Victoria’s costume was perfect. Her makeup was perfect. Everything was perfect. And she was going to tell Jez how she really felt about him tonight.

In light of his breakup with Christy, they seemed to have developed a new level to their friendship. They were closer than they’d ever been before, and she couldn’t help thinking that maybe, just maybe, it was because he felt the same way about her.

Tonight was the annual Halloween dance at the high school. She was going as a witch. She checked her reflection over in the mirror one last time, straightening her black minidress and running her fingers through her long red hair one last time before heading downstairs, where her mother and father were, of course, waiting to take pictures the minute Violet and Sienna arrived to pick her up (they were to meet Ash at the dance).

--

The strobe lights were flashing and the bass line was pounding when they entered the gym, trying to focus their eyes in the sudden darkness and searching for the rest of the group.

“Where’s Jez?” Violet yelled, voicing Victoria’s thoughts. She knew Violet knew what she was going to do tonight, although she hadn’t told her. She hadn’t told anyone for fear that she would get cold feet at the last minute and then be pressured not to back out.

“I don’t see Jez, but there’s Ash and…oh gross. Sawyer.” Sienna rolled her eyes. “C’mon. Let’s go save her before she becomes the victim of a very unfortunate date rape…or non date rape, as the case may be.” The others snickered as they made their way towards Ash and Sawyer, both of whom looked overjoyed to see them – Ash because their presence would fend off Sawyer for the time being, and Sawyer because they were three more girls dressed in typical high-school Halloween costumes, meaning, not much. They all greeted each other, and Violet and Sienna began to dance, laughing as they pushed Sawyer away and twirling each other around. Victoria, however, did not dance. She was looking for Jez. She had to find him. She had to tell him now, when she was ready and brave, or she’d lose her nerve and it would never happen.

Finally, her eyes sought him out through the grinding, gyrating throng, standing over by the windows, wearing a long black cape and plastic fangs, obviously supposed to represent a vampire, though he had on jeans and a black t-shirt (as usual) underneath the cape. She took a deep breath. This was it.

“I’m going to talk to Jez,” she said in Violet’s ear, having to shout to make herself heard over the loud music. Violet nodded enthusiastically. It was about time.

Victoria turned back to head over in his direction, but suddenly stopped in her tracks. She was just in time to see Christy saunter up to Jez, smiling flirtatiously and looking as though she was going to burst out of her tight ‘fairy’ costume. Violet, sensing trouble, grabbed hold of her friend’s arm.

“C’mon. You can just dance with us until she’s gone,” she tried to sound reassuring, but she could tell that there was something ominous looming over their heads, and that the night wouldn’t end without a few tears and perhaps a temper tantrum or two. Victoria nodded almost as though she hadn’t heard Violet, but nevertheless, turned her back on Jez and his ex-girlfriend, and began to dance with the others, even letting Sawyer grind her, as though contact with other boys could make her forget about Jez.

As if anything could make her forget about Jez.

She couldn’t stop glancing over at him though, every few minutes, to see if Christy was gone yet. She never was. On the contrary, she seemed to be worming her way farther into Jez’s existence as the minutes passed.

Still, Victoria wasn’t truly worried that she might lose him again until the first slow song of the evening came on. As she let Sawyer’s arms slide around her waist (a bit it too low, if truth be told), she looked up to see Christy move her hands to Jez’s shoulders and bat her eyelashes up at him until he gave in and put his arms around her waist. Instinctively, she buried her face in Sawyer’s shoulder, not wanting to watch. She could only stand the anxiety (and the overpowering scent of Sawyer’s cologne) for about thirty seconds though, before she had to look again. It was the same sort of feeling that makes people want to look at a car crash as they drive by, or watch horror movies, even though they know that they’ll get nightmares. She just had to see what was going on. What she saw made her blood run cold.

Jez was kissing Christy.

Fuck.

It took Violet precisely four seconds to realize that there was something wrong with Victoria, and then another two to turn around, see Jez and Christy, and swear loudly. She quickly let go of Sienna, with whom she’d been slow-dancing with jokingly, as rushed over to Victoria, who was extricating herself from Sawyer with a bit of difficulty.

