two corners.
“Uh oh,” says the Mayor, noticing. “I hope the bank takes that. You know, damaged check and all.”
He’s chuckling but the Wolfman growls, silencing the Mayor and piercing the crowd – the timid, cringing, half-empty-now crowd – with those blazing yellow eyes.
The drool drips, the teeth gleam beneath snarling lips as that massive werewolf head scans the crowd, slowly, slowly until it stops to find Baxter and I literally clinging to each other.
There is a deafening howl, then a snort and a sniff, as the werewolf keens and bounds offstage, four paws tearing up the steps as he holds the check by one corner in his drooling, giant teeth, the way a dog will drag an empty food bowl to his master.
With that, silence reins, except for the occasional snort and snuffle as the werewolf beats a hasty retreat toward the Fire Exit down the hall offstage left.
“Dang,” admires Baxter, finally unclenching his giant, massive mitt from my bare forearm. “I could have sworn he was howling at you, Rain!”
“Me?” I blurt, inching toward the stage. “You were right there with me.”
“Yeah, but he was looking at you.”
I turn, only to find Baxter back to grazing through the now empty buffet line.
“What are you doing?” I ask.
“Nervous eating,” he explains, mouth already full. “Besides, half the town left when the Wolfman showed up. Now’s my chance for some of Mrs. Sherman’s famous candy corn bark!”
I ignore him, food the last thing on my mind now as I inch closer to the stage.
Snow White is gone, Mr. Ketchup Bottle is finally coming to but there’s something shiny and glistening at the foot of the stage that I want to check out before things get back to normal.
It looks so familiar, I can’t take my eyes off it.
Then, a few steps closer, I realize why; it’s Topher’s necklace, snapped in the back.
No, not snapped; more like torn off, totally.
I pocket it, knowing he’s never without it and will want it back, ASAP, once he finds out it’s gone.
The thing is… where’d it come from?
I can’t remember seeing it before the Wolfman showed up, but… if Topher’s been in the bathroom this whole time then… who dropped it?
And why?
Suddenly, I hear his familiar voice saying, “Hey, where’d everybody go?”
“What?” I blurt, seeing his handsome face smirking as he emerges, at last, from the restroom, still zipping his black jeans up, his hair a little messy and his face flushed. “Are you kidding me, dude? You totally missed THE most authentic werewolf costume you’re ever going to see in your ENTIRE lifetime. I swear, you and your disappearing acts. I’m really starting to wonder about you—”
“What’s that?” he asks, reaching out to gently clasp my hand.
I open my fingers to reveal his necklace.
“You must have dropped it in your haste to use the little boy’s room,” I joke, handing it back.
“Thanks,” he says, looking me in the eyes.
For just a moment there, a flash of yellow merges with the brown.
But by the time I blink twice to make sure I’m not seeing things, it’s gone.
It’s gone and so are we.
“Where are you taking me?” I ask as he drags me back toward the restrooms.
“It’s the weirdest thing,” he says, pulling me close so Baxter won’t hear. Although, good luck; dude’s on Round 3 – or is it 4 – at the buffet line. “But, as I was coming out of the bathroom, this dude in a werewolf costume handed me… this.”
As we round the corner there, leaning against the vending machine in the back of the Community Hall, is the giant check for $300!
“Well, where’d the dude go?” I ask, standing next to the check. It basically comes up to my shoulders, it’s so big.
“I dunno,” Topher shrugs, looking at me funny. “Last I looked, he was heading out the emergency exit toward Old Man Grossman’s farm. Before he left, he told me to keep it. When I asked him why, he just growled ‘Happy Halloween’ and bolted out the back door. Weird, huh?”
His face is slightly flushed, a sure sign he’s lying; or high, or nervous, or sad, or scared or any of the 101 emotions that pass across Topher’s face twelve times a day.
I can never read the dude. It must be one of the 101 reasons I’m crushing on him so hard lately.
“Should… should we really keep it?” I ask.
“Why not?” he huffs, grabbing it and sticking his hand right in the puddle of werewolf drool at the top corner. “Gross!”
