Page 5 of Losing the Rhythm

“And now you get to join us for the festivals,” Paxon said. “It’ll be fun.”

“What exactly do you do for this Stobrasonroweyes tradition?” I fumbled over the name as I said it slowly, getting a couple chuckles from the guys.

“Every year, starting on the first, we do one Halloween-related thing each day. It can be as simple as buying a Halloween decoration, to drinking hot apple cider, to going on hayrides, eating Halloween candy, playing a Halloween prank,” Paxon explained. “Anything, as long as it’s related to Halloween.”

“But it’s the twelfth and this is the first time I’m seeing you do anything.”

The silence was deafening as everyone shared glances with each other. No one wanted to say anything. Slowly it dawned on me why.

Me.

The fuck up.

I had put a damper on everything over the last two weeks. It felt like I’d put a damper on things for them since I met them.

“I’m sorry,” I said softly.

“No!” Paxon said, dropping the lights. The others gaped at him as he came to my side, grabbing my wrists softly, ensuring he had my attention. “You don’t have anything to be sorry about. It’s been a rough few weeks all around, and we dropped the ball on our tradition. That’s on us.”

“Yeah, and now that we realized it, we’re simply fixing it,” Bryan said. “Starting today. Today, we’re decorating.”

“And tomorrow, we’re going to watch a spooky movie,” Toby said with a grin.

“And eat candy one day,” Seth said.

“And find a haunted house.”

“Go on a hayride.”

“Pick pumpkins.”

“Carve those pumpkins.”

They kept going, all of them pitching in to list something we were gonna do soon in the future. All such small, little things, but it seemed to really get them excited.

Unable to help myself, I was grinning as they kept going over more things they could do. I look back down at the little witch ghosts. An actual celebration of Halloween with the guys sounded really fun. I’d never really celebrated Halloween, at least not since Dad left. And even when he was around, we only celebrated if he was there. Otherwise, Lindie didn’t want to be bothered with it.

As I planned where to hang these decorations, I couldn’t help but wonder what they had in store for us this month. Knowing these guys, whatever we got up to was going to be memorable, though.

Before I knew it, I was up a small ladder with Paxon hovering around me in paranoia as I hung little pumpkins around Seth’s living room. My goal was to make this place look amazing once the lights went off and the decorations were switched on.

“Look!” Toby called out for about the tenth time in the last twenty minutes. I rested my hand on the wall so I didn’t fall and looked behind me. He was wearing another mask he’d found. This one was a creepy clown face.

“Put that shit away,” Bryan said, visibly shuddering and looking away from it.

Toby used that opening to go toward Bryan.

Bryan practically dove to the other side of the room, using the furniture to keep Toby away. Toby began laughing like a lunatic and moving funny, his limbs out, almost like he was a zombie or Frankenstein, but faster.

“Cut that shit out,” Bryan snapped. “You know how I feel about those damn things.

“Does he have a clown phobia?” I asked. Bryan actually looked terrified.

“Not clowns themselves,” Paxon said. “But creepy clowns, for sure. Toby, stop it. You know better.”

“Okay, okay.” Toby took off the mask and looked down at it. “Why do we even have this?”

“Because you pranked him two years ago with it,” Justin said, going over and grabbing it from him. He hid it behind his back so Bryan couldn’t see. Justin slipped out of the room.

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