Why would a city boy like him like a country girl like me?!?! ~~Ch, 13~~ Part 2

>>Ch. 14< <

Saturday Night—Halloween

The minute I steeped into the school gym, I felt ridiculously out of place. My own costume, consisting of my black cape and some fake blood on my pale, make-uped skin, clashed with the incredulously with the other costumes I saw around the room. They included lots of lighter, cleaner, and overall less gruesome designs than my own.

“Nice costume, Abi. Or is this a new look you’re going for?” I heard a snide voice to my left. I turned to see Brittany and her groupies dressed like skanky pirate wenches with glitter sparkling on every part of their exposed skin. (Ew.)

“Is that your costume or are you all practicing for your future careers?” I snapped back and walked away, smirking at their faces.

Down on the gym floor, I saw the actual dance floor in place with lights, a D.J., and tables and chairs around the perimeter. However, no one was dancing yet, mainly because there weren’t that many people here anyway.

I think I’ll avoid the lower part of the room tonight.

Chicken.

So. I can’t dance! Therefore I’m not going to embarrass myself and anyone who sees my doing any such thing.

…

I found a seat, partially hidden in the upper bleachers along the wall where I could see the door. I waited for Rebecca to show up, dangling my right foot over the side of the bleachers to entertain myself. I doubted many of my other friends would show anyway, despite the lack of publicity. They, like me, didn’t care for school dances either.

More people though not a great amount, ventured into the decorated gymnasium, and some even had costumes resembling mine and looked Halloween-y. That perked me up a bit, but after fifteen more minutes, I still had no sign of Rebecca.

“Where is she?!?” I said to myself, scanning the crowd. “I should have known she’d be late. She’s always l-ATE!!” I suddenly yelled when someone grabbed my hanging ankle with their clammy hands. As I turned to look as my attacker, I also saw other faces glance at me, making me turn red.

“Who’s late? It looks more like you’re late to me,” a skull head popped out from under the bleachers, followed by the rest of the skeleton. He wore a rag-tag jacket and pants with a torn-up black hat, and a cane.

“What?” I asked after a moment, confused.

His grin gave him away. “It appears to me that your costume, if it is a costume, is that of a recently dead person, is it not?” Billie asked, indicating my holiday attire.

“Oh! Well, sort of. I’m actually supposed to be a vampire’s victim,” I explained, showing him the fake bite marks I put on the left side of my neck.

“Ah, well, they are very similar, I guess,” he said, leaning against the wall.

I hope this make-up can that the heat, I thought as I felt my face warming up.

“So what are you supposed to be then?” I asked him.

He straightened up and bowed, “Billie Bones, at your service.”

“Billy Bones was a pirate,” I replied, as he stood back up.

“Who says I can’t change it up a little? Use my own creativity for a chance,” Billie said, walking up the bleachers to sit with me.

Well, this just may be an interesting party after all.

I shook my head to clear my thoughts so I could focus on the conversation at hand.

“Was that a ‘no’?” Billie questioned my action.

“Huh? Oh, no, just a…a little twinge,” I stuttered, looking up.

“Headache?” he continued to probe.

“Kinda.” I mentally pointed my finger at the sadistic voice that lived in my head that nagged my every move, argued and bickered with each thought I had.

Can you feel the love in here?

“Should you go home?” Billie had a curious expression.

“No, I’m good. It’s gone now,” I said, distracting myself with people down in the middle of the gymnasium. I noticed a small concessions stand in the corner, serving snacks and drinks to the students.

“Am I interrupting something?” a new voice asked.

I looked to its source at the bottom of the bleachers. “It’s about time! Where’ve you been?” I exclaimed at Rebecca.

“I had a wardrobe malfunction Justas I was going out the door,” she pointed at a roughly patched rip in her black nylon cape.

I dropped my head and shook it in disbelief. Oy vei…

“Wow! Nice costume, Billie,” Becca said in a different tone than s moment ago.

