I came in through the side door, heading upstairs to my bedroom. I met Lydia on the way.

"What're you so smiley about?" she asked me curiously, her eyebrow arched and corner of her lips curved into a perplexed, slightly amused grin.

"Hm?" I hummed, still kind of distracted by the events of the day replaying over and over in my mind.

"You look like Cupid shot you with a machine gun, then beat you to a pulp with a mace, just for good measure." 

"Geez, violent, much?"

"You live with me. You know the answer to that."

I smiled and shook my head. "Lydia, you certainly are a character."

"Thanks, I guess. Also, you're really good at avoiding questions."

I smiled sheepishly at her. 

I promised Larry that I wouldn't tell Lydia, Charles, or Delia about our encounter, or about our impromptu date. He told me that he wasn't supposed to go visit Lydia until the day of the Halloween bash, and that he wanted it to be a surprise. 

"Oh, I'm just happy," I answered vaguely.

"(Y/N), are you high, right now?"

"Gosh, Lydia, I'm just happy, okay? Why do I have to be high to be happy?" I retorted, slightly frustrated, but laughing anyway.

She gave me a suspicious look, but didn't pursue the topic any further. 

"Well, goodnight," Lydia bade me as we both reached the top of the stair. 

"Um, goodnight," I returned, giving her a small smile.

I went into my room, closed the door, and locked it. I sighed and felt myself relax, now that Lydia wasn't peppering me with questions about my sudden mood-swing.

I shook my hair out of its (F/H/S), threw on a baggy sweatshirt over my underwear, then crawled under my blankets and sheets, snuggling down for the night.

I opened my laptop, and turned on "The Corpse Bride", one of my all-time favorite Halloween movies. Just as I had settled in, and poor Victor was lamenting his mistaken marriage vows in the woods, my phone dinged.

I opened it.

"Hey, Angel."

I smiled at my screen.

"Hey, Lucy."

"Lucy?"

"Short for Lucifer."

"You gave my nickname.... a nickname?"

I chuckled.

"Lol yep."

It was a couple of minutes before he texted again.

"Are you coming to the Halloween shindig tomorrow?"

"Yeah, Lydia's supposed to be picking me out a costume. Are you?"

"Um, yeah lol I came so I could go with Lydia, remember? 😂😂😂"

I sighed at myself. I swear sometimes I could be so stupid.

"Duh. 🤦🏽‍♀️"

"Well, I gotta check into a hotel, so I'll talk to you tomorrow, babes. Goodnight."

"Alright, goodnight!"

I turned off my phone, already feeling lonelier than before. I wanted to continue talking to Larry, but knew that he had things to do and that I would see him again the next day. Also, nobody likes a clingy partner. 

I reached under my sweatshirt and pulled out my beetle pendant from Lawrence. I normally kept it under my clothes, to avoid any potentially awkward/painful questions. 

I smiled to myself as I stroked the pendant's surface. 

I didn't think I was ever going to forget about Lawrence, but I was hoping that, with both time and now Larry on my side, I could slowly and finally begin to let him go. I could finally begin to heal.

I reached to take the pendant off, but stopped. 

Not yet, I thought, tucking the necklace back under my sweatshirt. I swear I'll take it off tomorrow.

As you can probably guess, I didn't.

*******************************************************

*AUTHOR'S NOTE*

Hey everyone! Sorry about the shorter chapter, I've just been really busy with the holidays and work and aaahhhhh. 

Anyway, I'm planning on picking up the pacing of the story after this chapter, so strap on your butts, it's gonna be a bumpy ride. 

Also THANK YOU ALL FOR GOING AND SPAMMING MY INSTA LIKE SRSLY IM SO GRATEFUL YALL GOT MY FOLLOWER COUNT UP BY LIKE OVER 10 AND IM SO THANKFUL 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻

Also HoLy BaTmAn, HaTrAcKs, 14K READS??? ARE YOU SERIOUS??? THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!! I would be nowhere close to where I am today without all of you lovely readers, to take a moment so accept my gratitude and give yourself a well-deserved pat on the back. Ya earned it. 😔✊

Anyway, hoping to update soon, but this next chapter is giving me trouble, a slow-go. Yuck I hate these. But imma try to plow through it as best I can, for you guys.

Anyway, if you made it this far, thank you for putting up with my rambling. Merry Christmas guys!

Ciao, bellas!

~Smol Emo