An Autumn Dream (2 page)

“S
hut up,” she said with a grin. Reaching for her open can of soda, she took a long drink before answering. “It’s like this. You finally have a guy. A really good guy. And I want you to make some good memories with him.”

I nearly choked on a chi
p. “By going to a dance? Why aren’t you telling me to make memories by going back to his apartment and jumping him?”

She rolled her eyes
. “That’s for after the party, stupid.”

I groaned
. “Of course it is.”

“Gabi, listen to me
.” Penny sat up and grabbed my hands. “School dances
are
lame.”

“Then why—”

“Will you just listen?” She squeezed my hands hard. “You’re not going for the decorations or the finger food or the disgustingly warm punch. The reason you’re going is to spend the night in Rafe’s arms dancing while he stares at you adoringly. While he tells you how beautiful you are and can he please take you back to his apartment so he can undress—”

“Whoa,” I said, holding up a hand
. “I liked everything you were saying up until that point.”

“What, you want him to undress you in his car?”

I grabbed one of her pillows and hit her in the head with it. “Okay, Miss One Track Mind, easy there. No one is undressing anyone.”

“Maybe not you and Rafe, but…”
She smiled suggestively.

“Ugh, I’m going to throw up these chips I just ate.”

Pen turned serious. “I am really happy for you.”

“For being nauseated?” I quipped.

“No, you idiot, for finding someone! I know Harrison and I were probably really annoying…”

“Were
? Why the past tense?”

She glared at me
. “I’m trying to be serious here!”

“That’s a first!”

“Ugh, Gabi!” Now it was her turn to hit me with the pillow, and I dissolved into laughter. “Dummy. Here I am, trying to apologize and you’re laughing at me!”

“Wait, apologize
?” I sat up straight. “For what? For being in love? Penny, now you’re the one being an idiot! I never regretted the fact that you were happy!”

“Are you sure?”

I nodded a billion times like one of those bobble head dolls. “Yes, of course. Although, now it’s my turn to be disgustingly cute with Rafe, right?”

“Absolutely,” she agreed
. “Make us throw up. I won’t mind.”

I made a face.
“Do you realize how wrong that sounds?”

“The moment those words left my
mouth I regretted them,” Penny said with a shake of her head.

“How is that different from anything else you say?”

She hit me with her pillow again.

***

“Are you sure you don’t want to come with us? It’s not too late, you know,” I asked Chloe as I sat on the toilet in our shared bathroom, my eyes closed as she worked on my makeup.

“No, I told you, I’m just going to stay home and have a quiet evening
passing out candy to the cute Trick-or-Treaters.”

I opened one eye to see she was deadly serious
. “You really don’t mind staying home with Dad? The dance is stupid, but at least you’ll be out with your friends.”

She gave me a small smile before telling me to shut my eyes
. As she ran eye shadow over my lids, she said, “Nah, I just don’t feel up to it lately. Staying home now and again is good, too.”

I sighed quietly
, but said nothing. Ever since Matthew Davenport, a hunter-turned-demon, had kidnapped and attacked my sister, she had changed. She wasn’t going out to crazy parties with her best friend Tori, coming home early in the morning totally wasted and expecting me to cover for her. It was good that she wasn’t doing that stuff, of course. I had always thought she went way overboard, but still…I was scared that what had happened to her had caused some permanent damage. Evan had used magic to erase her memories of that night, creating false ones that involved her tripping down the stairs to explain the cuts and bruises on her body. She had seemed to believe that, even going so far as to tell Dad that she had been drinking—which she hadn’t—and allowing him to ground her for the rest of the month. He had eased up when he saw how unnaturally obedient Chloe was behaving, and told her she could go to the dance with us, but she had declined. Chloe never declined, which was what made this so weird.

“Come out with us next weekend,” I said impulsively
. “We’ll go to the movies or something—”

“You don’t want your kid sister hanging around and ruining your dates, Gabi.”

She started applying blush to my cheeks, and I opened my eyes. “Is that what you think you’d do? Ruin my hot sexy times with Rafe?”

“Uh yeah
? And who wants to be around for that?”

Why did everyone think all Rafe and I did was go around tearing our clothes off
? If they only knew what we always seemed to be involved in when we were alone…

Claws, fangs, and lots of green demon blood
. Yeah, definitely
not
sexy times.

I poked her in the arm
, and she scowled at me. “Next week. We’re going to the movies. You, me, and Rafe. And we will have fun. Especially when we get him to take us out to eat afterwards! We can have dessert!”

Chloe groaned
. “You are
such
a pig. I swear you care more about cake than your gorgeous boyfriend.”

“I like them equally.”

“Oh my god, do not tell him that!”

I blinked
. “Chlo, he already knows that.”

“How the hell did you end up with a boyfriend?” she muttered under her breath as she rummaged around for lipstick
. “I feel sorry for Rafe. I really do.”

“Yeah, you should,” I admitted with a grin
. “I am pretty high maintenance.”

“Well, at least you know that.”

“Know what?” Dad asked, popping his head into the bathroom.

“How hot I look,” I told him, standing up so he could get the full effect
. His eyes widened and for a moment I thought he was going to ban me from attending the dance. But then he smiled and held up his digital camera.

“Rafe is here, and the two of you are not leaving until I take your picture.”

“Oh god, Dad, what is this, the 1940s?” I looked at Chloe. “Did they even have cameras back then?”

“Who
knows?” she said, wrinkling her nose. “They probably didn’t even have electricity. Right, Dad? You were alive back then, right?”

