The Crush Complex

Costume Party Kiss

Anticipation was high throughout the school. Apparently one of the more popular students had a birthday coming up on Saturday with a costume party theme, and had taken upon themselves to invite pretty much the whole school. I don't really know why so many people were excited; Halloween had been a week ago, but hey, who am I to judge? They were supposedly going all out, there was going to be a legitimate DJ from an up and coming club, strobe lights, actually creepy decorations, and the optional haunted house tour.

All Casey could talk about was her perfect fantasy where she got scared when something popped out at her during the tour and Jason comforted her by "distraction". I swear I nearly vomited when she told me that. From what little I knew of him, that was so not what would happen. Ever. And Casey wasn't that easily scared, anyway. Honestly, when it came to horror movies, neither was I. I am a friggin' rock during those. But I guess something about real life jump scares tapped the inner little girl in me. That's why I had decided very early on not to go.

I wasn't really ready to dress in something revealing, and anything actually scary would just get laughed at. Besides, I was never much of a dance person anyway.

Casey and I had been walking down the hall towards her locker, with Casey doing all of the talking, when a certain brown-haired, grey-eyed jerk spotted us and started coming towards us. I was about to make up some excuse for the billionth time when it dawned on me that I had run out of them. I wanted to shoot myself when I realized that I was stuck with watching my friend and my crush as boyfriend and girlfriend.

Jason smiled amiably at Casey before winking at me like we were both in on a secret.

"Hey Case, do you wanna go out after school today and help me find a costume?"

She fluttered her eyes at him and smiled. "Of course, babe. What did you have in mind?"

I rolled my eyes at her and was about to just leave them when he turned to me.

"You can join if you want."

I raised a brow. "Go for sexy Dracula, girls dig sexy Dracula."

I turned on my heel and walked down the hall before I was late to class.

___________________________________________________________

It was only Wednesday. Still three more days until I could have an entire morning, afternoon, and evening to myself. Friday, I could tell already, was going to take all of my strength not to punch someone in the face. I hadn't talked to Casey much after Monday, or rather, she hadn't really talked to me. I suppose she thought I was rude to Jason or something, and honestly, I had a hard time blaming her. If I was the one dating him and Casey had said anything like I had, I'd probably be a bit touchy too.

I took that opportunity to keep out of the way of both her and Jason. That Dracula comment made me blush with embarrassment every time I thought of the fact that I had actually said that to him. He probably thought I had been flirting with him. That's sure going to bring down his ego. For the most part, it was an easy day to get through, besides the certain classes where the teachers were gone and we had ridiculous substitutes.

Still, it was peaceful. Something I hadn't had in a long time. The end of the day felt like it hadn't happened soon enough, and for once, I was one of the students struggling to get through the door first. I had almost reached my car when my phone rang. Looking at the caller I.D., I saw that it was my oldest brother. I smiled and answered the call.

"Hey, Chris! I was wondering when I would hear from you."

I dug my keys out of my pocket as I listened to his reply.