It was the first Halloween since she'd been sick that she hadn't dressed up for, and even back then, she'd managed to convince her mom or her sisters to bring her a hat or a prop. But she'd been so mortified over her behavior the other night with Adam and then James, she'd just been avoiding them both in the hopes that the earth would swallow her up before she ran into either of them. Tonight, she guessed they were at the party at CASKET, which she'd opted not to go to. She was feeling a little sorry for herself, and found herself unable to sleep -- the dreams were more vivid and difficult lately, and now, without even being able to go to Adam, she got tired of just laying in her bed and waiting for her heart to stop pounding.
Tonight, she didn't even really need anything from 7-11, but it was somewhere that was open, that wasn't her room, where it didn't matter that her hair was in a haphazard bun, that she was wearing her glasses and pyjama pants and a Penn hoodie. She'd exited carrying a small bag laden with things she didn't need or even particularly want: a pint of ice cream, a few magazines, a pack of gum, a bottle of water, a few Hostess cakes she'd purchased more out of curiosity than anything remotely like desire. As she walked further down the sidewalk, she caught sight of the guy in the odd costume and felt that strange familiarity pulling at her.
Mani, that dream voice whispered inside her.
It startled her so much that she dropped her bag, its contents rolling out onto the sidewalk.
"Damn," she muttered, chasing her pint of Haagen Daaz as it rolled away from her.