The Costume Party

“Hey! Wait up!” Aaron called from a block away. We were just leaving the cinema from the special screening of Ghostbusters at the Drive-In by our neighborhood, even though it only came out 6 months ago. I was too busy listening to The Smiths’ new album, The Smiths on my Walkman to hear him and stop walking. I had to wait in line for two hours outside the record store by my house to get it on release day, and was still enjoying it 8 months later. “Hey!” Aaron exclaimed as he jumped in front of me to stop my stride. I heard him mumble for a second or two before I took out my foam headphones that made my ears hurt with even the slightest touch. 

“What do you want, Aaron?” I questioned. He already grabbed my hand, and was walking next to me before I could stop him. 

“Are we still on for tonight? It’s our first Halloween as a couple, you know.” He asked sing-songy. He had been talking about this for weeks, once he found out we were invited to Jake Murray’s house. No relation to Bill at all, but he liked to think of him as his long-lost uncle or something like that. He was always kind of a jerk to everyone he met, since he thought people were sorted into a hierarchical system, and he was the only person at the very top. 

I was never the partying type, but I promised I would go when I was still in the “trying to impress you” stage of our relationship. Now, I just had to find a way to get out of it. “I already told you yesterday, and the day before that I can’t because I have to go trick-or-treating with Cindy. Trust me, I want to go, but I don’t think Mom and Dad will let me out of it.” I lied. Sure, Cindy was going trick-or-treating, but she would be in a body bag before she would let her friends see her with her big sister anywhere remotely public. 

“What do you mean? I already called your mom, and she said you could go. I just wanted to make sure you still wanted to go. Do you? And don’t lie to me.” 

Crap. I was trapped. I didn’t want to go, but I knew how much he wanted to go, and I wanted him to be happy. We were still a new couple, and I didn’t want to ruin what we had just started. We were childhood friends and grew up right next door to each other, and spent our weekends outside playing various yard games until it either got dark enough where we couldn’t see, or one of our moms would yell at us to come inside. Aaron only got the courage to ask me out last year for our school’s Spring dance. 

“You know what? Let’s go. I’m sure it’ll be fun, and I know how much you’ve been looking forward to this, so I’m in.”

“Great. I --”

“As long as I don’t have to dress up.”

“Too late. You already agreed.” He said with a giddy smile. 

We managed to compromise on our costumes (that had to be a couples’ costume per his request), and went as Ponyboy Curtis and Cherry Valance from The Outsiders. He greased his hair back, wore a leather jacket, jeans, dirty sneakers, and even used some of my make-up to make his face look injured. I wore a v-neck sweater over a white collared shirt with jeans and flats. My hair was already red and wavy, so I looked the part. We were the fourth couple that got there, even though we showed up 20 minutes late, per my request. Aaron went to get drinks and say hi to his baseball buddies, which was followed by a beer pong game that I was not invited to. Sitting alone in the corner, I saw Jack coming toward me. He wasn’t my favorite person, but at least it would look like I wasn’t a total loser. “It’s a good party, Jack.” I started.

“Thanks. Aaron looks like he’s having a great time.” He responded. “Are you?”

“I’m perfectly fine with watching other people have fun. Plus, if he was hanging out with me here, he would just resent me because I’m not a ‘party-person’. So, I just stand back here, waving and smiling at him when he looks at me. He’s my ride, too. I couldn’t even go home if I wanted to.”

“That sucks, I’m sorry. I thought everyone would have fun here. It looks like you’re the odd one out.” He noticed.

He was right. Since Aaron and I had gotten here, the party had at least doubled in size, and everyone seemed to have fun, except me. “I just want to go home and watch a scary movie by myself in my room, and eat my sister’s candy when she goes to sleep. But I’ll just do that tomorrow, I guess.” I rambled. Jack started to become irrelevant, as I thought I would’ve told that to anyone who would listen. Aaron and I had a lot of fun together, but he rarely asked what I wanted to do; for the most part, we liked the same things. But when we disagreed, I just always did what he wanted. And I always thought I was okay with that. 

Guess I was wrong. 

“Do you still want to? I mean, I don’t have a younger sister, but I do have a giant bag of chocolate bars that I was supposed to set out later tonight and a tv in the basement filled to the brim with any horror movie you could imagine. We could go down there if you want.”

I didn’t really want to watch anything with Jack of all people, but his offer still sounded better than sitting in a corner and pretending to be happy. “That actually sounds much better than this.” I said. 

“Great. I’ll lead the way.” He said, and we went. 

His basement wasn’t the cleanest, but it was perfect. He had a futon that he pulled out so we could pretend they were chairs with footrests, and got pillows so our backs wouldn’t hurt after twenty minutes. He closed the door to go upstairs so we wouldn’t be interrupted by drunk partiers. I thought I heard it click, but shrugged it off. We went with The Shining. It was my favorite movie of all time, even though the book is immensely better. 

Jack and I sat on opposite sides of the futon, but our arms would touch if we both stretched them out, which we did at first. I immediately took my arm down and placed both my hands in my lap, sitting criss-crossed instead of laying down. “Are you comfortable?” He asked awkwardly. 

