Seeing Shadows (25 page)

The morning and early afternoon went by quickly and I was done with the bulk of cooking by the time Sarah returned. She was jauntily wearing a cowboy hat as she placed Jenny's birthday cake on the table. She was also carrying a plastic bag and pulled out a headband with cat ears.

"Tada!" she announced. "I know you don't want to wear a costume, but this doesn't even count as one. It'll make you feel more festive."

I groaned, but I couldn't refuse Sarah's thoughtfulness. I knew she just wanted me to forget my visions and have a good time tonight. "Okay," I relented with a smile. "Thanks. Really. I appreciate it."

"Anytime," Sarah answered with a sweet smile. "I've made it my duty to make sure you have some fun in your life."

"I have plenty of fun!" I exclaimed defensively.

"Ha," Sarah scoffed. "Cleaning your room and ironing jeans don't count as fun."

I laughed and threw a pretzel rod at her. She caught it and took a bite with a grin. "I don't iron my jeans!" I protested.

"Sure, you don't," Sarah agreed skeptically, and laughed as she made her way to her bedroom.

The keg arrived a few hours later as we were busy decorating our apartment. We strung white webbing throughout the place, scattering plastic spiders among them. We had a skull with glowing red eyes that cackled with laughter every few minutes along with other Halloween decorations that made the apartment look appropriately spooky. Halloween was one of Sarah's favorite holidays so she insisted the place be thoroughly decorated. Amongst the decoration, we also hung a banner that read "Happy 21st Birthday Jenny."

I set the table with food along with the Blood Punch I had made from vodka, cherry Kool-aid and Sprite. I also floated ice cubes made from the punch with plastic eyeballs frozen inside of them. I had to admit that Sarah's enthusiasm for the holiday was contagious and I had gone all out for the party. We had done a great job decorating the apartment, and with the low light and creepy music we had playing setting the scene, the place did look spooky.

Sarah went to her room to change into her costume and I put on the cat ears that Sarah had gotten me. Wearing dark jeans and a black fitted t-shirt, I figured if anyone asked me what my costume was, I could claim to be a black cat. I had earlier refused Sarah's insistence of coloring my nose black and drawing whiskers on my face. The cat ears were concession enough.

"What do you think?" Sarah asked as she came into the living room and twirled around. She was wearing a plaid shirt that was knotted above her midriff and a brown suede fringed skirt that grazed the top of her thighs. She completed her costume with a kerchief tied around her neck, brown cowboy boots and her newly purchased hat. Sarah looked like a cowgirl looking for a good time, but it didn't cross the line from provocative to slutty, like some of the costumes I had often gaped at in past Halloweens.

"You look great!" I exclaimed with a laugh. "I can guess who you're going to try and wrangle in tonight."

Sarah waved her hand in dismissal. "I've decided that I'm going to widen my horizons and play the field tonight. And if there happens to be a cowboy in the crowd - well, that's fate."

"Sounds good to me," I replied. I hoped this was true but I had my doubts. I had heard this from Sarah before, but the sentiment never seemed to last. Whenever Sarah was determined to ignore Grant, that's when he became his most charming with her. I could never figure out what exactly Grant felt for Sarah. He flirted with her all the time and seemed to enjoy her attention, but never took it any further.

There was a knock at the door and Sarah squealed. "Our first guest!"

She flung open the door to reveal Jenny in an equally provocative costume. Jenny was dressed as a cheerleader, wearing what she claimed was her actual cheerleading uniform from high school. She had either continued to develop after high school or had made some alterations to the outfit. Her tight sweater had a deep vee showing plenty of cleavage and her pleated skirt was as short as Sarah's. Jenny was holding two pom-poms and had styled her hair into two pigtails.

"You look awesome!" Sarah crowed, as she surveyed Jenny's costume.

"Thanks! You too!" Jenny winced when she saw me. "Caitlin. Is that your costume? I told you I saw the perfect costume for you at the Halloween store. It was a witch with this sexy dress with a slit up to the thigh and a cute pointed hat. With your dark hair and eyes, you would look amazing in it. But here you are, sitting there with jeans and a shirt. And cat ears."

"Don't bother," Sarah said. "It was hard enough to convince her to wear those damn cat ears. That's the most we're going to get out of her today."

Jenny perked up. "We can draw some whiskers on her face." She turned to Sarah. "Do you have a low-cut black sweater? We could try and make her into a sexy cat."

I waved my hands to get their attention. "Hello. I'm right here. And I'm not dressing up as a sexy cat. I'm an ordinary, run-of-the-mill, cat next door feline."

"Fine," Jenny acquiesced grumpily. She brightened as she looked around the room. "This places looks amazing! And I love the banner."

"Wait'll you see all the food Caitlin made," Sarah said excitedly. "Plus, she made cupcakes with your face on it!"

"What??" Jenny screeched as she ran over to the table of food. I had tried to recreate her face on red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting using candy, such as red rope licorice for her hair, and royal frosting to draw her eyes and lips.

Jenny literally jumped up and down in glee when she saw the cupcakes. I had to admit that the cupcakes did bear a striking resemblance to her. Well, at least as much as candy and icing could look like a person.

"I love it!" Jenny exclaimed, hugging me. "That must've taken ages! Thanks so much!"

I grinned at Jenny's enthusiasm. "No problem. Nothing's too good for the birthday girl." This was what I needed. A night with friends to forget about grisly visions and feelings of paranoia. Tonight would be a good night.

