I gulped.
Finally, I had found him.
"Please repeat after me; Finally, I have found you." the host said, once more.
"Finally I have found you." I said, awkwardly because I had been thinking along those lines.
Wait! Why was I so happy??
I mean, it's not like he's a longtime friend or something.
Yeah, I forgot about him but was reminded of him today…
Why was I so happy to see him?
I felt something ticklish race along my chest.
" King Halloween, please."
" Finally, I've found you." he said, in a dry voice.
"Do you have to sound like that?" I whispered, although it was meant for my ears alone.
"How do you want me to sound? Finally, I have found you!" He said, like he meant it, and I blushed.
" I… how did you… you know, hear that?"
" Of all the things I remembered about you, I think I forgot to remember you stutter, and smile idly a lot." he said, putting his hands in his pockets, while the host continued to talk to the audience.
" I don't stutter! And I… I definitely don't… don't… I don't smile idly."
" Then what's it? If it's not smiling. Blushing? "
" No!"
"We're on a stage right now, don't go raising your voice." he said, looking at his nails.
So cool!
His nails were so perfecto.
"You don't go to this school?" I asked.
"Did you expect to see me laundering around middle school?"
"Why answer a question with a question?"
" I think you did that just now."
"No I'm trying to… to… like, tell you… ask you that… why would you
… why would you answer…"
"Tut tut tut, you're stuttering again, is that how you talk?"
" Forget it, " I said.
"You look like a red baked pastry." he said.
" Are all you know, insults?" I asked him.
" Nope, I also know how to compliment, but I don't see a reason to compliment you."
" You'll see one soon."
" Don't forget I told you I'll never think of you in any way other than a thirteen-year-old girl, who wanders like something blind." he said.
" Don't make me change that about you." I replied, and he laughed.
" Wait, in the simplest way, you mean you'll make me fall for you?" He scoffed.
" Yes, if you make me."
"You're every bit the same as that cute girl who's biggest dream is to date I, and your cousin."
" Uh? Wait! You're Guy handsome?"
" We're on stage, baby, and your voice is rising fast. Jeez, what's this man been talking about?" He said, and, I saw he indeed deserved to be guy handsome.
I looked at the man who was talking, then at the girls who were looking at I, and Fred.
" Um Fred?" I called.
" Excuse me? The name's Freddie." He countered, and I scoffed.
" So, you don't like your name?"
" I admit it's kind of boring, but thanks to a certain pretty girl who wrote to me calling me Freddie, and I liked it."
"What girl?"
"Um it was, Priscilla Davids."
"Me? I wrote nothing of the sort to you? I didn't even know…"
He put his finger on my lips to shut me, and his green eyes locked with mine.
" Don't… don't touch me!" I reacted immediately.
" Yeah, I shouldn't, you're doing that thing where your whole face is redder than a tomato."
I stepped away from him quickly.
"He is rude!" I said to myself.
Every guy I knew complimented me, and he was going to compliment me too!
He'll see!
Plus, why does he stare at me like that? As though he can read my mind.
Finally, after minutes, we were taken into a place which was lit with candles.
"Sorry guys, I had to delay because they hadn't decorated this place, just imagine." the host said and the minute he left, I threw the heavy skull on the floor.
"What a crown." I muttered.
There wasn't much light. In fact the only light came from candles flickering and fluttering.
The table, small as it was, was filled with a variety of food.
On the walls were scary people with skulls on their heads.
I loaded some tuna casserole on my plate together with roasted beef, eating gently, though I'd have loved to devour the chicken quickly.
I watched him as he sat there drinking wine and staring at something on his phone.
" Are you supposed to be drinking wine? You're probably 15." I said, trying to know his age.
" What makes you think I'm 15? "
" I just guessed." I replied.
"Guessed or wanted me to be 15? Well, you're wrong."
"Then how old are you?"
" Find out." He said, and I sighed.
"Can you pass me the rolls?" I asked.
"Sure." he said, passing them to me.
The rolls were delicious, but they would have been sweeter if I was allowed to eat as I wanted.
"Oh come on… you and I know you're not comfortable eating that way." he said and I sighed.
I wanted to look good, but I wasn't used to eating slowly. It made it seem like the sweetness was reduced.
"Okay, just don't look at me." I said, and stuffed my mouth with the casserole.
"Hmm…"
Now that was how to eat. Having the full taste in one bite!
I buttered my rolls, stuffing them in my mouth and tore the chicken with my hands, then took a bite, jam-packing them all in my mouth.
I sighed in relief… this was how to eat.
It was only when he chuckled that I remembered him.
I looked up at him, and saw him smiling.
" Bay are du smaling?" I asked with my mouth full.
"What did you say?" He asked, and I chewed rapidly, swallowed, chewed, swallowed, chewed and swallowed.
"Why are you smiling?"
"Nothing. I'm just wondering how your boyfriend felt when he took you out to a restaurant." He said, and I choked.
He passed the water to me, and I took it.
" I've never had a boyfriend." I said, after drinking.
"Oh." he said like it meant nothing.
