I hadn't mentioned anything to Tooru about what I heard. I just couldn't risk it.
It hadn't affected our friendship though, he was still as touchy as ever and I just didn't take notice of the nagging feeling in the back of my mind.
But it was still there.
It was October now. The leaves were turning brown and being released from the branches that gripped onto them.
As I walked along in the piles of leaves, kicking them up as I went, the autumn sun shone down, causing the oranges and reds to glow. It was beautiful.
I had music blasting in my ears as I walked along the autumnal streets. My steps matched the beat of the music. Many houses already had skulls and ghosts outside of them, pumpkins dotting the streets.
Halloween was two days away and I was excited as ever. The volleyball team had organised a Halloween party and of course Tooru insisted on me being invited along too. I gladly accepted. It was the spookiest of the year after all and I wanted to spend it with friends.
Naturally, I had been planning my outfit since September. This year, I was going as a ghost, but not your average ghost, full Marley style ripped clothes and chains.
I had it all ready to put on on the 31st. The prospect of unveiling my costume to everyone was causing the excitement in me to rise and rise.
Soon, I had finished my walk and made it back to my house just as the sun was setting. My house was the most extravagantly decorated on the street. I had painted the window with bats, three pumpkins lay next to my doorstep and cobwebs scattered the bushes. I had orange and black garlands hanging in my porch and on the door hung a giant spider. It was heavenly, or should I say, hellish.
The next two days went by quickly and it soon became Halloween morning.
The day was a Saturday and the party was planned to start at half five. We were all going round to Oikawa's for the party as his parents were out of town but permission was granted.
I started getting into my outfit at eleven. I was just too excited. The whole make up process took three hours but I didn't mind. It was worth it.
My dress was silver and went to the floor. It was ripped in many places and had multiple layers, all different shades of grey. There weren't fifty though, I promise. Chains were wrapped around my waist and were cuffed around my hands and feet. My shoes were knee high boots with buckles all the way down. My hair had been sprayed silver and was back combed, accompanied by dead flowers stuck within the strands. I had silver body paint all over, coupled with contouring to make my face look skeletal. The only inch of colour on my face was the red glow coming from my eyes which now had coloured contacts on them.
Overall, I thought I looked amazing.
As I was admiring myself in the mirror, my phone start in ringing. The caller ID showed it to be Tooru. I pressed the green button and put the phone to my ear.
"You have reached the L/N residence. How may I be of service?"
"Y/N-chan..."
"Yes..."
"I'm having a bit of a struggle... Can you come round early and help." I rolled my eyes.
"I'll be round in five minutes."
"Y/N-chan you're a life saver!"
"No need to remind me."
I grabbed my iPod from the side in order to play some music and I began the walk to Tooru's house. (a/n- please tell me I'm not the only person who has and still uses a 2007 iPod). I didn't mind that I was in my full Halloween costume as there were already small children out trick-or-treating with their parents.
Oikawa's house was very well decorated - nowhere near the standard of mine - it had orange lights strung around the front garden and a few pumpkins up the drive. I took note of each of them as I walked up. I noticed an alien carved into the biggest of the fruits. I rolled my eyes and chuckled to myself. I knocked on the door and I heard my friend run down the stairs. He opened the door with a bowl of sweets. He was obviously dressed as an inhabitant from another planet.
"Tooru, I'm not one of the children."
"How was I supposed to know that from just a knock at the door?"
"You knew that I was coming round."
"Okay fair."
He stepped aside to allow me to walk in and I noticed the decorations and food he had ready for the party later on.
"What did you need help with?" I asked, still amazed at the amount of snacks he had managed to get his hands on. How much must this have cost?
"I'm not too sure how to get the music to work, and what music to play."
"Well, it's a good job I brought my iPod, isn't it. I have a Halloween album on there. I just need an aux cord and I can plug it into your speakers."
"Thank you Y/N-chan!!! I was worrying so much that it wasn't going to work."
After we'd sorted out the music fiasco, it was soon time for people to start arriving. The first person to arrive was Iwaizumi, unsurprisingly. For as long as Tooru and I had known him, he was the most punctual out of the three of us. Kunimi wasn't soon after, and Kindaichi after that. Even Mad Dog was somewhat on time, though he wasn't dressed up - bore. The final two were Hanamaki and Matsukawa together, no surprise there. The music was blasting and everyone was having a good time either dancing, nicking food from the table or just sitting in a corner watching everything pan out.
My job was making sure Oikawa didn't hurt himself in someway or another. The both of us were dancing next to each other when suddenly the music went off.
"Y/N-chan! What happened?!" He said, holding onto my shoulders, being overdramatic as usual.
"Calm down, it's just reached the end of the album. I guess we're gonna have to choose some normal music, that was all the Halloween stuff I had."
"Ooooh, can I choose?
"Tooru, it's my iPod, what makes you think any of your music is going to be on there." I said with a chuckle.
He still came over to help me choose. After quite a few disagreements, we agreed on putting on Artic Monkeys. Why? Because why not? Everyone else seemed quite happy with that decision and the dancing started up again almost immediately.
It was later in the night, everyone had become more chilled. People were now standing or sitting, chatting together. I was stood by myself, Oikawa was somewhere, not too sure where.
"Hey L/N."
"Oh, hey Matsukawa, please, call me Y/N. I really don't mind." He became a little shy at that but continued talking.
"I like your costume by the way." He said.
"I like yours too, it's really cool." He was dressed as a vampire and he pulled it off really well.
"Hey, L/N, I mean Y/N. Do you think we could maybe hang out sometime. Just me and you?"
"Yeah, that'd be cool."
"Great. Do you wanna meet up next Saturday? Maybe we could go get coffee or something."
"Sounds great."
"Great, I'll text you more details later."
Soon, people began to leave. Within half an hour, it was just me and Tooru. He had of course convinced me to stay over for the night. I was helping him clean up when he said something.
"What was Matsukawa talking to you about?" There seemed to be a slight twinge of jealousy to his voice but I took no note of it.
"Oh, me and him are going to get coffee on Saturday."
"For a date?"
"No. Just as friends."
"Sure sounds like a date." Okay, he was really pissing me off.
"What's up with you? Why do you sound so jealous all of a sudden?"
He had his back turned to me but I could almost sense the shock on his face.
"I just wanna make sure he won't hurt you."
"Right." I said, still sceptical.
I went back to cleaning when I felt two arms wrap around my waist and a head rest on my shoulder.
"I'm sorry, Y/N." He was using my actual name, he must have been serious.
"It's okay. I know you didn't mean to come off as rude."
"Thank you."
He let me go and went back to the dishwasher that he was filling up.
Hello! Whilst I mentioned Arctic Monkeys in this, I'll give y'all a tip I learned back in August. Don't fall asleep listening to Arctic Monkeys through headphones because you will be woken up at 1am by Alex Turner shouting "SEE YOU LATER INNOVATOR" in your ears. It's not fun. Anyhoo, hope you enjoyed this chapter and I'll see you in the next one!
- H xx