My head jerked up when I heard the change and caught her sly eye. I felt the blood rush to my face as I realized what she had just done.

Don’t you just hate it when you’re caught red-handed in a trap?

Set the spider to the fly, I’d fallen into her set-up so easily that it was insulting. I imagined steam coming out of my ears and Rebecca’s smirking face with a halo being supported by a pair of devil horns.

“Thanks. Yours isn’t too bad either,” Billie replied, apparently not noticing the silent exchange we had.

“Well, it’s better than it was before I fixed it. So did I miss anything, Abi? Come on, let’s look around.” She motioned for me to come with her.

Oh, I’ll tell you what happened, you underhanded traitor! I thought as I got up from my spot and stepped to the floor. Billie stayed put, suddenly distracted by a few couples dancing downstairs and the pirate skanks doing the limbo.

Rebecca dragged me away as fast as possible then slowed her pace a minute later. “So?” she started, anxiously awaiting my answer.

“So,” I glared, “plotting sadistic schemes against me, are we?”

Her face fell for a second until she remembered what I was talking about and she smirked.

“Why would I do such a thing?!? Especially against my best friend who has been single her whole life??” She pouted innocence, as fake as it was.

“Don’t give me the puppy face, it doesn’t work, I scolded as we came to a stop by the back wall of the gym.

“Oh, come on. I think my little plan proved something besides the fact that I can outsmart you sometimes,” she pointed a finger at me. “You like him and you know it.”

I was very glad that my make-up was still in place, otherwise I would be beet-red, but the steam was building up. I was expecting it to come bursting through my ears any second.

“No, it’s just awkward for me to be around him,” I tried to deny her claim.

“Uh-huh, that’s usually a common symptom of attraction,” she continued, grinning at my hopeless attempt at denial. “Fine, believe what you want, but that won’t stop me of fate.”

“I can be plenty stubborn too. You should know that by now,” I said, then I changed the subject. “Are you hungry? I didn’t eat supper before I left.”

“Sure, we can go see what’s at the food booth down there,” Rebecca went along with me.

“Okay, let’s go.” I stepped away from the wall and headed towards the stairs with Becca beside me.

* * * * *

“So how did you rip your cape anyway?” I asked Becca while we ate our hotdogs and watched people dance.

“Oh, the puppy thought it was a new toy and decided it was playtime,” she shook her head, laughing at her new family pet. “That dog has so much energy. I wish I could borrow some of it sometimes.”

“It’s just a puppy. It’s supposed to have lots of energy,” I said, finishing my hotdog and then washed it down with the last of the punch I got from the concessions stand. I noticed that it tasted different from the usual punch they served. There was an odd aftertaste to it.

“Ahem,” someone cleared their throat behind us.

We both turned to look at the newcomer and ended up holding our jaws in place.

There stood a tall, dark, masked man…ok, guy…in a loose white shirt and black pants with a fake sword hanging from his belt. (think Phantom of the Opera J)

It took me a second to regain my ability of speak, “Y-yes? Can we help you?” I finally managed to spit out.

“Well, I was actually hoping that you would honor me with a dance,” he answered in a rough, deep voice.

“Which one of us?” Rebecca asked, getting her wits back in order as well.

“Well, I was referring to this lovely pale flower, but if you would like to have a dance as well, I’d be more than willing to oblige,” he crooned, flashing a white grin at us.

Who the hell is this guy?!? Where’ve you been all my life?!?!

I cleared my throat. “Okay,” was the only thing I could think to say. But he grinned wider and pulled me to the dance floor.

A slow song was just starting and we quickly fell into rhythm. We were quiet for the first minute or so until I broke the silence.

“So, who are you?” I asked, trying not to stare at him, but my eyes couldn’t seem to stay focused on anything else while we were spinning around.

“You can call me ‘William’,” he said, “And what may I call you?”

“Oh…my name is Abi,” I replied, my eyesight still acting up. It and the dancing were making me very dizzy. @.@

“Are you alright? You don’t look so good, costume aside,” Will said, slowing down to a stop in front of our table.

