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“Billie.” Carter gave me a lazy smile. “Wish I’d known Michelle was having you over, I would’ve rolled out the red carpet.”
Normally I would have rolled my eyes and kept on moving, but instead I stopped and asked him curiously, “And what would that entail?”
Carter blinked, apparently surprised that I was flirting back with him. Then he grinned again, looking delighted. Okay, so he was pretty cute, I supposed. His smile did nothing for me, though, didn’t make sparks start up my spine the way that Pike’s did.
“Well for one thing, I’d ask what you were doing here,” he teased. “Seems we should put you up in the spare bedroom you’re here so often.”
“Is that a complaint?” I shot back.
“Nah, I like seeing you. In fact I hope to see a lot more of you. I heard you and Michelle talking, and I’m going to the party too. I’m sure it’ll be a blast. Lots of dark corners for doing dark deeds.” He winked at me.
“Mmm, we’ll see if anyone can get me into one of those dark corners,” I replied, playing along. “I’m not going to make it easy.”
“Well, gotta scare away those who don’t have the spine for you,” Carter said.
“And do you think you’ve got what it takes?”
“I know I do,” he said, winking at me.
It wasn’t the same as with Pike, and I hated how much I cared about that. Was it too much to ask that I be able to find that kind of spark, that kind of electric connection, with someone other than Pike? Was it really going to be this damn impossible to move on from him?
No way. I was going to persist and keep at it.
“Well, I’ll see you then,” I said, and scooted back into Michelle’s room. I would warm to Carter, hopefully. And if I didn’t? Then I’d just find someone else. I was going to get over Pike if it fucking killed me.
11
Pike
I double-checked that my hair was done in the dingy mirror in the bathroom, then rolled my eyes at myself as I grabbed my Michael Myers mask. I was literally going to be putting this mask over my head, who the hell cared if my hair was done?
Sure, my costume was a bit lame, but it was one that I could easily throw together just by wearing my mechanic overalls and buying the mask from the five and dime store, or whatever you called those stores nowadays. I had been invited last minute by Carter Mitchell when he’d stopped by the garage on Wednesday.
“It’s going to be the party of the century,” he’d promised.
“Halloween’s in two days,” I’d pointed out. “You sure you’ll be okay with another guest?”
“Man, it’s a party, bring whoever you want, we don’t have a bouncer at the door or whatever,” Carter had said with a laugh.
So here I was, getting ready to go to a party where I wasn’t even sure I should really be there. Carter was the kind of guy who was friendly with everyone but not really close to anyone. He liked drama too much to ever really be loyal to one person or take sides, and during high school he was always the guy to go to if you wanted to know the gossip. I wasn’t surprised that he was saying I could come—in his mind we were still buddies and if I ended up causing trouble then all the more entertaining for him.
But would anyone else really want me to be there? After the way that Morgan and Billie had treated me, especially Morgan, I wasn’t so sure. Billie—I didn’t know what was up with her. She seemed to really be into me, at least physically, but angry with me and not wanting to have anything to do with me as a person and I… it hurt, yeah. She’d said our hook up at the bar was a mistake and I had to stick by that, and I would stick by it, so maybe going to this Halloween party where I might see her wasn’t the best idea. Michelle was Carter’s younger sister and if I was remembering correctly, she was Billie’s best friend, so of course Billie would be there. Maybe I should avoid it?
What if everyone else in town felt the same way that Billie and Morgan did? Not for the same reasons, of course, or with the same intensity, but what if nobody wanted me? Sure, there had been all of those girls at the bar the other night but I didn’t care about them and I wasn’t all too keen on going to a party to be treated like a piece of meat all night. I didn’t want any of those women. There was only one woman I wanted, and of course ironically she was the one woman who didn’t want me.