“Hahaha,” he said dourly
. “Why don’t you go downstairs and dry the dishes, Chloe?”

“But I want to see Rafe all dressed up!”

Me too
, I thought as I followed them downstairs.

Rafe was waiting at the foot of the stairs, nervously adjusting
the cuff on one of his sleeves. I took one look at him and nearly fell down the stairs in my heels. Dad grabbed me just before I toppled over, and I took a moment to steady myself—and ogle the sight before me.

H
e was wearing a dark blue, well-fitted suit with a crisp white shirt underneath. A black bow tie circled his neck, and his hair had been parted and slicked back with a generous amount of pomade. His shoes were shiny black patent leather, and in one hand he held a black fedora with a white band wrapped around the base of the hat.

He looked like a gangster
. A dreamy, gorgeous, makes-you-swoon (or fall-down-the-stairs), gangster.

“Hello
, handsome,” I purred, totally forgetting Dad and Chloe were behind me. I walked down the rest of the stairs and Rafe held up his hand to help me down.

He planted a kiss on my gloved hand and said
in a voice thick with emotion, “You look beautiful.”

“That’s swell of you to say
,” I said, preening. I reached up to fluff the brown hair on my bob cut wig and Rafe smiled. He took a step back to fully appreciate my costume. I posed for him, one hand on my waist and a finger on my lips like I had a secret.

My
brilliant costume idea was a couple from the Jazz Era. I don’t know why the image had suddenly popped in to my head—maybe from watching
The Great Gatsby
in English class last month. The flapper dresses and fine-cut suits had stayed with me, and I knew if we could pull this off, we’d look amazing.

Which we totally did.

It had taken a little bit of searching, but I had finally managed to track down a flapper dress at a Halloween costume store. It was sleeveless, the color of steel, and adorned with sparkly sequins. The skirt tapered off with fringe and ended a little below my knees. On my feet were a pair of silver heels, and I wore white gloves up to my elbows. Long strings of pearls hung around my neck, and my wig was adorned with a silver headband with a giant, black feather hanging from it. A small silver handbag and dangling earrings completed the look, and god, I loved it. I know the feather was probably ridiculous, but there was no way I was passing it up. It was Halloween!

Oh, and Chloe had done a masterful job with my makeup, heavily lining my eyes, making my lips appear big and pouty, and applying the right amount of blush to my cheeks
. A quick look in the mirror hanging on the wall confirmed why Rafe could not stop staring at me.

Okay, yeah, maybe the
stupid Halloween party was actually a good idea. When was I going to start listening to Penny?

“Picture time,” Dad said, when it became clear all Rafe and I were going to do was stare at one another
like a couple of drooling idiots. Blinking to clear my head, I stood next to him and he wrapped an arm around my waist, pulling me close against his side. We obediently posed, letting Dad snap a gazillion shots with his digital camera.

“Take one of them kissing,” Chloe suggested from where she was perched on the back of the couch
. Her eyes were bright, and she looked happier than I had seen in a while.

“No, I think that’s enough,” Dad said, checking something on the back of his camera
. “Yeah, my memory card is full.”

“It is not!” Chloe replied
. “You’ve got space for like, one thousand pictures left! Come on, let them suck face!”

“Chloe
!”

I noticed Rafe was turning red and poked him in his side
. “You are so cute when you blush.”

“I’m not blushing!”
He shot my dad a furtive glance. “I just don’t want to kiss you in front of him!”

“Yeah, he might kill you
. With his extra sharp knives.” I made a scary face and Rafe groaned. I picked up the final piece of my costume, a black feathered boa, and slung it over my shoulders. “Come on, handsome, we better get going before Penny calls and demands to know where we are.”

Rafe put on his fedora and nodded.

“Not too late, guys,” Dad said as he showed us out.

“I’ll have her home by
twelve, Mr. Harkins,” Rafe promised, a hand on my back as we went down the porch stairs. I paused and he looked at me. “Gabi? Everything okay?”

“You know, we could do something else…”  I bit my lip
. “Instead of the stupid dance.” Maybe I had just realized the party wasn’t such a bad idea, but would I ever admit that out loud? No freaking way.

“Something else?” Even in the dark I could see him blushing again
. “Why does that sound so wrong?”

“Okay
, pervert, I was thinking of something much different.” I gestured to the houses. Rafe continued to stare at me blankly. “What’s tonight, Rafe?”

“Halloween…”

“What do kids do on Halloween?”

“Go Trick-or-Treating
.” He blinked. “You want to go Trick-or-Treating?”

I smiled gleefully
. “Why not? We’re all dressed up! People will
have
to give us candy!”

“They only give candy to kids!”

“Do not!”

“Yes they do!”

I grabbed him by the arm and marched him across the street. “Oh yeah? Ring the bell, Mr. Skeptic.”

Rafe heaved a giant sigh
, but did as I said, tapping his foot as he waited for the people inside to answer. The door finally opened, and an older woman with gray hair squinted at us.

“Trick-or-T
reat!” we chimed after I elbowed Rafe in the side.

Looking confused, the woman
said, “Aren’t you a little old—”

“You are NEVER too old to go
Trick-or-Treating,” I interrupted, ignoring the “I told you so” look Rafe was giving me. Come on lady, fork over the candy!

After a moment of hesitation, she picked up the candy bowl and went to give us some
. “Wait, where are your bags?”

Curses, I knew I had forgot
ten something! I grabbed Rafe’s hat from off his head and turned it upside-down. “Just put the candy in here. Ma’am,” I quickly added. I peered into her candy bowl. “If you have any peanut butter cups, we’d gladly take those.”