polaroids | awsten knight

polaroid eleven

This one was taken the day of Halloween.

My mum wanted me to take a picture of our house because she noticed the continuously growing pile of photographs by my bedside table. She knew that they meant something, but didn't know the backstory behind all of them.

I'd be accompanying James, my neighbour, trick-or-treating. His parents don't want to go out since there's a breeze outside and paid me twenty dollars to bring him out. I'd do it for free but didn't want to tell them that.

So, that got me thinking. Maybe we could all meet up and bring our siblings with us. You would bring Gracie, Geoff could bring his sister, and Otto could bring his little cousin. I called you all the night before Halloween and asked if we could do that. You all obliged.

That night, my parents set up the decorations. At first, they weren't planning anything. When I told them that you guys would be coming by, they wanted to at least make the exterior look good, even if Otto had seen our house millions of times.

James came by at four by himself with his costume in his Halloween bag. His parents trusted him enough to walk to our house. My parents would have never let me walk to Otto's house myself when I was his age.

He wanted to take up that Mario Party game we never finished. I hadn't played the game since that night I ditched to go on that road trip, so our saved file wouldn't have been touched.

It took us an hour to finish our game, not like we were playing that entire time, but because we kept taking snack breaks. We won the game and looked through my collection of video games to see what we could do next.

I let him play one of my many Mario games as I texted the group chat we were all in. Otto's cousin would be dropped off at his house around five-thirty so in thirty more minutes. Geoff told us he was leaving at that time, saying he would probably be there when Otto got there. You texted me privately and said your mom would be dropping you and Gracie off.

You arrived before anyone else. Gracie had her costume already on: a butterfly with beautiful purple makeup. You tried with a costume: a bumblebee. It was the striped black and yellow shirt that gave it away.

"That's cute," I complimented you two. "Gracie, you look incredible!" I knelt down to hug her, picking her up as a surprise. "James, why don't you put on your costume?" With that, he rushed off with a huge grin on his face.

I let Gracie use the GameCube while James got dressed. You and I sat on the couch, spectating the video game. Gracie was having enough fun running around in circles that she was trying to beat the stage. Neither of us said anything to her about that.

James jumped out of the washroom with his costume on. "Blah!" He laughed, showing off the semi-transparent vampire teeth inside of his mouth. A black cape rested on his shoulders, tried around his neck. He placed a bit of red lipstick around his mouth in replace of blood.

Since you and Gracie were twinning, I thought I'd dress up for James. I had Halloween makeup from last year when I was a vampire, which was probably where James got the inspiration for his costume. I outlined my cheekbones and put black makeup around my nose, cheeks, and eye sockets.

"Skeleton!" I announced. If the makeup wasn't a clear giveaway, I also had skeleton gloves. "Now all we need is the other guys and we can start going." It started getting dark quicker around this time of the year, and I didn't want James to miss out on some houses because we decided to leave later.

In a few minutes time, both Otto and Geoff knocked on the door. Otto's cousin was in a Spider-Man outfit, and Geoff's sister, Rebecca, dressed as a fairy. Neither Otto nor Geoff was in the spirit to dress up.

"Trick or trick time," James laughed, racing the other kids to their shoes. While they struggled to tie up their laces, the four of us watched in amusement.

The sun was gone from the sky by now, and there had been a few kids already ringing the doorbell. "Be safe!" My mom told us, standing by the doorframe.

"Don't worry, mom," Otto said. He was so much my best friend that he sort of became the brother I've always wanted. "These kids are going to be stuck to us like magnets!"

Later in the night, we thought we lost Matthew, Otto's cousin. Turns out he was just trailing behind us because he dropped a lollipop.

We had travelled to a different neighbourhood on our Halloween journey. At first, we were sceptical about leaving our own neighbourhood since we had kids with us. When seeing that they didn't have that much candy, we had to let them go to more houses.

The moon was in the middle of the night sky, beaming down on the kids in their costumes. It gave us a source of light as we wandered through the nearby neighbourhoods, asking for candy. By the end of the night, the kids had more candy than they have ever wanted.

"We're home!" I called out into the house. My parents were only staying up to make sure we got home safe. "Geoff already went home but your favourite boy Otto is still here!" I looked over at you. "And Awsten, I guess." You punched my arm and laughed.

Gracie, James, and Matthew poured out their candy onto the floor, rummaging through it all. While they fought for their favourite candies, we three teenagers plopped on the couch in defeat. This night was both simultaneously the longest and shortest Halloween I've ever experienced.

"Auntie wants Matt home by ten, so we gotta go, buddy." Otto helped his cousin pack up all of his candies and then picked him up. "Thanks for inviting us, Caroline." He waved off, leaving through the front door.

James' parents wanted him home before midnight, so I figured I could walk halfway with Otto. You wanted to tag along, obviously. I brought James to his parents' house, thanking them for letting me take the little guy out.

I walked over to Otto's since you would still be there, saying goodnight. There you were, hugging Otto and wishing him a goodnight, telling Gracie to do the same to Matthew. We waved a goodbye and left off of the porch.

"So now what?" You asked, picking up Gracie since she kept complaining about her ankle hurting. "We don't have a curfew for tonight but if you want us to go-"

"Sleepover!" I exclaimed. My parents surely wouldn't mind, as they found you very kind and a wonderful boyfriend. "We can hang out in the basement."

Dumping her candy out on the ground once again, Gracie pushed through to find any that caught her eye, or that she thought we would enjoy. You sat next to her, looking at me with those puppy dog eyes, begging for me to sit with you.

We went through Gracie's candy with her, while she gave us the candies she didn't want. "Are you guys married?" She asked, shoving a lollipop into her mouth.

I smiled at her and looked at you for an answer. "Not yet- I mean- We aren't." You stuttered, realizing your mistake with your eyes shot open wide.

"Yeah, not yet." I put a bag of chips into the pile she made for chips and pretended like what you said wasn't that big of a deal. Spoiler: it was.

By the end of the night, Gracie had three different piles. One for chips, one for lollipops, and one for all the rest. The ones she didn't want was thrown straight into our mouths.

When it hit midnight, Gracie was passed out, the stick of her lollipop hanging out of her mouth. You set her up on the couch, draping a blanket over top of her. I couldn't help but admire the amount of love you had for your sister.

"Did you know I like you a lot?" You giggled, embarrassed by your own words. It was cute and I liked the way you laughed.

I popped a piece of gum into my mouth, letting the taste of the undescribable candy roam my mouth. "I like you a lot too." We were like school kids who were too afraid to get close to one another, even if we were dating. "I love you."

You froze. You breathed. You said, "I love you too."

I pulled two pillows and a blanket out of a cabinet, throwing them over to you. We laid on the ground, facing each other, watching the star in each other's eyes.

You leaned closer to me, pecking me on the mouth, smiling afterwards. "I love, love you." With that, you turned on your side. Like every other night together, I moved to hug you. We fell asleep and I wanted to wake up early so I could spend more time with you.