Asterisk*

Halloween and Happiness*

*In no relation to the mythological irony

I scream under the waves,

And cry for help under duress.

A tear,

Salty like the sea,

And the thousands of unspoken words swimming in it,

Like the algae growing inside of me.

Apollo

In a world where it's easier to be everything but yourself, you would think that it would be easy to create a new persona. They've dedicated a whole holiday to it, rewarding little kids with candy to transform themselves into something completely different. It's like, let's teach little kids how to disguise themselves! Honestly, I guess it was a pretty smart move. Regardless if we like it or not, it would be handy in the future. That is, unless, you end up pulling a Richey Edwards that pulls from mastermind and psychopath all in one.

Honestly, I might end up succumbing to that because for the last few hours, I've been staring at a seventy two on top of my test. Seventy fucking two. The failure was practically written in with the minus sign next to the red 'C'. Before that, it was a seventy four and a sixty eight. The quarter was going to end in a week. In about an hour, I was supposed to get up and make my way to Jinx's dorm, which is where Kyra had left all of our costumes. But instead, I couldn't get myself out of this chair, staring at this paper.

I had to get up. I had to go and forget about this. I owed it to all of them to be happy today. Jinx and Kyra had been working hours on these costumes. Jinx deserved to go out and have fun, with a fuck you to Nicholas today. Kyra needed to get her mind off her parent's constant fighting, and I needed to stop throwing myself a pity party.

Shaking my head at my roommate's joy at a new Halloween scented candle, I got up out of my chair, sighing. Jinx and Marcus said they would stop by outside my room so we could head to Kyra's together, so I waited for a second before they showed up. Jinx was holding a bag full of costumes, to which Marcus offered to carry, but he refused.

"Have you told him yet?" I asked Jinx, referring to the costumes in the bag.

"Nope," he responded, looking at Marcus. "I figure Kyra would do it."

I nodded, trying to bring up a smile on my face. The floor is such a comforting place, when you really think about it. Tiles, especially. You could scuff it, get it wet, get it dirty, or even break off a chunk of it, but it could always be fixed. Looking at the floor was almost a sense of comfort.

We reached Kyra's dorm pretty soon, courtesy of Jinx practically running and somehow not managing to bump into anyone. She opened the door pretty quickly and ushered us in, hiding behind the door so we wouldn't see her costume just yet. Twirling out from behind the door, she gave me a hug, the costume feeling cold against my skin.

"Hunger Games characters?" Marcus remarked, pointing at Kyra's costume.

"What? No!" she exclaimed, standing back to back with me. "I'm Artemis, Apollo is Apollo, Jinx is Hades, and we made you a Hyacinth costume."

"Like the flower?" Marcus questioned, furrowing his eyebrows.

"No, like Apollo's lover in mythology," Kyra told him as I went red in the face.

"What?" I whispered weakly, trying to hide my face.

Kyra had told me she and Jinx were just going to get him something easy, like Zeus or Posiedon; something that fit the theme. But of course, Kyra being Kyra, decided to go all out with the references, even sewing on the names of all the gods on the sides of our costumes. I probably should have wondered why they weren't letting me see all the costumes beforehand, but I was so wrapped up in my textbooks that I didn't even notice.