“Look at those bite marks,” I crow, marveling at the two inch-wide holes in the opposite corner of the check.
“I guess you were right,” he chuckles, carrying the check out to Baxter. “That was one authentic costume.”
Folks along the way – the dozen or two who didn’t flee for the main exit the minute the Wolfman showed up, that is – pat Topher on the back, assuming it was him beneath the scary werewolf suit all along.
He tries to explain but everybody’s happy or buzzed or has their mouth full and aren’t buying it anyway.
Finally he shrugs as I grab Baxter away from the food line.
With a candy apple in one hand and a complimentary barf bag in the other, he follows dutifully.
Only when we’re outside, trying to fit the giant check into my pint-size Datsun, does a questioning glance cross his face.
But the first question out of his mouth is the last one I’d expect.
“What happened to your necklace, dude?” Baxter asks as Topher holds it in his hand instead of wearing it around his neck.
My heart pounds as he explains, “These cheap thongs, you know, they’re always breaking.”
Baxter shrugs and says, “Yeah, well, now that you’ve got an extra hundred bucks, you can buy all the cheap crystal necklaces you want!”
“Naw,” Topher blushes, handing over the giant check. “The werewolf dude said you should have it. All of it.”
He looks at me with those questioning brown eyes, as if to ask if it’s okay.
I make that crumpled “of course” face and roll my eyes, as if he ever had to ask in the first place.
“What?” Baxter asks, sweat suddenly popping out on his broad, red forehead. “What for? Why? How did werewolf guy know… me?”
Topher looks at Baxter admiring the check, then looks over at me and winks.
“You got me,” he groans, voice suddenly hoarse and all kinds of sexy. “Maybe he works at that computer repair shop you’ve been hounding for the last three weeks!”
“Yeah, right,” Baxter chuckles, wedging into the backseat with the check resting happily on his lap.
He looks so contented and cheerful, you’d think it was Christmas morning and not Halloween night.
After we drop him off a few minutes later, Topher and I ride in silence for a mile or two.
As we near downtown, or what passes for it in tiny Cedar Cove, anyway, Topher clears his throat and says, “You hungry, Rain?”
I think of all those candy corns I’d downed at the buffet table but it’s not every day Mr. Strong and Silent opens the door for a dinner date.
Before he can think twice and back out I blurt, “Starved!”
“Me too,” he says, patting his slim, empty belly. “I know I gave away all the prize money but… what if I treat you to a nice, rare steak at Delmonico’s anyway?”
“Delmonico’s?” I ask, picturing the ritzy four-star restaurant on the nice side of town.
“Have you seen how I’m dressed?”
“You look beautiful,” he says, with that low voice of his and those brown eyes stuck on where the short skirt stalls at my upper thigh. “I’d be proud to take you anywhere, Rain.”
I see the twinkling lights in the trees and the fancy restaurant’s parking lot looming into view.
“Screw it,” I say, yanking the car into the half-empty parking lot. “Maybe they’ll give
me half off for showing some Halloween spirit.”
As I park the car and prepare to get out, he stands slowly.
“You all right?” I ask as he unfolds himself from the car like my grandpa on visiting day at the nursing home.
“Sure, why?”
“Nothing,” I smirk, winking at him.
He seems in no hurry to race inside, so after I lock the car I kind of lean my arms on the roof and stare over at him.
He does the same, his arms so long our fingers almost touch.
“How come you asked me out to dinner all of a sudden?” I ask.
“I… I… kind of have something to tell you,” he croaks, giving me the shivers with that sexy new voice of his.
I wink and walk around to his side of the car, grabbing him by the hand.
“Topher, if you wanted to tell me you were a werewolf, Burger Barn would’ve done just fine.”
“W-w-what?” he asks, incredulous. “H-h-how did you know?”
I stand next to my car, looking up at him.
“The necklace, for one thing,” I remind him, soft Italian music wafting from inside as a couple walks through the front door and hurries to their car. The only time it could have fallen off was when you were doing your little act on the stage.”
He shakes his head, looking almost…
The Werewolf's Halloween Costume: A YA Paranormal Story Page 2