A knock indicated the arrival of more guests and we all gaped as Grant, Marcus and Simon stepped inside. They were wearing black fedoras, long black trenchcoats and black sunglasses. But the most startling part of their costumes were the white beards that were long enough to reach their jeans.

"ZZ Top!" Sarah squealed. "Awesome!"

Jenny laughed in glee. "You guys look amazing."

The trio looked at me and I raised an eyebrow. "You know the drummer doesn't have a long beard, right?"

Grant groaned. "Leave it to Caitlin to burst my bubble."

"Sorry," I said with an apologetic laugh. "Let me rephrase that. You guys look great."

Simon took off his sunglasses and winked at me. "Grant didn't like it when I told him the same thing."

"Don't be a spoilsport," Grant warned, but he was smiling. "We're using artistic license. It would have been boring for me to not have a beard too."

"It took enough of an effort to convince Grant that Simon and I weren't carrying around our guitars," Marcus added. "They'd probably end up becoming collateral damage by the end of the night with all the drunk people that's bound to be stumbling around."

"I'm gonna be the drunkest!" Jenny announced. "Let's get started!"

"Slow down there, tiger," Sarah said with an indulgent smile. "You need to pace yourself tonight. You don't want to pass out and miss all the fun."

Simon walked over to where I was sitting as the others gathered around the table and started pouring glasses of punch and beer. "A cat?" he guessed with a smile, looking down at me.

"Meow," I deadpanned. "I'm a very boring cat that couldn't be bothered. Hence the lackluster outfit."

Simon surveyed me with a glint in his eye. "I don't know about that. I think your costume rates pretty high."

I gave Simon a disbelieving look. "Did you start drinking before you got here?"

Simon laughed. "Didn't anyone tell you that it's the person that makes the outfit? And you as a person look pretty great."

I flushed. Would I ever get used to Simon's offhand comments that tilted me off-balance? "I'd return the compliment but I could never have been able to tell who the person was beneath all that hair." That was a lie. I could never mistake Simon's blue eyes for anyone else's. Even with the sunglasses on, I'd be able to tell it was Simon. Whether it was the easy grace of his body, his lithe movements, or the unspoken connection my body had to his, I would recognize Simon if he was wearing a paper bag. "But you do look pretty great. I just hope you're planning on wearing it during your show tonight."

"We'll see. I have a feeling I'll be ripping this beard off after an hour." Simon scratched his cheek. "It itches like hell."

I got up from the couch and motioned to the table. "Well, let's dull the pain with a drink."

By the time Simon and I had gotten our drinks, a beer and a glass of Blood punch respectively, more people had filed into the apartment. Pretty soon it was a full house. Some people chose not to wear costumes but plenty others went all out. I spotted one guy dressed up as a roll of toilet paper. He had fashioned a toilet paper roll out of brown paper bags and then wrapped white paper around himself about a foot out. I wondered how much paper he had wasted, and also thought that it probably wasn't a well thought out costume. No one could get near him because of the bulk of the outfit.

There were plenty of girls in scantily clad costumes and I lost count of the number of French maids and sexy witches I saw. I was glad that I hadn't let Jenny talk me into wearing the witch costume. I also saw plenty of people like me, dressed in regular clothes with a touch of Halloween, like animal ears or a clown nose.

Since I was technically one of the hosts, I mingled as much as I could but Sarah was much better at that. She moved around the room with ease, greeting people as they entered and making small talk. I deathly hated small talk. So my conversations were mostly comprised of nodding and smiling as others talked. I knew almost everyone on a superficial level. I had even invited some of the people myself. People I was friendly with in class or co-workers from Colette's.

But the majority of people had been invited by Sarah, Jenny, Grant and Marcus. Grant and Marcus were sort of honorary hosts since we were all such close friends. I didn't want to think about whether Simon had invited people as well. Since he was in a separate major, I didn't see him at all on campus since the music and arts school was across campus from the business school. The thought of him having a whole other life with people I knew nothing about didn't settle well with me.

I shook my head at my wayward thought and tried to concentrate on the conversation before me. Marnie and Emily were talking about Devi, the cook at Colette's.

"Devi brought in some chicken curry the other day that he made at home for Colleen to taste," Emily said. "It was so good. But of course Colleen wouldn't try it." Devi was forever after Colleen to let him put some Indian dishes on the menu, the food of his heritage, but Colleen was adamantly against it. She insisted that Indian food had no place in a French cafe. Devi argued that the only thing French about Colette's was the beret that Colleen wore. So he was always bringing in Indian dishes for her to try, hoping to sway her. Most of the time she didn't even bother to taste them.

Marnie grinned. "I swear, one day Devi is just going to slide a chicken tikki masala on the menu without Colleen noticing." Suddenly her eyes rounded as her eyes traveled up behind me. "Hi," she squeaked out.

I turned to see what had her so discomfited and saw Simon, sans beard, with his sunglasses folded and tucked into the front pocket of his trenchcoat. Simon gave the group an easy smile.

"Hi ladies," he greeted and then casually slung an arm around my shoulders. He cocked his head as he surveyed Marnie and Emily. "A fairy and a princess?"

Marnie nodded vigorously. She was decked out in a green dress that bowed out in a skirt that resembled petals. Her costume was completed with a pair of wings that hung a bit haphazardly on her back. Emily was dressed normally, wearing jeans and a short-sleeved pink sweater.