After eating and feeling too full, I began to count the stones on the walls, out of boredom.
I thought it was supposed to be romantic.
" Jeez, they serve alcohol in school? Bet a student served this table." He said looking at the bottles of Alcohol on another table, and I suddenly got an idea.
"Let's play a game, everywhere's dry."
" Yeah, really dry, what game?" He said, dropping his phone.
" It's called Never have I ever, I'll say something I've never done and if you've done it, you take a cup of alcohol."
" I don't drink."
" I don't either, but hey it's Halloween, and I watch all these stuff in movies, it's just once."
" Okay, anyway, it can't hurt." he said to himself.
" Every drop of alcohol damages the liver." I said.
" Are you convincing me to drink or not?" He asked, and I laughed.
" It's really okay, okay, I'll go first." I said, brought my chair closer to the table and tucked my hair behind my ear.
I cleared my throat.
"Never have I ever dated someone."
" Heck, what's that supposed to mean?"
" What it means, of course." I said, smiling, and he filled the little glass and drank it in one go.
" Never have I ever… um, had too many crushes." he said.
" I think I'm guilty of that." I admitted quietly, took the filled cup, closed my eyes and drank.
It was bitter and had burned my throat.
" Okay, Never have I ever kissed a person."
" Jeez, are you a girl?" He said, and drank another cup.
" Never have I ever been bossed by someone." he said.
"Same here."
"Hard to believe. You look like you've been bossed all your life." He said, and I wagged a finger at him.
" Never have I ever spent the night with the opposite sex in bed."
"Okay you got me." he said and drank another shot and the next few minutes passed with Freddie drinking, and acting weird.
" Are you getting drunk or what?" I asked.
" Nah, I'm fine, just a little bit sleepy… hit me with your best."
" Okay, never have I ever wrapped someone in my arms."
"Ah jeez. You're a bore." he said, drinking again, and I wondered how it would feel to be in the arms of someone like him.
I looked into his green eyes, which seemed to have trouble focusing.
"I'm so in trouble, I think you're drunk."
"How come you're so innocent? Not one guy has asked you out? I'm very confident if I date you, all that will change." he said looking at me, with his cool gentle voice swaying slightly.
"If you date me… Will you date me?" I said.
"No."
"I'm not asking you out!"
" You just did Piss."
"It was a rhetorical question, plus my name isn't Piss, it's Pris." I said, feeling hot.
"Oh, I want to go home." he whined, and he looked so cute.
"Where Poppy, and your other sisters, stay?" I asked.
" Nah… Home, plus, I might be scolded for drinking."
"Well, it's not my fault you've done everything I've never done." I said, standing up and going to him.
As I stood next to him, he hugged me from my waist and I stood frozen on the spot.
He didn't have this masculine scent that most guys had, instead he had a sweet, innocent and intoxicating scent.
"Take me home, Pissie." he said.
" First Piss, now Pissie? Plus, I don't know your house."
" My driver… He's outside. I don't want anyone seeing me this way."
"Why?" I said, looking at his smooth black hair. It was so enticing that I touched, and ruffled it.
" Do you know you're ruining my hair?"
" Tell me what hair lotion you use." I asked, and he chuckled.
"Wanna buy it?" He asked, leaving my waist to look at me, and I felt my face growing hot.
" I just asked." I said, looking away.
" Never mind, I don't even know its name." he said and stood up.
He swayed dangerously and I rushed to support him.
"Oh I'm fine, me is fine, me can walk." he said, and I laughed, he looked so cute.
"Is there another way out of here?" I asked.
"Yeah I know this place, just over there." he said and pointed to four different places, three of them being solid walls.
I put his arm round my neck and supported his weight with my body, leading him out through the dark corridor and out into the night air.
"Your skin is soft." he said with his eyes closed and his legs going every which way.
" Now… which of these is your car?" I asked, panting as we got to the driveway, he weighed much more than me.
I asked again, but he didn't reply, and I saw he had slept.
"Oh gosh!" I exclaimed, almost falling.
How could someone sleep just like that??
Just then a man in a suit came out, and I took two steps back because men in dark suits were mostly two things, businessmen or kidnappers, and this man didn't look like a businessman.
" He drank?" He asked, looking at Freddie, and it clicked in my head.
He was Freddie's driver.
"Yes… Oh, please help me lift him."
" He won't let us touch him."
"Why? Is he a prince or what?" I said in frustration as I strained under his weight.
" He doesn't like others touching him, please bring him to the car." he said and led the way to a shining black car.
He opened the door and I tried hard to push Freddie in, but after pushing him in, he refused to leave my neck.
"Aah! "
" Ma'am, would you mind following us? We'll drop you back at your place." the man said.
I thought of it and decided to climb in.
He was sleeping in an awkward position, so I readjusted him, making his head lay on my lap, and as I looked at his face, a smile crept to my lips and my heart started to beat slowly.
As the car pulled out of the driveway, five other black cars followed it in a straight line.
Wow. He was as rich as that.
How could he have everything?
Money, fame…. Ethereal looks?
