Page 40 of Dead Boys Club

“Come on!” Paige yells from up above them.

The autumn light fades quickly, the evening swallowing them in darkness as they climb and run and jostle each other on the castle. They halfheartedly play a game of tag, more interested in seeing who can wedge through the smaller spaces of the castle than they are in following any actual rules.

Zach is very bad at all games, even ones that are mostly made-up, but he feels a big, warm patch start to spread through his limbs. He’s here, with friends. With people who look at him not because he happens to be in the way, but because they want to be looking at him. People who seek him out, who talk to him, who notice when he’s not somewhere he ought to be.

When it gets too dark to see where they’re climbing, they hover around Paige’s and Isaac’s cars, talking, laughing. Zach doesn’t want the evening to end. He’s not sure he’s ever had an evening that he didn’t want to end.

Parker ignores two calls from his mom, which means Paige has to answer a call from their dad, and she rolls her eyes and shoves Parker as she holds the phone to her ear, saying: “Yeah. We’re fine. We’re with some friends. No. Yes. No. Okay, bye.”

“Want a ride home?” Parker asks Zach as the group starts to pack it in. They’re leaning up against Paige’s car, shoulder to shoulder again. Parker’s body is still so warm. He knocks his foot against Zach’s. Zach knocks his foot back.

“Isaac is my neighbor,” Zach reminds him for maybe the fifth time since they’ve known one another. “You should take Bea home.”

Parker’s face is half-illuminated by one of the streetlamps that outline the parking lot. He doesn’t say anything in response, just ducks his head a little, brows furrowing. Parker always makes these faces that Zach can’t decipher. Like he’s saying things that Zach can’t hear.

Isaac takes Zach home. There’s money on the kitchen table for pizza.

Everything is the same and different all at once.

Chapter Fifteen

“Huge, huge news. Mom and Dad are letting us have a Halloween party,” Paige says on Friday, the day before Halloween. They’re all sitting together backstage, taking a break while the paint on one of the trees dries; beyond the curtain, Mr. West helps the actors with blocking. “It took, like, three hours of negotiating, and we’re only allowed to invite six people.”

Isaac snorts, not looking up from where he’s copying his Physics homework down for Parker. “So, it’s not a Halloween party. It’s a Halloween get-together.”

“Our parents won’t be home,” Paige insists. “So, it’s kind of like a party.”

“Rebecca and Henry will be getting toasted at their rich friends’ house all night,” Parker says. He’s scribbling all over the margins of his stolen script, chewing on the cap of a pen. “In turn, I propose we also get sloshed.”

“You are the rich friend,” Isaac says. “You know that, right?”

“We are not getting sloshed,” Paige says firmly. “Dad has a lock on the liquor cabinet, anyway.”

“But not on the wine cellar,” Parker points out.

“You have a wine cellar?” Isaac gapes. “Jesus, dude. How rich are you?”

“Our parents are rich,” Parker insists, looking uncomfortable. He goes back to scribbling in his script.

“Um, there’s like—there’s a lot of research on how bad drinking is for your brain,” Zach pipes up—half because he wants to take the heat off Parker, and half because he really doesn’t want to have tonight be his first time getting peer-pressured into alcohol. “Like, when you’re still a teenager and stuff.”

“No, really, how rich are you?” Bea says, shoving Parker with one hand. She’s sitting cross-legged on the floor next to Paige.

Parker rolls his eyes. “Okay, fine, babies, don’t try your first sip of alcohol until you’re twenty-one.”

“My parents have been letting me have half a glass of wine on Rosh Hashanah since I was, like, fourteen,” Isaac says.

“Anyway,” Paige says. “You should all come. I’m going to invite some of the guys from the school paper too.”

“I don’t have a costume,” Zach says.

“Teenagers don’t dress up for Halloween anymore,” Isaac scoffs.

“Oh, costumes are required,” Paige says, hands flat in front of her, voice grave. “It’s my party, so I say so.”

After practice, Zach and Isaac go to the nearby Walmart to find suitable Halloween costumes. The night before Halloween means there’s slim pickings—Isaac finds a cape and some fake vampire fangs. He even gets a little packet of fake blood to squirt all over his mouth. Zach struggles a bit—he has no idea what to dress up as. Ever since his mom stopped buying his costumes for him, Zach has spent Halloween sitting on the porch with a bucket of candy for the neighborhood kids.

Digging through the costume section leftovers, Isaac finds a beige-on-beige costume that’s labeled Park Ranger. It comes with a wide-brimmed hat and a pair of weird shorts and everything. It even has a generic patch on the arm that’s supposed to look like a National Parks patch. Zach is worried he’s going to look stupid.