Page 13 of Walk on the Wilde Side
The girls immediately hook arms because they're freaked out about the possibility of monsters and zombies popping out of nowhere to scare the shit out of them. They talked about strength in numbers on the ride over. They figured no one would try and scare an entire chain of girls. I'm pretty sure their theory is wrong, and that is proven when a headless horseman, carrying his pumpkin head, sweeps out from a tree, flapping his black cape as if the actor isn't sure if he's a headless horseman or a vampire.
There are booths where you can win giant, fuzzy spiders and plastic skeletons. Jameson has his heart set on one of the big prizes, a rubber ghoul mask. Weston follows as he heads straight over to the shooting gallery, where knocking off three flying witches wins you the first ticket toward the grand prize mask. You need ten tickets to get the mask. I'm pretty sure he'll spend more trying to win the mask than if he walked into the Halloween store to buy one.
The girls are at the booth where you throw baseballs at a tower of old milk bottles. "You'd think they could come up with a new game. Seriously, what year is this, 1952?" Zach snorts. "I mean, none of us ever drank milk from a bottle shaped like that." Zach and Indi are a couple, and Weston is Indi's brother. My brother is part of Zach and Weston's friend circle, and to make things extra fucked up, my brother is in love with Indi. It's a tangled mess that I've tried to talk him out of, but Jameson tells me to fuck off and mind my business. And so, I do exactly that.
Indi and Kinsley screech and clap when Nev knocks the top bottle off. Nev is always solid, feet on the ground, level-headed and the smartest person I know. She picks a rubber witch's finger from the prize box and promptly pushes it onto her finger. She's smiling at me as she holds up her prize, then her smile fades as two small hands cover my eyes. Two not small breasts flatten against my back. "Guess who?" Emily giggles in my ear.
"Hmm, I'd say that's a B cup." I move my back to assure her I'm talking about her tits.
She takes away her hands and slaps my arm. "That's all you ever think about." She throws her arms around me for a kiss. "How come you didn't tell me you were going to the Halloween Fair?" I'm tempted to let her know it's because she's been annoying me lately. She's always blathering on about some influencer or another and going on about how she's going to become one and make millions telling people how to do their makeup. She can talk for an hour about her latest manicure, and I hate her long, pointy nails. Her dad owns a limousine service, perfect cars for making out in, but those damn nails almost make the whole thing too risky. I'm tired of coming home scratched up like I've been wrestling with a mountain lion. I'm lucky to still have both eyes after she covered them.
"Just forgot," I say. It's not a great answer but it's better than the truth.
"Well, I forgive you, but you've got to win me one of those witch's hats at the game booth."
"Yeah, not sure if I'm up for that." I look around. My friends and brother have deserted me. They find Emily annoying, too. I send a text to Jameson.
Where are you at?
Heading to the haunted house.
"Hey, looks like everyone is going to the haunted house."
Emily frowns. "What about my witch's hat?"
"Those games are rigged. I'm not handing over a wad of cash for something I can buy you at the Halloween shop. Let's go to the haunted house."
Her smile returns, and she wraps her arm tightly around mine. "All right but I warn you, I'm a huge scaredy cat in those things. I'm not letting go of this arm."
"Just keep the claws tucked in," I mutter.
"What's that?" she asks, her head turned and tilted.
I shrug. "Nothing. Let's hurry so we can go in with the others."
The haunted house is set up in a double wide mobile home. The outside is decorated with a plywood cutout of a haunted house. You can see the siding between the panels. It's all pretty hokey. This year Zombie's Revenge is the theme of the fair, so I expect to see a lot of rotting faces and hanging limbs inside the house. Screams are echoing from inside, which makes Emily tighten her grip more. We spot everyone ten feet from the entrance. Nev glances back when Indi says something to her. She gives me a weak smile, and I really wish that Emily hadn't shown up. Sometimes it's nice just to hang with my friends, and Nev rarely tags along with us, so tonight promised to be extra cool.
We all stand outside the haunted house and stare at it. "Looks shabbier than usual," Nev says. "I think I'm out."
"Are ya scared?" Zach teases. He's got his arm draped possessively over Indi's shoulders, and I sense that Jameson is having about as good a time as me right now.
"Just leave her alone," Jameson snaps.
"Fuck off, grump," Zach says. He's always been pretty clueless.
I'm right about my earlier sense. My brother puts himself through a lot of hell, hanging out with his two best friends, Weston and Zach, and watching from the sidelines as Zach holds and kisses the girl that Jameson loves.
"The only thing I'm scared about in there is getting gangrene or some kind of flesh-eating bacteria, and I'm not talking about anything having to do with zombies," Nev explains.
"Right. Sounds like a good excuse," Zach keeps pressing.
Nev lifts her witch's finger, which is sitting on her middle finger.
Zach laughs. "Never been flipped off by a witch."
"Oh, come on, Nev," Kinsley says. "We're all going in, even me, and I'm the biggest chickenshit in the world."
Zach nods. "It's true. She wears the title proudly, too."
