Page 9 of Falling for You
My mouth drops open. We’ve been hosting our Halloween parties every year since our first term at university. We spend the entire week leading up to it decorating the house, making it as creepy as possible. Last year, Penny did this incredible trick with a mirror in the bathroom that made it look like there was someone standing behind you while you were washing your hands. We had to take it down until the night of the party, as we kept falling for it in the middle of the night and waking each other up screaming.
‘You can’t come?’ I repeat. ‘What do you mean? What else are you doing?’
It’s the one night of the year which is etched into our diaries in blood. The Saturday of Halloween is our party. I mean, friends of ours start talking about it in August.
‘I have a work event,’ Tanya mumbles.
‘On a Saturday?’ I cry incredulously.
‘It’s a PR event for a new perfume,’ she says. ‘They’re holding a masquerade ball. It’s one of my clients, I kind of have to go. But I can bring you guys along with me.’
I force myself to pause.Stop being a brat, Annie.
‘Oh wow,’ I say. ‘That’s really cool … sorry, I just really love our party. It’s like our thing, isn’t it?’
I look at Penny who shrugs back at me. ‘Yeah, it’s a lot of work though, isn’t it?’
‘Don’t you like it?’ I cry. Penny reads my expression and quickly corrects herself.
‘No, of course I do. It’s like, the best night of the year.’
‘The best,’ Tanya agrees firmly.
‘But, like, work is insane at the moment,’ Penny says, pushing her fingers through her hair. ‘I could do with not having to spend so much time organising it all. I have to work late every night this week.’
‘Ew.’ I grimace.
‘And this way we can just go to a cool party instead. Like, it’s still fancy dress, right?’ She looks to Tanya who nods happily.
‘Oh yeah,’ Tanya says. ‘People will go nuts for it. It’s a really high-key event too,’ she adds. ‘I’ve seen the budget for it. It’s huge. They have performers there and everything. You could get snapped up!’ She points at me. ‘There will be so many people from the fashion world there, you should take some business cards. I bet you’d sell loads of costumes.’
I smile. Tanya is always offering to introduce me to fashion colleagues to get me in the door as a seamstress or designer of some sort. But what I make isn’t fashionable. It’s cartoonist and grotesque and a bit weird, and not in a cool way. Nobody is going to go to Zara and buy a jacket with manoeuvrable bat wings.
Tanya and Penny are both smiling, and I can feel how desperate they are for me to agree, which suddenly makes me feel like a spoiled child. Have they been planning this conversation?
‘Yeah, of course,’ I say, forcing a smile on my face. ‘That sounds great.’
Tanya claps her hands. ‘Oh yay! I’m so happy! But we’ll do the party as normal next year.’
Penny nods. ‘Definitely.’
CHAPTER FOUR
Nate
‘Nate?’
I look up as Stevie pops his bleached head round the doorframe, a red spatula swinging from his hand.
‘I’m making a stir fry, do you want some?’
‘Sure, man,’ I say. ‘Thanks.’
Stevie nods and turns back into the kitchen before I can offer any help. It would be an empty offer, as the galley kitchen barely has room for one of us Simpson brothers, both towering over six foot three with our gangly, clumsy limbs. Stevie has a short fuse when we’re together and I’d probably end up with a lump in the shape of a frying pan square on my forehead.
Stevie has lived in this Camden flat for almost six years, since graduating and moving out of Aunt Tell’s place. I’ve tried asking him whether he still sees her, but he always bats the question away. I haven’t even told him my real reason for being in London: I’m worried he won’t be happy about it.
‘Here you are,’ Stevie says in a sing-song voice, passing me a bowl of steaming noodles.
