The following weeks weren't that exciting. As expected, the day after our hang out, Natalie had walked into the caf with her homemade CoD champion shirt. She just kept chanting, "Who won? I won!" As she inhaled her "champion's pizza".

Equally as predicted as that, Tony stayed true to his word and spent the next days avoiding me, opting to eat with his football friends. Although we're still together, one of the cheerleaders by the name of Stefanie Cooper thought that the best opportunity to be all over Tony. He never did anything to reciprocate her actions, but sure didn't brush her off him either. It annoyed me to see her still trying to flirt with him even after all this time.

See now, Stefanie had been after Tony since the minute she laid eyes on him in freshman year. I never said anything about it because it was never my place to say, but after he started dating me, she calmed down a bit. It just didn't sit right with me that she was starting back up with her crap again. The days passed though, and Tony was back to sitting with me and he had calmed down exponentially. I was definitely not complaining about the little break we took since it obviously gave Tony some time to think. 

Now, it was only a few days until Halloween which fell on a Friday this year. Of course, around this time teens had nothing better to do seeing as most were too tall or too over it to go trick-or-treating. Usually it would be our jobs to hand out candy so instead, the football team had started a tradition of having a Halloween party. It would always be held at the residence of the player with the biggest house and the tradition always got passed on to the newbies to further it.

This year's party was being held at Barry "Brick" Tyson's house. People called him Brick because he was like a wall. He really had a strong, football player build and was hard to get by. He could easily break a person but thankfully he was a really nice guy. His father was the right-hand man of Gerrard Dickson, owner of Dickson Enterprises which was the leading car company of the province.

The Tyson family is one of show, so with all the money Brick's dad gets, they spend a significant amount to make sure they've got a very lavish lifestyle. Maids and butlers, expensive clothes and a big house great for throwing parties.

Usually, it wasn't anything too extravagant, a significant amount of teens were too standoffish or too lazy to actually attend these things. The house would still be pretty packed though. The entire football team always came to make things lively and anyone who was well liked would be there. A number of people showed up mostly for the fact that it was a costume party though. Everyone always loved that aspect of these bashes because it gave people a reason to be slutty without judgment although there were always stares. 

I knew I'd be going because my boyfriend and one of my friends are on the football team and would be attending themselves. Back before I was dating Tony, you probably wouldn't have caught me dead going to one of these things. I was way too interested in my bed and the chocolate I was "handing out" to even care about the event. Along with Tony, Riley and I, the rest of the group would be going too. We decided since half our group would be going anyway, we would make it like our annual group hang out time - Even though we hardly saw each other at all at the parties. Either way, Natalie halfheartedly agreed every year and Hunter would never miss a chance to be close to Natalie. Damien always came anyway and sometimes even begged me to join him, so it was only appropriate he agreed.

The only difference this year though is that we have two more people in our group. Tony would be fine to see them not show up whereas everyone else would be delighted by their appearance at the party.

"So," Riley started, slamming his hands down on the table to attract more attention from our group. "What are everyone's costumes for the Halloween party tonight?"

"I dunno about you guys, but I was thinking of going as 'lazy high school student.' It's a pretty great costume if I do say so myself," I chimed in, faking proud.

"You do that every year! All you do is come in your pyjamas!" whined Hunter.

I just shrugged. "Not last year. Last year I was 'uncreative teen.' Get it right." I snickered.

"Anyway," Riley drew out, rolling his eyes. "Anyone else wanna share their costumes?"
"Well, I'm going as a demon," Natalie piped up.

"Gluttony demon," I commented.

Snickers came from Damien and Tony as Natalie glared at me. I just looked at her with an innocent smile and prompted the conversation to continue. The costume conversation went on for a little longer until everyone had stated their ideas. Not much longer, I realized Lynn and Liam were just looking at each other in confusion.

"What party are you guys talking about?" asked Liam.

"Oh yeah. Sorry, guess no one told you about it. On Halloween night there's gonna be a party happening. It's at this guy Barry Tyson's house, you two in?" came Riley's Response.

