Frankie's point of view:
I stare out of the cabbie's window to the familiar passing neighbourhood. The corner store I worked at, the park I hung out in, the school I went too. Home. The place I was born, the place I grew up, the place I loved and hated. But it was home, and boy did it feel good to be back.
I smile at my surroundings, stepping from the cab and shoving cash into the drivers hand. He tips me goodbye and leaves me staring up at the two-story house. After college, Flo and David had saved enough money to move here and begin to create their family home. They painted the door bright blue, painted the window panes white and even pitched a white picket fence. It was beautiful and I was always insanely jealous. I wanted this house, I wanted to see the large tree in the front garden loose its leaves in the winter and watch them grow in the spring.
But now, the picture perfect home was overtaken and looked like something from a horror movie. Fake skeletons were strewn across the lawn, a Frankenstein waiting by the front door that was splattered in fake blood. I laugh to myself, whereas everyone's favourite holiday was more than likely Christmas, Flo and her husband Paul's favourite was Halloween.
"Aunty Frankie!"
I was tackled with the tiny little body that reached my waist and my heart immediately warmed with sheer happiness. As she raced past the plastic figure, the Frankenstein moved and made a noise making Vivian giggle in glee.
"I picked that! Mommy said it might scare away the kids though." She innocently grins, leading us up the garden path and into the cosy warm home. It smelt like cinnamon and matches. "Mommy, daddy! Aunty Frankie is here!"
Flo was in the kitchen, dishing out cookies onto trays. They were in shapes of bats and ghosts, making me giggle. Everything was ready for their party. I duck under a spiderweb that drape from the ceiling to hug my big sister, whose cheeks were splashed with flour. She squeezes me tightly before scolding Vivian who pinched a bat shaped cookie from the counter.
"Is dad not here yet?" I ask her, climbing up onto the stool that sat at their breakfast bar. Vivian broke her cookie, thrusting out the non-bitten half to me. She grins happily as I accept, her dangling legs kicking as she hums.
"He's out the back with Paul, something went wrong with the bike and for some reason he thinks Paul knows something about bikes." She lets out a large laugh, pulling the cupcakes from the fridge. "He's probably just standing out there with hands in pockets and agreeing with everything dad is saying. Anyway, where's your friend you were bringing?"
I frown, biting into the sweet cookie. "He has a meeting. He should be here soon though, he knows the party starts at six."
At the mention of my company being a male, Flo's eyes grew twice their size. She licks her finger clean as she places the last cupcake on the orange tray and dismisses Vivian outside to let dad know I was back. She watches their backdoor close and spins to me, hands flat against the counter top.
"Why didn't you tell me you had a boyfriend."
"He's not my boyfriend, Flo." I tell her, my stomach tightening at even the thought. My boss being my boyfriend?
"So who is he? Oh please tell me you're not just hooking up with someone, you're so much better than that-"
"I am not!" I shriek. "What do you take me for? Jesus. No, he is a friend. Just a friend and will always be a friend. Enough interrogation, I'm a grown woman - I am very much capable of having a male acquaintance that don't involve any sexual interaction."
She huffs as the door swings open. My dad, only in his mid-fifties never looked a day over forty and even with two daughters and granddaughter, the man didn't have a grey hair in sight.
"Frankie!"
He engulfs me, his familiar scent filling my nose as it buries into his warm chest. His cologne had never changed after all these years, and it brought a tightening to my chest.
"Hi dad - Hi Paul." I smile at my brother-in-law who stands with Vivian in his arms. "Did you get your bike fixed?"
"Ah, I think the gasket had blown." He sighs stressfully, rubbing his forehead with his thumb. "I'll need to get big Steve to take a look at it tomorrow. Anyway, how's the big city life treating my girl, hey? Work going good?"
Work was fabulous.
"Work's - fine." I mutter with a slanted smile. "Everything is fine."
"Mommy, what time can I get ready." Vivian whines, her head resting on her dad's shoulder. "Aunty Frankie, I'm being a zombie doll!"
"Oh wow, that sounds interesting!" I laugh. I hear my phone chime within my bag and I excuse myself.
From: Jason
Meeting's running late. Don't know if I'll make it.
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"I feel like I can't move my face or I'll crack." I seethe out through gritted teeth. Paul's laugh is muffled under his bloody Scream mask, he lifts it and puffs out a breath, a faint line of sweat gathering at the side of his nose. "It's the last time I let Viv' pick out my outfit."