She looked as though she were about to burst into flame, which was an understatement. Violet had never seen her so mad, and Victoria’s default expression was ‘angry.’ The scary thing was, she was also crying. She never cried, not when she’d broken her ankle, or her cat had been hit by a car in first grade – come to think of it, Violet had never seen her friend cry. But now, hot tears were streaming down her cheeks, and there was a wild look in her green eyes, one that only Jez could properly inflict.

Sawyer would not let go of her, to make matters worse, and finally, she kicked him and ducked out of his grasp, before plunging into the crowd, making a beeline for Jez and the harlot. Violet followed resolutely, knowing that this wasn’t going to be fun.

Victoria cleared a pathway for her, elbowing past people and through the middle of dancing cliques.

“Sorry! Sorry! Put some ice on it, it’ll be fine – oh, sorry!” She found herself apologizing for Victoria, knowing that the redhead was in no state of mind to do so for herself. They were approaching Jez quickly, but he was still locked in a tight embrace with Christy, and Victoria was just getting madder by the second. She finally pulled to a halt, directly in front of him. Violet blocked her ears, right on cue. She knew exactly how this would start. Five…four…three…two…one…

“Jezebel Wolfgang Kersekoff!” Victoria’s shriek was loud enough to shatter windows, even over the pounding music. Jez broke away from Christy with a start, who, Violet noticed with some satisfaction, did not look very pleased.

“What the hell are you doing, Vic?” He crossed his arms and glared down at her, bracing himself for the battle that was clearly about to erupt. He seemed to have lost his fake fangs some time ago.

“What am I doing? I think the better question is what are you doing!”

“What do you mean, ‘what am I doing?’ I’m standing here, doing nothing, and then you come along and start shrieking at me like that – “

“You were not doing nothing!”

“I was too!”

“No you weren’t!”

“Then what was I doing?”

“Well, you were practically ‘doing’ Christy fucking Shea!”

“I was not!”

“Oh, I suppose you were assisting her with her lip gloss then, were you?”

“Yes! I mean – no! I mean – God damn it, Victoria!”

“Didn’t you break up?”

“That’s none of your fucking business!”

“It is too my business!

“How?!?”

“Because I’m your friend, Jez!”

“So’s Violet, and I don’t see her making some kind of Goddamn scene out of the whole thing!”

“I’m not Violet, you idiot!”

“Well that’s obvious! Would you care to enlighten me as to why you’re the one standing here shrieking at me like a freaking banshee, for Christ’s sake, and Violet doesn’t seem to have any issue with my romantic life at all?”

“Because Violet’s not in love with you! Because Vi hasn’t been waiting for you to break up with that little –slut – for the past seven months!” (Here Christy gave an offended little sniff and flounced off to flirt with Sawyer) “Because I am in love with you, Jez, and I always have been, but I guess it’s just too much to hope that you would finally, finally feel that way about me back after all these years!”

And with that, Victoria burst into fresh tears and turned on her heel, dashing blindly for the door. Jez gaped after her, shocked, for a full thirty seconds, before Violet hit him across the face. He lurched back, clutching his cheek.

“Ouch! Jesus, Vi! What the fuck was that for?”

“You know exactly what it was for. Now you march outside this instant, Jez Kersekoff!”

“Violet, what if I – “

I said march!”

He marched.

He knew exactly where she’d be, and he knew he had to get to her before she did anything stupid. Not that Victoria was stupid herself, but she was very dramatic and known to act rashly when upset. It would be just like her to decide to walk home, and then cross the street without paying attention and then – no, that wasn’t going to happen. He shuddered at the thought and quickened his pace.

If you didn’t know Victoria very well, you would probably assume that she would go to the upper-school’s courtyard, which was where grades nine and up had their break time now, but Jez, being one of her best friends, knew she’d be down by the primary grade’s playground, where they had spend every recess time up until the last day of eighth grade. They had too much history on that playground.

The first time they’d ever met, for instance, on the first day of Kindergarten: Victoria had come careening down the slide and slammed headlong into Jez, who was standing at the bottom, resulting in an argument over who was ‘stupider,’ and whether or not her pink shirt was ugly. They’d hated each other up until about the second grade, when he’d fallen and skinned his knee on the asphalt. Victoria had been the only one to see it happen, and, rather than announcing to the entire playground that Jez Kersekoff (who had always rather prided himself on being tough) was crying, as he’d expected her too, she’d helped him to his feet and snuck him around back, so that he could get to the nurse without anyone seeing his tell-tale tear-streaked face.

