Chapter 11 - Halloween

Chapter 11: Halloween
	
	The school bell rang, ending the school day, and releasing the students from their seemingly torture. Evan let out a sigh, stood up and looked over at Kari. "Evan what's up? You've been acting weird lately."  "It's nothing," a blank look was planted no his face. Kari walked up next to him and nuzzled her face into his right shoulder. "C'mon, you know you can open up to me..."  "Yes Evan, you know you can open up to me..." a soft voice spoke. Kari pulled her head back to see Maria nuzzling her face upto his  other shoulder with her arms wrapped around his left arm. "Maria..." Kari's eyes twitched, "What are you doing?" Evan looked down at her, his face was unchanged, "Please don't do this Maria... you know you'll just make her mad."  "Yeah, get off of my boyfriend!" Kari tried to pry Maria off his arm, but with little luck, her arms seemed glued onto his. "Noooo, I don't wana let him go. He's upset about something and I wana help."  "Well you're not helping!" Kari said, finally removing the leech from his host. "C"mon Evan just fess up what's troubling you?" Kari asked. "Well, I just dont' know what I'm going to do for Halloween..." Kari and Maria's faces grew blank. "Is that it? ..."  "Yeah, well I just don't know what I'm going to do..." The two of them began giggling at him, "Why are you worrying about that Evan?" Kari asked, trying to contain herself from bursting out laughing at him. "Well, sorry if I'm just confused as of what to do," he grew aggravated and turned to walk away. "Oh, hey, c'mon Evan," Kari said as she began following him out the door of the class. "Wait up!" Maria called out as she raced to catch up with them. Evan walked down the crowded hallway, with the girls closely following behind. "So c'mon Evan why are you stressing about such a small thing?" Kari questioned. "I don't know I was just hoping that we would beable to do something together." Kari's eyes lit up, as she smiled. "Aww, I didn't know you wanted to spend halloween with me," Maria said. Quickly followed by a smack across the face from Kari. "Maria, why are you still following us?" She barked. "I've told you before, I wana help Evan."  "Well then go away!" Maria let out a sigh, "Fine, I guess I'll see you guys later then." She began turning to walk away, but turned around, kissed Evan on the cheek and ran away. "God damnit Maria!" She sighed, "We'll never get rid of her will we?"  "Doesn't seem likely," Evan truthfully responded.

	"So Evan, what do you wana do for halloween then? I mean if you're stressing this much you must have something in mind." Kari asked as they walked through his front door. "Well, as long as it's with you I'll be happy, but that being said, this is a holiday that's more fun with others." Evan dropped his backpack next to the couch and plopped down to watch televison. Turning it on, Kari moved him over and sat down next to him. "Well then, let's see if we can find something." Kari said, pulling out her phone. "Who are you going to call?"  "Jasmine, who else? She always knows what's going on." Evan glanced over as she began texting, then glanced back over at his show on the televison. The sound of her phone going of minutes later broke him of his trance and he once again looked over at her. "Alright, she says there's a few parties going on, that is if you wana go to one..." Evan perked up, "Sure, I wana go to one."  "Alright," she glanced down at the phone, "let me ask her to see if she's even going to one."  "Probably, and probably with Jaden, those two seem to be hanging out alot as well, maybe even more so then us." He laughed. "Well then let's spend time together starting now." She quickly leaned over ontop of him, forcing him down onto his back and nuzzled his chest. He wrapped his arms around her and closed his eyes, "I love you."

	October 31st, Halloween. Evan sat on the couch waiting for Kari, bored out of his mind. He looked down at his phone which laid next to him, 7:56. "Kari should be here in just a minute," he thought. He heard a knock at the door and sprang up to open it, "Finally," he thought. Opening the door, a group of kids in costumes called out to him, "Trick or Treat!"  "Ugh," He reached over to a small bucket he had prepared just in case of kids and gave them a few pieces. They turned and left, Evan watched them leave, as Kari walked up to his porch. "What? Are you going to hand out candy all night, or are we going to head over there?" She seemed to tease him. Evan set the bowl down on the porch, "Ehh, they'll know what to do." He locked up the house and they began walking down the street to the party. "Just a few blocks, no need for a car." Evan figured. "So they going to meet us there?" Evan looked over at Kari, who seemed to be quiet. "Yeah, Jasmine said she'd meet us a the front." They remained silent for the rest of the walk, around them were little kids dressed up in various costumes running around and gathering candy. "I truly wonder about the safety of this holiday..." Evan questioned to himself. She looked over at him in his own thoughts, she smiled at him and took ahold of his hand. He stirred from his thoughts to look down at their hands together, and then up at her. She leaned on his shoulder, closed her eyes, and let out a relieving sigh.