I looked at his fresh and smooth face and my eyes fell on his pink lips.
SHOULD I???
Aaaaaah! What are you thinking? What am I thinking?
I used my finger to trace his forehead and smoothen his hair out.
He looked better when he was asleep than when he was awake, then I saw the bracelet on his hand…
'PRISCILLA DAVIDS', and I smiled.
This felt like, like… like I was in a movie, and he was mine.
I didn't even know why I was attracted to him, maybe because he was different and didn't make me blush by complimenting me, but instead made me blush with his stare.
" Am I home yet?" He murmured with his eyes closed.
" No, but you're almost." I said, and he turned, burying his face in my belly.
My eyes fell on his coal-black hair once more, and I smoothened it, knowing I wouldn't get another chance.
After some minutes on the road, the cars stopped.
The door was opened, and I was assisted.
"Don't touch me." he said, half awake, and the man in the suit left him.
"Sir…"
" I can walk." he said and walked with his eyes closed, but would have hit a pillar if I had not dragged him away, he tried to resist, but I held him tight by the waist.
Then I saw poppy and she came to me.
" Freddie let you touch him? He gets weirder every day, let me show you his room." she said and led me up the stairs.
I tried with difficulty to push him up the numerous flights of stairs, which was like a punishment, and finally, she pushed open a door and I saw the same blue lights he had used for his other room in the other house.
Pictures of him in modeling outfits stood on the wall and a framed picture of a beautiful girl who wore a short skirt and an off-shoulder top, smiling sweetly and innocently.
She was all alone in a plain background, and it took a while before I could tear my eyes off her.
I laid Freddie on his bed with midnight blue covers and looked around.
"You're Chris' cousin, right?" Poppy asked.
" Yeah."
"Is he really dating Pamela?"
"Yeah."
"Does he really love her?"
"Uh… I don't think so." I said, and instantly regretted it. It wasn't my place to reply to questions about his dating life.
"Phew, she's been taunting me all week just because she got Chris."
"Who's the girl in the picture?" I asked and after staring for some minutes she spoke…
" Well, every guy must fall in love once, no matter how much he loves to play." she said, walking out, and I looked at the girl's picture.
Wow, so he had fallen in love once.
Someone as rude as him, fell in love once.
I didn't like the feeling I got.
Well, at least he wasn't in love with her anymore.
I went down the stairs and the driver drove me out of the mansion.
" How do you know, Freddie?" he asked.
" He won King Halloween, and I won Queen Halloween, so we spent some time talking."
" That's nice, he needs better girls around him, more than the other wannabes."
" And how do you know I'm not a wannabe?"
"You don't look like it and from the way you saw to his comfort, seems like you like him a lot."
"Like him a lot? I barely know him!" I said immediately to defend myself.
<<<
When I got home, Chris, Mera and Val were in the sitting room talking about their Halloween night.
" Hey guys."
" Hey Queen Halloween! How was it?" Mera asked.
" I liked it." I said, blushing, and they laughed.
"You should have seen all the mean things those girls said, one said you monitored Freddie to know his outfit, bought its match and Mera poured red wine on her face." Val said.
" I bet she was shocked when she was named Queen Halloween." Chris added.
" Shocked is an understatement." I said, settling down, and joining in the conversation.
"Wow, I love this bracelet." Val said and tried to take it off my wrist.
"Didn't you hear when the host said, it can be removed without its key?" Mera said.
"Oh, and where's the key?"
"You weren't listening, were you?" I asked.
" No way, not with Romeo next to her." Mera giggled.
"Okay, so who's with the key?" Val asked.
"Who else? Dracula." Mera said.
" Awwwww!" Val exclaimed.
<<<
That night I thought of everything that happened, and my heart skipped, when it came to rest on Freddie.
I looked at the bracelet, and wished he would never give me the key, I just couldn't wait for the next day…
I wanted to see him!
Then I thought of the man in the suit, and his words when he said I liked Freddie a lot, and I blushed…
Oh jeez, what is wrong with me?
Well, Freddie is a nice person after all.
<<<
The next day in school, I endured all the calls of Queen Halloween, the jeers, and taunts that Freddie would never look my way from the girls, it was so annoying.
After P. E I had changed in the locker room, gone back to class, and brought out my books when I heard some girls in the corridors whispering heavily, smoothening their hair, clothes and giving high-pitched giggles.
But I wasn't curious as to what was happening. I was focused on completing my assignments because Halloween had made me neglect the weekly weekend assignments the teachers always inflicted on us.
However, all of a sudden, everywhere became silent, which made me look around.
Then I saw Freddie, leaning on the door, looking at me with those intoxicating light green forest eyes.
He used his index finger to indicate that I should come to him and I looked at all the girls, some looked like they could cry, while others looked angry, and some seemed like they wished they were me.
My heart skipped a beat.
Oh dear heart, please will you stop doing that?
After thinking on whether I should go or not, it seemed like he decided not to wait for my decision, so he came, held my wrist and pulled me out of the class, making the whispers louder than ever.
Gooooooooood!