“Yeah,” I shrugged. “I just...I don’t know; something seems off here. I think I’d rather just go back upstairs, if that’s okay. I thought this would be fun, but it turns out I kinda just want to hang out with Aaron and his friends. Sorry for the trouble.”

“You really don’t have to, it’s so quiet down here. And it’s so busy up there.” He said as he slowly moved closer to me. The already-too-close distance between us was suddenly becoming non-existent as he grabbed one of my thighs and squeezed. 

“I have a boyfriend. Whom I like very, very much. I think I’m going to go upstairs now, Jack.” I said, backing off the futon and heading towards the stairs. 

“I don’t think so,” he said, but made no motion to catch me. When I got to the closed door, I realized it was locked. Jack must’ve locked it when we got in here. “Now, where were we?” He said, pulling his pants down, revealing his trousers. 

“We weren’t anywhere. The answer is no, Jack.”

“That’s the thing about me; I don’t take no for an answer.” He said creepily as he moved closer to me on the stairs. He started to caress my arms and tugged on my sweater, resulting in a hand sweeping across his face, tripping him down the stairs. “You bitch!” He exclaimed as I yelled and banged on the door multiple times. I had no idea what he was capable of, and really didn’t want to find out. 

He seemed unfazed by my slap, and continuing tugging on my sweater, before ripping it off completely. Thank God I wore a shirt under it. He, however, was not happy with that fact as he messed with the buttons. I tried as hard as I could to get him off of me before I heard a huge thud coming from the other side of the door. Thud! Thud! Thud! I heard. Jack didn’t care, and continued, silencing me with his hand over my mouth. And biting only made him happier. 

One last thud and the door was kicked in, Aaron being on the other side. Seeing my red cheeks, eyes swelling, and ripped sweater, he went into action. He raced down the stairs, shoved Jack off of me, and pushed me behind him. I saw his hands form into a fist, and I stopped him. “He isn’t even worth it.” I said, motioning him to come back upstairs, where the party had apparently gone silent. 

Aaron seemed to go along with it, until I had reached the ground floor. He ran down the stairs again and tackled Jack, leaving him unconscious. “Stay away from my girlfriend, you asshole.” He said before joining me back on the ground floor. He gave me his leather jacket, and ushered me out of the house and into his car. 

“I am so sorry. I shouldn’t have left you alone to play with the guys. I pushed you to come tonight, and I didn’t even hang out with you for longer than a minute. I was a douche, and I’m so mad at myself that I let you down.” Aaron explained when we sat down in his black Ford Escort. I could see tears forming in his eyes as he squeezed my hand. 

“Hey, it’s okay. I’m okay. I can’t believe I let Jack convince me to go somewhere private, at a party. I should’ve known it was too good to be true. But you helped me when it mattered, and I am so thankful for you. I don’t know what would’ve happened,...what he would’ve done if...if you hadn’t been there.” I said, my voice breaking slightly. “Just take me home. Please.” 

“Of course.” 

The car ride home was silent, except for the occasional, “Are you sure you’re okay?” from Aaron, which was sweet. I just didn’t feel like talking. I wanted this awful night to end. There was also something on my mind that I wanted to ask. “How did you know I needed help?” I asked him. “I didn’t tell you anything, and the party was way too loud for you to hear me. How did you know?”

He shifted in his seat a little, and I could feel his hand shaking. “Our game finished, and I wanted to know where you were, so I asked around to see where you went. I knew you were still in the house, since you couldn’t drive. Some girl said she saw you and Jack go into the basement, and said that Jack had been looking at you weirdly since we showed up. I figured I would just check it out, but then I heard the banging and yelling. I tried to turn the door, but it was locked. So then I started kicking it in, which caused some attention. But thankfully, I found you, and was there in time.”

“I’ve never been more thankful for anything.” I said as he pulled into the driveway of my house. “Call me if you need anything, okay?” He said.

“I will. Definitely. Good night, Aaron,” I said.

“Goodnight.” 

I made my way upstairs and laid on my bed, taking deep breaths and just trying my best to forget what this night was. And so grateful that it didn’t escalate. Changing into my favorite pajamas, I turned off my lamp, and turned to my side, trying as quickly as I could to fall asleep. Realizing that was impossible, I reached for my landline and dialed a familiar number. “Hey,” I said.

“What can I help you with, Madam?” Aaron joked. 

“Can you come over? I don’t think I can be alone. Want to watch a movie?” I asked.

“Be over in a sec. What movie were you thinking?” 

“I just re-checked out The Outsiders. How about that, Ponyboy?”

“Sounds perfect.” 

Cindy had gone to bed an hour or so before, so I snuck down into the kitchen, and grabbed the biggest handful of candy that I could. By the time I had stuffed the pouch I had made from my shirt to maximum capacity, I heard the quietest knock on the door. Aaron came in, also in pajamas, and we sat on our small couch. I suddenly felt myself relaxing into Aaron’s arms as the movie cued up on our television set, knowing I was as safe as I could possibly be. I don’t remember when, but at some point when the movie started and ended, I had fallen asleep on Aaron’s chest, hoping tonight would be nothing more than a distant memory.