	Groups of people stood around the house, cars were parked both lanes to the ends of the block, and music seemed to poor out of the house. The sun was bearley visible in the sky as Evan and Kari walked up to the front where Jasmine and Jaden were waiting. They walked up to them, "Hey," Kari called out to Jasmine. "Hey..." Jasmine soflty replied. Evan walked over to Jaden, "So what's up?" Jaden paused for a second before slowly turning towards him, a discouraging expression laid on his face. "Nothin'..." Evan looked at him puzzled, "Sure? Looks like something's up..." Jaden just silently nodded, his face looking at the ground. Evan looked over at Kari, she turned from Jasmine and they both gave eachother a confused look. "So umm, c'mon guys let's go inside and hang out." Evan said, trying to lead the group inside. 
	The house was packed with teens, music blared from the stero, and very little space remained in the house. Once inside Kari led Jasmine away from the others, when they left Evan turned towards Jaden. "So what's up man?"  "I don't know dude... Jasmine's just been so ehh lately if that's what you mean." He continued to stare down at the ground. "C'mon, snap out of it."  "Well, she's just been moody or something lately. She said she wanted time apart, but that usually means it's over. She hasn't even talked to me this week. When I got here she was already waiting but she didn't even attempt to talk to me, she just remained silent until ya'll showed up."  "Well, maybe you really do need time apart to think about it."  "About what? I just don't feel the same way towards her, and I know she doesn't like me like before either."  "Well I don't know what to tell you."  "Then let me stay here in my thoughts..." He turned away, his face showed the troubled thoughts that floated in his head.
	After finding their way upstairs to the less crowded area, Kari turned towards Jasmine who had blindly followed her. "Jasmine," she called, breaking from her thoughts she looked at her with a blank look on her face, "What?"  "You tell me. Something's up, so just confess it right now."  She sighed, "Well, unlike you and your perfect love life, mine's not going as well." She snapped at her. "What do you mean?"   "Jaden and I have just been distant lately, there doesn't seem to be much there between us for some reason."  "Well have you guys talked about it?"   "Yeah."   "And...?"   "We've just decided to spend some time apart for right now." She sighed, "I haven't talked to him all week untill I called him to come here, it's why it was a bit awkward for us to be here tonight."  "Well, why don't you two just go talk it out?" "I don't know..."  "Just do it!"  "Fine, fine, if it will get you off my case." Jasmine turned and walked down the stairs heading back towards the guys, being followed by Kari.

	Jaden stood propped up against the wall, not knowing what to do or how to fix this. "Could this even be fixed?" he thought. His attention turned as Jasmine and Kari walked over towards him and Evan. Jasmine walked up next to him, he looked at her blankly. "Hmm?"  "C'mon Jaden, let's talk."  "About what?" He frowned. "About us, we should talk about this."  "What's there to talk about?" His voice rose, "It's painfully obvious that we don't feel the same for eachother anymore!" Jasmine began to get upset, "Jaden, c'mon, I'm just asking for us to talk this out..."  "No! There's no point!" A few heads turned to look at the commotion. Jasmine lost her patience, "Well then you know what Jaden? It really is over! I won't stand to be with someone who doesn't even try to listen when I'm trying to help!"  "Wait.. what?" She turned and stormed away out the door, leaving the others silent. Jaden stood there, a large quantity of people were now staring at him, murmuring to themselves and others. Jaden turned towards Evan, his face reflected his shock. "I.. what?" Evan looked at him then motioned in Jasmine's direction. Jaden nodded and headed out the door to catch up to Jasmine.  People finally turned away from them, staying a bit more quiet after the argument they witnessed. Kari walked over to Evan, "Well that's not how I expected things to turn out..." He nodded, "So what now?" She shrugged, "Hang around, talk?"  "I guess, but.." his sentence cut short as he felt someone press up against his back. He turned, it was Maria. "Hey!" she called out. "What are you doing here?" Kari questioned, an aggrivated look came across her face once again. "Oh, I came here with some friends, we heard this would be a cool party, so ya' know."  "Well then go bother them, and leave us alone."  "Well I just was wondering what happened, just now between those two."  "Nothing you need to worry about Maria." Evan replied with a smile, "Now can you please go so I can hang out with Kari?" She shook her head, "No, c'mon just tell me."  "Our friends were fighting, theres nothing else to it."  "Alright, I'll see you later Evan." She smiled brightly at him and left, dissapearing into the crowd. "She does this on purpose, I swear she does." Kari remarked.
	
	"So how do you think it will work out for them?" Kari asked, looking over at Evan. "Not to say anything bad, but no."  "Ehh, highschool relationships do rarely last." She said, then realized, "B.. but I really think we're great together." She smiled. "Yeah," he moved closer to her, "I think so too." They stood there, together, a crowd of noisy teenagers around them, but they were together here and now and to them that's what mattered. Their night concluded near midnight, deciding that without the other "couple" it wasn't AS fun, honestly. The two walked back to Evan's house, through the deep darkness of the night with only the moon and a few streetlights to guide them along. As the two finally made their way into the house, they plopped down on the couch, it's size bearly able to fit them, but they were content as long as they were together. The two snuggled up together, "I love you Kari" He said, feeling himself get tired. "And I love you too Evan." She said, letting out a yawn a second later. Evan felt her drift off to sleep, but he remained awake slightly. "Will it really work out between us..?" He thought. Brushing the thought aside he finally fell asleep, he was happy for now, being next to someone who loved him as much as he lover her...

	He began to dream. He seemed to be in complete darkness, when a voice called out to him."I love you," it said, but it wasn't Kari's, that much he could tell. He heard himself quickly reply to it, "I love you too." A misty woman-shaped figure appeared infront of him, it reached it's arms out around him and seeming to hug him. Evan awoke, outside was still dark and the shadows of the room were being cast heavily upon Kari as he looked down at her. Then he looked down at the crampt space where he had been sleeping. "Why did I have a crazy dream..." He thought. Shrugging it off, he waited a minute to calm down and fell back asleep, waiting for his next day of being with Kari.