Chapter 7

Chapter 7


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I rush down the hallways, avoiding students heading to wherever they want to go for their free time. I was supposed to meet Nate twenty minutes ago to head into Eden and by a costume. It's the day before Halloween and I still have nothing to go as. I don't even have an idea as to what I want to be, I guess I'll just pick something once I get there. I was going to go sooner and maybe enter the costume contest, but I just kept putting it off, this has been an extremely busy and hectic few days. 

As I turn a corner to start towards the lift, I hear my name called from behind me. I turn on my heel to see Damian jogging towards me. We've been texting a lot and have been hanging out some this past week, and he's become my friend, more or less. He skids to a stop in front of me. The hallways is almost empty now, except for a few late comers still making their way to wherever they wanted to go after school. 

"Hey, Elina." He says, looking nervous. 

"Um, hi." I try not to sound like I'm in a hurry.

"Uh, I've been looking for you all day," He chuckles nervously. "I've been wanting to ask you something."

"Oh, like what?" I timidly glance at my phone screen to check the time.

"I was wanting to know if you would like to go to the dance with me?" He asks, still looking unnaturally nervous.

"Oh, well, um." I try to think but I'm at a loss for words. He's definitely not the first guy to ask me. I've had at least ten guys walk up and ask me, some of them had to ask my name and then asked me to go with them. It's really annoying that I've gotten so popular lately and I've come to wonder if it's like this for every new kid. "That's very sweet of you but, I really planned on not going with anybody. Me being new and all I kinda wanted to use the dance as an opportunity to meet people you know?"

His face falls slightly, but then he gives me an unexpected smile. "That makes sense."

"Maybe the next dance." I say with a smile, but it quickly disappears when I look at the time again. "I'm sorry to rush off but I was supposed to meet Nate almost half an hour ago to go get my costume."

This time his face does loose all it's happiness. "Oh. Yeah, Nate."

"See ya around." I wave to him and turn to get into the lift. I give him an apologetic smile before the lift shoots downwards, leaving my stomach at the top. I swear I'll never get used to that.

Once I get outside I'm relieved to see that Nate is still waiting for me, sitting on the bench reading another Stephen King novel. I don't know why I was worried about him leaving, he would probably sit here and wait until curfew if he had too. I think that's what I like most about Nate, he's almost scary, in appearance as well as his capabilities, but he's the sweetest guy you could ever meet. I wish everyone else saw him the way I did, the sweet person and not the monster everyone thinks him to be.

"Hey! Sorry I'm so late, I was getting Mr. Allore's help on the energy exchange thing." I plop down next to him on the picnic table and he smiles at me.

"That's fine, I figured that's what you were doing. That's why I didn't text you, I didn't want to make you feel rushed." He folds the corner of his page and closes the book carefully before sticking it into his bag.

"Aw, well thank you. Ready to go?"

"Ready Freddy!" 

I laugh as he gets up and we head towards the edge of the woods and into Eden. Now that it's getting later into the year, it's starting to get dark quicker, meaning that since it's already five-thirty, the woods are pitch dark. I raise up my hand and cast a bright, white light for us to see our path. Nate looks at it in amazement, as he does every single time. I've noticed that my charm amazes him, and I think it's because his is so destructive. At first I tried not to use it around him much because I thought he would be jealous, but I've come to realize that he doesn't have one ounce of jealousy about it in him, only awe and fascination. 

Once we get to the costume shop I'm instantly amazed. It's not small like I thought it would be, but has rows upon rows of hanging costumes and costume accessories. There are two floors, one for full costumes, and the top floor for accessories and makeup. We start searching on the bottom floor.

"You know what you should be?" I hear Nate from behind me, I pause from looking at a cliche vampire costume to turn around. I see he's holding up a sparkly blue dress, more specifically an Elsa from Frozen costume. I laugh and roll my eyes. 

"Yeah, right." I turn back around.

"But you've got the perfect hair for it!" He says and jokingly pulls it out and puts it in front of my face. "You know you want it."

"No, just--" He continues to shove it in my face. "Nate, stop it!" I laugh and back away. Soon I'm being chased around the back of the store with a sparkly blue Elsa costume. 

"Wait, pause!" I yell, stopping mid leap. I have spotted the perfect costumes. "What about these, we could be a pair!" I pull them out to reveal a Jack and Sally from The Nightmare Before Christmas matching set of costumes. His eyes light up at the sight of them.

"Yes! I love Tim Burton movies!" He grabs the Sally dress and holds it up to his body. "Does this make me look pretty."

"Oh, so pretty." I joke, my voice trailing off into laughter.

After picking out the makeup and accessories and talking for an hour about Tim Burton movies, we walk out of the costume shop fully prepared for tomorrow night. I start telling Nate about the restaurant that hangs over the river, and how beautiful it is, it's weird that he's never really been. He barely comes to Eden as it is. We head towards the restaurant to have dinner.

"So this is only the fourth time you've been to Eden!?" I exclaim after swallowing a bite of my dinner, a delicious salad that has chunks of chicken buried inside.  

"Yeah, I've never had any friends to go with so I didn't really see the point of going." He shrugs, moving his food around nonchalantly with his fork. I sigh as I realize broody, sad Nate is back. He get's like this a lot. He seems happy around me but the smallest thing can bring him down again, but I've been making it my mission to keep him as happy as I can. It's possible to drown in lonely sadness, I would know.

"Well, you have me now, and we will come here whenever you want." This causes him to smile again.

"Even to the restaurant on the other side of town that on the beach?" 

"The what?!" I exclaim, making him laugh hysterically. 

The rest of the night goes smoothly without sad Nate popping up. We get back to the school right before curfew at eleven-twenty. We would've been back sooner but we decided to stop at a few more shops while Nate was telling me about the beach. Usually fall and winter are my favorite seasons, but the summer is starting to seem just as exciting. Even though I won't get to come home and see my dad, it'll still be a lot more fun than I previously imagined.

I turn the key in the lock of my dorm and quietly slip in. Once I'm in I notice that Kierra, as usually, still up. The tv is on and she's watching pokemon, buried under the covers. She turns her head once I walk in and waves at me. I flip on the lightswitch and wave back.

"What kept you out so late?" She asks, giggling quietly. 

"Nate and I visited a few more stores and got caught up talking." I shrug. "Look at my costume though," I pull my Sally dress out of my bag and hold it up for her to examine. "I'm going as Sally and Nate is going as Jack from The Nightmare Before Christmas." I grin, proud of myself.

"Aww! So you're basically a couple."

"What, no!" I defend. "Just because we are going as a pair doesn't mean we are a couple." 

"Then, you're going as each others date's." She grins slyly.

"We are just friends." I roll my eyes at her. "I've only been here for a little under a month and this is the first time I have ever had friends in my life. Don't you think it's a little too early for a first boyfriend?"

"Whatever." She sings at me.

"I'm going to bed." I say, heading for the bedroom. "We've got a long day tomorrow."


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Author's Note

Thanks for reading!