This Is Not an After School Special

On Halloween, I said goodbye to Josh at my locker. For the first time in over a month, I climbed into Matt's truck so that he could drive me home. I couldn't stop the smile that lit up my face as he started the engine and Animal by Def Leppard pumped through the speakers.

"You'll never change, will you?"

"Probably not," he grinned. "But I wouldn't be quite so cool if I did, now would I?"

"You've got a point there," I agreed, pulling a CD binder out from where I knew it was stashed beneath the passenger seat. I shook my head slightly as I flipped the pages. I didn't know of anyone else who was still listening to this kind of stuff. But it was such a huge part of who he was that I couldn't imagine anything else. I thought that the world would skid to a halt if he actually listened to music from this generation. There were a few newer CDs in the binder, but somehow he always came back to the one that was playing right now.

He drove the familiar path to my house and parked in the street. We both knew that if he left his truck in the driveway, Dad would purposely block him in to teach him a lesson. It wouldn't be the first time that had happened.

Neither of my parents were home yet, so Matt and I raided the fridge for something to eat. I pulled an apple out of the fridge, then thought better of it.

"Fuck this, we've got Halloween candy!" I began pulling open various cupboards, trying to find the stash that I knew existed somewhere in the room. I finally found a few bags of candy wedged behind some cans of tomato sauce. I dumped the entire collection into a large glass bowl, knowing that my mother would want it that way when it came to handing out the candy to kids.

Matt stole a miniature chocolate bar from the bowl and shoved it into his mouth. "Tastes like children's tears," he grinned, showing the chocolatey mess inside of his mouth as he chewed.

I nearly dropped the bowl as I burst out laughing. "Children's tears? I'm not sure if I even want to know where that one came from."

"The children would be sad if they came here and I ate all the candy, wouldn't they?" He looked at me as though I should have realised the logic already.

"True. You win, Matt."

He gave me a triumphant smirk. "I always do."

I had to hand out some of the candy before my mom got home to take over, so Matt and I just sat on the couch and talked for awhile. I had thought that we had been keeping in touch a lot better lately, but I was still finding that there was a lot in his life that I was missing. He was getting tired of waiting for me to find him his dream girl, so he had taken another girl out on a few dates. Apparently, she had no sense of humor whatsoever, and he'd already broken up with her.

"Sometimes I think that the only person that can truly hold up a conversation with me is you," he admitted. "Even though half of the time you just say the most random thing that pops into your head."

"Keeps you on your toes, though, doesn't it?"

Matt laughed. I was kind of proud of myself for being able to get a genuine chuckle from him. One thing that I'd noticed about him was that, most of the time, his laughter was forced with other girls. But it wasn't that way with me. And it went both ways with us. No matter how funny Josh was, there was always something about Matt that made me laugh harder. Maybe it was because we'd been best friends for so long that nearly everything reminded us of some stupid yet hilarious event that we'd been through.

My mother walked into the house just as Matt bit into another chocolate bar. She scowled at us.

"I'm really glad that you two are spending time together tonight, but would you mind saving some candy for the kids?"

I smiled widely at her and popped a peanut butter cup into my mouth. "Huh. It really does taste like children's tears!"

Both Matt and I burst into another fit of laughter, leaving my mom staring at us with confusion and distaste in her gaze. She took the glass bowl, which was now missing a large chuck of candy, from where I'd set it on the coffee table and carried it away to prevent us from eating any more.

"What are we going to do when our sugar high wears off?" Matt glanced at the small pile of empty wrappers that littered the coffee table in front of him.

I shrugged. "We'll deal with that when it happens. For now, let's go pick out some movies."

"I think we should go and rent that new one that just came out. It looks really creepy."

I paused for a second, trying to remember which one he was talking about. "The one with that blonde girl?"

He nodded. "Yeah, that's the one."

I laughed lightly, still not quite able to understand how neither of us needed any further explanations. We just seemed to understand each other.

"Okay, let me go tell Mom that we're leaving."

I got up from the couch and quickly explained to my mother where we were going. She nodded her agreement, even though we both knew that I would have went whether she'd cared or not. Matt and I decided that we would just walk to the rental store, since it was abnormally warm out and it wasn't too far away.

As we walked the streets, we passed multiple groups of children dressed in costumes as they made their way from house to house. We heard a few shrieks as someone jumped out of the bushes in one yard in a successful attempt to terrify the kids.

"Don't you ever miss those days?" I asked suddenly, watching a little boy peek into the pillowcase in his hand to see what treats he'd just received.

Matt shrugged, following my gaze. "Not really. I mean, we're stuck at that age where Halloween kind of sucks, you know? We're too old to do this stuff, and we can't go out to bars yet. So, for now, I really like what we do on Halloween. Maybe this should be a tradition."

"Well, it's the second year we've done it. So maybe it's already a tradition."

"Works for me."

We walked for a few more minutes in silence. As we were walking past a corner store, a familiar mop of light brown hair caught my attention. My steps faltered a bit, and Matt immediately noticed.

"You want to go and say hi?"

I frowned, still staring at the back of Josh's head. He was leaning against the side wall of the store, and his back was to us. If I didn't say anything, he would never even know that I saw him there.

"No, it's okay. Tonight's just for us, remember?"

"Yeah, but it would only take a second to say hello. I won't be mad, I swear," Matt smiled, nudging my arm so that I was leaning toward Josh.

"He looks busy," I murmured, noticing that Josh's back was facing us because he was talking to someone else.

I could see the other person's face clearly. I was certain that I didn't know him, yet somehow he looked familiar. It kind of bothered me, but I didn't know why. For all I knew, he could have been in Josh's grade at school. There was no logical explanation for the uncomfortable twist that I felt in my stomach.

"Are you sure?" Matt continued to shove me in Josh's direction.

I looked up at him and flashed the most natural smile that I could muster. "I'm sure. Let's go get that horror movie, okay? If we take too long, Mom will give out all of that Halloween candy before we get another chance to steal it."

Matt looked a little concerned, but didn't argue. We walked past the store and continued on our way. As we passed the far side of the store, I snuck another glance back at Josh. Instead of meeting the warm green eyes that I was hoping for, I found a pair of dark eyes watching me intently. The twist in my stomach jerked violently, and I strode forward more puposefully than before. Again, Matt noticed the sudden change.

"What's wrong, Beck? You look freaked out."

"I feel like I've seen that guy before. And I don't trust him. And now he's watching me, so I want to get out of here."

"Really?" Matt looked back over his shoulder. "I don't recognise him."

"I don't actually know him, I just feel like I should. It's bugging me."

"You're sure you don't want to go over there? Josh would probably introduce you," there was a hint of teasing in his tone.

"Nope. I really, really don't want to go back there." Just the thought of those dark, beady eyes made me cringe. "I'd much rather go and rent a movie with my best friend so that I can watch you squirm when we watch it." I hoped that he didn't see through my joking facade as easily as I felt like he should.

"Yeah, right," he snorted. "You're going to be hiding under the covers, telling me to let you know when the scary parts are over."

"Ha ha," I laughed. "You only wish I would hide under the covers with you."

And just like that, Matt made me forget how uncomfortable I had felt only moments before. We continued to joke all the way to the movie store, which was deserted aside from ourselves. I found a couple more movies for us to rent, and soon enough we were eating candy and drinking sodas on my couch as we watched the eery opening credits to our first choice of movie.

"Don't forget to grab a blanket," Matt grinned at me. "You'll feel safer with it."

"Who needs a blanket when I've got you to grab on to? If you lose circulation in your fingers, just tell me that I'm grabbing your arm too hard."

He laughed. "Same goes for you."