Trading Heartbeats
Chapter Seven

The next two weeks went by pretty fast. Jessica and I became close friends; close enough to say best friends. She doesn’t have any other friends that are girls, because they don’t like how she’s friends with Cameron, Ryan, and Matt. Meaning, the other girls really don’t like me either. But, whatever.

The five of us - Jessica, Matt, Ryan, Cameron, and I - hangout almost everyday now. They’ve consumed my thoughts and I barely ever think about Jason anymore. I’m pretty much over him. If he wants to get STDs, then let him. No one’s stopping him.

Jessica’s the only one out of them all that knows the whole story about Jason, not that there’s much of a story to tell. I’ve only known this girl for about three weeks, but I can already trust her with my life. I find that weird because I usually can’t trust people easily. We spend most of our nights just talking at the boys’ hockey practice, or sometimes we won‘t go and just walk around.

So all in all, my life is slowly, but surely, improving.

“Do you know what Wednesday is?” Ryan asked. He was lying on my bed with his head on my pillow and I was lying with my head on his stomach and my legs hovering against the wall. If that makes sense. Cameron, Matt, and Jessica had to go somewhere, I don’t even remember. So it left Ryan and me all by ourselves.

Speaking of my walls, I finally painted them. I had the boys and Jess come over and help last weekend. We painted the walls white first, and then we just decorated it with a bunch of random and bright colors. There are handprints, signatures, stick figures (by Cameron), random words, my butt print, and other little designs. There isn’t a blank spot anywhere. I absolutely love my room now.

“Um, it’s Halloween, right?” I replied.

“Exactly!” he said jumping up and causing my head to lurch forward. “We need to go Trick or Treating! I haven’t gone in years.”

“Really? I can imagine Cameron dragging you guys to go Trick or Treating,” I said.

“No, he’s too lazy and he gets candy from his little brother and sister. Plus, Jess whines too much when I ask her. No one ever wants to go with me, they just want to watch scary movies” he said, looking disappointed.

“Cameron. Too lazy? That kid never sits still,” I laughed. “But I’ll go with you Rye Rye!”

“For real?”

“Um, duhh. Back in Florida me and my friends still did. But we are watching scary movies afterwards, right?”

“Yeah! Let’s go!” He said over enthusiastically. Sometimes this kid is actually more hyper than Cameron, and that’s saying something. Ryan grabbed my hand and lead me to his car, where we spent thirty minutes trying to find Halloween USA, when it should‘ve taken only ten minutes. Apparently Ryan’s as clueless about this town as I am.

“Maybe it’s on this street?” I suggested pointing to my right.

“No. Weren’t we already on that street?” Ryan would say.

We eventually found it and I texted Jessica, Matt, and Cameron saying:

we’re all going trick or treating. whether you like it or not, kay?

“What exactly are you looking for?” I asked Ryan twenty minutes later. We’ve been walking up and down the aisles and he hasn’t even stopped to look at something. I already decided what I was going to dress up as and I have all the things at home.

“A Batman costume. Is it really that hard to find one?”

“Are you for serious, Ryan?! We passed one already. Jeeze, open your eyes.”

“Oh. I knew that.”

Today is Halloween. Ryan and I managed to make them agree with trick or treating with us. It took a lot of pleas and puppy dog faces, but it worked. I don’t know what Matt or Cameron are being, Jessica is the same as me, and Ryan is going as Batman.

Since Jess and I dressing up as the same thing, we decided to get ready together. What are we being for Halloween, exactly? We don’t really know. I guess you could say Glamorous Princess with some extra glamour. We’re basically just dressing up all pretty.

I curled my hair, but left my bangs straight. I added extra eyeliner, mascara, pink lip gloss, and sparkles. My old homecoming dress was pearl colored and sparkly. It’s strapless, poofs out at my waist, and reaches my knees. My heels were only two inches high and metallic silver with a few fake gems. My accessories included a pearl necklace, diamond earrings, and my stunna shades in my hair kind of like a headband.

Jessica went for the more Marilyn Monroe look. She wore her hair and makeup like mine. She had a white Marilyn Monroe dress with matching shoes, and a feather boa around her neck. She looked really pretty, I was jealous.