I tug at the shredded striped skirt and groan. Vivian's idea of a zombie cheerleader surprised me, how did she even know what a cheerleader was? My makeup took over a hour, Vivian insisting on more fake blood and bruises. Any other child would have been terrified and any normal child would be something sweet and innocent like a witch or devil, not a zombie doll that had dark eyes and latex scars on her arms and neck.
"Persistent like her mother." He jokes looking over towards his dancing wife and child. The house was filled with family and friends, all dressed up but even some costumes made me shiver. "So, where's this date of yours?"
I sigh as he sips at the punch Flo created a few hours earlier and shrug my shoulders. "One, he's not my date. Two, his meeting was running late so he said he couldn't come."
Saying the words made my chest tighten and my stomach twist in disappointment. Although, I couldn't understand why. It was stupid asking him to come in the first place, like he said he had never been to a party that didn't involve millionaire businessmen so why on earth would he come here? I was kidding myself, but for some reason my subconscious was holding onto that little bit of hope that he would show up.
As he began to reach eight, the flame began to be diminished.
"Pitty." He says, reaching for the red cup in my hand. "I was looking forward to this male friend, I was beginning to wonder if you turned lesbian with Hannah."
I groan. Before Flo and Paul started dating in high school, they had been friends for many years before that. He always mocked my blonde pigtails when I was eight, then tormented me over my braces at thirteen and of course, suffocated me when I turned eighteen and began to date Matthew Yates, also known as, the biggest douche bag of the entire century.
"Hannah has a boyfriend, Tommy - remember?"
He shrugs. "Stranger things have happened in the world, Frank." he takes another sip of the homemade and slightly alcoholic punch. Strictly kept out of children's reach. "Besides, I haven't seen you date anybody except Yappy Yates."
Yappy Yates - Matthew's nickname because he often spoke more of a fight than he put up. He used verbal attacks but ran from physical confrontation. As my dad would say - his bark was bigger than his bite.
"Maybe because he was enough to put anybody of men for life." I grumble. "Anyway, I don't need a man. I am a very capable and very independent woman in this twenty-first century. Feminist at it's finest."
"Well, if all else fails, George over there is still single." He jokes, poking his elbow into my side. I narrow my eyes at him as his shoulders shake in humour. George was Paul's thirty-eight year old cousin who lived in his mother's basement with no job and addicted to red bull and video games.
"I think I'll pass." I spit sarcastically with arms crossed. He laughs, excusing himself as his brother Tony pats his back.
I squeeze past Aunt May who always suffocated me into deathly tight hugs, diving past cousin Jane whose voice was like fingernails trailing against a chalkboard and finally make my way into the empty kitchen. I sigh a breath of relief, plopping down onto the stool with a huff. I grab the colourful cupcakes that was hidden from the children's view, all decorated with orange or green icing with edible bats or spiderwebs. Also known as - a child's dream.
I sink my teeth in viciously as I check my phone for yet another time to see nothing. The sinking feeling becoming more prominent.
Why?
Why was I sitting here thinking of Jason? Wondering where he was, why he hadn't called me, who he is possibly with?
I was becoming attached, slowly, but I could feel those tiny little strings starting to knit themselves a bridge to my heart and it worried me to the core. This was my boss. My boss who was just out of a relationship. My boss who was asking for my help. My boss who didn't want me, but just wanted to learn how to love and find it. This was all a job for him. I was a bit like his contracts, except without signing anything.
Like his contracts,
"Hey Frank, someone wants to talk to you." Paul's booming voice lifts my gaze from the mindless scroll through social media. He stands at the kitchen arch, his lips tilted up into a sly smirk.
I growl, "Honest to God Paul, if you've said anything to George I will kill you!" He laughs, stepping aside and letting the darkened figure pass him. My eyes widened.
"Jason?"
"Dracula, actually." He smirks cheekily. Paul leaves the room shaking his head and I stumble
from the stool, my mouth still slightly ajar. "Sorry I'm late - who knew doing some fake blood and contact lenses would take so long to do."
The white contacts covered his brown eyes and it gave his Dracula costume a eery touch. The red streaks trailed from the corner of his mouth, down his chin and onto his neck that was also covered in some nasty purple and pink bruises. He had a velvet waistcoat to match the long cape but his hair was still perfectly tamed.
"Is that fake vangs too?"
He nods, grinning wider and proudly showing the attached teeth. "I don't do anything halfheartedly, Frankie. Besides, I figured if I was to dress up I might as well do it properly. You look, uh, good."