"I guess." Liam shrugged. "This isn't gonna get crazy is it?"

Riley shook his head. "Not really. There will be a bit of drinking but nothing too major."

"Unless I have something to say about it," Damien piped up like his normal prideful self before snickering.

Liam nodded as Lynn chimed in with a giggle and an, "Mhm." Lunch then continued with a normal flow of conversation. We were mostly hyping ourselves up for the party before Damien caught our attention.

"Oh!" He exclaimed. "I just thought of something. You two don't know where this place is, do you?"

"No, but can't one of you just text us the address?" asked Lynn.

Damien shook his head. "It would be a lot easier for one of us to just pick you guys up. I can totally pick up Liam if he's alright with heading back in a different car. It would be good to have some arm candy on the way there."

"Totally fine by me." He shrugged.

"What about me?" Lynn asked and I could just faintly hear the hurt in her voice.

"Don't worry Lynn," Riley said, giving a reassuring smile. "I ca-"

"I'm sure Skylar would have no problem taking you there, isn't that right Sky? You know their address anyway so it wouldn't be too much trouble." My best friend raised his eyebrow at me expectantly.

"Sure, why not," I shrugged, giving the girl beside me a half smile.

I had a feeling he was trying to set me up for something but literally couldn't care less. It wasn't like putting us in a car together was just going to magically make me like her or something.
Not too long after, the bell for third rang and I was up from my seat, getting my backpack from the ground. I looked towards my two friends and waited for them to join me so we could walk to class. As usual, Lynn took my right side with Liam beside her. The dirty blonde paid no mind to me and opted to keep his mouth shut for the short walk. I just shrugged, Liam was never really much of a talker in the first place.

"So Lynn," I prompted and she turned to look at me. "You excited for the Halloween party?"

"I guess so," she smiled. "To be completely honest, I'm not much of a partier so I'm probably going to just stick around you guys."

I nodded, getting a small smirk on my face. "Yeah, you seem more like a tea party girl." I snicker, bumping her shoulder lightly.

"Hey! I take offence to that you know." She chuckled.

"Oh, I'm sorry."

Our little conversation ended in both Lynn and me bursting out laughing just as we reached the classroom.

- - -
Friday night came and I still hadn't changed... Who was I kidding, I wasn't ever planning on changing. I was sprawled out on my bed just staring at my ceiling. I was even too lazy to put my pyjamas on so I was simply still in a thick red sweater with a white Fall Out Boy t-shirt underneath and frayed jeans. I told Lynn I would be there to pick her up by around 6:45 since the party would start at 7:00 and I didn't want to be late, even if it was only going to be "fashionably late."

I rolled my eyes at the term and sighed, groaning as I sat up to get my phone. Checking the time, it was just before 6:45 so I decided to get my lazy self out of bed to go pick up Lynn. Hunter decided to ride home with Riley so they were gonna ride to the party together. This didn't phase me much seeing as Hunter kept his costume in his bag and he and Riley always got along well.
Walking to my car, swinging the keys on my finger, I unlocked the door and got in. I let myself slump into the seat for a few seconds before straightening up, buckling my seatbelt and driving off.

Again, the drive was short and I made it there in a reasonable amount of time. Walking up to the door, I send four quick knocks to the door and waited a few seconds. By the time Lynn opened the door, I gave her a once over just to see her outfit.

I smiled at the simplicity of her costume. She wore a black cat sweater with the hood up showing a set of sewn in cat ears. There were whiskers drawn on her face along with a black line going from drawn black nose to her top lip. Her black leggings did hardly anything for the costume but made it look a bit like she was trying although her bright blue shoes would say the opposite.

"I'm a cat," she said, spreading her arms to show off her costume a bit more and turned so I could see the tail also attached to the back. "I tried my best but there's not much you can really do with one day's notice."

She chuckled which caused me to smile.

"Certainly better than mine." I snorted.