We decided to meet at Jessica and Matt’s house at seven pm. Since I got ready at their house we were waiting on Ryan and Cameron to arrive. Matt put his hockey jersey and helmet on as his costume. I know, how creative?

Ryan walked through the door about ten minutes later with a big smile on his face and Cameron trailing behind him. Cameron didn’t look as happy as Ryan, that’s for sure. But Cam’s costume definitely brought a smile to my lips. He was dressed as a stereotypical “scene kid”. Tight, girls jeans, lime green bandana tied around his knee, and another hanging out of his back pocket. He had a tight, band tee on, and his hair styled to be even more in his face. But, the sad thing is, he actually pulled it off.

“Ready?!” Ryan exclaimed.

“Yeah!” I shouted, jumping up to my feet. I grabbed my pillowcase and Ryan’s hand and walked out the door. Everyone else walked behind us, not as excited as we were.

“I love your costume, Laina,” Ryan said. “ You’re bee yoo tee full.”

I love Halloween, it brings back memories of my childhood. My dad says it’s because I’m afraid to grow up. Which is actually true. I don’t want to ever grow up, being a kid is easy. Besides, how can you not love a holiday where you get to dress up and get free candy?

Ryan and I skipped to the first house hand in hand. This city is pretty big, with a small population, and the houses are spaced out pretty far away from each other.

“Trick or Treat!” We yelled, the others just kind of mumbled. Party poopers.

This continued for about two hours and ten streets. My bag of candy was heavy and my feet hurt from my high heels. What was I thinking when I put them on? I gave Ryan my pillowcase to carry and jumped on Cameron’s back.

“Where’d you get those jeans?” I asked quietly in his ear.

“They are my cousins,” he said.

“Oh. What size?” I was curious.

“Six.”

“Why don’t you like trick or treating?”

“I like it, I’m just lazy. Jeeze what’s with the twenty questions?” I stayed quiet after that, he could’ve said it a little nicer. “You’re really gorgeous, you know that?” He said after a few minutes of silence. I blushed a little, thank God I’m behind him and he can’t see.

We decided to crash Matt and Jessica’s basement to watch some scary movies. I changed out of my dress and into a pair of Jess’s baggy sweat pants and a tank top. I’m not easily scared and I love scary movies. The only movies that actually gave me nightmares are: The Exorcist (the original one), Rosemary’s Baby, The Shining, and The Amityville Horror.

And guess which ones we watched? Well, first it was The Grudge, not scary at all. Second, The Amityville Horror, AHHHH scary. Then we watched Silent Hill, it’s not too scary but a little creepy. I love it though. The last one we watched was The Hills Have Eyes. It wasn’t scary at all, but I just could NOT get the creepy mutant guy’s face out of my mind. And that’s what scared me.

Jessica went to her bed during the first movie, she hates scary movies and fell asleep before she could see it. I looked around the room as the end credits of The Hills Have Eyes came on. They were all sleeping; Matt sprawled across the floor, Ryan curled up on the chair, and Cameron next to me on the couch.

I just sat there for a few seconds contemplating what to do. Just fall asleep here, go to Jess’s room, or what? I was actually a little too scared to move. Shut up, the movies did scare me. I kept imagining the mutant dude just standing in the basement watching me, waiting to kill me.

AHHHHH!

I shook Cameron gently, so he’d wake up.

“Cameron,” I whispered. “Wake up.”

“Huh?” He said, yawning. “What’s wrong?”

“I’m, uh, scared,” I chuckled a little. “I know it’s stupid but it’s just AH. There’s some creepy, killer, mutated thing watching me and he’s gonna kill me.”

“Nothing and no one is going to kill you, sweetheart,” he whispered. He pulled me into his lap and held me in his arms, as if it were to say that he was protecting me. He positioned ourselves so that we were laying down and I was between the back of the couch and him with his arm around my waist. He kissed the top of my head and said, “Don’t worry, you’re safe now.” In a strange way that did make me feel safe. I slowly fell asleep to the sound of Cameron’s soft humming.

This is a filler chapter, I guess. Next chapter includes a PARTY and DRAMA. I bet you can’t wait. Well, if you leave some reviews and encourage me, I’ll post it sooner.

Thank you for reviewing the last chapter even though it was so freaking short. I love you peoples!

Love, Chelsea.