Whatever It Takes

by Ritchie, Krista

  I blow out hot breath through my nose, and a bright flash in the distance catches my attention. We both turn our heads.

  Paparazzi parallel parked down the street. Loren and the Calloway sisters attract them like moths to a flame, and they burn fucking bright. At least, I can get away from it. I can’t even imagine having to always deal with the constant cameras.

  We only have a minute before we’re bombarded, and I don’t want to be in Celebrity Crush tomorrow.

  So I quickly say, “It’s different.” Loren swings his head to me, confusion lining his eyes. I continue on. “This is a boyfriend-girlfriend, couple thing. I’m the seventh wheel now that Willow is gone, and I see that it’s a pity invite, man, so just leave me alone.”

  He cocks his head. “Pity? Do you know who I am?” He touches his chest. “I have waded in self-pity too much to ever spare pity for other people. And you can ask Connor and Ryke in there.” He points to the limo. “I don’t aimlessly throw out invites like I’m a flower girl at a wedding. I have very few friends, and you’re one of them.”

  What? No.

  We’re not friends. It may have been years since I spray-painted Cock Sucker on his mailbox, but it doesn’t change the fact that I did those things. I don’t deserve his friendship. I definitely don’t deserve him trying so fucking hard to get me to go to his party.

  I deserve none of it.

  Me, being alone on Halloween is karma. It’s penance for all my shitty deeds. That’s where I deserve to be. Friendless and alone.

  But he’s here spending energy on me, and there’s a part of me that wants to just get in the limo. That wants to give myself happiness and fun for maybe just one moment.

  Loren tries to convince me again. “Willow would hate what we’re about to do. You, on the other hand, will like what I have planned for my birthday. So I’m glad it’s you and not her here.” He flashes his iconic half-smile.

  Okay.

  Okay. Okay.

  I breathe and then nod a few times.

  A cameraman jogs closer, and Loren casts a scathing, threatening glare at him to stay back.

  The guy cowers a few feet away, but he still shouts, “Where’s Maximoff?!”

  I glare now. Loren’s kid is only three, and paparazzi harass him more in one week than I’ve been in my entire life. And anyway, I’m pretty sure that Maximoff and the rest of the Calloway sisters’ kids are staying back with a babysitter. But like hell I’m telling this guy anything.

  Loren ignores the cameraman like he’s evaporated into thin air and his eyes ping to me.

  “Let’s go,” I say.

  Loren’s lips curve upward and he slips around me to open the limo door.

  What am I getting myself into?

  * * *

  Of course, Loren surprises everyone with a night at the Halloween Horror Fest, an annual October event at the nearest theme park. Mazes are decked out with decorations, and actors dressed as ghouls and zombies attempt to scare the guests.

  Two out of ten on the “fright” factor. I swear I saw a vampire eating a pretzel on break. There’s nothing terrifying about that.

  Before we even make it to a maze, we stop at an iron café table in a safe zone where the actors aren’t allowed to scare us.

  Since I’m with the “core six”—as the internet affectionally calls Lily, Loren, Rose, Connor, Ryke and Daisy—bodyguards linger nearby in case they get a wave of unwanted attention. So far, only a few fans have stopped and asked for selfies and autographs. There’d probably be more if this place wasn’t so disorienting with the fog, screams, and eerie music.

  Mostly, I ignore everyone around me, including the automated cries that come from the nearby mazes.

  Straw between my lips, I hold a soda with one hand and scroll through my phone. Willow should be asleep by now. She went to her first Wakefield Halloween party, and she texted me a bunch of drunk texts about an hour ago.

  Willow: Garrrrisoon! Ur face is pretty. I miss ur face

  Willow: ur my fav person ever

  Me: Are you home?

  Willow: Not yet. Still at house. I’ll text pics. The decorations are… interesting

  Whoever hosted just put out a bunch of fake spider webs and then a bowl of punch. That was it.

  Willow: Lo would have a stroke if he saw

  Me: Good thing he’s not there

  Willow: I miss ur face. Did I say that alrdey?

