I looked in the mirror one last time and put on a black velvet hairband. Then I got up, put on one of the many dresses from my wardrobe that was halfway suitable for a Halloween party and hurried downstairs.
In the hallway, I bumped into Ezra.
“Where are you going?”
I slipped on the boots I'd left outside the door after cheerleading practice today.
“I'm just dropping Mia off quickly, then I'll come back home.”
I was expecting a moral lecture, but when I looked up, Ezra was leaning in the doorway, watching me with curiosity.
“What?” I asked.
He raised an eyebrow. “Weren't you going to a party?”
“Don't worry, I'll pass,” I said with a dismissive wave of my hand and grabbed my car keys.
“Mady?”
I turned to him.
“You're nineteen. As long as you don't get drunk, you should have your fun.”
Puzzled by the emphatic way he spoke to me, I paused for a second.
“I had fun a few years ago...” I confessed in all honesty and started to walk toward the door, but unexpectedly, Ezra grabbed my arm.
“Hey” I turned to him, confused. “I want to have dinner with you tomorrow night.”
Now, I raised a brow before laughing in confusion.
“What did I do to deserve this honor?”
Ezra looked down, then into my eyes, and it was another one of those moments where I saw our father in front of me.
“I don't spend enough time with you,” he sighed. “And I want to do something about it.” It sounded sincere. “You're my family. The last one I have left.”
His eyes had glazed over, and I did the first thing that came to mind. I wrapped him in my arms.
“Hey, it's okay.” I hugged him and felt my own tears. But, as always, I wiped them away. “We're strong. Don't forget that.” I released myself from the hug and put my hands on his shoulders. “And I'd love to have dinner with you tomorrow night.”
We were both smiling when the front doorbell rang.
Ezra reached for the jacket on the hook and handed it to me. “Enjoy your evening and call me if anything comes up.”
I put the jacket on. “Don't worry.”
“With you, I never know.”
I grinned and headed for the door, but not without turning back to him. He was already on his way back to the living room.
“Ezra?”
My brother turned to me.
“I want it to be like it used to be, too.”
He smiled, and it was a real smile. Not one of the ones he forced on himself every day. “Then I'm looking forward to tomorrow night.”
I smiled at him one last time, then I opened the front door.
“Holy shit, there's really something going on here,” Mia, who had chosen the most uncomfortable clothes in the cold, exclaimed.
She was standing next to me in thin black fishnet tights, a very short skirt and a corset.
I was even more surprised that I had actually swapped her bloody nurse costume from last year for the comfortable dress.
“I'm worried right now whether I should have brought you here at all.”
I glanced across the filled parking lot to the large factory hall, which seemed to be vibrating.
“I won't be let in, anyway, but my friends are right over there,” Mia laughed, pointing to a group of teenagers near the entrance. The fact that they all seemed to be smoking didn't make it any better.
“So, do you want to leave me alone now?” I joked, and Mia immediately looked at me with indignation, causing me to raise my hands. “That was a joke. Go and see your friends.”
I looked toward the entrance, where a few girls from the cheerleading team were just entering the club in their vampire costumes.
“I'll take a look inside,” I sighed, knowing full well that I didn't really want to. I was only driven by the urge to see what I was missing, and I knew that as soon as I saw the other girls, my mood would automatically drop.
