welcome to cattlesburg: the halloween social
i got a mixture of emotions after he said that. a concoction of being happy, nervous, and horribly angry at the same time. 'yes, this is kieran. why did you leave us? where are you? how have you been?' i blurted out. i heard him sigh, 'well, i'm in vermont now and i've been pretty good.' i shifted the weight on to my right foot and sighed with annoyance. he didnt answer the one question that i really needed to head. so i stayed silent. 'is your mom home?' he asked.
'no, she isnt home right now. why didnt you answer my question? why are you in vermont now? was florida not good enough for you?' i was gettin more and more furious by the second. 'kieran elizabeth roberts! i am your father! you do not speak to me like that!' uh oh, he used the full name, i am in trouble now. 'fathers stay with their kids!' i yelled back. i hung up on him and sulked back to the living room to sit with chevy.
besides charley and mookie, chevy was one of my best friends. he always listens, is there for me, doesnt ever give me any back talk, and only whines when he wants food. i pet him on the head and told him about my 'dad's' phone call. he understood and put his head on my lap.
about ten minutes later my mom walked through the front door. 'dad called!' i yelled from the living room. 'yeah, i heard. he called my cell after you hung up on him,' she said as she walked in to the living room. i gazed out the front window as i pet chevy. 'he wants you, james, and emily to go up and see him after christmas,' she said as she took off her shades and walked in to the kitchen.
that night as we all sat around the island in our kitchen eating our dinner of chinese food, mom broke the news to james and emily. as she did i just looked in my box of chicken lo mein and moved the noodles around with the black plastic chopsticks i had in my hand. neither james or emily protested the christmas break plans, i didnt protest either for i wanted to find out why he left and also to see some snow for the first time.
when dinner was over, i went up to james' room. i stepped into his dark room and almost toppled over a pile of clothes. 'james? where are you in this filth hole of a room?,' i called out as i looked around at his shot glass collection and posters of beer companies and girls in bikins. 'back here!,' he called back. i gingerly walked to the bay window where he was sittin reading a magazine. 'what do you think of us going to go visit dad?' he kept reading his magazine, 'i dunno. we havent seen him in forever. it will definitely be weird.' i glanced down and shuddered at the sight of the empty pizza box that was peekin out from under his bed, 'do you know why he left us? during our whole conversation, this was the first time he looked up from his magazine. he frowned and looked back down at his magazine. 'actually, dont know why he left,' he quietly muttered as he flipped a page. i let out a disappointed sigh and turned around to find a pathway through all the junk the floor so i could make it to the door. i was just about at his door when i heard him say, 'but i will know at the end of december.'
the next day in chemistry, i told mookie and charley the news. 'vermont? kieran, your gonna freeze your katookus off!,' exclaimed charley. mookie finished drumming his pen on the desk and asked, 'when you see him in vermont, how long will it have been since youve seen him?' 'um,' i scribbled a circle on my lab paper, 'a couple of years.'
dash sat down and handed me a single daisy. 'i'm sorry i only got to say hi then run last night.' i grinned and pushed my wavy hair behind my ear so i could put the daisy there. 'stunning,' he noted as he fumbled around with his binder. 'mm, so how do you know jessica harcof?' i asked as he continued to look through his binder. 'last summer, before that car accident,' he smirked,' i met her at this sleep away camp in oregon and when i moved down to to cattlesburg, by some odd act of coincedence, i moved in to a house that is directly across the street from hers.' 'some coincidence. so do you know why she is so mean? she's never mean to mookie though. do you know why? charley and i think its because she is scared of his parents,' i hurriedly whispered seeing as ms. erlin shot me the infamous death glance again. dash smiled and in the same quiet tone said, 'maybe. i will show you tomorrow.' the bell rang and i wondered just exactly what would he be showing us tomorrow as i waved goodbye to him and made my way to the door.
