Stars In Her I's

fourteen

Christopher hadn't spoken to Francis since he busted his lip, prefering to be with Lumos. Ethan had taken Francis instead, making plans for Halloween within a week of their incident.

Speaking of Halloween, Christopher had just about had it with stuff being splattered on his face. When he asked if Lumos was good, he didn't expect this. It all felt sticky, but Lumos kept saying it was worth it.

He blinked at the make-up. It was his idea, after all. They wanted to go as the best friends they both knew and loved, but they had to do something to make it more interesting. Why not blood and black goop? Lumos had bitched and moaned about getting his coat all messed up, but Chris won in the end. He was sacrificing one of his own, why shouldn't he?

His hair felt... strange. It had been straightened for this and the colour was changed, making him feel like a different person. Lumos hadn't done much besides adding the dye, saying that it wouldn't take long.

He had no idea Lumos would be this extra. He had fashioned their outfits and bought about seventy types of coloured contacts and hair spray to get everything ready. Atleast he sure seemed happy about it- he was simply glowing.

"All done!" He grabbed a mirror and shoved it into Christopher's hands, excited for him to see. When he flipped the mirror round, he hardly recognized his own face. He had fake hair in the way of stuble while his own hair poofed up at the front and was now a brown colour. The eyes that Lumos had raved about endlessly were now black, the contacts doing their job quite well. His face had already been square to begin with, but Lumos had somehow made him look more... grown. Blood splattered the side of his face, making him smile wide. He ran fingers over the cosmetic mark put on his arm. "You did a kick-ass job, kid." He handed the mirror back. "Now go get yourself together so we can get going."

As Christopher left the bathroom, Lumos was finally able to let the dreamy smile spread across his face that he had been holding back. Being so close to and so intimate with Christopher's features... it made him feel all warm inside. He was just surprised that Chris hadn't commented on how red his face must have been.

Well, his hair was already done. He'd trimmed it a bit and was just now pulling the cap off his head, having the foresight to cut down on time needed by doing it before he started on Christopher. His now black hair made him look like a different person. Next came the fake scruffle, in which he used his own trimmed bits and didn't take long to apply. Following that was the black ooze from his orifices and forhead, then the blood on the coat, tie, and shirt. After putting on a few fake skin tears and such, he donned his outfit and looked in he mirror.

He nodded, pleased with himself. When he walked out, he found Christopher and Victoria waiting for him. Victoria was staying at home to hand out candy, dressing up in a clever way. She looked like Mrs. Voorhees, making Lumos smile. Even if no one else got the refrence, it was still a pleasing thought.

"So, we takin' your sexy thang?" Victoria laughed at that, amused by her son's quips he'd picked up from American television.

"Wait, wait!" She grabbed her phone and stood them side by side. "Picture!" After Lumos hesitated, she furrowed her brow. "C'mon, act like you like eachother!"

This was just a thing she said when trying to make people smile in a photo, but it was all too specific for Lumos. A slow smile spread across his face as Chris slung an arm around him, making the bad thoughts go away.

"Well, let's get this show on the road!"

A few minutes later they were climbing onto his bike. They rode off quickly, Lumos barely holding his composure. This was the second time he had taken Chris on his bike. Thankfully, this time he didn't think he was some girl, so no groping took place. He managed to keep down his dinner as Chris said directions into his ear.

This party was at Tyler's house, a student born in Canada. His parents were letting him throw this giant party with a costume contest and everything. Nearly everyone was invited, and Chris had managed to get Lumos to go. Luckily, in the weeks following their whole blowout thing, nobody really cared about it anymore. People eventually started fawning over Christopher again and ignoring Lumos. It was best not to be anyone, he thought. Why bring attention to yourself when you have something to hide?

He was using all the self control he had to stop him from quivering at the hands on his abdomen. When he had pitched the costume idea to Christopher, he neglected to mention that he actually thought the two were in love. Perhaps Christopher guessed that and just didn't care, maybe he thought the same. Who knows, really?

Putting the kickstand down was a welcome relief. No more grabbing, whispering, breath on his neck, nothing.

Walking into such a big house was jarring. People were dancing to Ozzy Osborne, drinks were everywhere, and lights were scarce. Chris gave him a smile, his pretend blade firm in his hand. There was something sympathetic about the way his eyes were. Even so, it wasn't long before he found himself without Christopher, him having wandered off to find Tyler. He was dying to show the host how great a job Lumos did.

When he returned with Tyler in tow, it wasn't too hard to find Lumos standing in the corner. He didn't seem to excited by all the demons, werewolves, ghosts, ghouls, and vampires walking around. The lingerie costumes always present on Halloween weren't his favourite, either.

"Heyo, Lumos. This is Tyler, Tyler, this is Lumos." Lumos looked up with sad eyes as usual, offering little in the way of a greeting. No matter what, he could never shake that awkwardness around new people. "So I was gabbing to Tyler here about how good you are at this stuff."

Before he could do anything, Tyler was pulling him forward, looking close at his face, his clothes, everything that was visible to him. This invasion of personal space was a bit too much for him. Luckily, Chris seemed to sense his discomfort and cleared his throat and Tyler stepped back, an apologetic smile on his face. "Sorry... what did you do to get the black so opaque?" Well, Tyler was obviously a close-talker. He'd known someone like that once before, noting that if close-talkers actually stood close while talking to you, they probably thought you were pretty alright.

"Coal du- coal dust. Doesn't really stain but stays put with- stays put with water." Tyler reached out to touch the his face, clearly fascinated.

"Coal dust, eh..?"

Chris cleared his throat again, smiling.

His sudden interest was noticable enough to turn heads. Soon enough, nearly everyone in the room was talking about it- for once, the talk about him was positive. It still seemed a bit off. He suddenly wish he had wings on his back to carry him out of this place, something to truely seal in the costume. A thought flashed through his head, imagining a story his uncle had told him in his youth. Men and women with great big wings going around and watching people like guardian angels. A particular one had the biggest wings, maroon in colour. Looking back now, it was pretty obvious Serif had made that one up just for him. His stories were always the greatest. There was always a man with curly blonde hair in them, too. Uncle Serif was always doing things that didn't make sense then but turned out truthful in the end. Maybe he was magical like he always joked.

The sunny memory faded as the music seemed louder. "It was nice meeting ya, eh, Lumos?" Tyler was tugged off in another direction, leaving only Chris and Lumos. He almost spoke up in a request to leave before Christopher interrupted him.

"Hey, can we go in the spare room? There's something I'd like to, uhm... we need to talk."