  Me: You did. But I’m pretty sure I miss your face more

  Willow: not possible

  Me: I’m going to see your face soon

  Willow: Soon *sparkly heart emoji*

  Me: *praising hands emoji*

  That was the last text. She’s coming home for Winter Break, and it may still be over a month away, but I’m starting the countdown. Fuck, I’ve been counting down since she left.

  A shriller scream blasts from one of the foggy mazes nearby. Our current spot resides closer to the main entrance, and I’ve already been briefed how this table is “home base” in case anyone gets lost.

  Which—if I had to bet would be Lily. Scratch that, she’s clinging to her husband so tight, there’s no way she’d drift away from the pack.

  Maybe I’d say Daisy, but she’s going to be chilling at home base all night. Daisy’s white husky is sprawled across her lap as she digs into a bag of cinnamon rolls that Lily and Loren brought back from a Cinnabon run.

  I was kind of surprised Daisy even came along to this, considering she has PTSD, and this place should be hell for anyone who gets triggered by sudden, piercing noises. But maybe she just didn’t want to miss out.

  The night is special enough that the Calloway sisters brought costumes for everyone. Albeit, simple costumes, but they thought about that shit.

  A flower crown rests on Daisy’s blonde hair, an identical one on Ryke’s head. Lily and Loren sport glittery alien antenna headbands, while Rose and Connor wear these regal golden crowns. I don’t even think they’re plastic. Like, legit crowns. The Cobalts have to be the most extra people I know, and honestly, I can’t believe I work for one of them.

  I fix my backwards baseball hat. It lights up to spell out the word boo.

  Maybe my costume is a literal flashing hat so that Loren makes sure I don’t ditch them, but I kind of like that it’s loud but not too loud. The flopping antennas would have annoyed the fuck out of me.

  I glance up from my phone just to see Connor and Rose still arguing over the route. The park map is spread over the table, and they both brandish Sharpies like there’ll be a test at the end of this. Fastest Through the Mazes isn’t a thing.

  “What are you doing?” Rose snaps at her husband. “That is the worst path. You can’t go from Texas Chainsaw Massacre to Nightmare on Elm Street.”

  “Why not?” He grins like he knows what she’s about to say but wants to hear it anyway.

  “We’re not doing gore back-to-back.” She gathers her hair on one shoulder and traces a line on the map. “It’s better if we do The Ring maze in between.”

  A chainsaw roars, pretty close. Girls run away from the masked actor as he chases them. Legally, he can’t touch them, so running away is the wrong way to go. From experience, the actors prey on the people who look like they’re about to piss their pants.

  I’m about to return to my phone, but Rose’s voice grabs my attention again.

  “Gore does not frighten me,” Rose retorts. “If you don’t believe me, give me a fucking knife and I’ll stab you myself and you’ll see how frightened I’ll be.” She motions to him for a knife.

  Connor’s attraction to her threat is clear in his eyes, like he could go down on her on the fucking table right now. Jesus, they’re weird. His grin expands, and he steps closer to his wife.

  Loren interjects, “Careful of her talons.”

  “She won’t harm me,” Connor says easily. “But I appreciate the concern.”

  “I will gut you, Richard,” Rose threatens. Her chin rises as he nears again, towering above h
er. Confidence mixed with dominance.

  “And?” he questions in a deep breath.

  “And I will remove all of your organs slowly and painfully.”

  “Painfully,” he muses. “You exaggerate.”

  Lily is grinning from ear-to-ear. She’s obsessed with everyone being happy in love. I should know. She’s asked me how Willow and I are doing about a hundred-and-one times. To the point where I think she’ll be as devastated as me if we end up not working out.

  Rose glowers. “Fear. Me. Richard. I will annihilate you in a murderous, bloody…” Her breath hitches as he steps nearer, their legs thread. She reaches back, palms hitting the iron table. He almost has her pinned.

  “Fear what, Rose?” he breathes against her lips.

