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The three of them file into the room, and after closing the door, one of them flips on the light switch, making me squint.
“Thought you’d steal her away all to yourself, Damien?” the vampire accuses. He has my witch’s hat clutched in his hand.
“What’re you doing in here? You followed us?” I ask, incredulous, but then his words register. He didn’t saydemon,he saidDamien.
I spin to face the man who brought me in here, whose horns now lie on the floor beside him. In this harsh lighting, the angles of his face aren’t quite as disguised by his Halloween makeup.
I step backward, bump into the table, and quickly step to the side, putting distance between myself and him. “Damien?”
My housemate stares back at me, a complicated mix of emotions playing on his face. If I didn’t know him so well, I might not be able to read any of them, but I clearly see pride, defiance, and regret fighting for dominance, all backed with a dose of lingering lust, which isnotsomething I’ve seen in his eyes before.
“Damien? You said ‘just like you’d always imagined…’” My words trail off as the implications sink in.
I just made out with Damien. Damien just tasted me and had his fingers inside me.
Damien has been imagining this.
“You knew who I was,” I accuse. There’s nothing deceptive about my costume. My face is plainly visible.
He nods, lust darkening his eyes, beating out his other emotions.
“What are you doing here? Why did you—?” I don’t know how to verbalize all of my conflicted thoughts.I just made out with Damien. Damien knew it was me, and he wanted it.
“We just wanted to make some extra money,” one of the other three men says.
Are they still in here? I’d nearly forgotten all about them, but there they are, the men I’ve danced with—and more—tonight, all except the caveman, if he even counts. I give them a quick glance, eager to get back to confronting Damien, but the light has changed their faces, too. And the scientist has taken off his goofy goggles.
Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit.
It’s them. It’s all of them. “Oh my god,” I say, backing up toward the far wall. “I’m such an idiot.”
How did I not see it? But they all looked so different in there.
Jack’s mask is off now, and the white paint on his skeleton face is smeared. Xander’s mask is off now, too, and it’s all painfully obvious. Shouldn’t I have recognized his bare chest from trying so hard not to look at it when he’s shirtless around our house? And Victor, my playful mad scientist, I should’ve known him from his smile, regardless of the makeup obscuring it.
“What’s going on? What are you all doing here?” My voice is trembling.
“You’re not an idiot,” vampire Xander says gently. He takes a step toward me, but I shrink back.
He’s right. I’m not an idiot for not recognizing them—it was dark, they’re wearing costumes, they hardly spoke, and when they did I could barely hear them with all the noise. Iaman idiot for thinking they were my friends.
“Why did you trick me? Why did you lie to me?” None of them answer. “Why didn’t you tell me you’d be here?”
“We didn’t knowyou’dbe here,” Victor says, as if that answers anything.
“It was a shock seeing you here,” skeleton Jack says.
The night has been a blur, and it takes me a moment to think back to my encounter with Jack, now that I know it was him. He didn’t kiss me, but he sure looked at me like he wanted to. My skin, already flaming from anger and embarrassment, heats further at the memory of how special he made me feel.
Why did he look at me that way tonight, and never before?
“Was this just a game for all of you?” I’m on the verge of tears, tangled up in so many intense emotions. They all made me feel so good earlier, and now I just feel like a fool.
“No fucking way,” Damien says adamantly as he moves toward me.
“Then what the hell?” Tears are falling now, making me angrier still, because I can’t control my emotions. I bend my head to use my sleeve to wipe my eyes, and when I look back up, they’re surrounding me.
“We didn’t mean to hurt you, Sab,” Xander says, his voice gentle as a feather.
