Page 4 of Losing the Rhythm

Toby snorted, his hand now resting on my lower back in support. It was such an innocent touch, and yet somehow, it made my skin tingle and made me feel absolutely safe. “Seth is the least sweetest person around.”

“I’m not so sure about that,” I replied, flashing a bigger smile at Seth. “He’s at least sweeter than you.”

That got Toby gasping and making dramatic movements with his hand as if he truly was upset. “That’s ridonculous. I am the sweetest human in existence. No one, not even Bebe, has anything on me.”

We laughed as I headed further into the house. Seth stepped to the side so I had more space as I went into the living room. And then I froze, staring at all the boxes. Boxes everywhere, covering all the available surfaces. It looked like my place as I slowly unpacked.

Paxon and Bryan were completely absorbed in trying to untangle a bunch of lights. I’d have just bought a new set if they were that bungled, but those two were determined enough.

“What’s going on?” I asked. For a moment, between seeing the lights and the big boxes that saiddecorationson the side, I almost thought they were already putting up Christmas decorations.

“It’s October,” Paxon finally said, looking up and flashing me a warm smile.

“Okay.”

“Halloween,” Toby clarified as he walked past me to dig into a different box. I counted about a dozen boxes all over the place. Were they all Halloween decorations? And they weren’t exactly boxes, but more like large bins. I could crawl into an empty one and hide in it.

“Are you decorating for it?” I asked, realizing we were already in the second week of October. Frankly, I may have forgotten all about Halloween. I forgot about a lot of things.

“Not only are we decorating for it, we’re getting back on track with our traditions,” Bryan said as he shook the lights. Someone probably needed to tell him that that wasn’t going to help untangle it. I wasn’t going to be the one to do it though. Watching him was a bit entertaining and distracting enough for me to keep on breathing and not dwelling on my first therapy session or anything connected to it.

“Traditions?” Did Halloween have traditions?

“Yes, a Stobrasonroweyes tradition!” Toby said.

I stared at him for a moment before finally asking. “A Stobro what?”

Everyone around me chuckled.

“You forget I only met you like a month ago at this point,” I said a little angrily, hating that I was feeling like an outsider and part of some joke.

That sobered them quickly.

Seth cleared his throat. “Stobrasonroweyes,” he said slowly, sounding it all out for me. “It’s all parts of our last names rolled into one. Blame Toby for it.”

“Hey! We needed a name and none of you unimaginative fucks were helpful. Always making me do everything when it comes to creative minds.”

“What about most of us says we’re creative?” Paxon asked. “You’re the only one who does any kind of creative art.”

“And that’s how Stobrasonroweyes was born. You guys have no right to complain. We’ve been calling it that for years,” Toby snapped at him. Then he met my gaze and broke out in a wide smile. “Though, I’ve been trying to figure out how to fit your name into it the last couple of days.”

“Me?” I pointed at my chest.

“Of course. You’re one of us. Whether you like it or not. It’s too late now,” Toby said. The glint in his eyes felt a little bit evil.

“Um, pass?”

“Nope, not happening.” Toby came to my side and tossed his arm around my shoulders tucking me against him as he pulled me further into the room and to one of the boxes. Inside were what looked like a bunch of witches hats. “This is your duty for today. Make use of these.”

I pulled one out. Attached to the witch’s hat was a white cloth. As I spread it out, I realized it was a grinning white ghost with a witch’s hat on top. Inside of it were lights. I followed the short line until I found the small box. There were batteries already inside of it, so I switched it on.

The ghost lit up inside and then there was a strip of about four lights that started at the brim of the hat and went up to the very tip. It was cute.

“There’s a bunch of new batteries in front of the TV if you need to replace anything,” Seth said.

“Where do you get this stuff?” I pulled out more of the witches, checking batteries. There were a total of six of them.

“Here and there. We’ve been at this for a few years now.”

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