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“Are you really going to wear this?” Lillian asked.
“Naw, we just wanted to see Cadence’s reaction,” Seth said.
“Mission successful,” Toby said. “Now to go rock ourselves out so we can better match Miss Lavigne.” Toby squeezed by me, the pigtails of his wig brushing against my face. As he walked away, he had to pull down his dress as it rode up his legs. Laughter bubbled out of me again at the sight. That dress was so about to tear. He’d need help getting it off.
I hid in the living room with Micah and the twins while we waited. Micah was sweet enough to get me a cup of water as I worked through breathing exercises to try and calm myself. I nearly choked on my water three times before I was able to calm down.
“I did not expect that. Please tell me someone took pictures,” Micah said.
Damn. That would have been a great picture. “I was too busy laughing.”
“I snapped a quick one.” Hazel held her phone up. “I’ll send it to everyone.”
A moment later, my phone buzzed. I looked down at it and began laughing again. She actually got a pretty good photo of me nearly bent over with the guys in the background with shit-eating grins on their faces. They looked way too proud.
I absolutely loved it. And it reminded me that I didn’t have any photos of us. Two months of knowing each other, and this was the first photo I had of us. I made sure to save it, even sending to my email so I could mess around with it on my laptop later, maybe print a bigger version of it to frame. Seth had a bunch of photos lining his stairway and hallway. If I added this picture to it, how long would it take anyone to notice? I was tempted to find out.
The guys came back down shortly after and did a little show. They looked absolutely great. All of them wore all black, wearing skinny black jeans for men. Then they got creative for their tops. All of them were black T-shirts, but each one had different colored writing on it for different Backstreet Boys songs like ‘I Want It That Way,’ ‘Shape of My Heart,’ ‘As Long As You Love Me,’ ‘I Need You Tonight,’ and ‘It’s Gotta Be You.’ Bryan and Justin had a black suit jacket over their T-shirts. Seth wore a black fedora hat. Paxon wore a black beanie that said Backstreet Boys across it.
“Oh, this works really well,” Hazel said appraisingly.
“What do you think?” Paxon asked me.
“Agreed. You guys truly look like a boy band,” I said. “I love the shirts.”
“Great.” Toby smirked and glanced at Paxon. “Tonight is going to be fun. Now, we need to finish setting up. People are going to arrive before we know it.”
“What can I help with?” I asked.
“Just last-minute decorations. The snack table needs to get set up. Furniture moved. Breakables hidden away,” Toby answered.
“Breakables hidden away? Is it getting that crazy?”
“Of course not,” Seth said, glaring at Toby. “I already promised we were keeping it small this year. More relaxed.”
Toby shrugged as he began moving the furniture to the side of the room. I eyed him, noting how he was a little stiffer than normal. Something was up. He was clearly hiding it from us. “Sure, but you never know. Have you seen people dance these days? It’s all flailing limbs. I think at the last dance at school, a girl got a black eye from her dance partner.”
“Oh, Tracy,” Hazel said, giggling. “I remember that. Her boyfriend whacked her in the face when he was dancing, trying to show off. He’s lucky she didn’t break up with him then and there.”
“So much for showing off,” I mumbled. “I’ll work on the snack table. That I can do.”
“I already cleared off the dinner table. We can use that,” Seth said.
We spent the next hour making sure the party was all set. As soon as the time came, people were already knocking at the door.
“I got it!” Toby called out, way too excited. He and Paxon had set up a sheet against the wall and had a projector up. It was currently playing Halloween music videos. It was a really good hookup, frankly. More creative than I would have ever been.
Greetings were loud the moment he opened the door and a small group came through. I didn’t recognize any of them.
Something inside of me tightened as my nerves blazed through me. I hadn’t been around this many people since my assault last weekend.
Bryan caught my eye and gave me a reassuring smile. I returned it, reminding myself that I wasn’t alone. The others were here with me. So were Micah and the twins.
It was going to be okay.
Chapter Two
If this was what a small party looked like to the guys, I didn’t want to know what a big party was like. I kept to the edges, far away from as many people as I could. Some I recognized, others it was impossible to know because of their costumes.