later that night, i was talkin to mookie on the phone as i watched 'singing in the rain.' 'dont you wonder what dash is gonna show us tomorrow?' i asked him. 'duh. yes. now i will finally know why she is always so rude to just you two.' 'thats what i thought. hey, are you going to the halloween social?,' i asked as i chewed on a twizzler. 'yeah, cmon kieran. of course i will be there. i never pass up a chance to cut a rug. im going as a ghostbuster. what are you going as?,' he replied. i laughed, 'hmm, i dont know yet. do you have a date?' 'nah, chaely is going with corey and corey said that his sister val needed a date. i dunno yet though. you going with dash?' i looked down at my watch, 'he hasnt asked yet.' mook said, 'well, i gotta get going. enjoy the movie. goodnight.' i said goodnight then he hung up. for awhile i sat there pondering about the social, dash, and my friends. i finished watching my movie then headed to bed.
mookie, charley, and i are sitting at our table in chemistry when dash brings in a book. was that the thing that would tell is why jessica was so mean to us and nice to mookie? why yes it was. it wasnt a book but more like a diary. it was covered in lavender velvet with snowy white lace glues around the edges. dash opened the diary and flipped it to a random page. I LOVE MOOKIE was written all over the page. mookie 'hmm'ed while his face turned a lovely shade of red. on the next page i noticed my name and i read what she had written. 'that kieran roberts is so lucky to have mookie. i hate her. i'm so mad that dash actually likes her.' i stopped reading and looked up at dash. his face was about the same color as mookie's. 'interesting,' i noted as i closed the book, 'i think we've invaded her privacy enough for the day.'
at lunch, dash came up to the table where charley, mookie, and i were eating and he asked to talk to me in private. i let him lead me to where we were going to talk and while we were walking away i turned around and raised my eyebrows towards charley and mookie. we eventually sat down on benches in the school's garden. 'so as you know the halloween social is coming up. i really want to ask you to go with me but long before i met you i promised jessica i would take her.' i was dumbstruck. the only thing i could thing of to reply was 'oh.' i'm sure he could hear the disappointment in my voice. 'i'm really sorry, kieran. a promise is a promise. jessica has this whole plan for costumes and everything too. i will still see you there,' he said as he went to grab my hand. the bell rang and for once i was actually happy to be going to class.
for the rest of the school day i was once again a walking mixture of sadness and anger. i perked up when charley suggested that we three go to the rusty wave for a post school snack. kudos for charley because she knows that the rusty wave is my favorite resturaunt and that the place just makes me happy. really, that place is the best. they have a surfboad outside where all the ravenous surfers can park their boards while they grab a bite to eat. there is a big metal wave and surfer on the roof. inside its all pictures of surfing, sunsets, and even pictures of us locals. there is even a picture of charley, mookie and i over our favorite indoor booth. our booth is made of parts of surfboards, skateboards, and who knows what. pretty much everyone in town has a picture hanging on the walls. even my dad- he is in the picture from james' 15th birthday dinner we had there. there is always punk and beach rock from unsigned artists screaming from the speakers. every weekend, they have shows either inside or on their large party deck. we are such regulars that the owner mick always says hello to us by name when we come in.
we walked through the bamboo curtain and heard 'hey mookie, kieran, charley.' 'heey mick,' we all answered back. we sat down in our booth and ordered smoothies and fries. about five minutes later, our waiter (who i must say, was not too shabby looking) brought them out. gotta love the service! 'so what happened at lunch? what did dash tell you?,' charley asked. i sighed and took a long sip of my kiwi-strawberry smoothie, 'he told me he was taking jessica to the halloween social. something about a promise he made before he met me.' 'aww, i'm sorry, kieran. that really sucks. stupid jessica!' charley said. she added, 'yeah, i thought she was going to ask mookie to it.' charley and i laughed then mookie wadded up his straw wrapper and threw it at charley. we stayed there for about a half hour more and talked about everything.
'will you be my halloween social date?' mookie asked as we were standing in the middle of our street, 'i have no date. you have no date. i can save you from any tarantulas that pass our way,' he continued on. 'of course i will go with you. i was thinking about asking you. i still have no idea what to be yet. you might have to help me on that one.' 'sweet,' he said as we both parted ways then hollered 'bye' as we got to our front doors.
as i was refilling chevy's water bowl with him rolling around on the kitchen floor, i thought ; 'i'm going to the social with mookie whom jessica is secretly in love with while jessica is going with dash.' tomorrow night shall definitely be intersting.

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