He’d returned the favor in fifth grade, when Sawyer had pushed her off of the top of the jungle gym and she’d broken an ankle. Jez had scooped her up in his arms and rushed her off to the nurse (who was quite sick of their entire class by then), despite the playground aide’s insistence that they wait for a teacher to help. After making sure she’d be ok, he’d run back to recess and broken Sawyer’s nose. The nurse was not pleased.

He smiled reminiscently as he neared the playground, squinting through the darkness for Victoria’s small frame, hidden amongst the mass of skeletal metal structures. Finally he spotted her, sitting on a swing, looking morosely at the ground, her head bend, and her back towards him. He grinned. She was fun to sneak up on.

He padded softly across the muddy ground, until he was right behind her. Then, suddenly, he grabbed hold of both of the old rusty chains and pulled her sharply back. She shrieked and grabbed the chains herself. Then he pushed her, as hard as he could. The swing flew into the air, carrying Victoria with it. When she came back to him, he seized hold of the chains again, so that she came to a sudden stop, nearly falling out of her seat.

“Jez!”

“Shh!” With a sudden jerk, her gave the chains a powerful twist, so that she spun around to face him. This time she did fall out of the swing before it twisted back around, forced to grab hold of Jez to keep from falling.

“What are you doing?” She hissed, torn between rage, annoyance, fear, and anticipation. He smirked down at her.

“Something I should’ve done a long time ago.” He picked her up, just as he had all those years ago on this very playground, and sat back down in the swing, placing her in his lap so that she faced him.

“I’m really sorry, Vic. I shouldn’t’ve kissed Christy. Well – I didn’t kiss her, see, she kissed me, but I still shouldn’t’ve let her kiss me…or kissed her back. It should’ve been you. I love you, Victoria. I always have.”

“Oh, Jez - ” She threw her arms around his neck and pressed her cheek to his chest, grinning like an idiot, as was he.

“Hey, Vic?”

“Hmm?” She looked up at him.

“C’mere.” He hooked a finger under her chin, guiding her face to meet his, and then proceeded to kiss her, softly, slowly, wonderfully, as if to reassure her that he was telling the truth. That he’d always be there, and always love her, and she was the only thing on earth that really mattered to him.

It was then that Christy felt the need to interfere.

“Jez! Hey, Jez! Where the fuck are you?” Her voice echoed off the solemn structures around them, and Jez grimace.

“Go away, Chris!”

“What do you-“ She was closer now, they could see her, standing at the gate of the playground, squinting at them as if trying to figure out what the hell they were doing.

“Jez, what are you…” But it was as if the entire picture suddenly became clear to her. “What are you doing with her?!?” Victoria looked worriedly up at Jez, but he was grinning in that mischievous way she loved so much. “Answer me, Jez! I thought we were back together! What the hell are you doing with Victoria in the middle of this horrible old playground? Why didn’t you come back to me after you were done fighting with her? If this is how it’s going o be, then fine, but I want you to know that you’re missing out on a lot! I’m smarter, and better looking, and – “

She continued to rant, not letting either one get a word in edgewise. Jez’s expression hardened. Victoria was a bit scared. She’d never seen that look in his eyes before.

“You are not smarter than Victoria, you are most certainly not better looking.” His voice was soft, but his words were poisonous.

“What? I’m ten times better than – “

“No, you’re not. Get out of my sight, Christy. Go find Sawyer. I’m sure he’ll be willing to make you feel ‘special’ again.”

“Excuse me?”

“You heard me, Christy.”

“So you’re leaving me for this trashy little –“

“What did you just call her?!?” Victoria could feel him tense up underneath her, and she knew that if he didn’t keep hold of his temper, something very bad was going to happen.

“Jez, leave it!” She said, sharply, taking his face in both of her hands and forcing him to meet her eyes.

“But, did you hear what she – “

“I heard, Jez. Leave it.”

“But…” He trailed off as she pulled him down for another kiss.

“Jezebel!”

“Fuck off, Christy!”

And she did.