  She says one word in French, and he says two more in the same language.

  Honestly, they look like they’re about to kiss.

  And this is where I’m definitely glancing back at my cell. Avoiding Instagram has been my mantra since I saw Salvatore Amadio. I don’t need to look him up and have visuals of his entire life. So I’m not about to torture myself tonight with pics of his six pack abs or Porsche (not that I know he has either but with my luck, it’s probable). Shit, stop thinking about Salvatore.

  Tumblr, it is.

  Willow hasn’t reblogged anything in weeks. Her account is practically dead. Mine is almost the same, but I’ve got a couple gif sets from the latest season of American Horror Story on my feed. I haven’t had time to make anything in a while.

  No edits. No gifs. No videos spliced together. I want to blame it all on time, but deep down I know it’s something else.

  Something more.

  Fuck it, I’m doing a questionnaire. I find the tag and click into the first one.

  Current Location

  I pop my head up just to see Daisy hoisting two cinnamon rolls in either hand. “My right bun is smaller than my left bun.” She speaks to her husband.

  Ryke is sitting beside her. Teetering back on the legs of his chair, he glances right at her boobs.

  Her graphic tee says boo-fucking-tastic, and photographs of Daisy wearing that shirt have already spread over social media. To the point where the thing sold out on H&M in minutes.

  Ryke focuses on Daisy’s eyes. “Your buns look fucking perfect to me, Calloway.”

  The intense flirting is something I’m used to seeing from them, and it used to make me super happy. I think because Willow loves Daisy and Ryke, and seeing them together is a good thing—but now I just see two people in love. Who get to spend time together.

  And I don’t have that. My stomach twists in horrible knots, my soda not settling well.

  I’m bitter, I realize.

  I hate being this bitter.

  Daisy licks the icing off the right cinnamon roll and breaks into a huge laugh. “You’ll like this one.”

  “Why’s that?”

  “It’s really wet.”

  Ryke casually uses two fingers to swipe some icing off the dough. Then he sucks them while staring too deeply into his wife. When he drops his hand, he says, “Not wet enough, sweetheart.”

  I grimace.

  I see Loren seriously cringing.

  Current Location: pretty sure this is some circle of hell Dante hasn’t invented yet

  The kind made for bitter souls.

  Daisy barely lowers her voice, teasing Ryke. “Will you still eat me?”

  His I want to fuck you eyes answer her.

  “Hey,” Loren snaps.

  Both of them casually turn their heads to him. Like this is just another day, and conversations about oral sex and cum are completely normal.

  Lo adds, “Lily wants you to stop flirting.”

  Lily gapes. “I do not!”

  Loren feigns surprise. “I could’ve sworn she said that you were making her nauseous.”

  Ryke raises his brows at me. “Sounds like you.”

  Mockingly, Loren touches his chest. “Never.”

  I almost snort.

  Back to the questionnaire…

  Height: 5’11’’

  Eye Color: I always thought they were bluish green. My girlfriend calls them aquamarine sometimes. So we’ll go with that.

  Why does every distraction I have make me think of her even more? Jesus…it’s like running and hitting a brick wall and turning around and hitting another.

  It’s useless. I click out of Tumblr just as Loren is snapping his fingers in my face. “You. Garrison. Follow. Now.”

  I pocket my phone. “What, you forget how sentences work?”

  Rose and Connor have already gathered their maps, Lily’s hand is in Lo’s, and Ryke walks away from the table, leaving Daisy in the safe zone.

  Guess we really are heading out.

  Loren drives a glare into me. “Says the guy who uses internet shorthand like brb and tbh.” His half-smile meets me, but it doesn’t scare me.

  I just glare back.

  He adds, “ICYM, I’m a sarcastic prick. Move your ass that way.” He points in the direction of the first maze.

  The Exorcist themed one.

