bedroom. Alex followed and watched as I slid my bare feet into a pair of light green flats, each one decorated with a little white ball of feathers.

"Is everything set up at your place?" I asked him.

He nodded. "Yep, all set. I've come to escort you over." he winked at me.

I smiled back at him. "Jack Sparrow and Tinkerbelle. We make a pretty great pair, don't we?" I teased lightly.

Alex laughed as we left the room. "Oh, definitely," he replied. "Although I would've happily dressed as Peter Pan, too."

I shrugged. "Maybe next year."

We walked slowly to Alex's apartment, and I declined each of the three times he offered to give me a piggyback ride. "I need to learn to walk with the pain," I told him. "Otherwise I'll stiffen up and things will be worse than before."

Moments later, he led me into the dark, fog-filled apartment and I grinned up at him. "This looks awesome," I said. "Who knew guys could decorate so well?"

Alex smirked at me. "Don't insult me, Ave," he replied. "Halloween is my specialty. Just watch yourself, okay? Don't want you to find yourself covered in spiders or anything."