After that, we both got into my car and I drove over to Brick's house. I already had a pretty good understanding of how to get there since this was the third year I had been to Brick's parties and he didn't live too far away either. This made the ride fairly short as we hadn't gotten lost in the approximately 15-minute drive.

As we arrived, I parked in the huge front where quite a few other cars were. There was a thrumming of music that could be heard as we got out of my car, though you could tell it wasn't blaring.

Walking into the house, I was almost immediately greeted by Brick, him giving me a fist bump.

"Skylar! Nice to see you. And who's this? I don't think I've seen her around."

"Hi, I'm Lynn. Nice to meet you," she said, stepping a bit in front of me.

"Barry, but you can call me Brick," the beefy guy replied with a big smile.

Lynn nodded and we were ushered out to the back yard where almost everyone was sitting around a pretty big fire. This is how it worked every year. We would all gather around Brick's campfire and play truth or dare. It gave us all a chance to find as a group and everyone got to see each other in their skimpy outfits. I never really took any interest in other people's costumes which were always just a few inches of fabric away from being just lingerie.

I looked over to Lynn to see how she was faring and found her to be looking at people. She had a huge smile on her face as she engaged in the conversations of others.

I loved the way she could just seem to click with everybody. How easily she could flow into a conversation even though she had never seen the people she was talking to before. She just seemed so carefree and friendly that anyone would be lucky to have her in their life in any way at all...

*wait...*

I shook the thoughts from my head. That sounded like something a person would say about their obsession. I - in no way - would have been obsessed with Lynn. The only reason I could think for anyone to have an obsession over someone else is if they either had some grudge against them for whatever reason or they had a crush. I knew for a fact that I didn't want to be her and I certainly didn't hold a grudge against her in any way either so there was no reason for any feelings of hate. Along with that, there was no way in hell I would've had a crush on her. I knew I didn't like girls so that shouldn't even be a thought in my mind. All it was, was that I was interested in her behaviour, that's all.

Although it's less of a trait of mine now, I used to be a really big people watcher. I loved to observe the behaviour of others - mostly to make fun of any weird habits they might have - and see how different people reacted in certain situations. I really don't like to admit it, but I was a judge person and that happened to be one of the traits that came with it. Although it interested me a little bit before, as the years progressed, I grew out of my people watching hobby. I guess this just shows that I didn't completely and people watching was still a little part of who I am. The only thing I couldn't understand is why my focus was almost always on the vibrantly redheaded girl to my left. Sometimes it was like I was tunnel visioned to her and didn't even realize it. I hated the fact that I hardly had control over my full consciousness around her and how my mind would always go astray to one topic or another regarding her in my life.

My thoughts sometimes overwhelmed me when I thought about something for too long and this was one of those times. At this point, I couldn't really say I was "going out to get fresh air," seeing as I was already out. I instead opted to murmur "I'm gonna take a walk," to anyone who even cared or was listening.

Taking a deep sigh, I tried to calm my racing thoughts. I hated not being sure about stuff because that was just one step away from being wrong. Outside of school work, there was nothing I hated more than not knowing something; than being incorrect. I was never the one anyone would come to for help for obvious reasons, but I by no means was incapable of figuring things out for myself. I always had a solution for everything. I always had a plan or the knowledge to help me through situations and as soon as I didn't, my mind went into overdrive. I needed to be on top of my problems, always.

Thoughts swirled in my head about what I could possibly do to figure out my change in behaviour but I tried to stop them. I was starting to get a headache from everything going through my head. The walking didn't seem to help at all so I started to walk towards the washroom.

*It could be because she was such a new person to me. Maybe it was her weird way of just being so confident yet not wanting to be closer with the more popular kids. It might be the fact that she's just so pretty.*

I stopped dead in my tracks right outside the washroom when that unwanted thought entered my mind. I already knew where I could find it, having already been here before and made sure there was no one in there even in my mindset. It would have been awful to walk in on someone using the washroom, even worse if there were two people inside getting more than friendly with each other.

I'd need to first try and sort my stupid mind and its thoughts and when I got home I would have to make a phone call...