  Park security lets us discreetly skip to the front of the line. The perks of being around super famous people, I guess. It happens all without alerting the massive crowds that we’ve cut. Loren says it’s for our safety. Waiting for hours in the roped off sections with park-goers is a sure way to cause stampedes and hysteria. They’ll want autographs. Selfies.

  We need to blend.

  I’m not used to the constant scrutiny as much as them, but I can understand not wanting to be approached.

  Ahead of Loren, I enter The Exorcist maze that’s decorated like a little house. Pitch black. I can barely see in front of my face. Demonic cackling echoes around us, and the rest of our group walks in a single-file line.

  “OhGodOhGod,” Lily mutters.

  I glance back to see her wide-eyed expression, and she’s grabbing onto the back of Loren’s shirt, so much that the collar is tight around Lo’s neck.

  Willow and I never went to one of these fright night things together. She’s not into the scary shit as much as me, but I can imagine her here. I’d have my arms around her. She’d be pressed up to my side—

  Shit, stop thinking.

  Quickly, I look back ahead.

  We enter the bedroom area, and a mechanical version of Regan MacNeil sits on the bed. Her head spins three-sixty degrees. It looks like whoever built the robot did a pretty damn good job.

  “Cool,” I say, impressed by the production quality. Even speakers are set up that narrate the exorcism from the movie.

  “Lil,” Loren says behind me. “Look up. It’s not that bad.”

  I scan the area, trying to ignore them and focus on the rooms. There’s so much detail, like how potted plants are overturned and furniture floats mid-air, as though a possessed being rattles the whole room.

  Very cool.

  “I’ll have nightmares forever!” Lily shrieks.

  From even further behind me, I hear Rose scream shortly in fright and then reprimand the actor, “You did that on purpose!”

  I almost laugh. There’s something about being with these people that make shitty days seem…I don’t know. I shouldn’t like their company.

  I shouldn’t want it.

  Or ask for it. Or God forbid, need it. Because they’ve already done way too much for me, and they’re not mine. They’re Willow’s.

  I don’t look behind me again, but I think I must be walking through the maze faster because Lily and Loren’s voice drifts off. I enter one of the last rooms where fake puke flies onto the wall. I stand there for a couple long moments and literally the robot turns to me and grins. Wait…not a robot. This one is definitely an actress. She starts crawling on the bed towards me like she means to scare me.

  I smile.

  I don’t know why.

  Maybe because she thinks this is frightening. I’ve been afraid before—really scared—but not from green-puking demons. This is no
thing.

  She stops and tries to make another “freaky grin face” but I’m over it. I keep walking. Right on out of the maze. Cold air hits me just as I hear a shrill scream inside the maze.

  I’m betting that’s Lily. My lips lift into a bigger smile, just taking in the moment. I’m doing something on a random night, and it’s not even bad. It’s kind of fun.

  One of the bodyguards nears me and stations next to my side. Like I’m important or something, but I realize in less than a second that he’s blocking my body from onlookers. Girls laugh loudly around the maze’s exit and steal glances at me.

  Maybe they want my autograph or for me to divulge details about the core six—the latter is most likely.

  I shouldn’t ask the bodyguard, but I do. “Hey, how do you know I don’t want to be approached by people?”

  The bodyguards don’t block Lily all the time. Definitely not Ryke or Lo.

  “Loren informed us that you don’t want the attention,” he says. “Has that changed, sir?”

  I shake my head. No. It hasn’t.

  I’m smiling more now, and then I spot Lo. He exits the building, carrying Lily piggyback-style. She’s burying her face in the crook of his neck like she can’t even take a peek without pissing her pants.

  My brows knot. “It wasn’t even that scary.”

  Loren holds her thighs. “She’s scared of her own shadow when I shut off the lights at night.”

  “That was one time!” Lily protests without lifting her head up.

  Loren and I both laugh, and then he says to Lily, “We’re out of the maze now. You want down, love?”

  Slowly, she lifts her head up enough to rest her chin on his shoulder and then glances around the park. People are laughing or power-walking away from the maze’s exit. No one is bloody or dying on the ground.