“I am actually feeling ki-kinda dizzy. Maybe I should s…sit down,” I held my head with one hand and clung to his arm with the other as he guided me to a chair. I didn’t notice the other person at the table with Becca until I heard their voice.

“Hey,” a skull head appeared in my fuzzy vision. “You okay? You look green under the make-up.”

“Thanks, I’m just a little dizzy, that’s all.” I had to close my eyes to stop seeing multiple wobbling skulls. “It should wear off soon.”

“Well while that goes away, would you like to have your dance?” William asked Rebecca, holding out his hand to her.

She looked at Billie and me before she nodded and they left.

I tried taking deep breaths to ease off the dizzy spell. It only helped a little bit, but I was able to open my eyes again.

“Should you go home?” Billie asked after a moment.

“I don’t know…hopefully this wears off soon,” I muttered an answer, holding my head.

“But what if it doesn’t? Were you feeling sick earlier?” he questioned me in a worried tone.

“Um…I was feeling fine until a few minutes ago. We were just sitting here talking and eating hotdogs until Will came over. I guess it’s a bad idea to eat and then dance right afterwards, huh?” I said, trying to clearly recall the events of the past ten minutes.

Billie looked at the trash from our ‘dinner’ that was still on the table. He picked up my empty cup and sniffed it.

“Whoa! What was in this stuff?” he asked loudly, putting it back on the table.

I cringed from the sudden raise in volume. “My punch from the concessions stand,” I answered, confused.

“Did Rebecca have any punch?” he continued with the questions, as if on a mission.

Sherlock Holmes is on the move!

“No, she got a drink from the vending machine,” I told him, “Why?”

Billie looked back at me,” I think your drink had something in it that wasn’t supposed to be in it. Someone may have spiked the punch or something,” Billie’s tone was serious.

“What?!” I asked loudly and felt stupid for doing that. The dizziness flared up again and I had to hold my head again.

“You probably took some kind of drug or something that was in the punch. We need to get you home,” Billie stood up. “Come on, I brought my parents’ car.”

“Where are we going?” Rebecca asked as she and William returned.

“I have a feeling that the punch is laced with something and Abi had some of it. We need to take her home,” Billie explained.

“Really? Oh my gawd, what stupid people did something like that?” she exclaimed, grabbing my arm and pulling me to my feet.

“Stupid people would do that,” I answered her question, even though it was more of a rhetorical one anyway.

“Yeah, yeah, smart mouth. Just don’t get sick on me or anything. Oh, thanks for the dance, Will. See you Monday?” Becca said.

“Maybe. Hope you feel better, Abi,” he said, walking away.

Billie and Rebecca managed to help me out to the back parking lot. The cool air hit me in the face and cleared some more of the dizziness. Billie dug in his pocket for his car keys and then stopped. “Oh great,” he muttered.

“Well, well. Leaving the party so soon?” Ryan appeared from behind the car beside Billie’s. He had a can of shaving cream and a bag of eggs in his hands.

“What do you want, Ryan?” Becca asked in a cold voice, still keeping a hold of me.

“Nothing. Just curios. I see someone doesn’t look all too well. What’d you do?” he continued, leaning against the side of a nearby truck.

Billie unlocked his car and motioned Rebecca to go over to the far side of the car. She dragged me with her, opening the back door and helped me to sit inside. She stood in the open door for a moment, watching the scene, and then slid into the car beside me.

“Not very talkative tonight, I guess. Well, I suppose I’ll hear about it later,” Ryan said, grinning in the dim night.

“Maybe, maybe not,” I heard Billie say, moving toward the driver’s door. He had barely opened it when Ryan pushed it shut again.

“I thought I should tell you, there are some of us that would like to have a chat with you sometime soon. Consider yourself warned,” Ryan whispered, backing away into the shadows from where he came.

Billie was still for a moment before he got in the car and drove to my house.