Even under the white makeup, I could detect a small trace of crimson feathering across his cheeks. I thank him, leaving the silence lingering between us and unlike the other times, this was creating some tension. But why?
"Your sister really knows how to throw a themed party." He interrupts with a soft smile, nudging his finger against the life-size witches' nose. She cackled creepily before freezing back in position again. "Does she do Christmas this big too? Because if so, I'm sure this place is just like Santa's grotto."
"Santa doesn't have a grotto." The little pipsqueak voice chirps from behind him. She hangs around my leg, shyly peering up to the vampire in front. "He has a workshop, with lots and lots of elves. Our house isn't big enough to be his workshop, and I don't think daddy could build toys for all the boys and girls around the world. We don't even have reindeer's!"
I blush with a giggle as his eyebrow cocks at the confident four year old. He crouches to her level, my heart fluttering in the process and Vivian squeezes my leg that little tighter. Not out of fear, but from shyness.
"Jason, meet Vivian. Vivian, this is my friend - Jason."
"It's nice to finally meet you, Vivian." He greets her sweetly. "I've heard so much about you."
"From aunty Frankie?"
He laughs with a nod. "All from aunty Frankie. I love your outfit, you're a pretty scary doll."
"Thanks!" She beams, a sudden gush of confidence bolting through her as she moves out from behind my leg. "I like yours too! Your eyes are freaky!"
"You're not scared?"
Her nose wrinkles and she braided pigtails swing as she shakes her head. "No! I love vampires, just like werewolves!"
Jason's eyes widen slightly and he looks at me in disbelief. I giggle, sending her off to find her parents. We watch the innocence of her skip through the doorway, completely unafraid of every person dressed up around her. Jason shakes his head, hauling himself up onto the bar stool.
"That is most certainly, the weirdest thing I've ever seen." He says. "How could she not be afraid? Like Jesus, I can deal with costumes and some scary shit, but even I get freaked out by Freddie Kruger."
"I mean, I guess she just knows it's her family dressed up and she knows whose hiding under the mask." I reason, pushing a glass of the slightly alcoholic punch toward him. His tongue juts out sourly and his eyes crease. "Adult punch. Sorry, I should have warned you. Flo makes it, um, strong."
"You would need to make it strong if you're going to sit in the same room as cousin Jane for more than twenty minutes." I heard her say. She walks into the kitchen, smiling widely at the sight of Jason and I standing too close. "So you're the mystery friend my sister's been talking about. Hi, I'm Flo."
"Jason." He smirks, shaking her hand before turning his gaze to my reddened face. "You've been talking about me?"
Flo scoffs, refilling her glass of punch. "She's also been sulking since you supposedly ditched her. This is the first I've seen her smile all day."
"I didn't ditch her. I didn't ditch you."
I blush again, my neck heating up quickly. "I didn't say you did! Flo!"
Flo laughs loudly. "Aw sissy, are you getting all embarrassed over Mr Mystery here? She was always easily embarrassed growing up, never liked any unnecessary attention. My dad could tell you heaps of stories about her, in fact - wait right here!"
"Florence!"
She waves two fingers and bolts out of the room. I groan, burying my bright crimson face into my clammy hands as his amused chuckle echoes through my ears. I could feel his smirk without even looking and it made me raise my shoulders further.
"Why did you think I ditched you?" He asks suddenly. I peek through my fingers, keeping my eyes lingering across his tilted lips as he takes a sip of his drink. I drop my hands slowly, pleading inwardly with myself to calm my tomato-like cheeks.
"You said you didn't think you could make it," I mumble quietly, rubbing my upper arms. "I assumed that you weren't coming then."
He kissed through his teeth, the side of his lips never dropping from the smirk as he approached me. Toe-to-toe we stood and I was convinced the next room could hear my heartbeat. His familiar scent dances with my senses. My eyes flutter across his exposed neck, travelling to his painted jaw and to his contact covered eyes. The warmth of his hand brushes over my bare skin, a feather like touch grazing accidentally over my shoulder and stopping at my chin.
Sweet mother of God.
"You have cupcake at the side of your lip."
Well shit.
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I can't believe I've got over 100 reads! Thank you guys from the bottom of my heart, I am so grateful for every one of you who take your time to read, vote or favourite this story! It gives me so much motivation!
Question for you guys: do you think this story is moving too fast, or not fast enough? I have the entire book planned out, but I would just like to know your opinion!
Update again soon, please comment and vote xoxox