forgetting charlie

five

five ::

I woke up to Helter Skelter blaring in my ear from my cell phone that lay next to me. Rubbing the sleep from my eyes, I squinted around the dim room, the soft light from outside casting long stripes on the floor as it peeked through the closed window blinds. I looked over at Sue's bed, only to see it empty and already made. Picking up my phone, I looked at the time then at the name of the person calling.

"Hello?" I yawned into the receiver.

"Aislynn, I'm having a crisis," came Emily's voice. "I need a Halloween costume."

Stretching my arms over my head, I yawned then placed my phone back to my ear. Was she serious? "Em, it's like seven-thirty in the morning," I whined. It was too early for this.

"Aisly, I'm having a crisis!" Emily emphasized her voice sharp.

"I thought you were going as Lady Gaga this year?"

"Yes, well that was before I found out Megan—you know Megan, that peppy cheerleader with the short hair and really perky boobs—well Megan's going as Gaga. So I need a new idea."

I yawned again, not knowing who Megan was and not really caring very much. Halloween was so overrated. It was just another consumer holiday except this one made it okay for girls to dress like sluts and guys to do bad things to other people in the name of trick or treat. "And you have to decide this right now? At seven in the morning?"

"Yes," she said. "You know Sigma Beta Theta's annual Halloween party is tomorrow night. I need help!"

She sounded desperate. Even though Halloween wasn't a holiday I really celebrated nor did I care too much about, this was probably the first time Emily actually needed and wanted my help on something. What sort of friend would I have been to say no?

"Okay," I said. "I've got about an hour and a half before my first class. Let me just get ready and I'll be at your dorm in twenty."

* * * * *

"I want to go as someone whose style is retro. But like unique and one of a kind," Emily said to Paul, the associate at Abracadabra, a Halloween store 20 minutes from campus. "Someone who's not the obvious choice, you know?"

Paul pressed his right palm to his cheek in a thoughtful manner and said "Mhm, no yeah. I totally get it."

When I got to Emily's dorm room, she was waiting for me outside in the hall, her back against the wall, twirling a pair of keys around her polished finger. "We're taking a drive," she announced as I approached her, grabbing my wrist the minute I was close and pulling me out of the residence hall and towards the student parking lot. Her white two-door Mustang was parked on the far end of the lot.

"Where are we going?" I asked her as she continued to guide me towards her car, a gift from her parents. I remember the day Emily got it. She was pissed that it wasn't pink, but eventually settled on the idea that white was cooler and she could always paint over it anyway.

"We're going to get me an awesome costume," she said as she unlocked the car doors and slid her body into the driver's seat. "Get in!" she called when I didn't immediately open the passenger-side door.

Opening it, I peered in and said, "I've got class at nine-thirty."

"We'll be back in time," she assured me, starting the engine.

I sighed quietly as I got inside. I closed the door and before I could securely fasten my seatbelt we were off.

"How about Madonna?" I asked Emily, holding up a cone-shaped bra. Abracadabra had all of the clichéd Halloween costumes. You know, the common ones like cone-bra Madonna, every superhero ever, Michael Jackson and your series of skanky cops, firefighters and nurses.