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"It's okay. Your close friends already know you're a freak," Sarah joked. I knew Sarah was trying to lift my spirits and I tried to let it work. I had a fun day ahead of me. A party for one of my close friends, the prospect of seeing people dressed in crazy costumes and the Henchmen playing at the East End. Seeing Simon. At the last thought, I shook the cobwebs from my mind.
"Birds of a feather," I retorted with a smile. "We should start getting ready for the party tonight."
Sarah clapped her hands in excitement, the morbid discussion of my visions forgotten. "It's going to be so much fun. The keg is being delivered later, so we just have the decorations, the cake and the food to deal with. Plus costumes."
"Sarah," I warned. "I'm not wearing a costume."
"I know, I know." Sarah knew not to push her luck. "I just have to pick up my hat at the costume store. I'll pick up the cake too since it's on the way." Sarah was going as a cowgirl and was able to pull pieces together from her wardrobe to create a fantastic costume, but still needed a cowboy hat.
"Great. I'll start getting the food ready." Even though most college parties didn't have much food besides bowls of chips, I wanted to make this special. The party was in honor of Jenny's twenty-first birthday, as well as Halloween, so I wanted to make sure we had plenty to eat. For the Halloween themed snacks, I was making hot dogs wrapped in biscuit dough to look like mummies and cookies baked in the shape of brooms with pretzel rods inserted as handles.
We both got ready for the day, chatting about last minute details for the party and promising each other to keep an eye on Jenny so that she didn't drink herself into oblivion. After Sarah left to run her errands, I busied myself in the kitchen making all the party goodies.
The morning and early afternoon went by quickly and I was done with the bulk of cooking by the time Sarah returned. She was jauntily wearing a cowboy hat as she placed Jenny's birthday cake on the table. She was also carrying a plastic bag and pulled out a headband with cat ears.
"Tada!" she announced. "I know you don't want to wear a costume, but this doesn't even count as one. It'll make you feel more festive."
I groaned, but I couldn't refuse Sarah's thoughtfulness. I knew she just wanted me to forget my visions and have a good time tonight. "Okay," I relented with a smile. "Thanks. Really. I appreciate it."
"Anytime," Sarah answered with a sweet smile. "I've made it my duty to make sure you have some fun in your life."
"I have plenty of fun!" I exclaimed defensively.
"Ha," Sarah scoffed. "Cleaning your room and ironing jeans don't count as fun."
I laughed and threw a pretzel rod at her. She caught it and took a bite with a grin. "I don't iron my jeans!" I protested.
"Sure, you don't," Sarah agreed skeptically, and laughed as she made her way to her bedroom.
The keg arrived a few hours later as we were busy decorating our apartment. We strung white webbing throughout the place, scattering plastic spiders among them. We had a skull with glowing red eyes that cackled with laughter every few minutes along with other Halloween decorations that made the apartment look appropriately spooky. Halloween was one of Sarah's favorite holidays so she insisted the place be thoroughly decorated. Amongst the decoration, we also hung a banner that read "Happy 21st Birthday Jenny."
I set the table with food along with the Blood Punch I had made from vodka, cherry Kool-aid and Sprite. I also floated ice cubes made from the punch w
ith plastic eyeballs frozen inside of them. I had to admit that Sarah's enthusiasm for the holiday was contagious and I had gone all out for the party. We had done a great job decorating the apartment, and with the low light and creepy music we had playing setting the scene, the place did look spooky.
Sarah went to her room to change into her costume and I put on the cat ears that Sarah had gotten me. Wearing dark jeans and a black fitted t-shirt, I figured if anyone asked me what my costume was, I could claim to be a black cat. I had earlier refused Sarah's insistence of coloring my nose black and drawing whiskers on my face. The cat ears were concession enough.
"What do you think?" Sarah asked as she came into the living room and twirled around. She was wearing a plaid shirt that was knotted above her midriff and a brown suede fringed skirt that grazed the top of her thighs. She completed her costume with a kerchief tied around her neck, brown cowboy boots and her newly purchased hat. Sarah looked like a cowgirl looking for a good time, but it didn't cross the line from provocative to slutty, like some of the costumes I had often gaped at in past Halloweens.
"You look great!" I exclaimed with a laugh. "I can guess who you're going to try and wrangle in tonight."
Sarah waved her hand in dismissal. "I've decided that I'm going to widen my horizons and play the field tonight. And if there happens to be a cowboy in the crowd - well, that's fate."
"Sounds good to me," I replied. I hoped this was true but I had my doubts. I had heard this from Sarah before, but the sentiment never seemed to last. Whenever Sarah was determined to ignore Grant, that's when he became his most charming with her. I could never figure out what exactly Grant felt for Sarah. He flirted with her all the time and seemed to enjoy her attention, but never took it any further.
There was a knock at the door and Sarah squealed. "Our first guest!"
She flung open the door to reveal Jenny in an equally provocative costume. Jenny was dressed as a cheerleader, wearing what she claimed was her actual cheerleading uniform from high school. She had either continued to develop after high school or had made some alterations to the outfit. Her tight sweater had a deep vee showing plenty of cleavage and her pleated skirt was as short as Sarah's. Jenny was holding two pom-poms and had styled her hair into two pigtails.
"You look awesome!" Sarah crowed, as she surveyed Jenny's costume.
"Thanks! You too!" Jenny winced when she saw me. "Caitlin. Is that your costume? I told you I saw the perfect costume for you at the Halloween store. It was a witch with this sexy dress with a slit up to the thigh and a cute pointed hat. With your dark hair and eyes, you would look amazing in it. But here you are, sitting there with jeans and a shirt. And cat ears."
"Don't bother," Sarah said. "It was hard enough to convince her to wear those damn cat ears. That's the most we're going to get out of her today."
Jenny perked up. "We can draw some whiskers on her face." She turned to Sarah. "Do you have a low-cut black sweater? We could try and make her into a sexy cat."
I waved my hands to get their attention. "Hello. I'm right here. And I'm not dressing up as a sexy cat. I'm an ordinary, run-of-the-mill, cat next door feline."
