Page 141 of The Hookup Situation
“Me too,” she says. “Ready?”
“Yep.”
We make our way downstairs.
“Want to pregame?” she asks, moving toward the kitchen.
“Pregame?” I lift my brows.
“Oh, are you too old to do that?” She places her hands on her hips.
“You’re joking. I’m only a few years older than you.”
“Still older.” She shrugs, antagonizing me.
I slide the pumpkin from my head, and she does the same. Julie opens the cabinet and pulls out a bottle of Fireball.
“Shots for courage,” she says, pouring two generous ones.
“Courage is drinking that.” I nod toward it.
“We’ll need it for what we plan to do in that corn maze.” She winks.
“You’re trouble, Little Red.”
“Not the first time I’ve heard that.”
We clink glasses and down the cinnamon whiskey.
“Ew.”
She snickers. “One more for luck?”
Before I can answer, she’s pouring the shot glasses full.
“For luck,” I say before we down them. “That tastes like shit.”
“You get used to it.” She looks up at the clock on the wall. “We should get going.”
Julie grabs my hand and drags me outside. The walk to the carnival grounds is hilarious. Julie keeps trying to take selfies of us, causing us to slam into tourists who have zero self-awareness.
“These pics are terrible.” She laughs, showing me a blurry photo where we look like demented vegetables. There’s another one where our heads aren’t even in the frame.
“We’re pumpkin perfection.” I wrap my arm around her as we laugh down the sidewalk together.
We cross the street and enter the festival grounds. String lights are everywhere, and torches light the paths. Over half the people here are in costume. I’ve counted countless zombies, witches, vampires, and even pumpkin heads.
“We fit right in,” I say.
“See? Told you!” Julie’s voice echoes.
“Nick? Jules?”
I hear Autumn’s voice behind us. The two of us turn as she and Zane approach, both in regular clothes but wearing matching sweaters.
“How did you know it was us?” Julie asks.
“For one, Nick’s wearing a hundred-thousand-dollar watch,” she says.
